Smart Country Convention
Smart Country Convention
Drive digitization and new thinking in the public sector
As a driving force for the future of digital administration and equal digital living conditions in urban and rural areas, the Smart Country Convention (SCCON) is a must for all stakeholders who are actively driving the digital transformation. How to shape the future – together!
One event. Four main areas. Endless possibilities.
On seven stages, national and international speakers will share their expertise and offer a mixture of knowledge, inspiration and food for thought on the digital transformation of public spaces. The curated expo makes digital solutions and applications tangible for visitors – digitization to touch. In interactive workshops and seminars, participants immerse themselves in forward-looking topics and receive first-hand digital know-how. The networking areas and various networking formats offer numerous touchpoints to make valuable contacts with exciting people.
Humanity Rising: A Global Call to Create the Movie of Our Lives
In the quiet hum of a burning planet, as glaciers weep and forests vanish, a question echoes louder than ever before: What are we doing to our home?
Over the past few centuries, humanity—brilliant, bold, but often blind—crafted an economic system that has rewarded profit over people, consumption over care. It took Mother Nature billions of years to sculpt the delicate ecosystems we inherited. In just a few generations, we’ve brought them to the brink.
But this is not just a story of destruction. This is the beginning of something different. This is the story of Humanity Rising—a global invitation to co-create a new narrative, one that shifts us from passive bystanders to active changemakers, one scene at a time.
An Invitation to the World
Mobilized News is calling on communities, creators, activists, dreamers, and doers across the globe to join forces and create a film called Humanity Rising. More than a movie, it’s a movement. A collaborative, global storytelling effort that shines a light on the people, projects, and places where ecological sanity is taking root.
This is your invitation to share your story.
From Exploitation to Awakening
Let’s not mince words: the current system—rooted in extraction, exploitation, and colonization—has rewarded destruction. Land, labor, even laws have been bent in service of economic growth at any cost. We’ve fought wars for resources, built industries on inequality, and designed societies where greed was a business model.
And yet—amidst the chaos, something beautiful has always stirred.
️ The Architects of Change
These are the stories that Humanity Rising seeks to tell. The farmer in Kenya who’s restoring soil health with indigenous practices. The cooperative in Brazil turning deforested land into food forests. The high school students in Sweden building solar-powered microgrids for their town. The activists in Appalachia reclaiming mining land for permaculture.
They aren’t waiting for governments to save them. They aren’t buying into the old myths of “it’s too late.” They’re building—right now—a healthier, more just world from the ground up.
Heroes of a New Age
The truth is, those who dared to challenge the system have often paid the price. They’ve been silenced, shunned, made into villains by a world terrified of change. But history has another name for them: heroes. And now, their voices are rising.
We have a choice: to continue down a path that leads to certain planetary breakdown—or to rise together, not as saviors, but as stewards, as collaborators in a shared story of renewal.
A Roadmap for Regeneration
Humanity Rising is not about perfection. It’s about participation. It’s about illuminating what’s possible when we let go of outdated ideas and embrace our collective potential.
What if each neighborhood became a hub of regeneration?
What if every child grew up knowing they have the power to heal what’s been broken?
What if your community could be featured in a film that inspired millions?
Your Story Belongs Here
We’re seeking stories of real, grounded hope—projects, initiatives, and actions that show how ordinary people are building extraordinary futures. Whether you’re restoring wetlands, teaching sustainable cooking, hosting eco-literacy workshops, or simply planting trees in your backyard—you’re part of this rising.
This film is for everyone, by everyone. Whether you’re a filmmaker, teacher, student, farmer, engineer, artist, healer, or simply a concerned citizen—your voice matters.
The Choice Is Ours
We stand at a crossroads. Will we double down on systems that destroy—or build ecosystems that heal? Will we compete for survival—or collaborate for renewal?
The future has not been written. But it is being filmed.
Let’s make a movie worth watching.
Let’s write a story worth telling.
Let’s rise, together.
Get Involved:
We plan to open our call for submissions on Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Mobilized News will be accepting short videos, essays, photos, and reports from communities worldwide. Share your regenerative projects, local innovations, and sustainable solutions to be featured in Humanity Rising.
Behind the Curtain: Putin, Power & The Private Empire
A bold new book rips the veil off Vladimir Putin’s secret life — exposing the mafia ties, personal betrayals, and power plays that shaped modern Russia.
Courtesy: Organized Crime and Corruption and Reporting Project
The Tsar In Propria Persona by Roman Badanin & Mikhail Rubin pulls no punches.
Why it matters
Russia’s president has crafted an image of tradition, discipline, and moral superiority. But behind that curated façade is a reality of strip clubs, criminal mentors, marital collapse, and oligarchic favoritism — a parallel system that helps explain the logic behind modern authoritarian rule.
“Putin’s private life is many times more important than his public life.”
— Roman Badanin
Key revelations
- Mob mentorship: Putin’s early mentor was violent gang figure Leonid Usvyatsov — possibly instrumental in his law school admission.
- Marital breakdown: His marriage collapsed under “constant humiliation,” lavish living, and affairs housed in state-owned apartments.
- Strip club diplomacy: Putin held meetings at Luna, a St. Petersburg strip club protected by a mob boss — his signed photo still hangs there.
- State-sponsored scandal: Putin helped orchestrate a “honeytrap” against the General Prosecutor to secure the Kremlin’s loyalty.
Big takeaway
Behind the nationalism and war rhetoric lies a man of wealth, revenge, and relationships — not values.
“Oblivion is Putin’s main ally… The bad guys are erasing our memory of them.”
— Roman Badanin
Systemic decay
- Courts and archives sealed
- ️ Media crushed
- Truth-tellers exiled
“This book cost us our homeland.”
— Badanin, now in exile with Rubin in the U.S.
The deeper system
- Kremlin-controlled media
- ✝️ Orthodox Church as political tool
- Family & friends profiting from Putin’s power
This book joins the canon of Putin’s Kleptocracy and Putin’s People — offering a uniquely personal lens into authoritarian power.
Bottom line
The real Putin isn’t the one behind the podium. He’s the one behind closed doors — where power is personal, history is rewritten, and no one is safe.
Available now in Russian.
Translations pending.
MobilizedNews.com/PutinFiles
A national rollback with global consequences
The Big Picture: Brazil is on the brink of enacting PL 2159/2021, a sweeping environmental rollback known by civil society as the Devastation Law Project — a move that risks accelerating deforestation, gutting oversight, and violating Indigenous rights.
“This isn’t just bad for Brazil — it’s a global threat.”
⚠️ Why it matters
The Amazon and other Brazilian biomes play a critical role in climate stability, biodiversity protection, and carbon absorption. Weakening Brazil’s environmental licensing system will:
- Accelerate legal and illegal deforestation
- Increase greenhouse gas emissions
- Violate Indigenous peoples’ rights and global climate treaties
- Undermine EU-Brazil trade negotiations, especially the EU-Mercosur deal
What’s in the bill (PL 2159/2021)
If passed, the law would:
- ✅ Allow self-licensing of polluting activities via online forms
- ❌ Remove requirements for environmental impact assessments
- ️ Shift licensing power to states and municipalities, creating regulatory chaos
- Exempt entire sectors like agribusiness from federal environmental review
“This bill legalizes deforestation and fragments national environmental protection.”
— Civil society organizations in Brazil
What this means for the world
For Brazil:
Undermines national climate targets, weakens biodiversity safeguards, and threatens Indigenous and Quilombola communities.
For the EU:
Contradicts core values of human rights and environmental protection — and could derail the EU-Mercosur agreement.
“This law is incompatible with EU environmental and human rights standards.”
— Members of European Parliament
️ How we got here
Brazil’s current government, under pressure from agribusiness and extractive sectors, has prioritized deregulation over protection — enabling this law to pass the Senate in May 2025. A vote in the Chamber of Deputies is expected soon.
“Environmental governance has been dismantled. What remains now is resistance — and international solidarity.”
— Brazilian civil society leaders
What the experts say
“The bill poses serious and irreversible risks to human rights, climate stability, biodiversity, and Indigenous sovereignty.”
— EU Special Rapporteurs
What must happen next
EU leaders are being urged to:
- ❌ Denounce the law publicly
- ✅ Condition trade agreements on environmental protections
- Delay ratification of EU-Mercosur until this law is defeated
- Stand in solidarity with Indigenous and environmental defenders
Bottom line:
PL 2159/2021 isn’t just a law — it’s a climate test for Brazil, the EU, and the planet.
- It will set the tone ahead of COP30 in Belém.
- It will reveal whether global leaders walk the talk on environmental justice.
Environmental protection is not a local issue. It’s a global pact.
