Tag: The New York Times

  • Pulitzer Prize awarded to The New York Times raises questions about journalism standards

    Pulitzer Prize awarded to The New York Times raises questions about journalism standards

    Winners of the Pulitzer Prizes, arguably the biggest prize in journalism, for 2023 were announced on Monday.

    While these awards have been conferred since decades now, people have now questioned the credibility of the standard by which winners are selected.

    Among the award receipts is The New York Times.

    It won for its “wide-ranging and revelatory coverage of Hamas’s lethal attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7,” as well as reporting on “the Israeli military’s sweeping, deadly response.”

    Critics of the award are saying that the past seven months has revealed the biased coverage of the platform, including the factually incorrect report claiming that Hamas members had raped Israelis on October 7 — an account which was later debunked.

    Reuters meanwhile won the award for breaking news photography for its “raw and urgent” coverage of the October 7 attack and Israeli response, while a special citation recognized “journalists and media workers covering the war in Gaza.”

    “This war has also claimed the lives of poets and writers,” the committee said. “As the Pulitzer Prizes honor categories of journalism, arts and letters, we mark the loss of invaluable records of the human experience.”

    Ironically, the award ceremony took place at Columbia University, amidst the backlash that resulted after the Uni called in police to clear out pro-Palestinian protesters. The police largely blocked media from the scene and allegedly threatened student journalists covering the events with arrest.

  • More than 100 activists occupy New York Times lobby, read out names of 10,000 murdered Palestinians

    More than 100 activists occupy New York Times lobby, read out names of 10,000 murdered Palestinians

    On Thursday more than 100 activists, including writers and journalists, protested outside The New York Times head office to criticise the publication for their complicity in the genocide of Gaza, as the death toll climbs up to almost 11,000 Palestinians.

    Israeli tanks are currently surrounding all of the hospitals in Gaza with no opportunity for doctors and patients to leave, or for food and medicine to arrive.

    In viral videos, the journalists distributed a mock newspaper of the publication titled ‘The New York Crimes’ which listed the names of the 36 Palestinian journalists who have been confirmed dead since Israel declared war on Gaza.

    The activists accused NYT of complicity in the genocide in Palestine, demanding that the editorial board of the newspaper publicly back a ceasefire in Gaza.

  • Man about to lose over $300 million after forgetting Bitcoin password

    Man about to lose over $300 million after forgetting Bitcoin password

    A San Francisco computer programmer has just two password attempts left if he is to unlock a Bitcoin wallet worth more than $300 million.

    If Thomas fails and burns through his final two of 10 attempts, he will lose 7002 Bitcoin, currently worth an eye-watering and lifechanging $303 million. The forgotten password which is keeping Thomas awake at night would let him unlock a small hard drive, known as an IronKey.

    The IronKey contains the critical private keys to Thomas’ digital wallet, where the Bitcoin fortune is locked up. If Thomas makes 10 failed IronKey password attempts, the hard drive will seize up and encrypt everything for eternity.

    According to The New York Times, Thomas lost the piece of paper he wrote the IronKey password on. “I would just lay in bed and think about it,” he says.

    “Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I would be desperate again.”

    His plight has drawn the attention of hard drive and password crackers, offering their services for a slice of the quarter-billion-dollar pie. Alex Stamos, an internet security expert at Stanford Internet Observatory, claimed he can crack the password within six months. His price? Stamos wants a 10 per cent cut (roughly $30 million) of the fortune.

    “Um, for $220m in locked-up bitcoin, you don’t make 10 password guesses but take it to professionals to buy 20 IronKeys and spend six months finding a side-channel or uncapping,” Stomas tweeted, adding that he would make it happen for 10%.

    https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1348999178702057476

    Thomas was paid the Bitcoin for making a video about how the cryptocurrency worked, back when it was worth around $5 a coin. Last week, on the back of a record-breaking run, Bitcoin was trading at more than US$40,000.

    Perhaps the best-known case of anyone losing their Bitcoin fortune was James Howells, a Welsh IT worker, who in 2013 unintentionally threw 7500 Bitcoin in a landfill.

    Howells’ Bitcoin would also be worth more than a quarter-billion-dollars on today’s rate.

  • Imran Khan paid more tax than US President Donald Trump

    In light of a recent New York Times report and the tax details of parliamentarians revealed by Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), it has emerged that Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s mere Rs0.2 million in taxes was more than business tycoon and United States (US) President Donald Trump’s federal taxes during his first year in office.

    The directory, published on the official website of FBR, contains tax details of elected representatives belonging to six different assemblies; National Assembly of Pakistan, Senate of Pakistan, Balochistan Assembly, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Sindh Assembly and Punjab Assembly. 

    According to the information released, former PM and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was the highest taxpayer, as he paid a staggering amount of Rs241,329,362 in taxes.

    The premier in 2018 — his first year in office — paid Rs282,449 in taxes whereas President Trump paid just $750 (Rs124,290 as of 2020) in federal income tax during his first year as president.

    Trump, who in 2016 suggested reports of tax avoidance showed he was ‘smart’, denounced the findings as ‘completely fake news’. The New York Times said that of the 18 years its reporters examined, Trump had paid no income tax at all in 11 of them.

    While there is no comparison between the taxes paid by the two leaders from Pakistan and the US, it merits a mention that both were equally criticised for alleged tax evasion.

    As for Abbasi, his paid taxes were twice as much as the entire cabinet of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) paid.

    Industries and Production Minister Hammad Azhar and Petroleum Division Minister Omar Ayub were the top two tax payers in the cabinet, contributing Rs59.4 million and Rs26 million to the exchequer respectively.