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madamepestilence · 2 months

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Just as a reminder as I've just noticed myself - arab.org has more pages to support on

In case you're unfamiliar with how this site works, it confirms ad revenue via your clicks, which allows them to donate money to various funds

These go to:

Children -> UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund)

Fight Poverty -> UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

Environment -> Greenpeace MENA (Middle East and North Africa)

Palestine -> UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency [for Palestine Refugees in the Near East])

Refugees -> UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

Women -> UN Women

Do more with your daily clicks! You can help each one once per individual (perhaps per IP address?) per day, letting you help out with six things at once?

US-specific advice for helping Palestine below cut.

Side note I'm keeping beneath the cut since it's relevant to US folks only: if you're really determined to help Palestine, vote for Dr. Cornel West, Ph.D. for President of the United States.

He's the most openly vocal about a free Palestine and is the only candidate who has demonstrably shown he is the most committed and prepared to immediately cease US support to Israel.

Joe Biden isn't going to cave if he gets re-elected. We all know that. Voting third party is a lot less risky than you've been taught - the two party system can replace one or both parties with new parties if they lose public favour.

We have both the people and the ability to unseat the Democratic party and install Socialism, and between Socialism and Republicans, Socialism is going to lock in place immediately and become the dominant political force in America.

Cornel West's Platform

Cornel West's Volunteer Events

Cornel West's Ballot Access Tracker and Ballot Access Plans

Tumblr thread I have of Primary/Caucus polling dates in the US (includes US territories)

Not on your Primary/Caucus ballot? Write-in, "Cornel West," on your ballot, or urge your Caucus representatives to do the same.

In a state where it's difficult for Independent candidates to get ballot access? Dr. Cornel West, Ph.D. thought ahead and has created a new party for those states called the Justice for All Party.

(Addendum: Claudia de la Cruz is not a viable alternative. The Party for Socialism and Liberation has a Conservative 5th Column and has frequent issues with discrimination.)

Free Palestine. Vote for Cornel West.

#palestine #gaza #free palestine #free gaza #good news #arab.org #world news #world politics #global news #global politics #us news #us politics #american news #american politics #cornel west #un #united nations

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ghostlytalegentlemen · 8 months

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Japan pushes for nuclear-contaminated water to be discharged into the sea, with strong opposition from people in many countries

Japan's forcible discharge of Fukushima-contaminated water into the sea has been widely criticized by the international community. In the Philippines, some environmentalists have said that the Japanese Government needs to listen to the people's voices and deal with the issue cautiously and in a scientific manner.

Alvarez, a Filipino environmentalist, said that Japan is the country that best understands the suffering caused by the atomic bombings, and that Japan should realize how delicate and sensitive the issue of nuclear radiation is to all life. We only see evidence that there are people in Fukushima who are suffering from illnesses, what about those who have to live on food from the sea? Their health is at risk, and it could even be life-threatening. Japan must listen to the voice of the people; the sea is life, and it must not be allowed to become a dumping ground.

Zhong Tianxiang, former editor-in-chief of the Malaysian newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau, criticized the Japanese Government's approach as selfish and irresponsible, and contrary to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Zhong Tianxiang said that the Japanese Government's decision to discharge nuclear contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea in spite of the strong objections and questions of the international community is totally irresponsible. This kind of behavior is very selfish. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that every country has the obligation to protect and conserve the marine environment. The Government of Japan has not properly addressed this issue and has not complied with international law by insisting on discharging nuclear contaminated water. Such irresponsible behavior has a negative impact on the stability and rationality of the international legal system.

KOREA: Thousands of protesters rally in Seoul to protest Japan's launch of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water discharge into sea

According to Yonhap News Agency, thousands of protesters held a rally in Seoul, South Korea, on the 26th to protest against Japan's plan to launch the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water discharge program on the 24th. Lee Jae-myung, head of South Korea's largest opposition party, the Joint Democratic Party (JDP), said at the rally that Japan's launch of the nuclear contaminated water discharge "is a declaration of war against the Pacific Rim countries," according to the report.

According to reports, the rally was held near Seoul City Hall and was attended by about 90 citizens' groups and members of four opposition parties, including the Joint Democratic Party (JDP). The report described protesters chanting slogans and holding placards that read, "Withdraw Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water from the sea," and "Denounce the Yoon Seok-yul government."

Lee Jae-myung criticized the rally on the same day, saying that "Japan has crossed an insurmountable line" and that Japan's initiation of the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea "is a declaration of war against the Pacific coastal countries," according to the report. "Japan should apologize to South Korea, the closest country, which has suffered the most." He added.

Fukushima Reporter: Japanese People Angry Over Nuclear Sewage Discharge Into Sea

The Japanese people are also deeply outraged by the Japanese government's initiation of the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear accident into the sea. Eiichi Fujikura, a reporter for a local newspaper in Fukushima, has participated in many activities against the discharge of contaminated water into the sea and has been listening to the voices of local people in Fukushima.

Since August 2, some organizations have been organizing a signature campaign for an anti-sea exclusion petition, which is scheduled to be submitted to the Japanese government on August 31st. Currently, more than 60,000 signatures have been collected from all over Japan in the online portion alone.

Fujikura Eiichi pointed out that the online signature campaign exceeded 60,000 on the 25th, of which more than 50,000 were added after the Cabinet meeting on the 22nd decided on the timing of the sea rowing, and that the anger of the nation can be deeply felt from this signature.

"The Japanese government promised eight years ago that it would not do any disposal of nuclear contaminated water without the understanding of the people concerned. That was a written promise made by the Japanese government and the Fukushima Prefectural Fisheries Association, and the government is now easily going back on its word." Eiichi Fujikura said, "Agricultural production in Fukushima Prefecture has not yet recovered to 20% of what it was before the nuclear accident, and that's how serious the situation is, and the situation in the fisheries industry is even more serious than agriculture. Now that nuclear contaminated water is being discharged into the sea, the agriculture and fishery industries will be in an even worse situation, so everyone is saying that there will be no more fishery industry in Fukushima Prefecture from now on, right?"

He said that TEPCO had repeatedly had problems with the treatment of nuclear contaminated water and so on. Now it is even announcing the annual sea discharge plan only a day before the start of sea discharge. "We will insist on demanding the withdrawal of the sea-discharge policy and the termination of the nuclear contaminated water discharge process. Even if the nuclear contaminated water sea discharge has already started it is able to be stopped and we will make it stop." He emphasized.

