NZ
Workers celebrates win to keep Auckland pools and leisure centres under public control
Health

1 Aug 2024 5:45 pm AEST


Workers in Auckland Council’s pools and leisure centres are celebrating their successful campaign against privatising management of pools and leisure centres. Today the Council’s governing body decided not to contract out management of the 22 facilities it currently operates.

The facilities will remain under Council management, and the PSA is committed to working with Council to find opportunities for savings and operational improvements.

“This is a huge win for us workers and our communities,” said PSA Delegate Gaby Frigerio. “The decision shows trust in our members’ expertise – we look forward to working towards better outcomes for everyone.

“We want to thank everyone across Tāmaki Makaurau who stood with us in favour keeping public services in public hands. We spoke up and we were heard.”

“Our members and their communities made it clear they wanted these facilities to be working in the interests of people, not profit,” said PSA Organiser Sarah Stone.


The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi (PSA) represents members working across Council-run pools and leisure centres, including lifeguards, recreation assistants, customer support representatives, fitness consultants, Learn to Swim instructors, and team leaders.

The privatisation proposal was the result of a review of the Council’s pools and leisure facilities to check whether current arrangements are still effective. In a presentation to the governing body today, the PSA argued that active and open engagement with workers is a better way forward.

“You’d be absolutely blown away by the creative thinking, the ideas, the problem solving from [our members],” said PSA Delegate Martin Graham in the presentation. “Don’t underestimate our people.”

India's Tata Steel CEO says no change in UK job cut plan

NATIONALIZE IT UNDER WORKERS CONTROL

Blast furnaces of the Tata Steel plant seen at sunset in Port Talbot

Thu, August 1, 2024 

By Neha Arora and Manvi Pant

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Tata Steel will not change its plans on proposed job cuts in Britain, while it evaluates the need for more funding from the new UK government, CEO T. V. Narendran told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

Tata, Britain's biggest steel producer, last month began the process of closing down one of its carbon-intensive blast furnaces, with the shutdown of its other furnace slated for September.

The two furnaces shutting down will likely result in the loss of up to 2,800 jobs at Port Talbot in South Wales.

Britain's business minister Jonathan Reynolds said in July that the new government was prioritising avoiding job losses in talks with Tata Steel over government backing for a transition to lower-carbon technologies.

"The compulsory redundancies, which is the point where the unions, the government and us need to see - how do we address that," Narendran said, adding they would also look at re-skilling.

The company is also evaluating the need to seek more funding from the government to build more steelmaking facilities, Narendran said.

The new government in Britain will need to sign the 500-million-pound ($635 million) support package that the previous government agreed on with Tata Steel to help build a lower-carbon electric arc furnace.

In India, the steelmaker said it had asked the government to look into rising imports, particularly from China.

India, the world's second-biggest crude steel producer, turned net steel importer in the fiscal year through March. Finished steel imports scaled a five-year high in April and May, according to provisional government data.

"Chinese exports coming directly into India and also indirectly through Southeast Asia is a concern," Narendran said.

India's federal Ministry of Steel has asked the trade ministry to investigate cheaper steel imports from China and Vietnam, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Tata Steel expects demand in India to pick up from October through March, Narendran said, driven by the construction sector, automobiles and railways, among others.

(Reporting by Neha Arora and Manvi Pant; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

Marxists.orgwww.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/xx/mexico03.htm

Leon Trotsky: Nationalized Industry and Workers' Management (1938)

Sep 12, 2015 ... All the members of the government are bound together by ties of solidarity. A party represented in the government is answerable for the entire ...

WAIT, WHAT?!

Britain’s nuclear submarine software contract handed to Belarusian engineers

Camilla Turner
Fri, August 2, 2024 

THE TELEGRAPH

Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko

Britain’s nuclear submarine engineers use software that was designed in Russia and Belarus, in contravention of Ministry of Defence rules, The Telegraph can reveal.

The software should have been created by UK-based staff with security clearance, but its design was partially outsourced to developers in Siberia and Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

There are fears that the code built by the Russian and Belarussian developers could be exploited to reveal the location of Britain’s submarines.


The Telegraph understands that the MoD considered the security breach a serious threat to UK defence and launched an investigation.

The inquiry discovered that the firm that outsourced the work – on a staff intranet for nuclear submarine engineers – to Russia and Belarus initially kept it secret and discussed whether it could disguise where the workers were based by giving them fake names of dead British people.

As well as the UK’s submarine fleet, there are fears that further defence capabilities could have been compromised because it has emerged that a previous project was also outsourced to developers in Minsk.
National security in jeopardy

On Friday, experts warned that the UK’s national security could have been jeopardised if personal details of those with classified knowledge of Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet fell into the wrong hands, leaving them exposed to blackmail or targeted attacks.

Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, said the breach “potentially left us vulnerable to the undermining of our national security”. He added: “Time and time again, countries like China and Russia have targeted the supply chains of our defence contractors. This is not a new phenomenon.”

James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, said it was an “absolute imperative” to ensure “our most sensitive defence programmes have total resilience and security”.

Rolls-Royce Submarines, which designs and runs the UK’s nuclear submarine fleet on behalf of the Royal Navy, wanted to upgrade its staff intranet and had subcontracted the work to WM Reply, a digital consultancy firm.

WM Reply then used developers based in Belarus – Russia’s closest ally – one of whom was actually working from home in Tomsk, Siberia, according to documents submitted to the MoD’s inquiry.




The intranet system included personal details of all Rolls-Royce Submarines employees as well as the organisational structure of those working on the UK’s submarine fleet.

In the summer of 2020, staff at WM Reply began to sound the alarm over the security implications of using Belarusian staff for the project and suggested that Rolls-Royce should be informed.

By November, a team meeting – a transcript of which was provided to MoD investigators – revealed the serious concerns of some staff members.

But they were told by superiors there was no need to “panic” and that Rolls-Royce should not be informed as there was a risk it might cancel the project if it found out.

It was only in the spring of 2021, when concerns were reported directly to Rolls-Royce, that an investigation was launched. The matter was subsequently brought to the MoD in the summer of 2022, triggering a further investigation which concluded in February last year.

Dr Marion Messmer, senior research fellow at the think-tank Chatham House, said that allowing Belarusian and Russian developers to work on this kind of project constituted a clear “national security risk”.

Any rogue actors gaining access to personal data of those working on the UK’s submarine fleet carried a risk of “blackmail or a targeted attack”, she said.

“From a strategic perspective, the great thing about the submarines is that they are very hard to detect and very mobile. If anyone had access to a tracking system that shows where submarines are at all times, that would give them a huge strategic advantage – if planning an attack on the UK they could first target the nuclear submarines and disable Trident.”

A Rolls-Royce spokesman said: “We can categorically state that at no point was there any risk of data, classified or otherwise, being accessed or made available to non-security cleared individuals. It is not possible for non-security cleared individuals to access any sensitive data via our company intranet. It is used to provide business updates, wellbeing support and a channel for collaboration between our colleagues.

“All our suppliers comply with strict security requirements. Once we were made aware of these allegations that clearly breached these requirements, and following a rigorous internal investigation that concluded in 2021, Rolls-Royce Submarines ceased working with WM Reply. We have not awarded them any further contracts.”

Rolls-Royce said it had carried out full IT security checks on any coding before it was introduced to its network. The company is understood to be confident that WM Reply employees and their subcontractors did not have access to information on secure servers.

A spokesman for WM Reply denied the claim that its actions could have endangered national security.

“WM Reply regularly reviews its delivery processes and procedures, respects the needs and processes of its customers and enjoys transparent and long-standing relationships with those customers,” they said.

An MoD spokesman said: “This matter was fully investigated by Rolls-Royce. As they have said, at no point was the integrity of the system compromised.”
How Russian link to submarine software was kept secret

By Camilla Turner

It was several minutes into a conference call between WM Reply staff members when one employee summed up the concerns of those in the meeting.

“We are talking about serious stuff here, this is our defence … this could screw the company if it got out,” they said.

Having won a contract from Rolls-Royce Submarines to carry out an upgrade of its intranet, the digital consultancy’s team had spent much of the call trying to work out how they could cover up the fact sensitive work was to be carried out by developers in Belarus, an ally of Russia so close some describe it as a vassal state.

As one of them put it: “I think as soon as we mention Minsk ... I think they will just go wahhhh!”

During the brainstorming session, one employee suggested WM Reply could hide the involvement of offshore developers by concealing their Belarusian-sounding names. This could be achieved, it was suggested, by using the names of “dead people in the UK” instead.


The Microsoft Teams video conference call, which took place in November 2020, is at the centre of revelations about how highly sensitive work was outsourced to people in Belarus and Russia.

Rolls-Royce Submarines, which runs Britain’s fleet of nuclear submarines on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, stipulated that the work on its intranet upgrade should only be carried out by UK-based security-cleared individuals.

Those working on the project for WM Reply in the UK, who did have security clearance, were told they should obtain advice before even travelling to certain countries where “special security restrictions” applied, which included Belarus and Russia.

