Father Tikhon is considered in Russia the confessor of President Vladimir Putin. The trend of having spiritual guides caught on among the country's nouveau riche last decade, but no one garners more attention than this priest who studied film but ended up in a monastery because of a seance.. He has known the president since 1999, when he was director of the FSB, the successor intelligence service to the KGB.

Tijon Shevkunov is back on paper these days. Will become metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea. Until now he was in charge of the northern diocese of Pskov and before that he was abbot of the Sretensky monastery in Moscow. In recent years, several of the monk's concerns have been reflected in laws, such as limits on the sale of alcohol in stores.. Many call him the bishop of the FSB or even the president's Rasputin.

Although Metropolitan Tikhon is often branded as Putin's confessor, the priest has never wanted to confirm this honor, although he always avoids denying it.. “Putin practices confession, communion and is aware of his enormous responsibility before God,” Tijon explained to a Greek newspaper a few years ago.. A decade ago, his book Profane Saints sold more than a million copies.

In that book he says that he embraced faith almost by accident.. The young Georgy Shevkunov, as the famous Tikhon was then called, had a seance with friends in which they believed they were talking to Napoleon and even Stalin himself.. But they ended up scared to death and seeking help from a priest when the supposed spirit of the writer Nikolai Gogol urged them to commit group suicide.. The religious recommended they get baptized and in 1982 Tijon made his debut as a Christian in an officially atheist country.

Since Putin's return to the Kremlin in 2012, Russian political power has relied like never before on the country's most enduring institution to reaffirm its leadership over society.. Now Tijon travels to an increasingly disputed occupied territory. The large-scale invasion of Ukraine has broken the enchantment over that peninsula, annexed in 2014 by Russia but which had been left out of the fighting in the Donbas war until last year.. During the last year it has suffered attacks with missiles and drones. Its connection with mainland Russia is from time to time under enemy fire, but Putin – who agreed to withdrawals in the southern Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – cannot give up even an inch of Crimea, whose faith he now reinforces with the presence of his favorite priest.

In August 2022, the media Important Stories reported that the Tijon metropolitan projects received at least 193 million euros from the State and state companies.. A way to close the wound of the 300,000 priests who were killed or imprisoned by order of official atheism with the Bolshevik revolution.

Tikhon Shevkunov's previous transfer – from the Moscow monastery to Pskov, a small area along the border with the Baltic countries – led to a promotion to the rank of metropolitan. Even so, it was perceived by many as a demotion in his career.. Today, various specialists point out that he did this to cement his candidacy for the position of Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.. An elevation that is now even closer.

Qatar, the owner of France's main soccer team, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and also the host of the World Cup, also hosts the Taliban and Hamas.. Both groups have representative offices in that emirate, which for some represents the main focus of expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most important fundamentalist currents in the Islamic world, within which Hamas falls, more or less.

And in Qatar there are 6,000 million dollars (5,690 million euros) from Iran. The Islamic Republic had been authorized by the United States to use that money only to purchase food and medicine, following a mechanism very similar to that of the oil-for-food program, applied in the 1990s with Iraq, under which the money that country obtained from the sale of its oil remained in an account in Switzerland supervised by the UN. The Baghdad regime could only use these resources to buy food. Food that was necessary precisely because of the blockade that the UN had imposed on Iraq (whose leader, Saddam Hussein, was also not willing to spend his fortune on feeding his subjects).

Today, the US has announced that this money remains frozen in Qatar. That is to say: he will not allow Tehran to use him to buy drugs or food due to his links with Hamas.. It is the first deterioration in the tenuous relations between Iran and the United States, which seem destined to worsen as the war between Hamas and Israel escalates, despite the fact that neither Washington nor Tel Aviv seem to have found any link between Tehran and the terrorist offensive. of Hamas.

