Civil war economy hits Myanmar garment workers


By AFP
November 20, 2024

A civil war is devastating Myanmar, but thousands of garment workers in the country still churn out clothing for brands like Adidas and H&M - Copyright AFP/File Ye Aung THU

As civil war pounds Myanmar’s economy and drives up prices, garment worker Wai Wai often starts her shift making clothes for international brands on an empty stomach.

The orders she and thousands of others churn out for big names including Adidas, H&M and others bring in billions of dollars in export earnings for Myanmar.

It is a rare bright spot in an economy crippled by the military’s 2021 coup and subsequent slide into civil war.

But for 12 hours of sewing clothes for export to China and Europe in a bleak industrial suburb of Yangon, Wai Wai earns just over $3 a day, which has to cover rent, food and clothes.

It must also stretch to supporting her parents in Rakhine state at the other end of the country, where conflict between the military and ethnic rebels has wrecked the economy and driven food prices up.

With times so hard, Wai Wai “decided to mostly skip breakfast” to save extra money, she told AFP, asking to use a pseudonym.

“Sometimes we just have leftover rice from the night before and save money, because if we use money for breakfast, there will be less money to transfer to our family.”

In a nearby factory, Thin Thin Khine and her two sisters work 12 hours a day sewing uniforms for a Myanmar company and earn a monthly salary of around 350,000 Myanmar kyat.

That’s about $165 according to the official exchange rate set by the junta of just over 2,000 kyat to the dollar.

On the open market, a greenback can fetch around 4,500 kyat.

“All my sisters are working, but there is no extra money at all,” she said.

“In the past, we could buy two or three new items of clothing every month, but now we can’t afford to buy new clothes, cosmetics or things for our personal care.”



– Lights out –



Since the coup, Zara owner Inditex, Marks and Spencer and others have left Myanmar, citing the difficulties of operating amid the turmoil.

Others such as Adidas, H&M and Danish company Bestseller have stayed, for now.

Adidas told AFP it worked closely with its suppliers in Myanmar to safeguard workers’ rights, while H&M said it was gradually phasing out its operations in the country.

Estimates of the apparel industry’s export earnings vary.

Myanmar’s commerce ministry said exports were worth more than $3 billion in the past financial year.

But the European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar said export earnings were higher, surging from $5.7 billion in 2019 to $7.6 billion in 2022 — with more than half of exports going to the bloc.

The European body said the rise in Myanmar exports was helped by low labour costs compared to Cambodia and China, along with trade preferences granted by the EU and United States.

Keeping the factories running is a challenge.

In May, the junta said the national electricity grid was meeting about half of the country’s daily electricity needs.

To keep the lights on and the machines spinning, factory owners rely on expensive generators — themselves vulnerable to the regular diesel shortages that plague Yangon.

“The working situation right now is like we invest more money and get less profits,” said small factory owner Khin Khin Wai.

Cotton spindles have more than doubled in price from 18 cents to 50 cents, she said.

“Our lives here are not progressing year by year, they are falling apart,” she said.

Wai Wai’s factory supplies Danish clothing brand Bestseller.

A Bestseller spokesman told AFP that sourcing from Myanmar was “complex” and the company “continuously assessed” the situation, publishing regular reports on its operations in the country.

According to its September report, “on average” workers at Myanmar factories supplying it were paid a daily wage of 10,000-13,000 kyat ($5-6.50 at the official rate), including bonuses and overtime.

– Crackdown –

Abuses in the sector have spiked since the military took power, rights groups say.

This month, Swiss-based union federation IndustriALL Global Union said the junta had banned unions and arrested union leaders.

“There are widespread, comprehensive reports on the extensive violations of workers’ rights,” IndustriALL general secretary Atle Hoie said in a statement.

AFP has sought comment from the junta about conditions in the industry.

The latest concern is a conscription law enforced from February to shore up the military’s depleted ranks.

In its most recent report on Myanmar, Bestseller said two workers at factories that supply it had been drafted between March and September of this year.

Women are included in the draft, although the junta has said it will not recruit them for now.

For migrant workers like Wai Wai who do not have the means to pay bribes to avoid any draft, it is a huge worry.

“I am full of fear about how I will face it if I am called up for conscription,” Wai Wai said.

‘Primitive’ beers draw crowds at Belgian brewery


By AFP
November 21, 2024


Foam coming out of a barrel containing 'lambic' in the process of aging at Cantillon brewery in Brussels - Copyright AFP Simon Wohlfahrt
Matthieu DEMEESTERE

Winding between copper vats and oak barrels, a cluster of early-morning visitors filed through a cavernous Brussels building for an up-close peek at craft beers brewed using a centuries-old method — before sampling the result.

Since it was founded in 1900 in Anderlecht, a working-class district of the Belgian capital, Brasserie Cantillon has been turning out so-called primitive “lambic” beers that are steeped in local tradition.

What makes lambics special is they start with a process known as spontaneous fermentation — through exposure to wild yeasts, specifically those native to Belgium’s Zenne valley — as opposed to cultivated brewer’s yeast.

Aged in wood barrels for months to years, which allows for a secondary fermentation to occur as the beer’s sugars convert to carbon dioxide, the result is a distinctive dry beer with a faintly tart aftertaste.

Cantillon’s speciality is an even more niche type of beer known as “gueuze” — a blend of lambics from different years and whose fruity varieties include kriek, or cherry in Flemish — that has around 20 brewers in Belgium.

Towards the end of the 1970s, the brewery decided to set itself apart by turning its operations into a museum that today draws more than 30,000 visitors a year, amid a broader surge of enthusiasm for craft beers and micro-breweries.

On this November morning, tourists from Italy, France, Japan and Britain rubbed shoulders in what is billed as the last working lambic brewery in Brussels, watching its workers ply their craft.



– ‘Long lost’ –



Joining the tourists were two interns from Canada’s Quebec including Isabelle Gignac — a beer professional in her thirties who works at a micro-brewery on the shores of the Gaspe Peninsula.

Her boss sent her to Cantillon for five weeks to bring back some of its know-how.

“What makes a difference between the beers brewed here is how long they are aged, and what barrels are used,” she said.

Morello cherry, haskap, elderberry flower: the brewery uses a whole palette of fruity aromas for its gueuze beers, adding them at the secondary fermentation stage.

“Lambic is what comes closest to primitive beer — the kind that was made before Louis Pasteur and microbiologists discovered how yeast works in the second half of the 19th century,” explained one of Cantillon’s co-owners, Jean-Pierre Van Roy.

Compared to the 6.5 million hectolitres of beer imbibed in Belgium last year, Cantillon’s output is a mere drop, with an annual 2,500 hectolitres (55,00 UK gallons) produced on average. Two-thirds of that are sold abroad.

