20 shipping containers' worth of gold and television sets were stolen in the 'biggest heist' ever for a Mexico port

Grace Kay
Thu, June 16, 2022,

Containers wait to be stacked onto trucks at at Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai, China, on April 27.Tian Yuhao/China News Service via Getty Images.

Thieves took 20 shipping containers from a freight yard in Mexico this month.


The containers were loaded with gold, silver ore, and TVs, per local media reports.


The head of Mexico's customs service said the theft was the result of organized crime.

Twenty shipping containers that were loaded with gold, silver ore, and televisions were stolen earlier this month, according to the Mexican Employers Federation.

Horacio Duarte, the head of Mexico's customs service, told the Associated Press that the theft was the result of "a very serious organized crime operation." The region, known as the state of Colima, is dominated by the Jalisco Cartel, a semi-militarized group of criminals that is led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a drug trafficker who is known as the most-wanted man in Mexico, as well as one of the most-wanted in the US.

The Mexican Employers Federation and Mexico Custom Regulations did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.

The theft took place earlier this month, but was not reported until Monday.

Local newspaper El Pais reported that over a dozen fully-armed thieves broke into a private freight yard near a port in Manzanillo, dubbing it the "biggest heist' in the port's history. The thieves reportedly gagged the guards at the yard and took eight hours to pick out the high-value shipping containers.

El Pais reported that the men knew how to use the cranes and other gear at the location and connected the containers to several trucks before driving away.

"It is unprecedented, there had been no robbery of this nature before this," Gustavo Adrián Joya, a spokesperson for the security department of Colima state, said in a statement to El Pais.

The goods have not been seen since, the local newspaper reported. José Medina Mora, president of the Mexican Employers Federation, told Associated Press the theft is a sign that safety concerns in the nation are growing. El Pais reported that the port is a main thoroughfare for the cartel, especially for unloading synthetic drugs that are made in Mexico and sold in the US.

While freight theft is not uncommon, it is unusual for dozens of containers to be stolen at once. CargoNet's vice president of operations, Keith Lewis, told Insider freight yards can be a vulnerable place for high value goods.

"A shipment is most vulnerable anytime it is parked," Lewis said.

In 2020, cargo theft hit a record in the US as hundreds of thousands of shipping containers flooded ports and nearby shipping yards amid the supply-chain crisis.

Lewis said that multi-million dollar shipments like containers full of semiconductor chips or television sets are often fitted with security devices in the US, including covert trackers and specialty locks to deter thieves.

Too big to sanction? A large Russian bank still operates freely because it helps Europe get Russian gas


Natalia Kolesnikova

Dan De Luce
Sat, June 18, 2022, 2:30 AM·5 min read

Ukraine is urging the United States and the European Union to slap tougher sanctions on one of Russia’s largest banks, Gazprombank, which is still able to operate freely around the world because of its central role in Moscow’s gas trade.

Ukraine’s government says the bank, which was set up to service Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom, is helping to bankroll the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.

“The U.S. and Europe should sanction Gazprombank, not just for its role in helping Russia accrue revenue from its energy sales, but because Gazprombank is directly involved in supporting Russia’s military, state-owned companies, and other institutions that are sustaining the invasion of Ukraine,” Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told NBC News.

Gazprombank, Russia’s third largest bank, has been spared the kind of severe restrictions facing many other Russian lenders. It continues to oversee transactions in dollars and euros, and remains part of the international SWIFT bank messaging system.

The question of whether to tighten sanctions on Gazprombank illustrates the dilemma facing Western governments as they try to squeeze Russia’s economy in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. Europe still relies heavily on Russian natural gas, and uses Gazprombank to handle payments for its gas imports. Most European governments remain reluctant to penalize the bank and risk cutting off the flow of natural gas completely, Western officials and experts say.

Ukraine has been pressing the U.S. to expand sanctions and has shared intelligence about alleged Russian actions with U.S. officials as part of that campaign.

According to Ukraine’s intelligence services, Gazprombank handles the payment of wages to at least some Russian troops taking part in the invasion of Ukraine, as well as payments to families of troops killed in the war.

Ukraine says there are also indications the bank is linked to purchases of military gear. In one case, a Russian military officer from a tank division operating in eastern Ukraine used Gazprombank to arrange the purchase of two drone quadcopters, according to Ukrainian intelligence reporting obtained by NBC News.

Gazprombank, which has representative offices in China, India and in Europe, may also be involved in efforts to circumvent Western sanctions, possibly helping other entities gain access to foreign currency or enable the purchase of equipment that could be used for potentially military purposes, according to Ukrainian intelligence services. They have relayed those concerns to U.S. officials.

The Russian federal agency that manages civilian foreign aid and cultural exchange, or Rossotrudnichestvo, has explored the possibility of using Gazprombank to arrange cash transfers to one of its offices in Portugal, according to the intelligence services.

Rossotrudnichestvo did not respond to a request for comment.

The Biden administration declined to comment on the information cited by the Ukrainian intelligence services.

Gazprombank did not respond to a request for comment.

A Department of Treasury official said the Biden administration is tracking Gazprombank’s activities and has not ruled out any future actions against the bank.

“We continue to monitor Gazprombank to see if they are doing business with sanctioned entities,” the official said.

“To date, I think we haven’t made the decision to place full blocking sanctions on Gazprombank,” the official said, adding that a range of options remain open.

The aim of U.S. financial sanctions is “to deny Russia access to revenue they need to prop up their economy and build up their military industrial complex” and to disrupt supply chains for the country’s defense industry “in order to make it harder for them to project power today and to project power in the future,” the Treasury official said.

Agathe Demarais, a former French treasury official, said Europe would be in “a tricky position” if Gazprombank were shut out of the international financial system.

“The U.S. knows if it were to put Gazprombank under U.S. sanctions, it would cause huge issues in the E.U., it would send the eurozone into a deep recession, and it would create a big rift between the E.U. and the U.S. on the sanctions front," said Demarais, now the global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit. And the Biden administration is keen to avoid a clash with its European allies, she said.

Some sanctions experts said Gazprombank might try to avoid risky transactions that could attract the attention of U.S. or European authorities and jeopardize its crucial link for channeling natural gas revenue to Moscow.

Although Washington has not frozen the bank’s assets or blocked dollar transactions, the Treasury Department last month imposed sanctions on 27 of its executives.

In February, the U.S. introduced sanctions on a Gazprombank board member, Sergei Sergeevich Ivanov, head of a Russian state-owned diamond mining company. He is also the son of a close Putin ally and senior Russian government official, according to the Treasury Department.

In 2014, after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, the U.S. placed limited restrictions on Gazprombank, banning U.S. banks from providing medium- or long-term financing to the lender.

In Switzerland, financial authorities in 2018 banned Gazprombank’s Swiss affiliate from accepting new private clients, citing the bank’s breach of anti-money laundering rules and its failure to vet transactions.

FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator, said it continues to monitor Gazprombank Switzerland but declined to comment further.

“We can confirm that we are in close contact with Gazprombank Switzerland,” said Vinzenz Mathys, spokesperson, said.

Last year, Europe relied on Russia for about 45 percent of its natural gas. Europe has reduced imports of Russian gas this year and the E.U. has set a goal of cutting the imports by two-thirds by the end of the year.

But Europe remains heavily dependent on Russia’s gas and, this week, Moscow slashed deliveries of natural gas to Europe, prompting calls for conservation measures as governments prepare for the winter.

Russian officials said the supply reductions were due to maintenance problems, but Germany accused the Kremlin of using energy as a political weapon.

“Sanctions on Gazprombank would be equal to an embargo on Russian gas, which is now not in the cards,” said Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Belgium-based think tank focusing on Europe’s economy.

“The E.U. first needs to implement its embargo on Russian oil, which will start at the end of the year.”

The E.U. plans to cut off 90 percent of its Russian oil imports by the close of 2022.

Pope Francis: 'World War III' gives arms dealers opportunity, Ukraine invasion 'very complex' situation


AleVatican Pool/Getty Images

Peter Aitken
Thu, June 16, 2022, 3:53 PM·2 min read

Pope Francis urged more nuance in discussions about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, insisting that people are too quick to create "good guy" and "bad guy" labels for a complex global situation that is tantamount to an ongoing "World War III."

"A few years ago, it occurred to me to say that we are experiencing a third world war fought piecemeal," the pope told editors of news outlet La Civilta Cattolica. "Today, for me, World War III has been declared."

The pope’s wide-ranging conversation with the Cattolica editorial board, released Tuesday, acknowledged the atrocities in Ukraine, but the pope cautioned that many people "miss the whole drama … unfolding behind this war."

"What we are seeing is the brutality and ferocity with which this war is being carried out by the troops, generally mercenaries, used by the Russians," Pope Francis said. "In reality, the Russians prefer to send forward Chechens, Syrians, mercenaries."

The pope referred to the possibility that the war was "either provoked or not-prevented," and that there was "interest in testing and selling weapons."

"Someone may say to me at this point: But you are pro-Putin! No, I am not," the pope insisted. "It would be simplistic and erroneous to say such a thing."

"I am simply against turning a complex situation into a distinction between good guys and bad guys, without considering the roots and self-interests, which are very complex," he argued.

SYRIA TO BECOME FIRST TO RECOGNIZE DONETSK, LUHANSK ‘REPUBLICS' IN UKRAINE IN SUPPORT OF RUSSIA'S WAR

The pope also spent time praising the "brave" Ukrainian people who are "struggling to survive and have a history of conflict."

But he related the Ukraine invasion to other conflicts around the world, such as in some parts of Africa "where war is ongoing and no one cares."

"Think of Rwanda 25 years ago. Think of Myanmar and the Rohingya," he said. "The world is at war."

The Pope laid the blame on weapons manufacturers and arms dealers, whom he claimed were happy to see their products tested in conflict.

"What is before our eyes is a situation of world war, global interests, arms sales, and geopolitical appropriation, which is martyring a heroic people."

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

EXPLAINER: The scandal engulfing South Africa's president




A member of the opposition, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party is ejected from parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, June 9, 2022 for disrupting proceedings. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa could face criminal charges and is already facing calls to step down over claims that he tried to cover up the theft of millions of dollars in U.S. currency that was hidden inside furniture at his game farm. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht, File)Less

GERALD IMRAY
Fri, June 17, 2022


CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa could face criminal charges and is already facing calls to step down over claims that he tried to cover up the theft of millions of dollars in U.S. currency that was hidden inside furniture at his game farm.

The astonishing allegations made by the former head of South Africa's intelligence agency also include that the suspects in the robbery two years ago were tracked down and kidnapped by Ramaphosa's presidential protection unit, interrogated on his property, and bribed to keep quiet about the existence of the cash, and nothing was reported to the police.

The accusations badly undermine Ramaphosa's reputation as a leader dedicated to fighting corruption. He became president in 2018 on promises to clean up government and his graft-tainted ruling party, the African National Congress, which is now a far cry from the days when it was widely respected and led by Nelson Mandela. The scandal, dubbed “farmgate” by the South African press, threatens to end Ramaphosa's presidency and destabilize Africa's most developed economy.

This is what we know so far about the scandal:

THE CASH

Former State Security Agency director Arthur Fraser walked into a Johannesburg police station on June 1 and laid a criminal complaint against Ramaphosa over the theft of what Fraser says was more than $4 million in cash that was concealed on the ranch. It sent the country's media into a frenzy. Fraser alleged in an affidavit that Ramaphosa and others were guilty of money laundering and breaching the country's foreign currency control laws over the hidden money.

Fraser also claimed that the suspects in the robbery were kidnapped and bribed to stay silent, and Ramaphosa hid the incident from the police and tax authorities. Fraser said he submitted “supporting evidence” to the police that included photographs, video footage and bank account details. He said the robbery happened in February 2020.

THE SPY BOSS

The fact that it was Fraser who made the allegations against Ramaphosa suggests they are politically motivated. Fraser is a well-known loyalist to former President Jacob Zuma and a faction of the ANC that wants Ramaphosa out. Zuma, Ramaphosa's predecessor, was forced to resign as president in 2018 and is now on trial for corruption. That trial is seen as an indicator of Ramaphosa's commitment to confront corruption at the highest level.

Fraser was also in the news headlines last year when, as head of the department of corrections, he granted Zuma medical parole from prison against the recommendation of a parole board which advised that Zuma should not be released early after he was convicted of contempt of court. Fraser was South Africa's spy boss under Zuma from 2016 to 2018.

THE PRESIDENT

The allegations have forced the 69-year-old Ramaphosa to fight for his political life. He has admitted the robbery did happen at his Phala Phala ranch in the northern province of Limpopo but said it was reported to the head of his protection unit, which falls under the South African Police Services. He said the money came from the sale of game animals at the farm and he was “not involved in any criminal conduct.”

Those answers have been seen as woefully inadequate, though. Ramaphosa has refused to say how much money was involved, why it was stashed at his ranch, and if the foreign currency was declared to authorities. He sidestepped a plethora of questions over the scandal at a 90-minute press conference at Parliament last week, where he cut an exhausted, under-pressure figure. He said he wouldn't comment before a police investigation.

“I'd like the due process to unfold in this matter,” Ramaphosa said.

THE FALLOUT

Ramaphosa was shouted down in Parliament on two consecutive days last week by lawmakers from the Economic Freedom Fighters, the second biggest opposition party. The EFF has since upped its criticism by demanding Ramaphosa resign over the scandal. Two other opposition parties applied this week for Parliament to put Ramaphosa on “sabbatical leave” and start a parliamentary investigation. That was rejected by the speaker of Parliament.

No criminal charges against Ramaphosa have been announced by the police, although a unit that deals with serious and high-profile crimes is investigating Fraser's allegations. Ramaphosa has said he will voluntarily appear before an ANC integrity committee, which has the power to suspend him as party leader. No date has yet been set for Ramaphosa to appear before the committee.

The timing of the scandal is terrible for Ramaphosa, who already faces daunting political challenges and a critical party election in December that will decide if he stays on as leader of the ANC and, effectively, if he remains president.

___

AP writer Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed to this story.

The farmers restoring Hawaii’s ancient food forests that once fed an island



Nina Lakhani in Maui

THE GUARDIAN
Fri, June 17, 2022

Rain clouds cover the peaks of the west Maui mountains, one of the wettest places on the planet, which for centuries sustained biodiverse forests providing abundant food and medicines for Hawaiians who took only what they needed.

Those days of abundance and food sovereignty are long gone.

Rows of limp lemon trees struggle in windswept sandy slopes depleted by decades of sugarcane cultivation. Agricultural runoff choking the ocean reef and water shortages, linked to over-tourism and global heating, threaten the future viability of this paradise island.

Between 85% and 90% of the food eaten in Maui now comes from imports while diet-related diseases are soaring, and the state allocates less than 1% of its budget to agriculture.

Downslope from the rain-soaked summits, there is historic drought and degraded soil.

“We believe that land is the chief, the people its servants,” said Kaipo Kekona, 38, who with his wife Rachel Lehualani Kapu have transformed several acres of depleted farmland into a dense food forest on a mountain ridge.

The soil there is once again full of life, with wriggly worms and multi-colored insects busy among the layered roots and mulch. This food forest provides a glimpse of the ancient forests that for millennia thrived on these slopes until being burnt multiple times to create cropland – a cultural and ecological tragedy documented in traditional songs, chants and stories.

The couple are Indigenous farmers – ancient knowledge keepers – and part of a wider food and land sovereignty movement gaining momentum in Hawaii.

It’s a huge challenge. Traditional Hawaiian farmers have to contend not only with historic drought, erratic rainfall and deadly natural pathogens but also the dominance of industrial agriculture and foreign capital in Hawaii. The state became the biotech GMO capital of the US after agrochemical transnationals were welcomed to open research fields with fewer restrictions on potentially toxic pesticides.

In Kekona and Kapu’s food forest in Maui there are no pesticides or synthetic fertilisers. Cover crops and tilling are also out. “Traditional farming is about facilitating natural processes in order to feed the soil so that the land can feed us,” said Kekona.

Indigenous farming practices in Hawaii are guided by the lunar cycle and wind patterns, knowledge which was also passed down orally over generations, and even documented in newspaper articles going back to the 19th century. These oral histories and archives have played a crucial role in how farmers like Kekona, who didn’t grow up speaking the Hawaiian language due to forced assimilation policies, steward the land today.

The whole island was once a giant thriving food forest until colonial settlers in the 18th and 19th century stole the land, water and labor to create industrial monocrop plantations – mostly sugar and pineapples for export. This depleted the soil of its nutrients, carbon and water, and the Maui people of food and climate security.

“The goal is to knock the empire down and replace those corporate ag guys with something more environmentally sustainable which reflects our values,” said Kekona, who is part of the Indigenous sovereignty movement reconnecting Hawaiians with their lands and traditions.

Organised chaos

A canopy system is central to a food forest. On Kekona’s farm, sugar cane, papaya, coconuts, mangoes, coffee and candle nut trees provide shade and absorb water, nutrients and leaf litter, while mosses and ferns help suppress weeds and distract insects. In between are the cash crops such as the starchy root vegetable kalo (taro) – a traditional Hawaiian staple revered as an ancestor – sweet potatoes, breadfruit, turmeric and peppers, while other nutrient rich crops are mostly used for mulching or fertiliser.

It looks chaotic compared with orderly monocropping but each plant takes what it needs to thrive, while contributing to the growth and development of its peers and future generations. The 30 moon phases used in the traditional Hawaiian calendar dictate when to plant, weed, water and harvest.

Cardboard, compost and organic mulch are layered like lasagne to regenerate the soil, while beds made from logs create inviting nooks for microbes to thrive. Fish carcasses, seaweed, shells and other ocean scraps are mixed with fermented plants such as coffee husks to make organic fertiliser – a Korean technique adapted for Maui.

Unlike industrial agriculture, diversity is key: there are nine varieties of avocado and coconuts, three native bananas, six sweet potatoes and 27 types of kalo in orange, purple and brown. Some are coveted for the starchy sweet roots used for porridge, others produce tastier leaves and stems for stews, and one variety smells and tastes just like popcorn. Drought-tolerant varieties are becoming increasingly important.

Non-native species such as passionfruit, lemongrass, papaya, perennial peanuts and coffee are cultivated to enrich the soil with nutrients such as nitrogen, provide shade or wind cover or just because they taste good.

“It’s a constant cycle, everything existing together at the same time, with crops always feeding the soil and nurturing each other,” said Kekona. “This is the essence of the forest food system, which our ancestors passed down to us over centuries.”

Maui is one of the largest islands in Hawaii, a Polynesian archipelago located 2,500 miles from the west coast of the US mainland, making it one of the most remote populated land masses on the planet . It’s a subtropical biodiversity hotspot, where flora and fauna adapted over millennia to a wide range of ecosystems and microclimates, but ecological destruction over the past century or so has also made it the extinction capital of the world.

Interactive MAP

At its heart, the traditional Hawaiian farming vision is about creating a sustainable relationship between community and agriculture by re-establishing the connection between culture and land. It isn’t just about looking back, but rather mixing ancient regenerative farming practices with modern tools and technologies to meet the climate and food challenges facing Hawaii in the 21st century.

It’s not easy. Access to land, water, credit and housing remains disproportionately controlled by the economic and political elites, namely big ag and tourism.

One firm, Monsanto, now owned by the German pharma giant Bayer, operates on Oahu, Molokai and Maui – where it develops genetically modified corn varieties used in cooking oil, processed foods, alcohol and animal feed, testing new seeds with an unknown combination of potentially toxic agrochemicals.

Bayer is among four agrochemical corporations that control 60% of the global seed market, and more than 80% of pesticide sales.

Dark red dirt from Maui’s research and development fields, which are surrounded by three types of metal fencing, spread across the downwind residential areas, with fine particles coating furniture even when the windows are kept shut.

Last year, the company was fined $22m after pleading guilty to multiple criminal charges for the illegal use, storage and disposal of hazardous and banned chemicals. Monsanto was described as “a serial violator of federal environmental laws” by a Department of Justice attorney.

The Guardian’s request to visit the Maui research facilities was denied.

Over the past decade agrochemical companies like Monsanto have used lawsuits and political lobbying to delay and limit regulations on GMO crops and pesticides in Hawaii, convincing many farmers and lawmakers that without them, agriculture would collapse.

But the pandemic exposed the dangers and fragility of the global industrialized food system, triggering an almost existential crisis for island communities like Maui which depends on imports and tourism for economic and food security.

“Letting a chemical company pollute the island to feed the world while we suffer food insecurity is beyond ironic,” said Autumn Ness, the Hawaii program director of Beyond Pesticides and co-founder of the Maui Hub, the island’s first farm box scheme which connects small farmers and producers to residents.

“What’s stopping Hawaii feeding its own people is not lack of knowledge or skills, it’s the power structure, the ongoing plantation mentality which tips the scales in favour of big ag and developers while rubbishing traditional knowledge. We need to change this narrative because, without radical changes, what will be left of this place in a hundred years?”

A Bayer spokesperson said the company’s research “diligently complies with federal and state pesticide laws … We place the highest priority on the safety of our products and on the sustainability of the land where we live and work.”
Forest families

At Hōkūnui farm in the central valley, 37-year-old Koa Hewahewa and his family of foresters mix generational Indigenous knowledge and modern technologies to repair the damage caused by intensive cattle ranching and decades of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers.

The restoration project is fundamentally about cooling the climate to return the rains and pollinators – the forest birds that were wiped out or forced to higher altitudes to evade avian malaria-transmitting mosquitoes. (The mosquito line, the altitude at which the insects cannot survive because it’s too cold, has risen drastically due to deforestation.)

The forest is considered akin to an extended family, somewhat unwieldy and unpredictable but resilient and stronger together than apart. The lofty flowering acacia and myrtaceae trees are natural-born givers, capturing fog and rain to distribute moisture outwards like a lawn sprinkler and down to recharge aquifers. While the groundcover plants such as mosses and ferns act like a living mulch and create a healthy ecosystem for all sorts of useful micro-organisms.

So far they have transformed 25 acres of lifeless land into a thriving, organised jumble of edible and non-edible co-dependent plants, a technique the family call Polynesian agroforestry.

Hewahewa said: “Our yields cannot match industrial farming but our return on investment is the healthy land and water we’ll leave for our kids … this isn’t just about bringing back the rains, it’s the right thing to do as Hawaiians.”

Puerto Rico party to hold vote on its political future


FILE - The Puerto Rican flag flies in front of Puerto Rico's Capitol as in San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 29, 2015. A group of Democratic congress members, including the House majority leader, on Thursday, May 19, 2022, proposed a binding plebiscite to decide whether Puerto Rico should become a state or gain some sort of independence. 

(AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo, File) 

DÁNICA COTO
Thu, June 16, 2022,

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — With a possible plebiscite on statehood or independence for Puerto Rico looming, one of the island's two main parties said Thursday it will ask its members to reconsider or reaffirm its own stance on the U.S. territory's political future by holding an islandwide vote on the issue.

The announcement by José Luis Dalmau, president of the Popular Democratic Party, follows a proposal last month by a group of U.S. legislators to hold a binding plebiscite giving Puerto Ricans three options: Become America's 51st state, become fully independent or opt for independence with free association — possibly maintaining U.S. citizenship and other ties with the U.S.. That vote would not include the possibility of maintaining the current commonwealth status.

That choice would appear to threaten the future of Dalmau's party, founded in the 1930s, which is defined by its support for the current status, under which Puerto Ricans have U.S. citizenship but the island has quasi-autonomy from the United States.

Its main rival, the current governor’s New Progressive Party, advocates for statehood.

Possible statehood will not be an option in the PDP's Aug. 14 vote. Dalmau said the current status and a free association option that he did not define would be offered. Party spokesman Ángel Raúl Matos told The Associated Press that it’s too early to say whether that would be based on the free association option that U.S. lawmakers proposed as one of three choices.

Within the Popular Democratic Party, opinions vary as to what sort of commonwealth best suits Puerto Rico. Some argue for closer ties to the U.S. while others seek more independence in some areas.

“For decades, this issue has divided us,” Dalmau said. “Since two parallel strategies and two distinct popular parties cannot exist, it’s up to the thousands of (party supporters) to resolve the controversy and make the final decision.”

The Popular Democratic Party has roughly 400,000 supporters on the island of 2.3 million people and it got about 32% of the gubernatorial vote in the 2020 election — just behind the New Progressive Party’s 33%. Support for both parties has been eroding due to frustration over corruption scandals, economic problems and mismanagement.

Dalmau, who is also the president of Puerto Rico's Senate, said he would continue to support the island’s current political status, which he said was “the masterpiece of the movement’s founder.”

Political analyst Mario Negrón Portillo said Dalmau is likely taking the risk of holding a historic vote because he wants to put an end to the intensifying debate within the party and believes the large majority of its supporters will uphold the status quo.

“This is a gamble,” he said.

Matos said that on the day of the vote, party officials in each of the island's 78 municipalities would recognize supporters and allow them to vote. If not, recognized, voters would be asked to fill out a membership statement.

Costa Rica chaos a warning that ransomware threat remains





ALAN SUDERMAN and BEN FOX
Thu, June 16, 2022, 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Teachers unable to get paychecks. Tax and customs systems paralyzed. Health officials unable to access medical records or track the spread of COVID-19. A country’s president declaring war against foreign hackers saying they want to overthrow the government.

For two months now, Costa Rica has been reeling from unprecedented ransomware attacks disrupting everyday life in the Central American nation. It's a situation raising questions about the United States' role in protecting friendly nations from cyberattacks when Russian-based criminal gangs are targeting less developed countries in ways that could have major global repercussions.

“Today it’s Costa Rica. Tomorrow it could be the Panama Canal,” said Belisario Contreras, former manager of the cybersecurity program at the Organization of American States, referring to a major Central American shipping lane that carries a large amount of U.S. import and export traffic.

Last year, cybercriminals launched ransomware attacks in the U.S. that forced the shutdown of an oil pipeline that supplies the East Coast, halted production of the world’s largest meat-processing company and compromised a major software company that has thousands of customers around the world.


The Biden administration responded with a whole of government action that included included diplomatic, law enforcement and intelligence efforts designed to put pressure on ransomware operators.

Since then, ransomware gangs have shied away from “big-game” targets in the U.S. in pursuit of victims unlikely to provoke a strong response by the U.S.

“They’re still prolific, they’re making enormous amounts of money, but they’re just not in the news everyday,” Eleanor Fairford, a deputy director at the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, said at a recent U.S. conference on ransomware.

Tracking trends of ransomware attacks, in which criminals encrypt victims' data and demand payment to return them to normal, is difficult. NCC Group, a UK cybersecurity firm that tracks ransomware attacks, said the number of ransomware incidents per month so far this year has been higher than it was in 2021. The company noted that the ransomware group CL0P, which has aggressively targeted schools and health care organizations, returned to work after effectively shutting down for several months.

But Rob Joyce, the director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency, has said publicly that there's been a decrease in the number of ransomware attacks since Russia's invasion of Ukraine thanks to increased heightened concerns of cyberattacks and new sanctions that make it harder for Russian-based criminals to move money.

The ransomware gang known as Conti launched the first attack against the Costa Rican government in April and has demanded a $20 million payout, prompting the newly installed President Chaves Robles to declare a state of emergency as the tax and customs offices, utilities and other services were taken offline. “We’re at war and this is not an exaggeration,” he said.

Later, a second attack, attributed to a group known as Hive knocked out the public health service and other systems. Information about individual prescriptions are offline and some workers have gone weeks without their paycheck. It’s caused significant hardship for people like 33-year-old teacher Alvaro Fallas.

“I live with my parents and brother and they are depending on me,” he said.

In Peru, Conti has also attacked the country’s intelligence agency. The gang’s darkweb extortion site posts purportedly stolen documents with the agency’s information, like one document market “secret” that details coca-eradication efforts.

Experts believe developing countries like Costa Rica and Peru will remain particularly ripe targets. These countries have invested in digitizing their economy and systems but don’t have as sophisticated defenses as wealthier nations .

Costa Rica has been a longtime stable force in a region often known for upheaval. It has a long established democratic tradition and well-run government services.

Paul Rosenzweig, a former top DHS official and cyber consultant who is now a legal resident of Costa Rica, said the country presents a test case for what exactly the U.S. government owes its friendly and allied governments who fall victim to disruptive ransomware attacks. While an attack on a foreign country may not have any direct impact on U.S. interests, the federal government still has a strong interest in limiting the ways in which ransomware criminals can disrupt the global digital economy, he said.

“Costa Rica is a perfectly good example because it’s the first,” Rosenzweig said. “Nobody has seen a government under assault before.”

So far, the Biden administration has said little publicly about the situation in Costa Rica. The U.S. has provided some technical assistance through its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, via an information-sharing program with nations around the world. And the State Department has offered a reward for the arrest of members of Conti.

Eric Goldstein, the executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, said Costa Rica has a computer emergency response team that had an established relationship with counterparts in the U.S. before the incidents. But his agency is expanding its international presence by establishing its first overseas attache position in the U.K. It plans others in as-yet unspecified locations.

“If we think about our role, CISA and the US government, it is intrinsically of course to protect American organizations. But we know intuitively that the same threat actors are using the same vulnerabilities to target victims around the world," he said.

Conti is one of the more prolific ransomware gangs currently operation and has hit over 1,000 targets and received more than $150 million in payouts in the last two years, per FBI estimates.

At the start of invasion of Ukraine, some of Conti’s members pledged on the group’s dark web site to “use all our possible resources to strike back at the critical infrastructures of an enemy” if Russia was attacked. Shortly afterward, sensitive chat logs that appear to belong to the gang were leaked online, some of which appeared to show ties between the gang and the Russian government.

Some cyber threat researchers say Conti may be in the middle of a rebranding, and its attack on Costa Rica may be a publicity stunt to provide a plausible story for the group’s demise. Ransomware groups that receive lots of media attention often disappear, only for its members to pop back up later operating under a new name.

On its darkweb site, Conti has denied that’s the case and continues to post victims’ files. The gang’s most recent targets include a city parks department in Illinois, a manufacturing company in Oklahoma and food distributor in Chile.

___

AP writer Javier Córdoba contributed from San Jose, Costa Rica.

 Made in America, fired in the West Bank: The bullet that killed Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

Borzou Daragahi 
THE INDEPENDENT

Al Jazeera is airing an image of what it describes as the American-made bullet that killed its longtime Palestinian reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank last month.

© AP shin.jpg

The pan-Arab broadcaster said the bullet was a 5.56mm round shot by an M4 rifle often used by Israeli armed forces. The bullet was “designed and manufactured” in the United States, Al Jazeera reported.

It cited a former Jordanian major general, Fayez al-Dwairi, as claiming it was the type of munition “used by the Israeli army”.

The bullet, which often comes with a green tip, is often described as a “penetrator round”, for its ability to pierce through armour.

Abu Akleh was wearing blue helmet and body armour marked with the word “Press”. Al Jazeera’s report said that the powerful bullet pierced her helmet, entered her head, and ricocheted against the inner surface of her protective gear.

US authorities sought to restrict the sale of the green tips to civilians in 2015, citing its threat to law enforcement officers wearing body armour.

Al Jazeera and numerous independent investigators allege that Israeli forces shot Abu Akleh as she and her team were setting up to report on soldiers conducting a raid on a village in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.

Israel forces have denied the accusation, offering up several conflicting narratives in what critics describe as an attempt to deflect blame. The 11 May killing of the Palestinian-American and subsequent attacks by Israeli forces on those mourning her sparked an international uproar, raising anew questions about tactics in Palestinian areas under its military control.

On Friday, Israeli forces allegedly killed three Palestinians and wounded 10 in another raid on Jenin, which has become a hotbed of militant activity. At least 60 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Attacks by Palestinians in Israel have left at least 19 people dead since March.

American officials are walking on eggshells around the issue. Despite Abu Akleh’s US nationality, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has failed to launch its own probe, as it often does when Americans are killed abroad.

US officials say they are waiting for the outcome of an Israeli investigation. Israeli officials claim their probe could not determine whether their own troops or Palestinian militants fired the rounds that killed Abu Akleh.

Israeli authorities are also refusing to release the results of an internal probe of their conduct during Abu Akleh’s funeral, where police were caught on camera beating middle-aged mourners attempting to carry the dead journalist’s casket. Police reportedly conceded that batons should not have been used against mourners, but commissioner Kobi Shabtai blamed “rioters” for the incident.

Joe Biden is scheduled to make his first visit to Israel since his 2020 election next month. Asked by a reporter whether the US president would raise the issue with Israeli leaders, a spokesman declined to comment.

“It means a lot to President Biden – press freedom,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. “His foreign policy is really rooted in values – values like freedom of the press; values like human rights, civil rights. And he’s not going to be bashful about raising those issues with any foreign leader anywhere in the world.”

Al Jazeera releases image of bullet it says killed reporter

Fri, June 17, 2022

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Al Jazeera news network has published an image of the bullet that it says killed its veteran reporter Shireen Abu Akleh while she was covering an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank last month.

It identified the bullet as a U.S.-made 5.56mm round fired from an M4 rifle, commonly used by Israeli forces. The Israeli military says Palestinian militants use the same ammunition.

The military released its own image of sacks of bullets it says were confiscated in a raid last month. The bullets in the two images appear identical, with green marking on the tips.

Al Jazeera did not say how it obtained the purported image of the bullet, which is held by the Palestinian Authority. The picture shows what appears to be a curved, spent bullet in a clear plastic container labeled with a red marker.

An Associated Press reconstruction of the shooting supports accounts by Palestinian witnesses that Abu Akleh was shot by Israeli forces, but did not reach a final conclusion. Al Jazeera and the Palestinian Authority have accused Israel of targeting her, something Israel adamantly denies.

The Israeli military says she was killed during a complex military operation in which troops traded fire with Palestinian militants. It says only a sophisticated ballistic analysis of the bullet could determine whether it was fired by an Israeli soldier or a militant.

The PA says it has overwhelming evidence that Israel was responsible and has refused to hand over the bullet for analysis or cooperate with Israel in any way. Its own investigation found that she was killed by a 5.56mm round fired by a Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle.

Israel says it has identified the army rifle that could have fired the fatal round but would need to analyze the bullet to reach any firm conclusion. It has not provided details about the rifle.

Abu Akleh, a 51-year-old Palestinian-American, was a widely respected on-air correspondent for Al Jazeera's Arabic-language service who had been covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for over 25 years.

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Shireen Abu Akleh 

EXPLAINER: Why is China denying Hong Kong was a UK colony?
THE BRITS WERE JUST RENTING TO OWN

KEN MORITSUGU
Fri, June 17, 2022

BEIJING (AP) — Hong Kong is preparing to introduce new middle school textbooks that will deny the Chinese territory was ever a British colony. China's Communist rulers say the semi-autonomous city and the nearby former Portuguese colony of Macao were merely occupied by foreign powers and that China never relinquished sovereignty over them.

It's not a new position for China, but the move is a further example of Beijing’s determination to enforce its interpretation of history and events and inculcate patriotism as it tightens its grip over Hong Kong following massive protests demanding democracy in 2019.

“Hong Kong has been Chinese territory since ancient times,” says one new textbook seen by the AP. “While Hong Kong was occupied by the British following the Opium War, it remained Chinese territory.”

It is one of four sets of textbooks being offered to schools to replace those currently in use, all stating the same position, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper reported earlier this week.

WAS HONG KONG A COLONY?

Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 until its handover to Chinese rule in 1997, with the exception of Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945. Its colonial status was the result of a pair of 19th century treaties signed at the end of the first and second Opium Wars, along with the granting of a 99-year lease in 1898 to the New Territories, which greatly expanded the size of the colony.

China’s Communist Party, which seized power during a civil war in 1949, says it never recognized what it calls the “unequal treaties” that the former Qing Dynasty was compelled to sign following military defeats.

In the late 20th century — with China unwilling to extend the lease on the New Territories, and the colony not viable without them — Britain entered into protracted and often contentious negotiations with Beijing over conditions for the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule.

Ultimately, China took control of Hong Kong in 1997 under a “one country, two systems" arrangement that would keep the city's economic, political and judicial systems distinct from those in mainland China for 50 years. That was laid out in a 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration registered with the United Nations, although China now refuses to recognize the agreement.


HAS THIS ISSUE COME UP BEFORE?

In 1972, just months after the China seat at the United Nations was transferred to Beijing from the Republic of China government that fled to Taiwan during the civil war, the government acted to remove Hong Kong and Macao, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1999, from a U.N. list of colonies, effectively stripping them of their right to self-determination.

At a time when European nations had granted independence to other colonies, China feared the same could happen to the British and Portuguese enclaves it wanted back. “The settlement of the questions of Hong Kong and Macao is entirely within China’s sovereign right and does not at all fall under the ordinary category of ‘Colonial Territories,'" China's representative said at the time.

Mary Gallagher, who teaches Chinese studies at the University of Michigan, said then-Chinese leader Mao Zedong wanted to ensure that Hong Kong would remain part of China. “So Hong Kong moves between the Chinese empire and the British empire, but loses its right to determine its own future,” she said.

WHY IS HONG KONG CHANGING TEXTBOOKS NOW?

The new textbooks are part of broader changes to education following the 2019 protests, in which many students participated and some played leadership roles.

The texts are for liberal studies classes, which the government overhauled last year after pro-Beijing lawmakers and supporters said they encouraged opposition and activist thought. The classes now focus on themes such as national security, patriotism and identity.

The textbooks promote the official view that the protest movement was the result of foreign agitation and threatened national security. The Beijing government used such arguments to pass a sweeping National Security Law for Hong Kong in 2020 curtailing free speech, criticism of authorities and political opposition.

Authorities have launched a National Security Education Day on April 15, with students encouraged to learn more about national security and take part in educational activities that emphasize the importance of protecting China.

WHERE IS THIS LEADING?

The new textbooks are part of a push to bring Hong Kong's institutional values more closely in line with those of mainland China, especially in the areas of politics and history. Increasingly, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is imposing his vision of strongly nationalistic and increasingly authoritarian rule on the region.

China has sought to eradicate any memory of the military's 1989 bloody suppression of student-led protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, citing pandemic concerns to ban once huge public commemorations in Hong Kong on the June 4 anniversary.

“The Communist Party has a monopoly of the truth and of history in China,” said Steve Tsang, a Chinese politics specialist at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. “In the Xi approach to history, facts are merely incidental. Only interpretation matters. And only one interpretation is allowed.”

1984 (tue.nl) 

SPAIN IS BURNING
Leaders meet in Madrid to mark world day to fight drought


Children and adults cool off in a fountain in a park by the river in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Spain's weather service says a mass of hot air from north Africa is triggering the country's first major heatwave of the year with temperatures expected to rise to 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) in certain areas. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Fri, June 17, 2022,

MADRID (AP) — Politicians and experts are meeting in Madrid on Friday to discuss ways to tackle drought and the increasing spread of deserts across the globe.

The half-day meeting to mark the United Nations’ World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought will be attended by Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, or UNCCD.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is to give an opening speech and U.N. Secretary General António Guterres will address the conference by video.

The meeting will bring together numerous experts, including Kenya’s Patricia Kombo, founder of the PaTree Initiative to help Kenya achieve 10% forest cover by getting students to plant trees.

The UNCCD says that between 1900 and 2019, droughts have impacted 2.7 billion people in the world, and caused 11.7 million deaths. Forecasts estimate that by 2050 droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population.

Spain’s Ecological Transition ministry says 75 percent of Spanish land is vulnerable to desertification and this is increasing.

The meeting comes as Spain is suffering an unusually early heat wave that has helped fuel wildfires across the country.

The focus of the meeting will be on encouraging early action to prevent disastrous outcomes.

“Droughts have been part of human and natural systems, but what we are experiencing now is much worse, largely due to human activity,” Thiaw said in a statement.

“Recent droughts point at a precarious future for the world. Food and water shortages as well as wildfires caused by the severe drought have all intensified in recent years.”