Daily Archives: May 1, 2021

If the videos hes been uploading to his Hot Freaks subscription service are any indication, Robert Pollard has been spending much of the Covid-19 pandemic listening to his massive record collection in his pajamas. Perhaps consequently, his omnivorous musical taste has never been on more effective display than on Guided by Voices Earth Man Blues, which could be the bands best album since 1995s Alien Lanes.

While that might seem like a lofty claim especially with a discography as expansive as GBVs Earth Man Blue squarely hits all the marks that make Guided By Voices great again and again and again. A collage of previously unfinished or rejected songs resurrected and forged into a rock opera about Pollards childhood, this is GBV as pure id: bonkers lyrics, aural experimentation, and hooks for days. Just try to get Sunshine Girl a sweet little rocker that sounds like the Monkees on downers out of your head. Pollard and his race car mind are now a permanent part of your hippocampus.

Although the record purports to have a narrative of sorts, its really more of a suggestion like watching a movie on hallucinogenics, the story being told and the story being perceived are likely two disparate things. The band goes full Tommy on tracks like Dirty Kid School, only to skitter over to rocker Trust Them Now, which kicks off with a guitar riff reminiscent of Blink-182s All the Small Things. (Dont worry, the song doesnt wander too far down the garden path of pop-punk, instead swerving right at the last moment into melodic gorgeousness.) The heavy guitars that kick off Lights Out in Memphis Egypt propel you squarely into Black Sabbath territory, though, complete with spooky voiceovers. Then its on to Free Agents, a solid GBV-brand track with a chorus that just goes off the rails in the best possible way.

The firehose of influences spews on with the previously mentioned Sunshine Girl, the Sparks-esque Ant Repellent, and then back to class again with the middle school dance trauma ballad Margaret Middle School. Swoon and sway a bit to I Bet Hippy and How Can a Plumb Be Perfected, before shaking it all out to the riff-replete Childs Play. Put this record on and see how long it takes to utter your first joyful expletive.

[Find the Vinyl for Earth Man Blue]

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Guided By Voices Earth Man Blues May Be the Power-Pop Heroes Best Album in Decades - Rolling Stone

For accessibility-minded TikTok creators, gone are the days of the finicky text tool and third-party captioning apps. The beloved social media platform now does it all for you.

Almost a month after the app's official announcement, more users (and accessibility advocates themselves) are getting the chance to use the new automatically-generated closed-captioning services, the latest of TikTok's in-app accessibility features that are (fortunately) pretty easy to use.

The month-long rollout is part of a series of new features focused on making the "visual nature" of the app more accessible to all, according to TikTok. This includes adjustments to animated thumbnails, text-to-speech services, and epilepsy warnings. The auto captions were created under the guidance of The Deaf Collective, an organization supporting Deaf and hard-of-hearing creators that advocates for captioning across all platforms.

Here's how to use the new accessibility features:

The responsibility of captioning is mainly on video creators, who have to allow captions on every video they post.

If you want to check if captions are available on a specific video, click on the share icon (an arrow on the bottom right side of the screen). A "captions" option should be visible on the bottom row, in between "use this effect" and "duet."

App users can choose to turn on auto captions from their For You Page, as long as creators have enabled the feature.

Image: screenshot: tiktok

If the captions option isn't available yet, just be patient! The app has slowly added the feature for more and more users.

Image: screenshot: tiktok

Click on the captions button to turn the auto-generated feature on and off, or switch between various languages if they're added by the creator. That's it!

TikTok plans to add more language options in the future.

Image: screenshot: tiktok

Heads up, though: TikTok's new captions are only available to app users who have their languages set to English or Japanese (for now). You can find this under your profile's settings and privacy tab, which can be located on your TikTok profile by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner.

If you are adding captions to your own videos, start first by recording your own video with sound. Captions only apply to original sounds uploaded by creators, so you can't add captions to popular songs or other creator's sounds right now.

Record your video and press the red check mark to move to the video editing space. You can find the "captions" button on the right side of the screen (press the bottom arrow to expand the features if needed). Click on the captions symbol (a small box with lines) and the app will prompt creators to turn on auto captions. This will automatically add captions to the video you just made and allows other users to utilize auto captions on the videos as they watch.

Creators have to allow captioning services on user-uploaded audio clips.

Creators can then edit the captions manually in real time. The app will automatically take creators to a captions-editing screen after enabling the feature on their in-progress video. Keep in mind, creators can't edit captions after uploading videos.