The Teams call – a transcript of which was passed to MoD investigators – took place towards the end of the “discovery” phase of the work and just days before the project was officially due to start. By this point, some of those working on the project at WM Reply were becoming uncomfortable about using coders based out of an office in Minsk in apparent contravention of the instructions from the MoD.

Various options were discussed by senior managers at WM Reply about ways to conceal the identities of the Belarusian coders from Rolls-Royce, such as having one British developer compile all the software which was produced in Belarus to make it look as though the entire code had been created in the UK.

Another employee on the call stated Rolls-Royce must not be told about the Belarusian developers, saying: “We can’t tell them we are doing this, unfortunately.”

Another team member asked why, if they were not doing anything wrong, could Rolls-Royce not be informed?


A more senior team member warned against escalating the concerns to a higher level of management, saying this could lead to them deciding to “completely pull the plug” on the project and risk losing a contract worth half a million pounds.


They went on to reassure other team members by claiming that the risk was “minimal” given that they had already undertaken previous projects for Rolls-Royce using developers in Minsk without any problems.

They argued that they could make it “secure” so the Minsk team “don’t even know what they are working on” and told staff to stop “talking each other into a panic” about it.

After the meeting, the senior employee at WM Reply told the team they had spoken to a contractor at Rolls-Royce who indicated he was happy for offshore workers without security clearance to take part in the project “where required to achieve accelerated timelines and only in the WM environment”.

However, it was not explicitly stated to Rolls-Royce that this involved using workers based in Belarus or Russia, according to documents studied by the MoD.

It was alleged WM Reply wanted to use developers based out of an office in the Belarusian capital of Minsk to cut costs, according to documents submitted to the MoD’s inquiry. Developers in Belarus would have cost “substantially less” than those in the UK, so contracting them for the project – worth around half a million pounds in total – would “increase the profit margin”, it was claimed.

Dr Marion Messmer, senior research fellow at Chatham House, a think tank, said that IT and software development work was increasingly outsourced to agencies in countries such as Belarus, Russia, Poland and Ukraine which was “done as a cost-cutting measure”.

“This could be completely harmless but it becomes a huge security concern if it is work on critical national infrastructure,” she said.

James Cartlidge, the shadow defence minister, said: “The country needs to be reassured that everything is being done to look into this.”

He added that a “much greater focus on the resilience of supply chains” is needed across the board, in both the public and private sectors.
‘Over-reliance on certain suppliers’

Mr Cartlidge, a former minister for defence procurement, said that when he was in the MoD, officials were looking at supply chains, in particular the issue of ensuring the UK did not become “over-reliant on certain suppliers for items that are significant for our critical infrastructure”.

Ed Arnold, at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, said in this case there was a “principal security threat” of state-sponsored sabotage but also the potential for information to fall into the hands of criminals.

“The issue with data these days is you can store it pretty quickly and easily. Once you lose control of the data, you can’t get it back,” he said.

“It would give a state actor a pretty good intelligence start point. If you want to compromise systems, you need to first work out who to target. If you can get a dataset which does the pre-sifting for you, it means that subsequent approaches and targeted pitches are more productive.”

He said that Russia, the closest ally of Belarus, is one of the “primary” national security threats to the UK. “The threat is made up of capability, opportunity, intent – they have it all,” he said.

“The MoD should be asking itself, ‘What if there wasn’t a whistleblower?’ This wasn’t the MoD identifying the problem, it wasn’t Rolls-Royce. If it hadn’t been alerted to this, there would potentially be a vulnerability that could have been used and exploited for a longer period of time.”
Confident in security

Rolls-Royce, which launched an investigation into what happened after it was contacted directly about the issue in spring 2021, says it is confident its intranet is secure.

A spokesman said that all software or development work that was subcontracted out, including “off-the-shelf” software packages, went through rigorous security testing before being considered for use.

It said it carried out IT “health checks” annually across all of its networks and regularly took part in exercises with the National Cyber Security Centre to ensure networks remain secure.

A spokesman for WM Reply said it denied the claim its actions could have endangered national security. “WM Reply regularly reviews its delivery processes and procedures, respects the needs and processes of its customers and enjoys transparent and long-standing relationships with those customers,” it said.

Georgina Halford-Hall, chief executive of Whistleblowers UK, said: “There were multiple whistleblowers here who were doing the right thing and raising concerns.

“In a case like this, one would expect that the company would take matters seriously and act on the evidence provided by the whistleblower. But rather than acting on the concerns, they closed it down. The whistleblowers felt ignored, sidelined, and targeted by their employer.”

She is among those campaigning for whistleblowing laws that could result in companies being fined millions of pounds for attempted cover-ups.

Ministers are being urged to back a Whistleblowing Bill which will also outlaw non-disclosure agreements
and set up a new tribunal where whistleblowing cases will be heard.

