New Study Suggests Atlantic Ocean Circulation System Could Collapse

By VOA News

February 24, 2021 

File - This satellite image made available by NOAA shows Hurricane Iota in the North Atlantic Ocean on Monday, Nov. 16, 2020, at 07:11 EST.

A study suggests a key environmental system that affects how water circulates in the Atlantic Ocean and effects the climate could be on the verge of collapse due to the rapid melting of glaciers and sea ice.

The study, published Tuesday in the scientific journal Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) used a global ocean model to study the effects of melting ice on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a large system of ocean currents that carry warm water from the tropics northward into the North Atlantic.  

The system includes the Gulf Stream, of the eastern U.S. coast, which carries warm tropical water north and helps moderate temperatures in much of Europe, considering its high latitude.  The current has been under intense scrutiny in recent years because cold, fresh water from melting Greenland glaciers has essentially been causing the current to slow down, though not stop completely.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen - who conducted the study – said their model indicates the AMOC could reach a “tipping point” or, crucial threshold, sooner than earlier predicted because of the speed at which glacial ice is melting.  

In an interview, one of the study’s authors, Johannes Lohmann, said it has been predicted, based on previous climate models, the AMOC could reach its tipping point when a certain level of freshwater flowed into the North Atlantic from ice melt in Greenland. He said those models were based on a very slow melting of ice.

Lohmann said, “In reality, increases in meltwater from Greenland are accelerating and cannot be considered slow.” He said that faster rate could mean the circulation system could be reached much sooner than earlier predictions.

Lohmann and other researchers say the study’s findings are not conclusive and more study is needed. But he said the possibility of a rapid AMOC collapse should be a warning to policymakers.

He said, “Due to the potentially increased risk of abrupt climate change in parts of the Earth system that we show in our research, it is important that policymakers keep pushing for ambitious short- and mid-term climate targets to slow down the pace of climate change, especially in vulnerable places like the Arctic.”

POSTMODERN IMPERIALISM

OPINION
Embarrassing no-shows at China’s summit are a sign Europe is charting a new course

Peter Hartcher

Political and international editor

THE AGE, BRISBANE TIMES

February 22, 2021 — 

Something went badly awry when China’s President Xi Jinping called together the leaders of 17 nations of central and eastern Europe this month. The event was the annual 17 + 1 summit – that’s 17 Europeans and one China. The one easily outweighs the 17 in its sheer economic bulk.

Not only is its economy seven times the size of all the European members put together, it also brings a sack of cash and promises of huge economic benefits each year. It’s Xi’s primary pathway for driving his colossal Belt and Road infrastructure juggernaut, also known as the “new silk road”, across Europe’s poor periphery and into its wealthy core.

Six European leaders snubbed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent summit.CREDIT:AP

The initiative “demonstrates that China has already become a fully fledged European power” said Emilian Kavalski, a professor of silk road studies at the University of Nottingham campus in Ningbo, China, in 2019.

And the Chinese Communist Party’s media has hailed the 17 + 1 as a “pioneering feat of great power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics”.

So what would you call the 17 + 1 minus six? An embarrassment, at the very least, when six of the European leaders stayed away from the latest summit.

It “looked decidedly like the 11 + 1,” said Politico’s Stuart Lau, “when half of the 12 EU national leaders invited to the club failed to show up to pay homage to Chinese President Xi Jinping. It’s a stinging diplomatic setback for Xi.” Even the lure of access to China’s coronavirus vaccines failed to impress. And they didn’t even have to make the effort of travelling to the summit – it was held on video link.

The central and eastern European leaders have felt increasingly let down by Beijing’s failure to deliver. And some of the promises that were delivered have failed to satisfy. A $US750 million ($953 million) loan to build a Belt and Road highway in tiny Montenegro is being blamed for the county’s national debt blowout to 80 per cent of GDP.

Its president, Milo Djukanovic, went to Beijing a few days before the summit to complain to a gathering of Chinese investors by quoting strategic aphorisms from ancient China’s Sun Tzu, according to The South China Morning Post: “If there is no skill in planning, it is difficult to achieve, and if there is no skill in planning, it will fail.”

Access to the Chinese market was another sore point for several. Polish President Andrzej Duda said his country was “dissatisfied” with the speed of China’s market opening to farm produce.

And while China is a formidable presence in Europe, the snub by the leaders of Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is just one of many indicators of a growing European wariness of Beijing.

A threshold moment was the European Commission’s 2019 formal designation of China as a “systemic rival”. Still, Europe was reluctant to abandon its collective dream of Chinese money as the source of its future prosperity.

European ambiguity was on display in March 2019, shortly after the designation of China as a “systemic rival”. Xi Jinping flew to Paris and, after a champagne toast with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, then-president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and French President Emmanuel Macron, he tested their seriousness.

Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Xi Jinping and Jean-Claude Junker 

had a telling exchange in 2019. CREDIT:AP

Did the Europeans really mean it, calling China a “systemic rival”, Xi wanted to know? As The Wall Street Journal reported it, first “Merkel demurred with a compliment for Mr Xi, saying the language showed Europe recognised China’s growing strength and influence”. Next, “Juncker cut the tension with a joke about the EU’s inability to agree on what China was”, said the Journal. But Macron was blunt. It’s true, the French President said. You are a rival. Within weeks, a French naval ship sailed through the Taiwan Straits in defiance of Xi’s wishes.

Since then, Europe has become more like Macron, less like Merkel. The pandemic, and China’s conduct, hardened mounting suspicion of Beijing. The percentage of people saying they had “no trust in Xi Jinping to do the right thing in world affairs” across six European nations grew by between 9 per cent and 21 per cent in a Pew poll published last October. The total with no trust in Xi now stood at 70 per cent in the Netherlands, 78 in Germany and 80 in France. “If 2019 was the year when Europeans began having serious doubts about Beijing’s geopolitical intentions, 2020 may go down in history as the moment they turned against China in defiance,” wrote Andreas Kluth, former editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global.

“Because China, by trying to capitalise on the pandemic with a stunningly unsophisticated propaganda campaign, inadvertently showed Europeans its cynicism,” he wrote for Bloomberg. For example, in France when the Chinese embassy published a wild accusation that French retirement homes leave old people to die. Or in Italy when Chinese sockpuppets insinuated that the virus had originated in Europe. Or in Germany when Chinese diplomats urged government officials to heap public praise on China.

Under its new, tougher stance, the EU is shutting China out of its signature new research initiative, Horizon Europe, which aims to lift EU science spending by 50 per cent to some 100 billion euros ($153 billion) between now and 2027.

The EU aims to exclude nations that don’t share “EU values”, according to Maria Cristina Russo, director for international co-operation in research and innovation at the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU. Similarly, the commission is drawing up guidelines to limit foreign interference in universities and research institutes. Governments increasingly are challenging China’s Huawei, too.

But what about the big news event of just a couple of months ago, when the EU signed its long-awaited Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with China? That agreement is yet to be ratified by the European Parliament, and it’s meeting resistance. Some members are critical of China’s conduct in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Reinhard Bütikofer, chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, said that “even the most fundamental research cannot just ignore geopolitical implications because co-operation and interdependence can be weaponised and is being weaponised as we speak”.

And across the channel, a former part of the EU, Britain, too is hardening its stance against the Chinese Communist Party’s policies. Public opinion is again leading the way. A new poll by the British Foreign Policy Group finds that 79 per cent of people named China a potential security threat, just behind Russia. London is now banning Huawei and demanding UN inspectors be given access to China’s Xinjiang province.

Europeans increasingly are turning away from Xi and his Belt and Road to find their own way.

‘We stand together’: ethnic Chinese rally in Myanmar against coup

By Thompson Chau
February 25, 2021 

Yangon: The chorus of banging pots and pans begins in Chinatown at about 8pm.

The district in Myanmar’s commercial city of Yangon is normally festooned with bright red lanterns to celebrate Chinese New Year. But when the Year of the Ox arrived in mid-February, the usual festive atmosphere was gone - replaced by a tension in the air.


Demonstrators display a picture of Chinese president Xi Jinping, with a message requesting not to support military coup during a protest against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar  .CREDIT:AP

Here, and across the country, swelling ranks of young ethnic Chinese protesters are joining mass rallies against the junta that abruptly deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government. Many are united by rumours that China is helping the regime install a repressive new internet system that will severely restrict online freedoms behind a “Great Firewall”.

Eager to show opposition to Beijing meddling, they gather outside the embassy, some displaying posters reading “Myanmar-born Chinese oppose the military coup”.

“They want to show all Myanmar people we stand together,” said Yang Chung-ching who was in the crowd at a recent demonstration. “It’s not just here, but everywhere. Ethnic Chinese are actively taking part in these protests.”

Campaigners of all backgrounds are concerned that China is secretly supporting army chief General Min Aung Hlaing’s military coup.

A man carrying a flag of the National League for Democracy party flashes the three-fingered salute during the funeral of Tin Htut Hein in Yangon, Myanmar on Wednesday. CREDIT:AP

Their fears were not allayed when China failed to condemn the coup at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

The Chinese government, which wants to avoid instability that will disrupt its own economic ambitions, has denied reports of political support or assistance to build Myanmar’s own version of their internet.

The timing is ominous, as Myanmar is drafting a new cyber security law. Even without the law the junta has experimented in recent weeks with intermittent internet blackouts designed to disrupt dissent.

In rare comments last week, Chen Hai, China’s ambassador to Myanmar, denied reports that cargo planes had sent teams of Chinese Communist Party web technicians to install internet controls, and said the current political situation was “absolutely not what China wants to see”.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with then-Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi n 2019 in Beijing.  CREDIT:AP

But the daily rallies outside the Chinese embassy in Yangon continue, with people carrying banners demanding that it “stop interfering with our affairs of state”.

