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Time of India
4 days ago
- Time of India
Big Gaza photo scandal: Top agencies drop photographer over shocking staged hunger images
A well-known Gazan photographer faces criticism after a German investigation revealed that some of his viral hunger photos were staged. Several major European agencies have severed ties with him, reigniting debate about media ethics, bias, and the dangers of manipulated war imagery. Anas Zayed Fteiha , a Gazan photographer, is facing criticism after an investigation revealed that his hunger-themed photographs were staged rather than taken at actual aid locations. Productivity Tool Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide By Metla Sudha Sekhar View Program Finance Introduction to Technical Analysis & Candlestick Theory By Dinesh Nagpal View Program Finance Financial Literacy i e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By CA Rahul Gupta View Program Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By Neil Patel View Program Finance Technical Analysis Demystified- A Complete Guide to Trading By Kunal Patel View Program Productivity Tool Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By Study at home View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program ALSO READ: Ohio water levels altered for JD Vance's kayaking trip? Report sparks backlash Were the pictures of hungry people in Gaza real or fake? There has been a lot of media attention on Anas Zayed Fteiha, a well-known photographer from Gaza, who was caught staging pictures that looked like they showed starving civilians. The documentary made by Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) showed Fteiha taking pictures of kids holding empty bowls, even though there were no food supplies or aid distribution centers nearby, as per a report by The Jewish Chronicle. Live Events Fteiha's pictures seemed to show crowds fighting over food in a desperate way. The documentary's wide shot, on the other hand, showed a different scene, one that was very different from what viewers might have expected to see during an urgent aid delivery. ALSO READ: Veterans Affairs terminates union contracts — what it means for federal workers nationwide What have photo agencies done about the controversy? The effects were felt right away. Several European picture agencies, such as the German Press Agency and Agence France-Presse (AFP), have said they will no longer work with Fteiha. His pictures had already been widely shared and used by major news organizations like CNN, the BBC, and New York Magazine through Anadolu, the Turkish state-owned news agency where he works, as per a report by The Jewish Chronicle. But not all outlets have reacted in the same way. For instance, Reuters defended the pictures by saying they met their standards for "accuracy, independence, and impartiality." What are the bigger effects of reporting on the war in Gaza? The event brings up troubling questions about how images of war are made, especially in places like Gaza where international journalists can't go. Critics say that selective framing or staged scenes can mislead viewers, even if the bigger humanitarian crisis is real. Gerhard Paul, an expert on photography, said that many of these pictures of hunger could be made or captioned in ways that are also misleading to get people to feel something. He says, "These aren't outright fakes, but they do tap into visual memory and change how people see things,' as per a report by The Jewish Chronicle. He also said that in places still controlled by Hamas, photo production is likely to be tightly controlled, which could change the stories that are told. Is it wrong to stage emotional pictures? Some people don't think Fteiha's actions were wrong. Christopher Resch from Reporters Without Borders said that there was a lot of controversy, but that it is normal for photographers to "guide" people to tell a story. "The picture should have had more context, but that doesn't mean the suffering isn't real," the professor said, as per a report by The Jewish Chronicle. Resch also said that it's not a good idea to call photojournalists "propaganda agents," especially in places where things are unstable. He said, "Once a photographer's name is linked to manipulation or Hamas control, they could face serious threats to their safety." The images from Gaza are still very powerful, but this argument is a strong reminder that not everything we see through a lens is real. As the war goes on and people's opinions change, it becomes more important than ever to report the truth and put it in context. People who read, watch, or listen to the news are being told to question not just what they see, but also how and why they see it. FAQs Why are the agencies dropping the Gaza photographer? His photos of starving civilians were discovered to be staged, not taken at aid sites. Who is Anas Zayed Fteiha ? A Gaza-based photographer for Turkey's Anadolu Agency who is currently being investigated for manipulating war images.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Gaza aid distribution site photos are staged for emotional effect, German media claims
The BILD report focuses on a widely circulated photo of desperate Gazan women and children holding pots and pans in front of a food distribution site. There has been significant media attention over the last few days regarding reports by two German-language papers - BILD and Süddeutsche Zeitung - that accuse Gaza-based press photographers of staging photos of starving civilians. The issue of staged photos or photos taken out of context came to a head at the end of July when the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said that a picture of a Gazan youth being portrayed as starving is actually suffering from a genetic disease. TheBILD report focuses on a widely circulated photo of desperate Gazan women and children holding pots and pans in front of a food distribution site. Except photos taken by others at the same site show that the hoard is actually standing opposite freelance photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha, commissioned by the Turkish news agency Anadolu, BILD argues. The pots and pans are not being held up to the food distribution site, but the photographer, which Bild claims is staging for means of propaganda. Undistributed photos show Gazans calmly receiving aid Additionally, BILD adds that his photos at the Gaza aid distribution site show mainly women and children, but that other photos at the same site show mostly adult men calmly waiting for and receiving food. Fteiha did not distribute these ones. "I assume that many of these pictures with starving and sick children are simply staged or come from other contexts," emeritus history professor and photography expert Gerhard Paul told SZ. Paul, who has been researching images from Israel and Gaza for 25 years, said the photos are not fake, but "people are presented in a certain way or provided with a falsifying caption to mobilize our visual memory and emotions." Paul told SZ that he and his students at the University of Flensburg recreated the scenes from images of various wars in three dimensions in order to understand the situation depicted, which is often not easy to understand from the two-dimensional image. "Where is the photographer? Who is standing around him?" he asks. "What do the people depicted in the picture see? Do they see what we suspect, for example a food distribution? Or are they facing photographers?" "The images also have an additional function," Paul explained. "They are intended to overwrite the brutal images of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Many people don't even remember these pictures. Hamas is a master at staging images." However, he stressed that the journalists and photographers in Gaza are in a dangerous position, and due to their proximity to Hamas terrorists, cannot move freely. "Little bypasses Hamas," Christopher Resch of Reporters Without Borders told SZ. Resch also told SZ that the concept of photographers staging photos is not unique to Gaza, and is not necessarily problematic. "I don't think it's reprehensible when a photographer instructs people to stand here and there with their pots," he said. "As long as it approximates reality." Nevertheless, BILD's report stressed that the photographer in question - Fteiha - is not exactly unbiased in his photojournalism. He posts videos to social media saying "f*** Israel" and works for a news agency that speaks directly to the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has had ties to Hamas. As a result of the investigation, the German Press Agency and Agence France Press told BILD that they will no longer work Fteiha and would carefully check the pictures of other photo reporters as well, whereas Reuters says his photos "meet the standards of accuracy, independence and impartiality." "Despite his bias, his photos are published by major outlets like CNN, BBC, and Reuters," Israel's foreign ministry seethed in its response to the two reports. "With Hamas controlling nearly all media in Gaza, these photographers aren't reporting, they're producing propaganda." "This investigation underscores how Pallywood has gone mainstream with staged images and ideological bias shaping international coverage, while the suffering of Israeli hostages and Hamas atrocities are pushed out of frame," the ministry concluded. The Jerusalem Post watched the video taken from the aid destruction site a few days ago, shared by Al Jazeera Arabic. It is worth noting that the same setting of the women and children with pots and pans is seen in the video, and they are receiving food, so it is possible that the photo by Fteiha was taken before the aid workers arrived. Solve the daily Crossword
Business Mayor
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Mayor
‘These people are disposable': how Russia is using online recruits for a campaign of sabotage in Europe
Serhiy was just about to board a coach bound for Germany when Polish security services detained him at the bus station in the city of Wrocław. In his backpack, the officers found firelighter cubes, a juice bottle filled with paraffin, a lighter, two pocket knives, a mini handsaw and a face mask. Later, when they searched the mobile phone of the 49-year-old Ukrainian refugee, they found a pdf of a Russian-language book called Modern Pyrotechnics. It contained detailed instructions on how to start fires and detonate explosives. Serhiy S – as he is identified in accordance with Polish law on naming criminal suspects – is one of dozens of people who have been rounded up across Europe over the past two years and accused of being foot soldiers in a new front of Russia's war against the west. Serhiy seen in red overalls in court in Wrocław. Photograph: Lina Verschwele/SZ European intelligence agencies say Moscow has launched a campaign of sabotage, arson and disinformation against the continent. Sometimes, it is focused on specific targets related to support for the Ukrainian war effort, but more often it is simply aimed at causing chaos and unease. In Lithuania, an Ikea shop was set on fire; in Britain, seven people were charged over an arson attack on a business with links to Ukraine; in France, five coffins inscribed with the words 'French soldiers in Ukraine' were left under the Eiffel Tower; in Estonia, the car windows of the interior minister and a local journalist were smashed. There have been numerous suspicious fires in Poland, including one that destroyed a huge shopping centre in Warsaw. Taken together, the incidents point to how Russia's intelligence services have moved towards a new kind of attack on the west, one that is dangerous and violent but also piecemeal and hard to prove. On the ground, the acts are carried out by people who are recruited online and often paid in cryptocurrency. Some know exactly what they are doing and why, others do not realise they are ultimately working for Moscow. The professional intelligence officers who direct the operations never need to leave Russian territory. This account of Russia's sabotage offensive is based on thousands of pages of court documents from Britain and Poland, interviews with current and former security and intelligence officials in several European countries and the US, and discussions with people who knew some of the perpetrators. 'It's easier to deal with spies under diplomatic cover or even [deep-cover] illegals,' said one senior European security official. 'This kind of action is becoming dangerous for all of us.' Maxar satellite imagery of the Ikea store in Vilnius, Lithuania, which was set ablaze in an 'act of terrorism' in 2024. Photograph: Maxar/DigitalGlobe/Getty Images Just how aggressive the campaign might become remains a matter of conjecture. Western intelligence officials say that in recent months there has been a lull, perhaps as Vladimir Putin explores the possibility of improved relations with the US under Donald Trump. But before the change of US administration, there were signs that Moscow was raising the stakes ever higher. Intelligence last year about an apparent plot to send exploding parcels to the US, which could have led to a plane crash and mass casualties, caused so much alarm in Washington that top Biden administration security officials called their Russian counterparts to warn them that such an escalation would force the US to respond. They were not sure if the orders had come from the Kremlin or from overenthusiastic mid-level planners. 'We didn't know if Putin had approved it or knew about it,' said a former US security official. In a series of calls, senior Russian officials denied there was any such operation in the works but promised to pass on the message to Putin. The phone calls seemed to put an end to the exploding parcels plan, but the episode left nerves frayed over what lines Russia might be willing to cross in future, and what the consequences might be. 'Their goal is not the same as Islamist jihadists who want as many victims as possible,' said Harrys Puusepp, the head of bureau at Kapo, Estonia's internal security agency. 'But if someone dies, they don't care.' Map Serhiy was born in Odesa in 1974 into a Soviet military family. As he was finishing school, the Soviet Union collapsed and his home city became part of independent Ukraine. The years went by, and Serhiy grew increasingly disdainful of the government in Kyiv, believing it discriminated against Russian speakers like him. His motto, displayed on his Facebook page, was: 'I speak Russian. Only Russian'. After the Maidan revolution of 2014, he spent a lot of time scrolling through pro-Russian news websites. Soon after the full-scale invasion in February 2022, he left a comment under a political video on a Telegram channel, and another commentator, a man called Alexei, messaged him privately to say he agreed with Serhiy's point of view. Alexei said he was a Kyiv-based businessman in the construction sector, and asked a lot of questions about Serhiy's life and work. He made it clear he also hated Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian authorities. In the middle of 2023, scared of being conscripted into the Ukrainian army to fight in a war he did not believe in, Serhiy illegally crossed the border into Moldova. He made his way to Germany, where a former schoolfriend from Odesa told him there was casual work that paid €75 a day. After a few months of doing these odd jobs, his old Telegram buddy Alexei got back in touch from a new account. Alexei said he was now based in the Baltic states and suggested meeting up in Latvia or Lithuania to discuss a business proposal. Serhiy told him it was too far away and too expensive for him to travel, but Alexei offered to pay for the trip and suggested a closer destination – Wrocław in Poland. He transferred about £350 in Ukrainian currency to Serhiy's wife's bank account, and Serhiy bought a bus ticket to Wrocław. He