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ABC bleeped out the expletive-ridden exchange that followed Will Smiths blow to Chris Rocks face during Sunday nights Academy Awards but it didnt matter since unedited footage of the incident leaked onto social media just minutes later.

As is customary for broadcasts of live shows, ABCs feed was on a 20-second delay to enable producers to cut or bleep foul language or any other display that potentially violates Federal Communications Commission guidelines.

But while the audio was cut and censored for several seconds, closed captions indicated that the King Richard star said, Keep my wifes name out of your fking mouth.

International broadcasting crews, meanwhile, were beaming the raw feed of the awards show to global audiences. Audio from the uncensored Australian broadcast appears to confirm this, including Rocks stunned reaction: Will Smith slapped the st out of me.

So while ABC may have momentarily spared American viewers the tense Rock-Smith exchange, it quickly went viral on their mobile devices.

Rob Mills of ABC, who was in the networks production trailer during the show, told Variety that it quickly became apparent that the incident was not scripted.

Before Smith smacked the comedian, Rock had made a joke about Smiths wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, being in the fake action film because of her bald head. She had previously spoken about having a hair loss condition, alopecia.

Chris Rock came on and he was doing, I think, material based on what happened that night, as any comedian will do, Mills told Variety. He made the [G.I. Jane] joke. Obviously, you could see the joke did not land with Jada. And then you see Will start to get up and walk up.

Mills added: There have certainly been unpredictable moments where people have gotten up and done things, so we thought this was one of those.

Once Rock and Smith both used expletives in their reactions, it dawned on the ABC producers that this was real.

You started to realize this is real once Chris, who certainly knows the limits of broadcast standards, said, Will Smith slapped the st out of me, Mills said. Thats when it became obvious that this was not a joke.

Due to strict FCC guidelines on the use of profanity during domestic broadcasts, Mills said, he and his team erred on the side of caution in censoring the aftermath.

When youre on the button, which I wasnt but our standards people were, I think you obviously go towards overcorrection than letting something get through, Mills said.

American viewers instead relied on clips from overseas, which do not apply the same rigorous requirements against profanity.

Americans can be a bit more puritanical and outraged by these things, a radio producer for BBC told the Washington Post.

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How ABC tried -- and failed -- to censor Will Smith slap of Chris Rock - New York Post

On March 27, YouTube removed the entire archive of six years of Chris Hedges On Contact from its platform without any notice or explanation. Even though very few of Hedges shows referenced Russia or Vladimir Putin directly, his association with RT America as well as his opposition to NATO warmongering was all that was required for YouTube to delete hundreds of hours of interviews on a range of political subjects that were critical of both the Democrats and Republicans.

The World Socialist Web Site denounces the malicious and anti-democratic suppression of the archive of On Contact and demands that full public access to it be immediately restored.

As reported previously by the World Socialist Web Site, the Russian state-funded cable news network RT America was shut down in the US on March 3 and all 120 of its employees were laid off at offices located in New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Miami.

Although the management of the news channel said the network had experienced unforeseen business-interruption events, the abrupt shutdown of RT America was no doubt part of the anti-Russian offensive mounted by corporate media outlets and governments aligned with the US and NATO in the proxy war being fought in Ukraine against the regime in Moscow.

Among the RT America programs terminated were several popular left-wing and anti-war TV shows including Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp and On Contact with Chris Hedges. These programs were specifically targeted for censorship because they adopted an anti-war standpoint that was opposed to the narrative developed by the ruling political establishment in the US and Europe.

This campaign to silence voices critical of the role of imperialism in provoking the war in Ukraine has been extended to the removal of video content from YouTube, podcasts from Spotify and other censorship measures by the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter.

Hedges had denounced as a war of aggression the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. But he went on to explain the war in historical context and suggested that the betrayal of agreements with Moscow, which he covered as a reporter in Eastern Europe during the dissolution of the USSR, as well as the expansion of NATO on the perimeter of Russia likely baited Putin to invade Ukraine.

In a statement published on Substack, Hedges wrote of the censorship by YouTube, The entire archive of On Contact, the Emmy-nominated show I hosted for six years for RT America and RT International, has been disappeared from YouTube. I received no inquiry or notice from YouTube. I vanished. In totalitarian systems you exist, then you dont.

Hedges went on to explain that the lack of oppositional content in the mainstream media was one of the reasons he was on RT in the first place, I was on RT because, as a critic of US imperialism, militarism, the corporate control of the two ruling parties, and especially because I support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, I was blacklisted.

Hedges denounced the Democrats for being the biggest advocates of online political censorship in the US, The most vocal cheerleaders for this censorship are the liberal class. Democrats in the U.S. Congress have held hearings with the CEOs of social media companies pressuring them to do more to censor content. Banish the troglodytes. Then we will have social cohesion.

He also drew broader conclusions about the meaning of the removal of his programs from YouTube, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden exposed the truth about the criminal inner workings of power. Look where they are now. This censorship is one step removed from Joseph Stalins airbrushing of nonpersons such as Leon Trotsky out of official photographs. It is a destruction of our collective memory. It removes the efforts to examine our reality in ways the ruling class does not appreciate. The goal is to foster historical amnesia. If we dont know what happened in the past, we cannot make sense of the present.

The actions of YouTube, which is owned by Googles corporate parent Alphabet Inc., are part of a coordinated effort by the big social media platforms to silence anyone who does not adopt the political line of the White House and US State Department and label them as Russian propaganda.

Other recent developments include the decision by Twitter as of February 28 to label the tweets of those who worked at RT America with a message that says, Russia state-affiliated media. Absurdly, this includes the Twitter account of Ed Schultz, the former host of MSNBCs The Ed Show and, starting in 2016, the host of News with Ed Schultz on RT America. Schultzs Twitter account now has the Russian state media label even though he died of natural causes on July 5, 2018.

Also reported previously on the WSWS, comedian and activist Lee Camps 500 hours and eight years of video archive of Redacted Tonight was removed from YouTube and his podcast Moment of Clarity was removed from Spotify. In a recent post, Camp called the anti-Russian censorship McCarthyism, We live in a world of immense censorship that is increasing every day. America claims to be this is the place where we have freedom of press or freedom of speech and yet they are deleting everything that is possibly anti-war and anti-imperialist.

On Saturday, Facebook deleted a popular anti-war video produced by the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) without explanation. The video, No Third World War! Against Ukraine war, NATO aggression and German rearmament! resonated with the public and had been viewed over 20,000 times within a few days before it was removed.

The video gained a following because it presented a fundamental truth about the present danger of a world war with nuclear weapons. The SGP both condemned the Putin regimes war in Ukraine and explained how the conflict was provoked by the encirclement of Russia by NATO and the wars conducted by the US and its European allies over the past thirty years.

The new round of online censorship is a continuation of the campaign mounted by the tech monopolies under the direction of the intelligence state apparatus that began in 2017 to prevent anti-capitalist and revolutionary socialist political ideas from reaching wide layers of the working class. With the development of the Internet, and especially social media, over the past three decades, the ruling elite fears that its grip on information and political analysis through traditional corporate media channels has been significantly undermined.

The World Socialist Web Site views as a basic responsibility the defense of all progressive and left-wing individuals and political tendencies against government instigated censorship and repression. We therefore urge all supporters and readers to circulate this statement as widely as possible in order to build public support for the restoration of access to Hedges On Contact archive.

Foreword to the German edition of David Norths Quarter Century of War

Johannes Stern, 5 October 2020

After three decades of US-led wars, the outbreak of a third world war, which would be fought with nuclear weapons, is an imminent and concrete danger.

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Six years of Chris Hedges' On Contact program erased by YouTube - WSWS

I cant play humans too close to night. One student, an ER doctor, admitted to me during our lessons, If I win, my heart rate goes up and I start panicking, knowing its only a matter of time before I lose again. If I lose, I cant go to sleep until I win, and then the whole cycle starts again.

I only play computers, my students, aged 5 to 65, repeatedly say. Their reasons vary, but it ultimately comes down to the same thing: Playing against other people is just too high stakes.

The problem with only playing computers is that most humans arent trying to learn to play chess like a computer; theyre trying to play like humans. Computers look for the best move. But best means something different depending on whether youre a computer or human. For instance, Magnus Carlssen, the top player in the worldand some chess experts say everlooks for moves that will psychologically throw his opponents, rather than the computers best-move pick.

If playing against a person is too stressful for you, try to sprinkle the games into your chess life, playing at least one game against a human for every three computer games.

Tips for Timers: Whereas playing against bots can be untimed, games with other humans will be timed (unless youre playing Lichess Correspondance Chess, where one move can take up to 14 days). Dont freak out; timers can be your friend. Like anything unfamiliar, they simply require getting used to.

If youre new to playing chess online, ignore the timer at first while you focus on the game and develop your playing skills. Then switch it uppractice focusing on the timer at the expense of the game. Ideally, youll find a happy balance between the two. Meanwhile, you remove the stress of focusing on just winning.

How to Improve Your Game

While you can now play chess games on your phone on the subway, in a Lyft, or waiting in line at the checkout counter, I advise my students to take a few deep breaths before they begin their games and, if possible, have a glass of water at hand. We tend to hold our breath when concentrating, which doesnt help with the nerves that often accompany games against human players. Setting an intention can also help.

While its natural to want to win, a more helpful intention might focus on something you want to work on that day, so that regardless of what happens with your opponent, you can still have a win. Some useful intentions could be:

Made a Mistake? Here Are Some Tips

Its OK to make mistakesyoure only human! When you make a mistake (which you will) the most important thing is to slow down. We tend to run away after making mistakes, but that is when we need to be the most careful and deliberate.

Dont freak out! Pause. Take a breath. Remember that glass of water? Nows the time to sip it.

Remember: Chess is not solitaire

While you come up with your plans, your opponent will be doing just that too! The cool thing here is that trying to figure out what theyre up to can be challenging, but it actually helps develop empathy. Youre practicing what its like to be in someone elses shoesor in this case, chess moves.

Anyone can play

Not only does chess develop (and appeal to) logical thinkers, it also aids (and appeals to) creative thinkers. While a lot of players are math or logic whizzes, most of us (myself included) are not.

Chess demands concentration, willingness, and flexibility

Its exciting to develop the skills to make plans or combinations, but try not to get too attached. Some plans should be broken. Plans simply get you to the next right place where another plan will soon arrive.

Don't lose sight of the forest

Ive seen players fixate on their plans to the extent that they lose the game. Chess games demand that you pivot quickly and adjust. So does life! The most important thing is to make the first move and start your game. If it feels overwhelming, I recommend practicing with puzzles and checkmating techniques, then try a full game again.

More Great WIRED Stories

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How to Learn Chess Onlineand Sharpen Your Game - WIRED

Chess.com is happy to announce the release of v4, the new version of our mobile iOS app. With this release, both our iOS and Android apps now share our newest interface with many improvements to make your mobile chess experience better!

Many of our members worldwide have already enjoyed and approved the redesigned app with a better interface, more intuitive navigation, and more features. If you haven't downloaded our app yet, don't miss another second and do it right now! And if you do have our app installed, make sure you update it so you can start enjoying the new v4 experience!

The new version of the app has numerous improvements over the lastfrom performance gains to entirely new features that weren't there before. Here are the main things you will notice:

What's better than having all the features you love in your pocket? Have them easily accessible inside an intuitive navigation menu, of course! The app's latest update brings a slick new navigation bar that is always at the bottom of the screen. This makes it easy for you to use our most popular features like Play, Puzzles, and Lessons with just a couple of taps!

We updated our home and Play screens to look and feel even better than before. The magic starts when you turn on the app to find all the most relevant shortcuts to features and information on your home page. You can quickly check your score and rank in Players League, as well as your ratings in each time control, puzzles, and Chess960.

The new Play screen also helps you get right into the action effortlessly. Whether you want to play against one of our Bots, jam some blitz games, or go for the gold in a tournament, you can do it all from the new Play screen.

Get ready to know yourself better than you've ever known before! The new version of the app brings a new Stats page with all the relevant data you need to know broken down into multiple time frames. Diamond members can also enjoy all the in-depth data from the Insights feature right from their phones.

As if the performance improvements, better interface, and new features weren't enough, you can now enjoy a much better-looking app. We've dressed our app for success, so get ready to turn some heads when you open it up in public!

Have you tried the new version of our mobile app for iOS or Android? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Try Out The New Chess.com v4 on iOS and Android - Chess.com

GM Viswanathan Anand is supporting FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich in his bid for a second term as FIDE President. Both were present at a press conference in New Delhi on Friday, where Dvorkovich announced that he will be running for re-election.

Dvorkovich's statement was communicated via FIDE's Twitter account:

"The past four years have been challenging for all of us, but I am proud to acknowledge that I personally, and the entire FIDE leadership team, have worked with full dedication for the benefit of chess all over the world. However, there are even more important tasks ahead.In this situation, I consider it is my moral duty to confirm that I intend to run for the second presidential term. I count on the support of the General Assembly and the whole chess society. Gens Una Sumus."

The decision to run for a second term is somewhat controversial in light of Dvorkovich's recent statements on the war in Ukraine and his background as a Russian politician. Initially, the FIDE President seemed to be holding an anti-war point of view, saying to the American website Mother Joneson March 14: "Wars are the worst things one might face in life including this war. My thoughts are with Ukrainian civilians."

A day later, however, a different and rather nationalistic statement was published, and Dvorkovich said he was "sincerely proud of the courage of our soldiers" and that there is"no place for either Nazism or the dominance of some countries over others."

He made the latter statement as the chairman of theSkolkovo Foundation, a position Dvorkovich no longer holds.

The Ukrainian Chess Federation and some Ukrainian top players have called for a full ban on Russia and expressed a desire for a new FIDE leadership, but they seem to have received little support for theirhowever understandablepoint of view.

"Yes, I am committed to run for re-election and Anand will be a huge part of our team," said Dvorkovich today.

Anand said he would be actively supporting the FIDE President, but at the moment it's not exactly clear how."We have had a good discussion, but we haven't decided yet in what role or capacity I will be involved," said Anand.

"I am willing and determined to work with this team. It is a wonderful team led by Dvorkovich, and they have done a lot for the sport. As and when a decision is taken, I will let you know."

Anand and Dvorkovich were present at an event in New Delhi held on Friday to officially hand over the hosting rights of the FIDE Chess Olympiad to India. The event will take place July 28-August 10, 2022 in Chennai.

Continued here:
Dvorkovich To Run For 2nd Term, Supported By Anand - Chess.com