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 @ISIDEWITHNewsJordanIraqTel AvivBeirutDaily DiscussionIndiaIsmail HaniyehItaly•••7mos ago

Airlines cancel Middle East flights as escalation anxiety rises

In recent days, the Lufthansa Group and Air India joined the growing list of airlines canceling flights in the region after the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31 and the killing of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike near Beirut on July 30.

The Lufthansa Group — which includes Lufthansa Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings — canceled all flights to Amman, Jordan, and Irbil in northern Iraq through Wednesday.

All group flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut are suspended up to and including Aug. 12, extending a previous suspension on flights to and from Beirut that was in place until Monday.

Air India announced last week that it would cancel flights to and from Tel Aviv until Thursday. Italy’s ITA Airways extended a previously announced cancellation of flights to and from Tel Aviv through Thursday, citing “geopolitical developments in the Middle East” in an email to The Washington Post.

5 Replies

 @ISIDEWITHasked…7mos7MO

How would you feel if your travel plans were suddenly canceled due to rising tensions in another part of the world?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…7mos7MO

Do you think the safety concerns of airlines are justified when they cancel flights due to geopolitical tensions?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…7mos7MO

How would you balance the need for safety with the economic and personal inconvenience caused by such flight cancellations?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…7mos7MO

What impact do you think these flight cancellations have on people's perceptions of safety when traveling internationally?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…7mos7MO

If you were an airline executive, how would you decide whether or not to cancel flights in a region experiencing conflict?

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…6mos6MO

Telegram Arrest Ignites Debate Over Tech Executives Immunity

Pavel Durov, who founded the online communications tool Telegram, was arrested in France as part of an investigation into the platform’s complicity in crimes including possession and distribution of child sexual abuse imagery.Internet company executives rarely faced personal liability in Western democracies for what took place on their platforms. But as law enforcement agencies, regulators and policymakers ramp up scrutiny of online platforms and exchanges, they are increasingly considering when to hold company leaders directly responsible. That shift was punctuated by Mr. Durov’s arrest over the weekend, raising questions over whether tech executives like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg also risk being arrested when they next set foot on European soil.For now, tech executives have little to fear, with cases like Mr. Durov’s likely to be outliers, experts said. Historically, companies have been held responsible for a platform’s transgressions, rather than individuals. And legally, the bar is high in the United States and Europe to prosecute individuals for activities at their companies, especially with U.S. laws like Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects internet platforms from being responsible for harmful speech.Last year, Britain passed an online safety law that can hold tech leaders personally responsible if their company is made aware of content that risks child safety and systematically fails to remove it. Even Section 230 doesn’t apply to some forms of outlawed speech, such as child sexual abuse.“There’s a 30-year arc here,” Mr. McIntyre said. Since the 1990s, he said, tech executives have not typically been held responsible for what users did on their platforms, though that approach is now being questioned by those who want stronger accountability.

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Active 2hrs ago

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…3hrs3H

EX-SPY CHIEF BOMBSHELL: 'Trump Was Moscow's Asset'

Alnur Mussayev, former head of Kazakhstan's security services and ex-KGB officer, claims Trump was recruited as a Soviet asset in 1987.Mussayev stated Trump was given the code name "Krasnov" and was considered "ideally recruitable."The article references the controversial "Steele dossier" that alleged Russia had compromising material on Trump.Yuri Shvets, a former KGB major, also claimed Trump was "cultivated as a Russian asset" who parroted anti-Western propaganda.According to the article, Trump first came to Russian attention in 1977 when he married Ivana Zelnickova, a Czech model.The article alleges Czech intelligence spied on Ivana and her father in cooperation with the KGB.The narrative suggests Trump purchased 200 TVs for his Grand Hyatt hotel from Semyon Kislin, described as a "spotter agent" for the KGB.Trump and Ivana's 1987 first visit to Moscow and St. Petersburg is portrayed as a turning point where Trump was allegedly fed KGB talking points.The article cites declassified Prague files claiming Czech spies monitored the couple in Manhattan.Author Craig Unger noted the recruitment wasn't planned decades in advance, but rather part of widespread Soviet recruitment efforts targeting "dozens and dozens of people."

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