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Cleanroom Fluorescent Lighting Market was valued at USD 255.92 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach USD 392.76 billion by 2031A fter 21 years, the day Farouk feared had finally come. An envelope sealed with red wax made its way through the faded hallways of Syria’s national news agency, Sana, and landed on his desk. Inside was what employees called a penalty, the contents of which could range from a reprimand from the editors to a summons to one of Syria’s brutal security branches. “I found a mistake before the article was published and I brought it to the editors’ attention. I thought this would be a good thing but they punished me,” Farouk, a journalist on Sana’s foreign news desk, said under a pseudonym. Farouk was lucky: he faced only an administrative consequence. Other co-workers had not been so fortunate. One day in 2014, Mohanned Abdelrahman was in the break room chatting with other colleagues as he prepared tea. During the conversation, it dawned on him that all of the employees in the group were from the same religious sect, something that could arouse the suspicion of authorities who were paranoid about any forms of community organising. Quickly, the group disbanded and headed back to their offices. A week later, he and the other employees found an envelope with the feared red seal on their desks. Inside was a summons to Branch 235, AKA the Palestinian branch, one of the country’s most infamous detention centres, where Abdelrahman and other employees would be kept and interrogated for the next 15 days. Abdelrahman and his colleagues recounted their respective arrests while seated around a desk in Sana’s foreign news department 10 days after the fall of the Assad regime, seemingly still dazed that they could speak freely. For the past 13 years, journalists had not been allowed to report freely as their news agency was on the frontline of the Assad regime’s propaganda effort. The Sana homepage, not updated since Assad’s ousting on 8 December , still bore the last headline issued by the Assad regime. “President al-Assad assumes his work, national and constitutional duties”, the news ticker read, despite the dictator’s flight to Moscow a few hours earlier. The news agency’s coverage in the days before the toppling of the Assad regime claimed all was well within Syria. As rebels advanced on Damascus, Sana said they were merely staging photo ops. It spoke of “strategic redeployments” while Syrian government forces abandoned their posts en masse. Sana journalists were not brainwashed; they knew that the opposition was making inroads against regime forces. But years of Orwellian control and censorship within the newsroom had left them unable to write the truth. Abdelrahman said: “They would tell you that the yoghurt was black and you were not allowed to say it’s white. They made you feel scared that you would be punished, so you wouldn’t try to add anything new to articles.” Throughout the civil war, Sana parroted regime lines, making itself key to the Syrian and Russian disinformation campaign. Its articles called the Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, organ-harvesting agents of al-Qaida. While more than 90% of Syrians were living below the poverty line, the news agency reported on the installation of eco-buses in Damascus. To ensure journalists did not write anything that contradicted the regime’s line, Syrian intelligence agents planted informants in the office to observe reporters. “You didn’t know who was the one among us writing reports on their fellow employees. They reported when you got into work, when you left, how long you spent in the bathroom,” Abdelrahman said. Journalists’ social media profiles were monitored. A status that expressed any dissenting view, or even a “like” on a suspicious comment, would attract the attention of authorities. The consequences for journalists who dared to deviate from the state’s line could be deadly. Reporters recalled a colleague who was detained for three months and tortured daily, suspended from a pipe in a grotesque stress position. Another was severely tortured after it was discovered he had been sending footage of opposition protests in south Syria to Al Jazeera. Almost all Sana journalists had stories about being detained. Alleged offences included tarnishing the reputation of Syria, organising revolutionary activities, working on behalf of Israel and working on behalf of Iran. Under the threat of bodily harm, journalists were asked to deny the reality they saw with their eyes and instead believe the press releases sent to them by the regime’s PR teams. As economic conditions deteriorated, the Syrian regime would plant more and more egregious statistics and figures in their articles. The Assad regime was most sensitive towards the economic stories, acutely aware of growing discontent. “There was a blackout on any real information. The numbers coming from the ministry of industry and economy were pulled out of thin air,” said Adnan al-Akhras, a home news reporter. Journalists also had to contend with the organisation’s fearsome bureaucracy and onerous editorial standards. If a journalist was dispatched to cover a story abroad, they would first have to seek the permission of their editor, who would need to get the permission of the managing editor, who would report to the editor-in-chief, who would have to ask the minister of information. By the time all the permissions had been secured, the story was long over. Foreign news journalists relied on wire agencies such as Sputnik and Xinhua for their copy. However, there were strict editorial policies in place that sometimes even exceeded those of the Assad regime’s foreign patrons. Journalists were obliged to change copy from Russia’s Sputnik news agency to make it stricter. For example, Russian media’s mention of “Ukraine’s army” would be changed to “neo-Nazi forces” in Sana’s stories. “We would joke that we were the real Moscow, not them,” Abdelrahman said, adding that in recent years journalists on the foreign desk could only write about Cuba, Iran, Russia and Venezuela. As journalists researched their stories, they were asked to collect any negative articles about the Assad regime that appeared in the foreign press. They would copy and paste these stories into an email, sign their names and send it off to a special account given to them by the palace. Where those emails went, the journalists had no idea – they never received a reply. As life in Syria grew harsher, so did the work at Sana. Monthly salaries at the news agency hovered at about 150,000 Syrian pounds (£9). The stories grew more outrageous in contrast to the country’s growing poverty, absurd even to their authors. “We had a phrase: ‘Let the owner of the donkey tie it where he would like’,” said Ibrahim, a Sana journalist who asked to be identified only by his first name. Journalists were not allowed to quit. They could present their resignation to a special committee, which invariably would deny the request. They were not allowed to travel. If they tried, their name would flash across the border guard’s screens and they would be sent back home. Sana journalists were considered as having access to sensitive information and so would have to apply for special security permissions to leave Syria – “which we never got”, Abdelrahman said. Despite the years of repression, journalists at Sana returned to work two days after the fall of the Assad regime. Home news reporters gathered and began to excitedly pitch ideas for future articles: the new marketplaces springing up in the post-Assad era; the rise of the dollar; tracing the disappearance of camera footage from regime prisons. Still, after years of strict control, journalists seemed unsure how to proceed. “We hope we will have freedom as journalists and that none of us will be arrested any more,” Abdelrahman said, glancing at a media officer from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that led the ousting of Assad, who had been given the task of helping reorganise the state news agency.Conduct pending BMC polls before March 2025: SP urges CM Fadnavis
Australia's proposal to ban under-16s from social media platforms is "rushed", social media companies claimed Tuesday, expressing "serious concerns" about potential unintended consequences. The landmark legislation would force social media firms to prevent young teens from accessing their platforms or face fines of up to Aus$50 million (US$32.5 million). Platforms such as X, Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta have criticised the 24-hour time frame given for stakeholder comments, claiming a lack of consultation and inadequate details about how the legislation would work. X said in its submission that it had "serious concerns" the ban would have "a negative impact" on children, adding it breached their "rights to freedom of expression and access to information". The company added that the proposed law was "vague" and "highly problematic" and that there was "no evidence" that it would work. Australia is among the vanguard of nations trying to clean up social media, and the proposed age limit would be among the world's strictest measures aimed at children. The proposed laws, which were presented to parliament last week, would also include robust privacy provisions that require tech platforms to delete any age-verification information collected. The government is trying to approve the law this week, before parliament breaks for the rest of the year. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said in its submission the ban would "fail" in its current form because there was not enough consultation with stakeholders. "More time should be taken to get this bill right," it said. TikTok raised concerns over the privacy provisions -- including that they overlapped and contradicted other legislation -- and the limited time to consult stakeholders. "Its rushed passage poses a serious risk of further unintended consequences," the company's submission said. Key details about how social media companies are expected to enforce the ban remain unclear. Some companies will be granted exemptions from the ban, such as YouTube, which teenagers may need to use for school work or other reasons. Once celebrated as a means of staying connected and informed, social media platforms have been tarnished by cyberbullying, the spread of illegal content, and election-meddling claims. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insisted Tuesday that "social media is causing social harm". "It can be a weapon for bullies, a platform for peer pressure, a driver of anxiety, a vehicle for scammers and, worst of all, a tool for online predators," he wrote in an opinion piece. "And because it is young Australians who are most engaged with this technology -- it is young Australians who are most at risk." The laws would give families "peace of mind" that their children's well-being and mental health were being prioritised, he said. If the proposed law passes, tech platforms would be given a one-year grace period to figure out how to implement and enforce the ban. The proposal comes just months before Australians go to the polls in a general election that must be held in the first half of 2025. lec/arb/foxOne of the key factors contributing to China's status as the world's leader in the number of ICH projects lies in the country's rich and diverse cultural heritage. Spanning thousands of years of history, China boasts a wide array of traditional practices, rituals, crafts, and performances that have been passed down from generation to generation. These cultural treasures not only reflect the unique identities of different ethnic groups within China but also serve as valuable sources of wisdom and inspiration for people around the world.
NHRC chairperson holds high-level meetings with Azerbaijan officials
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Pere Guardiola, the younger brother of Pep Guardiola, has carved out his own niche in the footballing world as a football agent and sports director. While he may not have garnered the same level of fame and recognition as his older brother, Pere Guardiola has proven himself to be a shrewd operator and a key player in the football industry.M5 iPad Pro: Is This the Most Powerful Tablet Ever? (Leaks & Rumors)
The rumored marital troubles between Chen Xiao and Michelle Chen have been a topic of discussion in Chinese entertainment circles for some time now. Speculation about the state of their relationship has intensified in recent months, with reports of alleged conflicts and misunderstandings between the couple making their way into tabloid headlines. While neither party has confirmed or denied these rumors, the constant scrutiny and speculation have undoubtedly taken a toll on their private lives.
New Delhi, December 30: Leading music streaming platform Spotify found itself in a controversy when some users saw sexually-explicit material in search results on the platform. According to a report in The Verge on Monday, a Reddit user posted a screenshot of a Spotify search that had “a pornographic video tucked into suggested results for the rapper M.I.A”. A Spotify spokesperson told The Verge that such content "has been removed due to violation of its policies". According to the music streaming platform’s content moderation policies, it removes content that contains sexually explicit material. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 5G Price Drops Ahead of Launch of Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra 5G in January 2025; Check Discounts, Offers and Other Benefits Here. Recent posts on Reddit have shown examples of “unexpected explicit video in search results” on Spotify and “even erotic audio tracks being suggested in one user’s Discovery Weekly algorithmic playlist”. A Vice story in 2022 had claimed that there was “a surprising amount of people who’ve tried to upload hardcore sex images on Spotify”. According to reports, the app has a setting to block explicit content playback in users’ profiles, but even with it turned on, these searches evade that filter. Spotify’s terms of use forbid ”pornography or visual depictions of genitalia or nudity presented for the purpose of sexual gratification.” The music streaming platform was launched in 2008. Today, more listeners than ever can discover, manage and enjoy over 100 million tracks, 6 million podcasts titles, and 350,000 audiobooks a la carte on Spotify. “We are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with more than 640 million users, including 252 million subscribers in more than 180 markets,” according to the company. Google CEO Sundar Pichai Prepares Employees for 2025, Tells Them Company Will Focus on ‘Gemini’ AI Model Amid Regulatory Challenges, Fierce Competition: Report. Spotify’s global premium subscriber base grew to just over 252 million paying users for the third quarter of 2024 (ended September 30). The total global monthly active users (MAUs) grew 11 per cent on-year to 640 million in Q3 2024. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 30, 2024 10:42 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com ).