left on 27 January 2024. Soon after Serhiy arrived in Poland, Alexei called him and apologised – something had come up and he was not able to travel. But he could reveal the business proposal: he wanted Serhiy to look for shopping malls and industrial centres in Wrocław and photograph them. If they found a suitable place, Serhiy was to set it ablaze. Alexei would pay him $2,000 upfront, and a further $2,000 on receiving proof of the arson. For Serhiy, who was taking day jobs to keep afloat, it was a huge amount of money. According to the story he later told Polish investigators, he asked no questions about who might want to order such a plan or why. Serhiy paced the streets of Wrocław looking for possible targets. Eventually he settled on a paint wholesaler in an industrial estate on the outskirts of town. He sent photographs of the building to Alexei, who agreed it was an excellent target – near various sensitive infrastructure sites and close to a canal that could be heavily polluted if paint spilled into it. Serhiy bought supplies for starting a fire. But at some point, all alone in Wrocław and realising the seriousness of what he had signed up for, Serhiy got cold feet. He remembered a building near his home in Germany that had burned down, and told his wife to send him a photo of it. Perhaps, he thought, he could send that to Alexei and pass it off as somewhere in Wrocław, to get the money without doing the deed. He decided there would be no arson, on this trip at least, and bought a bus ticket back to Germany. He was arrested just before he boarded the coach. A week after Serhiy was arrested, a message appeared on a small Telegram group with 28 subscribers that shared white supremacist content. It was posted below an image of a mountain range that, if you squinted, appeared to show an image of Adolf Hitler's face. 'Attention! Fight with blacks. We are looking for partisans in Europe,' read the message, in English. 'We are looking for comrades who make arson to the store of black migrants.' The reward was $5,000. Attached was a photograph of the building Serhiy had identified. The account that posted the message was the same one used by 'Alexei', who had told Serhiy he was a construction magnate from Kyiv. Now, the account was posing as a European neo-Nazi. In fact, Polish authorities believe, it was run by a staff officer of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service. Russia's campaign of setting things on fire did not come out of nowhere. Research in the archives of communist security services shows that sabotage in enemy countries was part of the KGB's intelligence doctrine as early as the 1960s, to be launched in times of heightened tension or war. After the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in east Ukraine in 2014, Russian operatives targeted ammunition factories and arms dealers in Europe who supported Ukraine. Unlike much of the current wave of sabotage, those attacks were carefully planned, using trained operatives against specific targets. Many of those who carried it out were from a shadowy GRU unit known as 29155, whose tasks included sabotage and assassinations across Europe. However, their activities were so brazen that they were eventually unmasked. After the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in 2018 with the nerve agent novichok, British authorities – as well as investigative journalists from the outlet Bellingcat – identified the poisoners as 29155 operatives. In response, European countries ordered the expulsion of hundreds of Russian intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover out of embassies. Checking passport databases, Bellingcat was able to identify many other 29155 operatives who had been used on short-term missions, busting their cover and rendering them unable to travel. Then, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there was a new round of diplomatic expulsions. These episodes severely hampered Moscow's ability to operate outside Russia, and spy bosses had to get creative to plug the gaps. First, some of the clean diplomats still abroad were co-opted. 'We saw them tasking ordinary diplomats with intelligence activities, and this is not a phenomenon limited to Estonia,' said Puusepp, in an interview at the domestic security agency's headquarters in Tallinn. Second, Russia activated its network of 'illegals', deep-cover operatives posing as foreigners, whose missions could last decades. Giving them more daring missions meant more risk of capture, and in the year after the invasion of Ukraine, illegals were identified in Slovenia, Norway, Greece and Brazil. Those who did not flee in time were arrested. Third, Russia turned to the services of all kinds of freelancers. In some cases, this meant hiring people with organised crime ties, such as Orlin Roussev, a Bulgarian based in the UK who ran surveillance and other operations for Russia using a group of fellow Bulgarians he called his 'minions', three of whom were found guilty last month at the Old Bailey in London. In addition to using new actors to carry out old tasks, Moscow also launched a campaign of sabotage that was much broader than anything seen before. Unlike the earlier, targeted actions, this wave would be more scattergun and have different goals. One former US intelligence official said that, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Washington had expected to see massive Russian cyber-attacks launched against the west. These attacks largely did not materialise, and one theory is that Moscow went for a more explosive option instead. 'The idea of sabotage was always in the field of vision as a possibility, but it's still very surprising to see it play out,' said the former official. In many cases, it is hard to prove Moscow's involvement beyond reasonable doubt. There have been mixed signals over whether damage to a series of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea was the result of nefarious Russian actions or had more innocuous causes. But even when there is no apparent evidence of foul play, such as in the fire that closed down Heathrow airport last month, there is now inevitable speculation of possible Russian involvement. Substation fire in Hayes, London causes widespread outages and Heathrow airport closure – video 'It creates a kind of fog,' said one senior European security official. 'In the beginning some of these things look natural, but then it happens more and more and you start to wonder. You have cases where there is no proof, but we have strong suspicions.' Many of the same operatives from unit 29155 who have been involved in sabotage operations for more than a decade are part of the new campaign, western officials say. The unit has been folded into a bigger GRU department and is still run by its longstanding chief, Andrei Averyanov. But now, the work on the ground is done by one-time operatives recruited over Telegram, rather than the unit's staff officers, most of whom are no longer able to travel to Europe. And instead of focusing narrowly on specific targets closely related to the Ukraine war, the approach is much broader, targeting shopping centres, warehouses and other civilian infrastructure. 'The strategic aim is to sow discord and insecurity. They are not destroying significant infrastructure. They are concentrating on soft targets that influence a general perception of insecurity in society. This is classic psy-ops,' said Piotr Krawczyk, the former head of Poland's foreign intelligence service. The way Moscow recruits operatives and selects targets varies from country to country. In the Baltic states, the Russian services make use of the extensive family ties of the local Russian-speaking population, according to intelligence officials there. Recruitments are made during visits to Russia, and Telegram is then used for communication, rather than for making the initial contact. The motivating factor is usually either money or blackmail. Puusepp said: 'It's not a question of ideology but of business and relatives inside Russia. When we look at the people, their overall understanding of the world is not about much more than survival.' Elsewhere in Europe, people are recruited over Telegram, without any in-person interaction at all. Some, like Serhiy, initially think they are talking to like-minded friends about a joint business project. Others may think they are working on the orders of white supremacist groups or domestic political actors. Drone image of the Marywilska 44 shopping centre fire in Warsaw, Poland, in May 2024. Photograph: Dariusz Borowicz/Agencja Operatives are recruited via the grey employment groups where immigrants often find casual gig-economy work that pays under the counter. Often, they are people who have operated on the margins of the law for some time, and when the order comes to burn something down, they may think it is part of a criminal dispute rather than intelligence work. Some recruits do have an ideological affinity with Russia, such as Serhiy, who supported Russia's war in Ukraine and longed for his native Odesa to become Russian-controlled. More often, though, there is no ideological component. Last May, Polish authorities arrested a Pole and two Belarusians on suspicion of planning sabotage acts for the Russians inside Poland. All three men had previously fought in Ukraine on the side of Kyiv. A separate group of 16 saboteurs, mostly Ukrainian and Belarusian men, was apprehended in Poland in early 2023 and later sentenced. This group mainly comprised people who had little sympathy for the Kremlin's geopolitical goals but were simply looking to earn money in the gig economy. The recruits were offered tasks in Poland that ranged from posting anti-Nato flyers to installing cameras that would monitor trains with humanitarian and military cargo bound for Ukraine. Payments, made in cryptocurrency, ranged from $5 for putting up a poster to $400 for installing a camera. The group's activities were directed by a man who identified himself only as 'Andrei', and who communicated with two of the group and told them to distribute tasks among the others. One of the defendants, a 20-year-old Belarusian woman who was arrested and convicted with her boyfriend, claimed that neither of them were supporters of Russia's war effort. Her boyfriend, she claimed, would often put up a poster, take a photo to provide proof, and then immediately pull it down. 'He was doing this to earn money for us, because I was spending a lot. He just did it to have some extra cash without thinking of the consequences,' she wrote in a letter to her family after her arrest. 'This is the worst thing to happen to me in my whole life.' In late February, Serhiy was brought into a courtroom in Wrocław, dressed in the red prison overalls reserved for highly dangerous prisoners, his hands and legs in chains. 'The goal of the accused was to lower our morale, to question the effectiveness and competency of our state, and to question our support for Ukraine,' said the judge, Marcin Myczkowski, reading his verdict. Serhiy looked on impassively, giving the occasional sigh, as an interpreter whispered the judge's words into his ear. He had previously agreed a plea bargain with prosecutors in exchange for a three-year sentence but Myczkowski cancelled the deal, claiming it was too lenient. Even though Serhiy had not, in the end, set anything on fire, and was arrested when he was about to board a bus out of the country, Myczkowski handed him an eight-year sentence. In part, the judge said, it was meant as a warning to others – 'a clear and unequivocal signal to you and to all potential candidates that committing such acts is not worthwhile'. For the Russians, the benefit of using one-time operatives is that, if something goes wrong, Moscow can discard them and leave them do their time in prison. No Russian diplomats are working behind the scenes to free Serhiy, and it is highly unlikely that he would be included in any prisoner exchange. Instead, the controllers at GRU headquarters can simply set up new Telegram accounts and start the process again. 'You jail one person and another pops up to take their place. These people are disposable and Moscow doesn't care about them,' said a European security official. The possibility that anyone looking for odd jobs on Telegram could be signing up for Russian intelligence missions sparks surveillance and privacy dilemmas reminiscent of counter-terrorism work, as authorities scramble to catch potential perpetrators before they act. There is another question, too, brought into focus by the alleged aborted plot to send explosive packages to the US last year: what is the endgame? One senior security official said that as Russia increasingly considers Europe a party to the war in Ukraine, the sabotage campaign is only likely to intensify as long as the war goes on. 'They are crossing one red line after another and we don't know how far they will go,' said the official. Additional reporting by Ada Petriczko
Russia Today
12-03-2025
- Health
- Russia Today
German spies hid evidence of Covid origin for years
Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) obtained evidence in the early days of the pandemic that convinced it that Covid-19 originated in a laboratory, Die Zeit and Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspapers reported on Wednesday. Berlin then decided to keep the conclusion secret out of fear of a possible mistake and potential political fallout, the media outlets said, citing their own investigation. The BND dispatched a team of specialists to investigate the origins of the virus in the early weeks of 2020, the report said. They focused on Chinese government agencies and scientific institutions, including the Wuhan laboratory, where they reportedly discovered documents the German media describe as 'fascinating and explosive.' The German intelligence agency's findings reportedly included data on experiments with coronaviruses, as well as a series of unpublished studies from 2019 and 2020, including those dealing with effects of coronaviruses on the human brain. 'The material suggests that an unusually large amount of knowledge about the supposedly novel virus was available in Wuhan at an unusually early stage,' Die Zeit reported. The materials were reportedly evaluated by a team of BND analysts led by a virologist. The team cross-referenced the data with publicly available studies and materials obtained from other nations and concluded 'with 80 to 95% certainty' that Covid 'likely originated in a Chinese laboratory.' The BND reportedly believed that the outbreak was caused by an accident stemming from lax safety rules in the Wuhan lab. The results were presented to former Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, but it was skeptical and decided not to share the information with anyone, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the German parliament, according to the media. Berlin was reportedly afraid of potential complications in relations with Beijing and Washington. The government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which succeeded Merkel's, also reportedly did not find the BND conclusions convincing enough and initially decided to keep them under wraps. It was only in late 2024 that the BND was allowed to share its findings with the CIA and a carefully selected group of scientists, according to the outlets. The CIA said in January 2025 it believed 'with low confidence' that Covid-19 likely originated in a lab. The Chinese government has repeatedly rejected the lab-leak theory. Another major theory suggests that Covid-19 emerged from a natural source, specifically through zoonotic transmission from animals to humans. Following SZ's and Die Zeit's inquiry, Berlin said it would share the BND findings with the German parliament and the WHO and release some materials related to the scientific assessment of the agency's conclusions to the public at some point in the future.