Creators can choose to add or edit their captions after uploading.

After editing the captions (and adding the obligatory cool transitions, effects, or TikTok filters), simply save and upload the video. Viewers will have the option to enable the auto captions themselves. You've now made your content more accessible to all app users!

While you're at it, check to see if you can use any of TikTok's other accessibility features, like adding photosensitive epilepsy warnings or text-to-speech options for blind users.

Originally posted here:

How to turn on TikTok's new auto captions - Mashable

Do you know what happens to your email accounts, social media profiles, photos, videos, online bank accounts, documents and more when you pass away? A recent segment on CBS This morning sat down with Army National Guard Veteran Jennifer Sardam to talk aboutGoodTrust, an online digital-legacy service.

Sardam, who served with the 29th Mobile Public Affairs Department and who joined the Army National Guard in 2006, once lost all of her childhood photo memories during a devastating house fire. This heart-breaking loss, coupled with her parental instinct to plan ahead, got her thinking about better protecting her digital legacy.

Thats when Sardam turned to GoodTrust, an online digital-legacy service that gives you control over what happens to your digital accounts and memories when you pass. Think of it as a virtual safety-deposit box or a will for your digital accounts, photos, financial accounts, documents, last goodbyes and more. For her and countless others, it represents a peace of mind in todays connected world.

I have at least 13,000 photos on my phone and probably a few hundred videos, Sardam told CBS. It just feels really good and I want to be able to share that and keep it alive even long after Im gone.

Just as we arrange life insurance or wills for our physical possessions, we need to also plan for the post-life experience with our digital stuff. In todays connected world, managing what happens to your digital stuff in the afterlife is often as important as deciding what happens to your physical assets when you die.

The GoodTrust digital-legacy platform gives you control over what happens to your digital assets and reputation when you pass away. Think of it like a virtual safety-deposit box for your digital accounts and information.

GoodTrust also now offers innovative ways to create your digital legacy, like bringing photos to life with AI and facial-recognition technology to animate them. Its called GoodTrust Memories and only involves uploading a photo and clicking a button to see the magic in action. It works well with both historic and current photos, which can then be shared with loved ones or on social media. Its just the beginning of how technology with GoodTrust can help preserve anyones memories and stories in new and meaningful ways.

Lets be honest no one likes thinking about death. But the reality, of course, is that its all around us, through popular culture and life events and perhaps never more so in recent memory than with the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its also something never far from the minds of our military service people as they devote their lives to protect the country.

GoodTrust would like to extend two special cost-free offers to all Veterans to help preserve their digital legacy.

Digital Legacy e-book

To help you get started, the new book Digital Legacy: Take Control of Your Online Afterlife will empower you with whats important about your online afterlife and ensure that your important digital assets are treated according to your wishes. Given that the average person spends close to seven hours per day online, its an essential read for everyone.

For a limited time all Veterans will at no cost receive the GoodTrust Premium service plan for one year (value $70) when you create an account at MyGoodTrust.com/partner/GoodTrustVeteran(if you already have a free account then just follow that link and log in).

In addition, all Veteran families will receive a 50% discount on the GoodTrust service fee when helping to manage the digital accounts of a Veteran who has passed away. Just register as a free GoodTrust member through that link, click on For Someone Else, and redeem the discount code GoodTrustVeteran at checkout.

The first 100 Veterans who register in April will also get the new e-book Digital Legacy: Take Control Of Your Online Afterlife. Instructions on how to download the Digital Legacy e-book from Amazon.com will be emailed to you.

Sardam, at the computer

Once youve signed-up on http://www.MyGoodTrust.com, youll go through two simple steps:

From there, its up to you to choose your digital legacy; GoodTrust keeps your data safe by using industry-leading security and two-factor authentication.

The time is now. Dont let your digital legacy be lost; ensure that your family and friends find your accounts, documents and priceless photo memories. Its the digital story of you.

The sharing of any non-VA information does not constitute an endorsement of products and services on part of VA.

Rikard Steiber is the founder and CEO of GoodTrust.

Continued here:

As seen on CBS This Morning: Protecting Veterans' digital accounts with a free service offer and book from GoodTrust - VAntage Point - VAntage Point...

Dear DU community members,

From the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made decisions with three key principles in mind: the health and well-being of our community, the educational experience of our students and equity. It is with these same principles in mind that we share with you now our broader approach to COVID-19 vaccination.

DU will require COVID-19 vaccination for faculty and staff members

Earlier this month, we promised to share our plans for requiring COVID-19 vaccination for faculty and staff members (as we have for students). After hosting a well-attended open forum for faculty and staff members and conferring with many groups across campus, including DUs Vaccine Working Group, as well as our health care partners at National Jewish Healthand taking into account the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other expertsthe University of Denver has made the decision to require all faculty and staff who access any campus facility to receive vaccination against COVID-19.

Scientific data has shown us that vaccination against COVID-19 is safe and effective. Furthermore, we believe, and have received feedback from employees and other DU community members, that it is equitable and responsible from a public health perspective to require full vaccination of faculty and staff, in addition to students. This decision will help us return to an in-person, vibrant working, teaching and learning experience.

To date, our community has embraced vaccination with nearly 80% of faculty and staff voluntarily reporting receiving at least one shot. Faculty and staff members must provide proof of full vaccination by uploading a completed vaccine card to the myhealth.du.edu portal. (Full vaccination is defined as two weeks after a one-dose vaccine or two weeks after the second dose of a two-dose vaccine.) This must be completed ahead of your return to campus for fall term or September 1, whichever comes first. You can read more about providing proof and other COVID-19 vaccine FAQshere.

Certain vaccination exemptions will be permitted.

We understand that not every individual is in a position to receive a COVID-19 vaccine due to medical or non-medical reasons. DUs Vaccine Working Group studied the topic of vaccination exemptions very closely and has recommended certain limited exemptions. These exemptions may change as circumstances change (such as much higher positivity rates on campus, in the surrounding community or state, or the Food & Drug Administration granting full approval for a COVID-19 vaccine rather than the current emergency-use authorization).

For medical exemptions, you must submit to the Health & Counseling Center (HCC) a letter from a licensed health care or mental health care provider experienced in treating the relevant condition. For non-medical exemptions, you must submit to the HCC a form specifying the reason for the exemption request, such as sincerely held religious or personal beliefs. More information about exemptions can be foundhere.

Individuals who are not fully vaccinated will be required to follow additional mitigation protocols.

Individuals with approved exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine requirement and individuals who are not yet fully vaccinated must follow additional COVID-19 mitigation protocols similar to DUs current protocols, including quarantining before arriving on campus, after travel or following exposure to COVID-19; more frequent testing; and social distancing, among others. These requirements will be continually evaluated based on current conditions on campus, in the surrounding community and in the state, and for consistency with applicable public health guidance. The University will strive to preserve individual privacy regarding vaccination status in developing and implementing these protocols.

We hope our campusand the worldlooks more similar to what we enjoyed before the start of the pandemic. To date, DU has been able to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 almost entirely because we have focused on both individual health and safety and our collective responsibility to one another. Our best hope for a return to a more vibrant campus experience will be made possible by vaccination. We appreciate the DU communitys continued commitment to keeping one another safe.

You may find answers to your questionsonline; we will update our FAQs regularly.

If you have additional questions please contact Sarah Watamura, DUs COVID-19 coordinator,atcovidcoordinator@du.edu.

Sincerely,

Jeremy HaefnerChancellor

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COVID-19 update: Faculty and staff vaccinations - University of Denver Newsroom

Sonny Fodera, Just Kiddin and Lilly Ahlberg have joined forces on new collaborative single Closer.Combining euphoric piano chords, emotion-drenched breakdowns and Lillys seductive vocals, Closer is a sunkissed banger that has been crafted with summer in mind. Closer follows Sonnys smash collaboration with Diplo Turn Back Time, which has racked up over 50-million streams in just 6-months. Sonny just announced a handful of co-hosted festival shows with Gorgon City branded Back To Love, which will take place in London (Finsbury Park) & Bristol (Greville Smyth Park), selling 18,000 tickets across the 3 x dates. This precedes Sonnys solo headline tour later this year, which includes Printworks London, which sold out in just 24 hours.

One of the most respected names in dance music, Sonny Fodera has amassed hundreds of millions of streams across his diverse back catalogue and collaborating with scene legends such as MK & Cajmere. His renowned DJ sets have led to sold-out tours in the UK and North America, including headline shows at The Shrine in LA and Avant Gardener in NYC, as well as a summer residency at Ibiza Rocks. Half Swedish, half English singer-songwriter Lilly Ahlberg first gained attention when she began uploading covers to YouTube aged just 14. Her sound has shifted more towards dance music in recent years and she generated a buzz earlier this year with acclaimed single Young Forever, produced by Fodera.UK electronic duo Just Kiddin are best known for their smash Indiana, a single that has since racked up 25 million Spotify streams. They have also remixed the likes of Usher, Parachute Youth and Theophilus London, released on FFRR, SubSoul and Eton Messy and received BBC Radio 1 support from Annie Mac, Nick Grimshaw, B.Traits and Rob Da Bank. Marking Sonnys debut on the legendary Positiva imprint, Closer possesses all the necessary attributes to become the soundtrack to summer 2021.

Image Credit: Sonny Fodera Official Press Photo

Read more:

Sonny Fodera & Just Kiddin' team up with Lilly Ahlberg on 'Closer' - We Rave You

At the end of 2019, Australian-born artist The Kid LAROI was just another teenager trying to make it in Americas rap game. But a little over a year later, the 17-year-old LAROI is among todays top hitmakers, with collaborations alongside megastars like Juice WRLD, Justin Bieber and as of today, Miley Cyrus.

Cyrus has hopped on a remix of LAROIs breakthrough song, Without You, an emotive ballad hinging on the age-old adage: You cant make a wife out of a ho. The two are set to perform the track on Saturday Night Live on May 8, marking LAROIs first time on the Studio 8H stage. Though it may seem like a surprising collaboration at first, LAROI and Cyrus voices each with their own signature croon blend together seamlessly, and Cyrus contribution brings a new maturity to the track. Feels like sleeping with a ghost / I called you up to let you know / I really wish that we couldve got this right, Cyrus belts over the songs laid-back acoustic guitar.

In fact, it was guitarist and Without You co-writer and producer Omer Fedi who brought the two together for the collaboration, LAROI tells Variety.

We met through Omer because wed been working together, and we talked about maybe doing a remix of Without You,' LAROI says. Omer came to me and was like, Hey, would you want Miley to do the remix? And I was like, Yeah, that would be dope. So we just linked up, met in the studio, she cut the record and then we went and hung out and had a little party. Shes cool as fuck. I remember when my cousins used to force me to watch Hannah Montana, so collaborating with her was pretty cool.

But by this point, hanging out with musics biggest stars is just another day for LAROI, whose raspy, punk-tinged vocals make it easy for him to blend in but also stand out on a variety of tracks. As a result, hes scored an impressive number of collaborations this year, including with Marshmello, Machine Gun Kelly, and a song on Biebers newest album, Justice.

For LAROI, featuring on Unstable was a dream come true. True to many of LAROIs songs and as of late, a lot of Biebers Unstable deals with the topic of mental health, specifically struggling with anxiety within a relationship. In a softer tone than normal, LAROI laments: White knuckles tryna hold my sanity/ Not every wound is the kind that bleeds/ Never know when my minds gonna turn on me/ But youre the one I call for security.

LAROI calls himself a longtime Bieber fan, even crediting Biebers 2011 doc Never Say Never as one of his inspirations for starting a music career.

I remember when I was seven years old and my older cousin took me to go watch the Never Say Never documentary with her when it came out in the movie theater, LAROI says. I didnt really know a lot about Justin Bieber, I was like seven years old, but I remember after watching that movie I was like, Yo, this is the coolest kid in the fucking world.'

Has Bieber lived up to LAROIs expectations? Absolutely, he says. Their collaboration started as many relationships do nowadays Bieber slid into LAROIs DMs.

He DMed me and he said, You got the sauce. I responded like, Thank you, Im a big fan. He just liked my message and that was it for a month or two, LAROI says.Then he just hit me up like, Hey I think I have a song for us to do. He sent me his number and I texted him while I was in the shower. I remember being like, Oh fuck, I hope he doesnt Facetime me or anything while Im in the shower. He did.

The two became fast friends, and have a tradition of playing basketball together every Sunday. Its crazy, thats my boy now, LAROI says with a chuckle.

