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☆ Bollywood film on Islamic State recruits sparks debate in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Shilpa Jamkhandikar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, May 9 (Reuters) - A low-budget Bollywood film about young women recruited by the Islamic State has stirred up passionate debate, helping to make it an instant box-office hit in India. "The Kerala Story," set in the coastal southern state of the same name, follows three women who are indoctrinated, converted and sent to IS camps. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the film by director Sudipto Sen, saying it showed the consequences of terrorism. Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, two states ruled by his Bharatiya Janata Party, have exempted the film from state taxes, making tickets cheaper. However, the Kerala High Court has refused to impose a ban in the state where the film is set, saying it was "inspired by true events."

☆ The Russian military is trying to recruit Central Asian migrant workers to fight in Ukraine to avoid another mandatory mobilization, UK intel says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia is attempting to recruit Central Asian migrants to fight in Ukraine, UK intelligence said. They are reportedly being enticed with high payments and offers of a fast track to Russian citizenship. Russia is likely trying to avoid another mandatory mobilization to minimize domestic anger. Recruiters have visited mosques and immigration offices, where staff who speak Tajik and Uzek attempt to recruit migrants, the update said. The attempts to recruit migrants come amid reports that Russia is trying to sign up 400,000 additional soldiers.

☆ Germany is finally focusing on defending NATO, but its military 'lacks almost everything' it needs to do it, a former German general says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

That's the warning from a former German general who argues that Germany must refurbish its badly neglected armed forces — though this will take years to accomplish. Today, the German military is just 183,000-strong, and it can't meet its recruiting goals. In 2020, German defense spending was only 1.4% of GDP, well short of 2% goal that NATO members have pledged to hit by 2024. "Armament procurement concentrated on armored transport vehicles rather than on battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles," Vad writes. RONNY HARTMANN/AFP via Getty ImagesDespite years of calls by France for pan-European defense, coordinating German defense procurement with other EU states — each with distinct military needs and political priorities – is difficult.

☆ A new law allows Putin to draft Russians via an online portal — even if they don't have an account. It 'brings the digital Gulag much, much closer,' critics say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A new law allows Russian conscripts to be notified of their military service via government portal. Critics say the move creates "a digital system of social control" akin to a virtual Gulag labor camp. The new conscription law, she wrote, "brings the Digital Gulag much, much closer." What is the Digital Gulag? With the digital registry and harsh punishments for noncompliance, "the government wants to create a digital system of social control by regulating individual access to rights and benefits," Stanovaya wrote.

☆ Liverpool will not get drawn into transfer battles for overpriced players - Klopp
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 6 (Reuters) - Liverpool will look to bring in new recruits in the close season transfer window but the Premier League club will not be drawn into bidding wars on players they feel are overpriced, manager Juergen Klopp said. British media last month reported that Liverpool ended their pursuit of England international Jude Bellingham, who had been the club's top transfer target ahead of an overhaul next season following a disappointing campaign. Asked what Liverpool's approach would be if clubs demand inflated transfer fees for targets, Klopp told reporters: "We cannot buy the player then". I am pretty sure we will bring in the players we want and those who will help us. Liverpool, who are fifth in the Premier League standings, host Brentford later on Saturday.

“We are lacking 70% of the needed ammunition!” Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin says in a video posted on Telegram. Shining a small flashlight on the corpses laying outdoors near what appears to be the front lines of the war, Prigozhin claims they are the casualties of just one day of fighting. “Shoigu, Gerasimov, where … is the ammunition?” says Prigozhin, calling out Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the Russian armed forces Gen. Valery Gerasimov. In February, he accused the two men of “treason” for their alleged failures to support and supply the Wagner group in Ukraine. Shortly after that posting, he made another saying a shipment of ammunition was on its way to the Wagner troops.

