POLITICAL PRISONER
World Vision defendant Halabi's verdict set for Wednesday


ZIONIST NEWS SOURCE
By YONAH JEREMY BOB - 

Yesterday 
The Jerusalem Post

The Beersheba District Court will decide the fate of World Vision defendant Mohammad El Halabi on Wednesday, six years after his arrest and under pressure from the High Court of Justice to stop dragging its feet.

The state prosecution accused El Halabi of assisting Hamas in addition to his humanitarian work, but he claims the charges were made to delegitimize Palestinian civil society.

El Halabi’s case has received global coverage because he was connected to World Vision, and is being watched closely to determine the fairness and professionalism of the Israeli justice system.

As the El Halabi verdict comes in, the International Criminal Court is about 15 months into a criminal investigation of alleged Israeli and Hamas war crimes during the 2014 Gaza War and the 2018 Gaza border conflict, and has yet to give any signs about how it views Israel’s prosecution and courts in terms of probes and verdicts that have resulted from the events in dispute.

There are also questions on whether the time frame and evidentiary stringencies of the trial can be justified, given that El Halabi was not charged with violent crimes himself.

These questions might only be strengthened if he is found innocent or exonerated on some of the charges.

Sources say that a mixed verdict of partial conviction and partial acquittal could be presented to the world as a sign that the court was objective, and did not “buy” everything pitched to it by the prosecution and Israeli intelligence.

The setting of the verdict date itself came under a direct order from the High Court on May 9, after the court had been set to hear a debate on whether to extend El Halabi’s detention for another 90 days.

The verdict was expected to be delivered before May, and the justices seemed to have lost patience with the Beersheba District Court, which has tried the case.

The High Court extended his detention in February for 90 days, but on the basis that it had indications from the Beersheba District Court that this could be a final extension before the verdict.

Related video: Why Arab world is furious at BJP over insults to Prophet Muhammad

The case

EL HALABI’S CASE had come before the High Court dozens of times since his August 2016 indictment, but each time the justices extended his detention pending a verdict in the trial.

The extremely delayed and time-consuming trial ended with closing arguments in July and October, and it is unclear what further delayed the verdict.

El Halabi has vehemently denied the charges and accused the prosecution and the Shin Bet of manufacturing charges, coercing a confession in order to undermine humanitarian organizations in Gaza and dragging out the case.

Mohammad was indicted in August 2016 for smuggling $7.2 million a year to Hamas for buying weapons and building attack tunnels. This was instead of World Vision using it for food, humanitarian assistance, and aid programs for disabled children.

Neither World Vision nor an Australian government audit found the wrongdoing allegedly uncovered by Israel’s Shin Bet.

Since March 2021, more allegations have come out from El Halabi’s side, including that he was fooled by an undercover informant in detention into confirming details that the informant kept pressuring El Hablabi to confirm.

According to the defense, El Halabi told law enforcement that the confession was coerced from the first moment they raised it with him, and the original document recording the confession was lost by police.

The defense says that the case should have been dropped in light of the circumstances in which the confession was given, and that the police record of what was said is an inauthentic photocopy, raising questions of a police cover-up.

In addition, the defense has claimed that World Vision did not transfer any material to Gaza at some of the crossing points where the prosecution says El Halabi made illegal transfers to Hamas.

The Jerusalem Post has learned that although these allegations were new to the public in March 2021, the prosecution had been aware of them and responded to them behind closed doors throughout the trial.

While the prosecution’s responses are classified at this stage, it appears that the prosecution would acknowledge using an undercover informant, but would say that this is a standard approved tactic and that no illegal pressure was applied.

Moreover, the prosecution would point out that the court already rejected any allegations of a coerced confession earlier in the case, and that the only question left to the court is how much weight to give the confession.

In terms of the lost document allegation, it appears the prosecution would likely express regret, but reject any conspiracy theories. It would point out that this is not the first case in which such an error occurred, and that the defense has not flagged any specific issues to invalidate the authenticity of the copy of the confession.

Regarding the border crossing issue, the prosecution would respond that El Halabi was a clever operator and sometimes used different organizations or names to move material while using World Vision as his main laundering tool.

Both sides accuse the other of unconscionable delays relating to fighting over how the trial would take place, what evidence the defense would get to see, and the possibility in the earlier years of reaching a plea deal.

ATERMATH

Tonga volcano ‘afterglow’ creates dazzling sunsets across New Zealand and Australia

Eva Corlett

 in Wellington 

 The Guardian

Unusually fiery and vibrant sunrises and sunsets across New Zealand and Australia in recent weeks could be due to aerosols that were hurled up into the stratosphere following Tonga’s volcanic eruption in January.

New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospherics (Niwa) has been inundated with messages from people asking what is causing the “strange but beautiful phenomenon”.

The team contacted colleagues in Otago and Paris to confirm if their suspicions were true – that the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption was responsible for the displays.


Sunset at Seddon Park in Hamilton, New Zealand, in March. 

Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images

The Lauder Atmospheric Research Station in Central Otago said their instruments had detected unusual spikes in aerosols in the stratosphere, at around 20-25 kilometres above New Zealand. Researchers at the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace in Paris said satellite data also showed that concentrations of stratospheric aerosols from the eruption had tripled between 35°S and 45°S – the latitude where New Zealand lies on the globe – since April.

The aerosols from the plume of gas and ash have been dispersing around the globe, Niwa said, and indeed, it is thought that they are causing the stunning skies. Sunsets and sunrises would have been similarly striking around Tonga in the aftermath of the eruption, but now the aerosols were heading south.

“Usually when you see a sunrise or sunset, it is the clouds that morph into the most vibrant colours,” said Nava Fedaeff, a Niwa forecaster.

“However, when stratospheric aerosols are present after a volcanic eruption, they scatter and bend the light as the sun dips or rises past the horizon, creating a glow in the sky with hues of blue, purple, and violet.”


A hot air balloon flies over Melbourne in late January.

 Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Volcanic twilights are known as “afterglows”, with the colour and intensity of the afterglow dependent on the amount of haze and cloudiness along the path of light reaching the stratosphere, Fedaeff said. “These bewitching scenes are made even more striking by crepuscular rays caused by shadowing from distant clouds or mountain barriers.”

New Zealand has experienced this phenomenon before. Sunset afterglows persisted for months after the eruption of Philippine volcano Mount Pinatubo in 1991, meaning New Zealanders could be treated to these lovely morning and evening colours for a while longer, Fedaeff said.

The sun sets at Hagley Park Oval in Christchurch, New Zealand, in April. 

Photograph: Sanka Vidanagama/AFP/Getty Images

SOCIALIST GENTRIFICATION

West Virginia cash-for-worker program welcomes new residents


Yesterday 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A program offering $20,000 in cash and incentives for remote workers to move to West Virginia as part of a population push has chosen 33 people for its second class of newcomers and is now taking applications for a third host region, officials announced Tuesday.

Tourism officials said the public-private program received more than 3,600 applications for the latest round in the Greenbrier Valley, about the same number as there are residents in the laid-back southeastern community of Lewisburg.

The applicants recently selected for the Greenbrier Valley are from 19 U.S. states, including as far away as California. The average annual income of those selected is about $125,000. The applicants will be bringing family members for a total of 61 new residents.

“These people are coming to West Virginia because they want to be in the mountains,” state Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby said at a news conference.

Among them is Ben Isenberg, a Maryland transplant who owns a branding agency and closed on a home 30 days after receiving his spot.

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, my family and I set out to travel across the United States to stretch our legs and experience nature," Isenberg said in a statement. "We traveled, camped and explored national parks across the country in search of a place that would feel like our forever home. As new West Virginia residents, I am proud to say that we have found just that and more in the Greenbrier Valley of West Virginia.”

Another new resident is returning home. Andrew Neely graduated from Greenbrier East High School but moved away for a career in the Air Force. His most recent role was with a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company.


Neely said his return "is like a dream come true. I’m an avid fisherman, paddler and biker, so West Virginia makes complete sense as the place for me to put down roots.”

Besides Lewisburg, which once was voted America’s “Coolest Small Town,” the Greenbrier Valley also includes the posh Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs and the state fairgrounds in Fairlea. The area is within an hour of the New River Gorge National Park and Reserve.

Last year, the first round of the Ascend West Virginia remote worker program welcomed 53 new residents from as far away as Germany to the northern college town of Morgantown.

As part of Tuesday's announcement, officials said they are opening up new applications for the Eastern Panhandle, along with additional openings for Morgantown and the Greenbrier Valley.

Despite the state’s long-term population doldrums, the Eastern Panhandle is the fastest-growing region of West Virginia and is a cheaper living alternative for people who work a little more than an hour away in Washington, D.C. The Eastern Panhandle includes small towns such as Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg and Shepherdstown.

The 2020 census found West Virginia lost a greater percentage of its residents than any other state in the past decade, and is now the only state with fewer residents than it had in 1950. Residents left as jobs in the coal, steel and other industries were eliminated. The nation’s second-largest coal producer, West Virginia has lost 56% of its coal mining jobs since 2009 as power plants turn toward renewable energy sources.

To begin to reverse the exodus, West Virginia is leveraging one of its most appealing assets, its “almost heaven” natural beauty, in direct appeals to outdoor enthusiasts whose jobs enable them to work from anywhere they choose.

Under the remote worker program, out-of-state participants who move to West Virginia will receive $12,000 along with annual passes to indulge in whitewater rafting, golf, rock climbing, horseback riding, skiing and ziplining. The full relocation package is valued at more than $20,000.

As a consolation, those who were not selected will be offered an average of $3,500 in mortgage assistance if they move to West Virginia.

Over the next five years, the program plans to welcome more than 1,000 new remote workers to the state. The program was founded through a $25 million gift to West Virginia University by former Intuit executive chairman Brad Smith and his wife, Alys. Brad Smith is now the president of Marshall University in Huntington.

John Raby, The Associated Press

Winnipeg Mayoral candidate calls for supervised consumption sites

A second mayoral candidate has come out against a proposed plan to dismantle two Transcona bus shelters as a way to deal with homelessness and due to complaints about drug use.

Mayoral candidate Rick Shone, pictured near a bus shelter on Portage Avenue at Spence Street on Monday, June 13, 2022, is calling on the city to adopt supervised consumption sites to help keep transit riders safe in Winnipeg.

Glen Dawkins - Monday, June 13,2022 Winnipeg Sun   

Rick Shone would like to see the City establish supervised drug consumption sites instead.

“Personally I think we’ve been putting our heads in the sand,” said Shone, standing in front of a bus shelter on Portage Avenue near the University of Winnipeg which had its glass walls, doors, seating and electrical units removed similar to what is planned for two bus shelters on Regent Avenue directly in front of Kildonan Place. “Nobody wants to deal with (the city’s drug crisis). There’s a number of people talking about it but we need someone to actually take some concrete steps.

“We need to try something. We’re not trying anything, instead we’re tearing down bus shelters.”

On Saturday, fellow mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham also dismissed the idea.

“I can’t accept the idea that destroying our own transit infrastructure will accomplish anything but shift homelessness and addiction problems around,” said Gillingham in a statement Saturday. “Bus shelters outside Portage Place were dismantled for similar reasons – but encampments simply moved to other transit shelters along Portage Avenue.”

Shone is proposing the city follow the example of communities such as Vancouver which have had the Insite supervised drug injection site since 2003.


© KEVIN KING

Mayoral candidate Rick Shone is calling on the city to adopt supervised consumption sites to help keep transit riders safe in Winnipeg. Pictured on Monday, June 13, 2022,

“This is the first step to address a really big crisis that we have in the city right now and that is the addictions crisis,” said Shone.

Last June, the City’s Protection Committee released a study on the feasibility of establishing a supervised consumption site, saying that the City could move forward without the province although funding could be a barrier.

Shone considers supervised consumption sites as just the first step in a wider strategy to combat drug use and addiction in Winnipeg.

“I don’t think the city should go on its own,” said Shone, who estimates the cost to be $1.5-2 million a year for the sites. “The province should step in because this is definitely a health issue. The challenge is that we need somebody to take the bull by the horns and get something done.”

These sites increase access to health services for a vulnerable population, connecting these individuals with health services and information on addictions treatment, Shone said.

“I think we have to be realistic here in the sense that we have a drug crisis and it’s not something that is going to go away tomorrow,” he said. “We need to look at what is a bigger plan here.”

Winnipeggers head to the polls on Oct. 26 to elect a new mayor and council.

gdawkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @SunGlenDawkins

L3Harris in talks to buy Israeli spyware firm NSO - reports

TODAY

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. defence contractor L3Harris is in talks to buy Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, U.S. and Israeli media reported, citing sources with knowledge of the deal.

The deal is yet to be finalised and needs to be approved by Israel, the U.S. and L3Harris’ board of directors, according to the joint report by Haaretz, The Washington Post and The Guardian, and confirms parts of a report published in Intelligence Online this week.

It noted that The White House is concerned that any deal with to buy the Israeli firm’s hacking tools would raise serious counterintelligence and security concerns.

NSO declined to comment on the reports.

The surveillance firm, which makes the Pegasus software, has been in the spotlight after revelations its tools had been used by governments and other agencies to spy on people’s cellphones. NSO has said its technology helps catch criminals.

NSO lost many of its existing customers when the U.S. Commerce Department in November banned the company.

The reports said that if approved, the deal could see NSO removed from the banned list – either directly, or by having its assets bought by L3Harris, which will only work with the United States and its allies.

In January, NSO had told Reuters it was in talks with a number of U.S. funds over "various financial moves", confirming media reports that it was discussing a sale of its assets.

Apple is among those to have sued NSO, saying it violated U.S. laws by breaking into the software installed on iPhones.

Microsoft Corp, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Cisco Systems Inc have also criticised NSO or taken legal action.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer, Editing by Louise Heavens)

Israel is pressuring the US to de-blacklist Pegasus developer NSO

By Walla! AND JERUSALEM POST STAFF - Thursday, June 9,2022
© (photo credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

Israel has asked the US administration several times in recent months to remove the cyber company NSO, developers of the PEGASUS spyware software, from the US Commerce Department’s blacklist, according to Walla, two senior Israeli officials, and a senior American official.

The officials said the Biden administration was considering the Israeli request. However, another senior government official denied the allegations, saying that when Israel raised the request, it was made clear that the White House would not intervene.

If the Biden administration decides to remove NSO from this blacklist, it would be a dramatic change in policy that would likely draw harsh criticism from within the Democratic Party, Congress and the American cyberdefense community.

“We told the Americans that they should not tear down NSO,” a senior Israeli official told Walla. “Even if the company had some problematic customers, it does not mean that the company’s products and capabilities are no longer needed.”

NSO has in recent months hired two US law firms that work with the Commerce Department regarding the commerce list.

The company’s lawyers have appealed the decision to put NSO on the blacklist and asked for a hearing, but so far, apart from an exchange of letters with the Commerce Department, there has been no progress.



In recent years, NSO has become a strategic asset for the Israeli defense community, especially for the Mossad. The company was used, among other things, to promote secret ties with countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relations, and to strengthen intelligence ties with countries with which Israel does have them.

At the end of last year, after the Biden administration decided to impose sanctions on NSO, an internal discussion took place in the Israeli government regarding the degree of assistance to be provided to the company, and whether Israel should officially contact the US administration on the issue.

NSO heads then sent a letter to the prime minister, foreign minister and defense minister asking for their intervention, and warning of the consequences of the company’s future sanctions.

Initially, a decision was made that Israel would act proactively with the US to change the decision, but at a later stage the policy changed and Jerusalem began to put pressure on the Biden administration.
NSO blacklisting

In November, the Commerce Department added NSO and another Israeli offensive cyber company, Candiro, to the blacklist of companies operating in a manner contrary to the interests of national security and foreign policy.

This was the first time that the US government imposed sanctions on Israeli cyber companies that receive an export license from the Israel Defense Ministry.

The Commerce Department has determined that NSO provided spyware to governments that used it against journalists, human rights activists and diplomats at US embassies around the world.

As part of the sanctions, any American company that wishes to enter into a transaction with NSO must obtain a license from the department.

In July, a series of investigations published in international media revealed that a number of countries – including Hungary, India, Morocco, Mexico and Saudi Arabia – used NSO’s Pegasus software to spy on opposition activists and journalists.

With Marcos Jr.’s election, Filipinos need to brace for a bleak future

© (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Bernadette P. Resurrección, 

Associate Professor, Global Development Studies, 

Queen's University, Ontario -

 Monday, June 13, 2022

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been elected the 17th president of the Philippines, 36 years after his father, the known dictator and plunderer Ferdinand Sr., was ousted in a peaceful revolution.

Marcos Jr. won the presidency with 31 million votes, trouncing his closest rival, Vice-President Leonor “Leni” Robredo, who received 15 million votes.


© (AP Photo/Jess Tan Jr.)

Ferdinand Marcos Sr. poses with his only son Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

 in 1972 in Manila, Philippines.

Ferdinand Marcos Sr. established martial law in the Philippines from 1972 to 1981, a period of brutal repression with more than 11,000 documented human rights violations. Critics of Marcos were imprisoned, tortured, raped and executed. His family and their cronies are thought to have plundered about $10 billion, and they evaded legal claims for the Marcos family’s ill-gotten riches in Philippine and foreign courts even after Marcos Sr.‘s death in Hawaii in 1989.

Critics accuse the Marcos family of whitewashing their family’s crimes and martial law atrocities through social media platforms. In a narrative of denial, Marcos Jr. promises to restore the “Golden Age” of peace and prosperity that his father had begun, raising questions about whether that means a future of martial law.

Revisionist history

The revisionist “narrative of nostalgia” has three parts, according to Filipino academic Victor Felipe Bautista:

The supposed glorious past under a benevolent President Marcos;

The fall that interrupted the Marcos regime supposedly orchestrated by Corazon Aquino, the widow of Marcos’s political arch-rival, Benigno Aquino Jr., who was assassinated on the Manila airport tarmac upon his return to the Philippines in 1983;

The dark present, when Marcos is said to be a “victim of black propaganda,” meaning subtle propaganda that does not come from the source it claims to come from.

The Marcos Jr. propaganda operations include collective memory experts who use revisionist nostalgia as a tool for steering public opinion.

Critics suggest massive and well-resourced efforts to change and control the narrative through historical revisionism has been key to Marcos Jr.’s electoral victory. I complement this with a view that the Philippines’ colonial legacy equally influenced the results of the recent presidential election.

Colonial class divides

In many post-colonial societies, colonial powers and their elite, modern-day counterparts maintain class divides. Those divides allow them to control the masses as a steady source of extracted surplus and cheap labour and, for local politicians, a traditional source of votes.

Development in the Philippines has always been tied to colonial relations. Ties with the United States remained strong even after formal independence in 1946, which is evident in bilateral agreements allowing American firms to own and operate public utilities and extract natural resources.

Post-colonial relations with the U.S. and development aid helped generate the fortunes of a Filipino landed oligarchy, dispensed infrastructure and agricultural loans and provided military aid during the martial law years, setting the stage for the Marcos years as the Golden Age in Philippine history.

Returning from their exile in the 2000s, members of the Marcos family were elected to various political positions. Efforts to change the anti-Marcos narrative and alter the political culture in the Philippines via the new technologies of social media grew rampant.

Before long, photos of bridges, roads and buildings built by Marcos Sr. began to flood social media to suggest the Philippines was on par with emerging industrializing nations at the time of his administration.

“If my father was allowed to pursue his plans, I believe that we would be like Singapore now,” said Marcos Jr. in 2011.

Western appeal

To young voters born after the martial law era — the country’s largest voter demographic — Singapore evokes images of globalized progress: glitzy designer malls, savvy digital technology and western-style posh lifestyles that promote capitalist consumption. Young Filipino voters also seemed to delight in the “cool” Marcos vibe of speaking with American accents and stories of the privileges that come with wealth.

The Marcos messaging — also carefully curated in more than 200 BuzzFeed-style posh, familial and cheerful YouTube videos — sought to temporarily bridge the traditionally sharp social divides in the Philippines. This served to momentarily placate centuries-old internalized local racism, self-othering and a deep-seated sense of colonial, racial and class inferiority among Filipinos compared to westerners and their local wealthy counterparts, such as the Marcos family.

For a deeply class-stratified and colonized society, the Marcos propaganda machine has enhanced aspirations for western markers of progress and modernity.

But these efforts haven’t just been an attempt to whitewash the plunder of the Marcos family and the brutalities of martial law.

The propaganda also conjures up a vision of a neocolonial, modernized and consumption-driven future. In a nutshell, Marcos has escalated western aspirations and solidified the racialized and marginalized class identities that capitalism — an economic system organized around a minority class and its pursuit of profit — is dependent upon.

Marcos Jr.’s references to a Golden Age in the Philippines invites a nostalgic look at the past. But it also warns of a darker future.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
Philippines: the challenges ahead for the new president Marcos

A member of the Marcos family is returning to power – here’s what it means for democracy in the Philippines

Bernadette P. Resurrección does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

REST IN 'PEACE'

A.B. Yehoshua, Israeli author and peace activist, dies at 85


Yesterday 

JERUSALEM (AP) — A.B. Yehoshua, a prominent Israeli author celebrated for his mastery of the Hebrew language and a leading peace activist, died on Tuesday. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by a Tel Aviv hospital, which said the cause death was cancer.

Abraham B. Yehoshua was born in Jerusalem in 1936. His work was widely translated and adapted to film and stage. His first book, “The Death of the Old Man," was published in 1962, and his most recent work, a novella entitled “The Third Temple” was published earlier this year. His other works include “The Lover," “A Late Divorce" and “Mr. Mani."

His writing won numerous literary awards including the Israel Prize in Literature in 1995.

Beyond his oeuvre, Yehoshua was a leading voice of the Israeli peace camp, joining fellow authors Amoz Oz and David Grossman in calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict with the Palestinians that would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that Yehoshua was “one of the great writers and storytellers of the state of Israel” whose “unforgettable creations will continue to accompany us for generations.”

Tamar Zandberg, a government minister with the dovish Meretz party, wrote on Twitter that Yehoshua “also took upon himself the significant moral role of championing peace and justice.”

Yehoshua will be laid to rest on Wednesday at a kibbutz in northern Israel.

The Associated Press

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

'War is good for business' as drive to arm Ukraine looms over French expo

By John Irish and Lucien Libert

June 13,2022

VILLEPINTE, France (Reuters) - Next to Ukraine's stand at the world's largest arms fair for ground forces on Monday, U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin proudly displays its anti-tank Javelin missile like a big brother protecting its younger sibling.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defence and security exhibition in Villepinte

The weapon has been key to Kyiv's defence against Moscow's invasion, and as France hosted the annual Eurosatory arms bazaar, the symbolism was not lost on some of the thousands of people who make, buy and use advanced weapons.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defence and security exhibition in Villepinte

"This year is all about Ukraine. War is good for business, but it's not something I am happy about," one eastern European manufacturer said speaking on condition of anonymity.

Returning after a COVID-19 pandemic hiatus, the exhibition bristles with weaponry from about 60 countries, including tanks, armoured vehicles, riot gear and display cases crammed with guns and ammunition.

This year, the world's second largest arms exporter is absent: three Russian manufacturers were set to come but pulled out. Meanwhile, among the 1,700 exhibitors, the numbers of stands from some Baltic and eastern European countries have doubled or tripled.


Many in attendance spoke of a massive surge in demand as countries ramp up production, both to send munitions to Ukraine and to beef up their own arsenals.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defense and security trade fair in Villepinte

"France has entered a war economy," President Emmanuel Macron said at the opening of the arms show, calling for European powers to learn from their past mistakes and develop the defence industry amongst themselves.

"We have to go much further, much more quickly and more strongly because geopolitics dictates."

Several manufacturers told Reuters there was a shortage of capacity, notably in Europe, which has for years depended on imported - especially American - arms. Some providers said they would not be able to catch up to the demand to arm Ukraine until 2024-2025.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defence and security exhibition in Villepinte

Elie Tenenbaum, Director of the Security Studies Centre at the Paris-based Institute of International relations, said Ukraine's armed forces were now using more ammunition in a day than Europe's arms industry could produce in a month.

"We now have a European defence industry which is unfit for the warfare we see in Ukraine," he said.

A lack of production capacity both for Ukraine and Russia could eventually slow the pace of the conflict, he added.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defence and security exhibition in Villepinte

Highlighting that urgency, Le Monde newspaper reported on Monday that French authorities were considering legislation to requisition civilian factories to increase the capacity to make weapons.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defense and security trade fair in Villepinte

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Peter Graff)

Latino activism leads in grassroot efforts on climate change

Sunday, June 12, 2022

PHOENIX (AP) — Students at a largely Hispanic elementary school in Phoenix have long lined up for morning classes on a dusty patch of dirt under a broiling sun.

So when Tony Mada learned of plans to plant 75 young trees at Borman Elementary School, the 30-year-old and his daughter Lilyth, 10, joined scores of volunteers to increase shade on campus.

Desert willows, oaks and mesquites just a few feet tall were among trees planted at the event organized by the local nonprofit Trees Matter and the environmental organization The Nature Conservancy, which is expanding its focus beyond the wildlands to urban areas impacted by climate-fueled heat.

“I’ll do anything to cool things down for my kids in this hot neighborhood,” Mada said one Saturday this spring as he and Lilyth, a student at the school, freed an acacia tree from the wooden box holding its roots.

After experiencing global warming's firsthand effects, U.S. Latinos are leading the way in activism around climate change, often drawing on traditions from their ancestral homelands.

“There has been a real national uprising in Latino activism in environmentalism in recent years,” said Juan Roberto Madrid, an environmental science and public health specialist based in Colorado for the national nonprofit GreenLatinos. “Climate change may be impacting everyone, but it is impacting Latinos more."

U.S. Latinos often live in ignored, lower income neighborhoods that are degrees hotter than nearby areas because they have a higher population density and limited tree canopy. Hispanics are also disproportionately affected by chronic health conditions aggravated by extreme heat, like diabetes and heart and kidney disease.

Latino activists are now sounding the alarm about the risks of global warming for their neighborhoods and the world. They include a teen who protested every Friday for weeks outside U.N. headquarters in New York, a Southern California academic who wants more grassroots efforts included in global climate organizing and a Mexico-born advocate in Phoenix who teaches young Hispanics the importance of protecting Earth for future generations.

“Many members of the Latinx community have Indigenous roots," said Masavi Perea, organizing director for Chispa Arizona, a program of the League of Conservation Voters. “A lot of us grew up on ranches, so many of us already have a relationship with nature.”

Walking through rows of kale, corn and squash at Chispa's plot in a south Phoenix garden, the 47-year-old said he works to increase the group’s base and educate young members about environmental issues like climate change.

Perea, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Mexico, said Chispa members include Central Americans he calls “climate refugees” who fled countries battered by hurricanes and droughts.


Recent research shows most Latinos in the U.S. consider climate change an important concern.

A Pew Research Center study released last fall showed about seven in 10 Latinos say climate change affects their communities at least some, while only 54% of non-Latinos said it affects their neighborhoods. The self-administered web survey of 13,749 respondents had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.

Colorado College's Conservation in the West Poll published this year showed notably higher percentages of Latino, Black and Indigenous voters in eight western states concerned about climate change, pollution and the impact of fossil fuels.

Latino and other communities of color are disproportionately affected by climate change, such as more frequent, intense and longer heat waves in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Palm Springs and other arid western communities.

A study by researchers from the University of California, Davis and the American University of Beirut concluded last year that poor and Latino neighborhoods in 20 metro regions around the Southwest endure temperatures several degrees higher on the hottest days, creating greater risks for heat-related illness.

Phoenix, the hottest big city in the U.S., in recent years has seen some of its hottest summers, with a heat wave a year ago pushing temperatures up to 118 degrees (48 Celsius).

The city earlier this year worked with the conservation nonprofit American Forests to create the first of 100 “cool corridors” by planting shade trees for pedestrians and cyclists alongside a south Phoenix park named for the late Latino activist Cesar Chavez.

“It's much hotter here now than when I first moved here,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who lives nearby, said as he toured the 259 newly planted drought resistant elm, ash, sissoo and Chinese pistachio trees.

Gallego, who was born in Chicago and raised there by his Colombian mother, said segregation in Phoenix once forced Blacks and Latino residents to live in the city's south, which meant fewer trees and other investments there.

He has teamed up with fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, of New Jersey, on a bill to create $30 million in federal grants annually for several years to ease the effects of urban heat, especially in low-income communities of color.

While many Latino activists focus their climate advocacy on their own neighborhoods, teenager Alexandria Villaseñor takes activism to the world stage.

Inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, Villaseñor spent many Fridays outside United Nations headquarters in New York in 2019, protesting global inaction on climate change.

Now 17, she is a co-founder of Earth Uprising, a climate change education group.

Climate policy scholar Michael Méndez, author of the book “Climate Change from the Streets,“ said grassroots organizing is equally important.

Méndez grew up the son of Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles County’s Fernando Valley, where he saw Latino neighbors fight against air pollution and dumping of toxic waste.

“It's not an abstract idea for us,” said Méndez, who teaches at the University of California, Irvine. "For Latinos, climate change is about how to protect our families, our children.”

Anita Snow, The Associated Press

TORONTO NOT SO GOOD

Clarence Square encampment cleared out

Liz Braun -

 Sunday, June 12,2022

 Toronto Sun

Some of the homeless people who have occupied at tent encampment at Clarence Square Park -- a parkette at the east end of Spadina Ave. at Wellington St. W. -- mill about after residents there were evicted by city officials on Sunday, June 12, 2022.

About eight tents were removed from an encampment in a small park area near Spadina Ave. and Wellington St. W. on Sunday morning.

City workers, with police standing by, cleared out the area of Clarence Square at about 9 a.m. According to witnesses, four to six people were living in the park at the time.

One wood structure and one tent remained as of Sunday afternoon.

There is a bylaw in Toronto that prohibits sleeping or camping in city parks.

Eviction notices were issued earlier in June, as is the usual procedure. The notices advise people that they have three days to leave, and city staff offer rehousing spaces indoors at shelters and respite centres.

Some residents of the encampment in Clarence Square accepted spaces indoors.

However, as a street worker said Sunday afternoon, the spaces offered to people sleeping in our parks are often in shelter hotels or other spaces that feel neither safe nor permanent.

Many people facing homelessness have attested to the fact that tenting in a park is preferable to staying in one of the city’s shelters.

Theft, overcrowding and violence are cited as reasons the shelters can be undesirable places to sleep.

Toronto Sun photographer Jack Boland spoke to Devin, who did not give his last name; he is one of the residents of the park space in Clarence Square.

“People are staying in parks because it’s safer than the shelters,” Devin said.

He said he has been in shelters, parks, in jail and on a psych ward, and shelters are by far the more dangerous option.

As for Sunday’s clearance action, he said, “ The solution to homelessness isn’t policing. It’s housing.

“You don’t want people sleeping in a park? Give people housing.”