List of All Articles with Tag 'ira'

A social media account claiming to be run by YouTuber Lord Miles, who is in the custody of the Taliban, claims he is alive, but others are unconvinced. British YouTuber Miles made a name for himself travelling to dangerous places “for fun”. But his daring acts caught up with him in March 2023 when it is believed he was captured by the Taliban, becoming a “missing person” in Afghanistan. Since then, speculation has swirled about his well-being and location as an anonymous “friend” of Lord Miles has been updating his X/Twitter account. Various tweets from other sources have periodically claimed to have evidence that the YouTuber is actually “thriving” while living in a Taliban guesthouse. But, confusion has spread over the last few days as the friend posting on his behalf claimed that Miles’ Patreon account was suspended and that he had lost thousands of pounds worth of donations that had been sent from concerned fans. Some remain unconvinced that Miles is alive as photographs or proof of life have not been forthcoming. Others have suggested that he is dead and his so-called “friends” are using his status to “scam” people out of money. One person wrote: “Just admit he's dead and you are looting his finances. Some ‘friends’ you are.” Another said: “Either he’s the deadest anyone has ever been dead or this is a scam for the ages.” The person posting on Miles’ account wrote: “Give us around 2 weeks and you will have solid proof. We expect an apology when it comes however. You guys have no idea the stuff you're putting Miles through.” Internet personality Justin Whang also got involved in the discussion, claiming to know for sure that Miles is alive. He claimed: “I know this is the same s*** everyone says and nobody believes but Miles is alive and I can’t say how I know.” One person argued: “Honestly if he does end up being alive I’m not gonna feel that silly, you have done a comically bad job of running his account (+ Patreon never would’ve been suspended but for you). “I honestly thought he was more likely to be alive when he wasn’t tweeting than since you took over.” For now, the well-being of Lord Miles appears to remain a mystery. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By Timour Azhari BAGHDAD Iraq will ban cash withdrawals and transactions in U.S dollars as of Jan. 1

The US military says the rounds were confiscated from a ship taking arms to Yemeni rebels last year.

The US will transfer thousands of seized Iranian weapons and rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, in a move that could help to alleviate some of the critical shortages facing the Ukrainian military as it awaits more money and equipment from the US and its allies, US officials said.

