Category Archives: Mind Uploading

New Delhi, May 8 (PTI) Even retired Delhi police officials can now access their various key documents like discharge certificates and pension payment orders through Digilocker, thanks to the departments decision to link those credentials to the countrys online digitalization service.

The extension of service, which was available only to the serving officials with their I-cards etc linked to the Digilocker till now, to the retired officials would rid them of the hassles of running from pillar to post to access their key documents, said police on Sunday.

According to the standard operating procedure issued by the Delhi Police on May 2 on the issue, in order to facilitate retired police personnel access their documents anytime and anywhere, the police districts and its various units shall upload discharge certificates, pension payment orders and retirees identity cards on Digilocker.

The retired police personnel can subsequently access these documents from the Digilocker using their user ID and password, it said.

With the Delhi police providing its former officials access to their various key documents on Diglocker, they would be readily able to download a copy of any of their documents in case they lose or misplace it.

Digilocker is an online Indian digitalization service and flagship initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and IT under the Digital India Programme which aims at Digital Empowerment of the citizen by providing access to authentic documents in citizens digital document wallet.

Besides discharge certificates and pension payment orders, other documents that former Delhi police officials can access on their Digilocker are retirees identity cards and senior citizen cards.

Aadhar Card is mandatory for Digilocker application for the verification process. One has to ensure the Aadhar Card number of the retired officer is uploaded along with his date of birth, name and registered mobile number, the SOP for the purpose said.

With this service, the retired police officials will easily access their digitally verified important documents through mobile apps and web interfaces and even secure cloud-based platforms for their storage.

This service will also provide them with the digitally acceptable documents under IT Act, 2000 from their originating department, said officials.

Special Commissioner of Police (Welfare) Shalini Singh said a meeting was held with office bearers of the Delhi Police Retired Gazetted Officers Association and those of the Delhi Police Mahasabha during which some changes were formulated based on suggestions by retirees.

This was the first of a kind meeting with the office bearers of both the organisations, she said.

She said the move followed after it was realized during the meeting that if a retired officer living away from Delhi needs some of his misplaced documents, it would be a great hassle for him to come all the way back and approach the police headquarters here.

Keeping these factors in mind, the Digilocker facility has been extended to retiring as well as retired officers from this financial year onwards, she added.

We are uploading documents of those who are retiring or have retired so that they can access it from anywhere and. If his ID card or pension-related documents are lost, he need not apply for it again, he can just download it from the Digilocker, she added.

The retired officers of the Delhi Police have also appreciated the move and said they are happy that it has been implemented within a month after the meeting.

Retired DCP, G S Awana said usually there is a difference between the ID cards of serving officers and those of retired officers and they are often asked for proof even though they share their post-retirement ID cards.

Now with Digilocker, the ID cards of retired officers are also verified and uploaded on it. This is as good as any digital document. It also enhances their authenticity. I also downloaded it from Digilocker and it was easy, said Awana who joined the force in 1982 and retired in 2018.

We will not have to carry all documents now as everything is already uploaded, he added.

Appreciating the move, former ACP Ved Bhushan said this step is quite helpful and if he goes abroad and loses his documents, he can always download them from his Digilocker and show it to concerned authorities.

World is going digital so we need not carry all these documents everywhere. Also with age, we tend to lose our memory. This way, we know our documents are safe and can be availed at any time required be it my pension papers, Aadhar Card or anything. It could be even my property papers, said Bhushan, who joined the force in 1983 and retired in 2018.

The Delhi Police SOP on the facility said the Digilocker is an intra-DP assisted system and shall be monitored by the IT Cell of the PHQ while the Pension Cell and Pension Cell staff of PHQ shall monitor the uploading of the pension-related documents.

Concerned Pension Cell and Head Assistant Character Roll (HACR) of district police and its other units shall be responsible to upload the documents from time to time.

The uploading process has already started from April 30 this year and will continue, it stated.

The SOP further stated that additional DCsP-II of districts and units DCsP shall ensure that the documents are uploaded without delay.

The Provisions and Logistics Unit shall be responsible for uploading identity cards of retired police personnel on the Digilocker while the Senior Citizen Cell of all police units shall be responsible for uploading senior citizen cards of retired police personnel, it reads. PTI AMP RAX RAX

This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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Retired Delhi police officials to access their departments key documents on Digikocker - ThePrint

Fivio Foreign isnt in the mood to chat. Its morning in New York City, where the rapper grew up and continues to live, and he was up late last night in the studio. Never mind that his debut album dropped only a week ago; relaxation isnt on the agenda. After all, collaborations with Nicki Minaj, Drake, Alicia Keys, and Kanye West dont materialise through rest. Theyre the product of day-in, day-out grinding. Im in the studio every day, he says over Zoom, his camera off. I just woke up. His baritone voice, typically heard growling over a club sound system, is heavy with sleep.

Crazy is how Fivio describes the release of BIBLE, his Kanye West-produced debut. Offering a softer side to drill, the album trades in catchy choruses and R&B inflections, which make it accessible to masses beyond the genres most hardcore demographic. It might be just the thing to finally take drill mainstream. The 32-year-old, real name Maxie Lee Ryles III, is in a similar state of shock over the fact West wanted to work with him. I didnt believe it at first. But then, the way my career is going, man, anything is possible. BIBLE is the latest chapter in Fivios fast track to hip-hops upper tier. In short order, Fivio found his feet with the 2019 ad-lib Big Drip. He then went viral on a remix of Body by UK rappers Russ Millions and Tion Wayne. Over the next few years, he released tracks with Nas, Drake, and French Montana. He held his own on Wests DONDA and Nicki Minajs recently released We Go Up.

Along the way, Fivio has emerged as the new voice of Brooklyn drill, a descendent of the Chicago-born rap style with links to gangs and violence. Melding punishing drum patterns with hectic basslines, the genres sound is just as ominous and menacing as the lyrics.

Drill, named after the Chicago slang for kill, made its way to New York via London when British producers began uploading their take on drill beats to YouTube, free for the taking for burgeoning rappers such as Fivio.

Up until recently, Brooklyn drill was associated with another name: Pop Smoke. The 20-year-old big-hitter behind tracks including Dior and Christopher Walking was poised for an international breakthrough when he was killed in February 2020. Although Fivio was around a decade older, the pair were good friends. Pop tried to convince the label that signed him to sign Fivio too. After he died, Fivio was one of few potential successors to the throne. On BIBLEs lead single, he proclaims that coronation complete: Welcome to the city of gods/ Pop was the king of New York/ Now Im the n***a in charge. Fivio sees the album as a tribute to his late friend and teacher. I definitely want to continue his legacy. Thats my brother, so I got to keep his name alive, he says. I learnt a lot from him. I might not have asked questions but Im always watching.

It helped that Pop and Fivio were on the same side of the Brooklyn gang war. Their music, at least to begin with, was tightly bound to those violent roots. Lyrics in drill the brutal threats and the hyperlocal specificity of those threats have been linked to real-life acts of violence. Law enforcement and politicians in cities like Chicago, London and New York have connected the rise in popularity of drill with a surge in knife crime and shootings. Fivio is on a mission to sever that association. Though vague on the subject, he is passionate about ensuring that his chosen genre is not reduced to a monolith. Think about it. Its the violence that comes first, not the music. Its the same with anything. Heartbreak comes first, not music about heartbreak, he says. Like any musician, a drill rapper takes inspiration from their surroundings. For the lyrics to change, ultimately the surroundings need to as well. But in the meantime, Fivio is working tirelessly to prove that drill is not inherently violent.

Im a strong person. I dont like to depend on anything, even if its drugs

(Fivio Foreign)

There is evidence of that aim all over BIBLE, a drill album notably lacking in the genres typical idiom of guns and gangs. The Fivio who once penned bloodthirsty threats on tracks like Blixky Inna Box a blicky is a gun, and Blixky (the x is silent) is the name of a rival crew is no more. Those days are definitely behind me, he says. Outside of the studio too, Fivio is making inroads. In February, mere days before Pop was killed, Fivio was one of many rappers to meet with New Yorks mayor Eric Adams to discuss the role that drill plays in fanning the flames of gang rivalry. While it was reported that Adams had organised the summit, it was, in fact, Fivio who reached out to him. I mean, I just feel like I got a responsibility so I gotta let it be known, ya know? As for what was said in the meeting, Fivio is characteristically opaque but says that the mayor didnt want to ban drill music as much as people thought he did.

It helps that this aim of Fivios goes hand in hand with his other ambition: go mainstream or to use his favourite catchphrase, go viral. On his debut, creative decisions have been made with crossover appeal in mind. There is a feature from the young R&B artist Chlo Bailey; a collab with Ne-Yo; and a radio-ready Destinys Child sample on Whats My Name, which Fivio needed to change the lyrics to in order to clear (Beyonc thought it was too vulgar). The City of Gods chorus comes courtesy of pop duo The Chainsmokers. There remain some references to Fivios controversial past (Left Side nods to his affiliation with the Crips), but theyre sparse and subtle. And while the rapper says he is inspired by everyday life, he clarifies that any illegal activities featured in his rhymes are of course, not true.

Out of necessity for work and life, Fivio is making a quieter life for himself. He has a smaller group of people around him and has hired a professional security guard. He also relocated with his three children to the far side of the Hudson river and has eased up on the partying. Im saying I want to focus up more. Im saying I want to be more natural, he says. Im a strong person. I dont like to depend on anything, even if its drugs. Is it hard to maintain part-time sobriety in an industry renowned for partying? Nah, he says nonchalantly. Although admittedly too busy to go to church, Fivio stays in prayer. Speaking about his career, and the sometimes unbelievable path it has taken, Fivio says, Whatever happens, thats Gods plan-type s***.

From the outside looking in, Fivios rise seems to have happened overnight; a Cinderella story helped along by some of the most powerful co-signs in the industry. But to Fivio, success has felt gradual and hard-earned. I worked every day and I felt it every day and I thought about it every day and I went through the s*** every day so this s*** dont feel sudden to me, he says. To me, this s*** felt like a real thing.

BIBLE is available to listen to on all streaming platforms

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Fivio Foreign: Pop Smoke was my brother I have to keep his name alive - The Independent

It's tricky for folks to realise the actual narrative underlying just an image when your entire career is predicated on Instagram and social media content.

Even though the wild world of influencers is still a fairly young sector that several individuals fail to grasp, it has grown to be worth an estimated $7 billion or more per year. Becoming an influencer is much more than just uploading a snapshot and witnessing the revenue pour in, regardless if it isn't a conventional 9-to-5 employment.

Instagram has grown into a global social media standard since its inception over a decade ago, aided by its relationship with Facebook. However knowing the ideal days and times to post on Instagram isn't enough; you also need to know how to leverage your skills to become a must-follow!

Several of the bloggers you see today provide an example of self-sustenance and acts as an inspiration for businesses on how to establish their brand on Instagram. As it is said "It will not happen overnight, as with all good things. It shouldn't, because you're attempting to improve your skills, not just do it."

Today, we meet with Anureet Sandhu, a vivacious and ever-smiling Punjabi influencer who has defied all difficulties to get to where she is today. Positive energy radiated from her flamboyance and confidence as she entered the room.

Her videos are based and thought around fashion, skincare, fitness, dressing up is one her favourite content bucket to work on.Anureet is a Lifestyle and fitness influencer who strongly believes in quality content over quantity.She quotes Knowing what's going on in your sector is essential for creating amazing content that genuinely resonates with your target audience. As well as the finest content creators explore the internet for industry news and trends, not simply read them.

Ms Sandhu is a simple and sweet girl with an engineering background, but her passion for clothing, fashion, and beauty inspired her to take the next step and pursue a career in content production. Her life hasn't always been a piece of chocolate cake, as she recounted with us, beginning with being harassed and fat shamed for being overweight by not just her classmates and friends, but also her dearest relatives, who would look down on her and make jokes about her appearance. It took her over 5 years to overcome her obstacles and demonstrate to the world that the additional inches, angles, and colour of her skin do not define a person's talents.

Anureet isn't simply a content producer for the sake of fame and followers; she's on a mission to tell her experience and encourage all the ladies who have faced similar challenges to rise up and prove their value to the world. She is certain that no one will know you or your gift unless you return it to them. A weak heart would lock itself in a room and sob at the circumstance, but a strong heart with a focused mind would jump out the window and dig their road to victory.She further revealed with us her skill in the foreign language of French, for which she has been working as a precovid tutor. Apart from that, she enjoys shopping and getting into her car for a good warm cup of coffee, which she modestly admits she enjoys. Travelling is one of her adventurous streaks; she is a major solo traveller, and she feels that travel offers you perspective and experience, which moulds your personality and allows you to absorb real-life lessons.

Anureet is definitely an astounding and happy soul, we loved the conversation with her over her favourite cup of coffee and cookies.

Do follow and check her out for some amazing snaps, which brighten your day.

https://www.instagram.com/anureetsandhu0007/

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From Being Persecuted To Acquiring Over 35k Admirers, Anureet Sandhu Recounts Her Pathway To Be An Influencer - Outlook India

Instagram has captured the love of the many because it offers a wide range of tools that can make your growth on this platform smooth and easy. But to handle all that properly, newcomers need guidance, to make their way comfortable and reach success without a significant loss of time and resources. Many guides can be found on the internet, and it is easy to get lost in the abundance of information. And here are collected the most efficient tools implemented on Instagram, that can help you to build a splendid blogger career.

The most controversial topic that can be found in the sphere of SMM should people actually use paid promotion for their profiles? Of course, it is completely useless to get bots. Yes, for the short time they will increase the number, but soon enough you will feel how your progress drops. But modern services for Instagram, which allow you to buy relevant comments, various amounts of likes and followers, or which provide views for your videos can be a good help for you, because they allow you to create a trampoline that squeezes you in the desired niche. In times when competition is tough in every industry, such a possibility is worth the money. But it can be very easy to get away with such a promotion! Be careful and always keep in mind that your goal is to attract organic users.

Before releasing the sails of your profile to the sea of possibilities on Instagram, you have to check every last fact and the reason why you are doing it and how you are doing it. Analyze the trends of your niche, and look through the profiles of top bloggers too. The main reason for doing that is to find out the preferences of your target audience, so you can provide the most relevant content at once. To do that you can use third-party tools and your personal experience. Make notes of everything that resonates with you, and later you can use that as inspiration material to create your strategy.

If you want to optimize your progress in social media, and Instagram in particular, you should automate all possible processes with the help of various tools. Some third-party services can be huge timesavers, that would free more time for you, which is good for your health too. Critical things for you at the beginning would be:

You have to produce content regularly, so your followers do not lose you, and the engagement doesnt drop down. It is also important so you can refill your inner resources and energy, as well as produce new content. Due to the big variety of formats that are available on Instagram, you have to consider that you have different periods for updating your profile. For example, stories are designed to be posted daily, and Reels too. On the contrary, igtv and live streaming can be uploaded once a week. The optimal frequency of uploading is for you to choose, but you should consider the average data in your industry. Finding a perfect balance for all your posts can be challenging, but you have to experiment and try different schemes to find what suits you best.

Instagram is a rich platform that offers you lots of possibilities to express yourself. As time goes by, Instagram authorities and creative teams constantly monitor the hottest trends in social media and they immediately implement things that people love in their app. So it happened with Stories, and recently, with Tik Tok videos.

Here is the list of Instagram content formats that are available for users:

In case you want to get more off your Instagram profile, you can launch a business profile there and provide a better shopping experience for your customers. With your business profile turned on, you can create a real shop, with specific features:

With these specials, Instagram is a perfect place to empower your relationship with the clientele, to make them stronger and more fruitful for both sides. Many brands choose Instagram over many other networks primarily because it allows them to address their target audience smoothly and improve their position in the market by exploring and changing their tactics on the go. Needless to say, that promotion on Instagram can be rather inexpensive in comparison to classic marketing methods.

Your main tool in the promotion strategy on Instagram is your content. People are eager to see something interesting, inspiring, and beautiful. Many mistakes can be forgiven if you provide something fascinating and useful to your viewers. Important note: value is a great factor for content quality, so your goal is to bring useful and entertaining information to your followers. And all that has to be sprinkled over with your charisma. Personal charm is often the most significant reason for people to subscribe to someones profile on Instagram.

However cool it may appear, dont try to create an artificial person who will be a host on your blog. People love bloggers who are truly passionate about their subject and who are honest with them.

Instagram as an app gives many opportunities to express yourself and impress other people. Nowadays being a blogger is a huge industry with tough competition and ground rules for success. Promotion on this network combines many options and is always grounded on the individual features of each personality.

Many processes can be automated, so you can save some time for creativity and produce really fresh ideas that can become a new trend on this social platform. And always use the feedback from your audience as the material for improvement and growth. Such an approach will be appreciated a lot, thus you will get more activity on your account.

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Top Tools that Always work in Instagram Promotion - iLounge

Getting a health insurance policy for the safety of your family is a sensible step taken in the right direction. However, you must also be aware that for your policy to give you continuous coverage and remain valid, you need to renew it before the expiry of the policy.

Rakesh Jain, CEO, of Reliance General Insurance, says, With online facility provided by most of the insurers, the entire process of renewal has become quick and convenient.

Here are 5 things you should consider when renewing your health insurance;

Renew your policy timely

Renew your policy before the expiry of the existing policy. In any circumstances, if you have missed it, do remember that usually there is a 30-day grace period in which if you renew your policy you do not lose your continuity benefit. However, for this period, which is the policy end date to the renewal date, you and your family will be uncovered.

Jain explains, Lapse of the existing policy is risky, especially for those with pre-existing medical conditions. Even though insurers send renewal reminders of the due date, the policyholder still has to ensure that the policy is renewed before the due date.

Option to increase the sum insured

As the medical cost rises every year, you can always assess the sum insured you require before renewing your policy. And if need be, you can increase the sum insured amount at the time of policy renewal. Moreover, according to industry experts, you can also enhance the coverage by adding a top-up or super top-up plan with your base policy.

Add a family member/members

There is an option to add a new family member to your existing policy at the time of renewal. One can add ones parents, spouse or children under the health insurance protection, and can always opt for it before renewing, subject to it is on the individual cover, says Jain.

You are also eligible to get taxation benefits by adding family members aged 60 or above.

Consider the option of portability

This usually is ideal if you are not satisfied with the current policy. If you are not satisfied with the services of your current insurer or looking at considering more features in your policy but not available in the existing policy, then you can always port your health insurance policy at the time of renewal.

Consider the ease of a mobile application

Jain points out, Mobile applications have brought ease, speed, and transparency to insurance claim processes and settlements. Hence, it will be wise to check if ones present insurer has a user-friendly app for quicker and transparent claim settlement.

Having said that, keep in mind that click and uploading documents for claim intimation, real-time claim status tracking, accessing all policy-related information and one-click renewal of your existing policy are important features the app should have.

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Time to renew your health insurance? Here are 5 tips to consider - The Financial Express

A top priority for the Biden administration is transforming the federal customer experience. The president's executive order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery is a clarion call for agencies to better serve their customers by putting people at the center of what government does.

The order directs agencies to work with Congress, the private sector, state, local and tribal governments, and other organizations to design experiences "that effectively reduce administrative burdens, simplify both public-facing and internal processes to improve efficiency, and empower the federal workforce to solve problems."

Robotic process automation(RPA) is the right tool, right now to deliver results to reduce burden, improve efficiency and enable workforce. RPA is part of a journey to accelerate the improvement of customer service and employee satisfaction. By removing mundane and repetitive tasks, RPA can focus valuable employee time on higher-value work, such as more personalized customer service and quicker fulfillment of citizen requests. The time is ripe for government agencies to make the most of RPA.

How RPA is gaining momentum in government

RPA is a transformation tool. RPA is a low-cost, quick results tool for agencies looking to eliminate workload and implement serious change. Uses abound across the spectrum of contracting, human resources, service operations, and finance. As a result, federal RPA programs saw major growth in 2021, according to the federal RPA Playbook.

Currently, the IRS is using RPA to improve finance and procurement functions. In 2020, the IRS completed nearly 1,500 contract modifications in 72 hours, a process that would have taken a year if done manually, according to Shanna Webbers, chief procurement officer at the IRS. The automation project was successful in reducing the administrative burden on contract officers, eliminating data errors, emailing modified documentation to vendors, and then accelerating uploading them into the correct contract file repository.

Additionally, the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) successfully deployed automation to process a large backlog of pending cases. This also addressed an item noted in a General Accountability Office (GAO) audit. During the audit, the bot processed 2 million records across seven regional databases in one houra project that would have taken nine months to complete if it were to have been done manually.

Business and technology partnership

Where RPA has been a catalyst for transformation efforts, there are some common characteristics. It takes business and technology advocates working in partnership who are focused on digital transformation. It also takes alignment of thinking on priority processes for improvement and intended outcomes. Digital is rapidly becoming a prominent method for delivering essential public services. More importantly, deploying secure, efficient and effective technology withunintended biasin mind will improve the citizen experience and increase trust in government.

Harnessing the power of an automation-first workforce

While progress is being made across many areas of government digital transformation, this is just the start of the journey to improve government and put the citizen at the center. Taking on more complicated tasks opens the door to usingRPA with emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), natural language processing and optical character recognition for categorizing information from structured and unstructured data sources. RPA can help synthesize information of varying types and from varying sources (where the platform is flexible across vendors). RPA is a proven solution to accelerate the journey towards a more efficient and citizen-focused digital government.

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How automation can enhance and empower the federal workforce - FCW.com

Muni Long Wiki: For those who are unfamiliar with Muni Long, You, like everyone else on the planet, must be looking for information about Angela right now, which is why weve compiled all of the available information about Muni Long for you.

Were here to answer all of your questions about her early life, family, career, controversies, and financial situation. Instead, we would assume that you have arrived at a set of information that you are willing to share with us.

Read More:- Post Malone Net Worth 2022: How Much Does Post Malone Charge Per Show?

Muni Long was born on September 14, 1988, in the city of Vero Beach, Florida, United States. She is a singer and songwriter from the United States. Jukebox, her first studio album as a solo artist, was released by Capitol Records in 2009 and has received positive reviews.

If you are looking for Muni Longs Biography and want to know everything about her personal life as well as her professional life, you have come to the right place, and the entire set of information will become a must-read for you once you finish reading this.

Muni Long was born in the city of Vero Beach in the state of Florida, United States. She is a singer and songwriter from the United States who is married to Masimba Chibanda.

In the following decade, she worked with other recording artists, penning hit songs such as California King Bed by Rihanna, Worth It by Fifth Harmony, Love So Soft by Kelly Clarkson, Imagine by Ariana Grande, and the global smash Timber by Pitbull featuring Kesha.

She has also been nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year for her work on H.E.R.s Back of My Mind (2021), for which she received a nomination. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Muni Long.

Must Read:- Kaley Cuoco Net Worth 2022: How Much Did Kaley Cuoco Make Per Episode?

Muni Long belongs to the white ethnic group. No one knows who her father is and nobody knows who her mother is either. To learn more about her Wiki, read this article and check out all of her personal information on this webpage.

According to available information, Muni Longs marital status is Married. Masimba Chibanda is her husbands given name. We provide you with the most up-to-date information. If youre interested in learning more about his love story, keep reading this article to find out all the details.

Angela Elizabeth Tobin was born in the city of Vero Beach in the state of Florida, United States.She has stated that she began singing at the age of two, but that she did not feel comfortable singing in front of others until she was older.

She later discovered YouTube and began uploading videos of herself singing in her room to the site.With increasing popularity on YouTube, Long was signed to Capitol Records under her given name in 2009, when she was just 21 years old.

Also Read:- Cristiano Ronaldo Net Worth 2022: Do You Know How Much Ronaldo Makes Each Day?

Her debut album was originally scheduled for release on October 20, 2009, but it was postponed to allow for additional recording to take place.

Since leaving Florida, Long has lived in Atlanta, and then Los Angeles before returning to Florida.Her song Family Tree was inspired by the time she was kicked out of her familys home as a teenager, according to the singer.

She went to Vero Beach High School, which is the same high school where Jake Owen went.

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What Is the Net Worth of a Muni Long Over a Period of Time? - Brandingirononline

Its rare in music tech for a disrupter to emerge so rooted in the core values of the electronic music community, yet, in a nutshell, this is exactly what new software tool Aslice is.

Born out of a real need to address disparities within dance culture, the software offers a financial bridge to electronic music producers who frequently miss out on both the big paychecks of top-tier DJs and royalties from collection agencies. Aslice is on a mission to create a fairer ecosystem through software that enables DJs to effortlessly capture their playlist data and voluntarily offer a small portion of their gig fee (the amount is variable, but 5% is suggested) directly to the producers of the tracks they play.

The American companys innovation works through gathering information captured on USB during a DJ set and then uploaded onto Aslices laptop software afterwards. It dispenses of the need to scrawl out half-remembered sets and go through the finicky process of uploading tracklists on the DJ's side, and instead acts as its own collection agency, using metadata and algorithms to match and attribute tracks to their owners through public databases.

According to the 2019 IMS Business Report, DJs made a total of $1.1billion from touring. Yet research published by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) indicated a mere 0.4 percent of artists across all genres in the UK make a living from streaming royalties. Add to this, streaming giant Spotifys recent heavy investment in non-music related activities such as military AI and celebrity podcasters and you have a landscape where producers frequently fall to the bottom of the food chain.

If Aslice feels refreshingly altruistic, a lot of this is down to the pedigree and commitment of founder, Zak Khutoretsky aka DVS1, who has long used his prominent position as a globally renowned DJ and producer to address the needs of electronic music communities. Aslice, he says, revealing the company name origins, is a slice of the pie.

Khutoretsky, who first emerged out of the 90s midwest rave scene in the US, could be considered an activist for preserving true club values, significantly with his 2014 essay highlighting the battle between art and entertainment and the importance of no-camera policies in clubs. Then, in 2019, Khutoretsky launched the initiative S.O.S (Support Organise Sustain), hosting panel discussions and seminars aiming to counterbalance the increasingly business and industry-dominated values of dance culture. If anything, Aslice feels like a natural successor to this committed lineage, from essay to discussion to real-time action.

At the end of 2019, I was getting ready to make my kind of typical end of year post saying 'I have a great life as a DJ. Thank you to everyone for coming to the gigs and hearing me play and also for supporting my labels. Khutoretsky explains the genesis of the idea. But I felt awkward making that post and I decided to instead make one thanking everyone for the music I get, for the producers who send me unreleased tracks."

Because my DJ skills are one thing but the music I get from people is really the other half of my success. So I asked myself: How can I support the artists? Finally, I called my longtime assistant, label manager, and good friend Sebastian and said: I have this idea now that I'm playing mostly digital, I have all my playlists, all my tracklists, and I keep seeing a couple of hundred names of young producers who are sending me music, who are not getting paid. So I asked him to send 200 artists 50 dollars each as a thank you. Sebastian replied that its a great idea, but that its going to take a lot of admin time to figure this out. So we discarded this idea for the time being until the pandemic overwhelmed all of us, and the whole scene shut down.

The disparity between DJ and producer earnings has widened over the past 25 years

It was during this uncertain period as nightlife shut down when Zak returned to his studio in Berlin and decided to go head first into it - arranging a focus group comprising, he estimates, about 50 artists, publishers, producers, agency people, big or small, unknown or known, to shape the idea. He then mortgaged his house, hired a development team and recruited Ethan Holben (former Global Head of Red Bull Radio and Vice President at Yadastar) to serve as the CEO. And we started building Aslice over the last almost two years.

The disparity between DJ and producer earnings has widened over Khutoretskys timeline. Ive been DJing for over 25 years now, he reflects. At the beginning, producers who put out records when vinyl was the only medium, you could sell enough physical copies to earn a living even if you just put out a record every so often. And then over time with digitalisation, the ease of putting out music took priority over how you actually got paid to create or produce or anything.

Yet its not merely that the producers role has been financially devalued through digital means, either through the accessibility of making and releasing music, or the unliveable rates offered by streaming services like Spotify, who currently pay between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream. The existing performing rights societies (PROs) that are set up to distribute royalties, too, are ill-equipped to support global dance communities.

One of the biggest feedbacks I've seen since we launched the public beta is people saying, but why arent collection societies solving this problem? The collection societies already exist. Khutoretsky explains, yet recent figures from AFEM (Association For Electronic Music) suggest that, at any given time, 40% of the Beatport Top 100 is not eligible to get royalties, as the tracks are unregistered with PROs. We point out to them that this problem has existed for 40 some years now and those entities that exist to fix it, aren't fixing it.

Aslice could benefit producers whose work isnt designed to be received by a commercial audience

The reason for the ineffectiveness of existing collection societies is down to what Berlin based music tech expert, Kalam Ali, co-founderofstart-up IN X SPACE, casually and with a degree of humour describes as The Helene Fischer problem, referring to the German singer who reportedly earned $US32 million in 2018. He says: If not claimed, money from PROs goes to the top artists at that moment.

The issue is, Ali explains, that you've got money coming in through either a venue paying a fee or ticket sales on the door and tracks being played from a music producer in a club context. And by law, the venue is giving back some money to PROs to pay those music writers.

Its an established system, that works when you go to Glastonbury, when you go to any concert at Wembley or any big event, where venues have paid for these licenses and they pay out based on a standard model however, inside the clubs, this data is impossible to record, so whatever money's being collected is just going into a pool and if it's not claimed, it goes to artists based on radio airplay or streams. Hence, the artists already in the spotlight are more likely to receive money in the pot from PROs than underground electronic music producers.

Notable supporters of the software include Richie Hawtin, dBridge and Surgeon

Club music differs from commercial music in both functionality and intention. Club tracks are by nature, designed to facilitate an experience for a community in a specific context and not to be (infrequent crossover examples aside) pushed into a commercial marketplace of radio play and maximum PR. Noting that club music isnt built with the same visibility in mind as the music of Helene Fischer, a system like Aslice could benefit producers whose work isnt designed to be received by a commercial audience.

It comes at the perfect time, underground DJ and producer, Monovsun, says. He came to hear of the software through a social media post in which DVS1 had been playing his music. Monovsun explains: in this post-pandemic global climate, everyone is more aware, especially in the electronic music scene. Its the time to leverage on that. it's a good moment to tell this to the big artists that they can do their fair part and support who makes the music for their sets. In 2019, the top 10 DJs alone account for $273 million of the $1.1 billion dollars earned by all DJs combined. If Aslice is to succeed, it could be down to the patronage of big-name DJs - notable supporters of the software include Richie Hawtin, dBridge and Surgeon.

Imagine if a producer didn't have to DJ to make a living, Khutoretsky says, if a producer could earn enough money from producing, then the DJs could stay relevant as DJs and producers could stay relevant. And if a producer is good and they can be compensated and they can spend more time in their studio, they're gonna become better producers, release more music, supply more DJs, And that ecosystem gets a lot healthier, not only financially, but also opportunity-wise.

Visit Aslice's website to sign up or find out more.

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Aslice is the new software tool that's making sure dance music producers get paid - MusicRadar

Depending on who you follow/care about/ignore, the broken sun remains a life and death catastrophe or just one of those things. With TikTok coverage of first rehearsals being universally panned, there was little else to talk about in the world of fan. And then

Thank whatever deity or non-deity you worship for Ronela Hajati. Clearly being of sound mind when it comes to creating a buzz, the Albanian team triumphed in a social media takeover yesterday. What follows is masterclass in PR.

The non-story started when someone at the Eurovision web team got cold feet about uploading one of the professional photographer pictures from Saturday mornings rehearsals. They removed the offending picture see above. After certain fan sites waded in, Twitforks were gathered and paraded the length of the information superhighway. Heads should roll, the otherwise terribly reasonable and not at all unhinged good people of Twitter and Reddit proclaimed.

Chinese whispers turned an ill-advised admin decision into censorship not seen since the Great Firewall of China, before the mood mutated into a protest against female oppression. Soon there was talk of the EBU/Eurovision forcing Ronela to change her provocative choreography.

Things got worse when La Hajati happened to post something that neither confirmed nor denied the rumour.

The day rumbled on with nobody from the Albanian camp stepping in to stop escalating calls for the head of the producer, until late last night a sheepish online message from within Ronelas team confirmed the choreography wouldnt be changing. Suggesting that maybe, just maybe, the whole thing was made up.

And as for that photo the one the EBU didnt want you to see. Its absolutely everywhere and everyone is talking about the song and staging.

Chapeau Ronela. You know how to work it (and fandom).

Image Credits: EBU.

More:

What the internet thinks about Eurovision 2022 Day Three - OnEurope

Now in its third month, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has stunned the world and sparked the biggest international security crisis of the twenty-first century. Beyond the headlines, the war has plunged an entire nation of more than 40 million Ukrainians into a barely imaginable world of grief, fear and chaos. Leading Ukrainian media personality Vitaly Sych has kept a war diary recounting his experiences and observations during the past two terrifying and heroic months as Ukrainians have adjusted to the new realities of Vladimir Putins criminal invasion.

UKRAINE WAR DIARY: PART I

When my wife hurriedly woke me up in the early hours of Febuary 24 and I first looked out of the window, I could not believe my eyes. The familiar panoramic view from our apartment on the twentieth floor overlooking the Dnipro River was now dotted with huge columns of black smoke. Our entire building was shaking from explosions as missiles rained down on the outskirts of Kyiv.

The unthinkable had happened. Even though we all knew Russia had amassed a huge army on the Ukrainian border, I remained convinced until the very last moment that it was all a geopolitical bluff. Like so many Ukrainians, I could not believe anyone would launch a full-scale military invasion in the center of Europe. Such things simply did not happen anymore. Not in 2022.

I grabbed my phone and was immediately confronted by footage of Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaiming the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. His speech was completely unhinged and full of wild historical distortions. This is war, I said to my wife.

For weeks I had downplayed her concerns about a possible war, often while gently teasing her and making sarcastic remarks. Despite my apparent confidence, my wife had remained unconvinced. She kept the tank of the car full, evening purchasing and filling an extra petrol canister. She packed changes of clothes and personal documents for all the family and bought lots of dry food. I thought this was over the top and said so. Sadly, she turned out to be right.

The day had barely begun, but it was already time to get our eight-year-old twins Peter and Anna out of the city. We had read numerous reports from the British and US intelligence services describing in detail how Russian security forces had compiled kill lists of Ukrainian journalists, activists, and politicians hostile to Moscow who were to be rounded up and executed during the initial stages of the occupation. My wife and I knew my name must be somewhere on those lists.

A brief look at my Facebook profile or a glance through the magazine I manage would be enough to get me into trouble with the Russians. My magazines last cover page before we were forced to suspend publication due to the war had featured Putin alongside senile Russian dictators Lenin and Stalin. All three were portrayed in wheelchairs styled to invoke a well-known Soviet photo of Lenins last days. The headline read Kremlin Madhouse. This was entirely in keeping with the spirit of the publication. It was clearly unwise for us to stay in Kyiv.

We picked up my wifes mother and tried but failed to leave town. By 9am, all roads leading out of the Ukrainian capital were at a standstill. A massive exodus was underway as terrified Kyivans looked to escape the city and head west away from the advancing Russian tanks.

After a couple of hours spent hopelessly stuck in traffic we gave up and went home, only to learn that the Russians were already trying to land troops at Gostomel Airport, which is located in the Kyiv suburbs to the northwest of the city. It was obvious that we had to evacuate urgently. This time we chose the southern highway instead of the jammed western route. As we moved slowly toward the city limits, jet fighters roared low above our heads. I still dont know whether they were Russian or Ukrainian planes. Eventually, we managed to exit Kyiv.

We headed to Vinnytsya where my mother lives. A 250-kilometer trip that typically takes three hours took us 10 hours. We drove mostly along godforsaken backroads that would normally be empty except for the odd tractor or perhaps even a horse and cart. But today these roads were jammed with caravans of cars ranging from simple hatchbacks to luxury jeeps. It seemed as though half of Ukraine was on the move, carrying their worldly belongings with them.

My wife cried the whole way. With good reason, she thought we might never be able to go home again. We had left our entire lives behind us in a matter of minutes; our apartment, our house near Kyiv that we had spent so long saving up for, our jobs, everything.

We could not even take our beloved cat with us, who can barely cope with the one-hour trip out to our summer house and would have been unable to handle the long and stressful escape in a crowded car. Thankfully, we were able to save our cat by mailing our apartment keys to neighbors who now make sure he is well fed and cared for. During those first nightmare moments of the war when we were forced to make life-changing choices in an instant, the most difficult decision of all was the one to leave our cat.

It soon became clear that we had made the right decision as our journey evolved into a three-day marathon with six people crammed into one car. By midnight we reached my mothers apartment in Vinnytsya. It was the first time we had felt relatively safe since that horrible day had dawned.

After a brief stopover, we decided to take my mother with us and head further west. The journey from Vinnytsya to Lviv is normally a five-hour drive but it now took more than three times as long. At some point during the night we lost our navigation signal while passing through a forest and found ourselves in complete darkness. As we tried to get our bearings, a nearby airbase was struck by a Russian missile. It was the kind of scene you expect to see in a horror movie and it will remain forever imprinted on my mind.

We eventually reached Lviv. By this point, I was completely exhausted. I had been driving for more than 24 hours and was running on pure adrenaline. Stress had robbed me of my appetite and I had barely eaten anything since leaving Kyiv.

The last leg of our journey still lay ahead and was perhaps the hardest. I had to get my family to the border but I would not be leaving Ukraine with them. Due to the imposition of martial law in the hours following Russias invasion, I could not exit the country. No Ukrainian men aged eighteen to sixy could. And to be frank, I would not have gone even if it had been possible. All of my male workmates and lots of female colleagues had stayed behind, some of them even remaining in Kyiv. I would never have forgiven myself if I had left.

After a short sleep in Lviv, we began exploring our chances of getting to the border. Poland is less than eighty kilometers from Lviv, but crossing into the EU in the first days of the war was no simple matter. All of the checkpoints were completely jammed with people and the delay times were insane. At some crossings, cars were advised that they could be waiting for up to a week.

We checked the train station and it looked like Kabul before the arrival of the Taliban, with women and children screaming and trying to squeeze onto trains departing for Poland. Many families had simply abandoned their suitcases on the platform.

This scene was enough to convince us against taking the train. Instead, we decided to head south toward the Slovak border where, according to reports, queues were significantly shorter. This last stretch took me a further 16 sleepless hours, with our journey regularly broken up by document checks at the many paramilitary block posts that had sprung up like mushrooms in those first few wartime days.

The plan was to get my family over the border into Slovakia where friends of friends would pick them up and drive them to Bratislava. From there, they would fly to Dublin. My sister is married to an Irishman and was waiting for them in the Irish capital.

After more than three days of almost non-stop driving that felt like three weeks, we finally reached the border. Our farewells were mercifully short. As we kissed and hugged our goodbyes, I had no idea if I would ever see my family again. They crossed into Slovakia and were finally safe. A week later, The Irish Times would publish an article about my familys escape headlined Now we have a chance to cry.

I remained on the Ukrainian side of the border. I was now alone. Like everyone else still in Ukraine, I was facing a future of grave uncertainty. I returned to Lviv and my wartime life began.

UKRAINE WAR DIARY: PART II

Are you still alive? read the text message from my colleague and radio show partner Serhiy Fursa. I immediately understood that the noise which had woken me up minutes before was the sound of Russian ballistic missiles. I peered out of my window and saw smoke rising from somewhere in the downtown area of Lviv. Five Russian missiles had hit the city, leaving seven dead and dozens wounded. Serhiy said he actually watched three of the missiles from his balcony but failed to take a video.

This was the third Russian airstrike on Lviv, a city close to the EU border that is generally regarded as safe. Are we still going to do our radio show today? I asked Serhiy. Why not? he replied. So we did. Since settling in Lviv during the early days of the war, we have already broadcast more than 40 episodes of the show. We go on air every day, always around lunchtime.

My accommodation in Lviv is an apartment rented by a colleague of mine who is a partner in the investment banking firm that owns our media house. All of the partners in the company, including the Czech owner, have relocated to Lviv. Even though his Czech passport would have allowed him to leave Ukraine, he decided to stay with his people.

We soon learned that we had been very lucky to get an apartment for just the two of us. Others have had to cram four or five into a single apartment as internally displaced people from across Ukraine have flooded into Lviv. As a result, the city is now packed full and finding available accommodation is next to impossible. We have even begun to joke that we shouldnt invite any colleagues over to our flat in case they stop talking to us when they see our luxurious living conditions.

There are only two problems with our flat. The first is actually more of an inconvenience. I have to share a bed with another man. We have bought separate pillows and blankets, of course. But the fact remains that Ive been sleeping with a man for more than a month. Life will never be the same again!

The other problem is more significant. As with all real estate, location is the most important feature. And in our case, this is definitely a problem. The apartment we are renting is close to a huge military base and the local headquarters of the Ukrainian intelligence service. This makes it an obvious target for Russian missiles.

The threat of Russian airstrikes is no longer hyperthetical. Indeed, the ambassador of Kazakhstan was living just a few blocks away until recently but was advised by his security team to move out of the neighborhood. This apparent danger is a source of amusement to locals. When they find out where we live, they joke that our landlord should actually be paying us. To make matters worse, the apartment is on the top floor of the building. A prime location indeed!

The military base next door has an outdoor area with all sorts of old Soviet-era military equipment on display. There are tanks, artillery, and rocket launchers dating back to WWII and the Cold War. Given the often poor quality of Russian intelligence and satellite imagery, we wonder whether they might mistake these museum exhibits for the real thing and launch an airstrike. Such speculation would once have been amusing but it is now no longer funny.

After several deadly Russian missile attacks that killed dozens of Ukrainian soldiers, the Ukrainian military has introduced new protocols. When the sirens go off in the city, hundreds of military personnel with Kalashnikovs stream out of the military base next to us and disperse in order to make sure there are no concentrations of soldiers in any one place. They then hang out for hours on end in nearby parks and residential yards.

Air raid sirens come every day and every night, often at about three or four in the morning. You can hear the sirens throughout the city. It is ubiquitous and sticks in your head like the beat of a bad pop song. After a few hours, the second siren indicates that the danger has passed. I still cant distinguish between the two. If you miss the first one because you are asleep, you think the second one is the start of an air attack. Sometimes we have to ask each other: is this the first or second siren?

To liven things up even more, my apartment mate has downloaded an application that notifies him of airstrikes with a tremendous alarm. He jumps up in bed and obviously I cannot avoid also hearing it. After that, nobody can sleep. Digital technology is not always helpful.

Living under the constant threat of Russian airstrikes is a chilling experience. The missiles themselves are accompanied by the distinct smell of death. Even though the Russians insist they only target military infrastructure, in reality they often hit civilian targets and kill ordinary Ukrainians.

In Syria, Russia fired a total of about 100 missiles over a five-year period. In Ukraine, the Russian military launched more than 1,500 missiles during the first month and half of the war alone. Some were launched from Belarus. Others were shot from bombers over the Black Sea. Their range leaves nobody in Ukraine immune. Nowhere in the country is truly safe.

Everybody in Lviv seems to have grown used to air raid sirens. I was out jogging in the park one morning when the siren sounded. It had almost no visible effect. Parents continued strolling with children and old people remained engrossed in their conversations on park benches. One elderly lady turned to her granddaughter and said calmly but firmly, Dont worry. Well be fine.

I cant help thinking that this sense of calm is false. We wont be fine. In truth, you can never really get used to the air raid sirens. The first thing Id like to do when this war is over is go somewhere abroad where I will not have to hear any airstrike warnings at all.

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UKRAINE WAR DIARY: PART III

The first days of the war were incredibly tough professionally as I attempted to somehow keep our media holding from collapsing. I lost contact with colleagues and had no idea whether they were being bombed in Kharkiv or were somewhere on the road trying to evacuate their families. Some people simply disappeared. Others struggled to cope with the emotional stress of the situation and were unable to work. One of our most prominent colleagues suffered a breakdown and began publishing crazy fake posts on social media.

I eventually had to accept that I could not help everyone and decided to focus on sustaining our operation and supporting as many colleagues as possible. Without exception, the war has been a personal crisis for all of us.

About a week after the war begin, the dust began to settle and we were able to get an idea of where we might be heading as a media organization. Nothing was straightforward. Our star reporter was sheltering from Russian airstrikes in Kyivs metro system. Our weekend editor was stuck in Kharkiv under heavy bombardment and we temporarily lost touch with him. Thankfully, we later learned he had survived.

The head of our English-language operation, a Scotsman, had to evacuate his family to Glasgow. This meant that responsibility for English-language coverage fell to a young Ukrainian editor who was also busy trying to help her grandmother cope in an apartment with poor wifi connection on Kyivs left bank.

Our financial and IT reporters had joined the Ukrainian army. Our chief designer and political editor werent planning to join the army but were drafted in Lviv when they arrived with their families. Our two most prominent radio presenters joined the territorial defense force in Kyiv. The procedure for signing up in wartime was so simple that they merely had to appear with their IDs in order to receive a Kalashnikov.

For a while, I feared we would not have enough people to run our company. Despite having been one of the largest news organizations in Ukraine on the eve of the war, it looked like we might not survive.

Then things stabilized. Or at least, we achieved as much stability as is possible during wartime. The Russians turned out to be far less sophisticated that everybody had expected and failed to knock out the Ukrainian internet. Dozens of our team reached safe places with decent internet connections in western Ukraine. Despite facing unfamiliar and often highly challenging living conditions, we gradually got back to work.

For obvious reasons, we ceased publication of our weekly magazine. Colleagues who normally focused on topics like sports, tech, auto news, entertainment and science were asked to forget about their previous lives and strengthen our war coverge. We went into 24/7 mode, pumping out non-stop content during night shifts and over weekends in Ukrainian, Russian and English.

We were soon producing 300 news items per day and ranking among the top two most visited sites in Ukraine. In March, our audience skyrocketed and reached 25 million unique users along with around half a billion page views.

In recognition of this success, we became the target of a major Russian cyber-attack. Despite being under physical Russian bombardment in Kyiv Oblast at the time, our chief programmer managed to get us back online. He was also able to upgrade our cyber security to levels that have prevented any repeat cyber-attacks.

While we cranked up our online coverage to a wartime tempo, we relocated part of our radio equipment to Lviv and organized an improvised new studio in a shopping mall where we were given two rooms free of charge. Before the war, our FM radio covered 44 major cities across Ukraine. This number has been slightly reduced by the Russian habit of taking down our transmitters in occupied Ukrainian cities like Kherson and Melitopol. Nevertheless, we continue to broadcast to more than 30 cities as well as via YouTube and online.

I started a daily radio show in tandem with a well-known investment banker and blogger who also relocated to Lviv. He speaks Ukrainian and I speak Russian on air. Our idea was not just to analyze key events but to support our audience. Working on the assumption that listeners already knew the most recent headlines and were aware of any bad news, we figured we would focus on positive developments such as Russias economic woes, international support for Ukraine, and signs of internal divisions in Moscow.

We are not fools and understand the gravity of the situation. At the same time, we want to provide a glimmer of hope and also some much needed humor. Russias top officials and propagandists are all legitimate targets and there is certainly no shortage of good reasons to ridicule them.

Air raid sirens can be very disruptive when youre trying to do a live radio broadcast. Every time the sirens start up, the shopping mall shuts down and everyone runs to the shelter. We eventually decided to stay put and continue our broadcasts. The alternative would be to leave our radio frequency blank for hours on end.

Ukrainians seem to appreciate what were trying to do. Our YouTube audience grew fivefold in just one month, even though we have no cameras in the studio and only offer an audio stream.

The single most rewarding episode of our wartime broadcasting experience came from Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where Russian forces committed war crimes that shocked the world. One old lady emerged following the liberation of Bucha and recounted how she had spent weeks in a basement listening to nothing but our radio station. When she met our reporter, she hugged her and burst into tears. This tale alone made all our efforts seem worthwhile.

UKRAINE WAR DIARY: PART IV

When I first arrived in Lviv in the last days of February, the city looked and felt like it was on the verge of an apocalypse. This usually vibrant hub of tourism, culture and history had become a ghost town. The streets were empty while only a few of Lvivs famed cafes and bars remained open. There was a ban on alcohol sales and all shops were closed except for food stores and pharmacies.

Despite this eery quiet, Lviv was by then already packed with refugees from Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. I often ran into acquaintances from the capital including restaurateurs, bankers, and fellow journalists. It felt as though we had all become part of a new chapter in Erich Maria Remarques classic WWII refugee novel The Night in Lisbon.

The many members of this displaced tribe tended to spend most of their time on the phone trying to help friends and family who were still under bombardment or stuck in occupied regions of the country. I was no exception.

My eldest daughter, Masha, who is twenty-six, was trapped in Kyiv with her boyfriend. By the time they had decided that they needed to leave the city, it was too late. Evacuation had become too dangerous. Their home district in the north of the city was the scene of shelling and street battles as Russian troops sought to advance into the heart of Kyiv.

Masha spent a week in a basement hiding from Russian bombs. She would call me regularly, crying and sharing reports about Chechen forces who were said to be closing in on Kyiv. The Chechens would soon enter the city and rape all the women, she said. As we later learned, these fears were justified. But at that point, I was more interested in trying to calm her down by telling her that the Chechens had already suffered catastrophic losses in Bucha, including the death of their most notorious general. This was also true. One week later, Masha and her boyfriend were eventually able to leave the city and head south. It was a huge personal relief for me. Millions of Ukrainians were not so fortunate.

Even though Lviv didnt experience anything like the problems in Kyiv, food did become scarce. Buckwheat, rice and pasta were the first to disappear as people prepared for the worst and stocked up on long-lasting foodstuffs. I must admit that I was partly to blame, purchasing enough food for an entire month. Supply chains for things like chicken and dairy products also soon broke down, leaving shoppers with little to choose from except the most expensive brands of tea, coffee, delicacies and cookies. With all the empty shelves in the stores, it started to feel a little bit like going back to the USSR.

During the early weeks of the war, many people in Lviv feared that Putin would convince Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka to join the invasion and launch an offensive into the Volyn region. This would bring the war right to the borders of Lviv. Despite at least four separate warnings of an imminent invasion, the Belarusians still havent ventured into Ukraine. Lukashenka is certainly a monster but he is not a complete idiot, it would seem. He also has access to reliable data on the sheer scale of Russian losses in Ukraine due to the fact that many Russian casualties have been brought back across the border to Belarusian hospitals and morgues.

When not doing my radio show, I found myself sharing an office with investment bankers who had also moved to western Ukraine from Kyiv. Like millions of their fellow Ukrainians, these finance professionals followed frontline military developments closely online and cheered the destruction of each successive Russian military convoy.

Monitoring Russian losses quickly became the most popular form of wartime entertainment for Ukrainians. The idea of deriving pleasure from footage of military carnage and dead soldiers would have seemed perverse or even obscene just weeks earlier, but graphic content now circulated in large quantities through a growing number of telegram channels, often accompanied by black humor. Many women discovered that they also enjoyed looking at such grim images.

You wouldnt expect this kind of behavior from a healthy person during peacetime. But everything changes after youve read hundreds of reports about children bombed, ordinary Ukrainians executed and women gang-raped, especially when the crime scenes are so familiar and the victims are personal acquaintances.

The endless accounts of Russian atrocities have taken their toll on Ukrainians in many ways. Almost everyone I know has trouble sleeping. There is also much fury and hunger for revenge. One of our radio hosts asked listeners what they would do if presented with a button that could instantly kill all Russians, including friends and relatives. He was half-joking, of course, but was also honest enough to admit that he would personally press the button without hesitation. The general consensus among listeners seemed to be that such an opportunity would be tempting.

During our radio discussions, we also pondered the question of how much blame could be attached to ordinary Russians. Had they given Putin a mandate for the war and the mass murder of Ukrainians, or was it all his personal responsibility? After the first few weeks of the war, this debate became redundant when independent polls indicated that more than 80% of Russians supported the war.

Of course, it is difficult to find entirely objective opinion polls in a totalitarian country. But the figures emerging out of Russia as the war progressed were entirely in line with a wide range of anecdotal evident suggesting that a clear majority of Russians backed the invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainians are also well aware that it was not Putin who personally bombed Kharkiv or executed civilians in Bucha. These crimes were committed by Russian servicemen who received their orders from Russian officers. They could have refused but they chose not to.

My wifes sister lives on Moscow. She moved there when she was 16 and is now a Russian citizen. She and her husband were terrified when the war began. They were ashamed and called many times to offer words of support. They followed news of the war closely and knew all the details about the horrors taking place in Mariupol, Kyiv and Kharkiv. This demonstrated once again that talk of Russians living in an information vacuum is wishful thinking. If the average Russian wants to access accurate information about the war, they can do so easily.

Three weeks into the war, my sister-in-laws fourteen-year-old daughter came home from her Moscow school and asked whether it was true their country was killing children in Ukraine. They answered that yes, it was true, but asked her not to tell anyone. By then, the old Stalinist tradition had returned to Russian schools, with teachers asking kids what their parents were saying at home about the war and reporting any criticism to the authorities.

The reality is that the Russian public does not want to know the truth. The lies they are fed by the Putin regime make them feel good and they are afraid to leave their comfort zone. For years, highly emotional propaganda on Russian TV has fueled imperialistic sentiments among the Russian public while dehumanizing Ukrainians. Many Russians now simply refuse to believe information about atrocities in Ukraine and dismiss the overwhelming evidence of war crimes as fake. I am not at all surprised by such attitudes. It is extremely difficult to admit that youve been so comprehensively misled by your own leaders and convinced to support a criminal war.

Millions of extended Russian-Ukrainian families have been divided by the conflict. A former classmate of mine from Chelyabinsk, a Russian city in the southern Ural Mountains, moved to Ukraine many years ago. He recently tried to explain the realities of the war to his mother back in Russia. She refused to listen and declared that everything he said was fake. Am I fake, too? he asked. They have not been in contact since.

UKRAINE WAR DIARY: PART V

My taxi driver yesterday was Serhiy from Mariupol. He and his family had managed to leave the devastated Ukrainian port city just before the Russians encircled it. He had since become a taxi driver to make a living. Mariupol is not just a global news headline. It is a vast and unfolding human tragedy that casts a pall of sadness and terror over all Ukraine. If there is a hell on earth right now, it is Mariupol.

So it was only natural that I wanted to talk. Serhiy said 95% of residential buildings in the city, including his own, had been destroyed. Around 100 people among his personal acquaintances had been killed. He said that most of the information he had came from survivors, both those still trapped inside Mariupol and the lucky ones who had managed to escape. As he recounted these horrors, I was struck by the lack of emotion. Maybe he had become apathetic or didnt want to offload the burden of his pain onto me.

What astonished me most of all was his plan to return home and rebuild Mariupol. As long as it remains in Ukraine, he added. I know plenty of people who have serious emotional reservations about going back to cities that have suffered much less destruction than Mariupol. His experience moved me deeply, but there was little I could offer him except a generous tip.

Russia has good reason for pushing so hard to take Mariupol. Putin desperately needs some kind of success for domestic consumption ahead of Victory Day on May 9. The annual celebration of the Soviet Unions defeat of Nazi Germany plays a central role in modern Russian mythology. This years holiday must be marked by a new triumph.

There is another less obvious but equally important reason why Russia is determined to seize Mariupol at all costs. The Kremlin simply cannot afford to let the world see what it has done to the city. Current estimates indicate a death toll of between 10,000 and 30,000 civilians during the two-month siege. In other words, the destruction of Mariupol dwarfs the atrocities committed in Bucha and is likely one of the biggest war crimes in Europe since WWII.

At the other end of Ukraine, life has returned to Lviv. The citys population has grown by 30% since the start of the war. Shops and movie theaters are now open once again. The alcohol ban has been partially lifted with everything available except for hard liquor. As a result, restaurants and bars are full. The crowds are cosmopolitan and often include lots of foreign journalists as well as people who have relocated to Lviv from across Ukraine.

During the weekends, the shopping mall that serves as the Lviv base for our radio station is absolutely full of people. The main indication that life is still far from normal remains the ubiquity of air raid sirens. Most shoppers would probably be happy to stay, I imagine, but due to wartime regulations all stores close and everyone must take cover.

I have recently received news that my summer house north of Kyiv in the village of Nova Bogdanivka was pillaged by Russian soldiers. I invested so much of my time and energy there renovating, building a summer terrace, and planting a garden. It is also a home where my family spent most of our weekends and nine whole months during the height of the Covid pandemic. At least the Russians didnt burn it down.

Nova Bogdanivka was on the frontline and was the scene of heavy fighting for a month. I learned about all the developments there from a Telegram channel that united all residents of our 250-house community. When the war began, most of us left for other parts of Ukraine or for the relative security of nearby Kyiv. A handful of residents stayed behind in the village. During the fighting, they were forced to hide in basements to survive and were very cautious about discussing their situation in case any of the details somehow leaked out and reached the Russians.

At some point, a village resident published a photo of my neighbors SUV dotted with bullet holes. His son recognized the car in the photo and begged everybody in our Telegram group for help. It was a terrifying moment. Nobody could do anything and everybody knew it was our neighbor. Later we learnt he had died.

On reflection, our village was actually lucky. One resident was killed and all of our houses were looted by Russian troops or orcs as they are universally referred to in our Telegram group. The neighboring village was far less fortunate. Every third house was completely destroyed by heavy artillery. The fate of this neighboring village became the subject of a harrowing feature-length report by independent Russian news site Meduza detailing multiple murders and rapes by Russian troops. Relatively speaking, we have nothing to complain about.

My neighbors from Nova Bogdanivka have begun uploading photos from their security cameras to our messenger group. It turns out that the Russians stole anything they could carry from carpets and vacuum cleaners to used clothes and kitchen cutlery. Some of them filled up suitcases with stolen items. I can understand why a soldier might decide to steal money or jewelry, but why would anyone want to take somebody elses clothing or knives and forks?

The second army in the world, as my neighbors sarcastically describe the Russians, turned out to be a bunch of impoverished bums. Nova Bogdanivka residents who managed to talk to the invaders discovered that most came from the poorest regions of Russia including the North Caucasus, Siberia and the Far East. Some of them admitted that they had only previously seen asphalt roads on TV. Whether he intended to or not, Putin has conducted a special operation to show the whole world the poverty and degradation of the Russian military and modern Russian society as a whole.

I have not yet learned the full extent of the damage to our house. It is still too early to check as the retreating Russians left mines and booby traps throughout the village. I dont know when we will be able to go back, but I am already terrified by the thought of our eight-year-old twins Peter and Anna going for a walk in the village or just playing in our garden. I fear this lingering sense of dread will be with us for many more years to come.

Vitaly Sych is Chief Editor of NV media house which includes a weekly magazine, national talk radio station, and news site (NV.ua). This war diary was originally published in the German language by Die Zeit newspaper.

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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Image: A Taras Shevchenko bust in Kyiv region town Borodyanka stands next to a building destroyed by Russian bombardment. (Photo by Celestino Arce/NurPhoto)

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Ukraine War Diary: You can never really get used to the air raid sirens - Atlantic Council