☆ After Years in the Shadows, Prigozhin Becomes a Player in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Anton Troianovski | Ben Shpigel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin quietly profited from his personal ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, winning lucrative catering and construction contracts with the Russian government while building a mercenary force known as Wagner. After throwing his fighters into Ukraine, their ranks swelled with prisoner recruits, Mr. Prigozhin emerged as a public power player, using social media to turn tough talk and brutality into his personal brand. In a scorching video posted Friday on social media, Mr. Prigozhin threatened to pull his fighters next week out of Bakhmut, the embattled city where he has thrown thousands of convicts into the maw of Ukraine’s defenses, taking extraordinary casualties in a stubborn effort to wear down the other side. Citing a lack of ammunition, Mr. Prigozhin delivered the ultimatum after walking among rows of bodies that he claimed were Wagner fighters killed in the battle for Bakhmut. He called out Russia’s defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, and Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, the chief of the military general staff, as responsible for their deaths.

☆ Swiss army displays Leopard 2 tank as Germany hopes for sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Denis Balibouse | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Recruits of the Swiss army Tank School 21 perform an attack exercise with the Leopard 2 tank in Bure, Switzerland May 5, 2023. Switzerland has 134 Leopard 2 tanks in service, some of which were used in training exercises by the country's Tank School 21 in the northwestern canton of Jura this week. But the Leopard 2 tanks that have drawn attention in Switzerland are, in fact, the 96 it keeps in storage. Under its neutrality laws and a separate arms embargo, Switzerland is prohibited from sending weapons directly to a country at war. The German government assured Bern that if it decided to sell its Leopard 2 tanks, these would not be used in Ukraine.

☆ Putin faces a deluge of bad news as Wagner says it will withdraw from frontline and Kremlin comes under attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Nick Paton Walsh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

And it will happen just after the May 9 Victory Day pomp and celebration, as, he insists, Wagner are patriots. But he has never said he will likely cripple one of Russia’s most symbolic frontlines by just walking away. Wagner forces would have to walk out of a battlefield which is – on the surface – for the most part controlled by Putin’s Ministry of Defense. Putin is absorbing a lot of bad vibes at the moment to seem that much in control. It is unlikely that any fissures at the heart of the Kremlin would be made public before they were acted upon.

It also highlights Russian frustration at failing to complete the capture of Bakhmut after more than nine months of costly, intense battle. ANGRY TIRADEWhat looked real, however, was Prigozhin's fury at Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov. "If Putin wants him to be in combat, he'll force him in one way or another to do so." Marten said its involvement in the battle for Bakhmut, including fighters recruited from Russian prisons, had allowed Putin to avoid declaring a full-scale mobilization. Whatever its immediate intentions around Bakhmut, Wagner is likely to remain a significant player in the war, given Prigozhin's personal ambitions and determination to stay in the limelight.

☆ Moscow's 'special' forces: An inside look at how Russia's famed Spetsnaz really operate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Mark Galeotti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +24 min

Russia's Spetsnaz forces are often depicted as a kind of Russian super troops. Osprey PublishingMost countries' special forces emphasize physical fitness, determination and aggression. Special people, for special tasksMembers of the Russian military's 16th Separate Special Purpose Brigade during an exercise in 2018. Even so, being better than most of the Soviet army's miserable and recalcitrant conscript forces did not make most of them truly special, special forces. The special operations commandMembers of Russian's 22nd Separate Guards Special Purpose Brigade during an exercise in November 2017.

☆ Needing Younger Workers, Federal Officials Relax Rules on Past Drug Use
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Ernesto Londoño | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Not long ago, urinating in a cup for a drug test was a widely accepted, if annoying, requirement to start a new job. The legalization of marijuana in more and more states in recent years upended that, prompting many employers to shelve hiring rules from the “Just Say No” era. There was a major holdout: the federal government, by far the nation’s largest employer. But now, it too is significantly relaxing drug screening rules as agencies struggle to replenish the ranks of a rapidly aging work force in a tight job market. have adopted more lenient rules regarding past use of marijuana among job candidates, officials acknowledge.

☆ A lawyer-turned-fighter codenamed 'Witch' has gained viral fame defending Ukraine as a mortar commander in the fiercest battlefronts of the war
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Mortar platoon commander Olga Bigar is better known in Ukraine by her callsign "Witch." Junior Lieutenant mortar platoon commander Olga Bigar of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces. A baptism of fireJunior Lieutenant mortar platoon commander Olga Bigar of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces. Junior Lieutenant mortar platoon commander Olga Bigar of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces. Junior Lieutenant mortar platoon commander Olga Bigar of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces.

☆ After a year of heavy losses, Ukraine's military is juggling a 'very uneven' force as it prepares for major fighting, expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Ukraine's military is gearing up for offensives against Russian forces in spring and summer. Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesWhen Russia invaded in February 2022, Ukraine's military had about 196,000 active personnel and 900,000 in reserve, according to the International Institute of Strategic Studies' 2022 Military Balance report. The Western approachAn instructor briefs Ukrainian soldiers at a training center near Yavoriv in April 2017. The training they provided accompanied other efforts by Kyiv to reverse two decades of post-Cold War decay that weakened the Ukrainian military. "This is a continuous struggle in the Ukrainian military," Kofman said.

☆ How Elon Musk upended Twitter and his own reputation in 6 months as CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

But it’s not clear just how and when Musk might return Twitter to growth. Musk’s primary plan to grow Twitter’s business through an overhauled subscription strategy has resulted in much chaos but only a limited number of actual subscriptions. In the process, Musk has also upended his own reputation. Disrupting the digital town squareFor years, what differentiated Twitter from other social platforms was that it served as a central hub for real-time news. Tesla (TSLA) shareholders recently complained to the company’s board that Musk appears “overcommitted.”“His reputation has been diminished significantly with Twitter … and once you lose it, it’s very difficult to recover,” Klepper said.

☆ Russia's desperately trying to drum up new recruits by selling military service as a 'worthy future' as thousands of troops die in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia is desperately selling military service as a "worthy future" to prospective recruits. The Washington Post reported that much of Russia's recruitment is happening regionally. Some of the army brochures say that "Contract service is a worthy future," the Post reported. Vlad Karkov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesIn recent months, Russian authorities have also increasingly sensationalized military enrollment in television ads. Russia's push for more troops and glamorization of military enrollment comes as the country's casualties continue to climb.

New Delhi CNN —Ten policemen and a civilian were killed in blast as they were returning from an operation against insurgents in India’s central Chhattisgarh state, its chief minister said Wednesday. Rebel Maoist militants are believed to be responsible for the attack, Bhupesh Baghel told reporters, expressing his grief over the deaths. More than 2,100 civilians in India have been killed in the Maoist insurgency since 2010. In 2017, 25 police officers were killed and six others injured when hundreds of suspected Maoist rebels attacked a convoy in central India. Suspected Maoists also struck during India’s elections in 2019, allegedly gunning down a polling supervisor in the eastern state of Odisha.

☆ Be 'a real man,' Russia tells men as it looks recruit more fighters for war in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Another ad showed men in everyday jobs and situations and alternatively as soldiers, concluding with the phrase: "You're a real man. One ad, Reuters noted, invited men to sign a contract with the Russian defense ministry for a salary starting at 204,000 Russian rubles ($2,495) a month. Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty ImagesThe U.K.'s defense ministry noted Sunday that Russia had launched "a pervasive campaign" aimed at attracting new recruits. "The new adverts appeal to potential recruits' masculine pride, appealing for 'real men', as well as highlighting the financial benefits of joining up," it said via Twitter. " Nonetheless, the ministry said it was highly unlikely that the campaign will attract the Russian defense ministry's reported target of 400,000 volunteers.

☆ How to Prevent the Next Intelligence Leak - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Glenn S. Gerstell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

When inside leaks occur, the typical and understandable response of the intelligence and military communities is to cut back on access in some way. Fortunately, both the government and the private sector have potential solutions in hand. This might be even more essential in the case of recruits for the military and intelligence agencies coming from Generation Z. The government could emulate the private sector, picking out the most effective solutions — perhaps installing paper-thin R.F.I.D. The government has been slow to adopt robust private sector techniques because they are costly and time-consuming to implement, and Congress demands quick fixes.

