Sunday, November 06, 2022

Amateur radio operators and more will track NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission

By Elizabeth Howell

A lot of eyes will be on the epic Artemis 1 mission.

An illustration of the Orion spacecraft traveling through space towards the moon.

(Image credit: NASA)

Amateur radio operators will join a powerful international network tracking NASA's Orion spacecraft after it launches toward the moon this month.

NASA officials announced that a network of 18 volunteers, organizations and space agencies will assist with tracking Artemis 1, which will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to orbit around the moon after blasting off from Earth atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Launch is set for no earlier than Nov. 14.

The selected volunteers, including two individuals in the amateur radio community, will "demonstrate whether they can receive Orion's signal, and use their respective ground antennas to passively track and measure changes in the radio waves transmitted by Orion," NASA officials said in a statement(opens in new tab) on Monday (Oct. 31).

"These measurements will be made during three distinct phases of Orion’s approximately 25-day mission: the journey to the moon, its orbit above the lunar surface and the journey back to Earth," agency officials added.

Related: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission explained in photos

NASA collected the proposals in a Request for Information(opens in new tab) released in August. Data the participants pick up will be sent to the agency's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. The goal is to improve tracking information for future deep-space missions, NASA officials stated. (NASA will also gather its own tracking data on Orion.)

"We received dozens of calls from antenna owners and operators around the world asking, 'How can we get involved?'" John Hudiburg, SCaN's mission commitment manager, said in the statement. "This was our answer: Show us what you can do while supporting the next big thing in human space exploration."

Participating government space agencies include:Canadian Space Agency, Canada
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France
German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt), Germany
Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Republic of Korea
National Space Centre, Elfordstown Earthstation, Ireland

Commercial companies include:Clearbox Systems Pty Ltd., Australia
Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd., United Kingdom
Intuitive Machines, U.S.
Kongsberg Satellite Services (U.S. office)
Leaf Space LLC, U.S.
Swedish Space Corporation (U.S. office)
Telespazio, Italy
Vambrace Inc., U.S.
Viasat, U.S.

The other volunteer groups or individuals are:Non-profit: CAMRAS, Netherlands
Academic institutions: Space Systems Design Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute, U.S.
Private citizens: Scott Chapman, U.S. and Scott Tilley, Canada

Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of "Why Am I Taller(opens in new tab)?" (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace(opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom(opens in new tab) or Facebook(opens in new tab).

Enormous effigy of Liz Truss with a lettuce will be burned at Bonfire Night

The Edenbrige Bonfire Society is set to burn an 11-metre tall effigy of ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss at its November 5 celebrations, following the likes of Boris Johnson

The effigy of Liz Truss is 11-metres tall

(Image: NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)NEWS

By Antony Thrower

News Reporter, 3 Nov 2022

A huge effigy of Liz Truss is set to be burned on Bonfire Night - complete with a laughing lettuce on her shoulder.

The ex-Prime Minister has been chosen as the celebrity Guy by the Edenbridge Bonfire Society after her short 44-day stint in No.10.

The lettuce is seen crying with laughter while the Truss figure is seen holding a goodbye card, a copy of her mini-budget and a T-shirt with the slogan “I’m a fighter not a quitter”.

She is also holding a Guinness World Records book in a nod to her shortest ever stint as Prime Minister.

The Bonfire Society said on Facebook : “We are for the first time we are erecting this year’s infamous effigy, it is Liz Truss herself.

Rishi Sunak told to call general election after ditching promises made during Tory race

Previous effigies include Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Katie Hopkins

(Image: NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

“We have a lettuce sitting on her shoulder. She has our beautiful Clare’s accessories necklace and is carrying her box of what she is taking with her.

“She’s got a copy of the Guinness World Records as she was the shortest ever in UK history.

“Thank goodness she has her mini budget because that did not go down well so she’s taking that with her.

“It has taken our fabulous artist a week to design this and then with our team of volunteers to build it.

“It’s a mammoth project.”

A team of artists and designers spent a week creating the effigy

(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Previous infamous celebrities to get the Edenbridge treatment include ex-US President Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Katie Hopkins, Lance Armstong and Wayne Rooney.

It comes after it was reported Liz Truss’ personal phone was ‘hacked’ by spies suspected of working for Vladimir Putin .

According to the Mail on Sunday, agents thought to be working for the Kremlin downloaded a year’s worth of messages and top secret discussions with international allies.

But it’s claimed Boris Johnson and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case agreed to suppress information about the cyber-attack, which was discovered during the Tory leadership campaign.

At the bottom sits Larry the Cat, turning his back on the ex-PM

(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)DON'T MISS

The incendiary story will raise serious questions about the UK’s security apparatus - and of the judgement of both Mr Johnson and Mr Case.

A UK Government spokesperson told the Mail on Sunday: “We do not comment on individuals’ security arrangements. The Government has robust systems in place to protect against cyber threats.

“That includes regular security briefings for Ministers, and advice on protecting their personal data and mitigating cyber threats.”

Whitehall launches investigation into ‘profiteering’ by energy firms

BY:STEFAN BOSCIA

*Hospitality businesses are particularly vulnerable to energy price increases*

Whitehall officials have launched a probe into alleged profiteering by energy firms, with claims they are not passing on the benefits of recent government interventions.

The government last month launched a six-month energy price cap for businesses to help them survive the continued increases in global energy prices.

The Sunday Times reports that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) is now investigating claims that some energy suppliers “have set prices that undermine the benefits of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme

UKHospitality, a hospitality sector lobby group, has said the difference between what energy firms are paying on the wholesale market and the amount they are charging businesses has soared, despite the government package.

The group said there was “no reasonable explanation for this colossal increase in margins” and is calling for an investigation by the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA).

A Beis spokesperson said: “We are aware a small minority of businesses have reported that some energy suppliers have set prices that undermine the benefits of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.

“We are working with Ofgem to ensure licence conditions have not been breached and businesses are able to see the full effects of the support.”

Businesses receive a discount until April on their energy bills as a part of the government support package, with a cap moving on a weekly basis depending on wholesale market energy prices.

The cap was set at 53p per kWh last week, however some businesses were being quoted 80p per kWh by energy suppliers.

The government has said the scheme will likely be extended past April for sectors deemed the most vulnerable to further energy price increases, such as hospitality and manufacturing.

The company that pays Akshata Murthy, wife of British PM Rishi Sunak, £11.5 million a year is still operating in Russia, report say

IT'S AN INDIAN COMPANY

Jyoti Mann
Sat, November 5, 2022

Akshata Murthy, wife of new British PM Rishi Sunak, has a big stake

in Infosys, the company founded by her father

.Samir Hussein/Getty Images

Infosys, founded by Rishi Sunak's father-in-law, is still operating in Russia, The Guardian reported.
The IT firm still has staff in Moscow and is paying two subcontractors, per the report.
Infosys, which pays the PM's wife £11.5 million in dividends, said it would leave Russia in March.

Infosys, the company owned by the UK prime minister's billionaire father-in-law, is still operating in Moscow, eight months after it said it was pulling out, The Guardian reported.

The Indian IT firm said it was exiting the Russian market in March following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, yet it still has a staffed office in the Russian capital and is paying subcontractors to carry out IT services for a global client, according to the newspaper.

The Moscow office of Infosys still has a company plaque outside on a wall, per the report. Company sources told The Guardian that some administrative staff were still working there as part of the process to leave Russia.

Those sources said staff still in Moscow were removing computer equipment and offloading it in a "sustainable" manner ahead of a move to India.

A spokesperson told The Guardian that it was seeking to end the arrangement and had taken measures to "suspend its operations in Russia". They said employees working on client projects "have been transitioned out" and that Infosys was still paying two Moscow-based subcontractors to carry out work for a client.

The spokesperson added: "Infosys does not have any active relationship with local Russian enterprises. The process of transitioning a few remaining partner and administrative staff is under way."