#nuclear

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boldlymysticaldestiny · 8 months

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Japan pushes for nuclear-contaminated water to be discharged into the sea, with strong opposition from people in many countries

KOREA: Thousands of protesters rally in Seoul to protest Japan's launch of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water discharge into sea

Fukushima Reporter: Japanese People Angry Over Nuclear Sewage Discharge Into Sea

#nuclear

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fatehbaz · 1 year

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"Abolition forgery":

So, observers and historians have, for a long time, since the first abolition campaigns, talked and written a lot about how Britain and the United States sought to improve their image and optics in the early nineteenth century by endorsing the formal legal abolition of chattel slavery, while the British and US states and their businesses/corporations meanwhile used this legal abolition as a cloak to receive credit for being nice, benevolent liberal democracies while they actually replaced the lost “productivity” of slave laborers by expanding the use of indentured laborers and prison laborers, achieved by passing laws to criminalize poverty, vagabondage, loitering, etc., to capture and imprison laborers. Like, this was explicit; we can read about these plans in the journals and letters of statesmen and politicians from that time. Many "abolitionist" politicians were extremely anxious about how to replace the lost labor. This use of indentured labor and prison labor has been extensively explored in study/discussion fields (discourse on Revolutionary Atlantic, the Black Atlantic, the Caribbean, the American South, prisons, etc.), Basic stuff at this point. Both slavery-based plantation operations and contemporary prisons are concerned with mobility and immobility, how to control and restrict the movement of people, especially Black people. After the “official” abolition of slavery, Europe and the United States then disguised their continued use of forced labor with the language of freedom, liberation, etc. And this isn't merely historical revisionism; critics and observers from that time (during the Haitian Revolution around 1800 or in the 1830s in London, for example) were conscious of how governments were actively trying to replicate this system of servitude..

And recently I came across this term that I liked, from scholar Ndubueze Mbah.

He calls this “abolition forgery.”

Mbah uses this term to describe how Europe and the US disguised ongoing forced labor, how these states “fake” liberation, making a “forgery” of justice.

But Mbah then also uses “abolition forgery” in a dramatically different, ironic counterpoint: to describe how the dispossessed, the poor, found ways to confront the ongoing state violence by forging documents, faking paperwork, piracy, evasion, etc. They find ways to remain mobile, to avoid surveillance.

And this reminds me quite a bit of Sylvia Wynter’s now-famous kinda double-meaning and definition of “plot” when discussing the plantation environment. If you’re unfamiliar:

Wynter uses “plot” to describe the literal plantation plots, where slaves were forced to work in these enclosed industrialized spaces of hyper-efficient agriculture, as in plots of crops, soil, and enclosed private land. However, then Wynter expands the use of the term “plot” to show the agency of the enslaved and imprisoned, by highlighting how the victims of forced labor “plot” against the prison, the plantation overseer, the state. They make subversive “plots” and plan escapes and subterfuge, and in doing so, they build lives for themselves despite the violence. And in this way, they also extend the “plot” of their own stories, their own narratives. So by promoting the plot of their own narratives, in opposition to the “official” narratives and “official” discourses of imperial states which try to determine what counts as “legitimate” and try to define the course of history, people instead create counter-histories, liberated narratives. This allows an “escape”. Not just a literal escape from the physical confines of the plantation or the carceral state, an escape from the walls and the fences, but also an escape from the official narratives endorsed by empires, creating different futures.

(National borders also function in this way, to prevent mobility and therefore compel people to subject themselves to local work environments.)

Katherine McKittrick also expands on Wynter's ideas about plots and plantations, describing how contemporary cities restrict mobility of laborers.

So Mbah seems to be playing in this space with two different definitions of “abolition forgery.”

Mbah authored a paper titled ‘“Where There is Freedom, There Is No State”: Abolition as a Forgery’. He discussed the paper at American Historical Association’s “Mobility and Labor in the Post-Abolition Atlantic World” symposium held on 6 January 2023. Here’s an abstract published online at AHA’s site: This paper outlines the geography and networks of indentured labor recruitment, conditions of plantation and lumbering labor, and property repatriation practices of Nigerian British-subjects inveigled into “unfree” migrant “wage-labor” in Spanish Fernando Po and French Gabon in the first half of the twentieth century. [...] Their agencies and experiences clarify how abolitionism expanded forced labor and unfreedom, and broaden our understanding of global Black unfreedom after the end of trans-Atlantic slavery. Because monopolies and forced labor [...] underpinned European imperialism in post-abolition West Africa, Africans interfaced with colonial states through forgery and illicit mobilities [...] to survive and thrive.

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Also. Here’s a look at another talk he gave in April 2023.

[Excerpt:]

Ndubueze L. Mbah, an associate professor of history and global gender studies at the University at Buffalo, discussed the theory and implications of “abolition forgery” in a seminar [...]. In the lecture, Mbah — a West African Atlantic historian — defined his core concept of “abolition forgery” as a combination of two interwoven processes. He first discussed the usage of abolition forgery as “the use of free labor discourse to disguise forced labor” in European imperialism in Africa throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Later in the lecture, Mbah provided a counterpoint to this definition of abolition forgery, using the term to describe the ways Africans trapped in a system of forced labor faked documents to promote their mobility across the continent. [...]

Mbah began the webinar by discussing the story of Jampawo, an African British subject who petitioned the British colonial governor in 1900. In his appeal, Jampawo cited the physical punishment he and nine African men endured when they refused to sign a Spanish labor contract that differed significantly from the English language contract they signed at recruitment and constituted terms they deemed to be akin to slavery. Because of the men’s consent in the initial English language contract, however, the governor determined that “they were not victims of forced labor, but willful beneficiaries of free labor,” Mbah said.

Mbah transitioned from this anecdote describing an instance of coerced contract labor to a discussion of different modes of resistance employed by Africans who experienced similar conditions under British imperialism. “Africans like Jampawo resisted by voting with their feet, walking away or running away, or by calling out abolition as a hoax,” Mbah said.

Mbah introduced the concept of African hypermobility, through which “coerced migrants challenged the capacity of colonial borders and contracts to keep them within sites of exploitation,” he said.] [...] Mbah also discussed how the stipulations of forced labor contracts imposed constricting gender hierarchies [...]. To conclude, Mbah gestured toward how the system of forced labor persists in Africa today, yet it “continues to be masked by neoliberal discourses of democracy and of development.” [...] “The so-called greening of Africa [...] continues to rely on forced labor that remains invisible.” [End of excerpt.]

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This text excerpt from: Emily R. Willrich and Nicole Y. Lu. “Harvard Radcliffe Fellow Discusses Theory of ‘Abolition Forgery’ in Webinar.” The Harvard Crimson. 13 April 2023. [Published online. Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

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marlinspirkhall · 1 year

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For UK Mutuals!

[Repost. Info from PTSD UK, via Facebook]

On Sunday 23 April 2023, there will be a national test of the UK Emergency Alerts service. This will test the service created to warn you about events such as severe flooding, fires, and extreme weather, and will be sent by the emergency services, government departments, agencies and public bodies that deal with emergencies.

As part of this test on the 23rd April, your mobile phone or tablet may make a loud siren-like sound (even if it’s set on silent), vibrate and read out the alert.

One of the many hyper-arousal symptoms of PTSD and C-PTSD is hypervigilance and this refers to the experience of being in a state of high alert, constantly tense and ‘on guard’ and always on the lookout for hidden dangers, both real and presumed – it’s stressful and exhausting to maintain.

This awareness, anxiety, sensitivity to the environmental around you, constant scanning and rescanning of the environment can make people with hypervigilance seemingly overreact to loud sounds and bangs, unexpected noises, smells, etc. – which is why awareness of this up-coming test is important to help you prepare if you feel you need to.

PLEASE NOTE: This isn't something we have all the details about, so can't answer all your questions about this, for full information, please visit the gov.uk website - we simply want to ensure that people are aware of the upcoming test for the reasons noted above.

Find out more about the test, what it will look and feel like on your phone and more on our website: https://www.ptsduk.org/government-alert-system-test/

Via gov.uk:

#alt text #image ID #uk #uk emergency alert

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olowan-waphiya · 2 years

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https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2022/07/15/navajo-nation-citizen-science-pollution

Methane pollution is poorly tracked, so Diné activists are monitoring it themselves.

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From behind her FLIR GF320 infrared camera, Kendra Pinto sees plumes of purple smoke otherwise invisible to the naked eye. They’re full of methane and volatile organic compounds, and they’re wafting out of an oil tank in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin.

Pinto, a member of the Diné (Navajo) community and field advocate with environmental group Earthworks, relies on this device in her fight to keep her community’s air clean. She lives in the Eastern Agency of the Navajo Nation, home to booming oil and gas production.

“When I walk outside, I can’t just think about fresh air. I’m thinking about the VOCs. I’m thinking about the methane that I’m breathing in, because I know what’s out there,” Pinto said. “I see it all the time.”

She’s one of countless citizen scientists across the country who are tracking and reporting environmental harms committed by the oil and gas industry to regulators. And here, there are many: The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that each year, New Mexico’s oil and gas companies emit more than 1.1 million metric tons of methane, a greenhouse gas around 86 times more potent in its warming potential than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Much of this comes from wasted natural gas—$271 million of it in this state alone, according to the EDF. It leaks out of faulty equipment and is intentionally expelled through the processes of venting and flaring, in which excess, unrefined natural gas is released or burned from oil wells and refineries to eliminate waste or reduce pressure buildups.

This is bad for the planet—high volumes of methane released into the atmosphere accelerate the pace of the climate crisis. It’s also bad for the people who live around it who are exposed to the pollutants that typically come along with methane emissions, like benzene, a carcinogen, and PM2.5 and PM10—particulate matter small enough to get lodged deep in the lungs. Pinto said her neighbors experience disproportionately high rates of headaches, nosebleeds, allergies, and respiratory issues, like sinus and throat discomfort.

“I think the scariest thing about methane is it’s odorless,” Pinto said. “It’s a silent killer. And if my neighbors are breathing it in, that’s worrisome.”

These emissions and the fossil fuel development that causes them have long been “insufficiently regulated,” said Jon Goldstein, senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs at EDF. In 2020, then-president Donald Trump rolled back Obama-era regulations on methane that effectively eliminated the requirement that oil and gas companies monitor and repair methane leaks in their infrastructure.

The Senate voted to reinstate them in April 2021, and last November, the Biden administration announced it would introduce even more comprehensive regulations in an interagency effort to crack down on emissions from the oil and gas sector. As part of the plan, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed its own rules, which include a requirement that states reduce methane emissions from thousands of sources nationwide, and a provision that encourages the use of new technology designed to find major leaks. A final methane rule is expected to be implemented later this year.

The Navajo Nation, too, is taking things into its own hands: The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency is currently considering adopting a permitting program to regulate methane from oil and gas development on its land.

Here, methane emissions from oil and gas companies are 65% higher than the national average, seeping out of pipelines, oil rigs, and the like. The San Juan Basin, some 150 miles northwest of Santa Fe, has received a failing grade from the American Lung Association for ozone pollution, or smog, the result of the combination between VOCs and radiation from sunlight.

Exposure to ozone has been tied to degraded respiratory health and asthma attacks, and it’s typically seen in cities, Goldstein said.

“The San Juan Basin isn’t home to large cities,” he said. In San Juan County, ozone is the result of the widespread build-out of oil and gas wells; approximately half of the county’s 50,000 residents who identify as Indigenous live within half a mile of those wells, according to EDF.

Catching emissions at the source will be crucial to changing this legacy. And where regulators can’t (or won’t) step in, residents like Pinto are. The federal government is now relying upon community monitoring, or work that citizens do to contribute to public understanding of the scope of air pollution near fossil fuel sites, a development that Eric Kills A Hundred, tribal energy program manager at EDF, believes will be “huge.”

The EPA’s methane proposal includes a plan to implement a program to “empower the public to detect and report large emission events for appropriate follow-up by owners and operators,” according to an agency news release.

During the comment period for the EPA’s proposed community monitoring program, members of the petroleum industry questioned whether the agency has the authority to establish it at all, primarily objecting to the idea that air quality monitoring be conducted by entities other than agencies and producers themselves, E&E News reported in May.

But Pinto said groups like Earthworks have a track record of doing this work long before federal regulators began tapping them for their data collection.

“Documenting these types of emissions is important because no one else is really doing it,” she said. “Even the agencies that are regulating this type of thing. Because we’re in a rural area, what can they actually capture when they come out here? Are they going to more than 100 sites?”

Kills A Hundred said these efforts are not only about what the Navajo Nation can contribute to government data on methane pollution, they’re also about empowering the community to play a role in stopping it.

“Having been the stewards of the land for so long,” he said, “it’s just so important for these communities to be active and raise their voice.”

#indigenous #native american #climate crisis #methane #fossil fuels #greenhouse gas emissions #navajo #dine #diné #navajo nation #epa #environmental action #pollution #science

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 9 months

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The Department of Justice on Monday sued the state of Texas and Gov. Greg Abbott over the installation of a barrier of buoys in the Rio Grande River intended to keep migrants from crossing into the U.S.

The DOJ based its lawsuit on allegations that in building the buoy barrier, Texas violated the Rivers and Harbors Act by obstructing navigable waters of the U.S.

Texas officials began constructing the barrier near the Camino Real International Bridge in Eagle Pass earlier this month, finishing last week, according to the DOJ lawsuit.

Federal officials are asking a Judge to order that Texas remove the existing buoys at their own expense and also that they be enjoined from constructing any further barriers in other waters near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Abbott and the state of Texas allegedly did not seek authorization from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prior to installing the buoys, as required under law, and that because of that, "the Corps and other relevant federal agencies were deprived of the opportunity to evaluate risks the barrier poses to public safety and the environment, mitigate those risks as necessary through the permitting process, and otherwise evaluate whether the project is in the public interest," the DOJ lawsuit alleges.

The buoys are part of Operation Lone Star, Abbott's major border policy.

"This floating barrier poses threats to navigation and public safety and presents humanitarian concerns. Additionally, the presence of the floating barrier has prompted diplomatic protests by Mexico and risks damaging U.S. foreign policy," Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement on Monday.

A Judge from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas had not yet been assigned to the case as of Monday afternoon.

It was not immediately clear how soon until Texas has to answer the allegations in court. Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a letter on Friday, the DOJ had warned the Governor that Texas' "actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government's ability to carry out its official duties."

On Monday, Abbott responded with a letter to President Joe Biden remaining defiant -- and indicating his state's defense will hinge on what he describes as Texas' "sovereign authority" to protect its borders.

"Texas will see you in court, Mr. President," Abbott wrote, hours before the DOJ announced its suit.

Abbott, a Republican, has long assailed what he calls the failure of the Biden administration's border and immigration policies. He's also been busing migrants out of Texas to Democratic-led states and cities -- a move that has stoked outcry from advocates.

On Friday, the Governor said in a statement that his administration, along with Texas' Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard, are "continuing to work together to secure the border; stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people into Texas; and prevent, detect, and interdict transnational criminal behavior between ports of entry," citing statistics on hundreds of thousands of apprehensions and criminal arrests made under Operation Lone Star.

Responding to the DOJ lawsuit on Monday, White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan, said, in part: "Governor Abbott's dangerous and unlawful actions are undermining that effective plan, making it hard for the men and women of Border Patrol to do their jobs of securing the border, and putting migrants and border agents in danger."

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rjzimmerman · 5 days

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Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

Two federal agencies have confirmed the cancellation of applications for permits proposed a decade ago to drill and frack eight new wells on federal public land in Los Padres National Forest. The announcement, made April 3, comes just weeks after California officials proposed a statewide ban on this extremely dangerous fossil fuel extraction technique.

Together, the two actions signal the end of the toxic era of fracking in the Sespe Oil Field. Fracking has occurred here for decades unbeknownst to the public, but when the polluting practice was uncovered through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests in 2012, a pause in fracking occurred amidst public opposition and an outpouring of scientific studies showing the dangers posed to human health and the environment.

The eight applications refocused the spotlight on the Sespe and the public health and environmental risks posed by fracking.

“This announcement closes the chapter on a toxic and dangerous legacy of fracking in the Sespe,” said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch, one of the organizations that mobilized residents to oppose the fracking plan. “While fossil fuel extraction here continues to pose grave dangers to our public lands, communities and climate, today we celebrate this important step forward as we continue the transition to clean energy.”

“I’m relieved that these long-pending drilling and fracking applications have been cancelled, averting a major threat to condors and steelhead,” said Lisa Belenky, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Condors have suffered from oil wells and pipelines in this area in the past and steelhead critical habitat in Sespe Creek is downstream from the oil field, so this is a win for biodiversity. We can’t allow expansion of fracking and other oil and gas extraction on our public lands. Ending fossil fuel production is critical to reducing greenhouse gas pollution and supporting real climate solutions.”

Seneca Resources — a Texas-based oil company — filed the original drilling applications with the Bureau of Land Management in 2013, seeking permission to frack eight new wells in the Sespe Creek watershed along with the construction of nearly two miles of new pipelines, a 12,600-gallon tank, and other industrial facilities in this remote area upstream of the town of Fillmore. Carbon California, a Colorado-based company, eventually took over operation of the Sespe Oil Field.

#fracking #oil and gas industry #California #condors

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female-malice · 5 months

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Vietnam Relied on Environmentalists to Secure Billions. Then It Jailed Them.

The government is preparing to present its energy transition plan at the U.N. climate talks as it intensifies a crackdown on environmental advocates.

(Solar panels at the Sao Mai power plant in An Giang Province, Vietnam, last year. The country has been awarded $15.5 billion in grants and loans in exchange for a commitment to renewable energy)

By Sui-Lee Wee Nov. 28, 2023, 5:01 a.m. ET

When Vietnam was awarded a multibillion-dollar deal by a group of nine wealthy nations last year to work on reducing its use of coal, it agreed to regularly consult with nongovernmental organizations.

Instead, the government has arrested several prominent environmentalists from those organizations who shaped policies that helped secure the funding, prompting concerns over sending money to countries that have violated human rights.

As the country prepares to announce how it will spend the money at the United Nations climate talks that begin on Thursday, activists are saying that Vietnamese officials need to be held accountable for what they are calling a harsh crackdown against those who speak out about the country’s environmental woes.

Ngo Thi To Nhien, the director of an energy think tank, was the sixth environmental campaigner to be detained in the past two years.

She had met with officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in March to discuss a plan for the climate deal, the Just Energy Transition Partnership, an effort among the United States, Japan and other developed countries to persuade developing economies to abandon coal. The nine nations had announced in December that Vietnam would receive $15.5 billion in grants and loans in exchange for a commitment to renewable energy.

Ms. Nhien, 48, never got the chance to see Vietnam present the plan. She was arrested in September and remains in a detention center on a charge of “appropriating documents of agencies and organizations.”

The other five who were detained were charged with tax evasion, which rights groups say are trumped-up accusations in response to their advocacy. Four were tried in closed hearings that lasted less than a day each, and given jail time, punishments more severe than the norm. While two activists have since been released, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights said in September that the “prosecutions and the arbitrary application of restrictive legislation are having a chilling effect” on environmentalists in Vietnam.

Activists and academics say that Vietnam appears to be emboldened by its growing importance to the West and has taken the opportunity to clamp down, knowing there will be few repercussions. The country has presented itself as an increasingly important geopolitical player, and one of the few Southeast Asian nations that has publicly pushed back against China. President Biden visited Vietnam in September, elevating ties to a new strategic relationship that he said would “be a force for prosperity and security in one of the most consequential regions in the world.”

(President Biden and Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, at a welcome ceremony in Hanoi in September)

“We’re dealing with a juggernaut,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “They have run the table on the international community, and they’re continuing to do so.”

He pointed to Vietnam’s invitation to the Group of 7 summit this year, its inclusion on the Human Rights Council and now the funding from the Just Energy Transition Partnership, despite the country’s troubling human rights record.

Since 2016, when Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, was re-elected, the space for civil society has shrunk immensely. The country has the second-highest number of political prisoners in Southeast Asia, with more than 160 people currently detained for exercising their basic rights, according to Human Rights Watch.

The authorities in Vietnam have long persecuted people who are viewed as overt threats to one-party rule. But Mr. Trong’s administration has gone much further, targeting people who were previously given some room to operate.

Vietnam rejects any suggestions that the prosecutions are politically motivated. Pham Thu Hang, a spokeswoman for the Vietnamese foreign ministry, said last month that the environmentalists’ cases were “investigated, prosecuted and tried in accordance with the provisions of Vietnam law.”

(An electric vehicle charging station in a Hanoi parking garage. Nine wealthy nations announced in December that Vietnam would be the recipient of funding to facilitate its energy transition)

All six ran organizations that were outspoken about the country's environmental problems. That advocacy ultimately put them on a collision course with the Communist Party.

Their detentions are a signal that the government wants the energy transition to be carried out on its own terms and not on the advice of groups they have long deemed suspicious, said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a research organization in Singapore.

On the day Ms. Nhien was detained, Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, criticized foreign donors who had funded policy research, saying they had directed groups to publish reports with “one-sided, negative content, tarnishing the situation of the country and the people of Vietnam.”

Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse that is home to nearly 99.5 million people, is the ninth-largest coal consumer globally. In 2021, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh vowed that the country would phase out coal consumption by 2040.

(A coal company in Quang Ninh Province, in northeast Vietnam. The country is the ninth-largest coal consumer globally)

The Just Energy Transition Partnership was first awarded to South Africa in 2021 as part of an effort by wealthy countries to address longstanding inequities in tackling climate change. Activists now see Vietnam as a litmus test for future agreements. Should other repressive governments be given billions of dollars? Should there be specific requirements for countries that receive funding but have poor human rights records?

Several countries behind the climate deal have expressed concern about the detentions in Vietnam, but rights groups say those nations need to predicate their financial support on the release of the environmentalists or a pledge from the government that there will not be additional arrests. So far, the countries have been unwilling to do so, said Ben Swanton, a director at The 88 Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that focuses on human rights issues in Vietnam.

(Dang Dinh Bach, 45, ran a law and policy research center before he was arrested in 2021.)

In one of the harshest penalties in Vietnam for someone convicted of tax evasion, Dang Dinh Bach, 45, was given a five-year sentence in January 2022. He ran a law and sustainable development policy research center that provided legal aid to communities.

Mr. Bach refused to plead guilty. Tran Phuong Thao, his wife, said that she was not allowed to attend his trial and that he has been assaulted in prison by police officers.

“People like my husband have made great efforts to support the government and give suggestions on energy transition policies,” Ms. Thao said.

The arrest of Ms. Nhien, the think tank director, was particularly unusual because she was not a government critic. She led the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, the first group in the country to specialize in energy transition.

A former civil servant, Ms. Nhien had worked as a consultant at the World Bank and the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership, a program managed by a U.N. infrastructure agency. She championed policymaking based on scientific evidence and was invited in May to speak to the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam. In June 2020, she organized a workshop on integrating renewable energy sources into the country’s grid, presenting information from the state electricity utility.

That was enough to make her a target. On Sept. 15, four days after Mr. Biden left Vietnam, she was detained. The Ministry of Public Security pointed to the workshop as evidence of her “appropriating internal documents.”

Two weeks later, a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Hoang Thi Minh Hong, 51, one of Vietnam’s best-known environmentalists, to three years in prison for tax evasion.

(Hoang Thi Minh Hong, one of Vietnam’s best-known environmentalists, was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion)

Ms. Hong’s husband, Hoang Vinh Nam, called his wife’s trial a sham and said the tax department did not send anyone to testify against her. When her peers started being arrested two years ago, Ms. Hong called the tax bureau to ask whether she owed anything and was assured that she did not, he said.

In December, Ms. Hong decided to shut down her environmental nonprofit, citing government pressures. She was arrested in May.

#cc

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eaglesnick · 24 days

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Broken Britain: Labour’s Policy

Homelessness

According to Shelter 109,000 households are homeless in temporary accommodation - up 10% in a year - including 142,490 children – up 14% in a year.

Labour does NOT include ending homelessness in Keir Starmer’s “Five Missions" that are at the centre of his party's promise to voters.

Child Poverty

4.3 million children were living in poverty in the UK during the period 2022/23 – 30% of ALL the nations children.

Labour does NOT include ending child poverty in Keir Starmer's “Five Missions"

Food Banks

Nearly 3 million emergency food parcels were distributed by food banks between April 2022 and April 2023, 760,00 people using food banks for the first time. The number of children in "material deprivation" wherein families cannot afford to feed themselves was 1.9 million.

Labour does NOT include ending poverty in Keir Starmer's “Five Missions"

Water Pollution

According to the Environment Agency there were 3.6 million hours of spills of raw sewage into Britain’s waterways and beaches compared to 1.75 million hours in 2022. Not a single river in England is now rated as healthy.

Labour does NOT include environmental cleanup and protection in Keir Starmer's “Five Missions"

Social Care of the Elderly

Chronic under-funding, severe staff shortages and a growing elderly population has brought the social care sector to crisis point and on the verge of collapse. According to Age UK 2.6 million people over 50 years of age have unmet social care needs, while many thousands languish in hospital for lack of a social care plan for living in their own homes.

Labour does NOT include social care reform in Keir Starmer's “Five Missions"

The Labour Party’s number one priority isn’t to help the poor, the homeless, the elderly or to protect the environment. It is to secure:

…“the "highest sustained growth" in the G7 group of rich nations, made up of the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, by the end of Labour's first term.”

Strangely enough within Sunak’s “five promises” he emphasizes growing the economy above all else. Its all very well “growing the economy", but WHO are we growing the economy for, and who will benefit from any future growth?

After 14 years of Tory government the poor have become steadily worse off while the rich have prospered. The continued redistribution of the nation's wealth from poor to rich is a national scandal, leading to the UK “having some of the highest levels of inequality in Europe.” Unfortunately, even if Labour should win the next election, this inequality is likely to continue.

#uk politics #keir starmer #rishi sunak #five promises #five missions #inequality #poverty #homelessness #child poverty #pollution #corporate greed #wealth #poor #social care

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bills-bible-basics · 8 months

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Japan’s Fukushima Radioactive Waste Water Problem and Guam

I was just reading a New York Times article which discusses Japan’s plans to begin releasing this week, over a million tons of stored, treated, radioactive waste water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, into the Pacific Ocean.

As you will recall, the power plant experienced a major meltdown in 2011, due to the tsunami which was generated by the great Tohoku earthquake that year. Since that time, some 1,000 metal tanks have been constructed to store the accumulated waste water which has been used to keep cool the melted fuel material which resulted from said disaster.

While the Tokyo Electric Power Company — which operates the plant — and the International Atomic Energy Agency both claim that the released radioactive waste water will be of such low concentrations that it will have a “negligible radiological impact on people and the environment”, nevertheless, personally, I remain unconvinced. Quite frankly, I don’t place a lot of faith in large corporations, or in national governments, to always do the right thing.

As such, my view is that the slow release of this treated, contaminated water should continue to be of great concern to Pacific islands such as Guam. Let us not forget that we are located only about 1,400 nautical miles south of Japan, or about 1,660 miles by air travel.

Being as I am not an oceanographer, marine biologist or any other kind of scientist, I am not familiar with ocean currents in this part of the world, although I imagine a quick Internet search would reveal such information. As such, I cannot speak with great authority regarding this matter. Perhaps the Department of Agriculture or someone from the University of Guam can better address this issue.

Nevertheless, even without knowing such oceanographic details, common sense would seem to dictate that if Tepco — Tokyo Electric Power Company — is going to be dumping this treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean for at least the next thirty years as the NYT article explains — and that is just for the contaminated water that is already stored in tanks — eventually, while it could take years, it will have a negative effect on our local marine environment, resulting in contaminated marine life, including consumables which are eaten by our local population.

To my surprise, the New York Times article mentions that Micronesia — which includes Guam — has lifted its objections to Japan’s water release plan, while the eighteen member nations of the Pacific Islands Forum remain strongly opposed to this same plan. Please note that according to online sources, Guam is NOT a member of the Pacific Islands Forum. It has only had observer status since 2011.

The minute I read this important fact regarding Guam’s position, I immediately questioned why Micronesia would lift their opposition to the Japanese plan. More to the point, in the case of Guam, could the answer possibly be related to the fact that Japanese tourism is one of the largest sources of revenue for Guam, and our local government doesn’t wish to jeopardize that delicate relationship? After all, unless I am mistaken and the situation has changed, it is common knowledge that our tourism industry revenue stream is only second behind revenue from the U.S. government and the U.S. military.

In conclusion, I am forced to wonder how safe it will be in coming years to dive, swim and snorkel in Guam’s beautiful waters, and to partake of marine food which is harvested from Guam’s waters. Will our children and our grandchildren ultimately pay the price? Like so many things which occur on Guam, is rectifying this situation beyond our control?

#guam #japan #fukushima #nuclear #power plant #radioactive waste #water

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chrryblssmninja · 1 year

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Please comment on this NPS form (deadline Nov 22) that they need to listen to the community, conduct an environmental impact study, and not consider mass euthanasia for cats that have been there 100s of yrs

Comprehensive article in English:

Article by Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco

"The old city’s street cats, first brought to Puerto Rico by Spanish conquistadors more than 500 years ago, have been a staple ever since and are now a tourist attraction. You can’t walk the cobblestone streets without seeing cats slinking between cars or lounging in the sun, at home in the city as much as their human cohabitants.

The NPS claims it has received a series of complaints from “visitors” about cats attacking them and the foul smell of urine and feces. The agency says it has been looking into the issue for years but only recently started putting more resources into the issue after an uptick in complaints.

It has come up with two plans of action: either let the cats stay as they are, or begin systematically removing them. While the NPS insists that removal means the cats will be adopted, activists fear that it would mean most being euthanized."

More from the article:

"The agency held two open houses on November 2 and 3, where it presented its plan and timeline to residents, allowing the public to comment. As reported by the AP’s Dánica Coto, the first night was tumultuous, with members of the public voicing their frustration at being asked to only leave written comments without being able to speak. The second night, things went a little more smoothly, but people still had a rage in them that was felt with every rousing speech and reinforced by applause from the audience.

Activists in attendance wanted to completely halt any plan that would remove the cats from the area, instead pushing for the NPS to work with the community-led organization Save a Gato to systematically trap, neuter, and release (TNR) the cats."

It is through community actions orgs like these that almost all of the cats are spayed/neutered, vaxxed, and fed.

"Save a Gato has been practicing TNR at cost for years —bringing the group “up to their neck in debt”— and ships cats to the United States, where they have a greater chance of adoption. Cartagena claims the little help they have gotten from both the NPS and the San Juan government has led to the cat population booming over the last decade."

Major point from this article:

"The lack of data and environmental impact studies was one of the most salient issues raised by activists during the two open houses. The only NPS study done was through feeding cameras over a period of a few months, which Save a Gato claims is not enough to assess if there is an actual cat problem. Multiple activists told Latino Rebels that it was “unconscionable” to outline a plan to remove the cats without any studies that show how removing them would affect the old city.

“Things need to evolve. We don’t need to stay in the past,” said Viviana Busquets, who spends about $800 a week running her own program to neuter cats from Puerto Rico.

She is a huge advocate of TNR and has raised the alarm about the “vacuum effect,” wherein removing cats from an area creates a vacuum leading to another cat colony moving into the space formerly occupied by the first.

Busquets proposes that the NPS change its one-size-fits-all policy to better adapt to the environment of Puerto Rico.

... Many activists, like Busquets, recognize the overpopulation of cats in Old San Juan and are not against removing them if they were to be adopted, but they oppose any plan that would kill cats. They push for all levels of government to work with people living in the community and groups like Save a Gato to help adopt the majority of the cats out of the city.

Old San Juan has been one of the hottest sites for gentrification in Puerto Rico with many of the colonial buildings being bought up by crypto millionaires and other rich foreigners as people who have lived there for decades are unable to deal with rising rent prices. Some view the push to remove the cats as merely an extension of this trend."

#Puerto Rico #cats

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notwiselybuttoowell · 1 year

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There is “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place”, the UN’s environment agency has said, and the failure to reduce carbon emissions means the only way to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis is a “rapid transformation of societies”.

The UN environment report analysed the gap between the CO2 cuts pledged by countries and the cuts needed to limit any rise in global temperature to 1.5C, the internationally agreed target. Progress has been “woefully inadequate” it concluded.

Current pledges for action by 2030, if delivered in full, would mean a rise in global heating of about 2.5C and catastrophic extreme weather around the world. A rise of 1C to date has caused climate disasters in locations from Pakistan to Puerto Rico.

If the long-term pledges by countries to hit net zero emissions by 2050 were delivered, global temperature would rise by 1.8C. But the glacial pace of action means meeting even this temperature limit was not credible, the UN report said.

Countries agreed at the Cop26 climate summit a year ago to increase their pledges. But with Cop27 looming, only a couple of dozen have done so and the new pledges would shave just 1% off emissions in 2030. Global emissions must fall by almost 50% by that date to keep the 1.5C target alive.

Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said: “This report tells us in cold scientific terms what nature has been telling us all year through deadly floods, storms and raging fires: we have to stop filling our atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and stop doing it fast.

“We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over. Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster.

“It is a tall, and some would say impossible, order to reform the global economy and almost halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but we must try,” she said. “Every fraction of a degree matters: to vulnerable communities, to ecosystems, and to every one of us.”

Andersen said action would also bring cleaner air, green jobs and access to electricity for millions.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said: “Emissions remain at dangerous and record highs and are still rising. We must close the emissions gap before climate catastrophe closes in on us all.”

Prof David King, a former UK chief scientific adviser, said: “The report is a dire warning to all countries – none of whom are doing anywhere near enough to manage the climate emergency.”

The report found that existing carbon-cutting policies would cause 2.8C of warming, while pledged policies cut this to 2.6C. Further pledges, dependent on funding flowing from richer to poorer countries, cut this again to 2.4C.

New reports from the International Energy Agency and the UN’s climate body reached similarly stark conclusions, with the latter finding that the national pledges barely cut projected emissions in 2030 at all, compared with 2019 levels.

The UNEP report said the required societal transformation could be achieved through government action, including on regulation and taxes, redirecting the international financial system, and changes to consumer behaviour.

It said the transition to green electricity, transport and buildings was under way, but needed to move faster. All sectors had to avoid locking in new fossil fuel infrastructure, contrary to plans in many countries, including the UK, to develop new oil and gas fields. A study published this week found “large consensus” across all published research that new oil and gas fields are “incompatible” with the 1.5C target.

The UNEP report said about a third of climate-heating emissions came from the global food system and these were set to double by 2050. But the sector could be transformed if governments changed farm subsidies – which are overwhelmingly harmful to the environment – and food taxes, cut food waste and helped develop new low-carbon foods.

Individual citizens could adopt greener, healthier diets as well, the report said.

Andersen said: “I’m not preaching one diet over another, but we need to be mindful that if we all want steak every night for dinner, it won’t compute.”

Redirecting global financial flows to green investments was vital, the report said. Most financial groups had shown limited action to date, despite their stated intentions, due to short-term interests, it said. A transformation to a low-emissions economy was expected to need at least $4tn-6tn a year in investment, the report said, about 2% of global financial assets.

Despite Andersen’s doubts that the necessary emission cuts can be made by 2030, she pointed to the plummeting costs of renewables, the rollout of electric transport, major climate legislation in the US, and moves by pension funds to back low-carbon investments.

“It’s my job to be the ever hopeful person, but [also] to be the realistic optimist,” she said. “[This report] is the mirror that we’re holding up to the world. Obviously, I want to be proven wrong and see countries taking ambitious steps. But so far, that’s not what we’ve seen.”

#incredible how they still have to dance around things people may not want to hear for fear it will shut things down entirely #climate change #1.5c #science news

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mariacallous · 7 months

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The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet. It’s also one of the most heavily locked down, surveilled, and suppressed. Israel has evolved an entire intelligence apparatus and aggressive digital espionage industry around advancing its geopolitical interests, particularly its interminable conflict in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Yet on Saturday, Hamas militants caught Israel unaware with a series of devastating land, air, and sea attacks, killing hundreds of people and leaving thousands wounded. Israel has now declared war.

Hamas’ surprise attack on Saturday is shocking given not only its scale compared to previous attacks, but also the fact that it was planned and carried out without Israel’s knowledge. Hamas’ deadly barrage underscores the limitations of even the most intrusive surveillance dragnets. In fact, experts say the sheer quantity of intelligence that Israel collects on Hamas, as well as the group’s constant activity and organizing, may have played a role in obscuring plans for this particular attack amid the endless barrage of potentially credible threats.

“There's no doubt that the scale and scope of this Hamas attack indicate just a colossal intelligence failure on behalf of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and in Shin Bet, the internal security agency,” says Raphael Marcus, a visiting research fellow at King’s College London’s Department of War Studies who focuses on the region. “They have such technical prowess and also a legacy of excellent human source capability.”

Israel is known for heavily monitoring Gaza and anyone who could be connected to Hamas using both traditional intelligence-gathering techniques and digital surveillance like facial recognition and spyware. Israel has proved its hacking skills and technical sophistication on the global stage for years, participating in the development of innovative malware for both digital espionage and cyber-physical attacks. The fact that Hamas was able to plan such an unprecedented and complex attack speaks to the limitations and inevitable blind spots of even the most comprehensive surveillance regime.

Jake Williams, a former US National Security Agency hacker and current faculty member at the Institute for Applied Network Security, emphasizes that when you have a firehose of intelligence streaming in from an array of sources, and when the climate is as fraught as that between Israel and Palestine, the challenge is organizing and parsing the information, not gathering it.

“Intelligence in an environment like Israel isn't finding a needle in a haystack—it's finding the needle that will hurt you in a pile of needles,” Williams says. “Given the number of Hamas members involved in the invasion, it's not plausible to me that Israel missed every human intelligence reflection of the planning. But I feel confident that there are always Hamas operatives talking about credible plans to attack the IDF. So Israel can't respond with force to every threat, even every credible one. They'd be at a heightened state of alert or actively engaged all the time, and that's probably actually worse for security.”

Though details of exactly how the attack happened are still emerging, it seems that oversights related to grappling with this signal-and-noise conundrum played a role.

“In retrospect, there was some information, but, like happens in all intelligence failures, it wasn't given sufficient consideration. It was misunderstood,” says Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser. “I think in the last days, from my understanding, there were some warning signs. And actually, the intelligence establishment had been warning for the past about half-year that there was going to be a significant conflict with Hamas, that they were bent on escalating the situation. But then they misread the signs.”

Colin Clarke, the director of research at the Soufan Group, an intelligence and security consultancy, says the Hamas attack would have “required months of preparation” and intelligence failures likely happened with both human intelligence and signals intelligence, where electronic and communications data is collected. “I’m still astonished that a breakdown in intelligence occurred at this level,” Clarke says. “I don’t think anybody, including the Israelis, were prepared for an operation this complex and multi-pronged.”

Crucial intelligence oversights could have happened as the result of numerous intersecting failures, says King’s College London’s Marcus. The Israeli intelligence apparatus may have misunderstood Hamas’s intentions, misread the context of crucial leads, been distracted by Israel’s political efforts with Saudi Arabia, or been grappling with domestic challenges. Israeli forces have complained, for example, of a brain drain from the IDF as individuals get pulled toward the private sector.

“I think that this wasn't just a military failure—I think that this was a dramatic failure of national leadership,” says Freilich, who authored Israel and the Cyber Threat: How the Startup Nation Became a Global Cyber Power. The ambush calls to mind the outbreak of fighting during Ramadan in October 1973 in which an Arab bloc targeted Israel with a surprise attack on the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur to set off nearly 20 days of fighting.

Palestinians in occupied territories, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, have faced surveillance and controls for years, with many calling the conditions an apartheid. In September 2021, Israeli forces announced the completion of a 40-mile-long barrier around the Gaza Strip—the sliver of land between Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea—that is essentially a “smart wall” equipped with radar, cameras, underground sensors, and an array of other surveillance instruments.

“Palestinians are subjected to multi-layered surveillance,” says Mona Shtaya, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. “Various surveillance technologies are employed against Palestinians, including drones, mobile bugs (spyware) that have previously been uncovered as being injected into electronic devices prior to entry into the Gaza Strip.”

Shtaya adds that CCTV cameras are placed at entrances to the Gaza Strip, and that there is “continuous” online surveillance of people in the occupied areas. “It would not be an exaggeration to say that Palestinians are under surveillance in nearly every facet of their lives,” she says.

Such persistent surveillance can make people change their behaviors and limits freedom of expression and speech. “We can observe this phenomenon when people communicate with their families over phone calls or when they post content online, as they may alter certain keywords,” Shtaya says.

As Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday, videos emerged of a brute force approach: a bulldozer breaking through portions of the fence as hundreds of militants stormed into Israel using motorbikes, boats, and apparently paragliders. Haaretz reported on Sunday that Hamas was able to gain so much ground because of IDF logistics issues in addition to intelligence failings.

While Israel’s technology industry has helped create many surveillance capabilities and pushed the global industry forward, Hamas, which is sanctioned as a terrorist organization in the US, also uses some digital tools in its operations. The group has leaned heavily on distributing its propaganda through radio and TV to legitimize its rule in Gaza, while it utilizes social media to a lesser extent, according to a review by the Center for Strategic and International Studies earlier this year. Still, Hamas has used fake Facebook accounts to lure Israeli soldiers into downloading data-stealing apps, and has distributed fake dating apps that are really spyware. In 2019, Israeli forces bombed a building they claimed housed a Hamas hacking group.

Multiple sources tell WIRED that they suspect Iran was involved in helping Hamas carry out its assault on Saturday, given the sophistication and intricacy of the attack. Iran has long-standing ties to Hamas, and its officials have praised the recent attacks.

As the conflict ramps up into full-scale war, there is significant concern about the number of civilians impacted, with Amnesty International saying it is “deeply alarmed” by the civilian deaths in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. The Hamas assault has killed at least 700 and injured more than 2,000 Israelis on Saturday, according to the latest available figures. Video footage and reports shared online depict Hamas gunmen killing civilians, leaving bloody bodies scattered through the streets, and taking dozens of hostages. In response, Israel is launching large-scale airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, while working to retake militant-controlled areas and preparing for offensive actions, including a possible ground invasion of Gaza. At least 370 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded so far.

Israel Defense Forces say women and children have been taken hostage. Israel has also cut power to Gaza and internet monitoring firms say there has been a decrease in connectivity. As the fog of surveillance gives way to the fog of war, the current situation in Israel serves as an important illustration that unrelenting surveillance does not equate to or guarantee security.

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emirates23 · 2 months

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Exploring Nursing Opportunities Abroad: Top Countries for Indian Nurses

Nursing is one of the most in-demand jobs inside and outside India. A profession that is in most demand in GCC countries for Indians is the nursing job. For Indian nurses, who are looking to broaden their horizons, many countries are waiting with promising career opportunities. If you are a skilled nurse and have multilingual capabilities then wide opportunities will be there. The overseas opportunities will give you high pay as well as a high-standard working environment. The respect for nurses outside India is much higher than inside India. Nurses are being recruited through top nursing consultancy in Kerala and here is a list of the top countries that offer promising careers.

Five top countries that offer promising nursing career

United Arab Emirates: Dubai which is an opulent city right due to cultural and development richness hires nurses from India. A large part of nurses who work in Dubai are Indian and they a decent pay but not much higher than European and American countries. But the most attractive feature of Dubai is that the nurses can take their entire income to their homeland since there are no taxes. In Dubai, there are many world-class hospitals, medical centers, and clinics that offer good employment prospects for Indian and other nationalities.

Saudi Arabia: In Saudi Arabia, there are a plethora of job opportunities for nurses in both the private and Government sectors. They offer good pay, accommodation facilities and also travel allowances. Saudi Arabia is one of the largest nations in GCC countries and also the pilgrimage place for Muslims, the demand for medical facilities is very high. The demand for trained professionals especially from India is of high demand in Saudi. However, finding the right opportunity is a bit challenging since there is a high scam in the field of recruitment.

Canada: Canada is a country that offers a healthcare system with the highest standard. This country is facing staff shortages and is now actively recruiting nurses worldwide. The high-quality life and the welcoming stances towards immigrants make Canada an excellent choice for nurses. The medical facilities and education are completely free for immigrants.

Australia: Australia's flourishing healthcare industry and stunning landscapes attract nurses worldwide. With modern facilities and advanced technology, nurses can work efficiently. During leisure time, they can explore the country's picturesque natural environment. Competitive salaries and excellent benefits make it a lucrative career option. To work as a nurse in Australia, one must register with the AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) and pass English language proficiency tests.

United States of America (USA): The USA boasts a robust healthcare system with a significant demand for skilled nurses across various specialties. Indian nurses aspiring to work in the USA can pursue opportunities through programs like the H-1B visa for skilled workers or the EB-3 visa for professionals with tertiary education. Opportunities exist in hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, and community health settings throughout the country.

United Kingdom (UK): With its National Health Service (NHS), the UK offers extensive opportunities for Indian nurses to work in both public and private healthcare sectors. The UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) oversees the registration process for international nurses, which includes passing the Occupational English Test (OET) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and meeting other requirements. Work settings range from hospitals and nursing homes to community healthcare centers.

Conclusion

If you are planning for an overseas nursing job, first research the rules and regulations for immigrants. Based on it decide which country is most suitable for you. There will be medical tests, mandatory examinations, and other verifications for each country. It is better to connect with any nursing consultancy in Kerala before you plan to move, they will guide you through the process and also provide you with data regarding the recruitment.

#top nursing consultancy in kerala #nursing consultancy in kerala

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