#TUPERMEROS

Raped by the regime, women still seek justice in Uruguay

Issued on: 23/11/2020 - 

Uruguayan poet Ana Amoros posing with one of her books, is one of a group of 28 former political prisoners seeking justice for torture and sexual crimes committed by the military regime that ruled Uruguay between 1973 and 1985 

Pablo PORCIUNCULA AFp

Montevideo (AFP)

When Ana Amoros fell prey to Uruguay's dictatorship, the first thing her torturers did was strip her naked and hit her with a riding crop. Then they raped her.

Amoros is one of a group of 28 former political prisoners seeking justice for torture and sexual crimes committed by the military regime that ruled Uruguay between 1973 and 1985.

Nine years after first filing a criminal complaint before Uruguay's courts, the women will present their case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in March next year.

The women's quest for justice is made more difficult by a law passed a year after the country's return to democracy in 1986 that blocked investigation of dictatorship-era crimes.

That allowed some a fresh start, but for others like Amoros, it meant suppressing the truth about regime-sponsored violence against women.

"Women's bodies were, and still are, the spoils of war," said Amoros, now 72.

Considered one of South America's most progressive countries, Uruguay remains conflicted about its military past.

Torture, killings, enforced disappearances and other serious human rights violations were committed during the nearly 12-year dictatorship.

"Women's stories are only recently emerging. There is a masculine narrative, a very masculine narrative," said former political prisoner Luz Menendez, 66.

Menendez was arrested and held in La Tablada, an estate outside Montevideo used to torture leftist suspects.

She said her torturer had told her: "Girl, don't worry, you will leave here alive... but since you are a Communist, you will beg God to let you die, because we are going to drive you to the brink of madness."

- Jailed and tortured -

Like other leftist opponents of the regime, Amoros, Menendez, Brenda Sosa, Ivonne Klingler and Anahit Ahoranian were all in their 20s when they were imprisoned and tortured.

AFP reporters have collected their testimonies since 2019.

Amoros was a member of an armed anarchist group, the Popular Revolutionary Organization-Orientales 33. She was arrested on one of the group's premises she was helping to guard.

She was stripped naked as soon as she arrived at the barracks.

"They hit you with a riding crop that they used to hit horses with, they hit you all over your body. I was blindfolded, but I knew that there were a lot of men."

She remembers Colonel Gilberto Vazquez. He gave her a coffee and a cigarette, but when she refused to answer his questions, "he got angry," said Amoros in a whisper.

"That was the first time he raped me.

"I always thought if that happened, I'd bite him! Scratch him! I thought I would kick him in the genitals! I thought I would defend myself. But I did nothing. Nothing."

Vazquez is currently under house arrest for dictatorship-era crimes.

Klingler, who was a member of the Communist Party, was arrested after occupying the medical facility where she was a student.

"I never thought I would get to know such a horrifying underworld, where the main goal was to destroy another human being just because you could," she said.

- 'The Prod' -

Sosa was part of a logistics support cell for the Tupamaros, a violent urban guerrilla movement, when she was arrested at age 21 at one of the group's safe houses outside Montevideo.

At the time, the group -- to which the future leftist president Jose Mujica belonged -- "was at its peak, had a good image, like Robin Hood, and I had dreamt of joining it," said Sosa, now 69.

She was tortured, receiving electric shocks to her nipples and genitals with a device that her captors called a "prod."

During one session, she was brought face to face with a fellow member of her guerrilla group.

"They brought him in to witness me being tortured. To make him talk," she recalled.

Lawyers representing about 100 accused, mostly military, did not respond to AFP requests for interview.

- Women silenced -

Many of the women have been unable to speak to their families about their trauma.

Klingler, a retired doctor, said she couldn't even begin to explain it: "Can I talk about it? That's the first question. Can you explain it? Can you name it?"

Former Tupamaro member Ahoranian said that when the dictatorship ended, men took a more pragmatic view and convinced women not to pursue the crimes committed against them.

Their families told them, "That's it, we've lived, we've gone through it, let it be, close the chapter," said Ahoranian, a 71-year-old agronomist.

Amoros, a writer, is left to ruminate on an alternate life she might have led, if not for the scars left by the regime.

"I think about how I was only a young girl. I suffered a lot, it affected me sexually. I had a hard time feeling good about myself," she said.

© 2020 AFP

'Half-measure' virus vaccine intrigues experts

Issued on: 23/11/2020

Clinical trials suggested that an initial half-dose was better than a full one

 JUAN MABROMATA AFP

Paris (AFP)

Evidence suggesting an initial half dose of the vaccine being developed by drugs firm AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is more effective than a full dose is counterintuitive, and even took the researchers by surprise.

Why would less be better than more when it comes to triggering an immune response?

Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, described the findings from the Phase 3 clinical trial as "intriguing".

They showed that the vaccine had an efficacy of 62 percent among the people given two full doses a month apart.

But this rose to 90 percent for another group who received a half-dose first and then a full dose after a month.

"I think all of us expected that the two high doses would be the best response," said Pollard, who noted researchers had only seen the details of the results over the weekend and would now start digging into the data.

"We think that by giving a smaller first dose, that we're priming the immune system differently. We're setting it up better to respond," he told a press briefing.

Sarah Gilbert, professor at Oxford's Nuffield Department of Medicine, said the better result with a smaller initial dose could be because this better "mimics what happens in a real infection".

Essentially a vaccine uses a safe method to trick the immune system into believing it is dealing with a dangerous infection, triggering an immune response and an immune memory that can activate if the body comes across the real pathogen.

"It could be that by giving a small amount of the vaccine to start with and following up with a big amount, that's a better way of kicking the immune system into action and giving us the strongest immune response," Gilbert told reporters.

- 'Trojan Horse' -

The Astra/Oxford vaccine employs what is known as a "viral vector", using engineered viruses to deliver genetic cargo into cells, giving them instructions on how to fight SARS-CoV-2.

The strategy uses the transporting virus as a "Trojan Horse", said Colin Butter, Associate Professor at the University of Lincoln.

It is "complex and usually achieved experimentally: a luxury not available in the present situation".

The technology itself may be the reason why an initial half-dose could work better, according to several scientists commenting on the results, with the immune system acting against the virus being used as a delivery vehicle.

"It may seem confusing that a higher initial dose gives a less favourable response, but this may just be due to a residual response in some patients to the disabled 'vehicle'," a snippet of chimpanzee virus used to deliver the vaccine "payload", said Stephen Griffin, Associate Professor in the School of Medicine, University of Leeds.

But he said this could be "easily fixed" by using the adjusted dose.

Pollard said researchers would be looking to find out if the issue was the quantity or quality of the immune response.

He added that while with almost all single dose vaccines the higher the dose you give the better, methods based on priming the immune system first -- and then later giving a booster -- can work differently.

This is particularly the case with babies and infants, where you might have different numbers of priming doses, he said.

"I think the difference is that we're not that used to dealing with infections like this coronavirus, which adult humans have never seen before," Pollard said.

© 2020 AFP

Jehovah's Witness' suit says she lost state job over refusal to take loyalty oath

Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A Jehovah's Witness is alleging her religious freedom rights were violated when a California agency withdrew a job offer because she declined to sign a loyalty oath promising to defend the state and U.S. constitutions.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Brianna Bolden-Hardge says her sincere religious beliefs mandate that her allegiance is to the Kingdom of God and she cannot engage in any sort of violence in support of a human government. The 31-year-old woman had accepted a position with the California State Controller's Office payroll department.

Bolden-Hardge asked for a religious accommodation that would allow her to include an addendum to the oath saying her first duty was to God and that she would not take up arms in support of the state. But that request was rejected, according to her suit.

"The SCO failed to explore any available alternative means of accommodating Bolden-Hardge, insisting instead on the loyalty oath without exception, notation or addendum," the suit alleges. "By extending the job offer to Bolden-Hardge, the SCO had deemed her qualified. It rescinded her job offer only after -- and because -- she asked for a religious accommodation."

The lawsuit, which was filed Oct. 19 and names the SCO and State Controller Betty T. Yee as defendants, asks for unspecified monetary damages.

The suit also seeks a declaration that failing to accommodate a sincere religious belief and refusing to hire someone based on religion violate the U.S. Constitution, the California Constitution, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and California's Fair Employment and Housing Act. In addition, it asks the court to require that the SCO make reasonable accommodations to religious beliefs and practices in general and faith-based objections to loyalty oaths in particular.

Bolden-Hardge is represented by James Sonne of the Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic; Zeba A. Huq of Stanford Law School's Religious Liberty Clinic; and Wendy Musell, an Oakland, Calif., attorney. On behalf of the legal team, Sonne declined to comment beyond what's in the lawsuit.

An SCO spokeswoman did not respond to requests for a comment on the suit.

Accommodation denied

Bolden-Hardge was offered a job by the State Controller's Office in July 2017 and was asked to sign the loyalty oath as part of the onboarding process, the suit says.

RELATED Viktor Orbán shows how religion can be used to erode democracy

The oath states: "I ... do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter."

Article XX, Section 3, of the California Constitution requires members of the Legislature, and all public officers and employees to sign the law "except such inferior officers and employees as may be by law exempted."

To Bolden-Hardge, signing the oath would commit her to take up arms in defense of the state, which would be contrary to her faith, the suit says. She agreed to sign the oath if she could include an addendum saying she would uphold the state and U.S. constitutions and "be honest and fair in my dealings and neither dishonor the office by word nor deed."

In addition, the addendum said, "By signing this oath, I understand that I shall not be required to bear arms, engage in violence, nor to participate in political or military affairs. Additionally, I understand that I am not giving up my right to freely exercise my religion, nor am I denouncing my religion by accepting this position."

The SCO said it needed time for its human resources and legal departments to review the matter, then rescinded the job offer a few days later on the ground that the oath could not be modified, according to the suit.

At the time Bolden-Hardge applied for the SCO, she was working for the California Franchise Tax Board. She had declined to sign the loyalty oath when she started the job there in January 2016 and the board had allowed her to remain an employee, the suit says.

After the SCO job offer was withdrawn, Bolden-Hardge returned to the Franchise Tax Board. The suit said that this time, she was asked to sign the oath and was granted her request to include the addendum.

Bolden-Hardge lodged a discrimination charge against the Controller's Office with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in January 2018 and filed her suit after she was unable to resolve the complaint administratively.

God and government

There are about 8.6 million Jehovah's Witnesses in the world, about 1.3 million of them in the United States. In accordance with their religious beliefs, adherents do not participate in warfare and they obey the government's laws as long as they do not conflict with God's laws.

Robert Hendriks, the U.S. spokesman for the faith, said that when determining whether to take an oath, a Jehovah's Witness will weigh two complementary Biblical principles. The first one, found in Romans 13:1-5, talks about being in subjection to governing authorities.

"That authority has been allowed to exist because God allows it to exist and we know that governments are very important to keeping order and providing for our freedoms," Hendriks said.

He said the second principle is based on a response Jesus gave when asked whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. In Matthew 22:20-22, Jesus asked whose inscription was on a coin and after being told it was Caesar's, he replied, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."

Hendriks said Caesar's things are taxes and tributes, while the things granted by God are "our life, our mind, our strength and our heart." For that reason, "we will only give our life for our God," he said.

"When some Christians and some of our brothers and sisters read the sweeping language of a typical loyalty oath, their first reaction might be 'I can't make that promise to anyone other than my God.' We respect a person's right to make that decision. It's their decision and theirs alone," Hendriks said.

For other Jehovah's Witnesses, signing a loyalty oath just affirms their promise to God that they will be subject to the government, Hendriks said. Embedded in the constitution that they're upholding is "our right to not do something as an exercise of our freedom of religion," he said.

"So, a Christian might feel that I can sign this because that very same constitution I'm upholding gives me the right to say no when the government asks me to do something that violates my conscience," he said.

Both decisions are right, Hendriks said.

"It's all about a person's conscience and they need to work through this in their own mind and heart," he said.

Excluded from state government

Members of other faiths also are faced with the question of whether to take an oath. The Mennonite Church USA addresses the issue in its Article 20, which says, "We commit ourselves to tell the truth, to give a simple yes or no, and to avoid swearing of oaths."

The church notes on its website that Jesus told his disciples not to swear oaths at all but to "let their yes be yes, and their no be no."

"As Christians, our first allegiance is to God," the website says. "In baptism we pledged our loyalty to Christ's community, a commitment that takes precedence over obedience to any other social and political communities."

"A lot of people will just affirm things," said Glen Guyton, the denomination's executive director.

In 2008, Marianne Kearney-Brown, a Quaker, was fired from a job teaching remedial math at California State University-East Bay for refusing to sign the loyalty oath as written. She wanted to insert the word "non-violently" in front of "support" but was told it could not be modified.

Kearney-Brown, who said she included the qualification at previous state jobs, was dismissed but quickly rehired after the news media reported her firing. After a grievance hearing, the matter concluded with the state Attorney General's Office giving her a letter that said she was not required to take any violent action.

Kearney-Brown called the loyalty oath "meaningless."

"It's not going to stop anyone who wants to overthrow the government," she said.

Jim Lindburg, legislative director of the Friends' Committee on Legislation of California, said the oath, which was put into the state constitution during the 1950s Red Scare over communism, is a relic that has no purpose in today's society.

"The people bearing the brunt of it are Jehovah's Witnesses and Quakers," Lindburg said. "They're the ones being excluded from state government. It seems so senseless in modern times."

A bill that would have allowed employees who have moral, ethical or religious beliefs that conflict with the oath to instead affirm a statement that they will uphold the state and federal constitutions and all other California law was vetoed in 2009 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor said the exemption was unnecessary because existing law accommodated those workers.

upi.com/7056693

South Korean scientists find way to extract carbon emissions from exhaust gas

South Korean scientists say they have developed a device that can convert carbon dioxide into solid materials. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 23 (UPI) -- South Korean researchers say they have developed technology that can draw out carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and convert the climate-warming gas into calcium carbonate, which then can be adapted for different uses.

Koh Dong-yeun and his team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, KAIST, said they have developed a device to convert carbon dioxide into solid materials, which can be used to make cement and other materials, Aju Daily and Yonhap reported Monday.

The statement from KAIST comes two months after Koh and his team published their findings to the online site of ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, a peer-reviewed journal.

"The technology helps power plants, steel mills and cement makers, which emit a lot of greenhouse gas, to increase their competitiveness by reducing emission and recycling resources," Koh said, according to Aju Daily.

The scientists said an ultrapermeable membrane is the foundation of a "hollow fiber module" at the core of the technology, which can be used on factory chimneys.

"We show that a hollow fiber module based on an ultrapermeable membrane synthesized with the polymers of intrinsic microporosity [PIM-1] has the potential to directly utilize [carbon dioxide] from the flue [exhaust] gas stack via a continuous solid carbonation reaction," the South Korean team said.

Only carbon dioxide can cross the module's membrane. Once on the other side, carbon dioxide reacts with alkali metal ions to form calcium carbonates, the scientists said, according to Yonhap.

The team at KAIST also said the hollow fiber module is 20 times smaller than conventional devices, according to Aju Daily.

Carbon dioxide in emissions is a major contributor to greenhouse gases. This weekend, the Arctic Circle was an average 12 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, according to the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer, CBS News reported Monday.

Can Masturbating Really Boost Your Immune System?
MIREL ZAMAN
LAST UPDATED 23 NOVEMBER 2020


PHOTOGRAPHED BY KAREN SOFIA COLON.

Tiger King. Banana bread. Zoom calls we actually enjoyed. The early days of the pandemic feel like 100 years ago. Do you remember all the masturbation jokes? My favourite was this viral tweet: "Your quarantine number is the number of times you’ve masturbated minus the number of times you’ve cried." The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in New York even tweeted, "Masturbation will not spread COVID-19." For one weird second, there was even a rumour that masturbating could boost your immune system.

Most of the masturbation talk was us just fooling around (with ourselves) because we were stuck inside, bored, and blissfully unaware of the horrors that were yet to come. But the "masturbating might boost your immune system!" truthers were actually serious. They were basing their declarations on a study that came out back in 2004 (remember her?). A group of researchers from Germany asked 11 men to "masturbate until orgasm," then drew their blood to measure their levels of natural killer T cells (a marker of immunity) five and 45 minutes post-O. The results? Levels were higher after the men had masturbated. "These findings demonstrate that components of the innate immune system are activated by sexual arousal and orgasm," the researchers concluded.

Too bad 2020 kept getting more and more depressing, and we all lost our libidos, right? But don't worry — there's no evidence that masturbating more would have actually helped any. First: That study was in literally 11 people (11 men, at that), a number so small as to be meaningless. Even if a larger study confirmed that masturbating increases natural killer T cell levels, that alone doesn't say much. "There hasn’t been a study with specific findings that masturbation boosts the immune system in a way that helps fight off infection," Erica Smith, a sexuality educator, points out.

"However, don’t be deterred!" Smith quickly adds. She says there are more than enough other reasons to masturbate, then lists seven: stress relief, endorphin release⁣, menstrual cramp relief, increased connection to and knowledge of one’s own body⁣, greater sexual self esteem, better sleep, and pleasure — oh yeah, that.

Now, if you're really invested in the idea that you could masturbate away colds, you might have stumbled across this study in the journal Psychological Reports, which showed that people who had sex one to three times a week had higher levels of an antibody (IgA, which plays a crucial role in the immune system) than those who had more or less frequent coitus.

But the partner might be key to the immune benefits, not the orgasm. "Sexually active people may be exposed to many more infectious agents than sexually non-active people," said Clifford Lowell, an immunologist at the University of California at San Francisco who was not involved in the study, according to Eurekalert. "The immune system would respond to these foreign antigens by producing and releasing more IgA."

Interestingly, when asked why people who have sex more often than one to three times per week had lower IgA levels, one of the study authors speculated that they "may be in obsessive or poor relationships that are causing them a lot of anxiety," which in turn suppresses IgA levels. Kind of judgmental, no?

All told, I certainly hope no one stops masturbating just because it's probably not a replacement for vitamin C and zinc. It really is so enjoyable, and healthy, in many ways. Plus, as that NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene tweet pointed out, masturbation doesn't carry the same risk of spreading COVID-19 that sex does, since it's a social distancing-friendly activity. Smith says it best: "You may not be able to 'beat' a virus this way — pun intended — but you sure won’t be hurting anyone if you try.⁣"

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Back on track: UK vinyl sales heading for best year in three decades


Mark Sweney Media business correspondent
Sat, 21 November 2020, 

Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

UK sales of vinyl records are set to reach a three-decade high as fans unable to attend live music events during the pandemic channel their spare cash into building up their record collections.

Vinyl sales are up almost 10% this year, well on track to break the £100m mark by the end of 2020, making for the best year since 1990 when Sinead O’Connor and New Kids on the Block topped the charts. Sales by volume are also set to beat last year’s 4.3m.

It marks a remarkable bounce back given the market for physical music, from vinyl and CDs to cassettes and DVDs, plunged by almost half in April as the first lockdown shut high streets across the nation.

Related: UK music industry will halve in size due to Covid, says report

“We have seen 250% growth from the bottom of lockdown to where we are now,” said Drew Hill, managing director of Proper Music, the UK’s biggest independent distributor of vinyl and CDs. “I thought it could be catastrophic for the industry but during lockdown the kind of people buying records also probably went to a lot of gigs. They can’t do that so it seems fans are spending the money they used to on going to gigs each month on records.” Last week, Kylie Minogue wound back the years as Disco topped the vinyl album chart.

The pandemic has also fuelled the ongoing revival of cassettes, with sales up 85% so far this year, putting total sales on course to top £1m for the first time since renewed interest wound back the years for the format.

However, the picture is much less rosy for CDs, already facing inexorable decline at the hands of the streaming revolution, with sales down 30% in the year to date, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). If that trend continues in the final weeks of this year CD sales will reach about £150m, the worst year since 1987.

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis is the top-selling vinyl album of 2020 so far Photograph: CBW/Alamy

“It’s an extraordinary turnaround,” said Kim Bayley, the chief executive of the ERA. “Thirty years ago the compact disc was the aficionados’ format as people pursued the dream of ‘perfect sound’. But with the mass market turning increasingly to streaming, vinyl and even cassette have become the aficionados’ formats of choice.”

Proper Music’s Hill said that despite the decline in the popularity of the CD the pandemic would not spell the death of the format. Revenues at his business, which ships 8m CDs and vinyl records annually, will climb a third this year to £33m.

“From the beginning of lockdown to now, CDs have actually made a remarkable recovery,” says Hill, who points out that weekly sales have tripled since the nadir in April. “I don’t know if I’d say it looked like the death of the CD in April, but sales have made a remarkable recovery from the levels we saw then. If the CD was in [terminal] freefall [because of the pandemic] I wouldn’t have expected to see that sort of bounce back.”

The ERA says that the high street shutdown means that this year will mark the first time that more than half of the total sales of physical music products will be online – with Amazon reaping the lion’s share – but HMV and independent retailers have also benefited.

Natasha Youngs, co-owner of Brighton-based record store Resident, said that owners have worked hard to shift sales online but it has proven difficult given vinyl fans’ love of the in-store browsing experience.

“We’ve had to adapt our business to provide our customers with as close to a normal service as possible and customers have really responded,” said Youngs. “As a result our online sales are considerably up year on year. But this in no way compensates for the sales we have lost over the counter. We can’t provide the face-to-face service that we pride ourselves on – it is missing a vital element of what a record shop is all about.”
Top-selling vinyl albums of 2020 so far

1. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? – Oasis (Sony Music)

2. Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (Warner Music)

3. Back to Black – Amy Winehouse (Universal Music)

4. Nevermind – Nirvana (Universal Music)

5. Ultra Mono – Idles (Partisan)

6. Fine Line – Harry Styles (Sony Music)

7. MTV Unplugged – Liam Gallagher (Warner Music)

8. Disco – Kylie Minogue (BMG)

9. Chromatica – Lady Gaga (Universal Music)

10. Greatest Hits – Queen (Universal Music)

Source: Entertainment Retailers Association

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 

UK responsible for more than a third of $427bn global tax avoidance each year, report finds


Ben Chapman
Fri, 20 November 2020


More than $160bn was facilitated by the UK and its territories and dependencies(Reuters)

The UK and its "spider's web" of overseas territories are responsible for more than a third of global tax avoidance each year, a study has found.

Abuse of the tax system by multinational firms and wealthy individuals deprived countries of $427bn (£321bn) for hospitals, nurses, schools and other public services last year, according to advocacy group the Tax Justice Network. Of that figure, more than $160bn was facilitated by the UK and its territories and dependencies.

As coronavirus claims hundreds of thousands of lives and causes governments across the globe to spend trillions of dollars to support their citizens, the research gives the clearest picture yet of the damage wrought by those who funnel profits into tax havens and stash wealth offshore.

TJN analysed the first detailed, international set of data reported by companies showing where they avoid tax.

It calculated that Europe lost the equivalent of one-eighth of its health budget to tax dodging last year.

While wealthy countries are responsible for 98 per cent of tax avoidance, less wealthy ones bear the brunt of the impact. Latin America and Africa lost the equivalent of a fifth and half of their respective health spending, TJN calculated.

Lower-income countries lose the equivalent of 5.8 per cent of the total tax revenue they typically collect a year whereas higher income countries on average lose 2.5 per cent.

The UK maintains its position at the top of the list of jurisdictions helping firms shift vast sums of money away from public investment and services.

The Cayman Islands – a British Overseas Territory of just 65,000 people – helped multinational companies and individuals avoid paying $70bn, or one dollar in every six that countries are deprived of each year.

The UK itself, which provides world-beating tax avoidance advice through City of London banks, trust lawyers and accountants is second on the list, responsible for $42bn of tax losses. Together, the UK and Cayman facilitate more than a quarter of the booming tax avoidance industry.

Since the 1950s, when the UK helped to create the world’s tax haven network, ministers have claimed that they have little control over territories like Cayman. However, the UK has power to veto laws and appoint key government officials, and is also responsible for the island’s defence and international relations.

The Netherlands is the third most damaging country for the global tax system, responsible for $36bn of losses annually. Luxembourg and the US make up the top five, responsible for £28bn and £24bn respectively. Jersey, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands make the top 20, alongside China, Singapore, Ireland and Hong Kong.

Globally, more than half of tax losses – $245bn – resulted from companies shifting $1.38 trillion of profits out of the countries where they were generated into jurisdictions where they pay little or no tax.

The rest was from individuals avoiding tax by holding $10 trillion of assets offshore. The amount held in secretive, low-tax countries is roughly equivalent to five years of the entire economic output of every person in the UK.

“A global tax system that loses over $427bn a year is not a broken system, it’s a system programmed to fail," said Alex Cobham, TJN's chief executive.

"Under pressure from corporate giants and tax haven powers like the Netherlands and the UK’s network, our governments have programmed the global tax system to prioritise the desires of the wealthiest corporations and individuals over the needs of everybody else.

"The pandemic has exposed the grave cost of turning tax policy into a tool for indulging tax abusers instead of for protecting people’s wellbeing.

“Now more than ever we must reprogramme our global tax system to prioritise people’s health and livelihoods over the desires of those bent on not paying tax."

TJN is calling on governments to introduce an excess profits tax to recoup money from multinationals that have "short-changed" countries for years.

Those companies that have seen their profits soar while local businesses have been forced to shutdown should be targeted first, TJN said.

"A wealth tax alongside this would ensure that those with the broadest shoulders contribute as they should at this critical time,” Mr Cobham said.

Rosa Pavanelli, general secretary at Public Services International, said: “The reason frontline health workers face missing PPE and brutal under-staffing is because our governments spent decades pursuing austerity and privatisation while enabling corporate tax abuse.

"For many workers, seeing these same politicians now 'clapping’ for them is an insult. Growing public anger must be channelled into real action: making corporations and the mega rich finally pay their fair share to build back better public services."

Read More

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Dutch police question researcher who 'guessed Trump's Twitter password'

James Cook
Fri, 20 November 2020

A security researcher claims to have been able to access the president's Twitter account last month - AFP

Dutch police have reportedly questioned a security researcher who claimed that he had been able to access the Twitter account of Donald Trump.

Victor Gevers has claimed that he was able to access the president’s account simply by guessing his password. Twitter has said it has no evidence that the hack took place and Mr Gevers is yet to provide convincing evidence for his claims.

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service said this week that it is “currently investigating whether something criminal has happened,” Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant reported.

A spokesman for the prosecution service described the inquiries as an “independent Dutch investigation” which was not prompted by any legal request from the US government.

Mr Gevers is not considered a suspect, the newspaper reported.

The security researcher has further information about the claimed hack but has not yet handed it to police. “Police asked me if I was willing to show it and I said no. Only if there is an indication of wrongdoing will the archived material be unlocked,” he told BBC News.

Mr Gevers has denied any wrongdoing. “I did not 'hack' Trump's account, I did not bypass any security system as there was no adequate security in place. I just guessed the password and then tried to warn his team about the risks and how to solve them,” he told BBC News.

Mr Trump’s Twitter account is subject to extra protections designed to stop hackers being able to gain access.

However, the security researcher claimed that Mr Trump’s account did not use strong two factor authentication requiring a smartphone to verify a login attempt and posted screenshots which appeared to show him accessing the president’s Twitter account.

Mr Gevers claimed that he made repeated attempts to contact the US government to warn them of what he says were security issues with the president’s account, which has 89 million followers.

A Twitter spokesman previously said: “We've seen no evidence to corroborate this claim. We proactively implemented account security measures for a designated group of high-profile, election-related Twitter accounts in the United States, including federal branches of government."

Your pillowcase has more bacteria than your toilet seat if you don't wash your sheets often

Gina Echevarria and Benji Jones

Each night, your body sheds around 15 million skin cells, which build up if you don't wash your sheets often. You're essentially providing food for thousands of dust mites.

This is bad news for the some 20 million Americans who are allergic to proteins produced by dust mites and their feces.

If you never wash your sheets, fungi and bacteria build up, too. In fact, one study found that your pillowcase has more bacteria than your toilet seat.

Experts recommend washing your sheets once a week with the hottest water possible.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: No one likes making their bed, let alone washing their sheets. Especially single men. In one survey, 55% of single men between 18 and 25 reported changing their sheets only four times a year. And to be clear, those are beds that you would not want to sleep in.

You shed about 15 million skin cells each night, but they don't just pile up in your sheets. Because something else is already there waiting to gobble them up: dust mites. And the longer you wait between washes, the more food these critters will have and the more they'll procreate and multiply. So if you don't wash your sheets, you'll be sleeping with hundreds of thousands of arachnids.

Now, for the estimated 20 million Americans with dust allergies, it gets worse. Dust mites and their feces produce proteins that cause red and itchy eyes, runny noses, and other cold-like symptoms in people who are allergic. And dust mites, well, they're actually not the only allergen in a dirty bed. If you never wash your pillow sheets, a community of fungus can also build up there. One study found that a typical pillow has as many as 16 different species of fungus and literally millions of fungal spores. And the most common among them, Aspergillus fumigatus, is potentially dangerous. In addition to allergic reactions, it can infect your lungs and other organs.

And it's not just fungi joining the party. You see, bacteria also love a good unwashed pillow case or sheet a lot. Another study found that unwashed pillow cases and sheets had up to 39 times more bacteria than pet-food bowls and several thousand times more bacteria than a toilet seat. Like Staphylococcus aureus, which in some rare cases can be deadly.

Now on a slightly less or perhaps more frightening note, dirty sheets can also give you acne. Each night, the oil, lotion, and other cosmetics on your skin transfer to your sheets and build up over time until eventually your bedding is basically a giant used makeup wipe. Then during the following nights, all that gunk transfers back onto your body, clogging your pores, and, voila, you've got acne.

Fortunately, there's a simple way to avoid all of these problems: Wash your sheets, and wash them often. Experts recommend about once a week using the hottest water possible. That'll kill a lot of bacteria and dust mites, get out stains, and remove oils.

Plus, as awful as making your bed might be, there's simply nothing better than slipping between clean, crisp sheets.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in May 2019.

THAILAND 

Hands off, warns protest group
Police told not to interfere in major rally

PUBLISHED : 22 NOV 2020
NEWSPAPER SECTION: NEWS
WRITER: POST REPORTERS

Pointing the way: Student protester volunteers manage traffic 

at a busy 'Bad Student' rally on Rama I road in front of Siam Paragon on Saturday.

The Ratsadon group has threatened to escalate its activities if its members are dispersed by authorities on Wednesday, when they plan to march to the Crown Property Bureau in Bangkok.

Panupong Sritananuwat from the anti-government Dao Din group, an affiliate of the Ratsadon group, said at a rally in Khon Kaen on Saturday that the group disagreed with parliament's rejection of a charter amendment bill submitted by the Internet Dialogue on Law Reform, better known as iLaw.

The bill, dubbed "the people's constitution", has the backing of the anti-government protesters and almost 100,000 people who signed up to support it.

Mr Panupong said Dao Din would carry on educating the public about iLaw's charter draft and confirmed the group would take part in Wednesday's major anti-government demonstration in Bangkok.


Rally charges
Protesters threatened
Police willing to use lese majeste law against protesters

He denounced the government's use of force to crack down on the Nov 17 demonstration in front of parliament and vowed to intensify Dao Din's activities, especially in Khon Kaen province.

The group's rally on Saturday ended quickly and peacefully amid tight security by officers from the Khon Kaen provincial police.

The Khon Kaen branch of Ratsadon also gathered at Ratchadanusorn Park in Muang district and vowed to continue to protest until Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha resigned and the charter was amended.

Protest leader Parit "Penguin" Chiwarak posted a Facebook message on Saturday urging demonstrators to gather on Aksa Road in Bangkok today at 4pm.


Costume drama: Protesters wearing dinosaur costumes line up at a Bad Student rally at Siam BTS station on Saturday. In keeping with the "Bye bye dinosaurs" theme, participants dressed in dinosaur costumes were pelted by inflatable meteorites launched at them from the crowd.

Meanwhile, young "Bad Student" activists gathered on Saturday beneath the Siam BTS skytrain station, a day after it was revealed that two of their teenage leaders were facing charges for taking part in pro-democracy protests.

The theme of the event was "#Bye bye dinosaurs" (old-guard politicians) and in keeping with that, some protesters dressed in dinosaur costumes and were pelted by inflatable meteorites launched at them from the crowd.

Deputy police spokesman Pol Col Kissana Phathanacharoen said the Bad Student group was given permission to demonstrate, but strictly prohibited from moving to other locations.

Police would also not tolerate protesters using signs with words that caused hatred and division in society, he said.

Legislators flee parliament as rival protesters clash

UPDATED: 18 NOV 2020 
WRITER: ONLINE REPORTERS

Legislators leaving the parliament board a Marine Department boat at Kiak Kai pier. 

(Capture from TV)

Legislators began leaving the parliament by boats as government supporters and pro-democracy demonstrators clashed at nearby Kiak Kai intersection in Bangkok on Tuesday evening.

Members of the two groups threw things at each other at the second barricade at Kiak Kai intersection. Riot police had not intervened, the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights Centre tweeted.

Protesters were held back by thousands of police standing behind barricades, who used tear-gas water cannons .

MPs, senators and parliament officials began leaving the parliament on boats arranged by the Marine Department, from Kiak Kai pier on the Chao Phraya river, around 4.40pm.

Matichon reported they left parliament by boats to avoid confrontation with demonstrators

Legislators left from the pier behind the parliament building.

Among those who left were MPs from both camps. They included Pol Lt Gen Viroj Pao-in and Karun Hosakul of the opposition Pheu Thai Party, and Chada Thaiset of the coalition Bhumjaithai Party.

Khaosod Online reported that police deployed more water cannon at the main gate on Sam Saen Road around 4.30pm. There were a total of four water cannons. Police kept firing the tear-gas solution at demonstrators to prevent from moving closer to parliament.

Around 5.05pm, police moved water trucks back from the confrontation at Kiak Kai intersection. Demonstrators managed to remove barricades and barbed wire and occupy areas at the intersection.

Police later moved back to Soi Wat Kaewfa. About this time, a clash erupted between anti-government demonstrators and yellow-clad people.

The BMA's Erawan centre reported that nine demonstrators were injured and were being treated at Vajira Hospital.

The new parliament complex backs on to the Chao Phraya river. (Photo: Bangkok Post)