Akshata Murthy, the wife of the UK's prime minister, receives annual dividends worth £11.5 million ($13.1 million) from her 0.91% stake in Infosys that is worth about $785 million.

Murthy, daughter of the company's founder, N.R. Narayana Murthy, this year agreed to pay tax in the UK on her dividends after it was revealed that she didn't do so due to her "non-domiciled" status.

A Downing Street spokesperson told The Guardian: "Neither Akshata Murty nor any members of her family have any involvement in the operational decisions of the company."

Infosys didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Thousands of nurses WILL strike before Christmas after 100-year-old union's members voted in favour of first EVER mass NHS walk-out

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) closed its strike action ballot on Wednesday

The union is demanding nurses receive a pay rise of 5 per cent above inflation

It is set to be the first national strike in the 106-year-old history of the RCN

By JONATHAN ROSE FOR MAILONLINE
5 November 2022

Thousands of nurses will strike before Christmas after the union's members voted in favour of a first ever mass NHS walk-out.

Britain's nursing union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), closed its historic strike action ballot of its 300,000 members on Wednesday.

The union is demanding nurses receive a cost-of-living pay rise of 5 per cent above inflation which currently sits at 12.3 per cent.

It is set to be the first national strike in the 106-year-old history of the RCN.

'This will see the majority of services taken out, and picket lines across the country,' a union source told The Guardian.

Graham Revie, chair of the RCN Trade Union Committee (centre), joins nurses at Downing Street, London to hand in the fair pay for nursing petition on November 4

The NHS is also gearing up for potential industrial action from other staffing groups with junior doctors, midwives and non-clinical workers like cleaners and porters also considering union action.

It comes as NHS hospitals in England were ordered to plan a military-style operation to prepare for protentional devastating strikes this winter.

Officials have been told ensure each part of the service is ready if historic, NHS-wide industrial action goes ahead, an operation called Exercise Arctic Willow.

Widespread industrial action could see thousands of operations and appointments cancelled.

Tories have warned strikes would be 'criminal' and risk lives, though NHS unions dispute this.

The operation — an extension of usual routine winter exercises carried out by trusts to plan for incidents like flu outbreaks — will take place in mid-November.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen has said the Government's current offer — around £1,400 per nurse, in reality — 'makes a difference to a nurse's wage of 72p an hour'.

This, the union argues, is driving nurses to leave the NHS for better paid jobs in retail and hospitality, further exacerbating staff shortages.

Nurses are just one of the NHS staff groups demanding higher pay than the Government offer, junior doctors are arguing for pay restoration of 26 per cent. NHS staff unions like GMB are arguing all staff should get a 15 per cent pay rise

The RCN is demanding nurses get a salary uplift of five per cent above inflation. This would grant the average nurse, who earns roughly £35,600 each year, an extra £6,150.

The RCN will be expected to maintain a minimum staffing level to ensure patients have access to emergency care, urgent diagnostic procedures and they are not at risk of death or disability.

Like other workers, NHS staff cannot legally be sacked if they participate in official and lawful industrial action.

Nurses could be joined by midwives later in the year, with the Royal College of Midwives set to launch its own ballot next week.

The British Medical Association, a union representing 160,000 GPs, consultants, and junior doctors, has also warned industrial action by the profession is 'inevitable'.

It is set to poll junior doctors — who are demanding the equivalent of a 26 per cent pay rise — in January.

Meanwhile, Unison is asking 350,000 NHS staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including porters, nurses, paramedics and cleaners, to vote in favour of walking out.

NHS data shows efforts to get more nurses into the health service are only barely keeping pace with the number of experienced nurses quitting

A ballot of its 50,000 members in Scotland, which was already under way, has been suspended after a new pay offer.

Fellow NHS staff union, GMB, is demanding NHS staff of all levels including cleaners and porters, get a 15 per cent pay rise, or £2 more per hour, whatever is higher.

If multiple NHS staff ballots on industrial action are successful it could see thousands of doctors and nurses walk out in protest over their pay in early 2023.

This would coincide with a busy winter for the NHS with the health service expected to be battered by additional admissions for Covid, flu and other seasonal viruses — combined with higher staff sickness rates and a record backlog.

Some Tories have described the prospect of industrial action at this time as 'criminal' and that it will put lives at risk.

Steve Turner, Tory commissioner for Cleveland in Yorkshire, said walk-outs risk patient safety and will pile pressure on other busy services, such as the police.

On Monday he told the BBC's Politics North TV show not all doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals are on 'the poorest salaries' and it is unrealistic to offer them an inflation-matching pay bump.

Nurses across UK vote to strike in first ever national action | Industrial action | The Guardian

Suffolk NHS nurse explains why she is voting for strike

Xylina Hogan has written to MPs calling for more investment in the NHS

A Suffolk nurse has described how "tired" and underpaid health professionals increasingly feel they are unable to provide safe care after she wrote to MPs explaining why she had voted to go on strike.

Xylina Hogan, 37, a mental health nurse at Ipswich Hospital, has written to two secretaries of state for health and social care, including Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey while she held the position, explaining why she had voted in favour of the walkout.

In the letter, she called for more investment in the NHS to provide the staffing the service needs, with many having left the NHS or being unable to work their normal hours due to the effects of long Covid, contracted when staff were on the frontline in battling the Covid-19 pandemic.

She said teams were working with "unsafe numbers, not just across Suffolk, but across the entire NHS across the country", while the ambulance service was in a similar situation which was having a "knock-on effect" across healthcare.

She added the NHS had been under pressure before the Covid-19 virus struck, but the pandemic had been the "straw that broke the camel’s back" with many finding it too expensive to get a healthcare degree and then finding they are not getting the pay at the end of it.

Miss Hogan said: “You can get paid the same working in Tesco or Lidl as a nurse.

“Nurses are tired of it. Tired of the system and they are unable to provide the care that they wanted to provide when they took up the job.

“It is sad and I think more investment needs to be put into staff if we are going to tackle the crisis and that includes pay."

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the union representing the profession, started the ballot over pay a month ago and the voting closed earlier this week, with some 300,000 nurses being asked if they were willing to take part in industrial action.

Miss Hogan, who lives in Felixstowe, called for a pay rise for nurses "in line with inflation".

She added: “It just feels unfair, especially if you feel like you are not helping and you are not getting paid and it is stressful.”

The government has offered a 3% wage rise. However, the RCN has called for an increase which exceeds inflation by 5%.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We value the hard work of NHS nurses and are working hard to support them – including by giving over 1 million NHS workers, including nurses, a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year, as recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body.

“NHS staff also received a 3% pay rise last year, increasing nurses’ pay by £1,000 on average despite a public sector pay freeze.

“Industrial action is a matter for unions, and we urge them to carefully consider the potential impacts on patients.”

UK
Tories no longer ‘the party of homeowners’, says Davey

The Lib Dem leader will step up calls for an immediate general election following the economic ‘chaos’ unleashed by the Conservatives.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey

By Gavin Cordon

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will step up calls for an immediate general election, accusing the Conservatives of unleashing “chaos” on the economy.

In a keynote address on Sunday, Sir Ed will say that after the turmoil of past weeks – with many families facing crippling increases in mortgage repayments – the Tories can never again claim to be “the party of homeowners”.

He will call for the creation of a £3 billion mortgage protection fund – paid for by reversing cuts to the bank levy and bank surcharge – to assist families facing crippling increases in their repayments.

Under the Lib Dem proposal, homeowners who see their repayments increase by more than 10% of their income would be able apply for grants of up to £300 a month to help cover the costs.

In his speech, Sir Ed will say: “Just look at the damage the Conservatives are doing to our country. Billions of pounds extra on the national debt. Inflation through the roof and exports through the floor. And a mortgage crisis, with people’s monthly payments up by hundreds of pounds.

