Ukraine is Preparing For Russia to Sabotage Europe’s Biggest Nuclear Plant

As Ukraine makes slow gains along the southern front in its war against Russia, the government in Kyiv has begun preparing for Russian forces to sabotage the nuclear power plant they occupied at the start of the invasion, the country’s energy minister told TIME in an interview.

The nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, sits on the front lines in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, less than 100 miles from a cluster of villages Ukraine has managed to claw back from Russian control in recent weeks. If Ukraine succeeds in retaking the plant and driving the Russians away from the region, “I do not believe that they would leave the station operational,” said Minister German Galushchenko. “They could do a lot of damage, so much damage that it would be very difficult for us to operate the station.”

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Since early June, all six of the plant’s nuclear reactors have been placed into a cold shutdown, suspending the production of electricity and reducing the risk of an accident that could release large amounts of radiation. The plant’s engineers took that precaution soon after the rupture of a nearby dam caused catastrophic flooding and threatened the supply of water needed to cool the reactors. Russian forces were in control of the dam at the time, and mounting evidence suggests they blew it up, according to an investigation by the New York Times.

The destruction of that dam, in the occupied town of Nova Kakhovka, dimmed hopes among Ukrainian authorities that Russia might leave the nuclear power plant unscathed, Galushchenko said. After traveling to parts of Ukraine that have been liberated from Russian occupation, “I can tell you that when they leave, when they run from there, they mine almost everything in the energy infrastructure,” said the energy minister. “You cannot imagine the level of this mining. It’s millions, millions of mines, even in small villages.”

Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, warned in early July that Russian forces had placed “objects resembling explosives” on the roofs of several buildings at the plant. Citing Ukrainian intelligence agencies, he suggested the Russians could be trying to “simulate an attack on the plant.” Two days later, satellite imagery of the facility showed that white objects had recently appeared on the roof. Independent experts said it was not possible to identify the white objects in the photos without a full onsite inspection.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for endangering the nuclear facility through military operations aimed at ending the Russian occupation. For nearly a year, officials from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have been allowed to visit the occupied plant and conduct limited inspections under the watch of Russian military forces. The U.N. inspectors have repeatedly observed mines around the plant, most recently in July, when the agency reported seeing “directional anti-personnel mines on the periphery” of the facility. Rafael Grossi, the general director of the IAEA, said in a statement at the time that the presence of explosives is ”inconsistent” with the agency’s safety standards. But the detonation of the mines, he added, “should not affect” the security systems designed to prevent a nuclear incident.

Even if such explosions do not result in the release of radiation, Galushchenko said they could render the plant inoperable for years to come. “If they explode the roof,” he said, “it would create huge problems for us in restarting the operation” of the plant once it is liberated. Ukraine is therefore preparing alternative sources of energy production. During a trip with Zelensky to the European Union in July, Galushchenko and other officials pursued a deal for Ukraine to purchase two Russian-made nuclear reactors from Bulgaria, an E.U. member.

The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that the deal was nearing completion, with an estimated price tag of around $650 million. Asked about the deal, Galushchenko told TIME that financing could come from a mix of sources, including U.S. and European aid to Ukraine and loans from foreign banks. But the purchase of the reactors from Bulgaria would not be a quick fix, he warned. Once they are delivered to Ukraine, it would take engineers at least two years to install the reactors and bring them into operation at another one of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, in the region of Khmelnitsky.

As for the nuclear facility now under occupation, fixing the damage Ukraine expects from Russian sabotage could take far longer than that, he said.

source https://time.com/6300397/ukraine-fears-russia-sabotage-nuclear-plant-zaporizhzhia/

How Oklahoma Became Ground Zero in the War Over Church-State Separation

While Florida makes headlines for its “war on woke” in public schools, in the war against church-state separation, Oklahoma is the frontline. And on Monday, July 31st, return shots were fired. A group of 10 plaintiffs including clergy, public school parents, and public education advocates filed a lawsuit against state officials and organizations for approving St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School as the nation’s first publicly-funded religious charter school.

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The central concern in the case of St. Isidore is that taxpayer dollars would go to fund a school that is overtly sectarian with religious education as a goal. In its charter school application, St. Isidore plans to “provide Christ-centered Catholic formation” and will function “as a genuine instrument of the church” as a place of “evangelization.” They would also divert funds away from Oklahoma public schools, already ranking near the bottom of the country in education spending.

St. Isidore is just one example of the way Oklahoma education officials and organizations are challenging the very idea of church-state separation. Shortly after his re-election in November 2022, Governor Kevin Stitt prayed on the Capitol steps, claiming every inch of Oklahoma for Jesus, asking God the Father that he would “have his way” with the education system.

Also winning office last November, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters has actively cultivated a brand as a culture warrior, regularly posting video selfies from his car, as well as appearing on Fox News and evangelical talk shows like Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, almost always on the theme of “woke indoctrination,” teachers unions, the Biden administration, and the importance of America’s Christian heritage.

Read More: Christian Nationalism’s Growing Popularity

During his short tenure thus far, Walters has endorsed recommendations to hang the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, require that students be given a full minute before school for prayer or silent reflection, to teach the Bible, and to train all history teachers in Oklahoma public schools using curriculum from Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian private school in Michigan.

Stitt and Walters know their base. When I analyzed data from Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, I found nearly two-thirds of Republicans in Oklahoma’s region of the country believe public school teachers should be allowed to lead students in Christian prayers. That same percentage believes cities and towns should be able to place religious symbols on public property (like, say, the Ten Commandments in schools). Playing up the Christian nationalism in Oklahoma is just smart politics. And it may score points in their respective political careers in a party where Trump’s odds to be the Republican nominee again are growing.

But the stakes in the St. Isidore case are certainly larger than one charter school. They’re even larger than Oklahoma. “We’re bringing today’s lawsuit to protect the religious freedom of Oklahoma public school families and taxpayers, and to stop Christian Nationalists from taking over our public schools across the nation.” explained Rachel Laser, President and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. In their online announcement for the lawsuit, Americans United warned “soon states like this will appear around the country.”

Confronting Oklahoma education officials, in other words, holds the line. The political dominance of Christian nationalist Republicans in Oklahoma has emboldened them to further challenge conventions of church-state separation in the name of “school choice” and “religious freedom.” To the degree they are successful in funding overtly sectarian charter schools like St. Isidor, other Republican-dominated states will almost certainly follow suit.

But Oklahoma is unique among states where governors and other high-ranking officials are making names for themselves as culture-warriors. Florida and Texas, for example, are growing economic powerhouses where Americans are migrating in droves. They’re also at least somewhat politically in play. The anti-woke, Christian nationalist rhetoric of Ron DeSantis or Greg Abbott is about mobilizing their base to fight off political opponents at home.

Oklahoma is different. Here Republicans have dominated most offices, including the governorship and superintendent position for years. And there’s no sign of change. That is where we find the point of all the culture-warring for Oklahoma officials. The state is being left behind. Oklahoma is not a destination for mass migration like its southern neighbor. Nor is it a place where wealth and opportunity are booming. It ranks near the bottom in public education. And Republicans have no one else to scapegoat.

Leaders like Walters and Stitt know they must distract their supporters from Republican failures. And you do that by inventing opponents, creating controversy, and claiming cultural victories. On Monday afternoon, for example, Walters characterized the lawsuit as “religious persecution” and himself as a warrior for “religious freedom,” claiming it was “time to end atheism as the state sponsored religion.”

Though I’ve studied Christian nationalism professionally for the last decade, Oklahoma, my current home, is teaching me something new. So often, “Christian nation” rhetoric is a response to the very real experience of feeling like your culture is changing, your grip on political power slipping away. As an ideology, Christian nationalism reassures historically dominant groups that they have moral high ground, because outsiders and infidels are trying to destroy God’s blessings to the nation.

But that kind of rhetoric can also be a side show, a grift, targeting people for whom there is virtually no threat of cultural change or loss of political power. That’s Oklahoma Christian nationalism—a grift to build a politician’s personal brand and distract from party failures. That doesn’t make their actual policies less important or less harmful; but it does reveal their origins.

Like all political grifts, those who suffer are the constituents who get used like pawns, in this case, Oklahoma’s children and families. As an Oklahoma resident with three children in public schools, and a spouse who is a public school teacher, that fact enrages me. To the extent these sorts of maneuvers are exported to other states, it should enrage you as well.

source https://time.com/6300200/how-oklahoma-became-ground-zero-in-the-war-over-church-state-separation/

Love Island UK Season 10 Ends With an Unexpected Pair of Winners

After laughing and crying through 57 episodes of the British hit reality show Love Island UK, we’ve made it to the end: On Monday, islanders Jess Harding and Sammy Root were announced the winners of the show’s 10th season, taking home a £50,000 prize.

“What is going on?,” said Root, 22, on the finale right after his win, seeming just as shocked as the public for his win. “I’m over the moon!”

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What an incredible journey it’s been for Jess and Sammy – your #LoveIsland Series 10 winners! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/saFdWaSt4y

— Love Island (@LoveIsland) July 31, 2023

An overwhelming amount of Love Island fans were shocked by the couple’s victory, as many thought Whitney Adebayo and Lochan Nowacki, who placed second, were favored to win after gaining the public’s vote for “favorite couple” a week prior to the finale.

The comment section of Love Island’s official social media accounts are being inundated with thousands of disappointed fans vocalizing their speculation that the votes were “rigged” or that elements of “racism” could have involved in the public’s vote, as Adebayo and Nowachi are BIPOC islanders and Adebayo would have been Love Island UK‘s first Black winner.

Season 2’s Molly Mae, arguably the most successful star to come out of the Love Island franchise, even vocalized her disagreement on a social media comment writing, “What? Whitney completely deserved this!’

Love Island has since released the vote breakdown via a Threads post revealing it was a nearly 8% vote difference for first and second place.

Harding and Root, who became a couple during filming, have had a tumultuous journey in the villa, making their win a surprise to viewers. Harding was part of the season’s original cast, and found a romantic connection with Root on day 4, when he entered as a “bombshell,” a new cast member thrown into the mix specifically to shake things up.

Over the eight weeks of the show, the pair went through several ups and downs. In week 3, after they had a series of arguments in front of their fellow castmates, the villa voted Harding and Root as least compatible couple, causing a twist that would separate the pair for the following weeks. Harding tried to get to know other romantic contenders, but remained intent on reconnecting with Root, who in the meantime, controversially pursued connections with at least four other women who entered the villa later. After some more arguments and an ultimatum from Harding, the couple came back together for a less rocky journey—and snagged the crown.

Ultimate fan favorite Adebayo, who came in as an early bombshell on Day 3, has been a fan favorite since first entering and being coupled with French islander Mehdi Edno. In Week 4, Edno was eliminated from the show, and Adebayo coupled up with Nowacki. They’ve been together since meeting during the show’s midseason ‘Casa Amor’ twist. The two have left the island with an “exclusive” label (a Love Island term that signals a relationship may be on the horizon).

The feisty couple Tyrique Hyde and Ella Thomas came in third place, while the mostly consistent couple Molly Marsh and Zachariah Noble ended up in fourth.

A dating show that started in 2015, Love Island has become a cultural phenomenon that offers its viewers an abundance of content: six episodes air each week, and each are accompanied with a daily Love Island: The Morning After podcast, weekly ‘Unseen Bits,’ and live Aftersun episodes. The show has become so widely received that other countries like the U.S., France and Australia have started their own versions.

Season 10 was packed with entertainment—from a diverse cast of dozens of islanders to unpredictable twists including season 2 bombshell Kady McDermott returning seven years later for the new season and prompting one of the Marsh to be dumped in one of the most sudden moves in Love Island history (Marsh, of course, would eventually return in another plot twist and place third). Then there was the one islander Mitchel Taylor who managed to make it nearly a month in the villa without a romantic connection, and all the way to finale week despite his Big Brother-like game playing that gave him the title “Messy Mitch” amongst his fellow island mates.

“I think that the islanders have given us more drama than ever,” says the show’s host Maya Jama, who despite her role, requests that production not share spoilers so that her reactions are genuine. “They wore their hearts on their sleeves and they were just very unpredictable as a result. You can’t ask for more than that from Love Island contestants.” As for islander Taylor, Jama says he “could be one of the messiest islanders ever.”

The reception to Harding and Root has been a mixed bag. “Never watching this stupid show again,” wrote one upset Twitter user, getting over 20,000 likes within minutes of the winner announcement. “Tell me Maya made a mistake announcing the winners,” wrote another, getting 8,000 likes in the same time frame.

never watching this stupid show again #loveisland pic.twitter.com/2oL2jBmPSW

— 🌙🕊️ seeing TWICE (@leighanneunwoo) July 31, 2023

“I feel like Twitter has come alive with their reactions and has become such a big part of Love Island,” says Jama of the fan response.

source https://time.com/6300208/love-island-jess-sammy-win-season-10/

Why Some Experts Are Concerned About Threads’ Data Collection

Meta’s new text-based conversation platform Threads launched with a bang earlier this month, surpassing 100 million sign-ups less than a week after it became available to the public on July 5. 

But soon after the app—seen as a direct threat to Twitter, which recently became X— was released, users on Twitter began posting screenshots of Threads’ privacy policy published on Apple’s App store. Some pointed out the app’s terms of service give Meta permission to collect a trove of data, including information on user’s health, financial information, location, search history.

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Data privacy experts say that, though this level of data collection is not unique to Threads, users do risk handing over even more personal information to a company that already knows a lot about account holders. And as Meta looks towards turning Threads into a decentralized service, which would allow users to view Threads content across other apps and theoretically give them more control over their data, experts warn that the move could expand the company’s reach across the internet.

Meta’s deputy chief privacy officer, Rob Sherman has said that privacy policy on the App Store isn’t fully representative of the platform’s actual policy and said that users can “choose to share different kinds of data,” in a post on Threads on July 10. 

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“In general, Threads collects [the same data that] Facebook and Instagram do, which is much more information than is necessary for the app to function and much more information than is collected on Twitter or many of the other Twitter alternatives,” Calli Schroeder, Global Privacy Counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center told TIME in an email.

A review by TIME of Threads and X’s policies on Apple’s App Store shows that X collects much of the same information—such as browsing and purchase history—as Threads, though X’s privacy policy does not include the “sensitive information,” financial information, or health and fitness categories that Threads does. Threads’ privacy policy does not specify what information is considered sensitive.

Threads users require an Instagram account to sign up, which means many may already have the same data collected about them. Despite this, privacy experts still say users should be cautious about signing up for Threads.

Read More: The Best Twitter Alternatives if You’re Ditching X

“This information will most likely be used to create a more hyper-personalized and targeted experience on the app, shared with and sold to advertisers, or added to the already massive troves of personal data Meta has collected on individuals via its other platforms and outside sources,” says Schroeder. A Meta spokesperson told TIME over the phone that the company provides a number of controls for people to manage how their data is used for ads, such as ad preferences, and the “Why Am I Seeing This?” feature, which provides context about why users are being shown specific ads. 

Here’s what to know about Threads’ data collection policy and plans for decentralization. 

What data can apps access?

According to its listing on the Apple App Store, Threads can collect information about a user’s health, finance, contacts, search history, location, and other sensitive information via their digital activity. 

In his post on Threads, Meta’s Sherman said that users should consult Meta’s own privacy policies to best understand the data the app collects. “The labels are similar to the rest of our apps, including Instagram, in that our social apps receive whatever info (including the categories of data listed in the App Store) you share in the app. People can choose to share different kinds of data,” he said. “Meta’s privacy policy, and the Threads supplementary privacy policy, are the best resources to understand how Threads uses and collects data.”

Experts say that much of the information users agree to let the app collect is already available to companies—especially if they already use Meta’s other services like Facebook or Instagram. 

“Quite frankly, in terms of collection, this is par for the course for everybody,” says Jim Waldo, a professor at Harvard University whose research focuses on privacy.

Even so, Nazanin Andalibi, assistant professor of information at the University of Michigan, says that users concerned about privacy should still proceed with caution, and be wary of “going further into the Meta ecosystem” by signing up for a new app like Threads. 

People use different platforms differently, Andalibi says—for example, you might use Facebook to keep up with family, Instagram for friends, and Threads for work. While they might seem like separate worlds, the information you give to each app all goes back to the same company. 

“Now Meta knows who all your friends are and and who your family’s friends are and it can build social graphs around that to give it a lot of information,” adds Waldo. “If you use more and more of Meta’s apps, they get a fuller picture of your activity.”

Threads’ release in the E.U. is on hold amid regulatory uncertainty. The E.U.’s Digital Markets Act, passed last year, prevents large companies like Meta from sharing user data across multiple platforms. “We would have liked to offer Threads in the EU at the same time as other markets, and the app does meet GDPR requirements today,” Sherman wrote in a Thread, “But building this offering against the backdrop of other regulatory requirements that have not yet been clarified would potentially take a lot longer, and in the face of this uncertainty, we prioritized offering this new product to as many people as possible.”

Meta has come under fire for its handling of data privacy in the past. In May, the company was fined a record $1.3 billion for data privacy violations in the E.U. The company said it had been “singled out” and that it used the same legal mechanisms as thousands of other companies in the E.U. In the U.S. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed an expansion of its 2020  consent order against Meta over its alleged misrepresentation of how much access app developers had to users’ private data. (Twitter recently protested its own FTC consent order around data practices, saying that the watchdog had made “unceasing demands.”)

In 2018, Facebook, which has since rebranded as Meta, disclosed that it had exposed the data of 87 million users of its Facebook platform to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting group with ties to Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. A year later, the company agreed to pay a record $5 billion penalty to the FTC, one of the largest regulatory penalties ever imposed by the U.S. government on a company. 

What do companies do with data?

Why does Threads want to know things like health and fitness or financial information? The answer has to do with advertising—the company’s bread and butter. Advertising revenue accounted for 97% of Meta’s overall revenue in 2022. 

Data collection allows the app to create a finely-tuned profile of users that could be shared with third-party services, many of which use the information to create hyper-targeted ads, Andalibi says. “All of these different insights or information about people separately can be very sensitive and consequential in certain contexts,” she says.“Imagine targeted advertising in the context of infertility, or someone with an eating disorder seeing ads about weight loss.” (Meta says it made updates to its privacy policy in 2022 that give users more control over the ads they see.)

Threads does not currently support ads, but a Meta source told Axios that it would introduce ads once its “user base reaches a critical mass”. 

Andalibi says there is no need for companies to access and store the data it does. Andalibi points to apps like Signal, which use encryption services to ensure user data is protected. “These are decisions that technology companies make—what data they collect, how they collect it, what they use it for, who they share it with, how long they keep it for,” she says. “It’s not an inevitable choice.”

Plans for decentralization 

Meta has shared that Threads would “soon” be compatible with ActivityPub, a user-centric software  that would give users the option to run their own servers, rather than just relying on Meta’s, known as decentralization. This tool could allow social media users to cross-post and interact with other platforms in what’s known as the “fediverse,” a group of social networks including Mastodon that allow users to communicate across platforms. This should give social media users control of their content, audience and data across platforms.   

“Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks. If you have a public profile on Threads, this means your posts would be accessible from other apps, allowing you to reach new people with no added effort,” the company said in an announcement. 

In theory, this could give users further control over their data, as they’d be able to access Threads without downloading Meta’s platform. But what that means for the data the app is already collecting, and data on other platforms remains to be seen. (Meta told TIME that Thread’s supplementary privacy policy includes additional disclosures around how data is shared with third parties, to reflect the plan for Threads to eventually be interoperable with other apps.) The disclosures say that, even if users interact with Threads through a third-party service, Meta can still collect information about the third-party account and profile. 

“It’s not clear what’s going to happen to all of the data that was collected from profiles before that point,” Andalibi says. Schroeder notes that Meta could end up tracking Threads interactions across servers, widening its reach. “In a way, this could just expand Meta’s reach and ability to see everything people do across the internet,” Schroeder says.

Musk took a different approach earlier this year when he began an effort to start charging for access to Twitter’s application programming interface (API), which lets third-party developers and researchers access Twitter data.

Read More: She Built an App to Block Harassment on Twitter. Elon Musk Killed It

What options do users in search of stricter privacy protocols have? One of the biggest things users can do is simply stay off the app, a move Schroeder says could help put pressure on the company to make decentralization a priority.

“My guess is that Meta will have little incentive to follow through on their decentralization promise if they get mass early buy-in for Threads,” says Schroeder.  “Users may be able to push for decentralization if they refuse to sign up until Threads can be used outside current Meta platforms.”

source https://time.com/6299743/threads-data-collection-privacy/

How TikTok Changed the Meaning of a Million Followers

Alex Burriss and Roi Fabito, known online as Alex and Roi Wassabi, have been making videos for 17 years. As “O.G. YouTubers” who have amassed over 10 million subscribers since the platform’s early days, they’ve been attending VidCon, an annual convention for fans to connect with their favorite online personalities, for nearly a decade. Back in the day, they used to know the vast majority of the creator lineup at the conference. But when they attended the event in Anaheim, Calif., earlier this summer, that was far from the case. “Sometimes there’s a TikToker that’s apparently really popular, but I don’t know who they are,” says Burriss. “I’m sure they have great content, I just haven’t come across it.”

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That’s in large part because as the event has shifted to include more TikTokers than YouTubers, it’s had to face a new reality: the meaning of a follow on TikTok is not what it is, or once was—on YouTube or any other social platform.

Yes, there are the Charli D’Amelios and Alix Earles of TikTok—a tier of creators that has transcended the app with ubiquitous mainstream opportunities like Super Bowl commercials, reality TV shows, and six-figure brand collaborations. But the structure of TikTok’s app has also weighted virality like no other app before it—introducing more creators with high follower counts than ever before.

In fact, more than 39,000 accounts on TikTok now have at least 1 million followers, according to data from social media analytics provider Social Blade. That’s about 6,200 more than on YouTube and nearly 16,000 more than on Instagram. This has created a “fascinating subculture of influence,” says Brendan Gahan, Chief Innovation Officer at creative agency Mekanism. “Many creators have a dedicated following within their niche, but they remain anonymous to the wider world,” says Gahan, who sits on VidCon’s advisory board and has attended the conference since it began in 2010. 

At this year’s VidCon, Colin Rosenblum, whose “Colin and Samir” YouTube channel analyzes other creators and their content, had encounters with fans who themselves had millions of followers on TikTok, and whose content he had never come across. “It’s just interesting that you can have someone in your audience who has 10 million people who’ve said, ‘Yes, I would like to follow what they’re doing,’ and we follow this space and we don’t know who they are,” says Rosenblum.

How did TikTok so fundamentally change the meaning and value of a follower count? The answer has a lot to do with the rise of short-form content and the way the app has changed the nature of engagement, and it has major implications for the future of influencers and content creators.

The Impact of the TikTok “For You Page” 

Before 2022, TikTokers weren’t even on the lineup for VidCon, whose roots are squarely in the world of YouTube given its founding by YouTube “VlogBrothers” Hank and John Green. That year, after a two-year pandemic hiatus during which the popularity of TikTok sharply increased, TikTok also sponsored the event for the first (and, to date, only) time. But the arrival of TikTok creators has not been met with unanimous enthusiasm from attendees. Last year, TikToker Grace Africa, who has over 1 million followers, posted a TikTok in which she stood alone at a VidCon meet-and-greet, with not a single fan in sight.

Africa’s experience may reflect a side effect of changes wrought by TikTok’s “‘For You Page” (FYP), the app’s homepage that is hyper-curated to each individual. “On TikTok, who you follow hardly matters at all because of the default FYP comprised of algorithmically selected content versus a prioritization on follower count,” says Gahan. “Each piece of content has a chance to be seen and the best stuff can truly rise to the top.” That is different from other social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, where “historically the big get bigger with newcomers left to pick up the scraps,” says Gahan. This is in part due to those platforms’ home page and algorithm formats tending to push already well-performing content, versus TikTok’s default FYP, which inundates users with newer content from creators they’ve never encountered, and often do not already follow.

“If you get rid of some of the creators on TikTok they’re going to be filled with more content because there’s just an influx,” says Rosenblum. “It makes the ‘For You Page’ the star of TikTok, oftentimes over the creators.”

This phenomenon has led to an oversaturation of successful creators coming from the TikTok platform, and simply too many creators for even the heaviest users of the app to be familiar with. “What it means to be a creator with a million followers means something very different than it used to four years ago,” says Gahan. “It’s inevitable that it’s less impactful just by the sheer number of creators since you’ve got your attention and the amount of eyeballs essentially split in half.”

Rosenblum and his partner Samir Chaudry, whose channel offers aspiring creators content about well-performing creators, have added two full-time writers and a Slack channel with dozens of contributors who keep track of the various parts of the internet for their newsletter The Publish Press.

For the VidCon team, it has meant having more creators on their radar than ever before. “The more platforms that come out and that have their own creator ecosystem, the more the creators that we just need to be aware of,” says Hickey. “Three or four years ago, we didn’t have thousands of TikTok creators that we had to go through.” 

At the conference, which is perhaps the best in-person reflection of what is happening with creators online, internet fame is not what it once was. “There are so many people that are quote-unquote famous and have large followings that when you put all of them in a room it can feel like no one is famous,” says Rosenblum.

A shift toward short-form content

But it’s not just the number of popular creators that has changed the meaning of a follow. The fast-paced, shorter-form content of TikTok, which tends to be consumed more passively as users scroll past it, has also contributed to a shift in creator-fan relationships. With the nature of YouTube’s long-form, often personable content, viewers tend to settle in to watch a video that may be as long as an episode of television.

YouTube viewers are also more inclined to experience a parasocial relationship, an intimate one-sided experience where the content makes them feel personally connected to the creator. Burriss recalls fans crying, shaking and not being able to speak when they met the duo at VidCon. “It’s a surreal connection because at first they know us, but we don’t really know them,” says Fabito.

Fans are just as eager to meet their favorite TikToker, says Sarah Tortoreti, SVP Marketing & Comms for VidCon, but the parasocial dynamic may be slightly different. “To them, they’re like Hollywood celebrities, even though they might not feel as though they have a true one-to-one relationship in the way that a lot of fans of O.G. YouTube creators do,” she says.

Engagement over follower count

For Rosenblum and Chaudry, reaching the 1 million subscriber milestone on their channel was a feat that took over 10 years to reach and one that was “a weight off of our shoulders.”

But it isn’t the end game. “The most important thing that we’ve come back to is building a brand over chasing follower count or over chasing views,” he says. “If we can make a consistent impact with a group of people, that’s how we’re going to build a long-term community and a long term business for ourselves.” Popular TikTokers may reach impressive numbers much faster than the duo did, but it doesn’t always translate into the same career prospects.

While follower count may open the door to opportunities, it is no longer the ultimate goal for creators. For those looking to partner with creators, such as social media marketers and conventions like VidCon, a creator’s engagement—a barometer of how much their followers interact with their content—is most significant. For many mid-tier and micro creators with followers in the thousands to hundreds of thousands, those engagement levels can be just as fruitful as large followings for more popular creators.

“Follower count alone does not show how rapid and engaged a community is,” says Gahan. “Somebody who’s able to tap even half of their audience and get that level of engagement and participation can have a robust and healthy community.”

Although many of these TikTokers may not be filling up rooms like Mr. Beast did at the 2022 VidCon, they still have an audience that includes eager fans hoping to engage with them in person. “We’re looking for them to have a fanbase that goes to these people over and over again versus just mindlessly scrolling,” says Tortoreti.

To Burriss and Fabito, who recently launched a new collaborative YouTube channel called SPICY FRUIT, the ability to evolve is also the key to their decades-long success as content creators and why they’ve even started making TikToks themselves. Now, TikTok is having a moment. In a few years, it may be another platform. “I have a lot of YouTube friends from the past that are like, ‘I miss the old ways,” says Burris. “But everything is going to change and nothing is forever. You’ve got to adapt.”

source https://time.com/6299379/tiktok-youtube-follow-count/

At Least 44 Dead After Suicide Bombing at Pakistan Political Rally

KHAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally in a former stronghold of militants in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 44 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack that a senior leader said was meant to weaken Pakistani Islamists.

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The Bajur district near the Afghan border was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban — a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban government — before the Pakistani army drove the militants out of the area. Supporters of hardline Pakistani cleric and political party leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whose Jamiat Ulema Islam generally supports regional Islamists, were meeting in Bajur in a hall close to a market outside the district capital. Party officials said Rehman was not at the rally but organizers added tents because so many supporters showed up, and party volunteers with batons were helping control the crowd.

Officials were announcing the arrival of Abdul Rasheed, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party, when the bomb went off in one of Pakistan’s bloodiest attacks in recent years.

Provincial police said in a statement that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives vest close to the stage where several senior leaders of the party were sitting. It said initial investigations suggested the Islamic State group — which operates in Afghanistan and is an enemy of the Afghan Taliban — could be behind the attack, and officers were still investigating.

“There was dust and smoke around, and I was under some injured people from where I could hardly stand up, only to see chaos and some scattered limbs,” said Adam Khan, 45, who was knocked to the ground by the blast around 4 p.m. and hit by splinters in his leg and both hands.

The Pakistan Taliban, or TTP, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that the bombing was aimed at setting Islamists against each other. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “such crimes cannot be justified in any way.”

The Afghan Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 emboldened the TTP. They unilaterally ended a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government in November, and have stepped up attacks across the country.

The bombing came hours before the arrival of Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Islamabad, where he was to participate in an event to mark a decade of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, a sprawling package under which Beijing has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan.

In recent months, China has helped Pakistan avoid a default on sovereign payments. However, some Chinese nationals have also been targeted by militants in northwestern Pakistan and elsewhere.

Feroz Jamal, the provincial information minister, told The Associated Press that so far 44 people had been “martyred” and nearly 200 wounded in the bombing.

