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  1. #1251
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    Lock lông lock tóc là lock con người




    Germans rushing to the hairdressers'



    Hooray, the bad hair months have come to an end! Hairdressers and barbers, closed since December to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, are reopening.


    It’s a jungle up there: Christian is glad to finally let the staff at "Nikos Friseure" weed the garden.

    Stefan Sorce has brought along some sparkling rosé to mark the occasion. He's a regular at the hair salon "Nikos Friseure" and he's first in line when owner Nikos Kasapidis picks up the scissors again for the first time in two and half months. "It's an honor," says Sorce jovially as he walks into the shop in central Bonn.

    Barbers and hairdressers nationwide have been closed in Germany since December 16, 2020. They were ordered to close by the authorities in their desperation to stem the tide of coronavirus infections. Two weeks ago, they breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that they could open again on March 1. "The day they announced it we had something like 60 phone calls," said Kasapidis. He, his three employees and two apprentices are fully booked until the end of the month.

    Stefan Sorce picked up the phone and called up "Nikos Friseure" to make an appointment as soon as he heard the news. It took less than half an hour to sort out his somewhat graying hair. "It's just a nice feeling," he says, adding that his wife had to help out with the hair trimmer during lockdown. For shop owner Kasapidis, cutting people's hair is like riding a bike: You don't forget how to do it. "I've been doing this for twelve years; two and a half months' break don't make that much difference. No problem," he says.

    Kasapidis (30) opened his own salon at the young age of 26. He made the risky move of taking on two apprentices in August 2020, right in the middle of the crisis. Despite the fact that he has yet to see any of the government aid promised for January and February and had to forfeit his lucrative Christmas trade, Kasapidis remains optimistic, "Luckily, we have managed to get by," he says. Nevertheless, the situation forced him to put his staff on short-time work.


    Melis Düzgün and Joleen Märzhäuser were eagerly nervous in anticipation of getting back to business

    Back to the roots


    His staff are eagerly anxious to get back to business. "It's a bit like my first day at work," says hairdresser Melis Düzgün. "Getting closed down was strange. We had to drop everything all at once." Apprentice Joleen Märzhäuser adds: "I'm nervous because there are a lot of customers coming. But I'm also looking forward to it."

    There is no sign of panic in the salon, though. Kasapidis takes it all in stride. Though, some hairdressers around Germany were offering appointments from midnight onwards, Kasapidis did not see the point. "We'll have enough work in the coming weeks," says Kasapedis, who has brought along some fruit for his staff to keep their energy levels up.

    He expects to be in the shop 70 hours a week in the immediate future." I can't ask my staff to do that but I will be here from 8 am until 8 pm." It's important to look after the regulars. He has an online appointment service but not all the regulars are willing to use it." They get in touch by phone and I can't just tell them that there are no appointments left," he explains.

    Kasapidis had two weeks to get his shop up to speed for the reopening. He says he welcomed the extra time to prepare compared to the first lockdown and reopening last spring. Back then, he and his colleagues were only told a few days before they were allowed to reopen. And some of the measures he introduced back then are still good to go. The salon is big enough to allow for proper distancing and the staff wear masks all the time. Kasapidis has merely added an extra pane of Plexiglas between the basins for hair-washing. "And we open the windows on a regular basis, " he adds.


    After four months, Anna is thrilled beyond words to be able to have her hair done again

    Preparing for the onslaught

    "Nikos Friseure" has always been by appointment only and that's helpful now, because and his employees have to keep close track of all their customers so that they can trace infections if necessary.

    The appointment list filled up quickly, with nearly all slots taken. Within an hour, Kasapidis is on his third customer. His colleague, Anastasia, welcomes the first female customer of the day. Anna has been working in the Russian consulate for two years but hasn't mastered German yet. But that's not a problem for Kasapidis, either. Half Russian, half Greek, he does the simultaneous translation. Anna tells us that she hasn't been to the hairdressers since November. Asked whether she was looking forward to her appointment, Anna cries out and claps her hands.

    "No need for a translation there," laughs Kasapidis.

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  2. #1252
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    Để tóc dài như hippies luôn.

    Bên này hình như cho làm móng tay nhưng không cho cắt tóc. Tay thì thò qua cửa ghi sê, mặt nhìn mặt cầm tay sơn sơn không nói một câu...

  3. #1253
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    Quote Originally Posted by ốc View Post
    Để tóc dài như hippies luôn.

    Bên này hình như cho làm móng tay nhưng không cho cắt tóc. Tay thì thò qua cửa ghi sê, mặt nhìn mặt cầm tay sơn sơn không nói một câu...

    Mỹ thì chơi trội như bộ đội rồi, mỗi tiểu bang một lệ làng.

    "Đôi móng chân tay qua cửa sổ
    Âm thầm trỗi dậy một mùa lây"
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  4. #1254
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    Lộn tiệm rồi, Tô Lâm còn tha bổng




    Media watchdog seeks German investigation of Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi death

    PARIS (Reuters) - Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has accused Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and several top officials of committing crimes against humanity in a criminal complaint filed in Germany.

    The 500-page complaint, filed on Monday with the German Public Prosecutor General in the Karlsruhe federal court, includes allegations of arbitrary detention of more than 30 journalists and the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

    Prince Mohammed has denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s killing. Other Saudi figures named in the RSF filing could not be reached for comment and the Saudi government’s media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    “Those responsible for the persecution of journalists in Saudi Arabia, including the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, must be held accountable for their crimes,” RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in a statement.

    RSF said it filed the lawsuit in Germany because of its principle of universal jurisdiction, allowing its courts to prosecute crimes against humanity committed anywhere, and that other names could be added to the complaint at a later stage.

    The German prosecutor’s office said it had received the complaint and was assessing the legal and factual merits of it.

    Germany’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    The other officials named in the RSF complaint were Saud al-Qahtani, who was seen as the crown prince’s right-hand man; Ahmed Mohammed al-Asiri, a former royal court adviser; Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a general; and Mohammad al-Otaibi, the Saudi Istanbul Consul General at the time of Khashoggi’s murder.

    The filing follows the publishing of a declassified intelligence assessment by the United States last Friday which concluded that Prince Mohammed approved the operation to “kill or capture” Khashoggi.

    Washington also announced visa bans on some Saudis it believes were involved in the killing and imposed sanctions on others.

    Saudi Arabia said it completely rejected “the negative, false and unacceptable” intelligence assessment.

    Reporting by John Irish in Paris and Raya Jalabi in Dubai; additional reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi in Dubai and Riham Alkousaa in Berlin, Writing by Raya Jalabi, Editing by Timothy Heritage, William Maclean


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  5. #1255
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    Nắn gân.




    18.12.2020

    Japan calls on Germany to send warship to East Asia

    Tokyo is building alliances with like-minded nations around the world as it seeks to counter China's aggressive expansionist policies in the Indo-Pacific region.


    /* src.: https://www.dw.com/en/japan-germany-...ges/a-55985940






    March 2, 2021

    German warship to sail through South China Sea, officials say


    BERLIN (Reuters) - A German frigate will set sail for Asia in August and, on its return journey, become the first German warship to cross the South China Sea since 2002, senior government officials in Berlin said on Tuesday.

    The ship will not pass within what officials called the “12-nautical-mile”, officials in the foreign and defence ministries added, in a reference to contested areas in the crowded sea.

    China claims almost all the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, where it has established military outposts on artificial islands.

    The U.S. Navy regularly conducts “freedom of navigation” in which their vessels pass close by to some of these islands, asserting freedom of access to international waterways.

    The United States regularly accuses Beijing of militarizing the South China Sea and trying to intimidate Asian neighbours who might want to exploit its extensive oil and gas reserves.

    Reporting by Sabine Siebold, editing by Thomas Escritt


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  6. #1256
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    Đức chuẩn bị điều tàu chiến ra Biển Đông


    Tư liệu: Khu trục hạm "Baden-Wuertemberg" của Lực lượng hải quân Đức trong Bắc Hải, ngày 12/1/2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer -



    Lần đầu tiên kể từ năm 2002, một tàu khu trục của Đức sẽ đi ngang qua Biển Đông vào mùa hè sắp tới. Tin này đã được các quan chức Đức xác nhận hôm thứ Ba 1 tháng 3.

    Các quan chức bộ quốc phòng và ngoại giao Đức nói với Reuters rằng dự kiến tàu khu trục sẽ lên đường sang châu Á vào tháng 8 năm nay, đi ngang qua Biển Đông trên chặng về của hành trình.

    Được coi như một hoạt động để khẳng định "tự do hàng hải", chuyến hải hành đánh dấu lần đầu tiên trong 19 năm một tàu chiến Đức đi ngang qua khu vực tranh chấp, nơi Trung Quốc tuyên bố thuộc chủ quyền của họ và xây đảo nhân tạo và quân sự hóa các đảo này, chống lại các tuyên bố chủ quyền chồng lấn với Việt Nam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei và Đài Loan.

    Bộ trưởng Quốc phòng Nhật Bản Kishi Nobuo hồi tháng 12 đã mời Đức đưa một tàu hải quân tham gia tập trận với Lực lượng Phòng vệ Nhật Bản, nói rằng việc đi ngang qua tuyến đường biển sẽ hỗ trợ các nỗ lực quốc tế nhằm duy trì quyền qua lại giữa lúc Trung Quốc đang tìm cách bành trướng trong khu vực.

    Hôm thứ Ba, các quan chức Đức nhấn mạnh tàu khu trục của họ sẽ không tiến vào phạm vi "12 hải lý".

    Tin này được tung ra sau những hoạt động tự do hàng hải tương tự của hải quân Hoa Kỳ và hải quân Pháp hồi gần đây, sau khi chính phủ của Tổng thống Biden kêu gọi thành lập một mặt trận đa phương chống lại sự quyết đoán của Bắc Kinh trong khu vực.

    Anh, Úc và Nhật Bản cũng đang lên kế hoạch cho các cuộc tập trận ở Thái Bình Dương trong Biển Đông vào cuối năm nay.

    Hôm thứ Ba, Trung Quốc thề sẽ không để mất “một tấc đất nào” và cam kết sẽ bảo vệ “vùng đất của tổ tiên” trong các vụ tranh chấp trên Biển Đông cũng như ở biên giới với Ấn Độ trên dãy Hy Mã Lạp Sơn. Dù vậy, Bắc Kinh hứa “sẽ không bao giờ xâm chiếm lãnh thổ của các nước khác.

    Tờ Hoàn cầu Thời báo của Đảng Cộng sản Trung Quốc hồi tuần trước cáo buộc Mỹ "tìm cách kiềm hãm Trung Quốc bằng cách tập hợp các đồng minh phương Tây tới Biển Đông". Tờ báo nói gia tăng sự hiện diện của hải quân các nước đồng minh chỉ là vô ích. Tờ báo cảnh báo rằng “Quân đội Giải phóng Nhân dân sẽ được chuẩn bị” sẵn sàng để đối phó.


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  7. #1257
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    Italy First




    Italy 'blocks' AstraZeneca vaccine shipment to Australia




    The Italian government has blocked the export of an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine shipment to Australia.

    The decision affects 250,000 doses of the vaccine produced at an AstraZeneca facility in Italy.

    Italy is the first EU country to use the bloc's new regulations allowing exports to be stopped if the company providing the vaccines has failed to meet its obligations to the EU.

    Australia said losing "one shipment" would not badly affect its rollout.

    The move has been backed by the European Commission, reports say.

    AstraZeneca is on track to provide only 40% of the agreed supply to member states in the first three months of the year. It has cited production problems for the shortfall.

    In January, then Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte described delays in vaccine supplies by both AstraZeneca and Pfizer as "unacceptable" and accused the companies of violating their contracts.

    The EU has been widely criticised for the slow pace of its vaccination programme.

    Under the EU vaccine scheme, which was established in June last year, the bloc has negotiated the purchase of vaccines on behalf of member states.

    There has been no official comment on the Italian move by the EU or AstraZeneca.

    What does Italy say?


    The Italian government approached the European Commission last week to say that it was its intention to block the shipment.

    In a statement on Thursday, the foreign ministry explained the move, saying it had received the request for authorisation on 24 February.

    It said that previous requests had been given the green light as they included limited numbers of samples for scientific research, but the latest one - being much larger, for more than 250,000 doses - was rejected.

    It explained the move by saying that Australia was not on a list of "vulnerable" countries, that there was a permanent shortage of vaccines in the EU and Italy, and that the number of doses was high compared with the amount given to Italy and to the EU as a whole.

