Police fire tear gas, rubber bullets at Bangkok protesters

Anti-gov’t protesters rally in the Thai capital against the state’s failure to handle COVID outbreaks and the economy.

Demonstrators gather during a protest against what they call the government's failure in handling the coronavirus pandemic [Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters]

7 Aug 2021

Thailand police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators in Bangkok protesting against the government’s failure to handle coronavirus outbreaks and its effect on the economy.

More than 1,000 protesters defied restrictions on public gatherings on Saturday and marched towards Government House, the office of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, demanding his resignation.

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Police sealed off a road near Victory Monument using containers and shot tear gas and rubber bullets to push protesters back.

“We are holding this line,” police announced over a loudspeaker.

About 100 officers were seen in riot gear and shields metres away from where demonstrators had gathered.

Street protests against the government have been held in recent weeks by several groups, including Prayuth’s former political allies, as frustrations mount over its management of coronavirus outbreaks and the damage pandemic measures have inflicted on the economy.
Franc Han Shih, a journalist based in Bangkok, told Al Jazeera that Saturday’s protest was partly triggered by the Thai government’s sluggish rollout of its COVID vaccination programme

“The wrong vaccination policy really irritated citizens in Thailand,” said Shih, who added that the government had made a deal for 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab, but had only received half so far.

“Although China provided more than 6 million doses of Sinovac, it isn’t enough,” he added

.

A police officer fires a weapon during clashes with demonstrators protesting against what they call the government’s failure in handling the coronavirus pandemic [Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters]

On Saturday, Thailand reported a record of nearly 22,000 new reported COVID-19 cases and the highest number of daily deaths – 212.

Overall, it has reported 736,522 cases of the coronavirus, including 6,066 deaths, since the pandemic began last year.

“I’m worried about the situation but we will have to continue fighting despite the severe COVID outbreak,” 27-year-old protester Nat, who only gave one name, told AFP news agency.

A youth-led street protest movement for democracy rose up last year and at its peak drew tens of thousands to rallies in Bangkok.

The demonstrators called for the resignation of Prayuth, the former army chief who came to power in a 2014 coup, as well as changes to the military-scripted constitution and calls for changes to the monarchy.

Thai anti-govt protesters clash with police in Bangkok
2021/8/7 

©Reuters


By Jiraporn Kuhakan and Chayut Setboonsarng

BANGKOK (Reuters) -More than a thousand Thai anti-government protesters clashed with police on Saturday, as they demonstrated against the government's failure to handle coronavirus outbreaks and its impact on the economy.

About a hundred police officers in riot gear sealed off a road near Victory Monument in the capital Bangkok with containers and used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to stop a march toward Government House, the office of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

"Tear gas and rubber bullets were used for crowd control. Our goal is to maintain order," Krisana Pattanacharoen, a police spokesman, told reporters.

The demonstrators threw ping pong bombs, stones and marbles, he added.

Dozens of protesters were seen being carried away on motorcycles and in ambulances. The Erawan Emergency Medical Centre said at least two civilians and three officers had been injured.

"We want Prayuth to resign because people aren't getting vaccines," said a 23-year-old male protester, who only gave his first name "Aom", for fear of repercussions.

"We don't have jobs and income, so we have no choice but protest."

Some 6% of Thailand's population of more than 66 million has been fully vaccinated and most of the country including Bangkok is under lockdown with a night-time curfew. Gatherings of more than five people are currently banned.

Nonetheless, street protests against the government have been held in recent weeks by several groups, including Prayuth's former political allies, as frustrations mount over its management of the health crisis.

Thailand reported on Saturday a record of nearly 22,000 new COVID-19 infections in a single day and the highest deaths, 212 fatalities.

The Southeast Asian country has reported 736,522 total cases and 6,066 deaths from the coronavirus since the pandemic began last year.

(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Kirsten Donovan)

Plastic waste and the recycling myth

By Dr. Tim Sandle
Published August 8, 2021

Tonnes of microplastic granules from a burning container ship have inundated Sri Lanka's west coast - Copyright AFP LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI

At the present rate, the levels of plastic emissions globally are likely to initiate effects that humanity will not be able to reverse. New research finds plastic pollution to be a global threat. The report also signals that unless actions are taken to reduce emissions of plastic to the environment, then the consequences for the planet will be catastrophic.

According to Greenpeace, while plastic is useful and versatile, the large qualities that are used are highly problematic. As a symbol of the throwaway culture, vast quantities of plastic pollute flows into the oceans causing considerable damage to the food chain.

Another way of expressing the problem is where it is projected that plastic pollution will weigh as much as 1.3 billion tonnes in just two more decades.

