TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

russian attack on a supermarket in Kostyantynvika Donetsk region as of now 11 killed 37 wounded. @ukrainejournal

"There is a Ukrainian flag on the administration building. A Ukrainian soldier told me to learn Ukrainian and prepare for a referendum. I am in shock. Honestly I don't care what flag we are under, as long as its peaceful. If our own can't protect us, maybe Ukrainians can." A Russian man from Kursk. @ukrainejournal

russian Firearm Training 🫣🤣

@Ukraine_Report ~ 4rrasoe 🇮🇩❤️🇺🇦🔱

Publication of a Russian-linked fake news site led to anti-migrant pogroms in the UK.

The wave of misinformation that led to anti-migrant riots in several UK cities was launched by the fake news site Channel3 Now. According to anti-disinformation experts interviewed by The Telegraph, the site is “clearly connected to Russia.”

Following the Southport dance studio attack in which three girls aged between 6 and 9 were killed, Channel3 Now published a “news story” reporting that the attacker was "17-year-old Muslim refugee Ali Al-Shaqati." But Al-Shakati has never existed.

Channel3 Now, a website that masquerades as a legitimate US news outlet but acts as an “aggregator” for real news stories as well as fake viral claims, published the claim on the back of speculation which appeared to have started on X, just two minutes after blogger Bernie Spofforth’s post who constantly spreads conspiracy theories .

Channel3 Now's tweet, which has 3.000 subscribers, collected 27 million views. This was possible because “many Channel3 Now subscribers are bots that share viral messages,” explained Stephen Hutchings, professor of Russian studies at the University of Manchester and principal investigator of the anti-disinformation project (Mis)Translating Deceit.

What had begun as a trickle then became a flood, sending the conspiracy theory pouring out through social media anew, where the name was boosted by thousands of other Russia-linked accounts before being repeated by authentic Russian state media, which cited Channel3 Now in its reporting.

The claim was meanwhile picked up by far-Right figures such as Tommy Robinson – founder of the anti-immigrant English Defence League, which played a major role in instigating the riots in Southport and elsewhere this week – and notorious influencer Andrew Tate, whose posts about Al-Shakati garnered millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes.

And as news of the attacker’s supposed identity spread, anger grew, sparking the riots that rocked the Merseyside town that evening before spreading out across the country.

After a mourning ceremony for the dead children, pogroms began in Southport. Hundreds of people gathered outside the mosque and began throwing bricks, bottles and other objects at the mosque and the police. At least 39 police officers were injured . Anti-migrant pogroms later took place in Hartpool and Sunderland in the North-East of Great Britain.

However, the real suspect named in court was Axel Rudakubana, born 2006 in Cardiff to Rwandan parents.

Channel3 Now is part of a complex web of disinformation, Hutchings said. In 2019, the channel was renamed and began publishing English-language videos about Pakistan, suggesting it had been “hijacked and repurposed” rather than being part of a disinformation network in the first place.

▪️The channel has been operating under its current name for two years. In 2023, it registered a domain in Lithuania. The site's IP address belongs to two Pakistani citizens.

▪️The site has one author named James Lawley, whose LinkedIn account says he owns a gardening company in Canada. A search of Lawley's LinkedIn photo yielded no results. Also, there are no other mentions of his company online. Probably this 'James Lawley' does not really exist.

▪️When the name of the real suspect became known, the Channel3 Now YouTube channel disappeared, and a statement apologizing for the “misleading information” appeared on the publication’s website.
This rebuttal is an “authentication technique,” ​​says Hutchings. “They need to create the impression that they made an innocent mistake.”

In recent years, Russia has created several disinformation networks aimed at foreign audiences. There are many like it, who post hundreds of stories a day with a pro-Russian or anti-western slant intended to sow confusion and destabilise society in Britain and elsewhere.

Read more

🇪🇺@EU_Report 🇬🇧
@freerussia_report

Good morning Resisters everywhere.

Goodnight Resisters everywhere

Naughty

Russians leave Lgov in the Kursk region of russia. One of the possible directions of the advance by the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Russian chess player Amina Abakarova blasted her supergirl Umayganat Osmanova with mercury at a chess tournament in Dagestan. She spilled mercury on the table shortly before the competition in order to knock her rival out of the tournament.

"The Russian Chess Federation temporarily suspends Dagestan chess player Amina Abakarova from participating in all competitions until the conclusion of law enforcement agencies, based on which a final decision will be made, up to a lifetime disqualification,"
the federation said in a statement.

Perhaps this could be another reason for international sports federations to think about completely excluding Russian athletes from any competitions.

@liveukraine_media

"The face of a war that is not a woman's war,"
wrote Yana, a wounded Ukrainian FPV drone operator.

The girl and her father have been defending Ukraine since the beginning of the great war. A few days ago she was wounded. Even in the hospital, the soldier tries to help her comrades and says she has no right to lie down and cry because the war is on.

@liveukraine_media

⚡️👀 Ukrainian FPV drones destroy the Sudzha checkpoint in the Kursk region, after which about 50 Russian border guards surrender

😳  The Russian soldier begs not to drop ammunition on him and suggests that the drone operators "switch" to his comrade hiding nearby

Goodnight

More about Serhiy Pantak

Andrei Kurshin, the administrator of the Russian Telegram channel Moscow Calling, has been sentenced to 6.5 years in prison in a case of "fakes".

Two posts in his Telegram channel became the reason. The first was about a strike in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig, as a result of which the local population had problems with water supply. "This strike is undoubtedly a war crime by Russia," the post read. The second post reported about the attack on the maternity ward of the CRKB Volnyansky district of Zaporizhzhya Region.

@liveukraine_media

Rest in Peace Serhiy. You will be remembered and revered

On the morning of August 4, the chef of the Kherson restaurant Kabanos, Serhiy Pantak, was killed at the front.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Serhiy Pantak, along with two other Kherson chefs, cooked for doctors, patients, and people in Kherson's bomb shelters. Every day, the cooks fed 200 to 300 people.

@ukrainejournal