Thousands join central London protest to demand general election

Patients would get legal right to see GP within seven days under Lib Dem plans

“Never again can the Conservatives claim to be the party of homeowners, the party of business or the party that balances the books. The Conservatives are the party of chaos.”

They’re like bank robbers asking for a loan to buy the getaway car

Sir Ed is delivering his “autumn speech” after the party was forced to cancel its set piece annual conference in September due to national mourning following the death of the Queen.

With the Government preparing a package of tax rises and spending cuts to address an estimated £50 billion black hole in the public finances, he will say voters are having to pay to clear up the problems the Tories created.

“After inflicting so much chaos and damage, the Conservatives want the rest of us to pay to clear up their mess. They’re like bank robbers asking for a loan to buy the getaway car,” he will say.

He will say that it is “obvious” the country needs a general election and will accuse Rishi Sunak of refusing to go to the country because he knows the Conservatives would lose.

While support in the opinion polls for the Lib Dems has dipped in recent weeks – with voters switching straight to Labour in the wake of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget – he will say the party still has an important role to play in ousting the Tories.

“At that election, millions of voters will be asking a simple question: ‘How do we get rid of our awful Conservative MP? We’ve shown time and again, that’s something the Liberal Democrats are pretty good at,” he will say.

Total Lunar Eclipse Beaver Blood Moon Falls on US Election Day: An Event Line Up that Will Not Happen Again Until 2394

By Rich Co Nov 05, 2022

The total lunar eclipse, or "blood moon," will fall on Election Day. Experts say this event lineup will not happen again until 2394.

On Tuesday, November 8, 2022, a total lunar eclipse will be visible from Oceania, Asia, the Americas, and Northern Europe as the moon passes through the shadow of Earth.

Set Your Alarms

The moon will reappear at about 7:49 AM EDT (1149 GMT), ending the eclipse, which will start at 4:10 AM EST (08:10 GMT). However, the total eclipse period will only last from 5:17 AM EST (09:17 GMT) to 6:42 AM EST (10:42 GMT).

The moon appears less bright because sunlight cannot reach it. After all, it is in the earth's shadow. The disk of the moon will eventually appear to be illuminated indirectly by the sun as the eclipse progresses, but some light still reaches the moon.

The moon may appear brownish red during the total lunar eclipse as a result of sunlight striking its disk after appearing bent around the planet by Earth's atmosphere, which also blocks out blue light.

When the sun, earth, and moon are all in a straight line with the earth in the middle and the moon in the other, a lunar eclipse will take place.

Lunar eclipses are viewable from anywhere on Earth where the moon is over the horizon. Eclipses don't occur every month, but when they do, it's two to three times a year. In contrast to solar eclipses, observers can safely look directly at lunar eclipses.

With the previous lunar eclipse on May 16, this year's second and final total lunar eclipse will occur on Tuesday.

How will the total lunar eclipse proceed?

Because the shadow of the earth is divided into several sections, the moon's appearance changes as the eclipse progresses.

The penumbra and umbra are the terms used to describe the two halves of the shadow cast by the earth. When the moon is in the umbra, a much darker region of the planet's shadow, a total lunar eclipse occurs.

When the moon has partially exited the umbra and is edging back into the penumbra, the total eclipse is over, and the moon is once again partially obscured. The moon's disk is covered by Earth's shadow during this time.

The moon completely exits Earth's inner shadow at 7:49 AM EST (11:49 GMT), ending the partial eclipse. At around 8:56 AM EST, the moon then emerges from the penumbra (1256 GMT).

The following lunar eclipse-the first of 2023-will take place on May 6. This will be a penumbral eclipse, meaning that the moon's disk will only be covered by the Earth's outer, fainter shadow, making it potentially simple to miss, Space.com reports.

Fun Facts!

According to the Almanac, a total lunar eclipse occurring on election day is unprecedented in US history. It has never occurred before and won't do so until the year 2394.
This eclipse is known as a "Blood Moon" because the eclipsed Moon will appear strange and coppery.
Even though it may seem that way to people on Earth, the full Moon is not really a perfect circle.
According to Live Science, because beavers frequently seek shelter in lodges in the middle of the fall, November's Beaver Moon was given that name. Additionally, this is the time of year during which beaver trappers go out to gather ample warm pelts for the upcoming winter.

Taraneh Alidoosti: Top Iranian actor vows she'll stay, 'pay any price' for rights

Taraneh Alidoosti said she planned to stop working and instead support the families of those killed or arrested in the crackdown in Iran.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
06 November, 2022

Taraneh Alidoosti is well known to international audiences as a regular star in films by Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi
[LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty-archive]

One of the best-known actors remaining in Iran on Sunday strongly backed the protest movement that has rocked the country, vowing to stay in her homeland and pay "any price" for her rights.

Taraneh Alidoosti, well known to international audiences as a regular star in films by Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi, said she planned to stop working and instead support the families of those killed or arrested in the crackdown.

"I am the one who stays here and I have no intention of leaving," Alidoosti, 38, wrote in a post on Instagram amid a crackdown that has seen several prominent cultural figures arrested.

She denied having any passport other than an Iranian one or any residence abroad.

"I will stay, I will halt working. I will stand by the families of prisoners and those killed. I will be their advocate," she said.

"I will fight for my home. I will pay any price to stand up for my rights, and most importantly, I believe in what we are building together today."

As a hashtag, she used the protest movement's main slogan: "Woman. Life. Freedom."

Alidoosti is known as a forthright defender of women's rights and wider human rights in Iran.

When major protests rocked the country in November 2019, she declared that Iranians were "millions of captives" rather than citizens.

Her best known role was in Farhadi's film The Salesman, which won best foreign-language film at the Oscars in 2017.

But she has been a prominent presence on the Iranian cinema scene since her teens and also starred in the recent acclaimed film by director Saeed Roustayi Leila's Brothers which was shown at this year's Cannes Festival.
Iranian cinema figures were under pressure even before the start of the now seven-week-old protest movement sparked by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.

Amini's Kurdish first name can be spelt "Jina" or "Zhina".

Prize-winning directors Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi remain in detention after they were arrested earlier this year.

Enraged By Killing Of PhD Student Kurds Clash With Iran’s Police

Nasrin Ghaderi

06 November, 2022

Outraged by the killing of a Kurdish female university student, the people of the western city of Marivan have poured into streets chanting “Death to Khamenei.”

Iranian Ph.D. candidate Nasrin Ghaderi, 35, who was studying philosophy in Tehran died on Saturday after being beaten by security forces with baton during Friday protests.

Under the regime's pressure, however, her father announced she died of flu and an underlying disease.

Videos on social media show Nasrin's body has been laid to rest in the city of Marivan in western Iran amid tight security both at the cemetery and the victim’s family home.

Iran's official news agency IRNA has dismissed media reports that Nasrin was killed with baton strikes, saying she was "spending her normal life" when her family suddenly lost touch with her, and once their son-in-law broke into her place of residence in Tehran, they found her dead.

Reports received by Iran International say gunshots were heard in Marivan and clashes were underway between protesters and security forces in several districts of the city.

Kurdish cities in western Iran have been the center of anti-government protests after Mahsa Amini, who was a Kurdish girl, was killed by police in custody in mid-September.

The Islamic Republic has killed over 300 including 41 children and 24 women since then during protests to say that Mahsa Amini has not been killed by police.

Hardliners Blame Iran's Top Security Man For Not Crushing Protests

Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani

Author: Maryam Sinaee

06 November, 2022

Hardliners are blaming the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani for failure to suppress protests and demanding his removal.
In video-taped remarks released on the internet Sunday, former lawmaker Hamid Rasaei, a hardliner cleric, claimed all security bodies he has spoken to “point in the direction of the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council” as the culprit when it comes to failure in suppressing the protests.

