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<keyword id="1054297" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bang-Bang">Bang Bang</keyword> was expected to be a money spinner at the <keyword id="25892" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="box-office">box office</keyword> and the movie hasn’t disappointed its patrons even a bit. Over the extended weekend, the movie has garnered around Rs 94.13 crores at the domestic box office, while its gross collections have touched Rs 134.47 crores in India. 
 
The movie started on a high note with the collections of Rs 27.54 crores on Thursday that made Bang Bang the fifth highest opener of all time, after Dhoom 3 ( Rs 36 crores), Chennai Express ( Rs 33.10 crores), Ek Tha Tiger (Rs 32.92 crores), and Singham Returns (Rs 32 crores). 
 
Monday collections of Bang Bang are also expected to be good, given that it’s the day when many people are enjoying a day off work because of Id-Ul-Zuha. 
 
In addition to this, Bang Bang has also emerged as the biggest opener movie of Hrithik Roshan’s career displacing Krrish 3. The movie was riding high on Hrithik’s shoulders and he has managed to woo the audiences with his charm and acting prowess. The movie has been made on a budget of Rs 140 crores and we hope that it’ll continue to go strong in the following weekend! 
 
Another big movie that released last weekend was <keyword id="198679" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Haider">Haider</keyword>. The movie has got rave reviews, but didn’t manage to create a similar magic in terms of numbers. In the four day weekend, the movie managed to get Rs. 26.78 crores. 
 
 [Collections figures courtesy <a href="http://www.koimoi.com/box-office/bang-bang-day-1-thursday-box-office-collections/">Koimoi.com</a>]

Box Office: Bang Bang Spins Money, Haider Garners Praises

Art connoisseurs across the world look forward to this auction. Now in its fourth edition, <keyword id="2401" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Christie">Christie</keyword>’s <keyword id="2702572" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-sale">India Sale</keyword> in Mumbai tomorrow is the talk of the town. For amateurs, Christie’s are the only international auctioneers to hold sales regularly in India. In the December last year, their sale achieved the highest total for any auction ever to take place in India 74 lots sold above estimate, 23 lots sold above 1 Crore and 9 new artist records at auction were established. The sale offered for the first time a dedicated section for Classic Indian Art. 
 From classical to contemporary, Christie’s annual sale will be offering around 150 lots, including approximately 70 lots of Classical Indian Art, which Christie’s introduced to its auction offering for the first time in last year’s Mumbai auction. The fourth edition will be led by the outstanding private art collection of <keyword id="498" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="abhishek">Abhishek</keyword> and <keyword id="291559" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Radhika-Poddar">Radhika Poddar</keyword>. Besides, the auction offers some further important art works by Syed Haider Raza, Akbar Padamsee, Bhupen Khakhar and <keyword id="3968208" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="jehangir-sabalava">Jehangir Sabalava</keyword>, to name a few. 
 <keyword id="6980" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Poddar">Poddar</keyword>, who stays out of the limelight mostly, has earlier invested in a start up dealing in online auctioning of arts. He, being one of the best known art connoisseurs in India takes pride in his collection consisting of art works of Bhupen Khakhar, Manjit Bawa, Tyeb Mehta, Jogen Chowdhury and K.G. Subramanyan. 
 
Since its first sale in India in December 2013, Christie's has sold over USD 42 million worth of art and antiques in the country. The latest auction will see lowest price on a art work at Rs 1-1.5 lakh, while the highest price is in the range of Rs 10-15 crore.

Christie's fourth auctioning of art in India is starting tomorrow

It is a big day at the <keyword id="25892" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="box-office">box office</keyword> as two biggies <keyword id="1054297" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bang-Bang">Bang Bang</keyword> and <keyword id="198679" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Haider">Haider</keyword> clash at the box office. In addition, it is also a long weekend, due to Gandhi Jayanti, Dushera and Eid-ul-Zuha. The buzz for both the movie is quite high. 
 
Bang Bang, which is a remake of Knight and Day, stars <keyword id="6354563" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hrithik-Roshan">Hrithik Roshan</keyword> along with <keyword id="6354850" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Katrina-Kaif">Katrina Kaif</keyword>. On the other hand, Haider is an adaption of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This movie is directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and features <keyword id="6355887" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shahid-Kapoor">Shahid Kapoor</keyword>, <keyword id="89958" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shraddha-Kapoor">Shraddha Kapoor</keyword>, Tabu, Irrfan Khan and Kay Kay Menon. 
 
We have already heard news report regarding the tussle over screens amongst both the movies and tomorrow will be show time for them. 
Interestingly, the buzz for both the movies is great. Bang Bang has a slight edge as Hrithik Roshan has a greater star value than Shahid Kapoor and also songs from the movie are getting a warm response. Haider on its part is expected to get plenty of critical acclaim. We can already see quite a few celebrities tweeting nice things about the movie. 
 
However, when it comes to making money, we are placing our bets on Bang Bang. Going by the trends of advance booking, it is expected that Bang Bang is going to get a hearty welcome at the box office. Reports suggest that cinemaplexes have increased the number of shows after seeing the response in advance bookings. 
 
We are expecting Bang Bang to have occupancy rate of 80-90% on the opening day and likely to cross Rs 25 crore in first collections. The five-day weekend should help the movie collect its first ton at the box office. 
 
Haider in our opinion should also get occupancy levels of about 50% in the opening weekend and be able to fetch about Rs 40 crore at the box office. So which movie are you watching this weekend? Do let us know in the comments below. 
 
Image: Indiatimes

Box Office Predictions for Bang Bang And Haider

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Ichibei Okamoto is one of <keyword id="6355311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="japan" source="Orion">Japan</keyword>'s top QAnon influencers.</li><li>The Tokyo-based YouTuber is best known for his "emergency Q-broadcasts."</li></ul>On the fringes of the Japanese internet, a groomed, bespectacled man sits in front of his camera, activates his live stream, and starts <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POO9YwAMXwQ">waving around a rubber mask bearing the likeness of former President Donald Trump.</a>He holds a black rotary phone up to his right ear and declares that he's found a good product of "Trump-san.""Made in Japan," he says of the mask, grinning broadly.The man behind the live stream is Tokyo-based YouTuber Ichibei Okamoto. About a month after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, he stopped his year-long run of posting episodes of violent, samurai-inspired anime and began a journey in a different direction.For over a year now, Okamoto has been streaming "emergency Q-broadcasts" to tens of thousands of viewers.The broadcasts all start the same way: Okamoto positions himself in front of what looks to be a world map and, at times, a Trump figurine. The phone beside him doesn't ring, but he picks it up and proceeds to have a one-sided conversation with it.The YouTuber has spent broadcast after broadcast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8MlD2GyC5Q">railing against the Japanese government</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTTw5fu99c0">pushing conspiracy theories about a great awakening</a> of the downtrodden.In some videos, he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZCpE-oo_hs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">urges the followers of YamatoQ,</a> an organization known as the Japanese arm of the US-based QAnon conspiracy theory, to wake up to the deception that clouds their eyes. In others, he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcFWT2MBlps" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alludes to "the storm"</a> — a <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/12/qanon-4chan-the-storm-conspiracy-explained.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">term used in QAnon circles</a> to refer to a baseless claim that Trump will stage an uprising to overthrow members of a satanic "deep state" cabal of pedophiles.In the 18 months since his sharp pivot to posting conspiracy theory videos, Okamoto has become one of the most visible QAnon supporters in Japan. What's more, the growth of Okamoto's following suggests a rise in conspiracy-theory-driven fringe behavior in Japan.Okamoto did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Insider. <h2>The rise of Japan's QAnon movement</h2>To understand Okamoto, you first need to understand <a href="https://yamatoq.info/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YamatoQ</a>, the Japanese wing of the QAnon movement. While the organization does not advertise the origins of its name, the word "Yamato" carries connotations of Japanese imperialism. The Yamato was known to be one of the country's lead battleships during World War II and was <a href="https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the pride of the Japanese Navy until it was sunk in 1945.</a> While the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/opinion/qanon-japan-janon.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">QAnon movement has not taken hold in Japan at the speed and intensity it did in the US</a>, the group has a sizeable membership across Japan, with at least <a href="https://yamatoq.info/%e5%85%a8%e5%9b%bdline%e3%82%aa%e3%83%bc%e3%83%97%e3%83%b3%e3%83%81%e3%83%a3%e3%83%83%e3%83%88/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nine divisions in prefectures from Hokkaido to Okinawa.</a> Each subdivision — which the YamatoQ calls "demonstration corps" — has chat groups on the LINE messaging app limited to individuals with Japanese phone numbers. Much like QAnon in the US, the Japanese organization <a href="https://www.insider.com/yamatoq-leader-arrested-on-suspicion-of-breaking-into-vaccine-clinic-2022-4">has been linked to anti-vaccination protests</a>. In April, four people connected to YamatoQ — <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/04/20/national/crime-legal/qanon-japan-arrest/">including</a> <a href="https://www.daily.co.jp/gossip/2022/04/20/0015235179.shtml">Okamoto</a> — <a href="https://japantoday.com/category/crime/4-arrested-for-disrupting-coronavirus-vaccinations-in-Tokyo">were arrested</a> in Shibuya for barging into a vaccination clinic while yelling about vaccinations being a crime. The <a href="https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20220511-27224/">Yomiuri Shimbun</a> also reported that around 6,000 people participated in YamatoQ demonstrations nationwide in January, motivating the local authorities to investigate the movement and its members.While the QAnon movement in the US lacks an organized membership system, YamatoQ recruits members for an annual fee of 4,500 Japanese yen, or $32.82. The group verifies members' identities by collecting copies of their driver's licenses or identity cards. Once accepted, applicants receive a card declaring they are a "certified authentic member." <div type="image" title="A screengrab of the Yamato Q membership card" height="575" width="1023" msid="92921264" hostid="261"></div><h2>Transcending YouTube fame</h2>Okamoto identifies as a representative of <a href="https://yamatoq.info/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YamatoQ,</a> one of Japan's remaining QAnon-splinter groups, many of which have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/opinion/qanon-japan-janon.html">shut down or otherwise faded into obscurity</a>. He leads the group alongside Twitter conspiracy theorist <a href="https://twitter.com/TENmamoruKOU">Daisuke Murai</a>.He's active on Instagram, where he posts selfies, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CbJ6doULFX_/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump quotes</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbb9LYpr0Nw/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notices of upcoming YamatoQ events</a> for his 4,413 followers, a considerable following for a Q-linked figure in Japan. These posts take on a darker tone on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100034909382070">Okamoto's Facebook page</a>. In an April 1 post, he took a screenshot of himself and other members at a "<keyword id="12155398" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="q" source="Orion">Q</keyword> administrative meeting," announcing he would be going after a list of Japanese members of parliament. "If you continue to govern badly, you will soon be on the pick list. We are not here to negotiate," Okamoto <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=735705727603067&amp;id=100034909382070&amp;__cft__[0]=AZWBvVWowHa_7C600sPSzHWC8qzG_qBOTifsDuP8l3z2kaBnGCqf89WqwKFoROwCtVElkUuxa_A7_ujgSGK-XBJHpXQSGQSvS4PptIWyGY4-LQGyOCZ-s8__Cxe68NN5XRMh4pyMouQr6gc6F8Xt2lNAUz5LO0F-uYIoP34rbe3Eyw&amp;__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">wrote</a>.YouTube is his loudest microphone.He's racked up close to 20 million views on his videos and initially had four YouTube channels dedicated to YamatoQ content. His main channel, "Ichibei 1," has more than 44,800 subscribers. One of his channels, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8zCdpg1sMKoiCra4_cfogg">"Ichibei 3,"</a> bears a notice indicating that it was taken down "due to multiple or severe violations" of YouTube's content guidelines."We terminated the channel for its dedication to violating our harassment policy, which prohibits content that targets someone by suggesting they are complicit in a conspiracy theory that is used to justify real-world violence, including QAnon," a YouTube spokesperson told Insider. Okamoto receives occasional donations of around 1,000 Japanese yen, or $7.30, from viewers who ask him questions during live streams over his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3bkvwCUWr4ZimiqsbuZ6-A/about">main channel</a>.Beyond his YouTube donations, minimal information is publicly available about what Okamoto does for a living. Online articles and movie databases suggest he may have been a <a href="https://thetv.jp/person/0000162614/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">direct-to-video </a><a href="https://cinema-rank.net/list/112872" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Japanese actor</a> in the 2000s who was known both by his birth name, Hiroyuki Kuraoka, and a <a href="https://mydramalist.com/people/89725-okazaki-rei" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stage name,</a> <a href="https://cinema-rank.net/list/112872" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rei Okazaki.</a>In 2021, Okamoto capitalized on his Q-linked popularity to release <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4899765223/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_8QFD3Y0FBJ4Y4B4KT3KG">a book titled "The X-Man File."</a> The book covers conspiracy theories from how world leaders are clones manipulated by a deep-state cabal to the proposition that people are teleporting from Earth to Mars. He also baselessly posits in the book that doppelgangers are ruling the Earth and that President Joe Biden is being played by an actor who closely resembles him. <h2>The magnetic appeal of the Japanese Q-fluencer</h2>The US has its share of QAnon-linked conspiracy theorists, from far-right provocateur Alex Jones to Ron Watkins, the man widely rumored to be the originator of the conspiracy theory.Okamoto is not the first offshoot of the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/04/23/japan-qanon-conspiracy-wang-pkg-intl-hnk-vpx.cnn">QAnon movement to crop up in Japan</a>.There's also the Japanese influencer <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/23/tech/qanon-consipiracy-theory-japan-trump-hnk-intl-dst/index.html">Eri Okabayashi</a>, whose account was <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/business/live-news/election-2020-misinformation/h_5a812a3896cefac18052c40eb06cae70">purged by Twitter in January 2021</a> when the company banned more than <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/08/twitter-bans-michael-flynn-sidney-powell-and-other-qanon-accounts.html">70,000 accounts</a> for promoting QAnon content. Also operating is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/23/tech/qanon-consipiracy-theory-japan-trump-hnk-intl-dst/index.html">QArmyJapanFlynn</a>, a nebulous web of Q-supporters named after Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.What sets Okamoto apart from the regular QAnon troll is that he has the stylings of a 90s Japanese pop star.Before he <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CaQ05kLJkss/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adopted a closely cropped, military-looking haircut</a>, Okamoto had a flowing mane of dyed brown hair. On occasion, Okamoto would also style himself like a modern Japanese samurai, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CS_IDCtrUUP/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showing up at events</a> and on live streams in a yukata, a type of Japanese summer kimono.He also appears to appeal to a different demographic than his American counterparts. Unlike the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/qanon-shaman-potential-jurors-first-janary-6-trial-guy-reffitt-2022-2">boisterous and colorfully dressed figures</a> that often populated American QAnon rallies, YamatoQ followers tend to be regular-looking folk — disgruntled-looking retirees and the occasional youth.Okamoto's posts have hit a note with some members of his audience."Nice, Q! Only YamatoQ can change the world," read a comment on one of Okamoto's Facebook posts. "President Trump is a HERO. Everyone is a HERO. Let's move towards the battlegrounds."<h2>QAnon is gaining a foothold outside the US</h2>Okamoto's growing popularity suggests conspiracy theories like QAnon are finding footholds in countries outside the US.Donald Haider-Markel, a University of Kansas political science professor who researches domestic extremism, said he was surprised by QAnon's spread abroad, given how US-centric elements of the conspiracy theory are.However, he said Q's expansion overseas could be attributed to followers' tendency to cherry-pick what they believe in."No conspiracy theory is too far-fetched for believers, and they often have a build your own theory perspective," Haider-Markel told Insider.In some ways, experts said, Japan is ripe for the spread of conspiracy theories like Q. Cults in Japan — such as the infamous<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35975069"> Aum Shinrikyo</a> group — tend to prey on people's anxieties and ingratiate themselves with those susceptible to fringe messaging, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/04/23/japan-qanon-conspiracy-wang-pkg-intl-hnk-vpx.cnn">CNN</a> found in interviews with experts.Yoshiro Fujikura, a Japanese journalist and <keyword id="12079135" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cult" source="Orion">cult</keyword> expert, told CNN that Japanese citizens were becoming distrustful of the mainstream media."People start thinking that Japanese media was so untrustworthy in the past, so they must still be hiding the important facts," said Fujikura. "Some people became influenced by opinions they came across online and became susceptible to misinformation."Haider-Markel said the spread of QAnon in Japan could be attributed to two primary factors."First, the central elements of Q suggest that there is a powerful group of individuals controlling things and that this group threatened children. In a period of great uncertainty, it's helpful to believe that a group of humans is controlling things, even if they are evil," Haider-Markel said.Secondly, Haider-Markel said conspiracy theories tend to spread in countries that are technologically advanced and wealthy, and where most people have access to smartphones. Such is the case in Japan, where even older people are familiar with using smart devices."These devices serve as effective vectors for spreading Q ideas through social media and other forms of communication," Haider-Markel said.

Ardent followers of QAnon are pouring into the streets in Japan. Behind them is Ichibei Okamoto &mdash; a Trump-loving YouTuber pushing baseless conspiracy theories to thousands.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Content creators are garnering millions of views posting <keyword id="12154120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="amber-heard" source="Orion">Amber Heard</keyword> and <keyword id="12154119" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="johnny-depp" source="Orion">Johnny Depp</keyword> trial content.</li><li>The content skews towards support for Johnny Depp. </li></ul>Haider Ali, a 27-year old YouTuber who had never posted trial content prior to Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's trial, told Insider that at first, he had "zero interest" in the lawsuit.After watching clips of the trial online, however, Ali found Depp's story to be "relatable." Now, after a month of commenting on aspects of the trial for his <keyword id="11894124" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="youtube" source="Orion">YouTube</keyword> channel Haider Tonight, Ali went from 100 subscribers to 18,000 subscribers during the month of May. He now has 22 million views on his channel.During the <a href="https://www.insider.com/johnny-depp-v-amber-heard-livestream-has-little-precedent-2022-6">live-streamed trial between Heard and Depp</a>, online creators like Ali are finding their own ways to take part in the conversation, and finding themselves with millions of views as a result. Business Insider reported that law channels on Youtube <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-top-law-youtubers-made-during-depp-heard-trial-2022-6">made tens of thousands of dollars</a> by streaming the trial.Ali, who posts pro-Depp content, said that he does not collect ad revenue from his videos. He said he was a victim of domestic abuse with a former partner, and contemplated taking his own life as a result. Ali said he and his viewers have connected to Depp."The response I got on my YouTube channel has been overwhelming because I never expected it to go anywhere," Ali said. "I thought it was going to be just a small community, people talking about their experiences, but the way the clips were received overall has been quite stunning."Ali said that now that the trial is over, he plans to return to music, but will continue to post content about domestic abuse and mental health topics.Content creators covering the Heard-Depp trial garnered views and followers on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/amber-heard-trial-depp-youtube-content-platform-algorithm-tiktok-rcna28016">NBC reported</a>. Most of the accounts are in <a href="https://www.insider.com/johnny-depp-fans-take-over-social-media-with-memes-mockery-2022-4">support of Depp</a> and use hashtags like<a href="https://www.insider.com/petition-signatures-johnny-depp-pirates-of-caribbean-franchise-2022-5"> #JusticeforJohnny</a>. Content creators have also used the hashtags like #IStandwithAmberHeard to share pro-Heard messages on platforms like Twitter. Ivana Escalera is one such social media personality who has used her platform to tweet in support of Heard. Escalera, a photographer based in London, said that she began following a <a href="https://www.insider.com/johnny-depp-loses-wife-beater-libel-amber-heard-the-sun-newspaper-2020-11">similar libel suit</a> between Depp and British newspaper The Sun two years earlier. Depp <a href="https://www.insider.com/depp-head-trial-reasons-won-us-lawsuit-lost-uk-2022-6">lost that case</a>.Escalera posted trial moments and tweets in support of Heard on her Twitter account during the Virginia trial. "I saw not a single person supporting Amber, and after reading the court transcripts and the evidence everyday, I felt like I need to speak up for her and to get the truth out there," Escalera said. Escalera said that during the Virginia trial, she amassed 7,000 new followers on her Twitter account. She said she has found a community of people who "silently" support Heard because of a fear of harassment by Depp fans. She also said that now that the trial is over, she will continue to tweet about "injustice in this world."Recently, a TikTok trend has gone viral mocking Heard's testimony, <a href="https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/tiktok-videos-mock-amber-heard-johnny-depp-1235262321/">Variety reported.</a> Observers online have also said that some of the videos going viral contain <a href="https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1522569236811448320?s=20&amp;t=WIl7PQbYCPqeb7fqEvfJ3w">misleading or fabricated</a> thumbnails and video titles. A spokesperson for YouTube did not immediately answer questions Insider sent regarding these videos. <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ab3yk/daily-wire-amber-heard-johnny-depp">Vice News</a> also reported that conservative outlet The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.insider.com/amber-heard-johnny-depp-trial-the-daily-wire-spent-thousands-2022-5">spent at least $35,000</a> on social media ads promoting articles biased towards Depp and against Heard.On June 1, <a href="https://www.insider.com/johnny-depp-amber-heard-verdict-trial-defamation-case-2022-6">a jury found both Heard and Depp liable</a> for defamation against each other. Depp was awarded $15 million in damages, while Heard was awarded $2 million. Heard <a href="https://www.insider.com/johnny-depp-defamation-amber-heard-plans-appeal-verdict-trial-2022-6">plans to appeal</a> the verdict.Depp sued <a href="https://www.insider.com/johnny-depp-amber-heard-trial-recap-what-we-learned-2022-4">Heard</a> for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed that he said <a href="https://www.insider.com/johnny-depp-22-million-pirates-caribbean-6-amber-heard-claims-2022-5">damaged his career</a>. Heard <a href="https://www.insider.com/amber-heard-begins-testifying-against-johnny-depp-in-trial-2022-5">countersued for $100 million</a>, claiming that Depp was <a href="https://www.insider.com/amber-heard-telling-her-side-of-story-johnny-depp-trial-2022-4">controlling,</a> sexually <a href="https://www.insider.com/amber-heard-testifies-about-johnny-depp-penetrating-her-with-bottle-2022-5">abusive</a>, and <a href="https://www.insider.com/johnny-depp-forced-amber-heard-oral-sex-angry-psychologist-trial-2022-5">violent</a> during their rocky relationship between 2012 and 2016.Representatives for YouTube and TikTok did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Online creators steered the conversation on Amber Heard and Johnny Depp and grew their accounts in the process

<h2></h2><ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6371031" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="IKEA">Ikea</keyword> <keyword id="6356687" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="canada">Canada</keyword> released 10 love seats designed by LGBTQ+ people and inspired by Pride flags.</li><li>One couch by artist Brian Lanigan and designer Charlotte Cardone faced some Twitter criticism.</li><li>Lanigan told Insider that he turned words that were used to hurt him into something beautiful.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ikea-designed-10-loveseats-inspired-by-different-pride-flags-2021-6">Ikea Canada debuted 10 love seats</a> inspired by Pride flags and LGBTQ+ stories to honor Pride Month. The furniture retailer released the collection, called "Love Seats," on June 24.The love seats are not for sale but will be on display in select Ikea Canada stores, according to the brand's website. Each love seat captures stories of LGBTQ+ people and was created by furniture designers <a href="https://www.instagram.com/gorm.garms/">Bianca Daniela Nachtman</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mvralldayeveryday/">Madison Van Rijn</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/charcarbone/">Charlotte Carbone</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lmhaider/">Ali Haider</a>.Since <a href="https://twitter.com/IKEACanada/status/1408092559033917442?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">Ikea Canada announced the collection</a>, Twitter users expressed mixed reactions - particularly on a sofa inspired by the <keyword id="25798" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bisexual">bisexual</keyword> flag, designed by Carbone in collaboration with Canadian artist Brian Lanigan.People expressed confusion around the text on the couch that reads, "When you change 'or' to 'and,' nobody believes you."In an interview with Insider, Lanigan said it's a line from a poem he wrote that reclaims words that were used to hurt him. "I think that taking these words that were used to hurt and invalidate me as a queer person, and turning them into something beautiful is celebratory in its own way," Lanigan told Insider.<div type="image" title="The 10 loveseats that make up the Ikea Pride collection." height="666" width="1500" msid="84006033" hostid="261"></div>The pink, purple, and blue sofa is covered with hand-shaped appliques with the line from the spoken-word poem he wrote in high school.One user tweeted that the couch looked like a <a href="https://twitter.com/wonderpetsfan1/status/1409934276293009409">"horror movie" prop.</a> Others said they felt it wasn't celebratory enough for the collection.Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/CorylusCreative">@CorylusCreative</a> wrote: "As a bisexual woman, I appreciate the emotional place this came from and it does resonate with me. However, in a collection about being proud, where the other identities get to celebrate their best selves, it feels crummy that ours just focuses on the worst part of being bi."<div type="image" title="The purple, pink, and blue loveseat designed by Brian." height="900" width="1200" msid="84006036" hostid="261"></div>Lanigan responded to criticism of the couch in a <a href="https://twitter.com/braino_drano/status/1409903363764985859">Twitter thread on Tuesday</a>, writing that the words come from his poem that, as stated on <a href="https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/campaigns/loveseats-brian-pub5af19040">Ikea's website</a>, "speaks to an experience with his previous partner who did not accept his bisexual <keyword id="6358524" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="identity">identity</keyword>."Lanigan told Insider that the poem captures his feelings about experiencing bisexual erasure, which is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, re-explain, or question bisexuality. "The inspiration for the couch is my own experiences with bi-erasure and the intense amount of support I would receive from poetry audiences (hence the hands) after performing the poem," he told Insider via Twitter. On Twitter, other users responded to Lanigan's sofa by sharing their own experiences. User <a href="https://twitter.com/CutieStraw/status/1409918042415509505">@CutieStraw</a> tweeted: "The 'nobody believes you' hits the nail on the head for me. I've told my mom I'm bisexual for years and she still doesn't believe me. 'You'll grow out of it. It's a phase.' I'm 30."In a statement to Insider, Claudia Mayne, director of marketing communications for Ikea Canada, said: "We've received tremendous response to the collection of custom Love Seats to date and appreciate the dialogue and discussion each has created as a platform for sharing stories from across the 2SLGBTQ+ community," using the expanded acronym 2SLGBTQ+, which includes people who identify as two-spirit, an Indigenous North American term for those identifying as both male and female spirits.Mayne added that Ikea Canada "wanted to do something that highlighted the diversity within the 2SLGBTQ+ community to provide more space for identities who may not receive the same level of attention during Pride, especially during COVID-19."

Designer of Ikea's bisexual flag-themed couch that sparked criticism said he took words meant to 'invalidate' him and made them 'something beautiful'

New Delhi, Nov 25 () Two landscapes by modernist artist Syed Haider Raza --"Paysage" and "La Terre 3", painted in 1960 and 1970 respectively, will go under the hammer at Saffronart's Winter Online Auction on December 9-10.
"Paysage", estimated at Rs 2.45 - 3.15 crore, was painted a decade after the artist moved to France and represents a period when his style was shifting towards the gestural. 
This will be the first time that the work will appear in an auction. 
"Influenced by the abstract or non-figurative artistic expression gaining popularity at the time, as well as Raza's extensive travels through the French countryside, this unrestrained work celebrates colour and texture," Saffronart said in a statement on Monday.
"La Terre 3", which represents a more fluid style, was painted during a time when Raza's early experiences in India were beginning to increasingly manifest in his work. 
"The deeper, contrasting palette of this oil on canvas painting evokes the darkness of night and the dense forests of Raza's hometown in Madhya Pradesh, juxtaposed with brighter tones signifying colour and life," the auction house said.
The painting is estimated at Rs 2 - 3 crore. 
"The highlights of our Winter Online Auction are two significant, distinctive works by S H Raza, representing turning points in his oeuvre. 
"Poised between his past and present, they provide a glimpse into the artist's influences, including abstract art movements, travel and memory," Dinesh Vazirani, Saffronart's CEO and Co-Founder, said.
Also part of the sale will be Jagdish Swaminathan's Untitled work from the 1970s that represents his famous "Bird, Mountain, Tree" series. 
It was part of the private collection of the Amar Mahal Museum in Jammu, which was founded in 1975 by politician Karan Singh and his wife with the aim of furthering and preserving Indian art and literature. 
The work is estimated at Rs 1 - 1.5 crores.
An Untitled work by Prabhakar Barwe, estimated at Rs 50 - 70 lakh, which was part of a major retrospective of the artist at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi earlier this year, will also go under the hammer.
Unique and striking sculptures by B Prabha, Sadanand Bakre, K G Subramanyan , S Nandagopal are also part of the auction.
The auction also includes 22 works of contemporary Indian art from the collection of London-based Saatchi Gallery, which will be offered at 'no reserve' (artworks will be sold regardless of price). 
These works were part of a ground-breaking exhibition of contemporary Indian art in Europe, titled The Empire Strikes Back, at Saatchi Gallery in 2010.
Among these will be L N Tallur's untitled work that is composed of torn and battered mattresses stacked on a hospital bed and is suggestive of the agonising conditions of hard labour. It is estimated at Rs 10.5 - 14 lakh.
Jitish Kallat's "Death of Distance" (2007) featuring a monumental one-rupee coin and five lenticular prints that highlight the unequal and disparate value of money for different strata of society, is also part of the sale.
It is estimated at Rs 8.4 - 10.5 lakh. 
"This (no reserve auction) will provide a wonderful opportunity for enthusiasts and collectors to own work by leading artists such as Tallur L N and Jitish Kallat," Vazirani said.
The online auction will take place on saffronart.com and will be preceded by viewings of select lots in New York, New Delhi and Mumbai. TRS MAH
MAH

Two landscapes by S H Raza to go under the hammer at Saffronart's winter auction

This Friday, it was the clash of two biggies at the <keyword id="25892" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="box-office">box office</keyword>: <keyword id="1904667" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Daawat-E-Ishq">Daawat-E-Ishq</keyword> and <keyword id="1089498" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Khoobsurat">Khoobsurat</keyword>. 
 
Directed by Habib Faisal of Ishaqzaade and Do Dooni Chaar fame, Daawat-E-Ishq has <keyword id="467200" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aditya-Roy-Kapoor">Aditya Roy Kapoor</keyword> and <keyword id="562349" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Parineeti-Chopra">Parineeti Chopra</keyword> in the lead. Though they’ve been paired together for the first time, but the pairing looks fresh and cute on screen. The movie was expected to woo the audience and get off to a decent start, but it started on a slow note. According to <a href="http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/box-office/special-features/id/389">Bollywood Hungama</a>, this movie managed to collect only Rs 3.72 crore on its first Friday. The business improved a little on Saturday and Sunday; the movie collected Rs 13.6 crore over the weekend (collecting Rs 4.35 crore on Saturday and Rs 5.53 crore on Sunday). The movie also managed to gather about Rs 5.54 crore from overseas markets, which took the total weekend collections to Rs 19.14 crore. 
 
Khoobsurat on the other hand is loosely based on the old classic, Rekha starrer movie with the same name. With this movie, Pakistani actor <keyword id="2358880" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Fawad-Khan">Fawad Khan</keyword> has made his <keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword> debut opposite <keyword id="710" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sonam-Kapoor">Sonam Kapoor</keyword>. This new Khan already had some fans before the movie hit the cinema—all thanks to his Television serial and telefilm that were aired recently on Zindagi channel. Khoobsurat is made on an estimated budget of Rs 30 crore and is the first Bollywood movie to be released under the Disney brand name. Like Daawat-E-Ishq, this movie also had a slow start. It managed to collect Rs 3.72 crore on its first day says <a href="http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/box-office/special-features/id/388">Bollywood Hungama</a>. On Saturday and Sunday Khoobsurat managed to register collections worth Rs 3.74 and Rs 5.05 crore respectively. International collections helped the movie to reach Rs 18.43 crore on its first weekend. 
 
In the meantime, last week’s release Finding Fanny staring Deepika Padukone has collected a total of Rs 31.14 crore in the last 10 days. Priyanka Chopra’s biopic Mary Kom is still going strong and has collected Rs 56.5 crore so far. (Figures till Sunday, September 21) 
 
Considering that no other big movie is getting released next week, both Daawat-E-Ishq and Khoobsurat have a fair chance of redeeming themselves—but it seems very bleak at the moment. We are anxiously waiting for October 2, 2014, when Hrithik Roshan’s Bang Bang will take on Shahid Kapoor’s Haider. Both movies seem to offer something fresh and considering that they are releasing on a long weekend, they are expected to have a great opening at the box office. 
 
Image: official posters

Box Office: Khoobsurat & Daawat-E-Ishq Get Luke Warm Response

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://ardrone2.parrot.com/photos/photo-album/">Parrot</a></div></div></div>
"All operations conducted in civil airspace must meet minimum levels of safety. [...] Presently, the [we are] drafting a rule to address small [drones]." -<a href="http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/uas_faq/">the Federal Aviation Administration</a> 
Forget for a moment the dramatic news clips you've seen of Predator <keyword id="94769" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="drones">drones</keyword> taking off to bomb battlefields. Yes, they are drones - unmanned vehicles that can fly without human assistance - but they only represent a narrow slice of what drones are all about. There is a huge potential for how private, commercial drone use can change our lives. 
When we're talking about commercial drones, we're generally talking about a small, GPS-enabled remote control airplanes or helicopters with really advanced autopilot that can handle all aspects of a flight, from takeoff to landing. For such a straightforward idea, it has huge implications that could shake up a number of industries. But American regulators obviously want to make sure that drones can be employed safely.
Consider this quick thought experiment.
It's some indeterminate amount of time in the future and seeing a commercial drone is as commonplace as seeing a UPS truck today. Farmers use them to more quickly and efficiently dust their crops. Search and rescue missions rely on them to get to vantage points that an unaided human never could. The pizza delivery man is a trained and licensed professional drone pilot who works from home. And all of this happens with the government's blessing.
In this hypothetical world, it's no longer unusual to look up to the sky and see it riddled with unmanned aircraft going about their business. In fact, a sky full of drones is the new normal. What would that world be like, practically?
Amazon got the general population interested in drones with the announcement that it has been experimenting with "octocopters," unmanned drones that will supposedly be able to deliver an item to your house within 30 minutes of ordering it. "Amazon Prime Air," as it's being called, won't be deployed for customers anytime soon. But people seem to love the idea. Here's the 60 Minutes video that got everyone's attention.

Zookal, an Australian company that sells textbooks, recently partnered with Flirtey, a drone company, to facilitate speedy delivery of textbooks to customers who order them. Zookal CEO Ahmed Haider told us that the Amazon drones behaving as demonstrated in the video is only "an eventuality, however with the current legislation in America its just a matter of when rather than if."
"Our technology is a little bit more advanced than Amazon in that we don't actually lower the drone it hovers above the smartphone of the customer and lowers the parcel to the customer to collect so the drone is never touching the ground," he said.
Package delivery is already a big business. The United States Postal Service delivered 3.5 billion packages in 2012, <a href="http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-facts/#H1">netting $11.6 billion</a>. In the same year, UPS delivered 4,107,000 packages. If they were to implement delivery-by-drone, they could do more delivery with the same number of employees - drones don't need overtime pay. But by no means will unmanned aerial vehicles put the postman out of a job. There are some limitations to the weight a drone can carry. Amazon's drones can schlep around five pounds. Flirtey's drones can carry some textbooks.
But if you're buying a fridge or a TV, you're still going to need someone to drive it to your house.
Drones are more like bicycle messengers, only in the sky. Commercial drones can carry lightweight parcels quickly and easily over short distances. Booming metropolitan areas like New York City may very well find that drones are easier and cheaper than a human speed demon on two wheels.
When commercial drone use is commonplace, we'll see a brand new field of employment open up. People will need to program, monitor, and pilot business drones. "Drone pilot school" may very well become a new type of technical school, akin to job training programs offered by places like DeVry University and ITT Technical Institute.
Amazon says that 84% of its orders are under five pounds, and are therefore deliverable by drone. Let's do some exploratory math and estimate that 75% of UPS deliveries meet the same criteria. That means that 3,080,250 packages could be delivered by drone, greatly reducing the workload on humans. This is huge. If commercial drone delivery is properly implemented, it means fewer cars and trucks on the road and increased convenience for customers and employees alike. But it won't be easy - there are a lot of deliveries to be made.
While it's the most obvious and immediate application, drones will absolutely expand beyond deliveries. They have already proven invaluable for cinematographers seeking impressive camera shots, real estate agents filming sweeping tour videos of homes, and farmers analyzing their crops and dusting them with pesticides.
Haider even brings up the compelling idea of drones as tour guides - "I think an area that has not yet been explored and would be interesting is navigation with drones of a smaller size. [For example,] a drone the size of a baseball [could show] people around new environments like universities or guide tours in museums."
This is already a reality. MIT has drones <a href="http://senseable.mit.edu/skycall/">designed to show people around its complex campus</a>. Check it out:

Drone proponents have two major hurdles to overcome before we can see our unmanned flying friends in action for commercial purposes. There are obviously safety concerns - they need to avoid birds, planes, people. Then there's the legal stuff that needs to be addressed. If you wanted fly a commercial drone in the United States, the framework doesn't yet exist to do so legally.
Australia's regulators are quite receptive to commercial drones. Haider told us that "there are already multiple [Australian] companies registered that are using drones for commercial use for everything from fighting bush fires to amateur photography at sporting events. Flirtey will be the first company to allow delivery as a service." And on the matter of safety, Haider is optimistic: "[Our drones] have fail safe mechanisms, shielded guides, and we're working on some new proprietary safety mechanisms."
What began as military controversy has now become more of a conversation about making our lives easier at home. It will take a while for the FAA to draw up rules for this, but all signs point to commercial drones as an inevitability.
The future will be autonomous and airborne.

A Look At Our Inevitable Drone-Filled Future

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Thaier Al-SudaniA Shiite fighter from Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) smokes next to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's palaces in the Iraqi town of Ouja, near Tikrit March 17, 2015.</div></div></div>The US has been leaning heavily on militias in its fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and while these forces have proved very effective on the ground, some have been accused of committing atrocities akin to their enemies.A <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/08/iraq-fallujah-abuses-test-control-militias">new Human Rights Watch report</a> details allegations of torture and abuse at the hands of Shia militias in Iraq, which have been instrumental in aiding Iraqi Security Forces in seizing territory back from ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh).The organization has "received credible allegations of summary executions, beatings of unarmed men, enforced disappearances, and mutilation of corpses by government forces" that have been fighting on the outskirts of Fallujah to retake the city from ISIS, according to the report.Here are some of the allegations from the report:<ul><li>Human Rights Watch interviewed witnesses to one alleged atrocity near Fallujah who said Shia militia fighters and federal police had "separated men from women, marched the men to where the troops' officers were, lined them up, and shot at least 17 of them, including one teenage boy."</li><li>Another witness told the organization that he saw Shia militia fighters and federal police near Fallujah "fatally shoot civilians with white flags raised fleeing toward the government forces." He claims one fighter "told him his superior officer had ordered the shootings."</li><li>Some men whom Shia militias had recently released from detention "showed signs of torture, including rape, burns, knife cuts, and bruising from beatings."</li></ul>The abuse allegations, which have become widespread in Iraq, are deepening the very sectarian tensions that facilitated the rise of ISIS in the first place. ISIS is a Sunni terror group that markets itself as a protector of Sunni civilians who have become targets of Shia militias, which have the support of the Shia-dominated Iraqi government.Iran, a Shia theocracy and ally of Iraq, also backs these militias as it attempts to extend its influence in the Middle East.As the Human Rights Watch report makes clear, civilians often end up caught in the middle of this sectarian power struggle.The Iraqi government, wanting to keep Iran happy, hasn't done much to reign in these militias. As a result, they often go unchecked, using their power to suppress Sunnis."It's a concerted effort [on behalf of the Shia militias] to punish the Sunni population for, in their minds, accepting ISIS or allowing ISIS," Michael Pregent, an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute and former US Army intelligence officer in Iraq, told Business Insider."But in reality [Sunnis] had nowhere to go. They couldn't call the police, they couldn't call the army."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Thaier Al-SudaniA Sunni fighter who has joined Shi'ite militia groups known collectively as Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilization), allied with Iraqi forces against the Islamic State, looks at an Islamic State flag and ammunition displayed in al-Alam Salahuddin province March 15, 2015.</div></div></div>And it doesn't help that Fallujah has historically been a stronghold for extremists in Iraq.Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland who is a leading expert on Shia militias, told Business Insider that people in Fallujah "gave Americans problems" during the Iraq War, and "gave the Iraqi government problems," so the militias' solution to routing the extremists "is to just smash" everything.The Human Rights Watch report notes a video posted online that shows a Shia commander telling a room full of fighters that "Fallujah had been a bastion of terrorism since 2004 and that no civilians or true Muslims were left inside the city."Treating all civilians in Fallujah as ISIS sympathizers plays right into ISIS' hand. If civilians are targeted by the militias that are supposedly liberating them from terrorist control, they become even more likely to turn against the Iraqi government."If the US continues to support Iraqi units that integrate Shia militias into their operations, they're simply resetting the conditions that led to ISIS to begin with," Pregent said. "You're further entrenching Sunni distrust of their government … and the United States."These Shia militias are no friend to the US, either."These are not allies," Pregent said. "Everybody keeps thinking that these militias are working on a friendly basis with the US. They still hate us as much as they hate ISIS."Still, there aren't many good alternatives, and it might be too late for the Iraqi government to reign in the militias without facing blowback from Iran."There's very very little that can really be done in order to turn this ship and make this all go away," Smyth said. "The genie has now been let out of the bottle, so how do you react to that?"<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ReutersShi'ite fighters and Iraqi security forces advance towards Falluja, Iraq, May 25, 2016.</div></div></div>Militias are now deeply entrenched in Iraq."These groups are extremely powerful," Smyth said. "They have sometimes tens of thousands of members, they're actively deployed in multiple battlefronts. And beyond that they have very strong backers, particularly Iran."On top of that, the Iraqi Army <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraqs-army-is-still-a-mess-two-years-after-a-stunning-defeat/2016/06/09/0867f334-1868-11e6-971a-dadf9ab18869_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop_b">has been depleted so much</a> as a fighting force that they can't effectively take on ISIS without the help of these militias."When you really look at it from a government point of view, they are not on the strong end of this," Smyth said. "They also have to deal with these forces because they're the ones taking the battle to the Islamic State."Despite the evidence of Shia militia abuses, they're unlikely to face much punishment. There's too much support for the militias in the Shia-dominated Iraqi government - these organizations have fully integrated themselves not just on the battlefield, but in Iraqi <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword> as well."I don't think anything is going to come of it because if [Iraqi Prime Minister Haider] al-Abadi opposes the militias, he's likely to be deposed. … He has to accept their role in these operations," Pregent said."He could come back and say 'a couple of guys were punished,' but we don't ever really see these groups punished."And it's not just the militias - Shiites from these organizations have also permeated the Iraqi Security Forces and federal police, Smyth said."You're not going to get much done," Smyth said. "They are integrated into the system." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-gates-isis-iraq-military-syria-2016-1">EX-PENTAGON CHIEF: These are the 2 main reasons ISIS was born</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="hxY2piMDE66xzeAstV0Mma4uw48x4vfS" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

'These are not allies': The most potent force fighting ISIS in Iraq has been accused of torturing and executing civilians

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Screenshot/VICEGolden Division leader Major Salam asks locals to give up any intelligence they may have on ISIS sympathizers who may be in their midst.</div></div></div>One of the biggest challenges facing Iraqi police as they try to recapture territory from the Islamic State comes in persuading local communities with a deep distrust of Shiite government forces to reveal any and all ISIS sympathizers living among them.That challenge was clearly exposed in <a href="https://news.vice.com/video/fighting-the-islamic-state-with-iraqs-golden-division-the-road-to-fallujah">a recent Vice News documentary</a> produced by two journalists who embedded with Iraq's elite counterterrorism force - the Golden Division Special Forces unit - on the frontlines in western Iraq's Anbar province in March.The video followed the special forces as they approach the city of Hit, which was recaptured by the Golden Division in April after falling to the jihadists when they swept through Anbar province in 2014. Correspondent <a href="https://twitter.com/AymanOghanna">Ayman Oghanna</a> explains that the Golden Division's leader, Major Salam, relies heavily on the men in local councils to determine who remains in their village and is sympathetic to ISIS."We came here to separate the good from the evil," Salam tells a crowd of local men sitting before him. "If someone is with the Islamic State, let me know."As the footage showed, many are eager to help. One local man swears to Salam that he would give up his own son if he knew he were an ISIS sympathizer. Another woman tells Salam that her son was killed while fighting with ISIS, and Salam swears he will avenge her son's death by finding the local ISIS collaborators who recruited him."His blood will not go in vein," he says.The method becomes complicated, however, as the special forces enter villages where there is a high level of distrust for the Iraqi government - distrust that is often coupled with sympathy for ISIS."The first couple of villages we went to, we were treated like liberators," Oghanna explains. "Today, we rolled into the town of Mohammadi, and unlike in previous towns...people didn't wave to us in the streets. They turned their backs. I think it's safe to say that the people here feel that they have a much stronger affiliation with IS than they do with the Iraqi government."<h2>'As much to do with <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword> as with military strategy'</h2>The hostility that greeted the Golden Division when they entered the town of Mohammadi represents perhaps the biggest challenge that has faced Iraqi government forces since ISIS swept Anbar province two years ago: how to regain the trust of Sunni communities, many of whom are more afraid of the Shiite dominated government and its security apparatus than of the Islamic State.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Reuters</div></div></div>That is the problem now facing Iraqi security forces not only in the ISIS stronghold of Falluja - which was the first city in Iraq to fall to the jihadists in 2014 - but also in Mosul, further north. Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, fell to ISIS in June 2014. In <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/shiite-militias-isis-iraq-fight-obama-2016-5">an interview with Business Insider</a> before the documentary was released, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Wjaff/?notif_t=fbpage_fan_invite&amp;notif_id=1465365525350614">photojournalist Warzer Jaff</a> - who was also embedded with the Golden Division and shot the Vice News documentary - said that a predominantly Sunni unit within Iraq's special forces unit will need to drive the offensive in Mosul if it has any chance of being successful."The difficulties in liberating Mosul have as much to do with politics as with military strategy," said Jaff, a former peshmerga fighter. For that reason, the Peshmerga and Shiite militias will need to remain well in the background during anti-ISIS offensives. "If Shiite militias have any part in retaking the city itself, it will be a bloodbath," he said, referring to the Shiite militias that dominate Iraq's state-sponsored Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Thomson ReutersShi'ite fighters stand with their weapons on the outskirts of Saqlawiya</div></div></div>Many Shiite forces believe that civilians in ISIS-held territory are sympathetic to the jihadists, even though Iraqi security forces <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/27/middleeast/falluja-evacuation/">helped nearly 800 civilians</a> flee Fallujah late last month. Because the PMUs have been one of the most effective forces fighting ISIS in Iraq, the Obama administration has not seriously challenged Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's decision to allow the units' Shiite militias to help drive ISIS out of its strongholds.But locals last month <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iraqis-in-fallujah-caught-in-perils-between-islamic-state-and-militia-fighters/2016/06/07/b23d59ea-27e4-11e6-8329-6104954928d2_story.html">accused PMU fighters</a> of killing 17 civilians in Iraq's Garma district on the city's outskirts, and reports <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iraqis-in-fallujah-caught-in-perils-between-islamic-state-and-militia-fighters/2016/06/07/b23d59ea-27e4-11e6-8329-6104954928d2_story.html">have begun to emerge</a> that Shiite militias tortured and "summarily executed" civilians as they tried to flee Falluja over the weekend.As a result, "many Iraqis will see the US as complicit in Shia militia atrocities in Fallujah, fine distinctions of air support notwithstanding," Michael Weiss, co-author of the book ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, wrote <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/739952412866293760">on Twitter</a>.<h2>'We will go in ... with nobody preventing us'</h2>Iraqi and Western officials have insisted that the PMUs have taken only a secondary role in anti-ISIS operations, and that they have been ordered not to enter Falluja itself. But the leader of the Iran-backed Shiite Badr Organization - the PMU's largest unit - recently walked back an earlier promise not to enter the city."Of course, we will go in and rid the city from the evil of this cancerous gland, with nobody preventing us," the leader, Hadi al-Amiri, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leader-of-powerful-iran-backed-shiite-militia-says-it-will-storm-falluja-once-civilians-leave-2016-6">told</a> reporters over the weekend.As Syria expert Charles Lister <a href="https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/739910615737761792">noted on Twitter</a>, "Shia militia crimes threaten to erode crucially existent Sunni support for the Fallujah offensive and the ISF [Iraqi Security Forces]."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ReutersShi'ite fighters and Iraqi security forces advance towards Falluja, Iraq, May 25, 2016.</div></div></div>Currently, experts say, the main forces attacking ISIS in Fallujah are not the PMUs but Iraq's multiethnic counterterrorism units, which are being assisted by local tribal communities. The offensive aims to be a prototype for the kind of cooperation between local and government forces that helped drive ISIS out of Ramadi last year.If Vice's latest documentary is any proof, tensions remain - and often run high - between local communities and government forces. But it also provides some hope that the tensions may be overcome by a collective hatred for the militant Sunni group."Following Major Salam these last few days, one thing that's been very apparent is the active effort he has made to engage with the local population and tribal elders," Oghanna says, before cutting to a scene of Salam and his men delivering aid and water to families displaced by ISIS. "The Islamic State have destroyed us, destroyed our houses, and put mines in our roads," one displaced Iraqi boy tells Vice after the Golden Division has liberated his village. "No one was allowed to smoke in the street. No one was allowed to use a phone. The punishments would be very harsh.""I think the future will be better," he said.<h2><a href="https://news.vice.com/video/fighting-the-islamic-state-with-iraqs-golden-division-the-road-to-fallujah">Watch the full documentary over at Vice &gt;&gt;</a></h2> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-wwe-vince-mcmahon-2016-6">Donald Trump's history with WWE explains a lot about his persona</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Fkc2QzMTE6Y-AsNDkseGQbTp57hESZU9" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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