In more ways than one, LAROIs rapid rise to success at such a young age mirrors that of Bieber. Born Charlton Howard in Sydney, Australia, LAROI started out writing his own raps in notebooks and uploading freestyle videos on social media. After becoming a finalist on Triple Js Unearthed competition in 2018 at age 15, LAROI caught the eye of Lil Bibby, a Chicago-based rapper who started his own label, Grade A Productions, and famously signed the late Juice WRLD in 2017. After hearing LAROIs track Blessings from his first EP 14 With a Dream, Bibby locked in LAROI to open for Juice WRLD during his Australian tours in 2018 and 2019. During those tours, LAROI and Juice WRLD forged a strong bond, with LAROI referring to him as a mentor.

First and foremost, he was just a really good dude, LAROI says of Juice WRLD. In the short time that we knew each other, he gave me a lot of the game on the industry and how some stuff works that I still keep in mind today.

Juice WRLD tragically died in December 2019 after an accidental overdose at only 21. LAROI paid tribute to him on his July 2020 debut mixtape, F*CK LOVE, by posthumously releasing their collaboration, Go. The track reached No. 22 on Billboards R&B and hip-hop chart, and an emotional music video featuring behind-the-scenes footage of LAROI and Juice WRLD has over 47 million views. Though the song focuses on romantic love, its lyrics take on a new meaning in the wake of Juices passing: Dont leave me lone, lone, lone/ I guess Im accident prone, prone prone.

Being such a young player in an industry ripe with addiction, LAROI does what he can to keep himself grounded. The biggest help, he says, has been having his mother and younger brother living with him in L.A., and the advice of those who have been there, done that.

You know whats funny, every big celebrity I meet, they always tell me: Hey man, dont do cocaine. Every single one of them, LAROI says in a tone that toes the line between joking and serious. Im like, Okay, Im going to take your word for it.'

With much of his music dealing with topics like love and mental health, LAROI says he finds the most songwriting inspiration in just regular life shit.

My biggest thing is like, you have to go through regular shit for regular people to relate, you know what Im saying? LAROI says. A lot of my biggest songs are just some real shit that I feel like a lot of people relate to.

Growing up in Australia, LAROI says he didnt have a ton of access to education concerning mental health, making him feel isolated in his emotions. He puts his mental health journey into his lyrics to help others who may be in the same situation. As LAROI sings on I Wish, one of the more vulnerable tracks on his debut mixtape: Every night I saw it, skeletons in my closet/ Still got all these problems, I thought money would solve em/ Blood all on the walls and, teardrops down, they falling.

I was kind of taught that depression and anxiety isnt real and it doesnt exist. I have felt this way for such a long time and I never knew what it was, so I didnt think that that shit really existed, LAROI says. I feel like some of my favorite artists back then were the people that were talking about that stuff because I could relate to it. So I want to be able to help people out the same way that some of my favorite artists helped me out.

Those favorite artists were Kanye West and Drake, LAROI says. But, though he has been raised in rap, dont expect LAROI to stick to one genre for the rest of his career. To him, they dont exist.

My music, if it had a genre, it would be called raw emotion because thats all it is, LAROI says. I dont go in and have specific sonics that I need to do, just whatever I think is dope or whatever helps bring how Im feeling at that time out. So genre to me, I dont think about that shit. That doesnt really mean shit to me.

View original post here:

The Kid LAROI Talks Without You Remix Featuring Miley Cyrus and Putting Raw Emotion Into His Music - Variety

LESBOS, GreeceA few days after the sprawling Moria refugee camp was destroyed in a September inferno last year, the Greek minister of civil protection announced that the arsonists of Moria are being held. At the same time, Faiz, an Afghan asylum-seeker who spoke to The Daily Beast using an alias, suddenly stopped hearing from his 17-year-old nephew.

He soon found out his nephew, who The Daily Beast is calling Adam, was one of six young Afghans, including two minors, who had been charged with setting Moria ablaze and leaving up to 13,000 migrants homeless and without possessions in the midst of a global pandemic. Known as the the worst refugee camp on Earth, the crowded Moria facility was completely demolished within two days after a series of fireswhich began on Sept. 8broke out in separate areas of the camp.

Facing immense public pressure, a marathon to arrest those responsible ensued, as one Greek tabloid put it. The Hellenic police set up a special investigations team. The Greek minister for citizen protection flew in to supervise. Even the secret service was involved. A week later, six young migrants, including Adam, were arrested.

At a juvenile court in Lesbos last month, Faiz tried to explain to a judge that his nephew was alone in the unaccompanied minors section of the camp when the fire started and had immediately run over to his uncles tent. But it was his word against the written testimony of an elusive witness who had allegedly given the police a list of names, including the name of Faizs nephew, claiming he saw them start the fire.

That witness never actually appeared in court. According to the Greek portal Press Project, he received asylum status immediately after speaking to the police in September. Adams lawyer, Vicky Aggelidou, was never given the opportunity to question the witness, and his current whereabouts are unknown to officials.

The Legal Centre Lesbos (LCL), an NGO that provides legal support to migrants and is representing the Moria 6, described the trial as a scandal that mocks the principles of a democratic state. Greek police have previously coerced community leaders to turn over people for prosecution in the past, by threatening them with criminal charges and offering benefits like getting transferred from the island, according to LCL.

The mans written declaration, which the court described as particularly credible, was the main evidence prosecutors had relied on to make their case against Adam. At the end of a six-hour closed-door trial, Adam and another young man, who we are calling Mehdi, were sentenced to five years in prison each for arson. Both were 17 years old at the time. Four other Afghans, all young adults, still await trial.

Unlike Adam and the other suspects, Mehdi ended up in court after two police officers claimed to have identified him in a shaky minute-long video lifted off of Facebook in September, which showed the back of a male individual holding pieces of cardboard to a fire. His full face is not visible at any point in the clip.

According to LCL, more than 10 people from the Hazara community showed up in front of the courthouse in Mytilini last month prepared to testify to Adam and Mehdi alibis on the night of the first fire. But the court limited the testimony to one witness per defendant.

This was in the context of a very hostile environment, where most people are afraid to go to the authorities, LCL lawyer Lorraine Leete told The Daily Beast. The trial, she adds, is proof of the lack of any fair procedure that migrants face when they arrive in Lesbos, whether its criminal procedures or asylum procedures.

Leete added that, in her opinion, the evidence used against the migrants appeared consistent with a practice of arbitrarily arresting and prosecuting migrants, especially when police believe they are responsible for organizing protests. On the day of the fire, there had been protests in the camp against lockdown measures, which the Greek government claimed the alleged arsonists had been involved in.

In 2018, an Iraqi community leader was reportedly coerced by police to name eight Syrian and Iraqi refugees after a peaceful protest against the conditions in the camp. After testifying, he was granted asylum, and later admitted in a video that he had been under threat and had given their names falsely, according to migrant advocacy groups.

He just looked wasted.

Faiz, Adams uncle.

Two police officers testified last month that they had identified Mehdi from a Sept. 10 Facebook video captioned: This is a depiction that confirms that Afghan immigrants were the ones who torched the camp, that they spoke the Afghan language.

The clip appears to show a male in an open field that is flaming with little fires. With his back turned to the camera, he speaks Farsi and spreads a few flames with a piece of cardboard. In the days that followed, the video was viewed 35,000 times. The Greek broadcaster Skai reported that, one of the minors, as it appears from the materials of the authorities, seems to have, as the police put it, burnt half of Moria.

In court, the two officers pointed to a photo of Mehdi wearing a similar outfit to the one worn by the person in the video: a pink shirt, sweatpants and slide sandals. Mass distribution of identical garments were common in the Moria camp, especially for minors, but The Daily Beast was not able to confirm whether the shirt or pants in the video had been ordered and distributed en masse before the fire.

According to LCL, one of the officers had described Mehdi as tiny and short, as the man in the video appears to be. But when Mehdi stands up, he appears visibly taller than the officer. According to Press Project, one officer also claimed to have identified Mehdi by his haircut, with Mehdis lawyer rebutting him by arguing that 90 percent of young Afghan refugees don the same hairstyle.

The video first appeared on Arabic Facebook page M.R.C ( rescue and follow up call), which is dedicated to sharing information for refugees travelling from Turkey to Europe. It includes posts about scam operations, documented incidents with the Greek and Turkish coast guards, and migrants who have gone missing.

The page, which has around 100,000 followers, is run by a group of 10 volunteers, mostly based in Greece and Turkey. One of them goes by the nickname Alaa Al Iraqi. His mantra: Dont follow the news, follow Alaa Al Iraqi.

"I thought I had to show who should feel bad [about the fire]. Its not everyone in the camponly certain communities, Alaa told The Daily Beast. Asylum seekers in Lesbos come from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, as well as African countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia. The footage, Alaa says, was sent to him by a friend who'd lived in the Moria camp.

I dont care. Anything true, I put it on my page, says Alaa.

Underneath the video, hed written, Everyone should share the video and post it in all groups to lift the injustice against immigrants who are not at fault. His post was then shared by various Greek and German accounts, who left comments like Send them back and No more aid.

Some Greek people, they shared this video, they said. Look at these animals, setting fire to their own houses, says Alaa. I commented under their posts to say, you cannot take this video and talk like this. Nobody answered me.

Alaa says that, after uploading the video, no police officer or other public official ever contacted him or M.R.C to ask any questions about it.

They can forget it.

Greek government spokesman.

In October, after several high-ranking Greek politicians made statements about the Moria arsonists, the BBC released a documentary titled Who started the fire at Europes largest refugee camp?, which relied on footage taken by refugee journalists from ReFOCUS Media Labs, who had filmed the fire as it spread on Sept. 8 and 9.

Immediately after the BBC film aired, the ReFOCUS Media students got called in to Mytilini police station as potential witnesses. There, the officers demanded to know whether they had any footage of people, including local Greeks, starting fires. The student journalists told them that they didnt have or know anyone who had video evidence of suspected arsonists. But the police were relentless, playing and pausing the documentary to interrogate them on different frames.

It was actually quite shocking when they came at us in October. The way they treated everyone just felt like harassment, says Douglas Herman, who helps run the media lab. They kind of presented to the public that they had already closed their investigation very quickly, that within days of the fire, they already had it all solved.

Shortly after the refugee camp had burned down, the Greek daily Ekathimerini reported that the key testimony for the arrest of the Moria 6 was supplied by a 42-year-old representative of the Afghan community of the Moria camp, who told police that a group of at least 15 young Afghans had set the fire and named five of his compatriots to be arrested.

In the Moria camp, the different nationality groups elect leaders to represent them at weekly meetings with the camp management and the police. At the time of Septembers fire, there were around 9,000 people from Afghanistan living in the Moria camp.

My nephew doesnt know who the leader is, and the leader doesnt know who my nephew is, said Faiz, speaking from his rain-drenched fabric tent. The UNHCR had attempted to deliver new housing containers to migrants as a replacement to the homes lost in the fire, but the delivery was reportedly road-blocked by angry locals protesting the establishment of a new camp.

From the evidence weve seen [the community leader] is the only witness who came forward to name people after the fire, says Leete.He gave five very common Hazara first names, not last names, then he was shown specific photographs by the police and he identified [the five defendants] from the few photos he was given.

The photos shown were from the suspects registration papers: thumbnail-sized, blurry black and white portraits with hazy grey backgrounds. Adding to this, the community leader is from the Pashtun tribe and only provided names of individuals who are ethnically Hazara, which is a persecuted minority in Afghanistan.

A few days before Adams trial, Faiz had tried to visit his nephew in jail. The police didn't let me talk to him. They told me even his parents cannot see him, he told The Daily Beast. When Faiz saw his nephew in the courtroom, he was crushed. He just looked wasted, he said.

Among the migrant community in Greece, rumors are still swirling about the circumstances, potential victims, and alleged culprits behind the fire that uprooted the thousands of migrants who had been living in the camp. Several migrants told the BBC that far-right Greeks were responsible for starting the fire after news broke of the first reported COVID cases in the camp.

I heard 10 different stories about what happened that night, says Harbi, who came from Syria and organizes apartments for refugee families in the city. The day after the fire, Harbi brought food to a friend in the camp. She told him that she had heard of five people who had died in the fire, including a girl and her mother, a baby from Congo and somebody from Somalia.

The UNHCR said that no casualties were officially reported. But officials had never kept an exact count of how many migrants were living in the camp in the first place, and the fire brigade reportedly forwent an extensive forensic investigation of the charred grounds.

After the fire, the Greek government justified its refusal to evacuate tens of thousands of now-homeless asylum seekers from the island with the argument that, Some [people] do not respect the country that is hosting them they thought that if they set fire to Moria they would leave the island indiscriminately. Whatever those who set the fires had in mind, they can forget it.

The prosecutors office in Lesbos declined to comment for this article, writing that, according to our cnstitution, the prosecutor never gives out information or interviews about any case which comes before him/her.

Adams uncle says he is still reeling from the ordeal. I thought it was going to be a fair court, but it wasnt. I thought my nephew was going to be freed, because he didnt do anything, said Faiz.

But he wasnt.

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Were These Migrant Teens Framed for Arson That Left 13,000 Homeless? - The Daily Beast