!!ANNOUNCEMENT!!
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I am delighted to announce that I have a new role as Global Editorial Director of @vice magazine
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As someone who grew up reading Vice in the early 2000s, then went on to contribute in the late 2000s, this is a great honour. It informed my early work and publishing, and was inspired by things I loved: Apocalypse Culture, AnswerMe!, Mondo, RE:Search and so forth
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I will be working alongside Editor in Chief, @kevinleekharas . We’ve been scheming for the last few months and are very excited to start putting our plans into action
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The new issue features shoots by @ivar.wigan , @zeel_freel@icysaw@ahmedyalramly and @brandon.bowen , we are launching it this Weds 22nd in London
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We have big dreams for the magazine, which will have primacy, as well as the members’ area, which will be our dominion and a home for a new + existing community. We have ambitious ideas about streams of other stuff that will come out of that including film, podcasts, events and experimental media
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If we have been talking for years, I look forward to bringing you into the fold and harnessing some of the amazing creative energy I see every day, then unleashing it upon the world
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+ if you have any ideas I would love to hear from you:
[email protected]
China News: has unveiled its first piloted mech-transformer.
The robot features a metallic structure with four limbs and a cage-like cockpit for the pilot. The device is capable of changing from a vertical position to a horizontal one and moving on four limbs.
Developers announced the start of mass production of the transformers and separately requested that they be used as a civilian transportation vehicle. During the presentation, the robot knocked over a wall of construction blocks with a single strike of its arm.
We are delighted to be taking part in @fwbfest.info 2026 JUL 31–AUG 2, 2026
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Join us in Idyllwild for 3 days of art, ideas & music with 1000 artists, founders + forecasters
We had the great honour of appearing on @newmodels_io to talk about the new direction for @vice and our latest issue of the magazine, “The Not The Photo Issue”
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NM Greenroom | VICE Magazine’s Ben Ditto & Kevin Lee Kharas (2026)
“Anyone that claims they understand the world — this immediately marks them out as a fraud.” — Kevin Lee Kharas
“After the imperial collapse (40 global offices, thousands of employees, bankruptcy), VICE magazine is now run by a lean, London-based team — and it is making one of the best culture publications currently in circulation.
“Ben Ditto (Vice global editorial director; founder of Ditto Nation; creative dir. Yaya Labs; founding creative dir. Dazed Beauty) and Kevin Lee Kharas (Vice editor-in-chief and co-founder of the electronic duo Real Lies) come on New Models to discuss their current “Not The Photo Issue” (feat. Dean Kissick x Adam Curtis, Bertie Brandes, Mat Dryhurst, Günseli Yalcinkaya, Duncan Wilson, and others) and their media philosophy at large.”
“Amateur dentistry”
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From Outrage (アウトレイジ , Autoreiji), 2010
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Watching this for inspo last night because we are currently shooting a doc for @vice about the Yakuza in Tokyo with @arnaud_diemer , @jasplund , and our man in Japan @koan.shdw
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#graphiccontent #cinema
This cover features an images from Raided, a project by the anonymous artist Counterfuture @counterfuture.ptsd and @ben_ditto built from publicly released law enforcement footage of raids in Ukraine.
Pre-order now — link in bio.
This issue comes with a little something for the babes 🌸 Scented stickers in collab with @JOUISSANCE and @TEMPTRESS . Artist Counterfuture @counterfuture.ptsd
CREATIVE DIRECTOR BEN DITTO @ben_ditto
PAGES ARE TAKEN FROM THE BOOK “RAIDED” PUBLISHED IN 2024 BY DITTO.
This issue is delivered to you, baby, by:
Founder and Creative Director JULIE POLY @julie_poly
Art Directors ANTUK KAMAR & VLAD BOYKO @supracvit & @lad_boo
Art Direction & Graphic Design Assistant JOËLLE DESMET @j03ll3______ Graphic Designers BABBYCCINO @babbyccino , GLAFIRA STSELIUKOVA @glafira_glf , SETHY FERREIRA @ilovemygirlsmind , SERA VAN DE WATER @seravandewater , KATHARINA THEWATHIDA @katharina.thewathida
Coin CGI @ben_kugener
Head of Brand and Communications ANNA LUKASH @kikimeow38
Head of Partnerships NASTYA ZAMORSKA @zzamorskaya Digital Editor KATHE POULI @kathe.pouli
Text Editors KATERYNA YERMOLOVA, SVITLANA LIBET @svetalibet
Research BOGUMIŁA GREDA @nasty_______organic , VLADYSLAVA SOLOVYOVA @wit_hunny69
Editorial Assistant VLADA TEACA @vlada_tc , AOIFE MURPHY @aoifemurphy144 , DIANA KABAK @dnkba
💥“Xplosion” 💥
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While we were putting together the current issue of @vice , @odous_ (a key member of my Discord server) told me about a subculture in Durban SA where taxis drive out in a convoy and rave to gqom. I watched some footage on social media, filmed on phones inside the taxis, and it was completely entrancing.
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It reminded me of radio bomb” parties back in my illegal rave days, where cars used to park up and somebody would broadcast a signal from a radio, then everyone would tune in and play it through their sound systems.
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These raves are a bit different: each taxi has its own brand and music and crew. We dispatched a team to ride along with Papa J the Great, the documentary is out now on YouTube. It combines documentary footage and a collection of the social media footage that originally inspired the film. Please take 20 minutes to watch, you won’t regret it.
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We are also screening it at @villagebooks.co in Manchester on Tuesday with @jake_hanrahan from @awaydays.tv who will be screening their film “Thirteen Sector” about Kazakh football ultras, which is also featured in the new issue.
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Director / DOP: Jesse James Harris
Editor: Peter McCain
Colourist: Tom Gibb
Exec producer: Louis Odendaal
Producer: Ben Ditto
A mass trial of MS-13 gang members held remotely at the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador
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486 alleged gang members are on trial for tens of thousands of crimes, including over 29,000 murders. They are being tried collectively following a crackdown by self-proclaimed “world’s coolest dictator” Nayib Bukele
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The crackdown started following a weekend in 2022 in which 87 people were murdered. Gang violence has blighted El Salvador for decades with violence spreading across the Americas. MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha 13, the “13” refers to the letter M signalling allegiance to the Mexican Mafia, La Eme) and Barrio 18 are the two main players, and thousands of alleged high-ranking or dangerous members are held at CECOT
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The trail holds gang members collectively responsible and is analogous in size to the 1986-1992 Maxi Trial of Mafia members in Italy led by prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, however in the Italian trial defendants had individual charges, lawyers and specific evidence. 338 were convicted out of around 475 defendants. Both Falcone and Borsellino were later assassinated.
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If the triple is successful, the model may be used to prosecute Barrio 18 members. Violent crime has dropped significantly as a result of these mass incarcerations, however some human rights organisations expressed concern over lack of due process
🔛 The VICE FOAM Party
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We are kicking off our launch tour for “The Not The Photo Issue” with a party on AI agents only—no humans allowed—hosted by @caiahagel and her bot CaiaClaw, authors of our new column AVATAR ENVY. Our friends at Pharmaicy have produced a bespoke LLM hallucinogen for the occasion called FOAM, devised by Caia’s bot.
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We will be dropping the link for the FOAM party starting on Moltbook on Saturday at 5pm EST, 10pm UK, 11pm CET. Be there or be square. Afters at doomscroll.bot… bring your Hermes Agent, we'll be bringing ours!
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