Pro-Palestinian activists tank Facebook app ratings to protest alleged censorship

Apple is reportedly declining to intervene

J. Fingas@jonfingas
May 23rd, 2021
Katja Knupper/Die Fotowerft/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

People have used app ratings to object to company policies in the past, but an ongoing campaign may be doing significant damage. NBC News has learned that pro-Palestinian activists are succeeding in a campaign to trash Facebook's ratings in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store through "thousands" of one-star reviews. Many of the participants have accused Facebook of silencing Palestinians as they speak out about the recent escalation of violence with Israel.

The social network is taking the campaign very seriously, according to message board info NBC obtained. It's marked as a "severity 1" issue, or just below a full-fledged site outage. A senior Facebook engineer reportedly said that users felt they were "censored" and otherwise suppressed.

Notably, though, the store operators weren't necessarily intervening. A Facebook employee claimed that Apple declined to pull the one-star reviews. It's not clear how Google has responded.

We've asked Apple and Google for comment. Facebook rejected accusations of censorship in a statement to NBC, claiming that its policies provide "everyone a voice" and that it applied them irrespective of beliefs. Spokesperson Andy Stone pointed to a team that was "closely monitoring" the Israeli-Palestinian situation to both pull harmful content and correct enforcement mistakes.

This won't necessarily lead Facebook to change its approach. However, it's notable that the campaign is having an effect in the first place — and that app store hosts might be staying out of the fray. It wouldn't be surprising if more campaigns like this emerge in the future, even if they don't ultimately lead to company action.

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India reportedly orders social media platforms to remove references to ‘Indian variant’ of COVID-19

The scientific community discourages calling virus variants by place names

IT IS WHY THEY ARE GIVEN LETTERS AND NUMBERS

By Kim Lyons May 23, 2021
THE VERGE 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge


India’s government has sent notices to social media platforms ordering them to take down content that refers to an “Indian variant” of the COVID-19 virus, Reuters reported. The letter from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology sent Friday was not made public, but was viewed by several news outlets.

It was not clear which social media outlets received the letter, but India’s government has recently ordered Twitter to remove tweets and Facebook and Instagram to take down posts that were critical of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“There is no such variant of COVID-19 scientifically cited as such by the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO has not associated the term ‘Indian Variant’ with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in any of its reports,” the letter states, adding that the phrase is “completely FALSE.”


A variant of the coronavirus first detected in India last year, B.1.617 is believed responsible for the latest wave of COVID-19 cases in south Asia. The World Health Organization has classified it as a variant of global concern, with some evidence that it is more contagious than other strains of the virus.

But while India’s approach to censoring information about the coronavirus and variants is extreme, WHO and other health organizations and scientists are critical of the practice of referring to viruses and variants with geographic nicknames, since it can be stigmatizing and inaccurate. The WHO’s 2015 guidance for naming infectious diseases discourages using place names, human names, or animal species names.

However, as National Geographic notes in its very good explainer about how virus variants get their names, the current naming conventions are cumbersome and confusing, making them difficult for non-scientists to grasp or remember. National Geographic reports that WHO is working with virologists to create a new way of naming viruses.

UPDATED

FRACKING SAND

Scientists consider true costs of sand, call for sustainability effort

Researchers say that research is needed on the effects of the sand industry -- including sources such as this sand pit in Sunkoshi, near Kathmandu, Nepal -- on the environment, with an eye on sustainability. Photo by Bibek Raj Shrestha


May 21 (UPI) -- The authors of a new research paper want scientists and policy makers to start considering the sustainability implications of global sand use.

Though not as overtly destructive as oil or coal, sand, the authors argue, is a valuable finite resource -- the extraction of which can cause considerable environmental damage.

Sand may seem plentiful, but as a key ingredient in both concrete and glass, it's used for everything from building roads and bridges to windows and phone screens.

In the latest paper, published Friday in the journal One Earth, scientists argue that the global economy's seemingly insatiable appetite for sand is harming the environment, accelerating climate change and even fueling social conflict.

"With this paper, we look forward towards what we need to do as a society if we want to promote a sustainable consumption on global sand resources," lead study author Aurora Torres said in a press release.

"A drastic problem calls for drastic solutions -- truly doing this differently to put aside problems and create pathways to sustainability," said Torres, a researcher at Michigan State University's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability.

Though the aim of the paper was to shed light on the sustainability issues associated with sand use, researchers hope their work will ultimately inspire solutions.

To meet human development needs without overtaxing the planet's natural resources, scientists suggest significant policy reforms are necessary.

To provide an overview of the many environmental and socioeconomic problems caused by sand extraction, the paper's authors recruited the expertise of a variety different scientists.

"Collaborating across the research disciplines made it possible to fit the puzzle pieces into a full picture," researches said in the press release.

Rather than focusing on single extraction sites, which many previous studies have already done, the researchers looked at the "physical and socio-environmental dimensions of sand supply networks."

This allowed them to explore the links between sand extraction, processing, distribution, economics and policy to craft a deeper understanding of these networks' stresses on both nature and people.

For the study, scientists adopted a telecoupling framework, which highlights the social, ecological and economic impacts of the global trade relationships between human and natural systems.

By integrating the framework with what's called material flow analysis, researchers were able to identify the full scope of the sand economy's environmental and socioeconomic impacts -- from extraction sites like mines to consumption sites in cities, as well as the many transport corridors in-between.