Together with his wife Claude Cantillon, granddaughter of the brewery’s founder Paul Cantillon, the couple remain majority stakeholders in the family business while the day to day is handled by their three children.

John Gallagher, an Irish academic based in Leeds in northern England, inherited his taste for Belgian brewing from a well-travelled uncle.

“These are beers rooted in a ‘terroir,'” he said approvingly as he sipped from a red fruit variety, using the French term designating the particular mix of soil, climate and culture that feeds a product’s character.

“That’s what gives them such a reputation with beer lovers,” Gallagher said. “In England, traditional methods have been long lost.”

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Gautam Adani: Billionaire Indian tycoon facing US bribery charges

AFP
November 21, 2024

Gautam Adani has been charged by US prosecutors with paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials for lucrative solar energy supply contracts - Copyright AFP Sam PANTHAKY

Billionaire Indian industrialist Gautam Adani, whose business empire has been rocked by US bribery charges against him, is one of the corporate world’s great survivors.

The tycoon — a close ally of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi — oversees a vast conglomerate encompassing coal, airports, cement and media operations.

The US court charges that he paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes sent his companies’ shares plunging. But Adani has seen off big threats before.

On New Year’s Day in 1998, Adani and an associate were reportedly kidnapped by gunmen demanding a $1.5 million ransom, before being later released at an unknown location.

A decade later, he was dining at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace hotel when it was besieged by militants, who killed 160 people in one of India’s worst terror attacks.

Trapped with hundreds of others, Adani reportedly hid in the basement all night before he was rescued by security personnel early the next morning.

“I saw death at a distance of just 15 feet,” he said of the experience after his private aircraft landed in his hometown Ahmedabad later that day.

Adani, 62, differs from his peers among India’s mega-rich, many of whom are known for throwing lavish birthday and wedding celebrations that are later splashed across newspaper gossip pages.

A self-described introvert, he keeps a low profile and rarely speaks to the media, often sending lieutenants to front corporate events.

“I’m not a social person that wants to go to parties,” he told the Financial Times in a 2013 interview.

– ‘Stop Adani’ –


Gautam Adani, whose empire has been rocked by panic-selling and allegations of fraud, is one of the business world’s great survivors – Copyright AFP INDRANIL MUKHERJEE

Adani was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, to a middle-class family but dropped out of school at 16 and moved to financial capital Mumbai to find work in the lucrative gems trade.

After a short stint in his brother’s plastics business, he launched the flagship family conglomerate that bears his name in 1988 by branching out into the export trade.

His big break came seven years later with a contract to build and operate a commercial shipping port in Gujarat.

It grew to become India’s largest at a time when most ports were government-owned — the legacy of a sclerotic economic planning system that impeded growth for decades and was in the process of being dismantled.

Adani in 2009 expanded into coal, a lucrative sector for a country still almost totally dependent on fossil fuels to meet its energy needs, but a decision that brought greater international scrutiny as he rose rapidly up India’s rich list.

His purchase the following year of an untapped coal basin sparked years of “Stop Adani” protests in Australia after dismay at the project’s monumental environmental impact.

Similar controversies plagued his coal projects in central India, where forests home to tribal communities were cut down for mining operations.

– ‘Extraordinary growth’ –

Adani is considered to be close to Prime Minister Modi, a fellow Gujarat native, and offered the leader the use of a private company jet during the 2014 election campaign that swept him to power.

The tycoon has invested in the government’s strategic priorities, in recent years inaugurating a green energy business with ambitious targets.

In 2022, he completed a hostile takeover of broadcaster NDTV, a television news service considered one of the few media outlets willing to outwardly criticise Modi.

Adani batted away press freedom fears, but told the Financial Times that journalists should have the “courage” to say “when the government is doing the right thing every day”.

Last year a bombshell report from US investment firm Hindenburg Research claimed the conglomerate had engaged in a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.

Hindenburg said a pattern of “government leniency towards the group” stretching back decades had left investors, journalists, citizens and politicians unwilling to challenge its conduct “for fear of reprisal”.

Adani Group denied wrongdoing and characterised the report as a “calculated attack on India” but lost $150 billion in market capitalisation in the weeks after the report’s release.

Its founder saw his own net worth plunge by $60 billion over the same period, and he is now ranked by Forbes as the 25th-richest person globally.

US prosecutors on Wednesday charged the tycoon and two other board members with paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and hiding the payments from investors.

The indictment accuses Adani Group’s leadership of bribing Indian government officials to secure lucrative government contracts.

The conglomerate and its founder have yet to respond to the charges.

How Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s alleged bribery scheme took off and unraveled

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani speaks during an inauguration ceremony after the Adani Group completed the purchase of Haifa Port in Israel on Jan. 31, 2023.(REUTERS/File Photo)

https://arab.news/pjuk8
Updated 50 sec ago
Reuters
November 22, 20240

Gautam Adani allegedly tried to bribe local officials in India to persuade them to buy electricity produced by his renewable energy company Adani Green Energy
The allegations caught the attention of US watchdog agencies as Adani’s companies were raising funds from US-based investors in several transactions starting in 2021


NEW YORK: In June of 2020, a renewable energy company owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani won what it called the single largest solar development bid ever awarded: an agreement to supply 8 gigawatts of electricity to a state-owned power company.

But there was a problem. Local power companies did not want to pay the prices the state company was offering, jeopardizing the deal, according to US authorities. To save the deal, Adani allegedly decided to bribe local officials to persuade them to buy the electricity.

That allegation is at the heart of US criminal and civil charges unsealed on Wednesday against Adani, who is not currently in US custody and is believed to be in India. His company, Adani Group, said the charges were “baseless” and that it would seek “all possible legal recourse.”

The alleged hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes promised to local Indian officials caught the attention of the US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission as Adani’s companies were raising funds from US-based investors in several transactions starting in 2021.

This account of how the alleged scheme unfolded is drawn from federal prosecutors’ 54-page criminal indictment of Adani and seven of his associates and two parallel civil SEC complaints, which extensively cite electronic messages between the scheme’s alleged participants.

In early 2020, the Solar Energy Corporation of India awarded Adani Green Energy and another company, Azure Power Global, contracts for a 12-gigawatt solar energy project, expected to yield billions of dollars in revenue for both companies, according to the indictment.

It was a major step forward for Adani Green Energy, run by Adani’s nephew, Sagar Adani. Up until that point, the company had only earned roughly $50 million in its history and had yet to turn a profit, according to the SEC complaint.

The logo of the Adani Group is seen on the facade of its Corporate House on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)

But the initiative soon hit roadblocks. Local state electricity distributors were reluctant to commit to buying the new solar power, expecting prices to fall in the future, according to an April 7, 2021 report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a think tank.

