UK  WHITE RIOT

Social workers frightened after disorder - union

Oli Constable
BBC News

August 12,2024

Dan Nelson/BBC

Unison said "lessons need to be learned, and quickly" after events in Harehills

Social workers felt "frightened" and "vulnerable" with a lack of support following disorder in Leeds last month, a union has said.

Disturbances broke out in Harehills on 18 July as police responded to reports of social workers experiencing hostility while dealing with a child protection issue.

Unison said staff faced "incredibly challenging jobs" in situations that were "often intimidating, threatening and potentially violent".

Leeds City Council said it would work with social workers "to identify learning and agreed actions arising from recent events".


Staff had been injured in incidents where they were "going into people's houses when they're at their most vulnerable", said Karen Loughlin, Unison's Yorkshire and Humberside regional secretary.

"They know they've got really important work to do but what they're saying is, 'I've got to be safe as well'."

Videos widely shared on social media showed people reacting angrily to the children being taken from a house by officers in July.

That night, a bus was set on fire and a police car was overturned during disorder in the streets.

Social workers often had to deal with gangs of people gathering around their vehicles or going into the property they were visiting in an attempt to intimidate, Unison said.

Low staffing levels meant workers were often on their own, the union added.

Tom Ingall/BBC
A large police operation took place during the disorder

The council had "failed to learn any lessons" with a new agency staff member being sent to make contact with the same family on her own, according to Unison.

“The council has at least said it is going to review the incident," Ms Loughlin said.

“But lessons need to be learned, and quickly. Leeds must look beyond this incident, and enhance the support it provides to social workers.”

The council said it took the health and safety of staff "extremely seriously".

A spokesperson said: “Managers and senior leaders have already met with individual social workers and visited area social work teams to listen and talk to them and ensure they have all the support that is necessary."

Staff describe terror as rioters attack station

Pritti Mistry - BBC News
Mon, August 12, 2024 

The Royal Station Hotel next to the railway station was targeted during the violence on 3 August [BBC]

Staff at Hull railway station have spoken of the terrifying moments rioters threw missiles at the building and tried to ram the doors.

Police officers were attacked, shops were looted and a neighbouring hotel housing asylum seekers was targeted during the violence on 3 August.

Matthew Cooper, from TransPennine Express, said: "It was extremely distressing the amount of projectiles that was actually thrown towards the windows."

The city's first three rioters were sentenced on Friday at Hull Crown Court, which heard the cancellation of services and eventual temporary closure of the station cost the rail operator £13,664.

Matthew Cooper said rioters hurled "absolutely anything they could get their hands on" [BBC]

Mr Cooper, a customer service supervisor based at the station, said he and four other staff members "had to physically keep one of the doors closed" to prevent rioters surging onto the concourse and platforms.

"They were trying to get through the door, trying to gain entry to open it all whilst throwing projectiles, breaking windows and breaking the locks to the doors."

He said rioters used "absolutely anything they could get their hands on - rocks and glass bottles" to hurl at the building.

Adam Shone, an area manager, described it as a "very frightening time for our team".

"Within about half an hour of my arrival at the station, the protest had become quite violent and there were missiles being thrown at the Royal Station Hotel.

"We did encounter missiles being thrown at the station and unfortunately did sustain a bit of damage to our station as well."

Adam Shone described it as "very frightening" [BBC]

Mr Cooper praised officers from British Transport Police (BTP) and Humberside Police for their efforts to keep civilians safe and described their work on the day as "absolutely phenomenal".

"They were able to contain the situation and prevent people getting into the station," said Mr Cooper, who previously worked for BTP.

Echoing his praise was transport secretary Louise Haigh during a visit to Hull on Monday.

"I'm here to express my enormous gratitude and admiration for their bravery and to thank them for their ongoing role in dealing with the tensions in the community here," she said.

"I'm a former special constable myself so I know a little bit of what they've been through and it's extraordinary, the bravery and the public service that they demonstrated on the front line."

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh praised police officers for "their bravery" [BBC]

How Tommy Robinson gave away he was hiding at luxury Cyprus hotel while stoking UK riots

Barney Davis
August 6, 2024·

“My kids are crying,” wrote Tommy Robinson from a luxury five-star holiday resort after photographs emerged revealing he had been hiding out in Cyprus.

“We come (sic) here so I could spend some quality time with them. Now they are scared people are coming here to get them.”

Scenes from Robinson’s hotel appear to match those from images of a luxury resort in Cyprus (X/TripAdvisor)

The anti-Islam activist has been accused of stoking far-right riots across the UK from outside the country while holed up in the £400-a-night Mediterranean hotel.

Tommy Robinson’s hotel room matches that of a high-end resort (Twitter/Trip Advisor)

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is thought to have left Britain last week ahead of a scheduled hearing in a contempt of court case. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

The English Defence League founder claimed his family feared they were in danger after the location where he was hiding was revealed on Sunday.

But despite his protestations, it appears Robinson’s own social media activity may have provided clues to his whereabouts.

Promotional photographs of the resort appear to show a waterslide and gym seen in the background of posts he shared with his followers last week.

The decor of hotel room where he filmed an interview with far-right US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones also appears to match the shots.

Follow live coverage of UK riots here

During the conversation with Jones, Robinson asked viewers for donations and complained his location had been made public.

Tommy Robinson’s gym selfies helped may have helped locate him (X/Trip Advisor)

Asked what happens now, he replied: “I’ll be in jail, Alex, that’s what comes next.

“I think it will be the worst thing they can do. It will galvanise our support the people aren’t backing down.

“If people can’t see that. They’ve tried to crush [disorder] but the protests have got bigger and more violent.”

Politicians have demanded the recall of Parliament in the face of continuing anti-immigrant unrest (PA Wire)

He said he expects the number of people hitting the streets to double in size in the coming days adding: “There’s a revolution brewing in the United Kingdom. I’ve made video after video asking it to be peaceful, not violent.

“We are losing our country, we are losing our culture, we are losing our identity.”

Robinson has been publishing running commentary and videos documenting the riots, describing the disorder as a result of “legitimate concerns” and calling for “mass deportations”.

Damage at the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham (Dave Higgens/PA Wire)

Campaigners have accused him of playing an important role in inciting violence directed at ethnic minority groups in the UK over the past week in the wake of the Southport stabbings, which left three young children dead.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, who was born in Cardiff, is accused carrying out the attack, but false claims spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker of Muslim faith who had arrived in the UK by small boat in 2023.

Several of the demonstrations have targeted mosques. Hotels housing asylum seekers in Tamworth and Rotherham were also subject to violent disorder on Sunday.

Sabby Dhalu, co-convenor of Stand up to Racism told The Independent: “Tommy Robinson is deliberately stoking up racism and Islamophobia, whilst on the run. It’s no accident that the riots took place days after Robinson mobilised 15,000 in Trafalgar Square last week. Fascists are emboldened.”

UK

LibLink: Alistair Carmichael MP

 Why Musk and Robinson are now threats to democracy

By NewsHound | Tue 13th August 2024 - 

Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael had some wise things to say about the riots that have plagued the country over the past two weeks.

He compared what happened here to the events of January 6 when MAGA types invaded the Capitol as some Republicans in Congress tried to steal the 2020 election from its rightful winner, Joe Biden.

Today the man who encouraged and stood to benefit from that political violence, if it had succeeded, is an even bet to be elected as President of the United States.

As the UK faces down our own wave of misinformation-fuelled rioting, albeit less directly targeted at our democratic institutions, we must learn the lesson from our American cousins – and refuse any attempt to normalise political violence.

He warned that we need to tackle the root causes of this violence:

In the short term, the problem may primarily be a matter of policing and the courts, but in the long term, we need political solutions to the issues thrown up by these riots. Violence and threats of violence cannot become normalised in the way that they increasingly have been in the United States.

He warned that we can’t assume that all our MPs would necessarily condemn the violence and challenged them to do so:

With prominent politicians in our own country – indeed even Conservative leadership candidates – endorsing Mr Trump, it should be clear that we cannot take the previous consensus against political violence and disinformation campaigns for granted.

He had a bleak warning if we fail to deal with this properly:

Whether it’s Tommy Robinson from his sun lounger in Cyprus or the increasingly deranged Elon Musk on X/Twitter, those who wish to push a narrative of inevitable civil conflict are not acting in good faith – and they are putting the stability of our democracy at risk.

The bedrock of liberal democracy is the belief that we resolve our differences in debate and at the ballot box, rather than through violence. Democracy, however, is only ever as strong as the people who uphold it. If we cannot face down political violence and those who would seek to normalise it, then America’s present may be our future before too long.

You can read the whole article here,

.

* Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online.

How X owner Elon Musk uses his ‘free speech’ platform to amplify his views worldwide




BY BARBARA ORTUTAY
 August 12, 2024

As X’s owner and most followed user, Elon Musk has increasingly used the social media platform as a microphone to amplify his political views and, lately, those of right-wing figures he’s aligned with. There are few modern parallels to his antics, but then again there are few modern parallels to Elon Musk himself.

Of course, none of this should come as a surprise.

Back in 2022 when he was trying to buy Twitter, Musk said he was doing so because it wasn’t living up to its potential as a “platform for free speech.” Protecting free speech — not money — was his motivation because, as he put it, “having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.”