☆ Ukraine war live updates: Russia launches drive to recruit fighters; Kremlin spokesman's son says he joined Wagner mercenaries
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Russia's Ministry of Defense launched a major new drive for volunteer recruits with an advertising campaign telling potential recruits, "you're a real man. The U.K.'s defense ministry noted Sunday that "a pervasive campaign" has seen advertising appear on Russian social media sites, billboards and on TV. "The new adverts appeal to potential recruits' masculine pride, appealing for 'real men', as well as highlighting the financial benefits of joining up." The ministry said it was highly unlikely that the campaign will attract the Russian defense ministry's reported target of 400,000 volunteers. In other news, the son of the Kremlin's prominent spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed in a newspaper interview that he served with the Wagner Group of mercenary fighters in Ukraine.

☆ A former Meta recruiter paid about $200,000 a year says her team 'did nothing' as there 'really wasn't enough work:' report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A former Meta talent sourcer said "there wasn't enough work" for her team, per The Independent. A former Meta employee said there "wasn't enough work" to do and that her entire team were often "doing nothing", The Independent reported. She added that there "really wasn't enough work" for her team. Machado previously told Insider that she outlined the employee benefits she received at Meta on her TikTok account, in a video that's since been deleted. Three months after the "fantastic" onboarding process, her team discovered that a limited talent pool "didn't want to work for Facebook", she claims.

☆ A fifth of Russian prisoners recruited to fight in Ukraine are HIV positive, with convicts promised anti-viral drugs if they agreed to fight: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A fifth of recruits in Russian prisoner units are HIV positive, says Ukraine, per The New York TImes. Prisoners were recruited to join the Wagner Group in Ukraine with promises of anti-viral medication. Captured soldiers said they agreed because Russian prisons deprived them of effective HIV treatment. "I understood I would have a quick death or a slow death," he said, referring to the high death toll among Wagner Group soldiers. Last year he was bedridden with pneumonia, and later became sick while at a training camp for the Wagner Group, according to the newspaper.

☆ ‘A Quick Death or a Slow Death’: Prisoners Choose War to Get Lifesaving Drugs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Andrew E. Kramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In Russian prisons, they said they were deprived of effective treatments for their H.I.V. On the battlefield in Ukraine, they were offered hope, with the promise of anti-viral medications if they agreed to fight. About 20 percent of recruits in Russian prisoner units are H.I.V. After he was sentenced to 10 years for drug dealing, the doctors in the Russian prison changed the anti-viral medication he had been taking to control H.I.V. to types he feared were not effective, Timur said.

☆ Russia expands war recruitment drive with video ad calling for 'real' men
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/6] A man studies a leaflet given by a campaign member promoting Russian army service in Moscow, Russia April 12, 2023. Russia, which says it is prosecuting what it calls "a special military operation," does not disclose full casualty figures. Next in the video, a man is walking through the fog with other soldiers on what looks like a battlefield. the video asks, before cutting to a taxi driver taking a client's fare who then transforms into a soldier on the battlefield. Posters seeking professional soldiers have sprung up in the Russian capital in recent weeks declaring that "Our Profession is to defend the Motherland."

☆ Rippers roll in Adelaide as LIV lands Down Under
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, April 20 (Reuters) - After falling short in their bid to gatecrash the Masters, the stars of LIV Golf break fresh ground in Adelaide this weekend when they take the rebel tour to Australia for the first time. The fourth of the 14 events on the schedule in the second season of LIV Golf was all but guaranteed a warm reception Down Under, despite concerns in some quarters that its Saudi backers are engaged in "sportswashing". "Obviously we're going there to win," said the 29-year-old world number six, who defected to LIV for a reported $140 million after his British Open triumph last year. Former world number one and twice major champion Martin Kaymer will make his return after six months on the sidelines recovering from a wrist injury as captain of "Cleeks". Having been pointedly excluded from Augusta, LIV Golf Commissioner Greg Norman has been ubiquitous in the media in his homeland this week promoting his product.

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