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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s attorney general has ordered police to open an investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife on suspicion of harassing political opponents and a witness in the Israeli leader’s corruption trial. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara made the announcement in a terse message late Thursday, saying the investigation would focus on the findings of a recent report by the “Uvda” investigative program into Sara Netanyahu. The program uncovered a trove of WhatsApp messages in which Mrs. Netanyahu appears to instruct a former aide to organize protests against political opponents and to intimidate Hadas Klein, a key witness in the trial. The announcement did not mention Mrs. Netanyahu by name, and the Justice Ministry declined further comment. But in a video released earlier Thursday, Netanyahu listed what he said were the many kind and charitable acts by his wife and blasted the Uvda report as “lies.” “My opponents on the left and in the media found a new-old target. They mercilessly attack my wife, Sara,” he said. He called the program ”false propaganda, nasty propaganda that brings up lies from the darkness.” It was the latest in a long line of legal troubles for the Netanyahus — highlighted by the prime minister's ongoing corruption trial . The pair have also had a rocky relationship with the Israeli media. Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of cases alleging he exchanged favors with powerful media moguls and wealthy associates. Netanyahu denies the charges and says he is the victim of a “witch hunt” by overzealous prosecutors, police and the media. The report obtained correspondence between Sara Netanyahu and Hanni Bleiweiss, a former aide to the prime minister who died of cancer last year. The messages indicated that Sara Netanyahu, through Bleiweiss, encouraged police to crack down violently on anti-government protesters and ordered Bleiweiss to organize protests against her husband's critics. She also told Bleiweiss to get activists in Netanyahu's Likud party to publish attacks on Klein. Klein is an aide to billionaire Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and has testified in the corruption case about her role in delivering tens of thousands of dollars worth of champagne, cigars and gifts to Netanyahu for her boss. According to the report, Bleiweiss also was instructed to organize demonstrations outside the homes of the lead prosecutor in the corruption case, Liat Ben-Ari, and then Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who had issued the indictments, and protests and social media campaigns smearing political opponents. According to the report, Bleiweiss was a loyal aid to Netanyahu for decades. But while she was ill, it said Sara Netanyahu mistreated her, prompting her to share the messages with a reporter shortly before her death. Sara Netanyahu has been accused of abusive behavior toward her personal staff before. This, together with accusations of excessive spending and using public money for her own extravagant personal tastes, has earned her an image as being out of touch with everyday Israelis. In 2019, she was fined for misusing state funds. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees police and has repeatedly said the attorney general, Baharav-Miara should be fired over a series of grievances against her, said the latest announcement was another reason for her to be dismissed. “Someone who politically persecutes government ministers and their families cannot continue to serve as the attorney general,” he said. And Justice Minister Yariv Levin, another Netanyahu ally and critic of Baharav-Miara, accused her of focusing on “television gossip.” “Selective enforcement is a crime!” he said in a statement. AP correspondents Eleanor H. Reich in New York and Isaac Scharf in Jerusalem contributed reporting.The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Tuesday filed a and proposed against two Virginia-based data brokers alleging that they unlawfully tracked and sold sensitive consumer location data. This data, which included information about visits to health-related facilities and places of worship, was allegedly collected and sold to government and commercial parties without obtaining verifiable user consent in violation of the FTC Act. Once finalized, the order will carry the force of law, and any violations may result in civil penalties of up to $51,744 per infraction. The FTC alleges in its complaint that Virginia-based and its subsidiary, ., “claim to ‘collect, process, and curate’ over 17 billion signals from approximately a billion mobile devices on a daily basis.” The FTC alleges that the two companies “violated the FTC Act by unfairly selling sensitive consumer location data and by collecting and using consumers’ location data without obtaining verifiable user consent for commercial and government uses.” Gravy Analytics’ website says it “respects consumer privacy and ensures that location data collected at sensitive locations is not used, shared, or resold.” The latest action by the FTC marks the commission’s fifth enforcement action targeting data brokers for mishandling sensitive location data. Earlier actions – including two this year – for similar violations involving the sale of data linked to sensitive locations were taken against , , , and Mobilewalla. The latest move by the FTC against Venntel and Gravy Analytics could fuel the fire in Congress over the government’s purchase of consumer information from data brokers. In August, that a bipartisan bill was passed by the House that would ban the government from buying Americans’ personally identifiable information from data brokers and aggregators. The legislation would close the data-broker loophole in the law that allows governments to buy data they would otherwise need a warrant to obtain. The bill was passed in the wake of a of data broker National Public Data that put gigabytes of information on possibly millions of individuals at risk. Lawmakers and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are also concerned about the national security threat that’s posed by third-party data brokers and businesses selling the data that they collect to entities with ties to Russia, Iran, China, and other countries of concern. These data brokers are the primary targets of a DOJ rule that was issued in October that would bar them from selling the data they collect to any entity that has ties to countries identified by DOJ in the rule. DOJ unveiled its final proposed rules in October to carry out President Joe Biden’s February 28 Executive Order, . According to the FTC’s latest complaint, Gravy Analytics continued to use consumers’ location data after learning that consumers did not provide informed consent. Gravy Analytics also unfairly sold sensitive characteristics like health or medical decisions, political activities, and religious viewpoints that were derived from consumers’ location data, the FTC alleges. The FTC’s proposed three-count complaint alleges that the two companies violated Section 5(a) of the FTC Act by unfairly selling sensitive location data and unfairly collecting, using, and transferring consumer location data without consent verification, and that Gravy Analytics violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by unfairly selling inferences about consumers’ sensitive characteristics derived from location data. In July 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published thousands of pages of about how Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other agencies of the Department of Homeland Security were “sidestepping the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable government searches and seizures by buying access to, and using, huge volumes of people’s cell phone location information quietly extracted from smartphone apps” by Venntel and Babel Street. Four years earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled in that the government needs a warrant to access a person’s cellphone location history from cellular service providers because of the “privacies of life” those records can reveal. The ACLU said that “in the documents we received ... we found Venntel marketing materials sent to DHS explaining how the company collects more than 15 billion location points from over 250 million cell phones and other mobile devices every day.” As part of the FTC’s proposed settlement, Gravy Analytics and Venntel would be prohibited from selling, disclosing, or using sensitive location data in any product or service. They would also be required to establish a sensitive location data program to prevent further misuse of such data. FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine highlighted the broader implications of the companies’ practices, stating that “surreptitious surveillance by data brokers undermines our civil liberties and puts servicemembers, union workers, religious minorities, and others at risk. This is the FTC’s fourth action this year challenging the sale of sensitive location data, and it is past time for the industry to get serious about protecting Americans’ privacy.” “You may not know anything about Gravy Analytics, but Gravy Analytics may know quite a bit about you,” said Commissioner Alvaro M. Bedoya, Chair Lina M. Khan, and Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter in a joint statement. The commissioners allege that Gravy Analytics appended 1,100 labels “to individual consumers so as to sell their bundled data to private companies for targeted advertising — or to better understand the ‘persona’ of any given individual whose data a company has requested. According to our complaint, respondents actively encouraged their customers to identify individual people using the data they sold.” The commissioners said in their statement that the cell phone data could tell when a person had breakfast at McDonald’s, purchased CBD oil, are a Republican or Democrat, bought lingerie, are pregnant, a stay-at-home parent, “a blue-collar Gen X parent” or a “golf-lover who has recently been looking into Medicare.” The complaint says “Venntel tells potential customers that ‘location data makes it possible to gain real-life insight into a device users’ patterns-of-life (POL), locations visited, and known associates.’ Venntel further explains that, over a 90-day tracking of a ‘VIP Device,’ the company was able to identify the device user’s ‘bed down location, work location, and visits to ... United States Government buildings.” “Additionally,” the complaints states, “in a ‘ ’ document for one of its services, Venntel notes that where a device is located during the evening hours will show its customers when the consumer is at ‘home, gym, evening school, etc.’ Indeed, companies and other entities are using precise geolocation data to identify consumers and their activities.” “In one well-publicized example,” the FTC complaints says, “a group used precise mobile geolocation data to identify by name a Catholic priest who visited LGBTQ+-associated locations, thereby exposing the priest’s sexual orientation and forcing him to resign his position. As another example, journalists who purchased precise mobile geolocation from a data broker were able to track consumers over time and, as a result, identify several consumers, including military officials, law enforcement officers, and others. One person the journalists were able to identify by name (and who confirmed her identity) was tracked attending a prayer service at a church.” The FTC alleges that the two Virginia companies have collected more than 17 billion daily location signals from roughly a billion mobile devices. Far from anonymized, the commission said “these signals can be used to identify individual consumers. Gravy Analytics reportedly employed geofencing technology to track users visiting locations tied to sensitive activities, including medical events and religious practices.” The FTC expressed concern over the potential harm to consumers resulting from these practices, including risks of stigma, discrimination, and violence. Sensitive characteristics derived from location data could expose users to various forms of harm, particularly when shared without their knowledge or consent, the FTC said. Under the FTC’s proposed Decision and Order – which has a 30-day public comment period – the companies face strict prohibitions on the sale, transfer, or disclosure of sensitive location data, except in cases involving national security or law enforcement. The two companies would also be required to implement a program to identify and safeguard sensitive locations, including medical facilities, places of worship, schools, correctional facilities, and shelters for vulnerable populations. Additionally, Gravy Analytics and Venntel would be required to delete all historical location data and any products derived from that data unless they can ensure the information is de-identified or rendered non-sensitive. The settlement would also mandate that the companies inform customers who received sensitive location data within the past three years of their obligation to delete or de-identify this data. Furthermore, the companies would have to establish a supplier assessment program to verify consumer consent for the collection and use of precise location data, and would be barred from misrepresenting their data practices, including the extent to which they review compliance with consent frameworks and ensure the de-identification of data. The FTC unanimously voted 5-0 to issue the administrative complaint and to approve the proposed consent agreement. Commissioners Bedoya, Khan, Slaughter, Christine Wilson and Andrew Ferguson issued statements supporting the action, some with additional commentary. The proposed consent order will be published in the for public comment, allowing stakeholders 30 days to submit feedback before the FTC determines whether to finalize the agreement. An will accompany the notice. | | | | | |
This week on Wow A Chainsaw Fits Right In There Perfectly Theatre is Terrifier 3 ( now streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video ), a Christmas-themed slashterpiece that decks the halls with bowels of holly. The Terrifier film series offers an inspiring story of a filmmaker being increasingly rewarded with praise and money for delivering sicko-splatterfests starring new horror icon Art the Clown , a mute mime of a murder-happy maven who chops up children and mocks their pleas for mercy. Director Damien Lewis launched the nothingbudget series in 2018, nabbing a big enough cult following for Terrifier to inspire a 2022 sequel, Terrifier 2 , which grossed $15 million, a number that’s not insignificant, considering it’s 60 times the original budget. And the quest for an even mightier profit margin and freshly blecchy displays of spilled guts continued with the third film, which had the audacity to outpace majorly expensive Hollywood megamovies, and has raked in a stunning $87 million. Lots of people are into this shit, it seems, and part of me believes that sussing out reasons why will be even more depressing than watching the actual movie. TERRIFIER 3 : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? The Gist: Before we get to the masturbating-with-a-big-shard-of-glass and chainsaw-in-the-butt-crack scenes, we have to watch the delightful bit where Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) dons Santa garb and dismembers little kids with an axe on Christmas. Don’t worry, though – the children die offscreen, and you only see lingering shots of the gruesome aftermath, so you won’t be offended! Then we get a sequence in which Art reunites with Victoria Heyes (Samantha Scaffidi), one of the Terrified people from the first movie, who’s now demonically possessed in a sort of post-zombie state, and, with her scarred-up exterior and mottled eye and gnashy chattery teeth, very much looks the part. There’s a bit where she settles in for a nice long soak in a tub full of her own blood and bodily gravies that made me wonder what that might smell like, then immediately regret entertaining the thought. It takes 20 minutes to get to anything resembling a plot. Eventually, we re-meet Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera), the survivor of Terrifier 2 , fresh out of the mental hospital. She moves in with her aunt Jess (Margaret Anne Florence) and uncle Greg (Bryce Johnson), who have a sweet daughter, Gabbie (Antonella Rose), and as they sit around the dinner table all hunky-dory happy, you get the sinking feeling that these people are doomed. Meanwhile, Sienna’s brother Jonathan (Elliott Fulham), who also survived the last movie, is off at college, trying to move on with his life. His dingus roommate is dating a true-crime enthusiast, and as they hassle Jonathan to let them exploit his trauma for their shitty podcast, you get the hopeful feeling that these people are doomed. Elsewhere, Art proves he’s not a superficial guy, since he shows so much interest in people’s insides. We witness how he acquired his Santa suit – it has more to do with Clint Howard than you might expect – and then how he uses said suit to gain access to a mall Santa setup so he can transform more children into angels or just corpses, depending on how religious you are. We jump between his cheery escapades and Sienna’s boring-ass life, which mostly involves playing board games with little Gabbie and being mad at the kid for reading her diary. Art really did a number on Sienna’s brain, because she hallucinates gory scenes and has bad dreams. Eventually, he’ll have to catch up to her, right? And what if he brings his assistant Victoria along for some fun? Can you say “Ho ho horror,” kiddies? What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Besides the Detroit Lions games where they just won’t stop scoring touchdowns even though they’re up by 40? The Saw films , which I also found egregiously dull, but with an iconic hands-on slasher villain a la Freddy Krueger or Jason or Winnie the Pooh. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a three-way bout between Santa Art, David Harbour’s drunken Claus from Violent Night and Billy Bob Thornton’s Bad Santa if anyone out there is so inclined as to stage a mega-Xmas crossover. Performance Worth Watching: Everyone likes to praise Thornton for his chilling pantomimes, and I’m sure it’s harder than it seems to mug and bug and ape laughter in the face of others’ suffering. I guess without his efforts, the Terrifier s might not be the nasty pop-crossover sensation that it is. Memorable Dialogue: A fellow clown spots Art on the subway and offers praise for his costume: “Seriously, you killed it!” Sex and Skin: A couple smashes gonads in the shower, but we don’t see any of their bits until after the bodies are mutilated. Please don’t ask if their bits get mutilated. (Spoiler alert: Their bits get mutilated, in graphic detail.) Our Take: At the risk of sounding like a pearl-clutching, tut-tutting churchophile: What’s the point of all this? I mean, besides further hammering home the all-too-agreeable assertion that true crime podcasters have got it coming? I puzzled over this while yawning at the admittedly impressive display of excessive offal and viscera that Terrifier 3 slops on the floor in front of us, and came to the conclusion that Lewis’ main goal is to be the cinema world’s premier provider of wholesale revulsion. Just look at this nastiness! Dead children! The desecration of your most treasured holiday traditions! Intestines intestine intestines! Aren’t you shocked and appalled ? But this is a straw man Lewis props up to beat down. All the “reports” of people walking out of the Terrifier films or barfing in the aisles are almost certainly phony, because the percentage of unsuspecting people who just stroll into the theater only to turn heel and file an incident report with their pastor is nil. Truth is, Lewis plays to the audience that explicitly plops down in front of a screen hoping to see some totally righteous kills, bro. And he delivers, and then some, and then some more, and then even more, just to be sure. The director’s M.O. is essentially, why whack a torso with an ax six times when you can do it 60 times? Trim it down to a relatively modest 25 whacks, and you might get T3 under two hours, a mark that guarantees a test of patience – and does not, by any stretch of the imagination, boast a story justifying such a lengthy run time. Which is to say, the film is grossly calculated to be gross. With a significant budget increase – reportedly $2 million, still an eensy fraction of most mainstream films – Lewis spends a big chunk of that on corn syrup, red dye and prosthetics, and upgrades his “vision” by aping slasher trendsetters like John Carpenter and Wes Craven, co-opting the dingy look and synth scores of ’80s genre classics. There’s even a ‘ Terrifier Christmas’ theme song that jingles and dingles its way into your cochleas. There’s craft to the making of this film, no doubt – much credit to the makeup crew for really Going There, and going there Real Hard. You can’t help but admire the depravity, and how Lewis maintains a hateful, ugly-spirited tone with alarming consistency. But even taking into account Art’s demented Marceau-on-meth pantomime, it’s definitely not art. Our Call: The Terrifier s are anti-arthouse horror films that deliberately have nothing to say beyond gee aren’t we nasty? If you need me, I’ll be somewhere on the spectrum between ambivalent and bored. SKIP IT. John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.Talking Point: What Are Your PS1 Memories?
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