Sagar Adani and the Azure CEO at the time discussed the delays and hinted at bribes on the encrypted messaging application WhatsApp, according to the SEC.

When the Azure CEO wrote on Nov. 24, 2020, that the local power companies “are being motivated,” Sagar Adani allegedly replied, “Yup ... but the optics are very difficult to cover. In February 2021, Sagar Adani allegedly wrote to the CEO, “Just so you know, we have doubled the incentives to push for these acceptances.”

The SEC did not name the Azure CEO as a defendant, but Azure’s securities filings show the CEO at the time was Ranjit Gupta.

Gupta was charged by the Justice Department with conspiracy to violate an anti-bribery law. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Azure said on Thursday it was cooperating with the US investigations, and that the individuals involved with the accusations had left the company more than a year ago.

‘Sudden good fortune’

In August of 2021, Gautam Adani had the first of several meetings with an official in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, to whom he allegedly ultimately promised $228 million in bribes in exchange for agreeing to have the state buy the power, according to the Justice Department’s indictment.

By December, Andhra Pradesh had agreed to buy the power, and other states with smaller contracts soon followed. Other states’ officials were promised bribes as well, US authorities said.

During a Dec. 6, 2021 meeting at a coffee shop, Azure executives allegedly discussed “rumors that the Adanis had somehow facilitated signing” of the deals, according to the SEC.

Gautam Adani said on Dec. 14, 2021, the company was on track “to become the world’s largest renewables player by 2030.”

“The sudden good fortune for Azure and Adani Green prompted speculation in the marketplace about the contract awards,” the SEC wrote in its complaint.

Letter from the SEC

Before long, the SEC began to probe. The agency sent a “general inquiry” letter to Azure — which at the time traded on the New York Stock Exchange — on March 17, 2022, asking about its recent contracts and if foreign officials had sought anything of value, according to the Justice Department indictment.
According to the Department of Justice, Gautam Adani told representatives of Azure during a meeting in his Ahmedabad, India office the next month that he expected to be reimbursed more than $80 million for the bribes he had paid officials that ultimately benefited Azure’s contracts.

Some Azure representatives and a leading investor in the company decided to pay Adani back by allowing his company to take over a potentially profitable project. The representatives and investor allegedly agreed to tell Azure’s board of directors that Adani had requested bribe money, but hid their role in the scheme, prosecutors said.

All the while, Adani’s companies were raising billions of dollars in loans and bonds through international banks, including from US investors. In four separate fundraising transactions between 2021 and 2024, the companies sent investors documents indicating that they had not paid bribes — statements prosecutors say are false and constitute fraud.

FBI search

During a visit to the United States on March 17, 2023, FBI agents seized Sagar Adani’s electronic devices. The agents handed him a search warrant from a judge indicating that the US government was investigating potential violations of fraud statutes and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

According to prosecutors, Gautam Adani emailed himself photographs of each page of the search warrant on March 18, 2023.

His companies nonetheless went through with a $1.36 billion syndicated loan agreement on Dec. 5, 2023, and another sale of secured notes in March 2024, and once again furnished investors with misleading information about their anti-bribery practices, according to prosecutors.

On Oct. 24, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn secured a secret grand jury indictment against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, Gupta, and five others allegedly involved in the scheme.
The indictment was unsealed on Nov. 20, prompting a $27 billion plunge in Adani Group companies’ market value. Adani Green Energy promptly canceled a scheduled $600 million bond sale.

UK sanctions Angola’s Isabel dos Santos in graft crackdown


By AFP
November 21, 2024

Isabel Dos Santos is one of three people dubbed 'infamous kleptocrats' by the UK government - Copyright AFP/File Patrick T. Fallon

The UK government on Thursday announced sanctions on Angola’s Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire businesswoman and daughter of the country’s former president, as part of a new anti-corruption drive.

It also sanctioned Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian tycoon with links to the Kremlin, and Aivars Lembergs, one of Latvia’s richest people, who is accused of abusing his political position to commit bribery and money laundering, the foreign ministry said.

They are all subject to travel bans and asset freezes, it added in a statement, calling them “three infamous kleptocrats” and accusing them of “stealing their countries’ wealth for personal gain”.

Dos Santos, the ministry said, had “systematically abused her positions at state-run companies to embezzle at least £350 million ($443 million), depriving Angola of resources and funding for much-needed development”.

Considered Africa’s richest woman, she is currently wanted by Angolan authorities investigating alleged illegalities in the management of national oil company Sonangol between 2016 and 2017.

Her father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died in 2022, ruled energy-rich Angola for 38 years until 2017.

She was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 for “involvement in significant corruption” and is barred from entering the United States.

Responding to the UK decision Thursday, dos Santos said that it was “incorrect and unjustified” and that she “intends to appeal”.

“I hope that the United Kingdom will give me the opportunity to present my evidence and prove these lies fabricated against me by the Angolan regime,” she said in a statement released in Portuguese.

“No court has found me guilty of corruption or bribery,” she added. “We are facing another step in Angola’s politically motivated campaign of persecution against me and my family.”

– ‘Ill-gotten gains’ –

Firtash is a one-time ally of ousted pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

He is currently in Austria fighting extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on bribery and racketeering charges.

In June 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree imposing sanctions on Firtash, including the freezing of his assets and withdrawal of licences from his companies, after accusing him of selling titanium products to Russian military companies.

“(Firtash) extracted hundreds of millions of pounds from Ukraine through corruption and his control of gas distribution and has hidden tens of millions of pounds of ill-gotten gains in the UK property market alone,” the UK government statement added.

Sanctions would also be imposed on his wife, Lada Firtash, and UK-based Denis Gorbunenko, a UK-based financial “fixer”.

Lembergs, a former mayor, is accused of bribery and money laundering. His daughter, Liga Lemberga, is also sanctioned.

In 2021, a Riga court found him guilty of 19 charges including extorting bribes, forging documents, money laundering and improper use of office.

The measures are the latest under 2021 anti-corruption sanctions legislation brought in by the previous Conservative administration.

“These unscrupulous individuals selfishly deprive their fellow citizens of much-needed funding for education, healthcare and infrastructure — for their own enrichment,” said Foreign Secretary David Lammy, a member of the UK’s new Labour government elected in July.

 ”I committed to taking on kleptocrats and the dirty money that empowers them when I became Foreign Secretary… The tide is turning. The golden age of money laundering is over,” he said.

The Conservative government of Boris Johnson announced the first sanctions under its new global anti-corruption regime in 2021.

Britain had previously followed the European Union’s sanctions regime but since leaving the bloc in January 2020 struck out alone with its own policy.

The global anti-corruption sanctions were designed to prevent Britain from being a haven for illicit funds and money laundering.

Brazil police urge Bolsonaro’s indictment for 2022 ‘coup’ plot


By AFP
November 21, 2024

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was in office from 2019 to 2022 - Copyright AFP Joe Klamar
Louis GENOT

Brazilian police on Thursday called for the indictment of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro over a 2022 “coup” plot to prevent current leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office.

A police statement said its investigators concluded that Bolsonaro and 36 others planned the “violent overthrow of the democratic state.”

“Federal police concluded on Thursday the investigation into the existence of a criminal organization that acted in a coordinated way in 2002 in an attempt to maintain the then-president in power,” the statement said.

“The final report has been sent to the Supreme Court with the request that 37 individuals be indicted for the crimes of the violent overthrow of the democratic state, coup d’etat and criminal organization,” it said.

It is up to Brazil’s attorney general to decide whether the allegations are substantiated enough to warrant criminal charges being laid. The charge of attempting a coup carries a sentence of up to 12 years in prison.

Bolsonaro vowed to fight the allegation, and accused the Supreme Court judge overseeing the case of overstepping the law.

“The fight begins at the Attorney General’s office,” Bolsonaro said on his X social media account.

The judge, Alexandre de Moraes, “leads the entire investigation, adjusts statements, arrests without charges, fishes for evidence and has a very creative advisory team. He does everything that the law does not say,” Bolsonaro said.

According to police, the alleged plot was hatched in the final months of Bolsonaro’s 2019-2022 presidency.

Lula, a left-winger who was previously president between 2003 and 2010, won October 2022 elections to succeed the far-right Bolsonaro.

Police have not so far drawn a direct link between the alleged plot and an insurrection that took place in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the capital’s presidential palace, the Congress building and the Supreme Court.

Investigations continue into that upheaval, which echoed scenes from the United States two years earlier, when supporters of Donald Trump protesting President Joe Biden’s election win attacked the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.

Bolsonaro has expressed admiration for Trump in the past.

The list of alleged co-conspirators in the Bolsonaro case included three elite soldiers and a police officer arrested on Tuesday for allegedly plotting to assassinate Lula and Moraes, in a separately announced case.

“I must be very grateful that I am alive. The attempt to poison me and Alckmin didn’t work,” said Lula on Thursday at an official ceremony, referring to Vice President Geraldo Alckmin.

“We need to build this country without persecution, incitement to hatred or discord,” the president added.



– Trump parallels –



Bolsonaro is the target of several investigations, but the one on Thursday placing him at the center of an alleged coup is the most dramatic.

He says he is innocent and the victim of “persecution.”

A former army captain, Bolsonaro has already been declared ineligible to hold public office until 2030 for having made unsubstantiated claims of fraud in Brazil’s electronic voting system.

He has been prohibited from leaving the country while a vast probe named “Tempus Veritatis” (“the time of truth” in Latin) continues. The investigation has already swept up several of Bolsonaro’s closest aides.

Bolsonaro hopes to overturn the ineligibility ruling and attempt a comeback in 2026 presidential elections.

On X, he has posted parallels between his situation and that of Trump, who won over US voters this month to secure a return to the White House.

The police investigation calling for Bolsonaro’s indictment detailed an alleged decree the ex-president was said to have issued in December 2022 ordering high-ranking military officers to arrest Moraes.

Moraes was head of the national electoral tribunal that validated Lula’s victory in 2022.

That decree was confirmed by the military officers in police questioning, according to transcripts made public by Moraes, who is now in charge of the case at the Supreme Court.

According to a transcript released in March, a retired Brazilian army general, Marco Antonio Freire Gomes, had spoken to police investigators about the December 2022 meetings with Bolsonaro.

He said a Bolsonaro aide had seen legal opinions the then-president had drawn up supporting his attempt to stay in power.

PERVERSE PATRIARCHY

Wildlife monitoring tech used to harass, spy on women in India

By AFP
November 21, 2024

Technology intended to protect tigers in an Indian forest have sometimes been turned on women, researchers warn 

- Copyright AFP/File Aditya Singh

Daniel Lawler

Camera traps, drones and other technology for monitoring wildlife like tigers and elephants are being used to intimidate, harass and even spy on women in India, researchers said on Friday.

In one particularly egregious example, a photo of an autistic women relieving herself in the forest was shared by local men on social media, prompting villagers to destroy nearby camera traps.

Trishant Simlai, a researcher at the UK’s Cambridge University, spent 14 months interviewing some 270 people who live near the Corbett Tiger Reserve in northern India.

For women living in villages around the reserve, the forest has long been a space for “freedom and expression” away from the men in a “heavily conservative and patriarchal society,” Simlai told AFP.

The women sing, talk about taboo subjects such as sex, and sometimes drink and smoke while collecting firewood and grass from the forest.

But the introduction of camera traps, drones and sound recorders as part of efforts to track and protect tigers and other wildlife has extended “the male gaze of the society into the forest,” Simlai said.

On multiple occasions, drones were deliberately flown over the heads of women, forcing them to drop their firewood and flee for cover, according to a study led by Simlai in the journal Environment and Planning.


– ‘We are afraid’ –


“We cannot walk in front of the cameras or sit in the area with our Kurtis (tunics) above our knees, we are afraid that we might get photographed or recorded in a wrong way,” a local woman was quoted in the study saying.

A forest ranger told the researchers that when a camera trap took a photo of a couple engaging in “romance” in the forest, “we immediately reported it to the police”.

In perhaps the most appalling example, a photo of an autistic woman from a marginalised caste relieving herself in the forest was inadvertently taken by a camera trap in 2017.

Young men appointed as temporary forest workers shared the photo on local Whatsapp and Facebook groups to “shame the woman,” Simlai said.

“We broke and set fire to every camera trap we could find after the daughter of our village was humiliated in such a brazen way,” one local told the researchers.

Aiming to avoid the cameras, some women have started roaming farther into the forest, which has the highest density of tigers in the world.

The women also sing less than they used to, which was used to deter animal attacks.

One local woman — who spoke about fear of cameras forcing her into “unfamiliar spaces” in 2019 — was killed by a tiger earlier this year, Simlai said.

– ‘New ways to harass women’ –

Another woman took advantage of the constant surveillance.

“Whenever her husband would beat her, she would run in front of the camera so that her husband did not follow her,” Simlai said.

Overall, “these technologies are actually very good” and are revolutionising conservation efforts, Simlai emphasised.

But he called for more consultation with local communities about the technology, as well as more transparency and oversight from forest authorities, and sensitive training for local workers.

“A lot of that can be done by conservation organisations that — in the first instance — introduced these technologies to the government,” Sim added.

Rosaleen Duffy, a conservation expert at Sheffield University in the UK, told AFP that “sadly” she was not surprised by this research.

“What surprises me is conservationists who imagine that technologies can be introduced and used in a social, political and economic vacuum,” she said.

“The cases in this research are not accidental,” Duffy pointed out. “They were actively using the drones to provide new ways of continuing to harass women.”

While this technology can be a powerful tool to conserve wildlife, “there must be clear rules for what they can and cannot be used for, and clear consequences for anyone misusing them,” she added.

Macron calls Haitian officials ‘total morons’ over PM sacking

POMPOUS PRICK COLONIALIST

By AFP
November 21, 2024


Macron has caused a stir with his comments about Haiti - Copyright AFP Joe Klamar

French President Emmanuel Macron accused Haiti’s transitional council of being “total morons” for dismissing the country’s prime minister, according to a video shot at the G20 summit in Brazil this week and shared on social media Thursday.

In the footage, the French leader is speaking on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio with an individual accusing Macron and France of “being responsible for the situation in Haiti”.

Haiti’s transitional council pushed out then-prime minister Garry Conille after just five months in office, a move Macron called “terrible” in the clip.

“They’re total morons,” said Macron referring to the transitional body, adding, “they never should have dismissed him.”

Condemning the remarks, Haiti’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that French Ambassador Antoine Michon had been summoned following the “unacceptable comments.”

Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste used the meeting to express “indignation” on behalf of the transitional council, which he said viewed the remarks as “an unfriendly and inappropriate gesture that must be rectified,” according to a statement from the ministry.

Haiti has suffered from decades of political instability.

But in recent months, the Caribbean country has seen a surge in violence with gangs now controlling 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The clip also shows the French president, who is on a multi-leg tour of Latin America with his most recent stop in Chile, blaming Haitians for “letting drug trafficking take over”.

“Quite frankly, it was the Haitians who killed Haiti,” the French president said in the clip.

Businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime was sworn in as Haiti’s new prime minister on November 12, promising to restore security in the crisis-wracked country.

Haiti summons French ambassador after Macron's 'total morons' comment

French President Emmanuel Macron was caught on video on Thursday calling the Haitian transitional council "total morons" for sacking the embattled nation's prime minister, prompting Haiti's foreign minister to summon French Ambassador Antoine Michon to address the "unacceptable remarks".

Issued on: 22/11/2024 
By: NEWS WIRES
Video by: Charlotte HUGHES

01:21France's President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron greet Haiti's President of the transitional council Smith Augustin at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, July 26, 2024. © Valentine Chapuis, AFP


French President Emmanuel Macron accused Haiti's transitional council of being "total morons" for dismissing the country's prime minister, according to a video shot at the G20 summit in Brazil this week and shared on social media Thursday.

In the footage, the French leader is speaking on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio with an individual accusing Macron and France of "being responsible for the situation in Haiti".

Haiti's transitional council pushed out then-prime minister Garry Conille after just five months in office, a move Macron called "terrible" in the clip.

"They're total morons," said Macron referring to the transitional body, adding, "they never should have dismissed him."


Condemning the remarks, Haiti's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that French Ambassador Antoine Michon had been summoned following the "unacceptable comments."

02:00



Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste used the meeting to express "indignation" on behalf of the transitional council, which he said viewed the remarks as "an unfriendly and inappropriate gesture that must be rectified," according to a statement from the ministry.

Haiti has suffered from decades of political instability.

But in recent months, the Caribbean country has seen a surge in violence with gangs now controlling 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Read more  FRANCE 24 exclusive report in Haiti: The Iron Grip of the Gangs

The clip also shows the French president, who is on a multi-leg tour of Latin America with his most recent stop in Chile, blaming Haitians for "letting drug trafficking take over".

"Quite frankly, it was the Haitians who killed Haiti," the French president said in the clip.

Businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime was sworn in as Haiti's new prime minister on November 12, promising to restore security in the crisis-wracked country.

(AFP)

Doctors Without Borders halts operations in Haiti's capital amid threats from police

The Precarious Precariat and the Garrison State

Gang violence leaves at least 150 dead in Haiti's capital this week, UN says

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HAITI

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BLACK JACOBINS

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CLR JAMES

HAITI, LE ZOMBIE AND UNITED FRUIT COMPANY 

SEE MY GOTHIC CAPITALISM

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: GOTHIC CAPITALISM

http://plawiuk.blogspot.com › 2005/02 › gothic-capitalism

Feb 15, 2005 — The development of capitalism in the 18th and 19th Centuries saw not only bourgeois revolutions but the revolt of slaves and the most successful ...

Full text of "The Horror Of Accumulation And The Commodification ...

https://archive.org › stream › The+Horror+of+Accumul...

Karl Marx GOTHIC CAPITALI$M The Horror of Accumulation & The Commodification of Humanity Gothic Capitalism The Horror of Accumulation and the 

Australian eyes $30m fine for social media flouting under-16s ban


By AFP
November 21, 2024


Australian legislation could force social media firms to take steps to prevent those under 16 years of age from accessing platforms such as X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Michael M. Santiago
Laura CHUNG

Social media companies could be fined more than US$30 million if they fail to keep children off their platforms, under new laws tabled before Australia’s parliament Thursday.

The legislation would force social media firms to take steps to prevent those under 16 years of age from accessing platforms such as X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.

Failing to do so would mean fines of up to Aus$50 million (US$32.5 million).

Australia is among the vanguard of nations trying to clean up social media, and the proposed age limit would be among the world’s strictest measures aimed at children.

Details about how social media companies are expected to enforce the ban remain unclear.

The proposed laws would also include robust privacy provisions that require tech platforms to delete any age-verification information collected.

Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland said Thursday that social media companies had a responsibility for the “safety and mental health” of Australians.

“The legislation places the onus on social media platforms, not parents or children, to ensure protections are in place,” she said.

Some companies will be granted exemptions from the ban, such as YouTube, which teenagers may need to use for school work or other reasons.

Rowland said that messaging services — such as WhatsApp — and online gaming would also be exempt.

Once celebrated as a means of staying connected and informed, social media platforms have been tarnished by cyberbullying, the spread of illegal content, and election-meddling claims.

If the proposed law passes, tech platforms would be given a one-year grace period to figure out how to implement and enforce the ban.

Social media companies have said they will adhere to new legislation but have cautioned the government against acting too quickly and without adequate consultation.

Analysts have also expressed doubt it would be technically feasible to enforce a strict age ban.

Katie Maskiell from UNICEF Australia said Thursday the proposed legislation would not be a “solve-all” for protecting children and much more needed to be done.

She added the laws risked pushing young people onto “covert and unregulated online spaces”.

Several other countries have been tightening children’s access to social media platforms.

Spain passed a law in June banning social media access to under-16s.

And in the US state of Florida, children under 14 will be banned from opening social media accounts under a new law due to come into force in January.

In both cases, the age verification method has yet to be determined.

Musk details mass cuts to US federal spending and staff

SPENDING IS SERVICES 

AUSTERITY IS POVERTY

By AFP
November 20, 2024

Elon Musk outlined plans Wednesday for his new role as “efficiency” czar — signaling an assault on federal spending and staffing that would be backed by President-elect Donald Trump’s executive powers and a conservative Supreme Court.

In the Wall Street Journal, the world’s richest man said he was taking aim at hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending — including funding for public broadcasting and abortion rights group Planned Parenthood — as well as at bureaucracy that represents an “existential threat” to US democracy.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said that he, along with fellow businessman and Trump loyalist Vivek Ramaswamy, would work to slash federal regulations and make major administrative cuts and cost savings.

“We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in their most detailed remarks since Trump named them heads of a new Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk said DOGE — a nod to Musk’s support for a cryptocurrency — will prepare a list of regulations issued by government agencies without Congress approval, which Trump could then invalidate by executive order.

“When the president nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach. In fact, it will be correcting the executive overreach of thousands of regulations promulgated by administrative fiat that were never authorized by Congress,” Musk said.

He added that a reduction in regulations would pave the way for “mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy,” and said DOGE would aim to cut more than $500 billion in government expenditures.

“With a decisive electoral mandate and a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, DOGE has a historic opportunity for structural reductions in the federal government,” Musk said.

Musk, Ramaswamy outline plans for government reform

US President-elect Donald Trump said Elon Musk would lead an efficiency drive under his new administration - Copyright AFP/File Kena Betancur

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The federal government is "anti-democratic and antithetical to the founders' vision," Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy said Wednesday in a joint op-ed on Wednesday.

The nation was founded on the notion that citizens elect people to run the government, but that's not how it works now, Musk and Ramaswamy said in the op-ed that was published by the Wall Street Journal.

Instead, most legal regulations are not those passed by Congress and signed into law by the President. Instead, they are tens of thousands "legal edicts" created annually by millions of unelected bureaucrats.

"Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren't made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies," Musk and Ramaswamy said.

The bureaucrats consider themselves "immune from firing" due to civil service protections and impose "massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers," they said.

President-elect Donald Trump's election victory gives them a "historic opportunity to solve the problem" of a large and bureaucratic federal government through the proposed creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, they said.
Advertisement

The DOGE, led by Musk and Ramaswamy, will be tasked with reducing the size of the federal government.

"The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic," Musk and Ramaswamy said, "and politicians have abetted it for too long."

The pair described themselves "entrepreneurs, not politicians" who will "serve as outside volunteers" who will cut costs.

They said they will help the incoming Trump administration to identify and hire a small team of "small-government crusaders"that includes "some of the sharpest technical and legal minds in America."

The DOGE team will work with the White House Office of Management and Budget to promote governmental reforms that include regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings.

Executive action will be the prime driver of their reform efforts, Musk and Ramaswamy said.

They intend to advise Trump on executive actions that legally can impose "reductions in force" instead of targeting specific employees to reduce the size of federal agencies and departments without violating civil-service protections.

"Mr. Trump can implement any number of 'rules governing the competitive service' that would curtail administrative overgrowth," the pair said.

After being sworn in, Musk and Ramaswamy said President-elect Trump can impose firings of federal workers on a large scale and relocated federal agencies out of Washington, D.C., to make the federal government more efficient and less costly for taxpayers.

The DOGE and its leaders in Musk and Ramaswamy only can act in an advisory capacity and cannot make any legally binding changes to the federal government.

Any advice provided by the DOGE will require executive or congressional actions to carry the weight of law.

START WITH THE PENTAGON/DOD BUDGET

SPACE/COSMOS

Many physicists argue the universe is fine-tuned for life – findings question this idea

The Conversation
November 21, 2024

Universe (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, CC BY)

Physicists have long grappled with the question of why the universe was able to support the evolution of intelligent life. The values of the many forces and particles, represented by some 30 so-called fundamental constants, all seem to line up perfectly to enable it.

Take gravity. If it were much weaker, matter would struggle to clump together to form stars, planets and living beings. And if it were stronger, that would also create problems. Why are we so lucky?

Research that I recently published with my colleagues John Peacock and Lucas Lombriser now suggests that our universe may not be optimally tailored for life. In fact, we may not be inhabiting the most likely of possible universes.

We particularly studied how the emergence of intelligent life is affected by the density of “dark energy” in the universe. This manifests as a mysterious force that speeds up the expansion of the universe, but we do not know what it is.

The good news is that we can still measure it. The bad news is that the observed value is way smaller than what we would expect from theory. This puzzle is one of the biggest open questions in cosmology, and was a primary motivation for our research.

Anthropic reasoning

We tested whether “anthropic reasoning” may offer a suitable answer. Anthropic reasoning is the idea that we can infer properties of our universe from the fact that we, humans, exist. In the late 80s, physics Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg discussed a possible anthropic solution for the observed value of the dark energy density.

Weinberg reasoned that a larger dark energy density would speed up the universe’s expansion. This would counteract gravity’s effort to clump matter together and form galaxies. Fewer galaxies means fewer stars in the universe. Stars are essential for the emergence of life as we know it, so too much dark energy would suppress the odds of intelligent life such as humans appearing.

Weinberg then considered a “multiverse” of different possible universes, each with a different dark energy content. Such a scenario follows from some theories of cosmic inflation, a period of accelerated expansion occurring early in the universe’s history.


Weinberg proposed that only a tiny fraction of the universes within the multiverse, whether real or hypothetical, would have a sufficiently small dark energy density to enable galaxies, stars and, ultimately, intelligent life, to appear. This would explain why we observe a small dark energy density – despite our theories suggesting it should be much larger – we simply could not exist otherwise.



Number of stars (white) produced in universes with different dark energy densities. Clockwise from the upper-left panel: no dark energy, same dark energy density as in our universe, 30 and 10 times the dark energy density in our universe. Credit: Courtesy of Oscar Veenema, former undergraduate student at Durham University, now PhD student at Oxford University, CC BY-SA


A potential pitfall in Weinberg’s reasoning is the assumption that the fraction of matter in the universe that ends up in galaxies is proportional to the number of stars formed. Some 35 years later, we know that it is not that simple. Our research then aimed at testing Weinberg’s anthropic argument with a more realistic star formation model.
Counting stars

Our goal was to determine the number of stars formed over the entire history of a universe with a given dark energy density. This boils down to a counting exercise.