Previous iterations of the Whistleblowing Bill – which have been introduced in both the Commons and the Lords – received backing from senior Labour figures including Dame Margaret Hodge and Lord Browne, who was defence secretary under Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Campaigners hope the Bill, which would protect whistleblowers from criminal or civil action being taken against them, will win the backing of Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

The current whistleblowing regime enables workers to bring an employment tribunal claim against their organisation if they are dismissed or treated unfairly at work because they have made a “protected disclosure” about wrongdoing.

These protections were set up in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) but many are deterred by the cost and complexity of the system. The legislation would see people compensated for any loss they experienced – such as being dismissed from their job – as a result of their whistleblowing.

It would also set up a regulator, the Office of the Whistleblower, to investigate protected disclosures. It would set minimum standards for workplace whistleblowing policies, monitor and enforce compliance, and bring prosecutions.

Civil penalties – with a maximum fine set at 10 per cent of a company’s turnover up to £18 million – would be levied for those who fail to comply with an order from the Office of the Whistleblower. And a new criminal offence of subjecting a whistleblower to detriment is included in the draft bill, which carries a maximum jail term of 18 months.

Ms Halford-Hall is also urging the legal watchdog, which oversees the professional conduct of lawyers, to ensure that solicitors firms are not allowed to facilitate cover-ups of national security issues.

“It is time that the SRA stopped pussyfooting around with this and brought forward meaningful regulations and serious consequences for lawyers,” Ms Halford-Hall said. “Every lawyer should be compelled to report national security or other safeguarding issues to the relevant regulators and/or the police.”


Opinion

Submarine revelations should be a wake-up call to ministers about defence supply chains

Con Coughlin
Fri, August 2, 2024
THE TELEGRAPH


The Kremlin may have accessed computer software used by engineers working on the Royal Navy's fleet of nuclear submarines - WILL HAIGH/ROYAL NAVY


It beggars belief that, at a time when Sir Keir Starmer has identified Russia as posing a “generational threat” to our security, engineers working on the Royal Navy’s fleet of nuclear submarines are using computer software that may have been accessed by the Kremlin.

Britain’s nuclear submarines not only play a critical role in safeguarding our national security from hostile powers such as Russia. They also maintain the nuclear deterrent, with the current fleet of four Vanguard nuclear submarines on 24/7 undersea patrols with the ability to deliver a devastating response in the event of the UK coming under nuclear attack.

The importance of preserving this vital pillar of the UK’s national defence infrastructure is reflected in the fact that the Government is investing tens of billions of pounds in building a new fleet of Dreadnought nuclear submarines and missile systems designed to deter potential aggressors for the next 30-40 years.

Friday’s revelation, therefore, that the development of computer software for staff working on the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines was outsourced to engineers in Siberia and Belarus raises serious questions about their operational security.
A dangerous era

Despite Ministry of Defence stipulations that such work should only be conducted by UK-based staff with the requisite security clearance, concerns have now been raised that the new software could have been exploited to reveal the location of Britain’s submarines, thereby giving hostile states like Russia a vital advantage in the event of a future nuclear confrontation. Certainly, at a time when the UK and its allies have subjected Russia to a wide range of sanctions in response to its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, questions need to be asked why firms based in Belarus, which could have links to the Kremlin, have been allowed to work on such a sensitive area of Britain’s nuclear security.

Only last month, in his address to the Nato summit in Washington, Sir Keir gave an explicit warning that the “generational threat” posed by Russia and other hostile states meant that we were living in a “new and dangerous era… One defined by volatility and insecurity.”

But while the Government has taken numerous steps to limit the access of Russian businesses to the UK, there is mounting evidence that, on too many occasions, the measures are not being properly enforced, especially when it comes to limiting Russian access to the UK’s legal, financial and property sectors.

The suggestion, therefore, that firms operating in Russia and Belarus are working in such sensitive areas as the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet should serve as a wake up call to ministers that, if they are really serious about confronting Moscow, they need to ensure that supply chains are secure.

NATO IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

Canadian warship passes through Taiwan Strait, drawing China's ire

James Pomfret and Ismail Shakil
Wed, July 31, 2024 

FILE PHOTO: USS Chung-Hoon sails alongside HMCS Montreal in South China Sea

By James Pomfret and Ismail Shakil

TAIPEI/OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian warship passed through the Taiwan Strait in what Ottawa called a commitment to an open Indo-Pacific, drawing a rebuke from China that the naval exercise on July 31 undermined peace.

Canada's defense ministry said the HMCS Montreal frigate had "recently conducted a routine transit" through the strait in what its defence minister said was a reaffirmation of Canada's commitment to a "free, open and inclusive" Indo-Pacific.


"As outlined in our Indo-Pacific Strategy, Canada is increasing the presence of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Indo-Pacific region," Defence Minister Bill Blair said, referring to Canada's plan for the region announced in 2022.

Li Xi, a spokesperson for the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Eastern Theater Command, said the passage of the Canadian frigate on July 31 had "harassed and disrupted the situation and undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

China's troops, he added, were on high alert at all times and are "ready to respond to all threats and provocations."

China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180km (110 miles) wide waterway dividing the two sides. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway.

U.S. warships, and occasionally U.S. Navy patrol aircraft, pass through or over the strait about once a month.

Canadian naval vessels are less common, though last November the U.S. destroyer USS Rafael Peralta and a Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ottawa conducted a joint transit trhough the strait.

Last June, during another joint U.S.-Canada drill in the strait, a Chinese warship came within 150 yards (137 meters) of a U.S. destroyer in what the Pentagon called "an unsafe manner."

Taiwan's defence ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the island's military had "full control" over the surrounding sea and airspace during the Canadian frigate's transit from north to south through the strait, and that the situation was normal.

(Additional reporting from Beijing newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Stephen Coates)

EMERGING MARKET
India offers $300 million loan to build up Vietnam's maritime security, saying it is a key partner

ASHOK SHARMA
Thu, August 1, 2024 










Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, receives his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh as the latter arrives for talks, in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India on Thursday offered a $300 million loan to build up Vietnam’s maritime security, as the two sides said they want to double their trade and investment within five years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh that India considers Vietnam a key pillar of its policy toward Southeast Asian nations and an important partner in its Indo-Pacific vision.

After their talks, Chinh told reporters the world faces fierce security challenges but there are opportunities for cooperation.


"The Asia Indo-Pacific region is a locomotive for growth, but it is also where major politics is taking place fiercely," he said. "We need an approach and methodology that is global and upholding multilateralism."

The prime ministers said both sides wanted to further their cooperation in defense and other areas such as semiconductor and green technology, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and climate action.

Modi and Chinh virtually inaugurated the “Army Software Park” in Vietnam, an educational facility set up with India's help to train Vietnamese soldiers in digital skills.

Bilateral trade between the two countries in 2022 grew 27% and reached $14.14 billion. Indian exports to Vietnam touched $6.7 billion, while Indian imports from Vietnam amounted to $7.44 billion in the same period, India's Ministry of External Affairs said.

Indian exports to Vietnam include iron and steel, cotton, cereals, meat and fishery products, electrical machinery and equipment, automobile parts, cement, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

India’s import basket from Vietnam mainly includes electrical and electronic equipment, inorganic chemicals, machinery and mechanical appliances, copper and rubber, coffee and tea, spices, iron and steel.

India’s investments in Vietnam are estimated at around $1.9 billion in energy, mineral exploration, agriculture, information technology and other areas, according to the country's External Affairs Ministry.

Vietnam has invested over $28.55 million in India, mainly in pharmaceuticals, information technology, chemicals, and building materials.


Vietnam’s Beta Media, Japan’s Aeon Entertainment Strike $200m Deal For Cinemas, Production & Distribution In Vietnam

Liz Shackleton
Fri, August 2, 2024 


Vietnam’s Beta Media has entered into a joint venture with Japan’s Aeon Entertainment to operate a chain of premium cinemas as well as engage in production and distribution activities in Vietnam.

The two partners will jointly develop and operate more than 50 premium cinemas under the Aeon Beta Cinema brand by 2035, with investment of more than $200m. They will also work together on film production as well as distribute Vietnamese, Japanese, and international films in the Vietnamese market.

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Oscars: Austria Submits 'The Devil's Bath' For Best International Feature Film

Founded in 2014 by Vietnamese entrepreneur Minh Bui, known as “Shark Minh Beta” due to his appearances on the local version of Shark Tank, Beta Media already operates a chain of 20 “affordable theatres” targeting Vietnam’s Millennials and Gen Z consumers.

Featuring Instagrammable design and selling tickets for $2, rather than the $4-5 pricing common in high-end multiplexes, the company grew revenues to $13M in 2023 – outperforming the market’s post-pandemic recovery. It has also expanded into producing Vietnamese films and distributing international films in Vietnam.

Aeon Entertainment, the exhibition arm of Japanese retail giant Aeon Group, currently operates 96 cinemas in Japan and is making its first steps into the international exhibition market with the Beta Media deal.

Attending a press conference in Ho Chi Minh City to announce the deal, Nobuyuki Fujiwara, chairman of Aeon Entertainment, described Beta Media as “the perfect partner due to their deep understanding of the Vietnamese market, superior marketing knowledge, and strong local network. Cinema has the power to connect people and souls. We believe in that power and will continue to challenge ourselves to bring surprise and excitement to customers in Vietnam.”

Minh Bui said: “This joint venture is the fruitful result of shared vision, aspirations, and core values to bring new experiences and sustainable values to the community. The combination of Aeon Entertainment, with their strong capabilities and extensive experience in the film industry, and Beta Media, with their local insights and innovative capabilities, will create groundbreaking development opportunities for both sides.”

The first cinema under the Aeon Beta brand is expected to be open in 2025 with all the cinemas deploying “a modern style harmonizing with the traditional values of Vietnam and Japan”. Beta will continue to operate its existing cinema chain as a separate brand aimed at mass market consumers.

Vietnam has a thriving cinema market that has grown from $15m and less than 100 screens in 2010 to around $150m and 1,100 screens last year. Other big players in the exhibition space include Korea’s CJ CGV and Lotte Entertainment and local companies Galaxy Cinema and BHD Star Cineplex.

US-born Palestinian runner Layla Almasri at the Paris Games: 'We’re diplomats as well as athletes'

andrew dampf
Fri, Aug 2, 2024


Paris Olympics Athletics
Layla Almasri, of Palestine, competes in a women's 800 meters round 1 heat at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)


SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — American-born Palestinian runner Layla Almasri realizes the weight of responsibility that she and her team carry at the Paris Olympics.

It's about far more than merely competing.

“I think I can speak for all eight of us here at the Olympics,” Almasri said after competing in the 800 meters Friday. “We’re definitely diplomats for our people as well as athletes.”

It's a role that's reinforced every time she turns on the TV or looks at her phone and sees images of people struggling in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.

“Every single time. It’s really difficult to see,” Almasri said. “Mothers with my mother’s face on them. Children who look like me when I was a kid. It’s heartbreaking. And it almost feels like I was just hit with a strike of lightning, of luck, to be able to live somewhere where I don’t have to face the things that they’re facing.”

So it hardly mattered that Almasri finished last in her heat and 48th of the 49 finishers in the 800 heats — ahead of a competitor from Kosovo.

“I wasn’t even looking at the clock,” she said. “Just soaked in the moment. The crowd was really what I was focused on. And of course (I had) the best view in the house watching that race. Right on the track.”

After her father left Nablus for Colorado, Almasri was born and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Last year, she earned a master’s degree in health promotion from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, where she’s now an assistant coach for the women’s cross-country team.

She grew up eating Palestinian food and always has felt connected to her father’s homeland.

“It’s in my blood and it’s in my heart,” said Almasri, who won a bronze medal in the 1,500 at the Arab athletics championships last year.

Almasri first visited Nablus two years ago.

“It was beautiful,” she said. “It was home. All my cousins, all my aunts and uncles are there. So I just immediately fit right in.”

Palestine Olympic Committee president Jibril Rajoub has said about 400 athletes of varying levels are estimated to have died since October. The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing approximately 1,200. The war has killed more than 39,200 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Perhaps the most prominent Palestinian athlete to die in the war was long-distance runner Majed Abu Maraheel, who in 1996 in Atlanta became the first Palestinian to compete in the Olympics. He died of kidney failure earlier this year after he was unable to be treated in Gaza and could not be evacuated to Egypt, Palestinian officials said.

“We have a guy I raced with last year who’s been stuck in Gaza,” Almasri said. “He’s very talented and he’s still in Gaza.”

The attention on the Palestine team has been big inside the athletes village.

“Everybody wants a pin. We’re stopped for photos in the dining hall constantly,” Almasri said. “It’s really incredible to see how many people are really surprised to see us and happy to see us.”

There is no extra security for the Palestinians.

“Fortunately, we don’t need it and we don’t have any,” Almasri said. “We’re really lucky to have such a positive environment to be in.”

Have the Palestinians crossed paths with members of the Israeli team?

“We see them, but it’s just business as usual,” Almasri said. “We’re focused on ourselves and we’re sure they’re focused as well.”

___

Turkey blocks access to Instagram.

 It's in response to removal of posts on Hamas chief, reports say

SUZAN FRASER
Updated Fri, August 2, 2024

FILE - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s communications authority blocked access to the social media platform Instagram on Friday, the latest instance of a clampdown on websites in the country.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority, which regulates the internet, announced the decision early Friday but did not provide a reason.

Yeni Safak newspaper, which is close to the government, and other media said access was blocked in response to Instagram removing posts by Turkish users that expressed condolences over the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

“Sanctions for Instagram’s blackout policy were swift. The Information Technologies and Communication Authority blocked access to Instagram,” Yeni Safak stated in its online edition.

Earlier, Fahrettin Altun, the presidential communications director and aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had strongly criticized the Meta-owned platform for preventing users in Turkey from posting messages of condolences for Haniyeh.

The transportation and infrastructure minister, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, maintained that Instagram had ignored “sensitivities” and was in breach of a so-called inventory of serious crimes, which include incitement to suicide, torture, obscenity, crimes against the state’s security and child sexual abuse, among others. He did not elaborate which particular crime the platform is alleged to have breached.

“When they don’t abide by laws and our regulations and don’t take our societal sensitivities into consideration, we are obliged to make the necessary interventions,” he said.

The minister said Turkish authorities were in contact with Instagram’s representative in Turkey.

“When they fulfill the requirements, we will lift the ban,” he said.

Uraloglu's deputy, Omer Fatih Sayan, wrote on X: “We will do what is needed to establish a social media that respects our values, is free of disinformation, and is cleaner and more secure.”

There was no immediate comment from Instagram, which has over 50 million users in Turkey, a nation with a population of 85 million.

Unlike its Western allies, Turkey does not consider Hamas to be a terror organization. A strong critic of Israel's military actions in Gaza, Erdogan has described the group as “liberation fighters.”

The country is observing a day of mourning for Haniyeh on Friday, during which flags are being flown at half-staff.

Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and a member of Turkey's main opposition party, denounced the decision to block Instagram, accusing the communications authority of acting like a “censorship unit.”

“Social media is a platform that everyone uses for many purposes, including for commerce and communicating,” Imamoglu wrote on X. “It is unacceptable that a platform used by the entire country is arbitrarily shut down one morning.”

Turkey has a track record of censoring social media and websites. Hundreds of thousands of domains have been blocked since 2022, according to the Freedom of Expression Association, a non-profit organization regrouping lawyers and human rights activists. The video-sharing platform YouTube was blocked from 2007 to 2010.

After Olympics, Turkey's Erdogan seeks unity with Pope Francis against acts that mock sacred values

Associated Press
Thu, August 1, 2024

FILE - Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, talks to Pope Francis during a group photo at the G7 in Borgo Egnazia, near Bari in southern Italy, June 14, 2024. Turkish President Erdogan spoke with Pope Francis on Thursday, Aug. 1, about the “immoral display” at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics and called for a unified stance against acts that ridicule sacred values, according to a statement from Erdogan’s office. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)More




ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Pope Francis on Thursday about the “immoral display” at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics and called for a unified stance against acts that ridicule sacred values, according to a statement from Erdogan’s office.

The Turkish leader told the pontiff in a telephone call that “human dignity was being trampled on, religious and moral values were being mocked, offending Muslims as much as the Christian world,” the statement said.

In an unprecedented display of inclusivity, drag queens took center stage at the ceremony last week, showcasing the vibrant and influential role of the French LGBTQ+ community.

But the ceremony also attracted criticism over a tableau reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The scene featured drag queens and other performers in a configuration reminiscent of Jesus Christ and his apostles.

Erdogan, who has adopted a staunch anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in recent years, conveyed to the pope the necessity “to raise our voices together and take a common stance against these,” according to the statement.

The Turkish leader, whose ruling party has roots in the country's Islamic movement, often labels the LGBTQ+ community as “deviant” and a danger to traditional family values.

Pride marches in Turkey have been banned since 2015.

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Japan asks Denmark to extradite activist Paul Watson, accused of obstructing a whaling research ship

MARI YAMAGUCHI
Fri, August 2, 2024

FILE - Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, founder of the Oregon-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is sworn in before testifying during a contempt of court hearing in federal court, on Nov. 6, 2013, in Seattle. (Karen Ducey/Pool Photo via AP, File)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan has asked Denmark to extradite anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who has been in custody in Greenland since his arrest last month under a Japanese warrant, officials said Friday.

Watson, a 73-year-old Canadian American citizen, is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose high seas confrontations with whaling vessels have drawn support from celebrities and even featured in the reality television series “Whale Wars.”

Japan's coast guard sought his arrest over an encounter with a Japanese whaling research ship in 2010 when he was accused of obstructing the crew's official duties by ordering the captain of his ship to throw explosives at the whaling ship. He was sought in an Interpol red notice, and the perpetrator, a New Zealand citizen, was convicted of assault and given a suspended prison term allowing him to leave Japan.

Environmental activists have criticized Japan's practice of research whaling as a cover for commercial whale hunting.

Japan's government asked Denmark authorities on Wednesday to hand over Watson so he could be tried in Japan, said Masashi Mizobuchi, assistant press secretary of Japan's foreign ministry. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Japan will continue to take appropriate measures, including making necessary efforts to call on cooperation from related countries and organizations, the official said. Mizobudhi said Denmark has not responded to Japan's request and declined to comment on the prospects for a handover.

Watson was arrested on July 21 when his ship docked in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, according to the local police. Greenland courts have approved his detention in Nuuk until Aug. 15.

Japan does not have an extradition treaty with Denmark and it is unknown if or when Watson would be handed over.

Watson left Sea Shepherd in 2022 to set up his own organization. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation said at the time of his arrest that the action was politically motivated and called for his release.

Watson was detained in Germany in 2012 on a Costa Rican extradition warrant but skipped bail after learning that he was also sought for extradition by Japan, which has accused him of endangering whalers’ lives during his operations in the Antarctic Ocean. He has since lived in countries including France and the United States.

Japan’s government argues whale meat is part of Japan’s food culture and supports the sustainable use of whales. Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission in 2019 and has since resumed commercial whaling within its exclusive economic zone.

Bodies of 2 Mountaineers Found Dangling from Climbing Ropes in Italian Alps at 6,600 Feet

Raven Brunner
Thu, August 1, 2024 at 2:59 PM MDT·

Authorities said it's unclear what caused them to fall, proposing that it might have been the result of human error or a potential rockslide

Two Austrian mountaineers have been found dead in the Italian Alps after being reported missing.

On Thursday, Aug. 1, the climbers' bodies were located dangling from their climbing ropes at an altitude of roughly 2,000 meters (about 6,600 feet), according to a translated Facebook post from the emergency rescue service Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico Friuli Venezia Giulia.

The mountaineers, both from Villach, Austria, were climbing the Cima di Riofreddo mountain in the Julian Alps, which stretch from Northern Italy to Slovenia. Their loved ones attempted to reach them by phone when they didn’t return, per the statement.

The rescue service said that it is unclear what caused the fall, suggesting that it could’ve been the result of human error or a potential rockslide.

Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico

There were two rescue operations with a helicopter to recover the climbers. The bodies were located on the first mission, but they were unable to be recovered because of safety reasons.

Around 5 a.m. local time, the second mission took off with rescuers and a helicopter technician on board, as well as 10 rescuers at the base camp for additional assistance.

Prior to the rescue, the two climbers' vehicle was located in the parking lot, per the initial report.

Related: YouTuber, 22, Dies Falling From Mountain While Filming Video: 'We Are in Great Grief,' Says Mom

According to Summit Post, Cima di Riofreddo reaches an elevation of 8,225 feet and has "high walls and sharp ridges on all sides." According to the outlet, the mountain is difficult to climb as there isn’t a marked path to reach its summit.

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That same day, the rescue service posted alerts for several other emergency situations, one of which involved a hiker who got stuck on the Tenente Ferrante di Ruffano climbing route. He was hanging with a safety cord after experiencing difficulties with his equipment. He was returned to safety by a group of rescuers.

The other incidents involved a climber who had difficulties with a rocky wall at the shoulder of the Bila Pec mountain and a hiker who needed to be escorted to Piani del 

Bodies of mountaineers found dangling from climbing ropes near peak

CBSNews
Updated Thu, August 1, 2024 

Two Austrian mountaineers have died while attempting to summit a 2,500-meter (8,200-foot) peak in Italy's Julian Alps, the mountain rescue service of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region bordering Austria said Thursday.

Missing since Wednesday, the two men were both Alpine rescuers from the southern Austrian city of Villach close to the Slovenian and Austrian borders, the rescue service said on Facebook. Family members awaiting their return tried to reach them by phone but their calls went unanswered.

They were scaling the "Cima di Riofreddo," whose peak culminates at more than 2,500 meters, when they fell either because of a mistake or a possible rockslide.

Their bodies were dangling from their climbing ropes, still partially anchored to the mountainside, when they were found at an altitude of around 2,000 meters on Thursday morning, the rescuers added.

Initially it wasn't possible to reach the climbers due to safety reasons but early Thursday morning, a helicopter with rescuers on board were finally able to reach the two mountaineers, and their bodies were recovered, the rescue service said.



The climbers' deaths comes after other casualties in the region in recent months. In June, a professional skier and his girlfriend fell more than 2,000 feet to their deaths while mountain climbing in the Italian Alps. In January, two Italian hikers were killed in an avalanche in the Alps close to the border between Italy and Switzerland, Reuters reported.

In 2022, a large chunk of Alpine glacier broke loose and slid down a mountainside in Italy, killing at least nine hikers.