If neither the Biden nor Netanyahu governments see Iran's hand behind the war, why do they adopt this measure? The reason is simple: due to internal politics. The Republican opposition has been using the 6 billion as a weapon against the Biden Government. Senator and White House candidate Tim Scott – whose campaign is funded entirely by Silicon Valley billionaire Larry Ellison, founder of the software company Oracle – has gone so far as to say that the US president “has blood on his hands.” “.

Those 6 billion are not Americans, but South Koreans. Their story is as follows: in 2018, when Donald Trump broke Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran and imposed a trade blockade on that country, he allowed South Korea to continue making oil purchases from Iran.. In 2019, Trump toughened that policy, and Seoul was left unable to trade with Iran and with 6 billion that it owed to Tehran for its crude oil.

In September, as part of the US' goodwill gestures to revive the nuclear deal (and, in the process, reduce oil price tensions that threaten to slow the fall in inflation in the US, on which Biden depends to be re-elected), Washington accepted the transfer of those 6,000 million to Qatar under the conditions described above. The issue, for Republicans, is that, by having $6 billion for food and medicine, Iran has been able to free up another $6 billion to arm Hamas.

It is a statement that does not hold up, because, even if Iran had delivered that amount to that terrorist group, it would not have had time to arrive in the two weeks that elapsed from the approval of the transfer until the start of the war.. But in the climate of misinformation on US social media, anything goes. In fact, Donald Trump campaigned in 2016 with the madness of “planes full of pallets of money” that Obama would have sent to Iran for the nuclear deal. They are airplanes that did not exist. Now, Biden has wanted to avoid a repetition of that political battle with the 6 billion South Koreans.

The Syrian authorities assured this Thursday that Israel has bombed the country's two main airports, Damascus and Aleppo, leaving both facilities out of service.. This is the first attack against Syria since the Hamas offensive broke out and one of the largest bombings against facilities in the Arab country in recent years.. “They damaged the landing strips of the two airports, which were put out of service,” said the official Syrian agency Sana, citing military sources.

Israeli authorities have not commented on the airstrike. However, the media speculate that it could be a warning to Iran, because the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, was scheduled to visit Damascus tomorrow.. Initially, Iranian media indicated that Amir-Abdollahian's plane was on its way to the Syrian capital when the attack occurred and changed direction.. However, the NourNews newspaper issued a statement denying the news.. He noted that the head of Iranian diplomacy was indeed on his private plane but was heading to Baghdad, where he had an official visit scheduled today.

Iran has ties to the Islamist group Hamas, which carried out the surprise offensive against Israel last Saturday. After the attack, Israel declared war on the Palestinian group and began bombing the Gaza Strip, under the control of Hamas but where more than two million Palestinian civilians reside.. These clashes, which are now in their sixth day, have caused more than 1,200 deaths in Israel and nearly a thousand in Gaza. Iran, for its part, has expressed its support for the Hamas attack but assured that it did not participate in the attack.. While the United States continues to investigate the possible involvement of Tehran, Israel threatened its enemy country with an attack if it is proven that it was finally involved.. The intelligence services of these countries are also investigating the involvement of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which also has links to Hamas..

In recent days, alleged Hezbollah militants launched missiles at the Israeli side, in skirmishes that are increasing and that worry the intentional community, due to the possible opening of a new war front.. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallante on Sunday ordered preparations for a possible evacuation of settlements near the border with Lebanon.. In a public intervention last night, he did not rule out retaliation against Lebanon if Hezbollah attacks his country.. Gallante threatened to send the neighboring country “to the Stone Age” if the militant group attacks Israeli soil. The United States, in turn, has warned Iran and Hezbollah that it will defend its ally if a major attack occurs.

Israel's Defense Minister on Sunday ordered the Israeli army's Home Front Command to prepare plans for the possible evacuation of settlements near Lebanon amid developments in fighting with the Palestinian group Hamas.

The bombing in Damascus and Aleppo coincides with the visit to Israel of the American Foreign Minister, Antony Blinken, who assured the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington “will always be at its side”. During the diplomatic meeting, the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, called his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, whom he supports in the war that the country has suffered since 2011. During the conversation, Raisi asked Islamic countries to cooperate “to stop the crimes of the Zionist regime against the oppressed Palestinian nation,” the official Syrian news agency said.

During the course of the war in Syria, Israeli aircraft have regularly bombed facilities and groups supported by Iran, as well as Syrian army positions.. The airports attacked this Thursday have been the target of attacks on previous occasions, leaving them out of service for several days. The last attack occurred on August 28 and the previous one on January 2

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, called this Thursday for unity in the face of what is happening in Israel, has shown his solidarity with Israel and has said that Paris will do everything possible to ensure that the 17 missing Frenchmen (most of them are suspected of being hostages of Hamas) “return safely”. He has also issued a warning to those who “confuse the Palestinian cause with the justification of terrorism: they commit a moral, serious and strategic fault,” he said, clearly referring to La Francia Insumisa, a left-wing party whose ambiguity when it comes to condemning Hamas's attacks have bothered the rest of the parties.

In a televised message, the president confirmed the death of 13 national citizens in the country. It is the first time that he has expressed himself after the Hamas attacks last Saturday, although, along with other European leaders, he had already shown his solidarity with Israel.

Before the message, Macron had met with the opposition parties, a meeting, he said, “of pluralism, harmony and unity.”. It lasted two hours and the formations conveyed to Macron their concern about the fate of the missing.. He has let them know that “communications with intermediaries” have been established to try to free them.. Paris's position is not to negotiate with terrorists.

“In the moment we live in, we must condemn terrorism and denounce all forms of hatred,” Macron said in a message that barely lasted 10 minutes.. Macron wanted to convey an image of unity, at a time when anti-Semitic attacks are increasing in the country (a hundred since Saturday) and, above all, after the controversy opened by the radical left party La Francia Insumisa (LFI). , which has not called Hamas a terrorist group or explicitly condemned the attacks. This position has caused a lot of controversy and has deepened the fracture within the left-wing coalition that they lead in the Assembly, of which the Socialist Party is also a part.

France fears that the conflict will be imported into its territory: Since Saturday there have been a hundred anti-Semitic acts and 41 arrested for them, as confirmed by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. The largest Jewish community in Europe lives in France: half a million people. There are also 10% Muslims.. According to Darmanin, there is currently no terrorist threat.

To avoid incidents, the minister has decided to prohibit all pro-Palestinian demonstrations that are organized and has ordered the arrest of people who, despite this order, organize rallies in this regard.. This Thursday one was planned in Paris. Many people have gathered in the Plaza de la República, where the police have had to intervene.

Meanwhile, the anguish of the relatives of the missing French-Israeli citizens grows. They held a press conference this Thursday in Tel Aviv, where they asked Emmanuel Macron for help and implored him to “intervene for the release” of those held captive.. Among the people whose whereabouts are unknown are four children, according to the latest Foreign Affairs report.. The first Air France plane to repatriate French expatriates left Tel Aviv this Thursday. There are 200,000 French people in the country.

The White House has had to deny in record time the statements of US President Joe Biden in which he claimed to have seen the images of children beheaded by Hamas. Singer Justin Bieber has published a photograph of the destruction of Gaza to show his support for Israel. Images of the extreme violence perpetrated by Hamas have spread wildly on social networks, especially on X, the former Twitter. Brussels has raised alarm bells about the brutal magnitude of hoaxes, disinformation and illegal content that circulates through digital platforms in the powder keg of the Middle East. AX and Meta you have already given him the first warning.

“Although the grass is not (always) greener on the other side, sometimes the sky is bluer”. With this ironic message, but direct to the jugular, the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, has announced his jump to the BlueSky social network, after direct clashes with the owner of. A confrontation that has been going on for a long time, but that has intensified within the framework of the bitter war between Israel and Palestine.

The exchange of reproaches has taken place publicly. And paradoxically through the social network owned by magnate Elon Musk. Late on Tuesday, the French commissioner sent an urgent statement to the American reminding him of his obligations under the European Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force at the end of August: “Following the terrorist attacks committed by Hamas against Israel, we have indications that X is being used to spread illegal content and propaganda within the EU.”

Under ambitious EU legislation, technology giants are obliged to ensure maximum transparency for users, remove illegal and reported content and put in place all preventive measures to prevent the spread of false or manipulated images or information.. Breton gave Musk a maximum of 24 hours to respond. The replica arrived less than two hours later through the same channel. And on Wednesday the official one arrived, which the European Commission is currently analyzing.

“Our policy is based on everything being open source and transparent, an approach that the EU supports. List the violations of. “You are aware of reports from users and authorities about false content and glorification of violence. It is up to you to show that you lead by example,” concluded the French commissioner, who has not given more details about specific examples.

First phase of implementation

The DSA is in its first phase of implementation, but non-compliance entails million-dollar fines of up to 6% of the company's total turnover.. After the first notice to. More slaps on the wrist to others like TikTok, very popular among young audiences, cannot be ruled out.

These movements and concerns have had an instant response on the other side of the English Channel.. British Innovation Minister Michelle Donelan called an emergency meeting with the tech giants to ensure they “quickly remove all content fueling Hamas' terrorist acts in Israel.”. And within European confines itself, the German Agency against Disinformation has abandoned X due to “the large increase in hate content.”

(Mis) information: the other battle

Propaganda and fake news are a common component and nothing new in the fight to win the battle of the story in any war. With the emergence of a great conflict, the mantra that the first victim is the truth resurfaces. The one being fought now in the Holy Land is no exception. However, the boom and influence of social networks lays the foundation for misinformation to spread unstoppably and at the speed of light.. The wars of the 21st century are broadcast live. And in the midst of a brutal maelstrom of content that makes it more difficult to decide what is true or not. Which in turn usually results in greater social polarization.

The European authorities have not spoken of specific examples. But the number of viral hoaxes spread on the networks, especially through X in these six days of war, has been a constant. This is not a new phenomenon of the 1920s.. Already in the Arab springs, which began in 2011, social networks played a crucial role. But what worries Brussels at the moment is that the new model of the

Videos from the war in Syria or Azerbaijan have been attributed to attacks in Israel and Gaza. A clip that has accumulated more than 300,000 views shows the Israeli army launching white phosphorus bombs on Gaza, but the images date back to March and are the work of Russia in a bombing of the Ukrainian town of Vuhledar. Another that has almost 800,000 visits wrongly reveals the kidnapping of a child by a Hamas militiaman, but it had nothing to do with it, according to a Fact Check from the Reuters Agency.. Even the beheading of dozens of babies in a kibbutz is one of the most viral news on social networks. But it emanates from a single source and has not yet been proven.. Kidnappings, hospital admission of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or a plot through which Hamas would be receiving weapons from Ukraine are some of the hoaxes that are circulating with impunity on the platforms.

After the first hours since the unprecedented and surprising assault by the Hamas terrorist group against Israel, it was Elon Musk himself who recommended following the events that came from the Holy Land through accounts and profiles characterized by publishing false information. One of them had gone viral months ago for spreading an explosion – which never existed – in the Pentagon. He deleted the tweet. But the example demonstrates to a large extent the perverse art of the current functioning of networks: the impact of misinformation is much greater than the subsequent denial.. The NGO Media Matters affirms that the current dispute between Israel and Palestine represents “the first test for X in the midst of a global crisis”. “The platform has failed miserably. “Disinformation proliferated as paid verified accounts spread misleading videos, manipulated photos and misinformation,” it concludes.

Israel and the Gaza Strip will no longer be the same after the morning of October 7, when a thousand troops from the armed wing of the fundamentalist movement Hamas attacked Israeli communities and bases.. Maybe neither is the Israeli-Lebanese border