First, we picked a dark energy density between zero and 100,000 times the observed value. Depending on the amount, gravity can hold matter together more or less easily, determining how galaxies can form.

Next, we estimated the yearly amount of stars formed within galaxies over time. This followed from the balance between the amount of cool gas that can fuel star formation, and the opposing action of galactic outflows that heat up and push gas outside galaxies.

We then determined the fraction of ordinary matter that was converted into stars over the entire lifetime (past and future) of a certain universe model. This number expressed the efficiency of that universe at producing stars.



Credit: Image readapted from D. Sorini, J. A. Peacock, L. Lombriser, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 535, Issue 2, Pages 1449–1474. Source: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae2236, CC BY-SA

We then assumed that the likelihood of generating intelligent life in a universe is proportional to its star formation efficiency. As the figure above shows, this suggests that the most hospitable universe contains about one-tenth of the dark energy density observed in our universe.


Our universe is thus not too far from the most favourable possible for life. But it also isn’t the most ideal.

But to validate Weinberg’s anthropic reasoning, we should imagine picking a random intelligent life form in the multiverse, and ask them what dark energy density they observe.

We found that 99.5% of them would experience a larger dark energy density than observed in our universe. In other words, it looks like we inhabit a rare and unusual universe within the multiverse.

This does not contradict the fact that universes with more dark energy would suppress star formation, hence reducing the chances of forming intelligent life.




Marbles in boxes. CC BY-SA

By analogy, suppose we want to sort 300 marbles into 100 boxes. Each box represents a universe, and each marble an intelligent observer. Let us put 100 marbles in box number one, four in box number two and then two marbles in all other boxes. Clearly, the first box contains the single largest number of marbles. But if we pick one marble at random from all boxes, it is more likely to come from a box other than number one.

Likewise, universes with little dark energy are individually more hospitable for life. But life, although more unlikely, can still spawn in the many possible universes with abundant dark energy too – there will still be a few stars in them. Our calculation finds that most observers among all universes will experience a higher dark energy density than is measured in our universe.

Also, we found that the most typical observer would measure a value about 500 times larger than in our universe.

Where does that leave us?


In conclusion, our results challenge the anthropic argument that our existence explains why we have such a low value of dark energy. We could have more easily found ourselves in a universe with a larger dark energy density.

Anthropic reasoning may still be salvaged if we adopt more complex multiverse models. For example, we could allow for the amount of both dark energy and ordinary matter to vary across different universes. Perhaps, the reduced spawning of intelligent life due to a higher dark energy density might be compensated by a higher density of ordinary matter.

In any case, our findings warn us against a simplistic application of anthropic arguments. This makes the dark energy problem even harder to grapple with.

What should we cosmologists do now? Roll up our sleeves and think harder. Only time will tell how we solve the puzzle. However we will do it, I am sure it will be incredibly exciting.

Daniele Sorini, Post Doctoral Research Associate in Cosmology, Durham University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The first ‘zoomed-in’ image of a star outside our galaxy


By AFP
November 21, 2024

The image of the massive star, which is encircled by a mysterious "egg-shaped cocoon" - Copyright AFP Andrej ISAKOVIC

Scientists said Thursday they have taken the first ever close-up image of a star outside of the Milky Way, capturing a blurry shot of a dying behemoth 2,000 times bigger than the Sun.

Roughly 160,000 light years from Earth, the star WOH G64 sits in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our home Milky Way.

It is a red supergiant, which is the largest type of star in the universe because they expand into space as they near their explosive deaths.

The image was captured by a team of researchers using a new instrument of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Keiichi Ohnaka, an astrophysicist at Chile’s Andres Bello National University, said that “for the first time, we have succeeded in taking a zoomed-in image of a dying star”.

The image shows the bright if blurry yellow star enclosed inside an oval outline.

“We discovered an egg-shaped cocoon closely surrounding the star,” Ohnaka said in a statement.

“We are excited because this may be related to the drastic ejection of material from the dying star before a supernova explosion,” added the lead author of a study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

– ‘Witness a star’s life in real time’ –

Ohnaka’s team has been watching the star for some time.

In 2005 and 2007 they used the Very Large Telescope’s interferometer, which combined the light from two telescopes, to learn more about the star.

But capturing an image remained out of reach until a new instrument called GRAVITY — which combines the light of four telescopes — recently came online.

When they compared all their observations, the astronomers were surprised to find that the star had dimmed over the last decade.

“The star has been experiencing a significant change in the last 10 years, providing us with a rare opportunity to witness a star’s life in real time,” said study co-author Gerd Weigelt of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.

Red supergiants — such as Betelgeuse in the Orion constellation — are “one of the most extreme of its kind, and any drastic change may bring it closer to an explosive end,” added study co-author Jacco van Loon of Keele University in the UK.

In their final stages of life, before they go supernova, red supergiants shed their outer layers of gas and dust in a process that can last thousands of years.

It could be this expelled material that is making the star appear dimmer, the scientists said.

This could also explain the strange shape of the dust cocoon that surrounds the star.

Another explanation for the egg-shaped cocoon could be that there is another star hidden somewhere inside that has not yet been discovered.

Gaza boy dreamed of ride to Moon but Israeli missile 'tore him into pieces'

"He said to me 'I hope a rocket comes and I can go to the Moon'. He didn't realise that the rocket would come and tear him up into pieces," says mother of Abdul Aziz, 7, who was killed by Israel along with his brother Hamza, 5 and sister Laila, 3.



AA

Relatives of the Palestinians who were killed in an attack on Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis mourn as dead bodies were taken from the Nasser Hospital for burial in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 21, 2024. / Photo: AA


As Areej al-Qadi tearfully kissed the bodies of her three young children killed by Israel in an air strike in Gaza, another mourner lashed out at the United States and Arab leaders for not ending the genocide.

Palestinians in Gaza attending one funeral after another after more than a year of Israeli genocide feel abandoned and angry that their pleas for help have gone largely unanswered.

Qadi said her son Abdul Aziz, 7, killed by Israel along with his brother Hamza, 5 and sister Laila, 3, while they played outside in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, had wanted to be an astronaut.

"He said to me 'I hope a rocket comes and I can go to the Moon'. He didn't realise that the rocket would come and tear him up into pieces," she said.

"What right does America have, talking about democracy, justice and equality? said displaced mourner Ra'fat al-Shaer. "Also a message to the Arab world, to the heads of the Arab nations. How long will this continue?"

Arab countries have not backed their own calls for an end to the suffering of fellow-Muslims with any threats to end diplomatic agreements with Israel despite the killings of tens of thousands of civilians.


Reuters
Mourners gather next to the bodies of Palestinian children killed by Israel in a strike, during a funeral in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on November 21, 2024.

'They were all martyred'

Israel has killed more than 44,000 people, wounded more than 104,000 and turned Gaza, one of the world's most densely populated places, into a wasteland of crushed cement and twisted metal.


Most of Gaza's population of 2.4 million people has been displaced and the enclave is at risk of famine, more than a year into Israel's genocide.


Many analysts say the reported death toll is a conservative estimate.


A letter to US President Joe Biden from a group of almost 100 American doctors who served in Gaza estimated a death toll of more than 118,000 in October 2024. And according to the UK medical journal The Lancet, the death toll could be more than 180,000.


People like Mahmoud Bin Hassan al-Thalatha, the father of the three children he said were killed along with other innocent people by Israel on a bustling street, say their only recourse is prayer.


"My children were martyred, the people walking were martyred, and the stall vendor was martyred while he was sitting down, they were all martyred. May God have mercy on them."

SOURCE: Reuters TRT World

Fly my encrypted data to the moon — or to the Canadian Space Agency’s first quantum communication satellite anyways


By Abigail Gamble
November 21, 2024

DIGITAL JOURNAL

Katanya Kuntz is a a quantum physicist and CEO and Co-founder of Qubo Consulting Corp. — Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal

“Imagine a rat’s maze,” says Katanya Kuntz, a quantum physicist, CEO and co-founder of Qubo Consulting Corp.

She’s explaining how quantum technology works, during an interview with Digital Journal at Calgary Innovation Week.

You’ve got a rat at one end of the maze, and cheese at the other end. A classic computer is going to test out one path at a time, to figure out which path will get them to the cheese.

“But a quantum computer can try all possibilities simultaneously at once, and then find the path,” she said.

Which means, it figures out the best path much more quickly. And that’s thanks to quantum physics.

Here’s how quantum physics and technology work:

“We’ve had quantum physics for more than 100 years,” Kuntz explains. It’s the study of the microscopic building blocks of pretty much everything in the universe — like atoms. And they have different, rather wacky rules that we’re not used to experiencing in everyday life.

Some of what we understand about these building blocks or particles (their principles or rules) has been applied to what were called Quantum 1.0 technologies for a while, says Kuntz.

Essentially, everyday tools like lasers, LED lights, electronics, MRI and x-ray machines are created by applying the foundational principles of quantum physics to a technological process.

To return to the rat maze analogy…

In quantum physics, one of the “basic” rules is that a particle can exist in multiple places, simultaneously.

A particle doesn’t have a fixed location until we look at it. This happens because particles behave like waves of probability rather than fixed objects. Until we observe or measure a particle, it’s in a state of uncertainty, where all possible outcomes coexist.

So a quantum computer can explore every different maze path that’s possible, all at the same time.

Cool, huh?

It gets cooler though, because these days, scientists are working on technologies that use the more complicated quantum principle of entanglement to create “quantum networks” or a “quantum Internet” that will enable next-level data encryption. It’s Quantum 2.0.

Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal

How Quantum 2.0 is going to protect our data so it’s unhackable

An exciting example of Quantum 2.0 technology is Canada’s first quantum communication satellite that’s set to launch in 2025 or 2026, which will help secure our data in a whole new way, says Kuntz.

In addition to her role at Qubo, Kuntz is the science team coordinator for this mission, which is called the Quantum EncrYption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat), and is owned by the Canadian Space Agency.

What’s the satellite going to do exactly?

The QEYSSat science team is going to beam a laser up from the Earth to communicate with it.

“So there’s a ground station in Waterloo, Ontario,” Kuntz explains, “It’s literally a telescope … we’re going to shoot a laser up.” And this will be a “quantum uplink” sending particles of light — called photons — up from the ground to space.

Quantum communication systems are sent to space because satellites allow secure communication over long distances, something that’s hard to achieve on Earth due to interference and the limited range of ground-based fibre systems.

These photon signals can be used to encode and encrypt everything from online banking to sensitive transaction records to private government data, and are much, much more secure than any of the other encryption technologies we use today.

“With quantum, you can actually encrypt the information securely. So it’s theoretically 100% secure,” explains Kuntz.

And this level of encryption is increasingly necessary as hacking and ransomware threats become a bigger concern, she says.

“Calgary’s Public Library system got hacked about a month ago and was held hostage, and they still don’t have internet, computers, printers, anything electronic. There’s literally a sign when you walk into the public libraries here that says, ‘no technology.’ And you can take out books, but you can’t return books because they can’t check anything.”

How and why we need quantum satellite encryption:

When you encode information on the individual photons, if a hacker is trying to access your data, it will affect the light stream, and you’ll know because you’re monitoring that channel, says Kuntz.

“This is to everyone’s benefit,” she says and is part of the Canadian government’s quantum strategy, prepping for the day when the first quantum computers come online. This could happen in the next five to 15 years, says Kuntz.

“There’s around 20 countries already that have quantum satellite missions, so we’re not the first,” she says. But the value of having our own in Canada is to establish our own secure quantum network.

“So it’s our national sovereignty to have our own quantum Internet. It protects our own public information.”

Katanya Kuntz spoke with Abigail Gamble for Digital Journal during Calgary Innovation Week. Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal

Everyone else needs to prepare for our quantum future too

It’s not just governments who need to prepare for the quantum future, says Kuntz. Businesses and organizations can (and probably should) start looking now for quantum solutions to their problems.

And by problems, she means almost any challenge that includes a lot of complex variables.

For instance: “There are cities that are using quantum optimization algorithms, like Tokyo, to improve their transportation and waste management,” Kuntz says.

Some of the complex challenges quantum can help navigate include:

“If there’s events in the city, how is that going to affect the waste management? If there’s [extra] traffic flow, if there’s [unexpected] weather events, if there’s suddenly a snow dump, that’s going to really affect your routes, and maybe your garbage trucks won’t get to all their stops.”

Quantum tools can help provide solutions in situations like these, that are faster (like our rat to cheese scenario) and ensure the data involved is more secure (with next-level encryptions).

The speed and security of quantum can be used to improve the efficiency of every sector from finance, to aviation to agriculture and manufacturing, Kuntz says. “It’s not just one industry. This is touching every single industry in the world.”

She also notes that companies and organizations alike need to be prepared for when quantum computers come online, because they’ll be able to hack anything that isn’t quantum encrypted.

“Elect somebody in your company to be your technology evangelist, and have a small budget for their training.” Once they understand quantum a little better, Kuntz recommends sending them off to find people and tools who can help do a “cryptographic inventory” of your assets.

“Engage with a quantum company and start exploring,” she says.

Written By Abigail Gamble
Abigail is a writer, editor, journalist and content strategist based in Toronto and El Salvador.