The Swedish researchers have been looking at the extent of the current problem. According to the lead scientist, Professor Matthew MacLeod, achieving change will be culturally challenging: “Plastic is deeply engrained in our society, and it leaks out into the environment everywhere, even in countries with good waste-handling infrastructure.”

The central concern is that while people express support for ecological issues in general and plastic pollution specifically, the signs are that change is not happening to any great extent.

For instance, plastic emissions are trending upward even though awareness about plastic pollution among the public, according to opinion polls, appears to have increased significantly in recent years.

The new research appears in the journal Science, in a paper titled “The global threat from plastic pollution”.

Can the damage be reversed? To do so will take enormous political will. A different research team estimate the scale of human response needed to reduce future emissions and manage what is already floating around out there requires a fundamental shift to a framework based on recycling all end-of-life plastic products and phasing out plastic products wherever possible.

However, as the Swedish researcher point out, recycling plastic is not easily achieved. While governments urge people to recycle plastic, this does little to actually reduce plastic pollution. This is because, technologically, recycling of plastic has many limitations. Some types of plastics cannot be recycled and the extent to which they are recycled depends upon technical, economic and logistic factors.

This means recycling plastic is often simply too expensive and even plastic collected by a local authority for recycling still ends up in a landfill site (where it can enter water streams).

It also stands that a common approach by many high-income countries is to export their plastic waste to lower-income countries with poor facilities, even assuming an attempt is made to recycle rather than landfill.

For example, the U.S. exported 436 million kg in 2019 and is continues to export over 5,600 shipping containers (30 million kg) of plastic waste every month to other countries, so that the waste can be disposed of.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-science/plastic-waste-and-the-recycling-myth/article#ixzz731fiau25

Op-Ed: Unbelievable and out of control — US COVID reported infections over 100K per day

By Paul Wallis
Published August 8, 2021

The EU has now passed the US in terms of the percentage of population that have been fully vaccinated. — Photo: © AFP

US infection rates are now as bad as the worst of the second wave of COVID. As of 6 August, Johns Hopkins reported infections of 100K in that one day. The question is why. The answer isn’t so clear.

Millions of Americans, more or less 50% of the population, haven’t been vaccinated.

Reasons for not getting vaccinated vary:
Side effects – The mixed messages regarding side effects are definitely NOT an asset.
Political reasons – These vary from QAnon “plandemic” stuff to Trump-based propaganda or variations thereof. For some reason, politics is a reason to die of a disease. Go figure.
Disinformation – Anti-vaxxers, many widely reported to be getting vaccinated themselves, are still at work against the COVID vaccines.

The short, repulsive history of failing to understand COVID

At first Trump said COVID was a hoax. Then it was a Chinese conspiracy. Then came a range of bizarre things like a malaria drug which was tested in Germany Trump was taking, and was found in March 2020 to be useless. Then it was “try disinfectant”. Then the CDC was to blame. Then Fauci. Around election time, the Democrats.

During this fecal flower arrangement of abysmal US policy misses, not a lot was done. Data was sent direct to the White House, and nothing was done with it that ever got mentioned publicly.

That was then, this is now – The two Americas, again

It’s now August 2021. Trump is gone, arguably more gone than ever. Yet the mythology lives on in Florida, where Governor Santis is getting a lot of flak as the state acquires the unenviable distinction of massive rates of infection. The state recorded 50,997 cases in three days last week. 10,000 were hospitalized in that same period.

The Red State Theory of 2020, that COVID is a red state problem, is now even more widespread. Politics, not medicine or common sense are seen as drivers of failure. The virus started off worst in the big cities, which are mainly Democrat. The situation is now reversed. That’s more than a minor issue, because the rural areas don’t have the sort of services required to manage the pandemic.

Trump said, in a sort of ultimate monument to his own ignorance, that rates of infection went up because there was more testing being done. That’s not how it works. Infections increase simply because there are more infections. This level of idiocy, however, is still viable political currency in the red states.

The result of the total mismanagement of the pandemic by the Trump “administration” is that COVID is well on the way to being endemic to the US, if not already endemic. That means the virus is now a permanent risk to US citizens. Outbreaks could be commonplace.

It’s only “now” in the progressive regions. It’s still “then” in the red states and the mercenary senile minds of Trump and the GOP, as usual. It’s still a political partisan issue. It’s still political capital to be anti-vax for conservatives. That’s why the virus is out of control.

Until the vaccinations become the majority of people, that’s the only way it can be.

A few fun observations:
616,718 Americans have now died of COVID. That’s 12 Vietnam Wars and about 1.5 World War 2s, in terms of deaths.
Not one single word of sympathy has been uttered by Trump or his supporters since the pandemic began.
Approximately 10% (rough figure) of people who get COVID get “long COVID”, a debilitating condition of varying levels of severity.
About 150 million Americans are at immediate risk of getting COVID.

Happy, jerks?