    What does Australia say?

    Australia said it had already received a shipment of 300,000 doses and planned to begin local production next month.

    "Domestic production starts with 1 million [doses] per week of deliveries from late March and is on track," said Health Minister Greg Hunt.

    "This [Italy] shipment was not factored into our distribution plan for coming weeks."


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  8. #1258
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    Thâm cung bí sử.




    Meghan and Harry on racism in UK royal family, suicidal thoughts and walking away

    LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan spoke to Oprah Winfrey in an interview aired on U.S. broadcaster CBS.

    Following are key quotes:

    Meghan, on son Archie not being a prince or receiving a title:

    “They didn’t want him to be a prince or princess, not knowing what the gender would be, which would be different from protocol, and (said) that he wasn’t going to receive security.

    “In those months when I was pregnant ... we have in tandem the conversation of, you won’t be given security, not gonna be given a title and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”

    Meghan declined to name who expressed those concerns: “I think that would be very damaging to them. That was relayed to me from Harry those were conversations that family had with him.”

    Harry, asked about the issue: “That conversation, I’m never going to share. But at the time, it was awkward. I was a bit shocked.”

    “That was right at the beginning when she wasn’t going to get security, when members of my family were suggesting that she carries on acting because there’s not enough money to pay for her, and all this sort of stuff. There were some real obvious signs, before we even got married, that this was going to be really hard.”

    Meghan, on considering suicide:

    “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he (Harry) just cradled me.”

    She said she went to senior people in the institution to ask for help.

    “I went to the institution and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help ... And I was told that I couldn’t, that it wouldn’t be good for the institution.

    “I remember this conversation like it was yesterday, because they said, my heart goes out to you because I see how bad it is, but there’s nothing we can do to protect you because you’re not a paid employee of the institution.

    “This wasn’t a choice. This was emails and begging for help, saying very specifically I am concerned for my mental welfare.”

    Asked if she thinking of harming herself, or having suicidal thoughts, she said:

    “Yes. This was very, very clear ... and very scary.”

    Harry, asked whether he told his family about his plans to step away from his royal roles and about a newspaper story that they had “blindsided” the queen with their decision:

    “I’ve never blindsided my grandmother, I have too much respect for her.”

    Asked where the story came from, he said: “I’d hazard a guess that it probably could have come from within the institution.”

    “I had three conversations with my grandmother, and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls. And then he said, can you put this all in writing?”

    Asked why Prince Charles had stopped taking his calls:

    “By that point I took matters into my own hands, it was like, I needed to do this for my family. This is not a surprise to anybody. It’s really sad that it’s got to this point, but I’ve got to do something for my own mental health, my wife’s and for Archie’s as well.”

    Harry, on media behaviour echoing that his mother Princess Diana faced before her death in a Paris car crash in 1997:

    “My biggest concern was history repeating itself, and I’ve said that before on numerous occasions, very publicly. And what I was seeing was history repeating itself, but more perhaps more definitely far more dangerous because then you add race in, and you add social media and when I’m talking about history repeating itself I’m talking about my mother.”

    Harry, asked what his mother would say about his decision to step away from his royal role:

    “I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out and very sad. But ultimately, all she’s ever wanted is for us to be happy.”

    Meghan, on a newspaper story that she made Prince William’s wife Kate cry over flower girls’ dresses before Meghan and Harry’s wedding:

    “The narrative with Kate, which didn’t happen, was really, really difficult and something that I think that’s when everything changed really.”

    Asked if she made Kate cry: “The reverse happened. A few days before the wedding she was upset about something, pertaining to ... the flower girl dresses, and it made me cry. And it really hurt my feelings.”

    “There wasn’t a confrontation and ... I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that because she apologised, and I forgiven her. What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn’t do, but that happened to me.”

    “I’m not sharing that piece about Kate in any way to be disparaging to her.”

    Meghan, asked if she was silent or had been silenced:

    “The latter. Everyone in my world was given a very clear directive from the moment the world knew Harry and I were dating to always say no comment.”

    Meghan said she believed she was being protected by the royal institution.

    “It was only once we were married and everything started to really worsen that I came to understand that not only was I not being protected but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family. But they weren’t willing to tell the truth to protect me and my husband.”