Musk often ruminates on the future of civilization. For one, he appears fixated on a coming “ population collapse,” threatening to wipe out humanity. And he joined prominent scientists and tech leaders last year in warning the world about artificial intelligence doing the same. Musk has framed threats to free speech as yet another existential crisis looming over the world. And he is going to try his best to save it.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in an April 2022 post, adding hearts, stars and rocket emojis to highlight the statement.


Musk’s interview with Trump marred by technical glitches

Trump and Musk talk about assassination attempt and deportations during glitchy chat on X

Two years on, the platform — now called X — has indeed become a haven for the type of free speech Musk has come to champion. In the U.S., he’s spread memes — and sometimes misinformation — about illegal immigration, alleged election fraud and transgender policies, and he formally endorsed former President Donald Trump’s presidential bid this summer.

In May 2023, he co-hosted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s official presidential bid announcement. That turned out to be a disastrous rollout marred by technical glitches but it underscored Musk’s desire to turn X into a “digital town square.” After the event was marred by technical difficulties, Musk extended an open invitation to any other presidential candidate who wants to do one. Trump took him up on it, agreeing to an interview with the billionaire Tesla CEO on Monday evening. The conversation started with technical glitches with people unable to join in and began some 42 minutes late.

“I’ve not been very political before,” Musk said during his conversation with Trump.

Overseas — where most X users live — he’s feuded with top officials in Australia, Brazil, the European Union and the U.K. over the balance between free speech and the spread of harmful misinformation. And he accused a political party in his native South Africa of “openly pushing for genocide of white people.”

“Elon Musk is a master of the media and controls one of the world’s largest microphones. Musk understands the power of social media in shaping a political narrative,” said Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg. “The concern is that as he pushes his own political agenda, X could suppress viewpoints that oppose Musk’s own, either intentionally or by nature of the platform becoming more partisan. That could turn off users who feel marginalized on the platform, and disillusion some who may have earlier bought into his free speech mantra.”

Musk’s political shift playing out on X comes as other social media platforms, notably Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, are shying away from politics. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has never endorsed a presidential candidate — and in February, the world’s largest social media company announced it would avoid recommending political content to people who don’t already follow such accounts.

Lately, Zuckerberg appears to contrast Musk in other ways too. While as recently as January, the Facebook founder was testifying before Congress about the harm his platform has caused children, he seemed to have embraced a more stylish look that includes gold chains, longer curls and a beaming confidence coupled with slightly self-deprecating humor that seems to embrace his eccentricities. On July 4th, for instance, he posted a video of himself riding an electric surfboard, wearing a tuxedo and holding a can of beer in one hand and an American flag in the other. The online response was far more positive than to a 2021 surfing photo, where he’s seen slathered in so much sunscreen it looks like he is wearing a white mask.

Musk, meanwhile, is veering from cool nerd territory into what Kara Swisher, the elder stateswoman of tech journalism, recently called “the Howard Hughes portion” of an inevitable decline. He’s sparring with those who disagree with him — be they foreign governments or people infected by what he calls the “woke mind virus.” Last week, the British government called on Elon Musk to act more responsibly after the tech billionaire used X to unleash a barrage of posts that risk inflaming violent unrest gripping the country.

Justice Minister Heidi Alexander made the comments after Musk posted a comment saying that “Civil war is inevitable” in the U.K. Musk later doubled down, highlighting complaints that the British criminal justice system treats Muslims more leniently than far-right activists and comparing Britain’s crackdown on social media users to the Soviet Union.

Officials at X did not immediately respond to requests for comment

Of course, some of Musk’s current battles over free speech are similar to those that the previous Twitter administration was fighting in repressive regimes that have, at times, restricted or blocked access to the platform to suppress dissent. In Venezuela, for instance, President Nicolás Maduro ordered a 10-day block on access to X in the country last week — the latest in a series of efforts by his government to try to suppress information sharing among people voicing doubts about his claim to victory in the July 28 presidential election. Maduro accused X of being used by his opponents to create political unrest, and gave the company 10 days to “present their documents,” but he gave no additional details.

Musk’s antics are unlike any other Big Tech leader, and while it may be off-putting to a segment of his X user base, it could also attract eyeballs to his platform. Could this all be part of a broader plan? After all, despite publicly criticizing Musk’s antics, those on the left continue to use his platform.

“X has remained surprisingly resilient throughout the recent controversy,” Enberg said. “That’s in no small part due to consumer fascination with conspiracy theories and Elon Musk himself.”

—

AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this story.

BARBARA ORTUTAY
Technology writer covering social media and the internet

US Rep. Ilhan Omar, a member of the progressive ‘Squad,’ faces repeat primary challenge in Minnesota

 Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., speaks during a news conference, May 24, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

 Former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels poses for a picture at his home, Nov. 10, 2023, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, file)

 Republican Senate candidate Joe Fraser speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Minneapolis, July 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)

 Republican Senate candidate Royce White talks during an interview with The Associated Press in Minneapolis, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, file)

BY STEVE KARNOWSKI
 August 12, 2024Share

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the progressive House members known as the “Squad” and a sharp critic of how Israel has conducted the war in Gaza, is trying to avoid the fate of two of her closest allies when Minnesota holds its primary elections Tuesday.

Omar is defending her Minneapolis-area 5th District seat against a repeat challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, a more centrist liberal whom she only narrowly defeated in the 2022 primary.

In the main statewide race on the ballot, conservative populist and former NBA player Royce White is facing a more conventional GOP candidate, Navy veteran Joe Fraser, for the right to challenge Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Meanwhile, two newcomers are in a bitter fight for the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in November in the mostly suburban 1st District.

Omar’s fellow Squad member Rep. Cori Bush lost the Democratic nomination in Missouri last week. Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York lost his primary in June. The only charter member not facing a primary challenge is Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

Both Bush and Bowman faced well-funded challengers and millions of dollars in spending by the United Democracy Project, a super political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which appears to be sitting out the Minnesota race.

But Omar isn’t taking victory for granted. Omar reported spending $2.3 million before the 2022 primary. In the same period this year, she reported raising about $6.2 million. Samuels has raised about $1.4 million.

Omar — a Somali American and Muslim — came under fire from the Jamaican-born Samuels and others in her first term for comments that were widely criticized for invoking antisemitic tropes and suggesting Jewish Americans have divided loyalties. This time, Samuels has criticized her condemnation of the Israeli government’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

While Omar has also criticized Hamas for attacking Israel and taking hostages, Samuels says she’s one-sided and divisive. He’s also been stressing the public safety issues he focused on in 2022. The big issue at the time was policing in Minneapolis, where a former police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020.

The winner in the overwhelmingly Democratic district will face Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi American journalist and self-described secular Muslim who calls Omar pro-Hamas and a terrorist sympathizer.

In the U.S. Senate race, White — an ally of imprisoned former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — shocked many political observers when he defeated Fraser at the party convention for the GOP endorsement.

White’s social media comments have been denounced as misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic and profane. His legal and financial problems include unpaid child support and questionable campaign spending, including $1,200 spent at a Florida strip club after he lost his primary challenge to Omar in 2022. He argues that, as a Black man, he can broaden the party’s base by appealing to voters of color in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and others disillusioned with establishment politics.

Fraser has said White’s confrontational style and message won’t attract the moderates and independents needed for a competitive challenge against Klobuchar, who’s seeking a fourth term. He said he offers a more mainstream approach, stressing fiscal conservativism, a strong defense, world leadership and small government. Fraser has also highlighted his 26 years in the Navy, where he was an intelligence officer and served a combat tour in Iraq.

Neither has anywhere near the resources that Klobuchar has. White last reported raising $133,000, while Fraser has taken in $68,000. Klobuchar, meanwhile, has collected about $19 million this cycle and has more than $6 million available to spend on the general election campaign. She faces only nominal primary opposition.

Craig is preparing for what’s expected to be Minnesota’s most competitive House race in November. Vying to challenge her are former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab and defense attorney Tayler Rahm. Teirab has the support of Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and the National Republican Congressional Committee. He was better funded than Rahm, who won the endorsement at the district convention with support from grassroots conservatives.

While Rahm announced in July that he was suspending his campaign and would instead serve as a senior adviser for Trump’s Minnesota campaign, he will still be on the ballot and didn’t fully pull the plug on his campaign.

Another clash between establishment and grassroots Republicans is playing out in western Minnesota’s 7th District. GOP Rep. Michelle Fischbach is considered one of the most conservative members of Congress and has Trump’s endorsement. But small businessman Steve Boyd, running to her right on a religious platform, blocked her from getting endorsement at the district convention. Boyd has reported spending $170,000, while Fischbach has spent over $1 million.

Pacific Northwest tribes are battered by climate change but fight to get money meant to help them


Pelicans fly near the shore as waves from the Pacific Ocean roll in on May 14, 2024, on the Quinault reservation in Taholah, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

 Marco Black Jr. and his father, Marco Jacob Black Sr., right, who live on the village street closest to the Pacific Ocean, wave to a neighbor on an ATV, May 15, 2024, on the Quinault reservation in Taholah, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

 A pair of eagles soar above a totem pole near the Quinault River, May 22, 2024, on the tribe’s reservation in Taholah, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

BY HALLIE GOLDEN
August 12, 2024Share

SEATTLE (AP) — Coastal tribes in the Pacific Northwest experience some of the most severe effects of climate change — from rising seas to severe heat — but face an array of bureaucratic barriers to access government funds meant to help them adapt, a report released Monday found.