Rasaei also accused President Ebrahim Raisi of not taking timely action and constantly postponing Shamkhani’s replacement.

Shamkhani has kept a very low profile since the protests began. There were rumors among the political elite in Tehran that Major General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Armed Forces, would soon replace Shamkhani as the Secretary of the SNSC, an informed source told us recently.

The demand for Shamkhani’s removal from office may be an indication of serious incongruities among the Islamic Republic’s many intelligence and security bodies vis-à-vis protesters.

So far, the IRGC has not resorted to large scale operations against protesters as it did in November 2019 when it immediately used lethal military force, killing at least 1,500 and arresting thousands within a few days.

This time the IRGC has only deployed its plainclothes agents in the field, leaving the official handling of the protests to the police and its special forces. There has also been less use of assault rifles against protesters, but shotguns and beatings have claimed the lives of at least 318 so far according to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Hamid Rasaei, a hardliner cleric and politician

The protests should have ended after Commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami’s warning last week that demonstrators should cease and desist, Rasaei insisted in his remarks.

In his speech on October 29 Salami had accused the US, Israel, and European powers of fomenting unrest in Iran. “Stay away from the streets,” he told the Iranians in a threating tone.

Rasaei demanded that the incumbent Secretary of the SNSC and former President Hassan Rouhani who appointed him to the post in 2013 be held to account for the “current circumstances”. He also criticized Shamkhani for his “inefficacy” in suppressing the November 2019 protests in an optimal manner and demanded accountability about allegations of financial corruption against him and his family members.

The secretary of the SNSC is appointed by the president with the consent and express approval of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who also appoints the SNSC secretary as his own representative in the council. Shamkhani has held both positions since 2013.

“Tolerance and dallying are enough,” lawmaker Hossein Jalali told the SNSC and security bodies in a speech in the parliament Sunday where some other ultra-hardliner lawmakers blasted Shamkhani and other security and judicial bodies for indecisiveness. They also demanded that some protesters to receive the death penalty.

Jalali also referred to Molavi Abdolhamid, the leader of Sunni Baluch community, in his speech and alleged that Shamkhani has failed to act against him because “he has given priority” to his “friendship” with former reformist President Mohammad Khatami.

“Preserving the regime is the highest priority, even more important than preserving the life of the 12th Imam of Shiites who is believed to be in occultation,” he told Shamkhani. Many can consider this remark as religious sacrilege since the hidden Imam is supposed to be represent the continuation of Prophet Mohammad’s rule.

Shamkhani, an admiral of the Navy, served as defense minister in Khatami’s first cabinet (1997-2001). Despite having run against the president in the 2001 elections, Khatami reinstated him in his second cabinet, but their relations soured considerably.

Protesting Father Of Jailed Iranian Activist Hospitalized After Heart Attack

NOVEMBER 5, 2022

Iranian activist Hossein Ronaghi’s father suffered a heart attack while picketing outside Tehran’s Evin prison.

The father of prominent Iranian activist Hossein Ronaghi was transferred to hospital after suffering a heart attack outside Tehran’s Evin prison, where his son was being held.

The activist’s brother Hassan on November 5 tweeted a photo of his father lying on a hospital bed. He said he was expected to undergo surgery this week, adding: "The Islamic Republic is responsible for this situation of my father."

Hossein Ronaghi was arrested in late September during the ongoing wave of protests rocking the country over the death of a 22-year-old woman while in custody of morality police.

He had used Twitter to report about the protests, the brutal crackdown by the security services, and the Internet disruptions, among other things.

Images of his parents waiting in the cold outside Evin prison, wrapped in blankets, to demand information about their son’s health condition went viral on social media.

Hassan Ronaghi said on October 14 that officials were keeping his brother "in prison without his medicine, with broken legs and a sick body while he is vomiting blood.”

Ronaghi was imprisoned several times since the 2009 Green Movement protests, largely in relation to his activism against Internet censorship in Iran.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment