Good morning from Cannes! I'll be speaking at 11am today, award ceremony tonight. See you at the Palais :)

Hello from Paris! Last night’s audience at the Cannes Lion Awards may have been the best audience ever :) did presentation in morning, award at night

The lecture in morning and awarding at night are behind the Cannes Lions paywall, but some clips are here so you get a sense of the crowd and my request: To the world's best creatives, what would you do if FACTS were your brand. It's boring. How would you give it energy and make people crave it? :) https://x.com/jpiedrahita/status/1804289172196462947

Good morning from Tbilisi, Georgia! Landed late Saturday night. Walked into meetings Sunday and ZEG, which literally means the day after tomorrow. The festival is left brain, right brain - artists, dancers, journalists++

Hello, Manila!!! How wonderful to be home. I have a lot to share (and will over the weekend but going into zoom meeting). From Tblisi, I went to #GlobalFact11 in Sarajevo … will tell you more about the incredible people and the path we see ahead! In the meantime, let me leave you with this great photo from Natalia Antaleva, founder of Coda Story - from ZEG

Good morning from the Philippines!! Love the moment when dark turns to light :)

Did President Macron make a mistake in calling for snap elections? Or was he bold and daring? (He had a mandate that would've lasted two more years ...) Voting ongoing https://www.rappler.com/world/europe/france-snap-parliamentary-election-begins-june-30-2024/

It seems to have backfired on President Macron (and France) https://www.rappler.com/world/europe/france-election-updates-june-30-2024/

Off rec briefings tell us that Macron called elections early because their projections show a far right majority if elections were held later. Now the centrists and leftists must find a way to work together to prevent that far right majority.

https://www.rappler.com/world/europe/france-parliamentary-election-updates-july-1-2024/

Good afternoon from Manila! There's a lot to watch this week in terms of elections and judicial movements - starting last night with SCOTUS ruling on immunity for the US president: https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/united-states-supreme-court-rules-trump-immunity-official-not-private-acts/

UK elections held yesterday! Expected to end the conservative party, which had ushered in Brexit https://www.rappler.com/world/europe/united-kingdom-election-labour-sweep-power-huge-majority-exit-poll-july-4-2024/

Good morning from Manila! It's so good to be home! (although I travel again on Monday for an event Wednesday in Berlin with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. It's for his Forum Bellevue on the Transformation of Society https://www.bundespraesident.de/EN/federal-president/focal-areas/forum-bellevue/forum-bellevue_node.html We'll be talking about AI & society's digital transformation. we've largely left technology in the hands of engineers and profiteers (I choose the word carefully given the impact on us as people, as societies, as governments -and on emergent human behavior. Had a conversation with Shoshana Zuboff on Friday about whether the changes are evolutionary - not yet, we agreed ... unless we don't arrest and reverse present trends. Just a reminder: France votes today on second round https://www.rappler.com/world/europe/far-right-bids-power-france-holds-parliamentary-election-july-2024/

Good morning from Berlin! in a short while, will be with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Forum Bellevue. If you're in Berlin, join us ... or watch the stream https://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Berichte/EN/Frank-Walter-Steinmeier/2024/240710-Forum-Bellevue-3.html

It begins!

https://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Reden/EN/Frank-Walter-Steinmeier/Reden/2024/240710-Forum-Bellevue-No3.html?nn=290986

Good morning from Manila!!

Online violence is real world violence: https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/trump-pennsylvania-rally-shooting-july-13-2024/

https://civil.ge/archives/614859?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=7e5eab37-0a50-4de7-98f6-2296ec08f16c

Hello, Lou!! Landed in Vienna and now in hotel. Will be meeting with OSCE's Representative for Media Freedom tomorrow as well as one of our international lawyers. Can Yeginsu is going to be speaking as well at "No Security Without Media Freedom" ... a new V-Dem report will also be launched tomorrow.

Interesting that Donald Trump's VP candidate choice, JD Vance, was mentored by a chinoy (chinese-filipina). Thanks for pointing that out @Lara! Amy Chua graduated from UST with a degree in chemical engineering and wrote BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/hillbilly-elegy-mentor/529443/

Great meeting with Austria’s Justice Minister Alma Zadic, 40 yr old Bosnian-born lawyer. She talked about how justice is under attack globally and what she’s doing to #HoldTheLine!

Good afternoon from rainy Manila! Watch our live coverage of President Marcos’ State of the Nation Address https://www.rappler.com/philippines/updates-highlights-summary-president-ferdinand-marcos-jr-sona-july-22-2024/

Thanks to these participants, I learned a lot about the 2024 SONA.

Good evening from Manila! What a whirlwind week it was in DC, where I landed Tuesday to see Kamala Harris taking the reins. Aside from meeting our partners, the trip was largely for the International Fund for Public Interest Media. Last year, we raised more than $57m from a broad coalition of public and private funders - focused on helping news organizations in the global south survive this time of creative destruction. To date, we've given $15m direct grants to 48 organizations in 23 countries. That is expected to go up to $30m by the end of the year. We're proud of the work we're doing - a multilateral group dedicated to saving journalism during this crucial moment. Join us! If you're a funder and want to know more, let me know. If you're part of a news organization that may need help, contact us: https://ifpim.org/

With USAID Administrator Samantha Power and IFPIM COO Amelie Baudot. If you haven’t read Power’s A PROBLEM FROM HELL or THE EDUCATION OF A JOURNALIST, highly recommend.

Left DC Thursday afternoon and landed in Manila shortly after dawn on Saturday, with just enough time to shower and change. Made it to PICC to DLS-CSB’s commencement for the Class of 2024

🥰

Good morning from Manila! Flew to Taiwan on Monday, spoke to the annual meeting of international lawmakers (IPAC - the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China), reminded them about Jimmy Lai, arrested in 2020 and languishing in prison. Landed back in Manila last night.

About a week ago, this happened: https://www.rappler.com/world/asia-pacific/hong-kong-court-dismisses-jimmy-lai-bid-end-trial/

At its height, Apple Daily had 8 million uniques, about 240 million pageviews - larger than any PH news group. 76 year old Jimmy gave up his life - a billionaire who stood up to power and may now spend the rest of his life in jail.

Evan Gershkovich and Vlad Kara-Murza released! https://www.rappler.com/world/global-affairs/americans-gershkovich-whelan-included-east-west-prisoner-swap/ what collaboration can do

Germany's Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeir whispered this may happen (it was offrec), but it's so hard to get hopes up. The first time I had heard about this was at the Munich Security conference earlier this year, when Yulia Navalny faced a roomful of people after the death of her husband. Sources there had said that he was supposed to have been freed shortly. He was supposed to be part of this prisoner swap. Here's more from WSJ (it's hard when you're a news group negotiating for the release of one of your own). Most of Rappler's founders were part of the negotiations and operations when we had 3 of our journalists kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf ... With Evan and Vlad (who traveled to Moscow voluntarily after a common friend, Bill Browder, encouraged him not to), it's a global collaboration - which moves in and out of the moral shadows: https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/evan-gershkovich-prisoner-exchange-ccb39ad3?reflink=share_mobilewebshare

Good morning from Manila! Masha Gessen was convicted in Russia in absentia to 8 years in prison. She writes here about the long path to the release https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/02/opinion/evan-gershkovich-release.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AU4.N63G.8XfzBuJUuMAp&smid=em-share

How perseverance and focus wins the day https://www.rappler.com/sports/resilience-challenging-path-carlos-yulo-gold-medal-paris-olympics-2024/

Thank the Lord!

Good morning, Friends!! While we were getting ready to start our board meeting last Friday at Rappler, we received a special delivery envelope - which contained the Court of Appeals decision on our appeal against what we believed was a completely unconstitutional move by the Duterte administration, carried out by the SEC En Banc (led by its then Chair Teresita Herbosa). After 8 years of harassment - the weaponization of social media, followed by the weaponization of the law, vindication!!!

We expect more online attacks after publishing this exclusive ast night. Please read and share! https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/how-china-set-up-influence-espionage-network-manila/

And here's @Jairo Bolledo on how and why we won! https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/why-rappler-won-case-duterte-time-sec-shutdown-order/ Let us know if you have any questions! Thank you for helping us #HoldTheLine!

Congratulations to Rappler. May those responsible for the "SEC En Banc's ruling" be held accountable and punished after due process and in accordance with the law, as it displays willful defiance that exceeds even the threshold of grave abuse of discretion.

Please go ahead! And thanks for asking :) happy Sunday

Thank you and happy Sunday, too.

Was on a zoom call. Thank you for your thoughts on this. I've learned a lot from South Africa, East Timor ... I think there will always be an accounting, but weighing the timing is crucial. The court decision was - as our lawyer said - "an overwhelming victory." I hope the PH develops stronger institutions that will help us demand that accountability in the future :) at least, we're on the way forward!

I appreciate the insight that it was "an overwhelming victory," but it should not make Rappler complacent. This was the mistake of then President Cory Aquino when, after our 1st People Revolution, she became complacent with the Marcoses. It's our responsibility to ensure this doesn't happen again. By holding those former officials accountable and answerable, Rappler will have conveyed to our corrupt officials that they will be held responsible and punished for whatever wrongdoing they do. 😊

I absolutely agree with you!