Post script:

Several complaints were received from readers regarding the original article, in which I cited 200K as the number of infections. Johns Hopkins figures currently show a very different story at around 100K. I hyperlinked the JH figures specifically to illustrate the figure. I either misread the numbers (I did check them because they looked- and look- so bad) or misinterpreted the graph.

Apologies for any and all inaccuracies, which are entirely my responsibility.

That said – Anyone happy about 100K, the accepted figure? How is that good? Is that out of control or not?

Further complaints were received regarding other content in this Op-Ed, notably misinformation. Kindly see this article by AFP regarding misinformation spread by Trump and my DJ article on the subject of advocating the use of disinfectants.
Shar

In this article:

Florida COVID infections August 2021, 

Johns Hopkins COVID stats,

USA COVID infection rate August 2021, 

USA COVID pandemic 2021

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/op-ed-unbelievable-and-out-of-control-us-covid-reported-infections-over-200k-per-day/article#ixzz731d3eXbJ

Historic drought threatens California farms supplying much US food

Issued on: 09/08/2021 -

Robyn Beck AFP/File

Reedley (United States) (AFP)

In the valleys of central California, the search for water has turned into an all-out obsession as the region suffers through a drought that could threaten the US food supply.

Residents have watched with dismay as verdant fields have turned into brown, dusty plains, leaving shriveled trees, dying plants and exasperated farmers.

Much of California, and of the broader US West, has suffered through years of lighter-than-usual precipitation and a particularly dry winter.

State and local authorities, fearful that there may not be enough water for city dwellers or wildlife, have abruptly cut supplies to farms, provoking anger and consternation.

Along the roads between major farming operations, billboards have popped up everywhere, urging: "Save California's Water." They accuse the authorities of "dumping... our water in the ocean."

Billboards like these have popped up in farming areas of central California amid political battles over precious water supplies Robyn Beck AFP/File

Growers complain that the state's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, is strangling them under a mountain of pointless restrictions, leaving them unable to fill their usual role of supplying America's supermarkets.

- 'Starving' the world -

"I had two wells dry up last week," 28-year-old Nick Foglio, a fourth-generation farmer and feed broker, told AFP. He added that he has "2,000 acres (800 hectares) of alfalfa going dry."

A bird eats the seeds of a dried flower on the farm of Liset Garcia, in Reedley, California Robyn Beck AFP/File

Standing in a dusty field near Fresno, he said he worries that with "the wrong political agenda, we're simply going to starve ourselves and probably the rest of the world."

California authorities don't seem to be hearing that message.

Reacting to dire signs of a worsening climate crisis, they passed new emergency legislation last week to prevent thousands of people -- notably farmers -- from diverting streams or rivers.

Lacking water, farmers plowed up almond trees in this field in Huron, California 

Robyn Beck AFP/File

"In a year when Mother Nature doesn’t make it rain, there is no water for them," said Jeanine Jones, a manager with the California Department of Water Resources.

- A 'devastating' situation -

When the authorities cut off water supplies, farmers find themselves forced to rely on wells, dug deep into the ground at costs of several thousand dollars. They draw groundwater from subsurface pools hundreds of feet deep. But even they eventually run dry.

Years of low rainfall in a warming world have desiccated farm fields like this one, near Fresno, California Robyn Beck AFP/File

"The situation is pretty terrible," said Liset Garcia, who relied on well water to irrigate half her 20-acre farm -- until it dried up.

She has been waiting for weeks for a well-drilling service -- which has more work than it can handle -- to make it to her farm in hopes of finding even a small new supply of water deep in the ground.

Sitting in her vegetable stand near the town of Reedley, the 30-year-old farmer greets clients with enthusiasm that belies the ravages her farm has suffered in a warming world.

Heat has destroyed several of her crops -- which have "literally baked under the sun."

"There's a lot of foliage that is already burnt and pretty much just crisped up," as well as "fruit not getting a size -- not getting its juiciness and sweetness," she said, wearing a checked shirt and a baseball hat marked "Sweet Girl Farms."

Liset Garcia drives a tractor on her farm in Reedley, California -- the drought situation, she says, is 'pretty terrible' Robyn Beck AFP/File

"It becomes even a luxury to have food," she said with a grimace. "Does that sound insane?"

Climate change, scientists say, will even more extreme and frequent episodes of drought -- further jeopardizing food security.

Feeding America in these conditions will be a challenge. But the region may already have found one partial savior.

Endless rows of solar panels in what was once a farmfield in California's drought-stricken Central Valley Robyn Beck AFP/File

Under leaden skies, workers in uncultivated fields recently uncrated huge boxes. Inside were thousands of solar panels -- offering a new business opportunity and the promise of some relief for a region in pain.

© 2021 AFP

A drought-hit California town finds itself sinking into the ground


By AFP
Published August 7, 2021


An aerial view from July 24, 2021 of the farming town of Corcoran, California, which is steadily sinking as drought, worsened by climate change, has forced big farms to pump increasing amounts of water from the ground. — © AFP Camille CAMDESSUS

“You’ve got too many farmers pumping all around,” complained Raul Atilano. This octogenarian resident of Corcoran, the self-proclaimed farming capital of California, was struggling to make sense of the strangest of phenomena: his already suffering town is sinking, ever so gradually, into the ground.

A constant stream of trucks carrying tomatoes, alfalfa or cotton outside this town of 20,000 shows just how inextricably Corcoran’s fate is tied to the intensive farming practiced here.

A sign just outside the California town of Corcoran proclaims it as the state’s ‘farming capital’; drought has caught its farms in a vicious cycle. — © AFP

To irrigate its vast fields and help feed America, farm operators began in the last century to pump water from underground sources, so much so that the ground has begun to sink — imagine a series of giant straws sucking up groundwater faster than rain can replenish it, as hydrologist Anne Senter explained it to AFP.

– Like a 2-story house –

Strangely, signs of this subsidence are nearly invisible to the human eye. There are no cracks in the walls of the typical American shops in the town’s center, nor crevices opening up in the streets or fields: to measure subsidence, Californian authorities had to turn to NASA, which used satellites to analyze the geological change.

And yet, over the past 100 years, Corcoran has sunken “the equivalent of a two-story house,” Jeanine Jones, a manager with the California Department of Water Resources, told AFP.

The phenomenon “can be a threat to infrastructure, groundwater wells, levees, aqueducts,” she said.

The one recognizable sign of this dangerous change is a levee on the edge of the city, in an area where wisps of cotton blow in the air. In 2017, the authorities launched a major project to raise the levee, for fear that the city, which sits in a basin, could be flooded … whenever the rains finally return.

Raul Gomez (L) and Greg Ojeda, standing on July 23, 2021 near a levee in Corocoran, California which was raised in 2017 for fear of floods — that have yet to come. — © AFP

This year, however, the problem has been not floods but an alarming drought aggravated by climate change.

It has transformed this food-basket of America into a vast field of brown dust, forcing the authorities to impose water-use restrictions on farmers.

So Corcoran now finds itself in the midst of a vicious circle: with their water supplies limited, farm operators are forced to pump more underground water, which in turn speeds the sinking of the town.

– Fear of losing jobs –

Few locals have spoken out against the problem — not surprising, since most of them work for the same big agribusinesses pumping up groundwater.

“They are afraid that if they speak against them, they might lose their job,” said Atilano. He spent years working for one of the country’s biggest cotton producers, J.G. Boswell, whose name is seen on thousands of cloth bags stuffed with cotton that are seen stacked around town.

“I don’t care,” he adds with a smile. “I’ve been retired for 22 years.”

The Corcoran area is a major cotton producer; these thousands of bags of cotton belong to major US producer J.G. Boswell. — © AFP

As big farm operations have increasingly become mechanized and industrialized, requiring less and less local labor, the town’s inhabitants themselves have been sinking — into a debilitating economic and psychological slump.

One-third of the majority Hispanic population here now lives in poverty. The three movie theaters that once brought life to the town have all closed their doors.

“A lot of people are moving out,” said local resident Raul Gomez, who is 77.

On this summer afternoon, under a crushing heat wave, some people have stopped to chat under an enormous wall painting.

It depicts a clear blue lake surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks — for now, a distant dream

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-science/a-drought-hit-california-town-finds-itself-sinking-into-the-ground/article#ixzz731aF2CCP

Big battle looms over California water rights

BY DAN WALTERS

AUGUST 8, 2021

California Capitol. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

IN SUMMARY

As the state moves to curtail water diversions by California farmers, the stage is being set for a showdown over water rights.

California doesn’t have enough water to meet all demands even in wet years, and when drought strikes the competition becomes, to put it mildly, intense.

State and federal officials who must ration the restricted supply are beset with pleas from farmers, municipal water systems and advocates for the environment.

However, water managers must also contend with a bewildering array of water rights, some of which date to the 19th century, as well as long-standing contractual obligations and laws, both statutes and judicial decrees, on maintaining flows for spawning salmon and other wildlife.

Those conflicting factors came into play last week when the state Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously to curtail nearly all agricultural water diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed, which stretches about 500 miles from near the Oregon border to near the Tehachapi Mountains.

Get a veteran journalist's take on what's going on in California with a weekly round-up of Dan's column every Friday.

The decree will affect farmers, who use most of the water allocated for human use, but not immediately. The season for irrigating crops is nearly over and water managers delivered a fairly substantial share of agricultural water earlier in the year — too much in the eyes of environmental groups.

However, if drought and the board’s no-diversion policy continue into 2022, they will almost certainly ignite a high-stakes political and legal conflict over whether the state can essentially usurp historic water rights and dictate how local farm water systems are to be operated.

Valerie Kincaid, a water law attorney who represents the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, bluntly told the board, “We now have a draft regulation that exceeds water board authority,” hinting that a legal battle over water rights is looming.

The state first began regulating water in 1914 and holders of pre-existing water rights, plus landowners adjacent to waterways, have long been presumed to have virtually unfettered rights to draw water without regulation.

However, in more recent years, the legal status of those pre-1914 rights has been questioned. As drought gripped the state during his first stint as governor 40-plus years ago, Jerry Brown appointed a commission to review water rights, saying, “the existing law included impediments to the fullest beneficial use of California’s water.”

Nothing came of that effort but when another drought hit during Brown’s second governorship, his water board appointees attempted to breach senior water rights by punishing a small water district near Tracy for ignoring a curtailment order.

“We are a test case,” the Byron-Bethany district’s manager, Rick Gilmore, said at the time. “I think this has become a larger issue. I think the water board wants to use this as a precedent so they can start to gain more control over senior water right users.”

The conflict fizzled before it could morph into an all-out legal battle but other senior rights holders did win a legal ruling that the state was issuing its curtailment decrees without due process.

Environmental groups and some agricultural interests that lack water rights, such as the immense Westlands Water District, seem to be spoiling for a water rights battle.

Westlands endorsed last week’s board action, referring to deliveries to senior rights holders as “unlawful diversions” of water needed to maintain water quality. Westlands thus became a strange bedfellows ally of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which complains that the federal Central Valley Project gave farmers with senior rights too much Lake Shasta water in the spring, leaving too little to support salmon spawning runs.

As drought becomes more frequent, California will — or should be — compelled to re-think its entire water system and the status of water rights will be a central and very volatile factor.



Dan Walters
dan@calmatters.org
Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He began his professional career in 1960, at age 16, at the Humboldt Times... 

Northern California wildfire now second-largest in state's history



Issued on: 09/08/2021 - 

Text by: NEWS WIRES|
Video by: Luke SHRAGO

The monstrous Dixie Fire in northern California has grown to become the second-largest wildfire in state history, authorities said Sunday, with three people reported missing and thousands fleeing the advancing flames.

As of Sunday, the fire had destroyed 463,477 acres (187,562 hectares), up from the previous day's 447,723 acres. It now covers an area larger than Los Angeles.

The Dixie blaze is the largest active wildfire in the United States, but one of only 11 major wildfires in California.

Over the weekend, it surpassed the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire to make it the second-worst fire in state history.

On Saturday, Governor Gavin Newsom visited the burnt-out historic town of Greenville, expressing his "deep gratitude" to the teams fighting the flames.

He said authorities had to devote more resources to managing forests and preventing fires.

But he added that "the dries are getting a lot drier, it is hotter than it has ever been... we need to acknowledge just straight up these are climate-induced wildfires."

Climate change amplifies droughts which dry out regions, creating ideal conditions for wildfires to spread out-of-control and inflict unprecedented material and environmental damage.

The Dixie blaze, which on Saturday left three firefighters injured, remained 21 percent contained Sunday, unchanged from the day before, the CalFire website reported.

Crews estimate the fire, which began July 13, will not finally be extinguished for two weeks.

California Governor Gavin Newsom surveys a burned United States Post Office during the Dixie fire in downtown Greenville, California on August 07, 2021 JOSH EDELSON AFP/File

Higher temperatures forecast

Weak winds and higher humidity have provided some succor to firefighters, but they are bracing for higher temperatures expected to exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) in the coming days.

Heavy smoke was making driving hazardous for fire crews in some areas, and steep trails also made access difficult.

The state's eight largest wildfires have all come since December 2017. The still-blackened scars of previous fires have aided Dixie Fire crews at times, reducing available fuel.

Thousands of residents have fled the area, many finding temporary housing -- even living in tents, and often unsure whether their homes have survived.

The Plumas County sheriff's office said it was still searching for three people listed as missing, after two others were found over the weekend.

The Dixie Fire has already destroyed about 400 structures -- gutting Greenville -- and CalFire said workers and equipment were being deployed to save homes in the small town of Crescent Mills, three miles (five kilometers) southeast of Greenville.

More than 5,000 personnel are now battling the Dixie blaze.

Despite repeated evacuation orders from the authorities, some residents have refused to flee, preferring to try to fight the fire on their own rather than leave their property.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 percent from 2020 -- itself the worst year of wildfires in the state's modern history.

A long-term drought that scientists say is driven by climate change has left much of the western United States and Canada parched -- and vulnerable to explosive and highly destructive fires.

A preliminary investigation has suggested the Dixie Fire was started when a tree fell on a power cable owned by regional utility Pacific Gas & Company (PG&E), a private operator that was earlier blamed for the Camp Fire in 2018, which killed 86 people.

(AFP)

Cyber-bullying campaigner Charley Oliver-Holland says education is key

CGTN



VIDEO Cyber-bullying campaigner Charley Oliver-Holland says education is key - CGTN

WHAT'S THE ISSUE?

During lockdown there were several public cases of online trolling and bullying. Most notably, the England football team faced torrents of racist abuse following their penalty shootout in the Euro 2020 final.

Most of this abuse comes from anonymous accounts, known as "trolls," which makes it hard to track them down and hold them accountable.

Stephen Cole speaks to cyber-bullying victim-turned-campaigner Charley Oliver-Holland about what needs to be done to better support young people in the fight against online harassment.


MEET THE EXPERT

Charley Oliver-Holland is a member of the Welsh Youth Parliament, for Newport East, and has been campaigning against cyber-bullying after becoming a victim of trolling at school.

She is also part of the British Youth Council's 2019 Knife Crime Youth Select Committee and lives with her family in Caldicott, Wales.


WHAT DOES OLIVER-HOLLAND SAY?

Having joined social media at the age of just 12, Charley Oliver-Holland is from a permanently online generation. But it was around this age that she also became a victim of cyber-bullying for the first time.

"My Instagram page was private and it was supposed to be a safe space for me," she explains to Stephen Cole - "but kids from school found it and began calling me names relating to my sexuality."

Oliver-Holland explains that her struggles with social media aren't just confined to cyber-bullying either. "Fear of missing out is also a big thing," she says. "We use our phones every day, it's really hard to disconnect from them."

And although Stephen Cole argues she can just switch it off when it becomes too much, Oliver-Holland says it is just not that simple. "Social media is the place young people meet and engage, you can't just switch off from that."

WHAT'S NEXT?

Education is the future of managing social media, according to Oliver-Holland.

"Young people should be taught how to use these platforms in a safe and positive way," she says. But there have also been discussions about taking more severe steps - like banning mobile phones in schools. Could it work?

"I don't think people should have their phones taken off them," she tells Stephen Cole, "but maybe banned from classrooms. The main focus for schools should really be on safety issues like bullying."

ALSO ON THE AGENDA:

Instagram saw the most new users of any other platform during the pandemic. To get an insight into why it's so addictive Stephen speaks to writer Bella Younger. The self-described 'accidental influencer' explains how she became so obsessed with checking her phone that she ended up in rehab for a social media addiction.

Also in the show is Professor Yvonne Kelly, the Director of the ESRC International Center for Life Course Studies at UCL. She explains how her study concluded that 14-year-old girls were twice as likely to show depressive symptoms linked to social media use when compared with boys of the same age.

Finally, are there long term consequences of harmful online behavior? And how has online aggression changed in the last decade? Dr Maša Popovac - a psychologist who specializes in Cyberpsychology explains the evolution of trolling.

How New Alliance of US Spooks

 & Big Tech Using 'Russia Bugaboo' 

to Amplify Surveillance Powers

 

How New Alliance of US Spooks & Big Tech Using 'Russia Bugaboo' to Amplify Surveillance Powers

© CC0

US

14:00 GMT 07.08.2021Get short URL

by Ekaterina Blinova

On 5 August, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced the creation of the Joint Cyber Defence Collaborative (JCDC) initiative bringing together federal intelligence and military agencies, state and local governments, as well as Big Tech to defend "national critical functions from cyber intrusions".

The initial industry partners that are participating in CISA's new joint cyber defence endeavour include Amazon Web Services, AT&T, Crowdstrike, FireEye Mandiant, Google Cloud, Lumen, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, and Verizon. The Joint Cyber Defence Collaborative (JCDC) initiative is expected to design and implement "whole-of-nation defence plans" to address cyber risks, share information within the newly established agency, and conduct "coordinated defensive cyber operations".

'Bad Russian Hackers' as Pretext to Shut Down Whistleblowers, Dissent

CISA's move follows ransomware attacks, some of which were groundlessly attributed to Russia, having reportedly targeted US infrastructure and government entities over the past year. In early July, Joe Biden vowed action over alleged "Russian" cyberattacks, while levelling new accusations against Moscow at the end of the month claiming that the latter is infringing upon American sovereignty by "interfering" in the upcoming midterm elections in 2022.

"The push nonsensically pretends to be the determined response of a 'victim' nation against 'bad cyber actors', notably Russia", says Joseph Oliver Boyd-Barrett, professor emeritus at Bowling Green State University.

Meanwhile, Russia's "bugaboo" role "has nowhere been more laughingly debunked than in the puerile Western media's four-year-long bedazzlement by the Russiagate scandal, in which it was alleged that Russian-enabled hackers had penetrated the servers and computers of the DNC in 2016", Boyd-Barrett highlights.

It was CrowdStrike, one of the new participants in the JCDC, who raised the red flag about the alleged breach of DNC servers by supposed "Russian hackers", suggesting with a "low-" to "medium"-level of confidence that they may be affiliated with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Department (GRU). While Moscow refuted the allegations as absurd, cyber experts and former US intelligence agents expressed doubts that the DNC breach could be attributed to Russian-speaking key punchers, since the "intrusion tools" described by CrowdStrike as proof of Russia's "involvement" are widely accessible in the public domain. On top of this, CrowdStrike President Shawn Henry admitted under oath in 2017 that the company does not have "concrete evidence" that the alleged "Russian hackers" exfiltrated any data from the DNC servers.

​Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a group of former US intelligence officers from the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA, conducted their own investigation and found that the alleged "hack" was nothing but an inside job. Yet, despite the aforementioned controversies surrounding CrowdStrike's conclusions, the FBI has never challenged them and never conducted a forensic examination of the DNC's physical servers.

In addition, it is no secret that US intelligence cyber teams can leave false fingerprints in electronic communication trails so as to smear innocent parties, Boyd-Barrett highlights. WikiLeaks' "Vault 7" dump revealed that the CIA maintains a substantial library of foreign malware and attack techniques that they can employ to attribute their own attacks to specific foreign players.

​According to Vault 7, the CIA hacking group also used a "Marble" tool that reportedly supported the ability to "add foreign languages" to specific malware, thus helping US spooks to hide its traces and pin the blame on other parties.

​The disclosure immediately threw into question Washington's attempts to link Guccifer 2.0 – who claimed to have hacked the DNC alone – to Moscow under the pretext that DNC emails published by the hacker had Cyrillic notifications in the metadata as well as the user name "Felix Edmundovich" – a reference to the famous founder of the Soviet security service "Cheka".

The fuss surrounding the alleged Russian cyberattacks is just an excuse to amplify the powers of the US government spy machine through cooperation with Big Tech to control and manipulate public information flows, shut down legitimate but dissident whistleblowers, and undesired online conversations, according to the academic.

"The 'whole-of-nation cyber defences' push provides further evidence of the tight integration between the US military-industrial-surveillance complex, the private information technology industry, and the major US media corporations that do little or nothing to investigate and critique this development", Boyd-Barrett emphasises.

© AP PHOTO / ARMANDO FRANCA

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden addresses attendees through video link at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Monday, Nov. 4, 2019

Big Tech Appears to Have Been in Bed With US Spooks for Quite a While

It is unsurprising to see Big Tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft cooperating with US intelligence agencies, according to Toby Walsh, a professor at the University of New South Wales and a leading Australian AI expert.

"Ever since Snowden's revelations, it's been clear that Big Tech is in bed with the government, eavesdropping on citizens going about their lawful activities", Walsh says.

In 2013, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple, and some other tech companies. The NSA secret programme, codenamed Prism, allowed the US intelligence community to collect vast amounts of data on Americans and foreign citizens alike. Prism was launched in 2007 in the wake of the passage of the Protect America Act under the administration of George W. Bush.

"The way to secure cyberspace is to have good encryption and strong laws to prevent anyone, companies or governments, from eavesdropping", argues Walsh.

According to him, the involvement of private companies possessing huge troves of sensitive user data in the government's new cyber initiative "sets a dangerous precedent": "Companies are even less accountable than governments", the professor warns.

Egypt papyrus makers keep tradition alive despite tourism slump

Issued on: 09/08/2021

Abdel Mobdi Moussalam, 48, cuts papyrus reeds from his land in the village of al-Qaramus in Sharqiyah province, in northern Egypt's fertile Nile Delta Khaled DESOUKI AFP

Al-Qaramus (Egypt) (AFP)

In the lush green fields of Egypt's fertile Delta Valley, farmers and artisans are struggling to make a living as they keep alive the Pharaonic-era tradition of making papyrus.

In the 1970s, an art teacher in the village of Al-Qaramus taught farmers the millennia-old techniques for transforming the plant into sought-after paper decorated with ornate drawings and text.

The village and its surrounds, located about 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Cairo, now make up the largest hub of papyrus production in the country, experts in the sector say.

Once used by ancient Egyptians as writing paper, local artists now decorate the papyrus with hieroglyphics, Arabic calligraphy and representations from antiquity and nature to create souvenirs for eager visitors.

But tourism in the North African country has taken a battering since its 2011 revolution, and after a Russian airliner was downed by the Islamic State group in 2015.

The Covid-19 pandemic has further debilitated the sector: Egypt earned just $4 billion in tourist revenues last year, a quarter of what it had anticipated before the global health crisis.

Today, Al-Qaramus has 25 farms trying to make ends meet by selling papyrus, compared to around 500 prior to the revolution, according to farmer and artist Said Tarakhan.

To make paper, wire is used to cut the stems into thin strips, which are immersed in water and then layered on top of each other to create sheets Khaled DESOUKI AFP

"I lost about 80 percent of my total income -- I used to earn nearly $1,000 a month and now it's almost zero," the 60-year-old told AFP as he showed off his replica Tutankhamun paintings.

- 'It will return' -

The papyrus plant, with its fan-shaped foliage, grows in water and can reach four meters (13 feet) in height. Its form has served as inspiration for decorating the columns of ancient Egyptian temples.

To make paper, workers use wire to cut the stems into thin strips, which are immersed in water and then layered on top of each other to create sheets.

The sheets are placed into a compressor to compact them, and the resulting paper is left to dry in the sun before being decorated with writing or colourful designs.

A woman slices papyrus into thin strips at the workshop in al-Qaramus 

Khaled DESOUKI AFP

Papyrus workshop owner Abdel Mobdi Mussalam, 48, said his staff has dwindled from eight a decade ago to just two.

"Papyrus is our only source of income. It's what feeds me and my children," he told AFP.

Tarakhan said he was trying to branch out into other papyrus products such as notebooks and sketchbooks.

A few months ago, his son Mohammed launched an online store to sell their new range.

"At first, we were just selling locally to those who came to us, but after Covid, we thought that we could reach more people, and even foreigners, through the internet," the 30-year-old said.

"We are trying to think differently so that we can carry on," said the elder Tarakhan, who in 2014 founded a local association for papyrus craftspeople.

"I thank Covid-19 for locking us in our homes and forcing us to improve our business model."

Near the famous Giza Pyramids around 100 kilometres away, Ashraf al-Sarawi displays papyrus paintings in his large shop, devoid of tourists.

A woman lays out soaked thin strips of papyrus to form a sheet, before compression and drying at the workshop Khaled DESOUKI AFP

He said he lost most of his income last year due to the pandemic, but expressed hope that tourism would pick up soon.

"Tourism never dies," the 48-year-old said. "It may get sick for a while, but it will return."

© 2021 AFP

The Tokyo Olympics End as They Began With Protests and Major Concerns About COVID

"We don't need the Olympics!" chanted protesters gathered outside Tokyo's stadium. "Stop the closing ceremony!"

By Harron Walker
Today 4:18PM



Photo: Yuichi Yamazaki (Getty Images)

The 2020 Summer Olympics kicked off on July 23 with a crowd of protesters gathered outside of Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium denouncing Japanese leaders and the International Olympics Committee for insisting on holding the pandemic-delayed competition in spite of the ongoing coronavirus health crisis. On Sunday, the Tokyo Games wrapped with...a crowd of protesters gathered outside of Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium denouncing Japanese leaders and the International Olympics Committee for insisting on holding the pandemic-delayed competition in spite of the ongoing coronavirus health crisis.

As the final medals were awarded to competing athletes inside the stadium—with the United States closing the Games with the most gold medals (39) and the most medals total (113), per CNN—an assemblage of approximately 50 protesters chanted of “We don’t need the Olympics, nor the Paralympics!” and “Stop the closing ceremony!” outside, Euronews reports. Some of the demonstrators also carried signs calling attention to the hundreds of Japanese families and elderly citizens whom the city and national governments evicted to clear space for the stadium’s construction—an Olympic tradition, it would seem.

While fears that having tens of thousands of athletes, journalists, and other individuals affiliated with the Olympics would worsen the coronavirus pandemic in Japan—where just over 30% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to BBC News—the Games have not increased local COVID-19 transmission, introduced new variants to the island nation, nor overwhelmed its hospital system, Reuters reports. The IOC reportedly managed to maintain its “bubble” of more than 50,000 people, and, in the end, reported only 404 Games-related infections.

Still, some Japanese health experts say that Tokyo 2020's impact on Japan’s experience of the pandemic has yet to be seen. Koji Wada, a professor of public health at the International University of Health and Welfare, told Reuters that the government’s insistence on hosting the Games has undermined public health messaging around staying home, wearing masks, and avoiding public gatherings.
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Coronavirus cases are on the rise in Tokyo, nonetheless, with the city recording over 5,000 new cases on Thursday, the Associated Press reports—a record for the Japanese capital. Some experts have attributed this rise in cases to the general public not cooperating with recommended health measures intended to slow the spread of the virus—a wariness those same experts attribute to the government’s apparent hypocrisy in hosting the largest sporting event during the pandemic to date.