Pakistan's ISI PR chief gets trolled for posting doctored video of retired IAF officer

Agencies
July 29, 2019

Islamabad, Jul 29: Pakistan's Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations, Asif Ghafoor, attracted ridicule after posting a doctored video of war hero and retired IAF Air Marshal, Denzil Keelor on Sunday.

Ghafoor shared a video of Keelor on his Twitter account, claiming that the war veteran was talking about the "Indian failure" during the dogfight between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on 27 February this year, just a day after the Balakot airstrikes.

Netizens were quick to point out that the video was recorded in 2015, approximately four years before the Balakot strikes.

In fact, the interview titled "Nehru lost India the war: Air Marshal Denzil Keelor speaks about India's battle losses" was posted by Wilderness Films India on 9 August, 2015, on the video-sharing website, YouTube. The former Air Marshal was invited by the production house for a talk on the wars of 1962 and 1965, according to its description.

Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman's clip — which was released by the Pakistani military — can be seen on the top right of the screen in the video posted by Ghafoor. The DG ISPR's doctored video is interspersed with visuals of a crashed plane.

Twitterati strongly reacted to Ghafoor's post, with many poking fun at his gaffe.

"You leave no stone unturned to advertise your incurable 'foot in mouth' disease. At your level, you should refrain from peddling amateurish morphed videos that make you a laughing stock on global platform. Kindly get a better video editor who bothers to edit out the giveaways," a Twitter user @Shonkho wrote.

Falling short of an apology, Ghafoor later acknowledged that the Keelor clip shared by him was indeed doctored.

The DG ISPR is yet to delete the video or formally apologise for his misstep.

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June 1,2020

Washington, Jun 1: As protesters gathered outside the White House on Friday night in Washington DC, US President Donald Trump was briefly taken to the White House underground bunker, The New York Times reported citing a person having firsthand knowledge about the incident.

Trump was there for less than an hour before being brought upstairs. After hundreds of people surged towards the White House on Friday, Secret Service and the United States Park Police officers sought to block them.

Trump's team was surprised by the protests that were witnessed outside the White House on Friday night, according to the US daily. It is, however, unclear if Melania Trump and Barron Trump were also taken down with him.

in response to the continuing protests against the death of African-American man George Floyd in police custody.

National Guard members have been activated in 15 states and Washington, DC with another 2,000 prepared to activate if needed.

Demonstrators across the United States have been protesting since May 25, when George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, died under the police custody in the city of Minneapolis.

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News Network
March 25,2020

London, Mar 25: Prince Charles on Wednesday has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and is working from home with mild symptoms, according to UK media.
A Clarence House spokesperson said the Prince of Wales was "displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual", the Telegraph UK reported.
"He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual," the spokesperson added.
In accordance with the government and medical advice, the 71-year old heir to the British throne and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are now self-isolating at their home in Scotland.
The Duchess of Cornwall has also been tested but does not have the virus.
The tests were carried out by the NHS in Aberdeenshire where they met the criteria required for testing.
"It is not possible to ascertain from whom the Prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks," the statement further said.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Sydney, Jul 28: Nearly 3 billion koalas, kangaroos and other native Australian animals were killed or displaced by bushfires in 2019 and 2020, a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Tuesday, triple the group's earlier estimates.

Some 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs were impacted by the country's worst bushfires in decades, the WWF said.

When the fires were still blazing, the WWF estimated the number of affected animals at 1.25 billion. The fires destroyed more than 11 million hectares (37 million acres) across the Australian southeast, equal to about half the area of the United Kingdom.

"This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history," said WWF-Australia Chief Executive Officer Dermot O'Gorman in a statement.

The project leader Lily Van Eeden, from the University of Sydney, said the research was the first continent-wide analysis of animals impacted by the bushfires, and "other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere".

The total number included animals which were displaced because of destroyed habitats and now faced lack of food and shelter or the prospect of moving to habitat that was already occupied.

The main reason for raising the number of animal casualties was that researchers had now assessed the total affected area, rather than focusing on the most affected states, they said.

After years of drought made the Australian bush unusually dry, the country battled one of its worst bushfire seasons ever from September 2019 to March 2020, resulting in 34 human deaths and nearly 3,000 homes lost.

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