CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

Exclusive-Binance served crypto traders in Iran for years despite U.S. sanctions, clients say

Tom Wilson and Angus Berwick
Mon, July 11, 2022 



Asal Alizade, an Iranian Binance trader, displays the mobile application on her smart phone, in Dubai

By Tom Wilson and Angus Berwick

LONDON (Reuters) - The world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, continued to process trades by clients in Iran despite U.S. sanctions and a company ban on doing business there, a Reuters investigation has found.

In 2018, the United States reimposed sanctions that had been suspended three years earlier as part of Iran's nuclear deal with major world powers. That November, Binance informed traders in Iran it would no longer serve them, telling them to liquidate their accounts.

But in interviews with Reuters, seven traders said they skirted the ban. The traders said they continued to use their Binance accounts until as recently as September last year, only losing access after the exchange tightened its anti-money laundering checks a month earlier. Until that point, customers could trade by registering with just an email address.

"There were some alternatives, but none of them were as good as Binance," said Asal Alizade, a trader in Tehran who said she used the exchange for two years until September 2021. "It didn't need identity verification, so we all used it."

Eleven other people in Iran beyond those interviewed by Reuters said on their LinkedIn profiles that they too traded crypto at Binance after the 2018 ban. None of them responded to questions.

The exchange's popularity in Iran was known inside the company. Senior employees knew of, and joked about, the exchange's growing ranks of Iranian users, according to 10 messages they sent to one another in 2019 and 2020 that are reported here for the first time. "IRAN BOYS," one of them wrote in response to data showing the popularity of Binance on Instagram in Iran.

Binance did not respond to Reuters' questions about Iran. In a March blog post, published in response to Western sanctions on Russia, Binance said it "follows international sanction rules strictly" and had assembled a "global compliance task force, including world-renowned sanctions and law enforcement experts." Binance said it used "banking grade tools" to prevent sanctioned people or entities from using its platform.

Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to a request for comment.

The Iranian trading on the exchange could draw interest from U.S. regulators, seven lawyers and sanctions experts told Reuters.

Binance, whose holding company is based in the Cayman Islands, says it does not have a single headquarters. It does not give details about the entity behind its main Binance.com exchange which does not accept customers in the United States. Instead, U.S. clients are directed to a separate exchange called Binance.US, which - according to a 2020 regulatory filing - is ultimately controlled by Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Lawyers say this structure means Binance is protected from direct U.S. sanctions that ban U.S. firms from doing business in Iran. This is because the traders in Iran used Binance's main exchange, which is not a U.S. company. But Binance does run a risk of so-called secondary sanctions, which aim to prevent foreign firms from doing business with sanctioned entities or helping Iranians evade the U.S. trade embargo. As well as causing reputational damage, secondary sanctions can also choke off a company's access to the U.S. financial system.

Binance's exposure would depend on whether sanctioned parties traded on the platform and whether Iranian clients dodged the U.S. trade embargo as a result of their transactions, four lawyers said. Non-U.S. exchanges "can face consequences for facilitating sanctionable conduct, whereby they have exposure for allowing the processing of transactions for sanctioned parties, or if they're on-boarding those types of users," said Erich Ferrari, principal attorney at Ferrari & Associates law firm in Washington.

Reuters did not find evidence that sanctioned individuals used Binance.

Asked about traders in Iran using Binance, a spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury declined to comment.

Binance kept weak compliance checks on its users until last year, despite concerns raised by some senior company figures, Reuters reported in January, drawing on interviews with former senior employees, internal messages and correspondence with national regulators. The exchange said in response it was pushing industry standards higher. Reuters' new reporting shows for the first time how the gaps in Binance's compliance programme allowed traders in Iran to do business on the exchange.

Binance dominates the $950 billion crypto industry, offering its 120 million users a panoply of digital coins, derivatives and non-fungible tokens, processing trades worth hundreds of billions of dollars a month. The exchange is increasingly going mainstream. Its billionaire founder Zhao – known as CZ – this year extended his reach into traditional business by pledging $500 million to Tesla boss Elon Musk's planned takeover of Twitter. Musk has since said he is pulling out of the deal. Last month Binance hired Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to promote its NFT business.

"BINANCE PERSIAN"

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the West and the United Nations have imposed sanctions on Iran in response to its nuclear programme, along with alleged human rights violations and support for terrorism. Iran has long maintained the nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

Under the 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers, Tehran curbed its nuclear programme in return for an easing of some of the sanctions. In May 2018, President Donald Trump ditched the accord and ordered the reimposition of the U.S. sanctions that were relaxed under the deal. The curbs came back into effect in August and November that year.

After Trump's move, Binance added Iran to a list of what it called "sanctioned countries" on its terms of use agreement, saying it could "restrict or deny" services in such areas. In November 2018, it warned its customers in Iran by email to withdraw their crypto from their accounts "as soon as possible."