Vox
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Vox
Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime Show was more concerned with Drake than Politics
Since Kendrick Lamar was announced as the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show's headliner last September, music fans have been abuzz with excitement, wondering how the Pulitzer-Prize winner would handle the historic gig — the first for a solo rapper. Fresh off a summer-long beef with Drake that birthed the Grammy-winning diss track 'Not Like Us,' Lamar had the opportunity to put on the pettiest Halftime Show in the telecast's history. By January, he had also been caught up in a defamation lawsuit over 'Not Like Us,' making it unclear whether he'd even be able to perform the song. (He did.) There was also the big question that looms over any televised Lamar performance: what will the socially-conscious rapper have to say, if anything, about the current political climate? In the past, Lamar has taken opportunities on big stages to address hot-button issues and telegraph his own political anxieties. He's invoked police brutality at the BET Awards, and mass incarceration — not to mention his general disillusionment with America — at the Grammys. Out of all the hip-hop acts that could have graced the Halftime Show stage, it seemed like Lamar had been chosen for his combination of showmanship and ability to generate conversation. That said, Donald Trump's recent re-election — and shocking attendance at the Super Bowl; a first for a sitting president — seemed like the ideal backdrop for Lamar's signature provocative imagery and the political side of his catalog, like his 2015 song 'Alright,' which was an anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement. And yet, Lamar had a different objective for the night. After the opening song, 'GNX (Teaser),' Lamar gave the audience a frank memo of what not to expect over the next 12 minutes. 'The revolution 'bout to be televised,' Lamar said while the music cut out. 'You picked the right time but the wrong guy.' It's not exactly a new sentiment if you've been paying attention to Lamar's more recent musical output. On his fifth album, Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers , released in 2022, Lamar tackled society's ills and his own position as a socially conscious rapper, but had more questions and contradictions than answers. Meanwhile, it was hard to find the same political angst that drove 2015's To Pimp A Butterfly on his latest album, GNX , a radio-friendly victory lap following his highly publicized beef with Drake. On the 2021 Baby Keem song, 'Family Ties,' he made his reservations about being seen as a political symbol clear. 'I been ducking the social gimmicks,' he rapped. 'I been ducking the overnight activists / I'm not a trending topic.' Likewise, during Super Bowl LIX, Lamar avoided songs like 'Alright' and 'The Blacker The Berry.' He skipped the sort of anti-establishment messaging that got him lambasted by Fox News anchors in the past. Instead, he opted mostly for songs off of GNX , which he'll tour around the country in April, including 'squabble up,' 'peekaboo,' 'tv off,' and 'luther,' featuring his future tourmate SZA. The pair also performed their 2018 collaboration 'All the Stars' from the Black Panther soundtrack. Inevitably, he performed both of his most popular diss tracks from last summer, 'euphoria' and, after much teasing, 'Not Like Us.' The crowd sang along as he came to the song's most famous and quotable line — 'tryna strike a chord and it's probably a minorrrr.' Lamar also sported a very visible lower-cased 'a' necklace. And Serena Williams, the subject of many a Drake lyric, danced on the field during the performance. In short, the evening's biggest act of daring was aimed at Drake's lawyers, not some larger injustice. Still, the Halftime Show did gesture towards politics. During the opening number, numerous backup dancers emerged from a Buick GNX wearing solid red, white and blue hoodies. The show featured actor Samuel L. Jackson dressed as 'Uncle Sam' in a patriotic suit and top hat. However, it didn't seem like Lamar was trying to articulate a rebuke of our current government or even any sort of message about the climate. Rather, we watched the rapper play, as Jackson called it, 'the American game.' As Lamar maneuvered around the stage, designed as a game of tic-tac-toe, it felt like watching him navigate the social responsibility placed upon him as a Black entertainer and his own desires to sell out a little bit. He also demonstrated what happens when someone in his position falls outside of the lines of respectability and is seen by the wrong audience. Likewise, Jackson showed up several times throughout the medley, acting as both an emcee and Lamar's corporate conscience. The songs he played, while less explicitly political than some in his repertoire, weren't exactly network television-friendly or, better yet, fit for an NFL audience. After Lamar finished performing 'squabble up,' Jackson derided the song as 'too loud, too reckless, too ghetto.' 'Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game?' Jackson asked. 'Then you have got to tighten up!' Lamar then moved into a performance of 'HUMBLE,' his first radio hit following the To Pimp A Butterfly . His dancers, moving like robots, quickly assembled to create an American flag. The internet quickly underscored Lamar's dilemma. Despite the relatively muted political commentary, right-wing pundits, like Eric Daughtery of Florida's Voice and former representative Matt Gaetz, ran to X to decry the performance as containing some sort of extremist, pro-Black agenda. Alt-right commentator Jack Posobiec called Lamar's performance the 'DEI Halftime Show.' Presumably, more offensive soundbites and comments from angry, white MAGA dudes will roll in throughout the week. Lamar's Halftime Show may not have been the direct middle finger to Trump that his fans may have expected or wanted, but he did offer something other artists of his caliber would maybe refrain from doing on such a mainstream stage — examine his own place in American culture. Lamar proved that he can still be an agitator without standing on a cop car or performing in chains. Even at his most palatable, his art will ultimately never be safe. See More: Culture Music Sports Super Bowl