    Asked if she was not supported by the powers that be, she said: “There’s the family, and then there’s the people that are running the institution, those are two separate things and it’s important to be able to compartmentalise that because the queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me.”

    Harry, asked whether he would have stepped away from the royal family if it had not been for Meghan:

    “The answer to your question is no ... I wouldn’t have been able to, because I myself was trapped.

    “I was trapped but I didn’t know I was trapped. Like the rest of my family are, my father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave and I have huge compassion for that.”

    “It’s a very trapping environment that a lot of them are stuck in. I didn’t have anyone to turn to.

    “For the family they very much have this mentality of ‘This is just how it is, this is how it’s meant to be, you can’t change it, we’ve all been through it.

    “What was different for me was the race element, because now it wasn’t just about her. It was about what she represented.”

    Harry, on the royal family failing to speak out about the racist articles written about Meghan:

    “The saddest parts I guess was over 70 members of parliament, female members of parliament, ... came out and called out the colonial undertones of articles and headlines written about Megan, yet no one from my family ever said anything over those three years.”

    “That hurts, but I also am acutely aware of where my family stand and how scared they are of the tabloids turning on them.”

    Harry, asked about his relationship with elder brother Prince William:

    “Much will continue to be said about that ... as I said before, you know, I love William to bits, he’s my brother, we’ve been through hell together and we have a shared experience. But we’re on different paths.”

    “The relationship is space at the moment, and you know time heals all things, hopefully.”

    Harry, asked if Meghan had in some way saved him from a trapped royal life:

    “Without question, there was other forces at play, I think throughout this whole process. So, yeah, she did without question, she saved (me).”

    Meghan, on allegations she had manipulated the whole situation:

    “Can you imagine how little sense that makes? I left my career, my life, I left everything because I love him, and our plan was to do this forever.”

    Meghan, about her wedding day:

    “It was like having an out-of-body experience ... I think we were both really aware, even in advance of that, this wasn’t our day, this was the day that was planned for the world.”

    Meghan, on marrying into the royal family:

    “I will say I went into it naively because I didn’t grow up knowing much about the royal family. I didn’t fully understand what the job was.”

    Reporting by Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Jane Wardell

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  9. #1259
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    Cyber threat looms large over German election

    Whether hacking attacks or disinformation campaigns, online meddling could sway public opinion and influence the outcome of the September vote, experts warn. Recent incidents suggest that the threat is real.



    When Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) met online to elect a new party leadership in January, hackers carried out a series of massive attacks aimed at throwing the summit into chaos. The attacks picked up speed every time delegates were about to vote.

    According to CDU spokespeople, the assailants, operating mostly from abroad, bombarded the party's website with internet traffic to overwhelm its server. At some point, they succeeded. The site collapsed and the livestream of the event cut out.

    In the end, the CDU managed to push the intruders out: The party's technical staff got the website back up by blocking access from outside Germany and specific locations inside the country. Meanwhile, undeterred by the attacks, delegates elected a new party leader through a voting system hosted on a separate server — a safeguard that had been set up to fend off cyberintruders.


    The digital CDU party conference in January was attacked by hackers

    Yet the thwarted attack illustrates the threat of online meddling that looms over Germany's upcoming election campaign.

    As Europe's largest economy heads into a string of regional votes that will culminate in a federal election in September, security experts and lawmakers have warned in various interviews that digital risks are on the rise.

    "The threat level remains persistently high," said a spokeswoman for the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Germany's cybersecurity authority.

    The BSI has observed a consistent increase in hacking attacks and online data breaches, she said. Both actions "could be used by potential attackers to influence the upcoming elections this year."

    US technology giant Microsoft, which advises German political parties on how to protect their election campaigns against cyberattacks, warns that malicious actors have diversified their strategies: They increasingly use more than one cyberweapon in their attacks, making it harder to counter them.

    "Such hybrid attacks are what particularly worry us and others in the tech industry," said Jan Neutze, who leads the company's Defending Democracy Program.

    A threefold menace

    To better understand the cyber threat hanging over Germany's election, it helps to break it down into three categories.

    First, there is hacking: the gaining of unauthorized access to data in a system or computer. As coronavirus restrictions will likely move campaigning from the streets to the internet, hackers could infiltrate the parties' networks and disrupt campaign events with tactics similar to those deployed during the CDU summit.

    Intruders might even try to sabotage the actual vote on election night, September 26, by hacking into the software used to count votes or into the program officials use to report early results.

    Germany's BSI said it was working with authorities and candidates to help them shield themselves from such attacks.

    But those security measures will not help counter what's considered the second key cyber threat: misleading or false information that is spread to manipulate how voters think or behave.

    The disinformation threat

    Tankred Schipanski, a member of parliament and the digital policy spokesperson for Merkel's conservative bloc, described disinformation campaigns as "our greatest challenge." The representative added that such campaigns are "often organized and financed abroad but spread thanks to the help of domestic actors like the Alternative for Germany," Germany's far-right party known by its acronym, AfD.

    Social scientists found that false information criminalizing refugees that spread before the last federal election in 2017 drove voters to the AfD.

    This year, AfD officials have already tried to cast doubt on the upcoming vote by spreading debunked allegations that mail-in ballots could easily be manipulated — a move that takes inspiration from Donald Trump's campaign to discredit postal voting.

    The far-right German party, whose voters traditionally prefer casting ballots in person, have decried attempts to make postal voting easier during the coronavirus pandemic. Such amendments, they argue, would be introduced specifically to harm the AfD.

    Similar disinformation campaigns have popped up around the world. They are so numerous and sophisticated that experts have coined the term "infodemic."

    In December, US tech giant Facebook shut down 17 coordinated large-scale efforts on its platforms, a record number. One targeted users in Germany, although it was unrelated to the elections.

    In late February, a Facebook spokeswoman said the company, which has over 43 million users in Germany, had "not seen evidence of ... operations targeting the German election" but added that the company is "staying vigilant" — not least because of therise of new deepfake technology that lets users produce realistic fake videos in which people appear to do or say things they never did.

    Hybrid attacks

    Then there is a third kind of cyberthreat looming over the election: complex operations known as "hybrid attacks." These combine hacking with the placement of distorted information, and they often start with intruders breaking into the accounts of political decision-makers or their confidants by masquerading as trusted contacts.

    Such phishing attempts have become more frequent and professional. The majority detected by Microsoft could be traced back to Russia and China, but also North Korea and Iran. "It is legitimate to say that actors from those countries have both the capabilities and, at least in part, a geopolitical interest to become active around the German federal elections too," Neutze pointed out.

    After the hacking, damaging material obtained is put online, where it takes on a life of its own.

    Users who are unaware of the material's origin share it on social media or messenger services. Once it reaches a certain number of people, it tends to be picked up by political players with a larger following. They, in turn, are quoted by professional journalists, who bring the issue to the forefront of public debate.

    What makes countering such hybrid campaigns so difficult is that the leaked material is often not false per se but distorted or deliberately taken out of context to inflict harm.

    Experts therefore speak of "malinformation" rather than "disinformation.” They say boosting digital media literacy among social media users is key to helping them recognize information designed to deceive.

    Germany, however, has missed several chances to build such resilience among its population of 83 million over the past ten years, said Manuel Höferlin, a member of parliament for the opposition Free Democrats and the party's digital policy spokesperson.

    "That is a huge failure," he added.


    Germany has strict rules and restrictions for election campaigning in the offline world

    No rules for online campaigning

    What complicates the situation further is that even though social media companies have rules for their platforms, political online advertising remains, in effect, unregulated in Germany.

    In the offline world, the country has strict rules and restrictions for election campaigning, like limiting the time campaign billboards can stay up or restricting time slots for campaign ads on TV — but no such restrictions have been put in place for online campaigning.

    The European Union has drafted proposals to regulate digital campaigning, but it will take years for them to be implemented, and Berlin has run out of time to come up with its own national rulebook.

    Behind closed doors, talks are being held over whether the country's parties could agree on a voluntary code of conduct for the upcoming online campaign. It could include a deal that would oblige them to mark online campaign advertising, or ban buying followers or likes.

    A decision could be made in the coming weeks, according to an official involved in the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    "And if some parties refuse to participate, that in itself would be telling," the official said.

    /* src.: https://www.dw.com/en/cyber-threat-l...ion/a-56775960
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