The tribes are leaders in combatting climate change in their region, but as they seek money for specific projects to address its repercussions, such as relocating a village threatened by rising waters, they often can’t provide the matching funds that many grants require or the necessary staff or struggle with stringent application requirements, according to the report by the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative. If they do get funding, it’s often a small amount that can only be used for very specific projects when this work is typically much more holistic, the report found.

“Trying to do projects by piecing together grants that all have different requirements and different strings attached, without staff capacity is a challenge,” Robert Knapp, environmental planning manager at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in northwest Washington, said in the report.


A humpback whale in Washington state is missing its tail. One expert calls the sight ‘heartbreaking’

The collaborative, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, spent two years holding listening sessions with 13 tribes along the Pacific Coast of Oregon and Washington, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Puget Sound. The communities face significant challenges from coastal flooding and erosion, rising stream temperatures, declining snowpack, severe heat events and increasing wildfire risk.

In addition to funding challenges, those interviewed also described not having enough staff to adequately respond to climate change as well as sometimes not being able to partner with state and local governments and universities in this work because of their remote locations. They also said it can be hard to explain the impact climate change is having to people who don’t live in their communities.

But as they work to restore salmon habitats affected by warming waters or move their homes, funding gaps and complications were key concerns.

A representative from one anonymous tribe in the report said it was not able to hire a grant writer and had to rely on its biology department to navigate the maze of funding applications. Another talked about depending on 15 separate funders just to build a marina.

“This is a time of historic state and federal investment in climate action, and tribal priorities really need to be considered when making decisions around how we’re going to be directing this investment,” said Meade Krosby, senior author of the report. “Hopefully this will help to inform how this work is being done, how these funds are being directed, so that they are actually responsive to the barriers that tribes are facing and helping to remove some of those barriers so the tribes can get the good work done.”

The Bureau of Indian Affairs did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Most of the tribes included in the report had completed publicly available reports on the impacts of climate change, and some had developed detailed plans for relocation as rising waters threaten buildings, or even entire villages.

The Quinault Indian Nation, in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, has a plan for relocating its largest village. The multimillion-dollar effort has relied on a piecemeal of federal and state grants and the constraints that come with them, Gary Morishima, Quinault’s natural resources technical adviser, explained in the report.

Other tribes brought up concerns about competing against other tribal nations for funding when collaboration is such a vital part of responding to climate change. Tribal lands share borders and coastlines, and the impacts of climate change on those lands do not stop at any border, the report pointed out.

Amelia Marchand, citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and another author of the report, explained that it comes down to the federal government fulfilling its trust responsibility to tribes.

“The treaty is supposed to support and uplift and ensure that what the tribes need for continued existence is maintained,” she said. “And that’s one of the issues with not having this coordinated federal response because different federal agencies are doing different things.”

Millions of dollars have gone to coastal tribes, and the report said much more is needed. It referenced a 2020 Bureau of Indian Affairs report that estimated that tribes in the lower 48 states would need $1.9 billion over the next half-century for infrastructure needs related to climate change.

Amid all the challenges, Pacific Northwest tribes are still leaders in climate adaptation and have plenty to teach other communities, Marchand said.

“Finding ways to make their progress happen for their nations and their communities despite those odds is one of the most inspiring and hopeful resilient stories,” she said.

Colombian villagers release more than 60 soldiers who had been held captive for 3 days

BY MANUEL RUEDA
August 12, 2024

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s defense ministry on Monday said 66 soldiers who had been “kidnapped” by villagers in the south of the country were released unharmed and will continue to carry out operations against rebel groups in the province of Guaviare.

Colombia’s army has long struggled to defeat rebel groups in the Guaviare area, which has been heavily affected by deforestation and cocaine trafficking. The rebels sometimes exert control over remote settlements in the area.

In a message posted on the social platform X, the defense ministry said the soldiers had been held since Friday by large numbers of villagers who were following orders from a local rebel group, known as the Jorge Suarez Briceño front.

On Sunday, Colombia’s defense minister had threatened to break off a ceasefire with the Briceño front if the soldiers were not released.

The province’s governor, Yeison Roja, told Colombia’s Caracol TV network that while some of the villagers who detained the soldiers could have been influenced by the rebel group, others were attempting to protest the army’s presence because they don’t want more fighting in the area.

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Colombia is currently holding peace negotiations with several armed groups that refused to join a 2016 peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, in which more than 14,000 fighters laid down their arms.

The Briceño Front, is part of the FARC-EMC, a group of around 4,400 fighters that split recently, with around 40% of its fighters continuing negotiations with the government, while the rest walked away from peace talks and are now fighting the army in rural parts of Colombia.