Publicly, some Binance executives lauded its compliance programme. Its then chief financial officer said in a December 2018 blog it had invested heavily in countering dirty money, saying it took a "proactive approach to detecting and squashing money laundering." In March the following year, it hired a U.S. compliance platform to help it screen for sanctions risks.

By August 2019, Binance deemed Iran – along with Cuba, Syria, North Korea and Crimea – a "HARD 5 SANCTIONED" jurisdiction, where the exchange would not do business, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. The May 2020 document included Iran on a list of countries headed "strictly no," citing Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim.

Even as Binance's stance on Iran hardened, its profile among the country's legions of crypto users was growing, traders said, citing their knowledge of the local industry.

Cryptocurrencies grew attractive there as sanctions took a heavy toll on the economy. Since the birth of bitcoin in 2008, users have been drawn to crypto's promise of economic freedom beyond the reach of governments. Cut off from global financial services, many Iranians relied on bitcoin to do business on the internet, users said.

"Cryptocurrency is a good way to circumvent sanctions and make good money," said Ali, a trader who spoke on condition he was identified by only his first name. Ali said he used Binance for around a year. He shared with Reuters messages with Binance customer service representatives that showed the exchange closed his account last year. They said Binance was not able to serve users from Iran, citing recommendations from United Nations Security Council sanctions lists.

Other traders at the exchange cited its weak background checks on clients, as well as its easy-to-use trading platform, deep liquidity and a large number of cryptocurrencies that could be traded as reasons for its growth in Iran.

Pooria Fotoohi, who lives in Tehran and says he runs a crypto hedge fund, said he used Binance from 2017 until September last year. Binance won over Iranians because of its "simple" know-your-customer controls, he said, noting how traders could open accounts simply by providing an email address.

"They succeeded in gaining a huge trading volume, with many pairs of currencies, within a short period of time," said Fotoohi.

Binance's Angels – volunteers who share information on the exchange across the globe – also helped spread the word.

In December 2017, Angels announced the launch of a group called "Binance Persian" on the Telegram messaging app. The group is no longer active. Reuters couldn't determine how long it operated, but identified at least one Iranian who was an active Angel after Washington reimposed sanctions.

Mohsen Parhizkar was an Angel from November 2017 to September 2020, managing the Persian group and helping its users, according to his LinkedIn profile. A person who worked with Parhizkar confirmed his role and shared messages they exchanged. Contacted by Reuters, Parhizkar said Binance had cancelled programmes in Iran because of sanctions. He didn't elaborate.

After its 2018 ban, at least three senior Binance employees were aware that the exchange remained popular in Iran and was used by clients there, 10 Telegram and company chat messages between the employees that were seen by Reuters show.

By September 2019, Tehran was among the top cities for followers of Binance's Instagram page, topping New York and Istanbul, one message from the same month shows. The employees then made light of this. One jokingly suggested advertising Binance's popularity in Iran, saying, "Push that on Binance U.S. Twitter."

In a separate exchange from April 2020, a senior employee also noted that Iranian traders were using Binance, without saying how he knew this. A Binance compliance document from the same year, reviewed by Reuters, gave Iran the highest risk rating of all countries for illegal finance.

"BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO VPNS"

Further underpinning Binance's growth in Iran, traders said, was the ease with which users could skirt curbs via virtual private networks (VPNs) and tools to conceal internet protocol (IP) addresses that can link internet use to a location. North Korean hackers used VPNs to obscure their locations while setting up accounts on Binance to launder stolen crypto in 2020, Reuters reported in June.

Mehdi Qaderi, a business development worker, said he used a VPN to trade around $4,000 worth of crypto on Binance in the year to August 2021. "All of the Iranians were using it," Qaderi said of Binance.

In a 2021 guide to how sanctions applied to crypto firms, the U.S. Treasury said sophisticated analytic tools existed that could detect IP address obfuscation. Crypto companies could also gather information to alert them to users in a sanctioned country, it said, such as from email addresses.

"Crypto exchanges would be expected to have these types of measures in place in order to comply with sanctions," said Syedur Rahman, legal director at Rahman Ravelli law firm in London.

Binance itself had supported the use of VPNs.

Zhao, Binance's CEO, tweeted in June 2019 that VPNs were "a necessity, not optional." He deleted the remark by the end of 2020. Asked about the tweet, Binance didn't comment. In July the following year, Binance published on its website a "Beginners' Guide to VPNs." One of its tips: "You might want to use a VPN to access sites that are blocked in your country."

Zhao was aware of crypto users circumventing Binance's controls in general. He told interviewers in November 2020 that "users do find intelligent ways to get around our block sometimes and we just have to be smarter about the way we block."

((reporting by Tom Wilson and Angus Berwick; editing by Janet McBride))

 'Long road to recovery' for Mosul five years after defeat of IS group 

 

• FRANCE 24 English

Abortion Access in Europe. Call to Action

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

July 11, 2022Index Number: EUR 01/5832/2022

AMERICAS POVERTY

More than 130 local and global women’s rights, human rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights organisations working in Europe, including Amnesty International, express their profound solidarity with the millions of people in the United States whose right to essential reproductive health care has been taken away by the decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. The organisations are deeply concerned about the devastating consequences this regressive judgment will have for the lives, health and wellbeing of people across the United States.

Across the European region, decision makers in numerous European countries have expressed their deep dismay and concern in reaction to this ruling. The organisations welcome their expressions of solidarity with all those who need reproductive health care in the United States and applaud their commitment to defend reproductive rights. The organisations urge them to take concrete steps to turn this concern into action that is designed to advance and protect access to abortion in their own countries.

View Report in English

THE MOONIE CULT

Mother of Abe killing suspect is a Unification Church member, church says

Shinzo Abe was not a member of the church, although he appeared at an event hosted by an organization affiliated with it, a spokesman said.

July 11, 2022
By Reuters

TOKYO — The mother of the man arrested for the killing of former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe is a member of the Unification Church, the church’s Japan head said on Monday.

Tetsuya Yamagami, an unemployed 41-year-old, was identified by police as the suspect who approached Abe and opened fire during a campaign speech on Friday, an attack that was captured on video and shocked a nation where gun violence is rare.


Yamagami believed Abe had promoted a religious group to which his mother made a “huge donation,” Kyodo news agency has said, citing investigative sources. Yamagami told police his mother went bankrupt from the donation, the Yomiuri newspaper and other media have reported.

Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japan branch of Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, known as the Unification Church, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo that Yamagami’s mother was a member of the church. He did not give her name.

Tanaka declined to comment on her donations, citing the ongoing police investigation.

Tetsuya Yamagami, who confessed to shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in police custody on Sunday. Nobuki Ito / AP

Neither Abe nor the man arrested for his shooting were members of the church, Tanaka said. Abe was also not an adviser to the church, Tanaka said, adding the church would cooperate with police on the investigation if asked to do so.

Abe appeared at an event hosted by an organization affiliated with the church last September where he delivered a speech praising the affiliate’s work towards peace on the Korean peninsula, according to the church’s website.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Yamagami’s mother and could not determine whether she belonged to any other religious organizations.

Police have confirmed that the suspect said he held a grudge against a specific organization, but have not named it.

Yamagami’s mother first joined the church around 1998 but stopped attending in a period between 2009 and 2017, Tanaka said. About two to three years ago she re-established communication with church members and in the last half year or so has been attending church events at a frequency of about once a month, he said.

The Unification Church was founded in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon, a self-declared messiah and strident anti-communist. It has gained global media attention for its mass weddings where it marries thousands of couples at a time.

Moon, who spoke fluent Japanese, launched an anti-communist political campaign in Japan from late 1960s and built relations with Japanese politicians, according to the church’s publications.

Moon died in 2012. The church has about 600,000 members in Japan, out of 10 million globally, Tanaka said.

Religious Group Confirms Mom of Alleged Abe Killer Was a Member

Isabel Reynolds and Sangmi Cha
Mon, July 11, 2022 a


(Bloomberg) -- The Japanese affiliate of a South Korean-founded religious group confirmed the mother of the person charged with assassinating former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a member, as claimed by his alleged killer.

The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, formerly known as the Unification Church, held a briefing for selected Japanese news organizations on Monday, according to a member of the public relations staff at the religious group’s Tokyo office, who asked not to be identified by name.

At the briefing, the head of the organization confirmed the mother of the man indicted for Abe’s murder, Tetsuya Yamagami, was a member since the 1990s and attended events once a month or so, Japanese broadcaster FNN reported on Monday. The official, who wasn’t identified, declined to comment on donations, and said Abe had contributed to events hosted by a related organization, the report said.

Separately, a representative of the organization in Seoul said by phone that Abe himself wasn’t a member. The US branch of the group issued a statement condemning the attack and saying: “Guns have no place in our religious beliefs or practices.”

Abe, the country’s longest-serving premier, was fatally shot while on the campaign trail in the western city of Nara on Friday. His death sent shock waves through a country where gun violence is rare and generated an outpouring of sympathy from around the globe.

Domestic media reports from Kyodo News and others have said the suspect blamed an unspecified religious group for his family’s financial woes after his mother became an enthusiastic member and made large donations, resulting in her bankruptcy.

The 41-year-old had wanted to kill a senior member of the group, but targeted Abe because he believed the former leader had close connections to the religion, according to the Yomiuri newspaper and other media. The alleged shooter denied any political motivation for the killing, public broadcaster NHK and other media said, citing police.

Founded in South Korea by Sun Myung Moon in May 1954, the religious organization all around the world, including Japan and the US. Moon, who declared that he and his wife were messiahs, has been at the center of controversy and convicted of tax evasion in the US back in the 1980s.

The church is known for organizing arranged marriages and holding mass wedding ceremonies. The group says on its website that it’s “a duly registered religious nonprofit organization” and it’s focused on “creating world peace through the family: the school of love.”

Biden Sent Condolence to Japan Ex-PM Abe’s Family, Blinken Says

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken paid a brief visit to Tokyo on Monday to deliver a personal letter of condolence from President Joe Biden to current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Kishida’s ruling coalition won a solid victory in Sunday’s election, but the atmosphere has remained somber following the death of his former boss just two days earlier.

A wake is to be held for Abe in Tokyo on Monday evening, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said in a statement. The funeral will be on Tuesday attended by family only, NHK reported.

Report: Members of US defense firm visited Israel to discuss NSO purchase

New York Times: Team of executives from American military contractor quietly visited Israel in recent months to try purchase NSO Group.

Israel National News
Jul 11, 2022,


A team of executives from an American military contractor quietly visited Israel numerous times in recent months to try purchase NSO Group, developer of one the world’s most sophisticated and controversial hacking tools, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

The impediments were substantial for the team from the American company, L3Harris, which also had experience with spyware technology. They started with the uncomfortable fact that the United States government had put NSO on a blacklist just months earlier because the Israeli firm’s spyware, called Pegasus, had been used by other governments to penetrate the phones of political leaders, human rights activists and journalists.

However, five people familiar with the negotiations said that the L3Harris team had brought with them a surprising message that made a deal seem possible despite the blacklist.

American intelligence officials, the sources told The New York Times, quietly supported its plans to purchase NSO, whose technology over the years has been of intense interest to many intelligence and law enforcement agencies around the world, including the FBI and the CIA.

The talks continued in secret until last month, when word of NSO’s possible sale leaked and sent all the parties scrambling, according to the report. White House officials said they were outraged to learn about the negotiations, and that any attempt by American defense firms to purchase a blacklisted company would be met by serious resistance.

Days later, L3Harris, which is heavily reliant on government contracts, notified the Biden administration that it had scuttled its plans to purchase NSO, according to three United States government officials, although several people familiar with the talks said there have been attempts to resuscitate the negotiations.

NSO’s Pegasus software has been linked to abuses by governments.

In February, the Finnish foreign ministry said it had detected Pegasus in several phones used by its diplomats abroad.

The Finnish announcement followed a report in The New York Times which said that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked to ensure that Saudi Arabia would be able to use the Pegasus software, around the time that the Abraham Accords were signed with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

More recently, Canada's Citizen Lab group said that at least 65 people linked to the Catalan separatist movement had been targets of the Pegasus spyware after a failed independence bid in 2017.

The US Commerce Department recently blacklisted NSO Group, prohibiting it from using American technology in its operations.

Apple sued the Israeli firm in late November, seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using Apple software, services, or devices.

Australia's 'revolutionary' plan to save koalas under proposed new laws

10 Jul, 2022 10:34 PM3 minutes to read

Koala at Rainforestation Nature Park.

news.com.au

By Catie McLeod

Koalas would be given the highest level of protection of any animal species in Australian history under an "unassailable" new law being proposed.

The Australian Koala Foundation is pushing for a federal "Koala Protection Act" that would place caveats on land clearing and other damaging activities across all the habitat areas of the much-loved species.

Up to 1.5 million square kilometres of forest, or 20 per cent of the Australian continent, would be protected under the plan hatched by the lobby group.

The foundation has sent its draft bill to new Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, who has been contacted for comment.

The Morrison Government earlier this year accepted scientific advice to declare koalas were endangered in Queensland, NSW and the ACT after a decline in numbers due to land clearing and bushfires.

Furry friends at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Photo / Tourism and Events Queensland

The Australian Koala Foundation is concerned that koalas are not similarly marked endangered in South Australia and Victoria.

It has also pointed out that the federal recovery plan for koalas is yet to be enacted a decade after the species was first listed as "vulnerable".

The foundation's chairwoman Deborah Tabart says Australia's environmental laws do not have enough vision for the future and "protecting whole landscapes is essential".

"The koala and thousands of other species that live in those forests need the Koala Protection Act – it's already drafted and only requires the minister's signature," she said.

"This single piece of revolutionary legislation will protect koalas and koala habitat by guaranteeing that development and new infrastructure is designed to ensure a benign impact on their habitat."

Tabart said it made economic sense to protect koalas, given forestry was a "dying industry" and tourism a sustainable one.

She estimates the Government would save $3bn by protecting koala forests as they are also home to other vulnerable species that require costly recovery plans.

Tabart said this was the "exact amount" that koalas brought in tourism dollars per year.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will next week address the National Press Club on the state of the Australian environment. Photo / news.com

The foundation's plea comes ahead of Plibersek's first major speech since she was sworn into the environment and water portfolios.

She will on July 19 address the National Press Club in Canberra on the findings of an official five-yearly scientific assessment of Australia's natural environment.

The report, which the former Coalition Government received last year but didn't release, is expected to be damning.

Plibersek is expected to respond to an official review of Australia's main environmental law – the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC).

The EPBC review was carried out by former consumer watchdog chief Graeme Samuel in the previous term of parliament.

He made 38 recommendations after finding the EPBC Act was failing both the environment and developers and contributing to the unsustainable decline of Australia's habitats.

China to build world's most far-reaching radar, better safeguard Earth
CGTN


A bird's-eye view of distributed radar astro-imaging instrument verification test site of China Fuyan project. /BIT

China has started construction of a new radar system equipped with high-definition deep-space active observation facility in a move to better safeguard Earth. The new system will also boost the country's defense capabilities against near-Earth asteroids as well as its sensing capability for the Earth-moon system.

Located in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, the new observation facility is codenamed "China Fuyan," which means "facetted eye" in English.

According to Long Teng, president of the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), the research team gave it that vivid name because the radar system comprises multiple antennas, just like facetted eyes of insects.

The Fuyan will comprise distributed radars with over 20 antennas, with each having a diameter of 25 to 30 meters. It is expected to carry out high-definition observation of asteroids within 150 million kilometers of Earth, becoming the world's most far-reaching radar system.

Long, also a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the system will fill the gaps in the country's near-Earth defense and space-sensing capabilities as well as frontier studies on Earth habitability and the formation of asteroids.

The BIT's innovation center in Chongqing, China's National Astronomical Observatories under the China Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University and Peking University will also join the Fuyan's construction process.

Different from China's 500-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) – also the largest of its kind in the world, designed to collect passive observations of radio signals from space – the new Fuyan will actively shoot radio signals at celestial bodies to obtain new observations, according to space experts

A concept image of super-large distributed aperture radar of high-resolution deep-space observation facility of China Fuyan project. /BIT

Construction phases

According to Long, the Fuyan program will have three phases of construction.

In the first phase, the team will set up four pieces of the radar of 16-meter diameter to verify the feasibility of the radar system, rendering a 3D image of the moon. So far, two of the four radars have been constructed in Chongqing and they are expected to become operational by this September.

In the second phase, the team will increase the number of antennas from four to over 20, forming a high-definition distributed radar system equivalent to one with a diameter of 100 meters. This will also enable China to probe and image asteroid some tens of millions kilometers away and verify relevant technology.

Lastly, the research team will gradually realize the observation capability of 150 million kilometers, making China Fuyan the world's first deep-space radar to have the capability to carry out 3D imaging and dynamic monitoring as well as active observation of celestial bodies throughout the inner solar system.

However, the BIT's Chongqing innovation center said that the schedule and scale of the third stage is yet to be determined, as final decisions would be made based on results and studies run during the first two phases.

An illustration of the solar system. /CFP


Near-Earth asteroid monitoring and defense system

Following China's announcement of plans on building a near-Earth asteroid monitoring and defense system this April, the China Fuyan program was introduced to deal with the threat of asteroids impacting spacecrafts and contribute to protecting the Earth and the human race.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on this year's Space Day of China, April 24, that it is planning on building an asteroid monitoring and defense system, and will carry out a technical experiment as early as 2025 on a threatening asteroid by closely tracking and attacking it to change its orbit.

The Fuyan will also support the country's quests of probing the territory between the Earth and the moon, including searching for a proper landing target for the Tianwen-2 probe, according to the BIT.

Zhang Rongqiao, the chief designer of Tianwen-1 Mars probe mission, told the media in May that Tianwen-2 had entered its prototype research and development stage, and is expected to be launched by 2025. Tianwen-2 will be a decade-long mission, during which the probe will carry out observations and bring samples from near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3, also named Kamo'oalewa.

China releases new moon map, the world's most detailed to date
CGTN

China releases a geological map of the moon to a scale of 1:2,500,000. /Institute of Geochemistry of Chinese Academy of Sciences

China has released a new comprehensive geologic map of the moon to a scale of 1:2,500,000, the most detailed to date.

Chinese scientists from multiple research institutes and universities have created the high resolution topographic map based on data from China's lunar exploration Chang'e project and other data and research findings from international organizations.

The map includes 12,341 impact craters, 81 impact basins, 17 rock types and 14 types of structures, providing abundant information about geology of the moon and its evolution. It is expected to make a great contribution to scientific research, exploration and landing site selection on the moon.

The Institute of Geochemistry of Chinese Academy of Sciences has led the project, along with other organizations such as Chinese Academy of Geological Science, China University of Geosciences and Shandong University.

The map was published by Science Bulletin on May 30.

Previously, USGS Astrogeology Science Center completed and released a moon map to a scale of 1:5,000,000 in 2020.

 

Gen Z rejects Turkey’s ruling AKP with 80 percent opposition

• Jul 10 2022 04:07 Gmt+3
• Last Updated On: Jul 11 2022 08:21 Gmt+3

Some 80 percent of Turkey’s Gen Z, those born after 2000, say they will not vote for the ruling Justice and Development Party, according to a study by Gezici Research.

Gen Z will make up 11.8 percent of Turkey’s voting adult population by the time the June 2023 elections roll around.

“They do not approve of dictating, imperious or harsh language from politicians,” Gezici Research chairman and international security expert Murat Gezici told daily Cumhuriyet on Sunday.

An “overwhelming majority” of young people say they will vote for the opposition’s Nation Alliance if the presidential election goes to the second round, Gezici said. “Because they see the government as more oppressive and controlling.”

However, the main constituency that will determine the outcome of the elections is Gen Y, born between 1980 and 1999, Gezici added. This demographic makes up 32.6 percent of the electorate, and have a higher percentage of undecided voters.

“Those who remember the old Turkey, who are close centrist, but remain undecided will determine the fate of this election,” Gezici said. Seventy percent of undecided voters are from the Gen Y demographic, and most of them are women, he added.

In total, there are fewer undecided voters as the elections draw near. Gezici said the current rate stood at 16 percent, 92.7 percent of whom were voters under 40. “Out of this group, 68 percent live on less than 5,500 liras ($318) per month. The economic crisis is forcing a decision on the undecided, and often draws them closer to a party from the opposition front.”

Out of all participants, from both Gen Y and Z, 72 percent said they had trouble making ends meet and 76 percent believed the economy would not be fixed one year into the future.

Overall, 56.8 percent said an opposition candidate would make a better president, while 43.2 percent did not believe in the opposition either.

Let’s Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, Before They Eliminate Us

BY THALIF DEENFacebook

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Photo: Applause after the adoption of the political declaration and action plan as 1MSPTPNW ended on June 23 in Vienna. Credit: United Nations Vie

When UN Secretary-General António Guterres congratulated States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on the successful conclusion of their first meeting in Vienna, his warning was dead on target.

“Let’s eliminate these weapons before they eliminate us,” he said pointing out that nuclear weapons are a deadly reminder of countries’ inability to solve problems through dialogue and collaboration.

“These weapons offer false promises of security and deterrence—while guaranteeing only destruction, death, and endless brinksmanship,” he declared, in a video message to the conference, which concluded on June 23 in the Austrian capital.

Guterres welcomed the adoption of the Political Declaration and Action Plan, which will help set the course for the Treaty’s implementation—and are “important steps toward our shared goal of a world free of nuclear weapons”.

Alice Slater, who serves on the boards of World Beyond War and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, told IDN : “On the heels of a precedent-shattering First Meeting (1MSP) of the States Parties to the new Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna, the dark clouds of war and strife continue to plague the world.”

“We are enduring continued violence in Ukraine, new nuclear threats issued by Russia including a possibility of sharing nuclear weapons with Belarus, in the context of tens of billions of dollars in armaments being poured into Ukraine by the US, and a brutal and careless rush to expand the boundaries of NATO to include Finland and Sweden despite promises given to Gorbachev that NATO would not expand east of Germany, when the wall came down and the Warsaw Pact was dissolved.”

She said the news in the Western Media has been unrelentingly critical of Putin and has barely mentioned the new treaty to ban the bomb, despite the stunning Declaration issued in Vienna.

The States Parties, she pointed out, proposed thoughtful plans to move forward on establishing various bodies to deal with the many promises of the treaty including steps for monitoring and verifying the total elimination of nuclear weapons under a limited time frame, with full cognizance of the relationship between the TPNW and the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“They provide for the development of unprecedented victims assistance for the dreadful suffering and radiation poisoning visited upon so many poor and indigenous communities during the long, horrible and devastating era of nuclear testing, weapons development, waste pollution and more”, said Slater who is also the UN Representative for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Dr M.V. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security, Graduate Program Director, MPPGA, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, told IDN the meeting of the States parties to the TPNW offers one of the few positive ways forward from the dangerous nuclear situation that the world is confronting.

“Russia’s attack on Ukraine and its nuclear threats have served as reminders of the fact that as long as nuclear weapons exist, they can be used, albeit under rare circumstances.”

As famed truth teller/whistle blower Daniel Ellsberg has pointed out over the decades, nuclear weapons can be used in two senses: one of exploding them over an enemy target (as happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and the other sense of threatening to explode them if the adversary did something that was not acceptable to the possessor of the nuclear arsenal, Dr Ramana said.

“This is akin to someone pointing a gun to force someone to do something that they would not want to do under normal circumstances. In the latter sense, nuclear weapons have been used repeatedly by states that possess these weapons of mass destruction,” he added.

It is, therefore, a welcome development that the States parties to the TPNW have promised not to rest until “the last warhead has been dismantled and destroyed and nuclear weapons have been totally eliminated from the Earth”.

That is a goal all countries should work towards, and work with urgency, declared Dr Ramana.

Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), an anti-nuclear activist group which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, said: “This meeting has really been a reflection of the ideals of the TPNW itself: decisive action to eliminate nuclear weapons based on their catastrophic humanitarian consequences and the unacceptable risks of their use.”

The States Parties, in partnership with survivors, impacted communities and civil society, have worked extremely hard over the past three days to agree on a wide range of specific, practical actions to take forward every aspect of the implementation of this crucial treaty, she pointed out, at the conclusion of the meeting.

“This is how we are building a powerful norm against nuclear weapons: not through lofty statements or empty promises, but through hands-on, focused action involving a truly global community of governments and civil society.”

According to ICAN, the Vienna meeting also took a number of decisions on practical aspects of moving forward with implementation of the Treaty which was adopted on June 23, 2022.

These included:

* Establishment of a Scientific Advisory Group, to advance research on nuclear weapon risks, their humanitarian consequences, and nuclear disarmament, and to address the scientific and technical challenges involved in effectively implementing the Treaty and provide advice to states parties.

* Deadlines for the destruction of nuclear weapons by nuclear-armed states joining the treaty: no more than 10 years, with the possibility of an extension of up to five years. States parties hosting nuclear weapons belonging to other states will have 90 days to remove them.

* Establishment of a program of intersessional work to follow the meeting, including a coordinating committee and informal working groups on universalization; victim assistance, environmental remediation, and international cooperation and assistance; and work related to the designation of a competent international authority to oversee the destruction of nuclear weapons.

On the eve of the meeting, Cabo Verde, Grenada, and Timor-Leste deposited their instruments of ratification, which will bring the number of TPNW states parties to 65.

Eight states told the meeting they were in the process of ratifying the treaty: Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nepal and Niger.

The TPNW entered into force and became international law on January 22, 2021, 90 days after it reached the requisite 50 ratifications/accessions

Elaborating further on the outcome of the meeting, Slater said: “If we are to realize these new promises, we need a lot more truth telling. It is dishonest for our most respected media outlets to constantly harp on Putin’s “unprovoked” attack on Ukraine”.

She quoted the famed Noam Chomsky, American linguist, philosopher, scientist, and social critic, as saying: that it is de rigueur to refer to Putin’s criminal aggression in Ukraine as his “unprovoked invasion of Ukraine”.

A Google search for this phrase finds “About 2,430,000 results” Out of curiosity, [a]search for “unprovoked invasion of Iraq.” yields “About 11,700 results”—apparently from antiwar sources. ^[i]

“We are at a turning point in history. Here, in the United States, it has been revealed for all to see that we aren’t really an “exceptional” democracy,” she argued.

Besides the shocking events of an insurrection in our capital on January 6, 2020, and the incomprehensible reactions to those events, splitting our body politic into bloody parts, our history is catching up with us as we examine the continuing oppression of our black citizens, the renewed racial stereotyping and outrageous injuries to our Asian citizens as we rachet up Obama’s pivot to Asia, demonizing China as well as Russia, noted Slater.

“Add to that the continued mistreatment of our indigenous natives who survived the slaughter of the colonialist patriarchy, the denial of citizenship to women, a battle we thought we had won which has to be fought all over again now as the patriarchy rears its ugly head stripping us of the illusion of democracy we thought we had.”

The US government, she said, empowered by corrupt corporate marauders is protected by a judicial system, media, and government that offers no vision or path forward out of perpetual wars and towards cooperative and meaningful actions to avoid the cataclysm of nuclear war or catastrophic climate collapse, not to mention the spreading plague that we seem so inept at dealing with because of corporate greed and misplaced priorities.

“It seems America got rid of a king only to wind up with a tyrannical cabal of what Ray McGovern, a former CIA briefer for Presidents Bush and Clinton who quit in disgust and founded the Veterans Intelligence Professional for Sanity (VIPS) refers to as the MICIMATT: the Military, Industrial, Congressional, Intelligence, Media, Academia, Think Tank complex.”

This ongoing insanity, she pointed out, has led to our relentless expansion of NATO which met this month to address global challenges with Indo-Pacific partners Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea participating together in a NATO Summit for the first time, demonizing China, making commitments to continue the fight against terrorism, and to address threats and challenges from the Middle East, North Africa and Sahel.

There is a rising tide of grassroots actions. A peace wave went around the world to celebrate the need to end wars in June. Many people showed up to demonstrate against the NATO summit in Spain and locally around the world.

“The new treaty to ban the bomb, while not supported by the nuclear weapons states, has growing numbers of parliamentarians and city councils around the world urging its nuclear nations to join the treaty and make the promised efforts to abolish nuclear weapons.”

And three NATO states, under the US nuclear umbrella, came to the first TPNW Meeting of States Parties as observers: Norway, Germany and the Netherlands. There are also grassroots actions in NATO countries that share US nuclear weapons, Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy, to remove the US nuclear weapons that are kept in those countries.

A good message to send to Russia which is thinking of putting nuclear weapons in Belarus. Giving peace a chance, declared Slater.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. You are free to share, remix, tweak and build upon it non-commercially. Please give due credit

This article was produced as a part of the joint media project between The Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group and Soka Gakkai International in Consultative Status with ECOSOC on 06 July 2022.

 

US Private Sector Employment Passes Pre-Pandemic Level, Wage Growth Moderates

BY DEAN BAKERFacebook

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Wage growth continues to moderate, alleviating concerns about a wage-price spiral.

The June employment report showed the economy created 372,000 jobs last month, with the private sector adding 381,000. Private sector employment is now 140,000 jobs above its pre-pandemic level. Total employment is still down 524,000, as local government employment is 599,000 below pre-pandemic levels, and state government employment is 57,000 below pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.6 percent for the fourth consecutive month.

Wage Growth Moderates Further

Perhaps the best news in this report is further evidence of moderating wage growth. The annualized rate of wage growth, comparing the last three months (April, May, June) with the prior three months (January, February, March), was 4.3 percent. That is down from an annualized rate of 6.1 percent, comparing the winter (November, December, January) to the fall (August, September, October).

This is a huge deal because the Fed’s plans for aggressive rate hikes was based on a concern for a 1970s-type wage-price spiral. It is impossible to have a wage-price spiral when wage growth is slowing. As it is, the 4.3 percent annualized rate of wage growth is only a 0.9 percentage point higher than the 3.4 percent rate in 2019 when inflation was comfortably below the Fed’s 2.0 percent target.

Construction Again Adds Jobs, Manufacturing Employment Above Pre-Pandemic Levels

Construction added 13,000 jobs in June, with gains elsewhere offsetting a small decline in residential building. Overall employment in the sector is now 0.6 percent above pre-pandemic level. Lower housing starts will be a drag on employment in the sector, although this will be at least partially offset by easing supply chain problems, which is allowing for more completions. Manufacturing added 29,000 jobs, pushing employment in the sector slightly above its pre-pandemic level.

Air Transportation and Retail Add Jobs

Air transportation added 7,500 jobs in June. Employment in the sector is now 7.9 percent above the pre-pandemic level. The retail sector added 15,400 jobs, putting employment now 1.2 percent above the pre-pandemic level.

Healthy, but More Normal Job Growth in Hotels and Restaurants

Hotels added 14,800 jobs in June, while restaurants added 40,800 jobs. These are strong numbers but not out of line with what might be expected in a normal month with good job growth. These sectors were among the hardest hit by the pandemic.

Employment in hotels is still down 18.0 percent from its pre-pandemic level. Restaurant employment is 5.9 percent lower. It is likely that with a permanent decline in business travel, hotels will not recover their pre-pandemic employment levels. The same is likely the case with restaurants, where real sales are already well above pre-pandemic levels.

Nursing Homes and Childcare Centers Add Jobs, but Employment Still Far Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

Both nursing homes and childcare sectors have had difficulty adding jobs in the recovery as low pay and difficult working conditions make these jobs relatively unattractive. Nursing homes and childcare added 5,400 and 10,600 jobs in June, respectively. This leaves employment in the sectors 14.4 percent and 9.6 percent below pre-pandemic levels.

Local Government Adds 5,000 Workers, Employment Still Down 599,000 from Pre-Pandemic Level

Like nursing homes and childcare centers, state and local governments have had difficulty attracting workers in the recovery. Employment in local government is still down by 4.1 percent from pre-pandemic levels. More than half the drop is in local government education. State government employment is down by 57,000, or 1.1 percent from pre-pandemic levels.

U-6 Measure of Labor Market Slack Hits Record Low

While the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.6 percent in June, a sharp drop in the number of people involuntarily working part-time lowered the U-6 measure of labor market slack to 6.7 percent, the lowest level on record.

Drop in Labor Force Participation Rates

The overall labor force participation rate (LFPR) fell by 0.1 percentage point to 62.2 percent. The LFPR for prime age (25 to 54) men dropped by 0.3 percentage point, while it fell 0.2 percentage point for prime age women. The June LFPR for men was 0.8 percentage point below its pre-pandemic peak, while it was 0.5 percentage point lower for women.

Length of Average Workweek Stable

The length of the average workweek was unchanged at 34.5 hours in June. For production and nonsupervisory workers, it was 34.0 hours, down from 34.3 hours last June. Employers that can’t find workers often increase workweeks. This does not seem to be a problem now.

Share of Unemployment Due to Voluntary Quits Rises, but Still Below Peaks

The percent of unemployment due to voluntary quits rose to 14.0 percent, still well below peaks of more than 15.0 percent hit in February of this year and peaks hit in 2000 and 2019. This is consistent with a strong, but healthy labor market.

Another Really Great Jobs Report

The June report showed considerably stronger job growth than was generally expected. It also showed a labor market that is looking more normal, although still very strong. We continue to see moderation in wage growth, which should alleviate concerns about a 1970s wage-price spiral. The unemployment rate remains near a 50-year low and the U-6 measure of labor market slack is the lowest on record. If the economy stays on this path, the second half of 2022 should look very good, as the supply chain issues get largely resolved and prices fall back to more normal levels in many areas.

This first appeared on Dean Baker’s Beat the Press blog. 

Dean Baker is the senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC.