Tag: CNN

  • ARY News paid Rs1 million to forensics firm to check Saqib Nisar’s audio: Dawn

    ARY News paid Rs1 million to forensics firm to check Saqib Nisar’s audio: Dawn

    Primeau Forensics, the United States of America’s (USA) forensic audit company, confirmed on Wednesday that inspected the leaked audiotape of former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar forwarded by a private news channel of Pakistan, ARY News, reports Dawn.

    “It was a specific thing that we did for our client and we are not discussing it with anyone,” a company representative told Dawn. “We have no press release.”

    He said the client, ARY News, had the report, and “only they can share the details with others”.

    ARY asks for forensic audit:

    “According to ARY News, the audit of this 45-second file showed two reverberences in the voice as the person spoke from two different locations. The voice was clearer during the last 20 seconds as it came from a closer range.”

    “ARY News claimed that when it asked Primeau Forensics if the recording was of the original conversation or came from an edited tape, the company said the two parts of 20 and 25 seconds each were recorded in a different environment.”

    “Primeau Forensics told ARY News that it believed the unknown Fact Focus clip was generated from at least two different sources”.

    “They observed two different reverberences, indicating that the first portion of the audio was likely recorded in a different environment than the second portion”.

    Primeau Forensics, an audio-video image forensic expert- has more than 30 years of experience in the field. As per their official website, their experts have processed over 5,000 audio, video, and image forensic investigations and provided expert testimony in over 500 cases in local, state, and federal courts.

    ARY News claimed that it had paid Rs1 million for the audit.

    The US-based company has worked for attorney generals of multiple US States, CNN, AP, and other major organisations. ARY News claimed that it had paid Rs1 million for the audit.

    ‘Please run the news in UK/USA. Only in Pakistan, these news channels can lie & defame’: Ahmed Noorani

    Ahmed Noorani, the journalist who broke the news of the leaked audio of Saqib Nisar, tweeted, “Anxiously waiting for the ARY to air news against me and my expose of Saqib Nisar audio in UK & USA so I can send a legal notice & proceed against it.”

    “I am disappointed so far. Please, run the news in UK/USA. Only in Pakistan, these news channels can lie & defame. Stop being cowards.”

    Leaked audio of Saqib Nisar:

    In November, leaked audio of a conversation allegedly claimed that Saqib Nisar was the person who passed on the directions of handing down conviction to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Mian Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz only because the “institutions” wanted the former prime minister penalised in order to bring ahead Imran Khan.

    As per the leaked audio, reported by Ahmed Noorani for Fact Focus, Chief Justice Nisar instructed that Mian Sahib (Nawaz Sharif) and his daughter (Maryam Nawaz) must be sentenced even though it is unfair.

    “Whether it is fair or not, it has to be done,” he conveyed to the person on the other end. “Regardless of the merit, we will have to do it (sentence Nawaz Sharif), and even to his daughter,” said Justice Nisar.

    Saqib Nisar denies the audio clip, says never contacted any judge

    While speaking to Fact Focus, Justice Saqib Nisar said that he never contacted any judge of accountability court to order him to pass any verdict against Nawaz Sharif or his daughter. “Why I would do that,” Saqib Nisar questioned adding, “I have no grudges against Mian Nawaz Sharif.” He said that no one from the Pakistan Army or the ISI ever contacted him or pressured him on this count.

    Samaa News claims CJP Nisar’s leaked audio ‘pieced together’

    Later, Samaa TV, a private news channel ran a news story and claimed that the former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar’s clip appears to be pieced together from two separate speeches of former CJP.

  • Chinese man arrested for nine days for sharing a meme

    Chinese man arrested for nine days for sharing a meme

    A man in China was detained for nine days after sharing a meme to a group chat that local police deemed offensive. His arrest has gone viral on Chinese social media, CNN reported.

    The man, identified only by his surname Li, allegedly shared the meme on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, complaining about local coronavirus prevention and control measures late last month, the report said citing authorities and state media.

    Police in Qingtongxia city in the Ningxia region posted a screenshot of Li’s text exchange on Chinese social media but later removed the post.
    State-run outlet The Paper reported more details of the incident that has shocked people in China, with a related hashtag garnering 170 million views.

    Many protested against Li’s punishment, arguing that a meme hardly justified arrest by the police, a CNN report said.

    According to The Paper, Li sent a meme showing a dog in a police hat, holding a police badge and pointing at the camera. It’s a common image that has been used widely online before, with different variations, sometimes including a cat or cartoon character in police hat.

  • ‘US clueless and in state of shock over Taliban takeover’: PM Khan

    ‘US clueless and in state of shock over Taliban takeover’: PM Khan

    Prime Minister Imran Khan, while speaking with CNN journalist Becky Anderson, said the best way forward for peace and stability in Afghanistan is to engage with the Taliban and incentivise them on issues such as women’s rights and inclusive government.

    “The Taliban hold all of Afghanistan and if they can sort of now work towards an inclusive government, get all the factions together, Afghanistan could have peace after 40 years. But if it goes wrong and which is what we are really worried about, it could go to chaos. The biggest humanitarian crisis, a huge refugee problem,” Khan said.

    “No puppet government in Afghanistan is supported by the people,” he said. “So rather than sitting here and thinking that we can control them, we should incentivise them. Because Afghanistan, this current government, clearly feels that without international aid and help, they will not be able to stop this crisis. So we should push them in the right direction.”

    “Our intelligence agencies told us that the Taliban would not be able to take over all of Afghanistan, and if they tried to take Afghanistan militarily, there would be a protracted civil war, which is what we were scared of because we are the ones who would suffer the most,” Khan said. Now, he said, the world should “give them time” to form a legitimate government and make good on their promises.

    PM Khan commenting on women’s rights in Afghanistan said, “I feel very strongly that it is a mistake to think that someone from the outside will give Afghan women their rights [because] Afghan women are strong. Give them time, and they will get their rights.”

    “Women should have the ability in society to fulfil their potential in life [but] you cannot impose women’s rights in Afghanistan from abroad,” said Khan.

    When questioned about the decision of the United States (US) and NATO forces to withdraw from Afghanistan, PM Khan said that the “US should have attempted a political settlement with the Taliban from a position of strength.”

    “Just because we sided with the US, we became an ally of the US after 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan. The suffering this country went through with at one point there were 50 militant groups attacking our government … on top of it, they must also know there were 480 drone attacks by the US in Pakistan,” he said.

    On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US would reassess its ties with Pakistan following the withdrawal. He told Congress during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that Pakistan has a “multiplicity of interests some that are in conflict with ours”.

    “It is one that is involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan, it’s one that’s involved harbouring members of the Taliban … It is one that’s also involved in different points cooperation with us on counterterrorism,” Blinken said, Reuters reported.

    Khan called such comments “ignorant”, telling CNN: “I have never heard such ignorance.”

    “I cannot destroy my country to fight someone else’s war,” he said. “My responsibility would have been to the people of my country.”

    PM Khan also said that he hasn’t met President Joe Biden after the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

    “He did not call as he is a busy man, but our relationship with the US is not just dependent on a phone call, it needs to be a multidimensional relationship,” remarked Khan.

  • Get vaccinated, save your job: CNN fires unvaccinated employees

    American news channel CNN fired three employees for entering its New York headquarters without getting a Corona vaccination.

    CNN Cheif Jeff Zucker sent a memo to its employees saying that vaccination was necessary and no negligence would be tolerated.

    “All three have been terminated. Let me be clear — we have a zero-tolerance policy on this,” added the memo. “You need to be vaccinated to come to the office. And you need to be vaccinated to work in the field, with other employees, regardless of whether you enter an office or not. Period.”

    The United States (US) is one of the world’s most affected countries by the Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 30 million people infected and more than 600,000 dead.

    Vaccination is mandatory to control the virus worldwide. 

    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga lashes out at Pakistan for not speaking up for Uyghur Muslims
    
			
    CNN’s Senior Global Affairs Analyst and anchorperson Bianna Golodryga who earlier labelled Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi “anti-Semitic” after she interviewed him on the ongoing violence in Gaza has now called out Pakistanis for not speaking up for Uyghur Muslims. 
    

    Sharing a news story by Vice media about the crackdown by Pakistan on Uyghur Muslims who fled China, Bianna wrote: “Even though Pakistan is the only country in the world created as a Muslim nation, the promise of Chinese money seemingly overpowers the desires to stop what is happening to Uyghur Muslims.”
    

    

    


    

    

    

    Born in 1978, Bianna Vitalievna Golodryga is a senior global affairs analyst at CNN. She has previously served in Yahoo! News, ABC Network, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, and CBS.  
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Who is Bianna Golodryga?
    
			
    Who is Bianna Golodryga?
    
			
    Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s recent remarks on Israel got him under fire as CNN presenter Bianna Golodrya accused him of publicly expressing anti-Semitic remarks.
    

    Who is Bianna Golodrya?
    

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is optimze-cnn-1-1024x1024.jpg
    

    Born in 1978, Bianna Vitalievna Golodryga is a senior global affairs analyst at CNN. She has previously served in Yahoo! News, ABC Network, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, and CBS.
    

    

    

    The forty-two-year-old anchor is the second wife of Peter R Orszag  who is a former Director of Management and Budget for Obama Administration. The couple have two children together. 
    

    

    

    Born to a Jewish family from the Soviet Republic of Moldova, Golodryga’s parents migrated to Houston as political refugees with no more than $150 in their pockets.
    

    

    The anchor often boasts about attending High School for Performing Visual Arts in Houston because of the fact that the music sensation Beyoncé Knowles also graduated from there. 
    

    

    After completing her undergraduate degree in Russian/European affairs from the University of Texas, Golodryga began her as a producer for CNBC in 2001. One of her notable initial projects include live coverage of the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks.
    

    

    In 2015, Golodryga was chosen by Hillary Clinton to conduct her first interview as a presidential candidate. Unfortunately, Clinton’s staff confused “Bianna” with “Brianna” which ended up with the golden opportunity being allocated to fellow CNN anchor Brianna Keilar instead of Golodryga.
    

    

    As Golodryga gained fame after being listed as one of the top journalists under 30 in 2004, she also went through various controversies. She was convicted of driving-under-influence in early 2000. Police records confirm that Golodryga was given a 30-day jail sentence which was later dismissed.
    

    

    Fluent in both Russian and English, the anchor serves as a member of Council on Foreign Relations and has a net worth of roughly $3 million.
    

    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    SMQ labelled ‘anti-Semitic’ by CNN host
    
			
    CNN’s Senior Global Affairs Analyst and anchorperson Bianna Golodryga has labelled Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi “anti-Semitic” after she interviewed him on the ongoing violence in Gaza. 
    

    

    


    

    

    

    Qureshi, who had appeared on Bianna’s show Thursday night, stated that the “tide was turning” against Israel as it was losing the media war despite its connections. The foreign minister had lashed out at Israel for its state-sanctioned massacre in Gaza, where nearly 250 Palestinian men, women and children have been killed in less than two weeks.
    

    


    

     
    

    The minister during the show had said a ceasefire was inevitable since Israel “is losing out”.
    

    When Golodryga asked Qureshi to explain Israel’s “connections”, Qureshi had said: “Deep pockets.”
    

    Golodryga further asked him to explain his point of view on the situation, to which Qureshi said: “They are very influential people, I mean they control media.” 
    

    In response to this, the CNN journalist labelled him anti-Semitic.
    

    “The point is, they have a lot of influence, and they get a lot of coverage. What’s balanced that is the citizen journalist who has been reporting, sharing video clips, and that has jolted people and woken up people…people who were sitting on the fence are today, speaking up,” added Qureshi. 
    

    Golodryga further stressed on the “anti-Semitic talk and rhetoric”. She stated that someone like Qureshi, who is in a powerful position, should say that’s wrong.
    

    Antisemitism is generally considered to be a form of racism and is defined as “hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews”.
    

    When Qureshi was talking about the heavy Palestinian casualties as a result of Israeli airstrikes, she urged him to be objective and also focus on Israeli casualties caused by Hamas rockets.
    

    After two weeks of violent attacks, Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire early on Friday. 
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Cher shares motivation behind freeing world’s ‘loneliest elephant’
    
			
    Cher shares motivation behind freeing world’s ‘loneliest elephant’
    
			
    American pop singer Cher opened up and revealed how she ended up campaigning for and working towards freeing the ‘world’s loneliest elephant’ Kaavan.
    

    In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Cher said, “I didn’t plan to at all. These kids on my Twitter feed started sending this thing and it was ‘Free Kaavan’, and I thought if I will not answer, they’ll stop but they didn’t and it was in Pakistan and then I thought that I’m just an entertainer, how am I gonna go to Pakistan and free an elephant. “
    

    “We had to work through two administrations and when [PM] Imran came in, everything got much easier,” she remarked. 
    

    

    


    

    

    

    Read more – Cher thanks PM Khan for ‘making her dream come true’
    

    She also said that she worked on the cause for three years.
    

    “As we started doing it, I wasn’t going to give up. So, we went to Pakistan and we saw him, he was beautiful,” said Cher. “We started meeting Pakistani people and they were so nice to me.”
    

    She added: “So, then he landed and we were so excited and after a five hours drive to the sanctuary and I could see him walking around, taking a dirt bath and talking to the girls.”
    

    

    


    

    

    

    Cher has proven that she is a star in the best possible way. She worked towards freeing Kaavan, who had been named ‘the world’s loneliest animal,’ after his partner Saheli passed away in 2012. Kaavan was kept in Islamabad’s Marghazar Zoo for 35 years and had been chained after zookeepers complained that he exhibited violent behaviour. 
    

    He caught Cher’s attention in 2016, who then fought a long legal battle for his release and transfer.
    

    He was airlifted from Islamabad to Cambodia in a Russian cargo plane and before his departure, Cher visited Pakistan to see him off. She also sang A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes to soothe his nerves.
    

    

    


    

    

    

    Later, she also arrived in Cambodia to receive Kaavan and ensure that he settles well in his new home. 
    

    

    


    

    

    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Twitter reacts to ‘Pornhub popup’ during CNN’s live coverage of US election
    
			
    In a rather awkward incident, a Pornhub popup has allegedly appeared during CNN’s live coverage of the United States (US) presidential election.
    

    According to the details, as the neck-and-neck race for the key to the White House between Democratic challenger Joe Biden and American President Donald Trump stretches over four days now, someone at CNN seems to be in dire need of a distraction.
    

    A video doing rounds over the internet shows senior American journalist Wolf Blitzer commenting on the endless counting of votes in Pennsylvania while news anchor John King, who is said to not have slept for more than six hours since Tuesday, stands on the other side of the studio, in front of a big interactive screen.
    

    It isn’t later that King notices what is being claimed to be a Pornhub popup on the screen. A quick gesture and the alleged porn site label, perhaps visited at that moment by someone in the editorial office, disappears.
    

    The anchor is then seen giving someone a “death stare”, leaving netizens wondering if he knew who it was.
    

    WATCH VIDEO:
    

    

    
https://twitter.com/PatrickSikler/status/1324645655055400961

    

    

    Here’s what Twitterati have to say about the episode:
    

    

    


    

    

    

    

    


    

    

    

    

    
https://twitter.com/titancrising/status/1324658856396529665

    

    

    

    


    

    

    

    

    


    

    

    

    While some weren’t as amused…
    

    

    


    

    

    

    …some also said that the video was “fake“.
    

    

    
https://twitter.com/lewiswake/status/1324655345369796609

    

    

    What do you think? Let The Current know in the comments