In a statement published on Saturday, Colombia’s army said the soldiers who had been detained were headed to two villages where business owners had complained they were being extorted by the Briceño front.

Americans’ refusal to keep paying higher prices may be dealing a final blow to US inflation spike




A long row of unsold 2024 Atlas utility vehicles is shown Sunday, July 28, 2024, at a Volkswagen dealership in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

 A shopper peruses cheese offerings at a Target store on Oct. 4, 2023, in Sheridan, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

 Shoppers consider rug samples on display in a furniture store June 2, 2024, in Lone Tree, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
, August 12, 2024


WASHINGTON (AP) — The great inflation spike of the past three years is nearly spent — and economists credit American consumers for helping slay it.

Some of America’s largest companies, from Amazon to Disney to Yum Brands, say their customers are increasingly seeking cheaper alternative products and services, searching for bargains or just avoiding items they deem too expensive. Consumers aren’t cutting back enough to cause an economic downturn. Rather, economists say, they appear to be returning to pre-pandemic norms, when most companies felt they couldn’t raise prices very much without losing business.

“While inflation is down, prices are still high, and I think consumers have gotten to the point where they’re just not accepting it,” Tom Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said last week at a conference of business economists. “And that’s what you want: The solution to high prices is high prices.”

A more price-sensitive consumer helps explain why inflation has appeared to be steadily falling toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, ending a period of painfully high prices that strained many people’s budgets and darkened their outlooks on the economy. It also assumed a central place in the presidential election, with inflation leading many Americans to turn sour on the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the economy.

The reluctance of consumers to keep paying more has forced companies to slow their price increases — or even to cut them. The result is a cooling of inflation pressures.

On Monday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that Americans’ expectations of how much they’ll spend in the next 12 months has declined — and so has their outlook for inflation. Consumers expect their spending to grow 4.9% in the coming year, according to a survey by the New York Fed. That is the lowest such reading since April 2021, when inflation was beginning to surge.

And they expect inflation to average just 2.3% over the next three years, the survey found, the lowest such figure since the survey began in 2013. Consumer expectations for inflation can be self-fulfilling: When households expect low inflation, they tend to delay some purchases in the expectation that prices won’t rise much in the near future — and might even decline in some cases. This trend can keep price pressures down.

Other factors have also helped tame inflation, including the healing of supply chains, which has boosted the availability of cars, trucks, meats and furniture, among other items, and the high interest rates engineered by the Fed, which slowed sales of homes, cars and appliances and other interest rate-sensitive purchases.

Still, a key question now is whether shoppers will pull back so much as to put the economy at risk. Consumer spending makes up more than two-thirds of economic activity. With evidence emerging that the job market is cooling, a drop in spending could potentially derail the economy. Such fears caused stock prices to plummet a week ago, though markets have since rebounded.

This week, the government will provide updates on both inflation and the health of the American consumer. On Wednesday, it will release the consumer price index for July. It’s expected to show that prices — excluding volatile food and energy costs — rose just 3.2% from a year earlier. That would be down from 3.3% in June and would be the lowest such year-over-year inflation figure since April 2021.

And on Thursday, the government will report last month’s retail sales, which are expected to have climbed a decent 0.3% from June. Such a gain would suggest that while Americans have become vigilant about their money, they are still willing to spend.

Many businesses have noticed.

“We’re seeing lower average selling prices ... right now because customers continue to trade down on price when they can,” said Andrew Jassy, CEO of Amazon.

David Gibbs, CEO of Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, told investors that a more cost-conscious consumer has slowed its sales, which slipped 1% in the April-June quarter at stores open for at least a year.

“Ensuring we provide consumers affordable options,” Gibbs said, “has been an area of greater focus for us since last year.”

Other companies are cutting prices outright. Dormify, an online retailer that sells dorm supplies, is offering comforters starting at $69, down from $99 a year ago.

According to the Fed’s “Beige Book,” an anecdotal collection of business reports from around the country that is released eight times a year, companies in nearly all 12 Fed districts have described similar experiences.

“Almost every district mentioned retailers discounting items or price-sensitive consumers only purchasing essentials, trading down in quality, buying fewer items or shopping around for the best deals,” the Beige Book said last month.

Most economists say consumers are still spending enough to sustain the economy consistently. Barkin said most of the businesses in his district — which covers Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and North and South Carolina — report that demand remains solid, at least at the right price.

“The way I’d put it is, consumers are still spending, but they’re choosing,” Barkin said.

In a speech a couple of weeks ago, Jared Bernstein, who leads the Biden administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, mentioned consumer caution as a reason why inflation is nearing the end of a “round trip” back to the Fed’s 2% target level.

