German government does not warn Kurds whose data it sends to Turkish secret service

The German government is endangering Kurdish association members by sending their data to the Turkish secret service and referring to the general security advice of the Foreign Office for travel to Turkey.

ANF
BERLIN
Sunday, 10 Jul 2022, 

In May, a parliamentary question by the migration spokesperson of the parliamentary group DIE LINKE, Gökay Akbulut, revealed that due to a decree issued in 1994 by the then Federal Minister of the Interior, Manfred Kanther (CDU), in connection with the banning of the PKK, all data of Kurdish associations is automatically forwarded to the BKA and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This practice continues to this day, although the decree itself is no longer considered traceable by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. In an expert opinion commissioned by Akbulut, the Scientific Services (WD) of the German Parliament Bundestag stated that this is a restriction of fundamental rights that requires justification and legal justification. The WD said: "Decrees are mere internal law of the administration, which is why the aforementioned decree of 1994 cannot constitute an authorisation basis for encroachments on fundamental rights."

On Wednesday, Gökay Akbulut asked the Bundestag in what form data on members of Kurdish associations received by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution or the Federal Criminal Police Office through regular transmission by the Federal Office of Administration is processed by these authorities and what measures, if any, the Federal Government now intends to take with regard to risks associated with trips to Turkey by members of Kurdish associations in Germany.

As can be seen from the answer of the Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Government does not want to warn Kurdish association members whose data it sends to the Turkish secret service against a possible trip to Turkey. Instead, it refers to the general travel and security advice of the Foreign Office:

"The personal data transmitted in the context of the proceedings in question is compared with the data of the security authorities. Data is not stored solely on the basis of participation in the founding or membership of a Kurdish association.

The Federal Government informs travellers to Turkey in detail about possible risks in the context of travel and security advice, including in the context of a possible membership in an association legally active in Germany and related to Kurdish concerns."

Tribute to internationalists Dilsoz and Şiyar

This week marks the anniversary of the death of two internationalists who gave their lives in the fight for a free life defending the revolution in Kurdistan.

ANF
KARLSRUHE
Monday, 11 Jul 2022, 09:40

Some 30 people gathered at the grave of Kevin Jochim in the cemetery in Karlsruhe on Sunday to commemorate the internationalist. After a minute's silence, speeches were delivered in which the importance of the work of the two Germans for the Kurdish liberation struggle and the Rojava revolution was emphasized. Speakers said: “As internationalists, Dilsoz and Şiyar recognized their responsibility and devoted their young lives and all their energy to the revolutionary struggle and the defense of a democratic society in the Middle East. They recognized the strength hidden in the PKK and the political thinking of Abdullah Öcalan.”

While the European states never tire of promoting values ​​such as democracy, peace, freedom and equality, they are actually pursuing an imperialist strategy that means nothing to the peoples of this earth but exploitation, oppression and slavery.

“Dilsoz and Şiyar exposed this mendacious double standard early on and set out in the mountains of Kurdistan in search of answers," says Gulê Agir, adding: “There they learned that, contrary to what we are led to believe, a life beyond capitalist modernity can already be a reality today. This alternative ranges from the grassroots democratic revolution in Rojava to the city administrations in North Kurdistan to the liberated mountains of the guerrilla Kurdistan and shows us the way to a free future today.”

With their lives and struggles, Dilsoz Bahar and Şiyar Gabar have become a guide and an inspiration for thousands of internationalist youths who have flocked to Kurdistan from all over the world to take their place in the ranks of the revolution. "Even today they are a shining example for us here of the real spirit of internationalism."

At the end of the meeting, a wreath was laid at Kevin Jochim's grave while the crowd sung the international partisan song "Bella Ciao". The commemoration ended with a promise to continue the unfinished struggle of the martyrs and to organize "for the realization of a liberated Kurdistan and a free world".

Dilsoz and Şiyar

Kevin Jochim (Nom de Guerre Dilsoz Bahar) grew up in the southern German city of Karlsruhe and joined the Kurdish freedom movement in 2012 at the age of nineteen. He went to Rojava and fought in the ranks of the People's Defense Units (YPG) against the Islamic State, driven by his "desire for freedom". On 6 July 2015, near Silûk, he lost his life in combat.

Jakob Riemer (Şiyar Gabar), born in 1994, was a young internationalist from Hamburg. He went to Kurdistan at the end of 2013 to fight with the guerrillas for his ideas of a better world. On 9 July 2018 he died in Çarçella in North Kurdistan as a fighter for the People's Defense Forces (HPG) during a military operation by the Turkish army.

“Dilsoz and Şiyar united in the search for solutions to the acute crisis of the ruling system. In this way, they got to know Abdullah Öcalan's ideas and were inspired by the development of democratic confederalism in Kurdistan," said Gulê Agir on Sunday during a visit to the cemetery in Karlsruhe where "Şehîd Dilsoz" is buried. People from the Kurdish association in Heilbronn and young internationalists called for the commemoration of Kevin Jochim and Jakob Riemer.














In memory of Jakob / Şîyar
Today is the anniversary of the death of Şîyar Gabar, Jakob Riemer: a friend, revolutionary comrade, son and brother who decided young to fight the resistance for a liberated world in the mountains...

ANF News

Memorial in Karlsruhe on 10 July for German revolutionaries Kevin Joachim and Jakob Riemer
Kevin Joachim (Dilsoz Bahar) died in clashes with ISIS mercenaries in Rojava Kurdistan on 6 July 2015, while Jakob Riemer (Şiyar Gabar) died on 9 July 2018, as the result of the attack of the Turki...

ANF News



In memory of internationalist Kevin Jochim
Throughout Kurdistan and the Middle East, and finally around the world Ronahî “Everyone can become part of the revolution in Rojava. Of course, if you are a person who stands up for democracy...

ANF News

POWERING UP IN SPACE: IS NUCLEAR THE ANSWER?

RYAN WEED
JULY 11, 2022



Speed, power, and response — these factors decide success and failure in space. Players who want to lead in space have to push the envelope, and maybe even take a few longshots. At the Defense Innovation Unit, we believe that compact nuclear power will get us there in space.

On paper, the United States should be light-years ahead of other nations in nuclear space tech. Six decades ago, America launched a nuclear reactor into space (it’s still up there), and the nation has since spent more than $15 billion on a dozen government programs to develop a nuclear space capability, without a single launch. Meanwhile, Russia is building a nuclear space tug, and China has announced a nuclear system 100 times more powerful than current U.S. designs. And while these claims may oversell the technical reality, those in the field have to ask: Is the United States still in the lead?

Programs currently in the works at the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and NASA promise to launch fission-powered nuclear thermal propulsion before the end of the decade. These worthwhile efforts will lead to spacecraft with two to three times more maneuverability than traditional chemical propellants. Using the nuclear core to heat hydrogen gas, nuclear thermal propulsion allows for responsive in-space maneuvers by maintaining a high thrust-to-weight ratio. In addition to nuclear thermal propulsion, NASA is also researching a fission reactor to power electric-propulsion systems (Nuclear Electric Propulsion), which could generate even greater capability for future missions to Mars and other interplanetary missions.

The drawback to these fission reactors is scale, in both size and weight. When you include the fuel, moderator, shielding, power conversion, and radiators, the smallest fission reactor is still pretty heavy. As the Department of Defense continues to source smaller and disaggregated spacecraft, physics is pushing us to find alternative solutions (that is, not fission) for nuclear propulsion and power. While NASA and DARPA are working on these traditional nuclear fission approaches, the Defense Innovation Unit is supporting non-traditional and non-fission approaches to nuclear.

As a program manager at the Defense Innovation Unit, I’m leading the Department of Defense’s effort to build prototypes of these novel nuclear power and propulsion systems for small spacecraft. This work will have a direct impact on how the United States employs spacepower, ushering in an era in which spacecraft maneuver tactically in cislunar space. If the Department of Defense wants starcruiser-like spacecraft before the end of the decade, America needs a smaller, faster, and safer approach to nuclear. In a volume nearly 2,000 times larger than geostationary orbit, cislunar space requires Department of Defense spacecraft with advanced maneuver and power capability that could help enforce “norms of behavior” and commercial activities in this new domain.

The good news is that commercially developed concepts that may fit the bill already exist — U.S. companies are spearheading the development of next generation radioisotopes and compact fusion reactors that could enable big improvements in maneuverability over current Department of Defense space platforms (e.g. X-37B). Let’s review these nuclear options, the hurdles they face, and the future they may enable.

Radioisotopes

The approach is straightforward: Radioactive materials undergo nuclear decay, producing heat that can be converted into electricity. This electrical power can run spacecraft sensors, communications, and electric propulsion systems (e.g., ion drives). Radioisotope power systems have been around since the early days of the space age, and plutonium-238, with its consistent heat output and low gamma/neutron emission, is still the preferred source. Despite the expense and scarcity, plutonium-238 radioisotope sources continue to power experiments and payloads on the moon and Mars.

With a half-life of 88 years, plutonium-238 can produce sustained power for decades — proven through its use on the Voyager interstellar probes, which are still communicating with Earth nearly half a century after their launch. However, the leading radioisotope power system is a microwave-sized device providing roughly 100 watts of electrical power at somewhat low efficiency (around 5 percent). At around 2 watts per kilogram, these units are too heavy and produce too little power to be useful for propulsion on future Department of Defense satellites where much shorter timelines are at play.

If plutonium is expensive, scarce, and lacks necessary power density, could shorter half-life radioisotopes be a better option? Could higher-performance radioisotope sources feasibly power both sensor payloads and electric propulsion systems?

Cobalt, europium, and strontium could be those sources. Policy updates from the White House (e.g., Space Policy Directive-6 and National Security Presidential Memorandum-20) and pending regulatory guidance from the Federal Aviation Administration have opened a pathway for commercial entities to obtain launch and operational licenses for these radiological materials. From a launch-safety standpoint, a 100-watt plutonium-238 radioisotope source is in the same regulatory category as a 27,000-watt europium source or a 17,000-watt cobalt source. These shorter half-life (5 to 15 years) radioisotopes could achieve energy density 30 times higher than plutonium — up to several hundred watts per kilogram.

One path towards high power (more than 1,000 watts) radioisotope power sources is being developed at USNC-Tech, a Seattle-based company, with funding from NASA, where the technology will be used to rendezvous with the first known interstellar object, ‘Oumuamua, currently speeding away from Earth at roughly 30 kilometers per second. Such a staggering power system would not only outperform plutonium-238, but also offers power density at least 10 times higher than a similar-sized fission reactor power system, and could be ready years before the first fission systems. Companies developing these new radioisotope power systems have their work cut out — they will have to work out new irradiation schemes, novel encapsulation techniques, shielding and remote handling, and power conversion challenges, but the payoff could be huge.

Fusion: No Longer 30 Years Away?

Building a compact fusion reactor in your garage is possible. The problem is getting more energy out of it than you use to run it. This ratio of energy out to energy in is called the Q-factor. To date, a fusion reactor with a Q-factor greater than one has not been built, although there are dozens of fusion startups, a fledgling industry association, and persisting hope that fusion is within grasp. The closest anyone has come is a Q-factor of 0.33 for 5 seconds, achieved at the Joint European Tokamak, per a report published this year.

If nuclear fusion is right around the corner, how might fusion reactors be used in space? Let’s take a look at our options.

Magnetic Confinement Fusion

The world-record Joint European Tokamak fusion reactor uses magnetic coils to confine hot plasma in a donut-shaped device (tokamak). This approach, called magnetic confinement, has been under development from the very first days of fusion.

Achieving a Q-factor greater than one using magnetic fusion requires massive plasma volumes surrounded by cryogenically cooled superconducting electromagnets that are the size of buildings. The most expensive science experiment in human history, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is expected to achieve a Q-factor of more than 10, but won’t be completed until 2035. Still, it is possible that other magnetic fusion devices (e.g., SPARC), taking advantage of new superconductor materials, could be producing carbon-free terrestrial electrical power in the coming decade. These, however, will not work very well in space — a reasonably sized spacecraft just won’t be able to support the hundreds of tons of magnets needed for magnetic confinement fusion. Bottom line: Magnetic confinement fusion will be great for Earth, but too heavy for space.

Inertial Confinement Fusion

Another approach to fusion relies on squeezing atoms together until they fuse, called inertial confinement. The United States first successfully demonstrated inertial confinement nuclear fusion during the Operation Greenhouse weapon test in 1951 on the Enewetok atoll in the Pacific. But for our purposes, thermonuclear weapons don’t make very good rockets (both NASA and the U.S. Air Force have tried). With the signing of nuclear test-ban treaties and the advent of the laser in the 1960s, scientists began looking into using photons rather than nuclear explosions to squeeze hydrogen atoms together and reach fusion ignition. This technique has been honed at the Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility, where 192 lasers, together the size of three football fields, are focused onto a fusion target the size of a pencil eraser in a powerful pulse. In these few nanoseconds, the lasers take up 500 times the entire energy production of the United States — proving that squeezing atoms together using light is extremely difficult. While the physics is close (the facility reached a Q-factor of 0.7 recently), engineering a spacecraft to carry the pulsed laser power infrastructure remains infeasible, or leads to designs that are ridiculously large and expensive.

Electrostatic Confinement

Electrostatic confinement is perhaps the longest-running and most underperforming of the fusion concepts, having received little serious attention since being patented by Philo T. Farnsworth in the 1960s. In electrostatic fusion, electrodes cause ions to accelerate toward a central reactor core volume where they collide with other ions and can fuse together. This method offers a fusion device that doesn’t require house-sized magnets, lasers, or capacitor banks. An electrostatic fusion reactor would be ultra-lightweight, however, pure electrostatic fusion devices have never reached a Q-factor of more than 1 because of a fundamental physics limit: collisions between ions cause losses in confinement much faster than collisions that lead to fusion reactions. Bottom line here: light enough to actually launch into space, but needs some serious physics breakthrough to overcome fundamental limits.

Hybrid Confinement

What’s becoming clear is that a combination of plasma-confinement approaches will be required to build compact-enough spacecraft propulsion and power engines. In recent years, billions of dollars in private capital has poured into these hybrid approaches. Magneto-inertial confinement fusion devices (e.g., General Fusion) start with a low-density magnetized plasma before using a “liner” to compress to fusion ignition conditions. Another promising hybrid approach involves using the plasma fuel itself to generate confining magnetic fields (akin to a self-sustaining smoke ring) while slamming these plasmas into each other (as, for example, Helion is attempting to do) to achieve fusion ignition. An important characteristic of these new devices is that they are small. Avalanche Energy is currently working on a hybrid electrostatic/magnetic confinement concept that could lead to a “hand-held” fusion reactor. At these more compact scales, putting a fusion reactor onto a spacecraft is more science than fiction. The bottom line with hybrid approaches: The physics is still less understood, but a hybrid-confinement fusion reactor may actually be light enough to launch into space.

So where are we on the road to putting fusion reactors on Department of Defense spacecraft? Despite all of the challenges of building things for space, there is one advantage that a space fusion reactor has over terrestrial fusion reactors: The bar is high for fusion to provide commercial terrestrial electricity (a fusion power plant may need a Q-factor of over 50 to be profitable). However, for spacecraft propulsion and power, a Q factor of around two could still be useful because there are fewer energy transformation and transportation steps. Such enabling commercial technologies would be extremely valuable for Department of Defense spacecraft power and propulsion in the near term — something worth taking a risk on.

What’s Next?

The Defense Innovation Unit is focusing on two approaches to accelerate toward ground and flight-testing prototypes: compact fusion and next-gen radioisotope concepts that are likely to exceed the performance of fission reactor power systems for small satellites, with the goal of an orbital prototype demonstration in 2027. This approach is not without risk, both technical and programmatic: Fusion that generates more power than it consumes (a Q-factor of more than 1) has to be demonstrated; manufacturing pathways for high-power radioisotopes should be formed, and, most importantly, both industry and the Department of Defense should assure public safety by working hand-in-hand with regulatory and licensing agencies. These are not easy tasks. In fact, many in the fission, fusion, and space industries will see these approaches as true longshots, but America cannot innovate without taking risks on new technologies. This is the way.


Ryan Weed is leading the Nuclear Advanced Propulsion and Power program at the Defense Innovation Unit as a program manager in the space portfolio. Ryan is a Ph.D. physicist and U.S. Air Force experimental test pilot, logging over 2,000 hours in more than 30 different aircraft. As a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Fellow, he has studied radioisotope positron propulsion systems. While at Blue Origin, Ryan designed and implemented an Instrumentation Laboratory for cryogenic rocket fuels. As founder of Positron Dynamics, he has designed and built a positron beamline facility, and developed high-specific impulse propulsion concepts.

Image: Wikimedia

N. Korean laborers in China suffer hardships despite easing of lockdowns

Young female laborers in their 20s and 30s often face embarrassment due to a lack of tampons

By Seulkee Jang
- 2022.07.11 
Sino-North Korean Border

FILE PHOTO: North Korean workers at a clothing factory in China's Jilin Province. (Daily NK)

North Korean laborers in China are suffering hardships despite the easing of lockdowns in Chinese cities, Daily NK has learned.

According to multiple sources in China on Thursday, North Korean laborers in Dandong, China have not made enough income due to lack of work.

As a result, many of the workers are suffering hardships, unable to purchase foodstuffs or daily necessities.

A Daily NK investigation revealed that at one manufacturing plant in the Chinese city of Dandong, North Korean workers have been taking home less than RMB 150 (around USD 22) a month for the last several months.

Not only is there not enough work, but workers must pay party contributions, Socialist Women’s Union of Korea dues and fees for criticism sessions, leaving almost nothing to take home.

Moreover, with the price of rice, vegetables and other foodstuffs skyrocketing due to the lockdowns, workers are eating poorly.

Not only are they having a tough time getting their hands on eggs, meat or other high protein foods, but even vegetable side dishes are in short supply, with workers barely staving off hunger.

Among themselves, some workers complain, “Whether it’s in the motherland [North Korea] or China, the food sucks all the same,” and, “We’ve been in prison for over two years, unable to leave our dormitories, because of the coronavirus.”

Moreover, with workers earning so much less, they face shortages of not only foodstuffs, but also of basic necessities such as toilet paper, shampoo and soap. Unable to obtain these necessities, many workers simply rinse their hair and bodies with water when they shower.

In particular, young female laborers in their 20s and 30s often face embarrassment due to a lack of tampons.

Moreover, with drugs in short supply, they cannot take medicine even if they fall sick. Instead, they often rely on natural healing. This is to say, short of really serious cases that involve a trip to the emergency room, they receive no medical treatment.

This being the case, many workers complain of frustration or lethargic depression. The workers may not have been diagnosed with depression, medically speaking, but the mood in the dormitory where they stay is pretty dour, one of the sources said.

“With little work coming their way so far, the workers aren’t making much, so they are hoping that work will increase as the coronavirus lockdowns are lifted,” he said, adding, “However, above all else, I think the workers can recover their vitality once they receive proper food and necessities.”

Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.

Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.

ECHR judgment in the case Kavala v. Türkiye: joint statement by the Council of Europe leaders

COUNCIL OF EUROPE STRASBOURG 11 JULY 2022



Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, Simon Coveney, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Tiny Kox, and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, have made the following statement on the European Court’s judgment in Kavala v. Türkiye case:

“The European Court of Human Rights, in its judgment released today, has confirmed the Committee of Ministers’ view that by not having ensured Osman Kavala’s release after the Court’s first judgment in his case, Türkiye has failed to fulfil its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. We welcome today’s judgment which provides a definitive answer on this point. We renew our call for the immediate release of Mr Kavala.

“We urge Türkiye, as a Party to the Convention, to take all necessary steps to implement the judgment. This matter will remain under the supervision of the Committee of Ministers until the judgment is fully implemented.”

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.

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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.