"Simple views cannot solve complex sustainability challenges," said co-author Jianguo "Jack" Liu, director of MSU-CSIS. "New ways like the telecoupling framework help untangle and embrace the complexity of global sand challenges and point the way toward effective solutions."

The authors of the new study also considered the geological processes -- including deposit, flow and accumulation patterns -- linked with the most important construction aggregates.

In addition to collecting naturally formed sand and gravel, some companies also blast and crush rocks to meet demands for construction aggregates.

Economists predict demand for construction aggregate will double over the next few decades. To head off mounting environmental problems, researchers suggest solutions are needed sooner rather than later.

In the new paper, the authors call for a multifaceted approach to sand sustainability.

Policies are needed, they say, to reduce material use and encourage more compact development, as are reforms to bolster markets for construction and demolition waste.

"As with climate change, there is not a single solution but multiple entry points for more sustainable consumption," Torres said.

CONSERVATION

How Sand Mining Could Destabilize the World

Dharna Noor
Friday 12:00PM

Photo: Guillermo Legaria/AFP (Getty Images)

The world consumes gargantuan quantities of sand for all kinds of things, which along with related materials like gravel and crushed rock, accounts for 85% of all mineral extraction on Earth. A new study details the massive environmental toll it takes—and how we can fix it.

The new study, published in One Earth on Friday, looks at the world’s extensive sand supply chain. The authors, who come from hard and social science backgrounds, employed a buzzy, holistic framework called telecoupling, which allowed them to look at the interaction between socioeconomic and environmental factors.

“We take a broad look at the physical and socio-environmental dimensions of sand supply networks—linking extraction, logistics, distribution, economics, policy—to gain an understanding of the stresses on both nature and people,” research associate Aurora Torres at Michigan State University’s fisheries and wildlife school and lead author of the study, wrote in an email.

She noted the world uses “around 50 billion tons of sand, gravel, and crushed rock to produce concrete for our houses and to build roads and infrastructure.” But sand is also a source of other essential products, including refining quartz sand to make silica that goes into everything from windows to vaccine vials to microprocessors that power our laptops and solar panels. Some kinds of sand are also used in fracking to hold open cracks deep underground to pull out fossil fuels.

Since sand supply is poorly regulated and managed, there’s not much data on all that activity, so we don’t have exact numbers on how much of it we use. But what is clear is that demand for sand for all these uses is increasing rapidly, which is creating huge problems. In fact, over the next 30 years, eight cities the size of New York will be built each year, the study says.

“Sand and gravel are the world’s most extracted solid materials by mass and their annual consumption is predicted to double by 2060,” said Torres. “This situation is putting pressure on threatened ecosystems, triggering social conflicts, and fueling concerns over sand shortages.”

Increasing extraction, the authors write, will make these issues all the more severe and lead them to compound. For instance, the study says, sand can lead to riverbed collapse and erosion in coastal communities. That means affected populations in places like India and Vietnam may be pushed to migrate inland toward cities, which could in turn lead to increased demand for sand for development. This very process played out in 2016 after Cyclone Winston hit Fiji, according to the study.

Environmental stress from sand mining can also increase the risk of conflict and economic peril. Sand mining has triggered land grabs in places like Singapore. And throughout Southeast Asia, sand smuggling is a dangerous black market. Dangerous sand mining gangs have depleted enough sand to cause 24 Indonesian islands to disappear as a result of erosion. Again, this can all force people to flee to cities, increasing sand demand.

Decreasing the global use of sand is also an important climate mitigation strategy, the study says, because sand is most often used to create carbon-intensive products like cement.

“Urban population growth and associated infrastructure development may claim the entire carbon budget of a 2 degree Celsius [3.6 degree Fahrenheit] warming limit by mid-century,” the authors write. They go on to note that if developing countries’ building stock reaches levels of developed ones, producing raw materials alone would eat up anywhere from 35% to 60% of the carbon budget.

To mitigate all these issues, the authors say, we should more carefully monitor and manage our sand resources. One key strategy is to use alternatives when possible. For instance, sand can be artificially created by crushing rock, which can be far more sustainable. The authors note that this fake sand is already a major export commodity for some countries, especially Norway, and a major source of sand for construction in the U.S. and China.

Recycling could also ward off our sand crises. For instance, when new buildings replace demolished ones, governments could require construction companies to process and reuse the rubble instead of laying new concrete. More sustainable alternatives to sand-based construction materials, including hempcrete and sustainably sourced timber, could also play a role. All this will require some serious regulation—it won’t happen if it’s left up to market forces, because concrete is currently quite cheap to produce despite its environmental toll.

This should all be coupled with attempts to lessen demand overall. For instance, developers should be encouraged to construct buildings that will last a long time and reduce the unnecessary overuse of sand.

“If we continue increasing our consumption of sand, that will not only cause significant impacts from mining in terms of destroying ecosystems, compromising the supply of ecosystem services, and triggering social unrest,” said Torres. The world could also simply run out of sand to use. There’s an incomprehensible amount of it on the planet—some 7.5 quintillion grains—and yet we’re still facing a shortage. We can’t allow ourselves to fall into a sand trap.

UPDATED
Virgin Galactic completes successful space flight

SPACE RACE 2.0 CAPITALISTS IN SPACE 


Virgin Galactic completed a successful space flight Saturday. Image via Virgin Galactic/Twitter

May 22 (UPI) -- Virgin Galactic completed its first successful space flight in more than two years Saturday.

"It was picture perfect," Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier told The Verge after the flight was completed. "We're gonna go through the data deeply and thoroughly as we always do." In a statement, Colglazier called the flight a "major step forward for both Virgin Galactic and human spaceflight in New Mexico," which had never hosted a crewed test mission to space until today.

The crewed VSS Unity spacecraft reached an altitude of more than 44,000 feet before gliding safely back to Earth.

Virgin's VMS Eve carrier launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico at about 10:35 a.m. EDT with Unity onboard, then launched Unity once it had switched to its own battery power and conducted flight control and electrical checks.

The United States considers pilots who have flown above 80 kilometers to be astronauts.

Saturday's trip is the latest step toward Virgin Galactic's goal of creating a space tourism program.

The company taken about 600 reservations for space flight tickets at a cost of $250,000 each

The flight marked the first spaceflight from New Mexico, which is now the third U.S. state to launch humans into space.

The flight also carried research payloads for NASA's Flight Opportunities program.

Virgin Galactic: Milestone Flight from New Mexico (Video)

 By Leonard David
 May 23rd, 2021

Credit: Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic completed on May 22 its third spaceflight and the first ever spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico.

VSS Unity spaceship completed the first-ever human spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico, with two pilots reaching apogee at 55.45 miles above ground. The flight is a meaningful step toward the opening of commercial space travel.

VSS Unity achieved a speed of Mach 3 after being released from the mothership, VMS Eve, and reached space before gliding  to a runway landing at Spaceport America.

On VSS Unity’s flight deck were CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay, while Kelly Latimer and Michael Masucci piloted VMS Eve.

Credit: Virgin Galactic

Test objectives

According to a Virgin Galactic press statement, the flight fulfilled a number of test objectives, including:

• Carried revenue-generating scientific research experiments as part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.
• Collected data to be used for the final two verification reports that are required as part of the current FAA commercial reusable spacecraft operator’s license.
• Tested the spaceship’s upgraded horizontal stabilizers and flight controls and validated Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) reductions.

Following the flight, Virgin Galactic will conduct a review of all test data gathered and thoroughly inspect the spaceship and mothership.  Once the team confirms the results, the company plans to proceed to the next flight test milestone.

Credit: Spaceport America

 

Important milestone

“Fifteen years ago, New Mexico embarked on a journey to create the world’s first commercial spaceport,’’ said Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic founder. ‘’Today, we launched the first human spaceflight from that very same place, marking an important milestone for both Virgin Galactic and New Mexico.”

To celebrate the first human spaceflight from New Mexico, the Zia Sun Symbol of New Mexico’s state flag was placed prominently on the exterior of the Spaceship.  In addition, we flew green chile seeds, which are synonymous with the state’s rich agricultural and culinary history.

To view a Virgin Galactic video spotlighting the flight, go to:

https://youtu.be/1TVs2lWk_GI

UPDATED

Mount Nyiragongo, One of the World’s Most Active and Dangerous Volcanoes, Blows in a Surprise Eruption


Jody Serra

Lava from the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo is seen in Buhene, on the outskirts of Goma, Congo in the early hours of Sunday, May 23, 2021.Photo: Justin Kabumba (AP)

On Saturday, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo volcano suddenly erupted, forcing thousands to flee to neighboring Rwanda to seek shelter. By Sunday, reports stated that the speed of Nyiragongo’s lava had slowed and that the nearby city of Goma, home to more than one million people, had been spared.

The eruption—which was caused when fractures opened in the volcano’s side and resulted in lava flowing in several directions—took residents, experts, and officials by surprise. According to Reuters, this was in part due to problems at the Goma Volcano Observatory, the scientific entity that monitors Nyiragongo, a volcano near the Democratic Republic of Congo’s border with Rwanda. Volcanologists have struggled to carry out basic checks on the volcano since the World Bank cut off its funding in light of embezzlement allegations.

Observatory officials had not done comprehensive seismic checks on the volcano since October of last year because they didn’t have an internet connection. They managed to reestablish their internet in April when they received funding from a U.S. partner. Officials said that by then, too much time had been lost, however.

“As soon as the internet was restored, we had started recording the warning signals, but since we did not have previous data, we thought it was the start of volcanic activity,” Celestin Kasereka Mahinda, the observatory’s scientific director, said. “Hence this surprise.”



This general view taken on May 22, 2021 in Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo shows flame spewing from the Nyiragongo volcano.

Photo: Moses Sawasawa / AFP (Getty Images)

Although it was a surprise to observatory officials, volcano watchers and experts had been sounding the alarm in recent months about a possible Nyiragongo eruption based on increased volcanic activity and other indicators.

Nyiragongo is one of the world’s most active and dangerous volcanoes and has erupted seven times in the last hundred years. Volcano expert Robin George Andrews noted that one of the reasons Nyiragongo is dangerous is that its lava is very fluid and fast, so fast that it can catch up to speeding cars. Volcanoes in this region also “belch out” a lot of carbon dioxide, he said, which sinks downslope and kills anyone engulfed by it.

News of the volcano’s eruption sparked panic in the surrounding area, which is still haunted by the volcano’s 2002 eruption that killed 250 people and left 120,000 homeless. Although the country’s government said that an evacuation plan had been activated, the official announcement came hours after the sky turned a fiery red on Saturday, the Associated Press reported, after many had already taken it upon themselves to flee.

An army spokesperson told Reuters on Sunday that 13 people had been killed while they were fleeing from the disaster. Of those that died, nine had been involved in a traffic accident and four had tried to escape from a prison in Goma.

Residents check the damages caused by lava from the overnight eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, seen in the background, in Buhene, on the outskirts of Goma, Congo in the early hours of Sunday, May 23, 2021.Photo: Justin Kabumba (AP)

Nonetheless, the number of deaths is expected to increase considerably based on initial eyewitness reports.

Nyiragongo’s lava destroyed hundreds of houses in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. CNN stated that five schools had been decimated, while Reuters reported that cooled lava in some areas had turned to rubble. At some sites, it was three stories high, consuming large buildings and sending smoke into the sky.

On Sunday, people were beginning to return to their homes to assess what, if any, damage Nyiragongo had wreaked. After that, the monthslong restoration effort will begin.

Volcano erupts in Democratic Republic of Congo

By Christen McCurdy

Congolese residents of Goma gather at Rond Point Cercle to flee from erupting Mount Nyamulagira and Mount Nyiragongo part of the Virunga National Park in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo Saturday. Photo by Kinsella Cunningham/EPA-EFE

May 22 (UPI) -- Mount Nyiragongo, the volcano in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, erupted Saturday evening, prompting evacuations as the lava changed direction.

Residents of the nearby city of Goma were asked to evacuate late Saturday as the government began discussing emergency measures, according to a Twitter post from DRC government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya.

The volcano is one of the largest in the world. Its last large eruption of the volcano took place in 2002 and killed 250 people, CNN reported.

The volcano began erupting at around 7 p.m. local time.

By early Sunday morning the eruption appeared to have subsided, but the evacuation plan was still in effect as vulcanologists monitored the situation.

Initially the government chose not to order evacuations and urged calm as the scale of the eruption was not clear, but officials said the situation was unpredictable.

Tom Peyre-Costa, Norwegian Refugee Council spokesman for West and Central Africa, told CNN the lava was not flowing toward the city, but that if it changed direction, residents would have to evacuate to Rwanda.

Power was later cut off in the area as hundreds of residents began to evacuate toward the nearby border with Rwanda, The Guardian reported.

Mount Nyiragongo: DR Congo residents flee as volcano erupts

Lava destroys houses after DR Congo volcano erupts

Thousands of people have fled their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a large volcano erupted.

Fountains of high lava burst from Mount Nyiragongo into the night sky forming a thick red cloud over the town of Goma, which has a population of two million.

The lava flow reached the city's airport but has reportedly now stopped.

The volcano, located 10km (six miles) from Goma, last erupted in 2002 killing 250 people and making 120,000 homeless.

During the early hours of Sunday, many residents headed across the nearby Rwandan border, while others went to higher grounds to the west of the city.

Crowds were seen with mattresses and other belongings, fleeing even before the government's announcement, which came several hours after the eruption started

Rwandan authorities said about 3,000 people had officially crossed from Goma. The country's state media said they would be accommodated in schools and places of worship.

One Goma resident, Richard Bahati, said he was in his house when he heard screaming. "I got out and saw the sky was red. I am so worried, so worried. I lived through the problem with this volcano in 2002. The volcano devastated all our homes and possessions. That's why I'm scared again this time."

"Everyone is afraid, people are running away. We really don't know what to do," local man Zacharie Paluku told the Associated Press news agency.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTEPA

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES


Electricity was out across large areas, and one highway that connects Goma with the city of Beni was engulfed by the lava. There were also reports of earthquakes.

"There is a smell of sulphur. In the distance you can see giant flames coming out of the mountain," resident Carine Mbala told AFP news agency.

An official from Virunga National Park, where the volcano is located, said in a note to staff that the eruption was similar to the one in 2002 and that everyone near the airport should "evacuate without delay".

People have been advised to stay calm, but some complained about the lack of information from the authorities amid conflicting accounts circulating on social media.

Communications Minister Patrick Muyay said on Twitter that the government was discussing "urgent measures" after the prime minister convened an emergency meeting in the capital, Kinshasa.

In a later update, Mr Muyay said the intensity of the lava flow had slowed and an assessment of the humanitarian situation was ongoing.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the country, Monusco, said it was carrying out reconnaissance flights over the city.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

View original tweet on Twitter


Mount Nyiragongo is one of the world's more active volcanoes but there were concerns that its activity had not been properly observed by the Goma Volcano Observatory, since the World Bank cut funding amid allegations of corruption.

In a report on 10 May, the observatory warned that seismic activity at Nyiragongo had increased.

Last year, the observatory's director, Katcho Karume, told the BBC World Service's Science in Action that the volcano's lava lake had been filling up quickly, increasing the chances of an eruption in the next few years. But he also warned that an earthquake could trigger a disaster earlier.

The volcano's deadliest eruption happened in 1977, when more than 600 people died.

Congo volcano forces mass evacuations

Duration: 01:26 

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo volcano has erupted, forcing thousands to evacuate. Experts say it’s unlikely the eruption will hit the city itself as it flows east, away from Goma. Power was cut in the city, leaving its 2 million residents reeling.

In pictures: DR Congo's Mount Nyiragongo erupts

EXCERPTS

UPDATED

Global aviation stunned by Belarus jetliner diversion

By Tim Hepher

A Ryanair aircraft, which was diverted to Belarus, 

lands at Vilnius Airport in Vilnius

PARIS (Reuters) – The United Nations’ aviation agency said it was “strongly concerned” by the apparent forced landing of a Ryanair jetliner in Belarus, as global airlines called for an investigation into Sunday’s rare incident.

Aviation leaders reacted with shock after Belarus scrambled a fighter and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force a Ryanair jet to land, before detaining an opposition-minded journalist who had been on board.

The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said the incident may have contravened a core aviation treaty, part of the international order created after World War Two.

“ICAO is strongly concerned by the apparent forced landing of a Ryanair flight and its passengers, which could be in contravention of the Chicago Convention,” it said.

“We look forward to more information being officially confirmed by the countries and operators concerned.”

Airlines joined a flurry of government protests.

“We strongly condemn any interference or requirement for landing of civil aviation operations that is inconsistent with the rules of international law,” said the International Air Transport Association.

“A full investigation by competent international authorities is needed.”

Aviation experts said the rare incident could fuel debate over the resilience of a decades-old system of cooperation.

ICAO has no regulatory power, but sits at the centre of a system of safety and security standards that keep most airways open across political barriers. These are managed through the Montreal agency by its 193 member states, including Belarus.

KEY CORRIDOR

“It looks like a gross abuse of the (Chicago) Convention. It’s piracy,” Kevin Humphreys, a former Irish aviation regulator, told Reuters.

He added he would “not be surprised” if some airlines skirted Belarus airspace while they awaited more details, but stressed each would make its own threat assessment.

“People in the industry will be worried,” he added.

Belarus is an important corridor between Europe and Moscow or southeast Asia and Europe, according to Flightradar 24.

Lawyers say Sunday’s flight was emblematic of a tangle of jurisdictions that share a delicate co-existence in aviation – involving a Polish-registered jet flown by an Irish group between EU nations Greece and Lithuania, over non-EU Belarus.

Under the 1944 Chicago Convention, each country has sovereignty over its own airspace, though the treaty prohibits any use of civil aviation that may endanger safety.

But the right to overfly other countries is enshrined in a side treaty called the International Air Services Transit Agreement, of which Belarus is not listed as a member. Non-treaty members grant overflights according to varying rules.

A separate 1971 treaty that includes Belarus outlaws the seizure of aircraft or knowingly communicating false information in a way that endangers aircraft safety.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it was “monitoring the situation from the safety perspective.”

It is not the first time an abrupt diversion has fuelled diplomatic tensions, but the first in memory that a commercial flight governed by civil treaties is involved, Humphreys said.

In 2013, Bolivia said President Evo Morales’ plane had been diverted on a flight from Russia and forced to land in Austria over suspicions – later denied – that former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, wanted by Washington for divulging secret details of U.S. surveillance activities, was on board.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Additional reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Alexander Smith, Timothy Heritage and Diane Craft)

VIDEO

 BELARUS’ ONGOING PROTESTS: EXAMINED (MSN.COM)

Duration: 07:06

Belarus forced a Ryanair flight carrying an opposition activist to divert to Minsk on Sunday, provoking an outcry from European leaders who called it "hijacking" and an "act of state terrorism".

A young woman stands with a poster reading 'I am, we are Roman Protasevich' and the Belarus flag as passengers disembark from a Ryanair passenger plane from Athens, Greece, that was intercepted and diverted to Minsk on the same day by Belarus authorities, after it landed at Vilnius International Airport, its initial destination, on May 23, 2021. AFP

Belarusian state TV reported that Roman Protasevich, 26, an opposition blogger exiled in Poland, had been detained in the capital after flight FR4978 was diverted from its Athens-Vilnius route, ostensibly over a security scare.

After landing in Vilnius several hours after the scheduled time, without Mr Protasevich, some passengers described seeing him looking nervous as the flight was diverted to Belarus.

Police in Belarus capital arrest more than 100 protesters

"He just turned to people and said he was facing the death penalty," Lithuanian Monika Simkiene, 40, told AFP.

Edvinas Dimsa, 37, said: "He was not screaming but it was clear that he was very much afraid. It looked like if the window had been open, he would have jumped out of it."


The EU is set to discuss toughening its sanctions against Belarus, which were imposed over the crackdown on opposition protesters by the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko, at a planned summit on Monday.

"The outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in Belarus will have consequences," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.

"Those responsible for the Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned. Journalist Roman Protasevich must be released immediately."

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki denounced Belarus's actions as "an act of state terrorism", while French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for a "strong and united response" from the EU.

Lithuania and Latvia have called for international flights not to use Belarusian airspace.

Minsk's airport earlier said the plane had to make an emergency landing there at 12.15 GMT after a bomb scare.

"The plane was checked, no bomb was found and all passengers were sent for another security search," said Nexta, a Belarus opposition channel on the Telegram messaging app, which Mr Protasevich previously edited.

Mr Lukashenko's press service said on its own Telegram channel that the president had given the order to divert the flight and had ordered a Mig-29 fighter jet to accompany the plane.

Belarus authorities have intensified their crackdown on the opposition after protests gripped the former Soviet country following last year's disputed presidential election.

"The forced landing of a commercial plane to detain a journalist is an unprecedented, shocking act," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted from Athens, where the flight began.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda described Belarus's actions as "abhorrent" and Lithuanian prosecutors said they had opened a criminal investigation for the hijacking of a plane.

The government in Ireland, home of Ryanair, called the incident "absolutely unacceptable", while Nato called it "dangerous" and demanded an international investigation.

Since last August's disputed election, Belarusians have taken to the streets demanding the resignation of Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled for more than two decades.

Mr Protasevich and Nexta founder Stepan Putilo, 22, were last year added to Belarus's list of "individuals involved in terrorist activity".

The two bloggers, both based in Poland, were added to the list over charges of causing mass unrest, an offence punishable by up to 15 years in jail.

Belarus had also called the Nexta Telegram channels and its logo "extremist" and ordered them blocked.

With close to two million subscribers on Telegram, Nexta Live and its sister channel Nexta are prominent voices of the Belarus opposition and helped to organise protesters.

"It is absolutely obvious that this is an operation of secret services to capture the plane in order to detain activist and blogger Roman Protasevich," exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said on Telegram.

The opposition says Ms Tikhanovskaya, who fled to neighbouring Lithuania after the election, was the true winner of last year's presidential vote.

A member of the Nexta team, Tadeusz Giczan, said on Twitter that representatives of the Belarusian security agency had been on the flight with Mr Protasevich.

"Then when the plane had entered Belarus airspace, the KGB officers initiated a fight with the Ryanair crew insisting there's an [improvised explosive device] onboard," he said.

A spokeswoman for state company Lithuanian Airports, Lina Beisine, said that Minsk airport reported the flight was redirected "due to a conflict between a member of the crew and the passengers".

Ryanair said the flight's crew had been notified by Belarus air traffic control of "a potential security threat on board" and were instructed to divert to Minsk, the "nearest" airport.

The EU and the US have imposed sanctions on Mr Lukashenko and dozens of officials and businessmen tied to his regime, with asset freezes and visa bans.

The opposition protests in Belarus, in which at least four people were killed, have subsided, but journalists and activists continue to be jailed.

More on Belarus

Eurovision 2021: Belarus banned from contest due to song's 'political' lyrics

US, UK and Canada to impose sanctions on Belarusians on Friday


Updated: May 24, 2021 02:12 AM

UK BLM activist Sasha Johnson shot in London
The 27-year-old BLM activist is in critical condition

Tiffany Stewart

THE GRIO
May 23, 2021

Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson is reportedly in critical condition after she was shot in the head.

According to The Guardian, Johnson’s affiliated group, Taking the Initiative party, announced the news on social media on Sunday. On the group’s official Facebook page, the party explained that the incident happened early in morning.

The statement said: “It is with great sadness that we inform you that our own Sasha Johnson has sustained a gunshot wound to her head. She is currently hospitalised and in critical condition. The incident happened in the early hours of this morning, following numerous death threats.”

“Sasha has always been actively fighting for black people and the injustices that surround the black community, as well as being both a member of BLM and a member of Taking the Initiative Party’s Executive Leadership Committee. Sasha is also a mother of 3 and a strong, powerful voice for our people and our community.”

It is with great sadness that we inform you that our own Sasha Johnson has sustained a gunshot wound to her head. She is currently hospitalised and in a critical condition. The incident happened in the early hours of this morning, following numerous death threats.

Sasha has always been actively fighting for black people and the injustices that surround the black community, as well as being both a member of BLM and a member of Taking the Initiative Party’s Executive Leadership Committee. Sasha is also a mother of 3 and a strong, powerful voice for our people and our community.

Let’s all come together and pray for Sasha, pray for her recovery and show our support to her family and loved ones.

According to their website, the Taking the Initiative Party was established by a group of British people, “some from working-class backgrounds who felt, like many others across the country, that we had become politically homeless

They aim to create change in communities across the U.K. and by doing this, they will put forward “exceptional candidates who truly represent their communities” and “look like the society it leads.” Their mission statement goes on to say that they “see a Government that is in the pocket of Big Business and looking after its own interests.” They said that their views have put somewhat of a target on their backs.

The incident that took place on Sunday came after “multiple death threats” towards Johnson and the party. Composed as a group of Oxford Brookes University graduates, the party is described as “a strong, powerful voice” in the Black equal rights movement.

The party describes Johnson as an efficient and passionate activist who has a hunger for change. According to the Guardian, she rose to prominence after last year’s BLM protests, helping to organize demonstrations and address crowds.

Sasha Johnson has been named as the victim of a shooting in London. Picture: PA/ LBC

Claudia Webbe, the Labour MP for Leicester East, took to Twitter to express her feelings after learning the shocking news. She wrote: “Shocking to hear of the gunshot to the head of Sasha Johnson; All women should be safe on our streets. Wishing her a full recovery. Sending love and solidarity to her family, friends and loved ones. There are still too many guns and violent weapons damaging too many lives #BLM.”


According to reports made by the Metropolitan police, the 27-year-old woman was shot during a house party shortly before 3 a.m. However, the police have no reason to think it was a targeted attack at this stage in the investigation.

Read More: ‘BLM’ apparel banned at the Tokyo Olympics

Detective chief inspector Jimi Tele said: “This was a shocking incident that has left a young woman with very serious injuries. Our thoughts are with her family who are being provided with support at this terribly difficult time.”

“Finally, I recognise that this incident will have shocked those in the local community and further afield. I would ask people to avoid speculating as to the motive or the circumstances behind it,” Tele continued.

Although Tele told the press that detectives are making “good progress,” no arrests have been made so far.

'Pray for Sasha Johnson': UK Black Lives Matter campaigner in critical condition after being shot in head

Metropolitan Police said a woman, 27, was shot shortly before 3am in Southwark, London

File photo: Sasha Johnson, centre, of the Black Lives Matter movement attends a protest at Hyde Park in London. AP

Prominent Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson is being treated in intensive care after being shot in the head early on Sunday morning, her political party said.

The Taking the Initiatives Party said she was in a critical condition.

Metropolitan Police have not confirmed her identity but said a woman, 27, was shot shortly before 3am at a gathering in Southwark, London.

Officers said the woman was taken to a south London hospital with life-threatening injuries. They have appealed for witnesses and said her family had been informed.

On Instagram, the party said Ms Johnson is a mother of two and a "powerful voice", who had always fought for black people and the injustices that surround the community.


"Let's all come together and pray for Sasha, pray for her recovery and show our support to her family and loved ones," it said.

Police said at this stage there was no evidence to suggest it was a targeted shooting or that she had received any credible threats against her prior to the incident.

Detectives from the Met's Specialist Crime Command have been conducting inquiries at the scene in Consort Road and the surrounding area, and are pursuing several lines.

It is believed that the shooting occurred near a house where a party was taking place and that several people may have been in the area, the Met said.

"This was a shocking incident that has left a young woman with very serious injuries," Det Chief Insp Jimi Tele said.

"Our thoughts are with her family who are being provided with support at this terribly difficult time."

Mr Tele said detectives were making progress but needed the public's help.

"If you saw anything suspicious in the Consort Road area in the early hours of Sunday morning or if you have heard information since that could help detectives, it is crucial that you get in touch."

Ms Johnson, a graduate of Oxford Brookes University, has been a leading figure in the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK, and is a member of the Taking the Initiative Party's leadership committee.

Updated: May 24, 2021 05:06 AM

UK CAPITALIST

Calls for Covid windfall tax as billionaires enjoy bumper year during pandemic

Phones 4u founder John Caudwell said Rishi Sunak should levy a 90 per cent tax on excess profits made during lockdownA prominent billionaire has called on Rishi Sunak to levy a Covid windfall tax Tolga Akmen/Pool via REUTERS

By Sam Clark
May 23, 2021 

Business and economics figures have called for the super-rich to be subject to a Covid-19 windfall tax as Britain’s billionaires experienced a record money-making year.

The Sunday Times Rich List revealed that the UK’s super-rich had a bumper year, with the combined wealth of the country’s top 250 wealthiest people growing by 21.7 per cent to £597.3 billion in the last year.

That equates to an average wealth growth of more than £1 million per day for each person on the 250-strong list, which was topped this year by investor Sir Leonard Blavatnik.

The boosted figures come at a time when millions of people have been furloughed and hundreds of thousands have lost jobs, triggering calls for a special tax on the super-rich.

Billionaire mobile phones mogul John Caudwell told The Sunday Times that chancellor Rishi Sunak should levy a one-off tax on those people who have benefited from the pandemic.

“If I were Rishi Sunak, I would say to those who have profited massively: ‘We want a major contribution from you for this year, a tax on the excess profits you made because of lockdowns.’

“They won’t have to worry about tax overall in the UK because the windfall tax would only apply to excess profits for the past year. It wouldn’t damage their share price. What it would do is raise hundreds of billions of extra tax, to help to fix the short-term crisis from which these companies have hugely benefited,” Mr Caudwell said.

Mr Caudwell suggested a one-off 90 per cent tax, saying such a measure would leave affected businesses “as well off as they would have been without the lockdowns”.

E-commerce businesses have benefitted from the lockdowns because high-street competitors were unable to bring in cash. The owners of online retailers like Boohoo, The Hut Group, Asos and Farfetch did particularly well in this year’s Rich List.

Mr Caudwell was joined in calls for a change to the tax system by George Dibb, head of thinktank the IPPR Centre for Economic Justice, who said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List shows the rich got richer just as millions of people were struggling to make ends meet. This only bolsters our view that the UK tax system simply isn’t fair.”

According to a Sunday Times analysis, a one-off tax of 5 per cent on all wealth over £1 billion would raise £19 billion for UK government coffers.

Experts or 'grifters'? Little-known firm runs Arizona audit

In early March, a Boston-based vote-counting firm called Clear Ballot Group sent a bid to Arizona's state Senate to audit the 2020 presidential election results in Maricopa County

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

The firm has conducted more than 200 such audits over 13 years in business. “Our level of comparison data is unmatched,” Keir Holeman, a Clear Ballot Group vice president, wrote to the Republican-controlled Senate. He never heard back, he says.


Instead, the state Senate hired a small Florida-based cybersecurity firm known as Cyber Ninjas that had not placed a formal bid for the contract and had no experience with election audits. Senate President Karen Fann says she can't recall how she found the firm, but her critics believe one credential stood out: Cyber Ninjas' chief executive officer had tweeted support for conspiracy theories claiming Republican Donald Trump, and not Democrat Joe Biden, had won Maricopa County and Arizona.

Now the untested, little-known cybersecurity firm is running a partly taxpayer-funded process that election experts describe as so deeply flawed it veers into the surreal. Its chief aim, critics say, appears to be testing far-fetched theories, rather than simply recounting votes — an approach that directly undermines the country's democratic traditions.

“If I give you 20 M&Ms, and you want 30, you can keep counting it, but you did not get 30 M&Ms,” said David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a former Department of Justice voting rights attorney and elections expert. “This is not an effort to find the truth."

Experienced vote counters have watched the process in shock. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said this week Maricopa County will need to replace all of its election machines because their security has been permanently compromised by the auditors. Experts note the review isn’t following standard recounting procedures and, unlike with other election audits in Arizona, members of each major political party are not at each table observing the counting.

The auditors are checking for bamboo fibers to test a theory that tens of thousands of fake ballots were shipped from Asia. A onetime treasure hunter who claims to have invented a new method to automatically spot ballot fraud says his technology is being used in the review.

It's become too much for some Republicans. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, all but one of whom are Republicans, this week accused Republicans in the Senate of having “rented out the once-good name of the Arizona Senate” to “grifters.”

“Your ‘auditors’ are in way over their heads,” the board wrote in a letter.

Cyber Ninjas' defenders say they're creating a template for a re-examination of the election in every battleground state Biden won. Trump allies have already called for similar operations in Georgia. And criticisms about the firm's lack of election experience are hollow, its advocates argue, because the Arizona audit is unprecedented.

“This is an audit like none that has ever been performed,” said Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive officer of Overstock.com who has been raising money for the audit. “This audit is an audit check for all forms of mischief.”

The man running the operation, Cyber Ninjas chief executive officer Doug Logan, declined through his spokesman to be interviewed. He has only answered questions from reporters in public once, during a contentious press conference last month.

“There's a lot of Americans here, myself included, that are really bothered at the way our country's being ripped apart right now,” Logan said. “If we go through here and we don't find any fraud, I will be ecstatic.”

Maricopa County has already conducted two audits, which found no problems with the count in the state's most populous county. At the urging of Trump supporters, the Senate insisted on a third and subpoenaed more than 2 million ballots from the county.

When the Senate leader went looking for an elections firm to do the work, she did not put together a formal request for proposal, as is typical for government contracts. Fann said she and her staff reached out to several firms and got two bids back — the one from Clear Ballot Group for $450,000 and the other from a cybersecurity group called Intersec Worldwide. Fann said she preferred the Intersec proposal, but balked at an $8 million price tag.

In an interview, she said she could not recall who had referred her to Cyber Ninjas. “To be honest with you I can’t even tell you exactly what path led me there,” Fann said.

But Fann had tapped into a loose network of computer security experts who had become active in pro-Trump election conspiracy theories. In a self-published book written this year, Byrne dubbed the group “cyber ninjas” — a term used by so-called “white hat” hackers who defend against online intrusions. Byrne told AP that, in December, he and Logan “crossed paths in a few places.” But Byrne said he wasn't involved in the audit bid and does not know Logan well.

Logan, 42, in December had tweeted and retweeted references to the conspiracy theory that voting machines were hacked to switch votes from Trump. “The parallels between the statistical analysis of Venezuela and this year’s election are astonishing,” Logan tweeted, with a #StoptheSteal hashtag that referenced the pro-Trump movement seeking to overturn the election.

Logan also served as an expert witness in a pro-Trump lawsuit raising conspiracy theories about the election in Antrim County, Michigan. Another cybersecurity professional who filed an expert witness affidavit in that case, Ben Cotton, was a partner on the Intersec proposal. Cotton's own firm, CyFIR, which did not respond to a request for comment, is now a subcontractor on the Arizona audit.

The Senate agreed to pay Cyber Ninjas $150,000 in state money, but it is not clear how much more the audit will cost and who is paying for it. The pro-Trump One America News Network raised $150,000 in a single day in April and has continued to ask for donations. Byrne has also started a fundraising drive with a group that says it has raised $1.7 million with a goal of $2.8 million. Neither will have to disclose donors or account for how the money is spent, and Logan has declined to detail financial information.

Byrne's organization is also involved in recruiting volunteers. The audit's liaison with the Senate sent an email to local Republicans last week asking for more volunteers and referring them to the website of Byrne's organization's to apply. Byrne said his group simply refers volunteers to Cyber Ninjas for “vetting.” The email was first reported by The Arizona Republic.

Logan started Cyber Ninjas in 2013 in Indiana after working for two years for a cybersecurity firm called Cigital, according to his LinkedIn profile and Cyber Ninja press releases. He moved his firm from Indiana to Sarasota in 2014, according to the Cyber Ninjas website, which quotes Logan describing the firm as a “Christian company.” Last year, when Cyber Ninjas received $98,000 in federal COVID relief money, it claimed five employees.

At a public presentation last week, Logan cited as part of his qualifications that his firm “worked with some of the largest names in the financial services space.” Two of the companies he lists as former clients in his expert witness statement, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase, said through spokespeople that they have no record of hiring Cyber Ninjas.

Logan's scant public record before the audit was a history of volunteering for the U.S. Cyber Challenge, a training event for internet security amateurs and professionals. In 2015, Logan received an award from the security firm SANS for his volunteerism with the event,

John Pescatore, the SANS employee who oversees the award program, said Logan was cited mainly for designing an online “capture the flag” game where players try to hack into an opponent's base. “It takes a lot of work,” said Pescatore of Logan's volunteering. He added he doesn't know Logan but Cyber Ninjas has a good reputation for testing companies' systems for vulnerabilities, its market niche.

A spokesman for the U.S. Cyber Challenge did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Logan is not the only person associated with the effort to overturn the 2020 election who is working on the audit. Jovan Pulitzer, an inventor who unsuccessfully pushed for a post-election audit in Georgia, has said his technology is being used to detect altered ballots.

Pulitzer is also a former treasure hunter and author of a series of books on lost treasures, including one titled “How to Cut Off Your Arm and Eat Your Dog.” In 2000, he developed a barcode scanner called Cuecat that purported to link print magazine ads to the internet. It was later named one of the 50 worst inventions of all time by Time magazine.

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Bob Christie in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Nicholas Riccardi, The Associated Press