At one recent demonstration Sai Aung Htun, a 24-year-old ethnic Chinese lawyer in Mandalay, expressed his concerns about the draft cyber security law.

“I am quite worried because if that law is adopted, we won’t be able to say what we want to say online. Every single day since the coup I have been worried if the progress Myanmar gained in the last ten years would be rolled back day by day.”

RELATED ARTICLE

Myanmar coup
Myanmar generals built a digital firewall with guns and wire cutters

The history of the ethnic Chinese in Myanmar is complex. Much of the older generation remain scarred by the deadly anti-Chinese riots in 1967 that marked a dark chapter in Beijing’s complex relationship with Myanmar.

Dozens of Chinese were killed and their businesses looted by Myanmar’s Bamar majority when unrest was triggered by economic insecurity and fears that the minority was promoting China’s cultural revolution ideology.

Economic and ideological divides, as well as ethnic conflicts in border regions, have since fanned tensions with Myanmar’s 1.7 million-strong Chinese minority, which makes up about three per cent of the population.

In recent years, controversial Chinese-backed investment projects linked to an ambitious infrastructure plan coined the “China-Myanmar Economic Corridor” have created new flashpoints of resentment.

Recent Chinese efforts to revive the deeply unpopular Myitsone hydropower project have been particularly unwelcome.


Play video 1:10
Elephant-riders join Myanmar coup protests
People were spotted riding elephants at an anti-coup protest in the Myanmar village of Ongyaw.

Say Nay Nay Win, 22, has lived in Myanmar all his life. Like millions of ethnic Chinese born and raised there, his ancestors moved to the north of the country from neighbouring Yunnan province more than half a century ago.

But he said that has not stopped people from questioning his loyalties in the wake of the coup.

The suspicions have helped galvanise his own protest activities in the city of Lashio.

After seeing negative social media posts about his community, he revived his Burmese Chinese Youth Association, which has since helped organise mass rallies.

“People confuse anti-Chinese Communist Party feeling with anti-Chinese feeling. But because everyone can see ethnic Chinese standing up and protesting, they are slowly getting clearer,” he said.

An annual survey in early February by the ISEAS-Yushof Ishak Institute in Singapore revealed that 64 per cent of Myanmar respondents were worried about China’s economic influence and 47 per cent about its political clout.

“The Myanmar public, or particularly the Myanmar nationalist public, never liked China,” said Enze Han, of the University of Hong Kong.

He said that the coup was a new headache for Beijing, which had invested heavily in warming ties with the now overturned National League for Democracy government - a more predictable partner than the secretive ranks of the junta.

Telegraph, London

Human Rights Organizations Call for Arms Embargo on Myanmar

Security forces in Myanmar have cracked down on peaceful protesters, activists, journalists, students, and minority groups.

 

Protesters take part in a demonstration against the military coup in front of the Indonesian embassy in Yangon. Photo: Sai Aung Main/AFP

 BIDISHA DAS FEBRUARY 24, 2021

In an open letter to the United Nations Security Council, 137 human rights organizations from over 30 countries demanded the council immediately impose an international arms embargo on Myanmar where the military seized power in a coup on February 1.

The groups denounced the “excessive and at times lethal force” employed by the military during ongoing civil rights violations to quell massive but peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations. Security forces have cracked down on peaceful protesters, activists, journalists, students, and minority groups.

A global arms embargo on the Myanmar military would:
1. Deprive the junta of its tools of repression.
2. Show the people of Myanmar that the world stands behind their quest for democracy.

Beijing says it stands with the people. Will it endorse an embargo? https://t.co/zictWMS0m7 pic.twitter.com/skpCs9Z654
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) February 24, 2021

At least three protesters have been killed with many injured in clashes. Roughly 700 people have been arrested so far, including elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Our concerns are heightened by ongoing violations of human rights and the security forces’ history of grave abuses against peaceful critics of military rule,” the letter said, pleading with the Security Council to take action against the human rights abuses taking place in Myanmar.
Demands Made by the Groups

Presently, governments including China, India, Israel, North Korea, Russia, and Ukraine permit arms transfers to Myanmar. The human rights organizations immediately want to stop the supply or transfer of any weapons, munitions, or other military-related equipment.

The arms embargo must also include “dual-use goods such as vehicles and communications and surveillance equipment, as well as the provision of training, intelligence, and other military assistance.” Such an embargo must also be supplemented by robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, the letter said.

For decades, the Security Council’s lukewarm response to violence in Myanmar has emboldened the military to continue their outright disregard of civil rights — an approach that has culminated in the current crisis and therefore needs to change, the letter said.

Support from UN Leaders

The call to action reinforces UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s pledge to “mobilize all the key actors and international community to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails.”

UN special rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews has also criticized the violence saying, “Day after day now, the people of Myanmar, and people around the world, have watched with horror at the photos and videos of brutality emerging from the streets of Myanmar.” Along with the deputy high commissioner for human rights, Andrews has voiced support for targeted UN sanctions against military leaders.

Citizens are hoping for increased international support. “We are happy the UN issues statements of condemnation, but we understand they are powerful and can do more,” Thurein, a 21-year-old student, told Frontier Myanmar.

Earlier this month, the Security Council had already demanded the release of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others detained by the military but stopped short of criticizing the coup d’état.

Understanding Myanmar’s Anti-Democratic Patron–Client Network – Analysis
February 24, 2021 East Asia Forum
By Mikael Gravers*

Despite massive popular support, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi faced forces too difficult to manage. These need to be understood in the aftermath of the military coup. A State Administrative Council of 11 — including Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) Aung Min Hlaing — now possesses full power over the state. Aung San Suu Kyi is facing a long trial, the NLD is being dismantled, the election commission dismissed, and her National Reconciliation and Peace Centre dissolved.

In November 2020, the ultra-nationalist monk Wirathu turned himself in and is now in Insein Prison waiting for his case of sedition to begin. Recent events may have raised his prospects for release. He went into hiding after accusing Aung San Suu Kyi of being unable to govern Myanmar, stating that the country is doomed because she ‘only knows how to put on makeup, wear fashion and walk in high heels’, as well as other lewd remarks about her.

The monk went into hiding in Karen State in a house belonging to the Border Guard Force. He appeared in a photo with three armed soldiers and a gun placed on a table in front of him. Wirathu is the most outspoken member of the Tatmadaw-supported Association for the Protection of Race and Religion (Ma Ba Tha) — a Buddhist nationalist, anti-Muslim group.

During election campaigns in 2015 and 2020, Ma Ba Tha urged voters to support nationalist parties such as the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in order to resist ‘foreign invasion’ and ‘loss of sovereignty’. But the USDP lost half of its elected seats in parliament in 2020. Xenophobia and fear of a ‘Muslim invasion’ has influenced Burmese politics and nationalist resistance to immigration from India since colonial rule.

Nationalist monks fear Muslim immigration will lead to Muslims ruling Myanmar in this century. They see immigration and intermarriage as a threat to race, nation and Buddhism. The Chairman of Ma Ba Tha, Tilawka Bhivamsa, claims Muslims aggressively convert Buddhists and do not respect Buddhist ethics — ‘we must fight them with Dhamma [the doctrine], not violence. Those who use violence do not understand Buddhism’.


After the Tatmadaw’s eviction of — and atrocities against — more than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya from Rakhine State, the International Criminal Court in The Hague accused Myanmar of genocide. Aung San Suu Kyi defended her country at the court and denied any intended genocide, stating that Myanmar does not tolerate human rights abuses and crimes are prosecuted in the country’s military justice system. She defended the sovereignty of her nation but did not exonerate the military, angering Aung Min Hlaing.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s failure to directly condemn the Rohingya expulsion and military atrocities provoked massive criticism from Western governments and media, with awards revoked and negative comments flourishing with little understanding of her precarious position.

For Aung San Suu Kyi, it would have been dangerous to confront the Tatmadaw directly. Aung Min Hlaing had demanded she convene the National Defence and Security Council during the Rohingya crisis and just before the coup. Encouraged by her popular support, she declined and denied the Tatmadaw-controlled council the chance to declare a constitutional state of emergency. Aung Min Hlaing lost his patience. He feared the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) control over the judicial system, border administration, economy, and peace process would increase and challenge the Tatmadaw’s power.

Recent developments in Karen State illustrate why the Tatmadaw felt compelled to end the NLD’s authority. A patron-client network of the Tatmadaw, Border Guard Force (BGF), Ma Ba Tha, cronies and foreign companies thrives in Karen State. They engage in a shadow economy backed by arms and disregard the rule of law, profiting from bribes, illegal trade and land confiscation.

A recent example is the casino town Shwe Kok Ko near Myawaddy on the border with Thailand. The town is managed by the BGF after they seized land from local villagers and signed a contract with a Chinese company connected to the criminal triad 14K. Illegal Chinese immigrants have now been deported and the Tatmadaw began investigating allegations of major bribes to officers. In early January 2021, this resulted in a demand for the BGF commander to retire.

Monks and armed groups have been involved in other cases of land grabbing for monastic buildings, plantations, a limestone quarry business involving a Chinese road company and the BGF, and a cable car project at the Zwe Kabin Mountain. At the same time, the Tatmadaw breaks ceasefire and conducts violent incursions into Karen National Union areas. This has displaced thousands of Karen and caused civilian casualties. Most recently the Tatmadaw prevented a non-governmental organisation access to deliver food to these displaced Karen.

The NLD was unable to control these powerful networks undermining peace negotiations, reforms to the justice system, the rule of law, and economic development. In an attempt to bring the area under parliamentary control, the NLD government appointed NLD chief state ministers to enhance central state control instead of holding local state elections.

Despite frustrations, voters — including Karen — supported the NLD as the main democratic force able to contest the Tatmadaw’s power. With the NLD threat taken care of, the Tatmadaw can now continue its violent conquest of ethnic areas.

*About the author: Mikael Gravers is Associate Professor Emeritus at the School of Culture and Society in the Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University.

Source: This article was published by East Asia Forum

Brisbane Woman Discovers Moth Size Of Human Hand With 10-Inch Wingspan

BY : SAMAN JAVED ON : 24 FEB 2021 

amateurentomologyaustralia/Facebook


A woman in Brisbane has discovered a gigantic moth the size of a human hand while out on a walk.

Pam Taylor shared pictures of the huge bug on Facebook after she spotted it perched on the side of a tree while walking through a woodland area yesterday, February 23.

While many users had first speculated about how rare the moth is, others commented it is a Giant Wood Moth, which is commonly found in coastal areas of Australia, especially Brisbane.

Amateur Entomology Australia/Facebook

In an update this morning, Taylor said she had gone back to check on the moth this morning following stormy weather last night. To her surprise, she found the moth had company. She shared pictures of not one but two huge bugs, which she said were mating.

‘I went to check on him this morning to see if he survived the storm last night …. he definitely kept himself busy!,’ she posted online.

‘How beautiful,’ another said, while another jokingly named it a ‘Behemoth’.

‘Wow that is EPIC,’ one insect enthusiast commented

.

Amateur Entomology Australia/Facebook


‘Wow, that’s awesome. Would love to see with wing spanned,’ another user said.

Giant Wood Moths have a wingspan of up to 10 inches and typically grow to 15cm in length. They are the heaviest moth in the world, weighing in at 30g. Like the moth Taylor discovered, they are typically grey in colour and spotted in some areas.

BAD NEWS FOR MY PILLOW GUY

Forensic Audit of Dominion Voting Machines in Arizona Shows ‘No Evidence of Vote Switching’

JERRY LAMBE  Feb 24th, 2021, 




An independent forensic audit of the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Maricopa County, Arizona found that there was “no evidence of vote switching and concluded that the equipment tabulated and adjudicated ballots accurately” in the 2020 presidential election, according to government reports produced Tuesday.

“The audits clearly dispel the notion that somehow the November election was rigged,” said County Supervisor Steve Gallardo. “Whether you liked the results or not, the will of the people was represented. Our equipment worked. Our people were above reproach. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 2020 elections in Maricopa County were safe, secure, and accurate. End of story.”

The Maricopa Board of Supervisors in January unanimously voted to conduct the audits in response to false conspiracy theories propagated by Donald Trump and other Republicans, who claimed that Dominion’s machines were used to steal votes from Trump so Joe Biden would win. The former president and his allies filed several post-election lawsuits challenging election results in Arizona, none of which have succeeded.

The audits of the tabulation equipment’s software and hardware were conducted by SLI Compliance and Pro V&V, the only two firms approved by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to perform such certification tests.

According to the reports, the firms utilized a four-step evaluation process to analyze the equipment for hacking vulnerabilities, verify that no malicious software was installed, ensure voting tabulators were not being manipulated over the internet, and confirm that no votes were switched.

The firms examined all nine of the county’s central tabulators, which are used for processing large quantities of ballots, all four workstations and two servers used to operate the county’s election management system. They also did random testing of 35 out of the 350 precinct-based tabulators, and four of 20 adjudication stations, which allow ballots with exceptions or outstack conditions such as over-votes, blank ballots, write-ins and marginal marks, to be resolved.




Both firms found no evidence of malicious software and no evidence the tabulators were connected to the internet. Pro V&V found no indication that any votes were switched.

“The work of these two qualified firms, combined with the work done by our Elections Department, confirms that 2.1 million ballots in the November election were counted as they were cast,” said County Supervisor Clint Hickman. “Our entire team put so much time and energy into running good elections in 2020. These audits are an affirmation of everyone’s hard work and prove what my colleagues and I have been saying all along: our elections were run with integrity and the results we canvassed were accurate.”

The Board also hired Berry Dunn, a Certified Public Accounting firm, to review county contracts with Dominion to verify that the county leased the equipment in accordance with state and county procurement regulations.

A summary of the report and the full report are available on the county’s website.

[image via ABC15 Arizona]

In ‘Huge Win,’ Federal Judge Says California Can Enforce Net Neutrality Law That the Trump Admin Opposed

JERRY LAMBE Feb 24th, 2021



Demonstrators rally outside the Federal Communication Commission building to protest against the end of net neutrality rules on December 14, 2017 in Washington, D.C.


A federal judge in California on Tuesday ruled that the state’s landmark net neutrality law can go into effect, handing a major defeat to the telecom industry which had backed overturning the regulation.

State lawmakers passed the legislation in 2018, but later that year the DOJ under then-President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit to block SB-822, the nation’s most stringent network neutrality bill which would prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from speeding up, slowing down, or otherwise altering internet access by throttling bandwidth or censoring content for end users. The Biden administration dropped Trump-era opposition to SB-822 earlier this month, as Law&Crime reported.

Ruling from the bench, U.S. District Judge John Mendez, an appointee of George W. Bush, rejected the telecom industry’s motion for preliminary injunction, reasoning that previous Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulatory changes and existing federal law did not prohibit California from enacting its own net neutrality regulations.

“I don’t find the plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits at this stage of the litigation,” Mendez said, according to a report from Courthouse News. “This is not the type of pervasive regulatory system that left no room for state law.”


According to a report from the Hollywood Reporter, the recent winter storm that caused havoc in Texas leaving millions without power for days appeared to play a significant role in Judge Mendez’s ruling, as the Lone Star state had spent decades deregulating the industry hoping that increased competition would result in lower prices for consumers.

“Let’s say SB-822 is enjoined,” the judge reportedly said to one of the attorneys representing the telecom industry. “And [thanks to the recent repeal of federal net neutrality rules], there is no power by the FCC to regulate your clients. Why shouldn’t a court be concerned if there is no regulation over ISPs?”

Mendez added that Congress should be the branch of government responsible for giving broadband providers more certainty regarding how they can manipulate internet access, not the judiciary.

Mendez also apologized to both parties for not issuing a written opinion, saying the bench ruling was necessary due to the continued lack of resources in the Eastern District of California court system.

SB 822 is the strongest net neutrality law in the nation. We worked incredibly hard to pass this law, overcoming massive corporate opposition. California can now fully protect an open internet.
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) February 24, 2021

California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said Tuesday’s ruling was “a huge victory for open access to the internet, our democracy and our economy.”

“The internet is at the heart of modern life. We all should be able to decide for ourselves where we go on the internet and how we access information,” said Wiener, who also noted on Twitter that he authored the net neutrality law. “We cannot allow big corporations to make those decisions for us.”

Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.

[Image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

Have a tip we should know? tips@lawandcrime.com

What You Need to Know About the Obscure Occult Group Linked to Toronto Murder

The Order of Nine Angles has been linked to crimes across the globe, including a recent murder. Experts say the group has few followers, but an outsized violent reach.

By Mack Lamoureux
TORONTO, CA
28.9.20

VON NEUTEGEM, LEFT, A SCREENSHOT OF THE ONA MONOLITH 

HE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA. PHOTOS VIA SCREENSHOTS.

On September 12, 58-year-old Mohamed-Aslim Zafis was sitting outside of a mosque in Etobicoke, part of greater Toronto, making sure that everyone who entered was wearing a mask. A little after 8:30 p.m., a man walked up to him and stabbed him in the neck. Zafis died in front of the mosque.

Police eventually arrested and charged 34-year-old Guilherme (William) Von Neutegem with the murder, and said he had no connection to Zafis. They also said there was a possibility that Von Neutegem was connected to another murder, that of Rampreet Singh, another person of colour who was stabbed to death on September 7 as he slept under an Etobicoke bridge.

“There does not appear to be any motive" in the killing, police said. Yet, as first reported by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network which monitors Canadian hate groups, it appears that Von Neutegem may have been associated with, or at least had an affinity for the teachings of, the Order of Nine Angles (ONA), an occultist fascist group that has deep ties to neo-Nazism.

Joshua Fisher Birch, a research analyst with the U.S. based Counter Extremism Project, described the group as a “secretive satanic, fascist cult that believes in the use of extreme violence, rape, pedophilia, murder, and terrorism to bring about chaos and the downfall of the modern order.“

Despite being relatively unknown, ONA has been tied to several violent crimes, child porn cases, sexual abuse against minors, and terrorism. In July, Pvt. Ethan Melzer, a 22-year-old U.S. Army soldier found to be an ONA adherent, was charged with numerous terrorism-related crimes after allegedly sharing his troop’s movements with a neo-Nazi/ONA group and a person he believed to be in al Qaeda. The youngest person ever convicted of terrorism charges in the U.K. was found to be reading ONA material. The leader of the Yorkshire ONA cell was sentenced to four years in prison in 2017 for raping a 14-year-old girl.

Von Neutegem’s social media accounts paint a portrait of a person familiar with ONA and the occult. (A police source confirmed to the CBC that the accounts are connected to the accused, and all his social media pages link back to one other and are in both names police gave for him.) When asked by VICE if Toronto Police were aware of the CANH report and they were investigating Von Neutegem’s social media posts as a motive, a TPS spokesperson told VICE News they will “not be commenting.”



THE ONA VIDEO VON NEUTEGEM POSTED ON YOUTUBE. PHOTO VIA SCREENSHOT.

On Facebook, Von Neutegem’ followed several ONA groups’ pages. On Instagram, he posted an image that included a sonnenrad—a black sun—a symbol tied to neo-Nazism and the occult. On Twitter, he followed figures influential in the neo-Nazi world and several more prominent in the alt-right and far-right ecosystem.

It’s YouTube that holds the most significant evidence of Von Neutegem’s seeming affinity for ONA. One YouTube video posted seven months ago by Von Neutegem is entitled "Chant (ONA)." The minute-and-a-half-long video shows a busy altar with meticulously placed candles, pyramids, and other items featuring sigils or runic symbols, and a monolith with the ONA symbol as its centrepiece. A man incants a chant that Von Neutegem attributes in the video’s description to a musical artist who makes ONA music exclusively.

 
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Neo-Nazis Are Using Eco-Fascism to Recruit Young People
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“ONA is a very, very small organization, which is very extreme. It's not commonplace, even in terms of the far-right,” said Nick Lowles, the founder of U.K.-based anti-racism advocacy group Hope Not Hate, who has been researching the group for decades. ”So for someone to have ONA imagery, for someone to have a video where they're chanting ONA chants, would heavily suggest that this person is actively involved.“

If the attack was random, “that's definitely the M.O. of Order of Nine Angles," said Lowles, adding that random attacks are encouraged in ONA literature.

A person familiar with ONA and other esoteric occult teachings and rituals who requested to be anonymous because of a fear or reprisal told VICE News after viewing his social media profile, he seemed to “be on this stuff for years” and was “obviously heavily dabbling in the esoteric and left-handed path.”

For the majority of Canadians, Zafis’ death is the first time hearing about the order. The group was founded in the U.K. in the late 60s and is closely tied to neo-Nazi David Myatt, an influential figure in the far-right who over the years has produced several terror manifestos and been involved in groups such as Combat 18 and the National Socialist Movement, Lowles told VICE. One of the manifestos Myatt wrote was cited as a direct influence on David Copeland who targeted U.K. minorities with nail bombs, which killed three and injured over 100, in 1999. The group’s calendar begins in 1889, the year Hitler was born.

 

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The order has also been linked to accelerationist neo-Nazi groups Atomwaffen and The Base. John Cameron Denton, a leader of Atomwaffen Division, was a prominent ONA adherent and was charged with being involved with a swatting ring and was accused of (but not charged with) sharing child pornography. Earlier this month, a teen in the U.K. pleaded guilty to distributing bomb-making material and child porn online; police found ONA literature in his possession.

Those connected to ONA have produced a huge amount of literature explaining the order’s ideology and rituals. The group remained small and relatively unknown for years, but then the internet came around. Prominent ONA members made their work available online and its influence started to spread.

“The last five years or so has been their golden time, in a way,” said Lowles. “Here was an organization that, up to a few years ago, was deeply secretive, deeply hidden. It was very hard outside of that satanic world to come across them.”

ONA members worship dark gods of a previous age and want to manifest evil in the world through both actions and rituals, including chanting, which they believe will connect them to the supernatural. ONA literature tasks followers with physical tests like living in the woods for six months, infiltrating other groups like the military or extremist groups (“insight roles”), and creating a small cell, or “nexion.” The nexions are decentralized and have been found in several countries, including the U.K., the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, Italy, and France.

An adherent initiates themselves to ONA through their literature. The literature intends for followers to shuck any form of morality or empathy they have—the teenager who became the youngest ever convicted of terror charges in the U.K. had written “shed empathy” in his journal. Some texts promote human sacrifice and the “culling of the mundanes”—–killing humans the group has deemed unworthy of life.

Lowles said the group actively attempts to groom younger members.

The person familiar with the teachings told VICE that if Von Neutegem was an adherent it's possible he wasn't connected to other members. "One person can be a nexion," they said, and, for many, the journey through ONA is “a personal one” they do alone.

 

A BLACK SUN VON NEUTEGEM POSTED TO INSTAGRAM. PHOTO VIA SCREENSHOT.

Lowles said he considers the group to be one of the “most dangerous groups out there because it is so ideologically driven." Lowles and Hope Not Hate are pushing for the group to be banned in the U.K.

“ONA has been able to operate in the shadows for all this time, advocating terrorism, advocating violence, and advocating murder,” said Lowles. “Nothing has ever happened to them largely because they don't operate as a standard far-right group. The police seemingly haven't been able to infiltrate them and ideologically, they don't quite understand them.”

Evan Balgord, the executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network told VICE News that he's concerned Toronto police didn't make a connection between ONA and Von Neutegem.

The secretive nature of the group makes it difficult to estimate the number of adherents but due to its extreme nature and niche subject matter, it’s safe to say it’s small. Fisher Birch said this is one of the cases where the “the danger from the ideology is outsized,” and added if the man who murdered Zafis was indeed an ONA adherent, “it would follow a pattern.”

“Their reach is far bigger than their organizational size,” said Lowles. “You don't measure in terms of numbers you measure in terms of who they're influencing. They are influencing the most violent end of the international far-right.”

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https://www.vice.com/en/article/xg8bmj/the-order-of-nine-angles-the-obscure-occult-group-linked-to-toronto-murder-of-mohamed-aslim-zafis

Canadian Anti-Mask Protesters Marched With Tiki Torches This Weekend
A recent march in Edmonton, which saw anti-lockdown protestors march with tiki torches, shows that the influence of the far-right within the community should not be ignored.

By Mack Lamoureux
TORONTO, CA
22.2.21

A PHOTO SHOWING PROTESTERS CARRYING TIKI TORCHES IN EDMONTON SATURDAY. (PHOTO VIA MARTA PK FACEBOOK PAGE.)

A group of hundreds of anti-mask and lockdown protesters marched the streets of Edmonton this weekend, many with a tiki torch proudly clutched in their hand.

The march, dubbed a Freedom Walk by protesters, followed a rally at Edmonton’s legislature where speakers included conspiracy theorists and a man who has been charged with hate crimes against Muslims.

During the march through Edmonton, protesters chanted “no more fake news,” “no more fake science,” and “we are people.” Many of the marchers clutched tiki torches, which many observers linked to the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 of tiki-torch-wielding white nationalists. 

The decision for the marchers to hold tiki torches in the bright Albertan daylight was made after the media questioned promotional material for the event that featured images of the Charlottesville marchers.

“They knew what that symbol meant. Any claim they didn’t know ended when they continued to use the imagery even after it became obvious that it originated with the Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ torch march and discussed at length in the media,” Kurt Phillips, a board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, told VICE World News. “No one can convince me that this wasn’t an attempt to intimidate who they have characterized as their enemies: government and politicians, public health workers, ‘leftists,’ and others.”

Marie Renaud, an NDP MLA for St. Albert, Alberta, spoke out against the rally and has been lambasted with unsettling messages as a result. One Facebook message told her she will “hang for this plandemic,” warned her the mob is hoping to bring “back corporal punishment,” and advised her to “run while (she) still can.” Renaud told VICE World News this sort of messaging is not new, but thinks actions like this weekend have “gotten people emboldened.”

“I think there are about 50 (messages like that) at last count,” Renaud said. “It’s important to call it out, particularly what happened this weekend... There are people carrying tiki torches. That’s not a coincidence that they’re carrying them. They’re very symbolic.”

Organizers of the rally did not respond to several requests for comment.

It’s not just politicians the marchers are aggressive towards; video taken by journalists at the rally shows protesters being upset at the presence of reporters at the rally and acting aggressively towards them. One video by City News reporter Bailey Nitti shows protesters getting in the faces of cameramen and reporters and screaming “fake news” at them. Edmonton police said one of the organizers of the Freedom Walk was arrested for “causing a disturbance.”A

After the rally Sgt. Michael Elliott, the head of Edmonton Police Association, tweeted that “four members were assaulted at the event & we have had numerous members isolated either due to contracting/close contact.” Despite this—and the obvious references to an infamous whitesupremacist rally—Edmonton police characterized the tiki-torch rally as “peaceful” and respectful” in a tweet. Edmonton police did not respond to VICE’s request for comment.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network said that the speakers and organizers at the event were a relative “who’s who of the Albertan far-right.” It included Kevin Johnston, a man best known for being ordered to pay $2.5 million to a Toronto restaurateur after spreading Islamophobic conspiracies about him and being charged with a hate crime for targeting Muslims online; Peter Downing, a co-founder of the Wexit movement; Artur Pawlowski, a Calgary street preacher known for anti-LGBTQ diatribes; and Laura-Lynn Thompson, a conspiracy theorist who ran (and lost) for the People Party of Canada in the 2019 federal election and is currently the leader of the Christian Heritage Party of B.C..

Several anti-mask groups backed out of the event because of the organizers toxicity. Phillips, who followed the organization of the rally closely, said the attendees were a mixed bag, which included “biker wannabes spoiling for a fight,” “Qanon conspiracy believers,” anti-vaxxers, and various religious groups.

“The ties that bind all of these groups is, of course, the anti-lockdown motivation, however underlying that is an anti-government mentality that people like Trump contributed to since the pandemic began. Had he advocated for masks and a lockdown, I’m not sure this movement would be what it is today,” Phillips said.

Over the past few months, at least four Muslim women have been attacked in “hate-motivated” assaults in Edmonton. Renaud was emotional when speaking about seeing people with tiki torches march through the city.

“It’s really sad, actually,” she said. “I thought we had learned something. I thought we had learned how important it was to stand up against these things, to stand up against these symbols.”

Multiple public leaders have publicly denounced the rally. Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, tweeted, “Edmonton unequivocally condemns racism, misogyny, and other forms of hate.” NDP MLA Janis Irwin tweeted, “Torches, on a bright sunny day in Edmonton? Why? This is very much purposeful. And it’s disgusting.”

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has yet to condemn the march.

“The premier of Alberta needs to stand up and condemn this sort of behaviour. Condemn this white nationalism, condemn this hatred and racism and bigotry, and stand up and say this is wrong,” Renaud said.

A spokesperson for the United Conservative Party did not return a request for comment on the march.

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