Culture
Friday 2 June 2023
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![Global Times]()
Global Times
State backed media
“Stand-up comedy is known as having a lot of satire, where a lot of people or events are joked about; however, these jokes must have limits, even in the US, the home of stand-up comedy. At the Academy Awards ceremony in 2022, when Will Smith heard stand-up comedian Chris Rock mock his wife's hair loss, Smith was so irritated that he went up on stage and slapped Rock in the face.”
Read more...The Will Smith-Chris Rock incident was personal and resolved without state involvement. That is drastically different from the consequences for Chinese comedian Li Haoshi, arrested and facing criminal charges due to the state censorship. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
Russian president
“We relied not just on the Russian-speaking population there [in Ukraine] – the whole country is Russian-speaking, as a matter of fact.”
Read more...One-third to one-half of Ukrainians speak Russian at home, and about 9.9%-19% consider Russian their native language. -
![Patriarch Kirill]()
Patriarch Kirill
Head of the Russian Orthodox Church
“This is one nation that came out of the Kyiv Baptismal font, but a very large nation.”
Read more...The religious leader, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, echoes Kremlin claims that Ukraine is not really a separate country from Russia. -
![Maria Zakharova]()
Maria Zakharova
Spokesperson, Russian Foreign Ministry
"Adolf (Hitler) would be proud of you (Prime Minister of Estonia). Without you, it would be much more difficult to prove the dehumanization of the collective West. Estonia for Estonians, right?"
Read more...The Estonian government has set up Estonian language courses for refugees from Ukraine as part of an aid program that includes housing, employment, health insurance, and the right to study. -
![Andrew Tate]()
Andrew Tate
Social media influencer
“Russian advertisement depicts Putin as Santa Claus, using magic to save a child from having gay dads, wearing pink and LGBT indoctrination. Russia believes the proxy war against NATO is necessary to preserve Christian values and fight satanism which controls the West.”
Source: Twitter, December 27, 2022Read more...The post glorifies Russia’s legalized criminalization of, and discrimination against, LGBTQ+ people. -
![Wang Wenbin]()
Wang Wenbin
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson
"The so-called [U.N.] assessment is orchestrated and produced by the U.S. and some Western forces and is completely illegal, null and void.
Read more...The long-delayed U.N. report catalogued evidence of dehumanizing abuse against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Spokesman, Russian President Vladimir Putin
“In fact, there are questions for Sokhnut from the point of view of compliance with Russian law, and there is no need to politicize this situation and project this situation onto the entire complex of Russian-Israeli relations.”
Read more...Moscow is moving to shutter the Jewish Agency for Israel, which serves the Jewish diaspora in Russia. -
![Wang Wenbin]()
Wang Wenbin
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman
“…[W]hen he (the 14th Dalai Lama) was abroad, he took the liberty of declaring a child as the reincarnation of the Panchen Erdeni … to carry out anti-China separatist political hype to the detriment of religious rituals…”
Read more...The Dalai Lama has the authority to choose the reincarnated Panchen Lama. Beijing has repeatedly violated and manipulated the rituals of Tibetan Buddhism. -
![RIA Novosti]()
RIA Novosti
Russian state news agency
“Russian muftis expressed support for the special operation in Ukraine and called it a forced preventive defensive measure, ‘based on the Holy Quran’.”
Read more...Russia’s war in Ukraine is neither ‘preventative’ nor ‘defensive.’ The Kremlin first invaded in 2014 and launched an all-out attack on February 24, 2022. -
![Hossein Amir-Abdollahian]()
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
Iran's Foreign Minister
“440 of the personnel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are women who play a key role in political, legal, international, and cultural areas.”
Source: Iran Press news agency, January 25, 2022Read more...Iran has no female ambassadors. The majority of women serving in Iran’s foreign ministry are tasked with low-level clerical and office assistant positions. -
![China Global Television Network]()
China Global Television Network
“U.S. residents: China is doing a great job in equitable [wealth] distribution.”
Read more...The jury is still out on whether China will manage to narrow its massive divide in wealth equality. -
![RT (Russia Today)/ Brendan Heard]()
RT (Russia Today)/ Brendan Heard
"Melting statues to create modern art is a sign America hates its own history & no different from ISIS destroying Palmyra."
Read more...Removing U.S. monuments to an era of slavery and racism is nothing like Islamic State’s senseless destruction at the ancient world heritage site in Syria.