The bombing was one of the four worst attacks in the northwest since 2014, when 147 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar. In January, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. n February, more than 100 people, mostly policemen, died in a bombing at a mosque inside a high-security compound housing Peshawar police headquarters.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Arif Alvi condemned the attack and asked officials to provide all possible assistance to the wounded and the bereaved families. Sharif later, in a phone call to Rehman, the head of the JUI, conveyed his condolences to him and assured him that those who orchestrated the attack would be punished.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad also condemned the attack. In a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, it expressed its condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims killed in the attack..

Maulana Ziaullah, the local chief of Rehman’s party, was among the dead. JUI leaders Rasheed and former lawmaker Maulana Jamaluddin were also on the stage but escaped unhurt.

Rasheed, the regional chief of the party, said the attack was an attempt to remove JUI from the field before parliamentary elections in November, but he said such tactics would not work. The bombing drew nationwide condemnation, with the ruling and opposition parties extending condolences to the families of those who died in the attack.

Rehman is considered to be a pro-Taliban cleric and his political party is part of the coalition government in Islamabad. Meetings are being organized across the country to mobilize supporters for the upcoming elections.

“Many of our fellows lost their lives and many more wounded in this incident. I will ask the federal and provincial administrations to fully investigate this incident and provide due compensation and medical facilities to the affected ones,” Rasheed said.

Mohammad Wali, another attendant at the rally, said he was listening to a speaker address the crowd when the huge explosion temporarily deafened him.

“I was near the water dispenser to fetch a glass of water when the bomb exploded, throwing me to the ground,” he said. “We came to the meeting with enthusiasm but ended up at the hospital seeing crying, wounded people and sobbing relatives taking the bodies of their loved ones.”

—Riaz Khan reported from Peshawar. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad contributed from Islamabad.

source https://time.com/6299489/suicide-bomb-pakistan/

What to Know About the U.S. Summer Uptick in Covid-19 Cases

An increase in the number of Covid-19 cases from the past few weeks could be indicative of a slight summer Covid-19 wave in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hospital admissions, test positivity rates, and emergency department visits by people who have contracted the virus have all seen a national uptick since mid July, though numbers remain relatively low. 

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“U.S. COVID-19 rates are still near historic lows after 7 months of steady declines,” CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley said in a statement to CBS News. “The U.S. has experienced increases in COVID-19 during the past three summers, so it’s not surprising to see an uptick.” 

Experts note, however, that there is still insufficient evidence that this rise will lead to a bigger outbreak, though it is something to watch. More than 144,000,000 vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S., and some 56.4 million people have an updated booster dose. 

Research from the CDC also shows that most Americans have some level of protection against the virus, as 96% of blood donors over the age of 16 had antibodies from previous infection or vaccination. 

Here’s what to know about the uptick in cases. 

What does the CDC data show?

CDC data shows that hospital admissions related to Covid-19 had risen by 10.3% from July 9 to July 15, amounting to an increase of more than 7,000 hospitalizations across the U.S. The percentage of people diagnosed with the virus after an emergency room visit also rose over the past few weeks from around 0.5% in mid-to-late June to 0.78% on July 24th. 

Deaths due to Covid-19 remain around the same. Data from the last three weeks are still being updated, but the week of July 1 saw 494 Covid-related deaths, compared to the week of June 24 at 549.

But overall, charts tracking this information show that this summer’s current data is still on the lower end of the most recent surge, which happened this winter. 

The week of December 31, 2022 and January 7, 2023 saw hospitalizations at more than 44,000. Similarly, hospital admissions from July 2022 remained around that same 40,000 marker. That is compared to the highest rate of hospital admissions seen on the week of January 15, 2022, when some 150,000 people were in the hospital due to Covid. 

Some other countries have also seen an increase in cases

While the U.S. has seen a slight increase in cases, other countries have similarly shared concerns about a Covid-19 wave this summer.  

Officials in Japan say they’ve seen an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases increase fourfold from May to July, the Japan Times reports. They added that they could not predict the magnitude of the next Covid-19 wave, but cautioned people to be careful when meeting with people who may be more vulnerable to the virus.

Covid-19 also remains a serious risk in China, which experienced its own surge in cases earlier this year. The country eased their Covid-19 restrictions in December, causing a wave of infections this winter.

China’s second Covid-19 wave began in April 2023 and lasted until June. Forecasters predicted China would see anywhere from 11 million to 65 million cases of Covid-19 a week in June, but official stats about Covid-19 related deaths and infections are unclear as experts question the country’s official Covid-19 statistics.

source https://time.com/6299476/summer-uptick-covid-19-us/