Emerging from the pandemic, Bernstein noted, consumers were flush with cash after receiving several rounds of stimulus checks and having slashed their spending on in-person services. Their improved finances “gave certain firms the ability to flex a pricing power that was much less prevalent pre-pandemic.” After COVID, consumers were “less responsive to price increases,” Bernstein said.

As a result, “the old adage that the cure for high prices is high prices (was) temporarily disengaged,” Bernstein said.

So some companies raised prices even more than was needed to cover their higher input costs, thereby boosting their profits. Limited competition in some industries, Bernstein added, made it easier for companies to charge more.

Barkin noted that before the pandemic, inflation remained low as online shopping, which makes price comparisons easy, became increasingly prevalent. Major retailers also held down costs, and increased U.S. oil production brought down gas prices.

“A price increase was so rare,” Barkin said, “that if someone came to you with a 5% or 10% price increase, you almost just threw them out, like, ‘How could you possibly do it?’ ”

That changed in 2021.

“There are labor shortages, Barkin said. “Supply chain shortages. And the price increases are coming to you from everywhere. Your gardener is raising your prices, and you don’t have the capacity to do anything other than accept them.”

The economist Isabella Weber at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, dubbed this phenomenon “sellers’ inflation” in 2023. In an influential paper, she wrote that “publicly reported supply chain bottlenecks” can “create legitimacy for price hikes” and “create acceptance on the part of consumers to pay higher prices.”

Consumers are no longer so accepting, Barkin said.

“People have a little bit more time to stop and say, ‘How do I feel about paying $9.89 for a 12-pack of Diet Coke when I used to pay $5.99?’ They don’t like it that much, and so people are making choices.”

Barkin said he expects this trend to continue to slow price increases and cool inflation.

“I’m actually pretty optimistic that over the next few months, we’re going to see good readings on the inflation side,” he said. “All the elements of inflation seem to be settling down.”

CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
Chris Rugaber covers the economy and the Federal Reserve

Erosion suspected in collapse of Utah's popular Double Arch rock formation


 A section of shoreline along Lake Powell in Utah's Glen Canyon National Recreation Area depicts the spot where the popular Double Arch rock formation once was before its collapse this week. Photo courtesy National Parks Service

Aug. 10 (UPI) -- A beloved and unique geologic feature in Utah's Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is no more following the collapse this week of the Double Arch sandstone formation in Utah, U.S. parks officials have confirmed.

Erosion is the suspected culprit in Thursday's collapse of the arch -- a hole formed in the 190-million-year-old sandstone rock situated along Lake Powell, the National Parks Service announced.

The formation was sometimes referred to as the Toilet Bowl, the Crescent Pool and the Hole in the Roof.

No one was hurt during the collapse at Rock Creek Bay, Utah, located about 300 miles east of Las Vegas.

The Double Arch has been subject to spalling and erosion from weather, wind and rain since its formation in the late Triassic to early Jurassic periods.

Changing lake water levels and the effects of wave action are also suspected of contributing to the ultimate collapse of the arch, according to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Superintendent Michelle Kerns.

"This event serves as a reminder of our responsibility and need to protect the mineral resources surrounding Lake Powell," she said. "These features have a life span that can be influenced or damaged by manmade interventions.

"While we don't know what caused this collapse, we will continue to maintain our resource protection efforts on Lake Powell for future generations to enjoy. Please enjoy our resources but leave no trace," Kerns said.

HOSTAGE TAKING ENMASS

Israel's 'retaliatory' Palestinian captive-taking has led to overcrowding in prisons


Palestinians search for victims following an Israeli strike that killed more than 100 people in a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. a medical source said, in Gaza City, on Saturday on August 10, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/UPI | License Photo


Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Israel's high rate of arrest of Palestinians in recent months has led to overcrowding in the prisons where the captives are held.

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees' Affairs, a governmental body of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, said in a statement Saturday that a third of the 500 captives in the Gilboa Prison are forced to sleep on the floor in crowded cells.

"This overcrowding constitutes a clear violation and transgression of prisoners' rights, according to international laws and agreements," the commission said, noting that the overcrowding also violates Israeli law.

Some cells, that are only meant to hold five prisoners, are holding captive as many as 15 people, according to the commission.

A lawyer for the commission visited the prison and met with two captives who described daily beatings and abuse by prison guards, including being sprayed with gas, from inside the prison.

The captives are 25-year-old captive Awad Mar'I, who was arrested in May 2022 and is serving a three-year sentence, and 38-year-old Islam Badr -- who has been detained since October and is being transferred to administrative detention upon recommendation from Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency.

Last week, the commission interviewed three Palestinians held captive at the Ofer Prison where they have endured "overwhelming pain" and "inhumane treatment" at the hands of their Israeli jailers.

"They used dogs to terrify and attack us, and sprayed pepper spray and tear gas in our cells without any reason," the captives said in a joint statement, adding that their Israeli jailers "broke our bones and left us bleeding from the heads and all body parts."

About 10,000 Palestinians are currently held captive in Israeli prisons, excluding many from Gaza. About 3,432 of them are under administrative detention, which allows Israel to indefinitely keep them captive without trial.

The human rights group Amnesty International has said the practice has "dramatically increased" since the war. Palestinians and their supporters often equate this practice to kidnapping.

Amnesty International has documented cases of Israeli soldiers torturing Palestinian detainees, including "severe beatings" and "humiliation." The human rights group said that such torture had been occurring "for decades" before Hamas' attack Oct. 7.

And, Israeli forces have continued to detain dozens of journalists and healthcare workers in Gaza.

ISRAEL LIES

Rights group finds no evidence of Hamas military presence at school massacre site

NOT SELF DEFENSE!

Palestinians search for victims following an Israeli strike that killed more than 100 people in a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. a medical source said, in Gaza City, on Saturday on August 10, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a nonprofit group headquartered in Switzerland, has found no evidence of a Hamas military presence at a school where Palestinians were massacred by Israeli fighters.

"Preliminary reports indicate that the Israeli army detonated three U.S.-made bombs in the attack, which had a tremendous capacity to burn, melt, and destroy bodies," the Euro-Med Monitor said in a report.

Israel has claimed without evidence that the Tab'een School in Gaza City was used as a command center by the Palestinian resistance militia to justify its attack, which killed more than 100 sheltering civilians. It is just the latest attack on a school by the Israelis.

The Euro-Med Monitor team surveyed the school -- which was housing more than 2,500 displaced people in Gaza City -- and recorded the statements of survivors to determine that "there were no military gatherings or centers at the school, and it was never used for military objectives."

"Survivors testified that the school was providing shelter to hundreds of children whose families felt safe there," the rights group said.

It added that the narrow layout of the school and the lack of launch pads would make it a poor choice for a military installation.

The nonprofit noted that Israel specifically targeted a prayer hall, in violation of international humanitarian law. Young girls, including toddlers, were among the victims.

"We were sleeping. We woke up to the sound of an explosion and a fire. We left our classrooms to find a fire burning near the prayer hall. The Tab'een School's women's prayer hall is situated directly above the men's prayer hall," said Susan Mohammed Al-Barawi, a refugee who was sheltering at the school.

"Those who made it through were either severely burned or had their limbs amputated. I saw injured people with their intestines coming out."

Western nations including Germany and Britain have spread unfounded claims that Hamas was using the civilians in the school as "human shields." Israel has not been able to provide evidence of its human shield claims.

Hamas blasts Israel's 'false' narrative around school massacre


People sit near the bodies of a family members at the al-Maamadani hospital, following an Israeli strike that killed more than 100 people on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. a medical source said, in Gaza City, on Saturday on August 10, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/UPI | License Photo


Aug. 11 (UPI) -- After Israel killed more than 100 people sheltering inside a school in Gaza on Saturday, Hamas pushed back against what it called Israel's false narrative that the facility had been used as one of its command centers.

"The narrative of the criminal occupation army about the martyrs of the massacre in the Al-Tabin school in the Daraj neighborhood that they are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad is misleading and false," Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas said Israel killed civilians sheltering in the school and noted that Israel incorrectly listed 19 names claimed by the Israeli military to have been members of Palestinian militias.

The militia asserted that Israel made the false claim in a desperate bid "to justify its heinous crime in light of the widespread international criticism to it." Hamas added that those killed included children, university professors and clerics.

"We confirm that the aforementioned allegations of the occupation army are false and baseless," Hamas said. "No one among them was a gunman, and they were all civilians who were targeted while performing the dawn prayer."

Israel and its supporters have long lied or made false claims about Palestinians and Hamas amid an information war running parallel to the fighting in Gaza. In the 2008 conflict, Israel denied using white phosphorous in populated areas before evidence proved otherwise and it was forced to acknowledge using the controversial chemical warfare.

Other times, Israel makes accusations about the militia without providing concrete evidence to the public, making it hard to discern reality, such as in 2021 when it conducted a strike on a high-rise building in Gaza City used by international journalists that it said was used by Hamas, without providing evidence.

Hamas also hit out at British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, characterizing his comments about the school massacre as a "heinous alignment with the occupation's false narrative." Lammy had called on Palestinian fighters to "stop endangering civilians" without calling on Israeli fighters to do the same amid the conflict.

"It is a blatant attempt to evade his country's legal, political, and moral responsibility for the continuation of this brutal genocide, by continuing to provide political and military support to the Zionist occupation," Hamas added.

Hamas instead demanded that Britain and the United States "immediately back down" from making any statements or taking actions that would make them "actual partners in the war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide committed in the Gaza Strip."