A father has divided the internet over his reaction to his daughter coming out. Posting on Reddit, the man explained that his 23-year-old daughter organised a dinner where she came out and introduced him and her mother to her girlfriend - but it didn't go well. While her mother "was emotional gave her a big hug, and told her how proud she was", the dad "did not react". "I honestly did not care about that part," he explained. His chilled attitude got him in trouble. "My wife told me I was rude for ignoring our daughter's announcement," he wrote. "I told my wife that I did not care who she was attracted to all I cared about was if she was happy. I tried to explain I did not care about that stuff, people like who they like I don't need labels for that. Love is love." "She said my view is slightly homophobic because it shows I am not acknowledging a different view," he continued. Responding, people had mixed opinions. Some people thought his reaction was perfect. "I will never understand what is 'homophobic' about people treating gay children exactly the same as they treat straight children," one said. "Isn't that the ideal that we are striving for?" Another said: "Your reaction is the right one, because homosexuality shouldn’t be a big deal, it’s one way of life and it’s just as fine as being straight or whatever." But others were not so sure. "I do think it might come across weird if one parent gives the child a hug and the other just sits there saying nothing really to acknowledge what was said," one commented. Another wrote: "Your daughter probably agonised for years over telling you and your wife. Planned it all out. Analysed how you would react and what she would do. So it's probably a lot for you too basically just ignore it, as telling you was a huge deal to her." Later, he updated commenters on the situation and said he met with his daughter to explain his actions. "As I suspected she did not have an issue with it, and she also felt it was self-explanatory when she introduced her girlfriend," he wrote. However "her girlfriend thought it was weird how I kind of brushed off the response and treated this situation as if they were a straight couple." So he is going to organise "a more special event for the sake of her girlfriend". "My daughter had no issues overall, but I will correct course," he concluded. All's well that ends well. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Comedian Joe Lycett has written to the Home Secretary Suella Braverman after she said that asylum seekers pretend to be gay to "game the system". Braverman had also said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute last month that "we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect simply being gay or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin is sufficient to qualify for protection". Lycett, who identifies as pansexual, wrote the Home Secretary: "I too am disgusted by men pretending to be gay and think we should weed out this scourge from our society." He went on to joke that "Alan Carr is actually married to a foul woman called Sandra". To help Braverman, Lycett put forward his system of testing to ensure all asylum seekers who claim to be gay: "With my newly registered company Homo Hunters, I will spearhead this project to reduce the bumbardment [sic] of immigrants and enmesh our island with foreign homosexuals." "I know full well that aside form unimportant contracts like PPE procurement and making classroom roof beams out of mint chocolate Aeros the government expects the companies they work with to have long term, actual experiments in their field," he said, offering his reassurance to Braverman that Homo Hunters is a legitimate company, adding his experience credentials: "I have been investigating fake gays for years." He then divulges the "ass-essment" used by Homo Hunters: "Applicants will be escorted into a room with three tables. On the first table is a Lady Gaga CD, on the second table is a fleece from M&S Blue Harbour and on the third table is a naked Twink called Carlos (or Steve)," he writes. "If the applicant tries to have sex with any of these things, they will be determined gay and warmly welcomed into the country. If they attempt to wear the M&S Blue Harbour fleece, mention crypto, VPNs or MMA, they will be inhumanely destroyed." Writing on Braverman's position on immigration, Lycett writes: "just because you or your family have benefitted from a system doesn't mean that system should not be smashed to bits." He then signs off "Padam padam, Joe Lycett", a reference to the Kylie Minogue song that became a gay anthem this year. Lycett shared his letter to social media, tagging Braverman in the post. Now, we wait for Braverman's response to Lycett's Homo Hunters proposition. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A husband has been flooded with support after he told his wife she’d need to quit her job if she wanted to have a second child. The man explained in a lengthy social media post that his wife has a career “that she loves” which sees her travelling or working night and weekend shifts for roughly half of the year. Describing himself as “the primary breadwinner” he explained that she earns approximately 40 per cent of what he makes – which covers the cost of childcare for their son plus “a little bit” extra. And yet, he said, he is also the primary caregiver. “When she is out of town for work, I have full responsibility for our child aside from the eight hours per day that he is in daycare (during which time I have to work),” he wrote. “It has been very hard being responsible for our child when she travels and on so many weekends. I feel like a single parent.” Complaining that his job is “demanding” he noted that he usually has to work after putting the little boy to bed, and “barely [has] time to clean the kitchen/house, etc., on top of [his] job.” The Reddit user then admitted that he’d told his wife he would only support her career if they stuck to one child, adding: “But if we have two (which is what we both want), that I don't think she can continue in her career.” He went on: “I just don't see how I can manage two kids for so many mornings – taking them both to school, daycare, events, and evenings and weekends entirely by myself, all while I am working full time.” Wrapping up his message in the AITA forum, he said his wife responded that she doesn’t want to leave her job, but will in order to have a second child. However, he concluded: “I fear she will quit and then resent me which will lead to bad times for all involved.” His post racked up more than 6,900 upvotes and 1,700 comments in a day as fellow Redditors offered their stance on the predicament. “I think your position is reasonable,” one wrote. “Children are a lot of work. “Your wife doesn’t seem to know how difficult it is because she’s not the primary caretaker. [...] I’d recommend couples counselling before she quits her job and you have a [second] child.” Meanwhile, a second commentator stressed: “It’s also important to note that wording matters - OP (the original poster) shouldn’t ask his wife to ‘quit her job’ and stay at home; instead, he should be careful to ask her to ‘switch careers’ to a different job with more family-friendly working hours.” A third argued: “She’s working way too much to call it much of a career, she should want more balance and to have more family time. I’d dig into why she’s [OK] to be away so much. “OP is doing the thing right and is asking for help before the emergency happens. Hopefully she can find something she enjoys with less crazed hours.” Meanwhile, a fifth pointed out that marriages must always be “equal partnerships”, and that no one parent should bear the brunt of the responsibilities. “You need to be an equal partner,” they said. “What that [looks] like can vary wildly in different families. For some that means both contributing to the finances and sharing the [in-home] responsibilities. For others that is one person doing [the] bulk of in-home while the other does the bulk of the financial contributions. Both and everything between are fine. They continued: “When one person is contributing to the bulk of the financial well-being of the family as well as the bulk of the in-home responsibilities though it is no longer an equal or even fair partnership. And the other person certainly shouldn't be making demands about adding to the already full plate of the other.” Concluding, they said that the mother “needs to evaluate her priorities and establish a better balance that supports her family as an equal partner”. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Just a week after Meta's announcement of its new AI products things already seem to be going wrong. The new AI-generated stickers that are available on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp seemingly have no filters when it comes to creating questionable and controversial content. Users have been sharing what the AI has allowed them create such children characters like Mickey Mouse smoking marijuana or Winnie the Pooh holding a rifle. Artist Pier-Oliver Desbiens posted various stickers he managed to create using Meta's new AI tool saying "I don't think anyone involved has thought anything through". He attached screenshots of a child soldier, Karl Marx with breasts, the Pope holding a rifle, Elmo with a knife, and a pregnant Shrek, amongst others. Meta AI is currently in beta and available only the US, so it seems users have taken the opportunity to point out the large oversight they've made when it comes to the perhaps too wide a range of possibilities available with the sticker-generator. One user wrote: "Got a feeling that Meta is about to be responsible for a whole bunch of AI-related US case law". However, some saw the hilarity in the situation, with one user saying they were going to enjoy the feature "until Meta gets sued into oblivion for copyright infringement". Whilst others joked that they were now "pro-AI": Meta's website features a blog post titled "Building Generative AI Features Responsibly", where they write "As with all generative AI systems, the models could return inaccurate or inappropriate outputs. We'll continue to improve these features as they evolve and more people share their feedback." The message suggests that Meta is probably going to get on top of this quickly so beloved children's characters are no longer holding weapons. indy100 has reached out to Meta for comment. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

DUBAI Sales of homes worth $10 million or more in Dubai hit about $1.6 billion in the third

DUBAI Non-oil business activity in the United Arab Emirates expanded at a faster rate in September than the

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that countries seeking to normalise relations with Israel "are betting on

A group of bull sharks found living in an artificial golf pond sparked concern when they mysteriously vanished. Bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) are often found in rivers all around the world, but this incident makes "the longest uninterrupted duration in a low salinity environment that ever has been recorded in this species". Now, a new paper has investigated the case to understand the tolerance of bull sharks in low-salinity habitats. In 1996, six sharks were discovered in a golf course near Brisbane. They were landlocked for a further 17 years, before vanishing in 2013. The sharks became trapped due to major flooding of two adjacent Logan and Albert rivers. When the floods calmed, the sharks remained in the lake. The young sharks reportedly grew to 9.8 feet (3 meters) long as years went by and reportedly survived on flathead grey mullet (Mugil cephalus), Indo-Pacific tarpon (Megalops cyprinoides), mangrove red snapper (Lutjanus argentimaculatus) and yellowfin bream (Acanthopagrus australis). "If sharks can get the food they need, being in these low-salinity environments can be super beneficial because there are fewer predators," Michael Heithaus, a shark biologist at Florida International University told Live Science. "Pups in some nurseries may go years in virtually fresh water, so it isn't too surprising they survived, as long as there was plenty of food." Some of the sharks were last spotted in 2015, while others were able to escape into the riverways during a flood in 2013. Study authors predicted some of the sharks had sadly died after one carcass was retrieved by golf course staff. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.