UK

North East named highest rate of child 

poverty in key worker families

By Samantha Teasdale@hcteasdaleReporter

North East named as highest rate of child poverty in key worker families in the UK

Latest figures show one region in the UK has the highest numbers of child poverty.

According to The Trades Union Congress (TUC) households in the North East have the highest rate of child poverty in key worker households in the UK.

The figures showed that 2 in 5 key worker households have children living in poverty as it is believed that over 70,000 children are living below the breadline which has increased by 18,000 over the past two years to 70,000 in 2022 – a rise of 34%.

TUC believes poverty levels 'likely to get worse' as key workers in the public sector is facing another year of real-terms pay cuts.

TUC Regional Secretary Liz Blackshaw said: “Our key workers got us through the pandemic.

"The very least this great workforce deserve is to be able to provide for their families.

“But this government continues to lock working households into poverty and ministers’ provocative decisions to hold down pay are just exacerbating widespread hardship across our region.

“After the longest wage squeeze in 200 years we urgently need to get more money in the pockets of working families and reduce the increasing need for foodbanks and other forms of crisis and short-term support."

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness said: “Our key workers saved this country during the pandemic and they deserve to see that work reflected in their pay packets.

“It is shameful that key workers in one of the richest countries in the world are being forced into poverty by a Government that simply does not value public service. They have gone from working on the front line to being on the breadline.

“As the cost of living crisis gets worse we’ve seen strike action across the region as workers feel they are left with no option but industrial action in the fight for fair pay.

"The Government needs to act now to show it is prepared to back the workers that keep this country going.”

“This must be a priority for the government so the children of key workers can have the start in life they deserve.”

UK

Striking BT workers raise food bank cash on Three Towns picket line

MUTUAL AID IS SOLIDARITY

4th August

By Emma ReillyReporter

Ardrossan exchange workers joined the CWU picket line in Saltcoats

BT workers have been collecting for food banks while participating in strike action in Ardrossan.

Taking place over Friday, July 29 and Monday, August 1, members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) participated in a picket at the Ardrossan Telephone Exchange due to disputes over pay.

Striking workers consisting of engineers and call centre staff are urging members of the public to donate to food banks due to recent reports that food bank usage has increased.

In June it was revealed that EE, a subsidiary of BT Group, had established a food bank for their employees, with some workers nicknaming CEO Philip Jansen ‘Foodbank Phil’.

Action was prompted after members of the CWU deemed the proposed pay rise unsatisfactory when compared to the rate of inflation, but BT refused to re-open discussions.

Over 40,000 workers participated in the UK-wide strike action resulting in the first national telecoms strike since 1987.

CWU deputy general secretary Andy Kerr said: “On Friday, BT Group workers took strike action and received overwhelming support from the public.

“When corrupt politicians and overpaid bosses fall way short of the mark, it is working people who look after other working people.”

NOT LOST, STOLEN; ZIONIST LOOTERS

Lost West Bank Banksy surfaces in ritzy Tel Aviv gallery

After being cut from a wall, the piece would have to have cleared a military checkpoint


Oded Balilty/Associated Press A painting by the secretive British graffiti artist Banksy that was mysteriously transferred from the occupied West Bank is revealed in Urban Gallery in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
August 5, 2022 at 6:19 p.m.


By Ilan Ben Zion and Isaac Scharf | Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel — A long-lost painting by the British graffiti artist Banksy has resurfaced in a swank art gallery in downtown Tel Aviv, an hour’s drive and a world away from the concrete wall in the occupied West Bank where it was initially sprayed.

The relocation of the painting — which depicts a slingshot-toting rat and was likely intended to protest the Israel occupation — raises ethical questions about the removal of artwork from occupied territory and the display of such politically-charged pieces in radically different settings from where they were created.

The painting initially appeared near Israel’s separation barrier in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem and was one of several works created in secret around 2007. They employed Banksy’s trademark absurdist and dystopian imagery to protest Israel’s decades-long occupation of territories the Palestinians want for a future state.

Now it resides at the Urban Gallery in the heart of Tel Aviv’s financial district, surrounded by glass and steel skyscrapers.

“This is the story of David and Goliath,” said Koby Abergel, an Israeli art dealer who purchased the painting, without elaborating on the analogy. He said the gallery was simply displaying the work, leaving its interpretation to others.

The Associated Press could not independently confirm the authenticity of the piece, but Abergel said the cracks and scrapes in the concrete serve as “a fingerprint” that proves it is the same piece that appears on the artist’s website.

The 70-kilometer (43-mile) journey it made from the West Bank to Tel Aviv is shrouded in secrecy. The 900-pound concrete slab would have had to pass through Israel’s serpentine barrier and at least one military checkpoint — daily features of Palestinian life and targets of Banksy’s biting satire.

Abergel, who is a partner with the Tel Aviv gallery, said he bought the concrete slab from a Palestinian associate in Bethlehem. He declined to disclose the sum he paid or identify the seller, but insisted on the deal’s legality.

The graffiti artwork was spray-painted on a concrete block that was part of an abandoned Israeli army position in Bethlehem, next to a soaring concrete section of the separation barrier.

Some time later, the painting was itself subjected to graffiti by someone who obscured the painting and scrawled “RIP Bansky Rat” on the block. Palestinian residents cut out the painting and kept it in private residences until earlier this year, Abergel said.

He said the relocation involved delicate negotiations with his Palestinian associate and careful restoration to remove the acrylic paint sprayed over Banksy’s work. The massive block was then enclosed in a steel frame so it could be lifted onto a flatbed truck and rolled through a checkpoint, until it arrived in Tel Aviv in the middle of the night.

It was not possible to independently confirm his account of its journey.

The piece now stands on an ornately patterned tile floor, surrounded by other contemporary art. Baruch Kashkash, the gallery’s owner, said the roughly 2-square-meter (-yard) block was so heavy it had to be brought inside by a crane, and could barely be moved from the doorway.

Israel controls all access to the West Bank, and Palestinians require Israeli permits to travel in or out and to import and export goods. Even when traveling within the West Bank, they can be stopped and searched by Israeli soldiers at any time.

Israeli citizens, including Jewish settlers, can travel freely in and out of the 60% of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control. Israel prohibits its citizens from entering areas administered by the Palestinian Authority for security reasons, but there’s little enforcement of that ban.

The Palestinians have spent decades seeking an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. The peace process ground to a halt more than 10 years ago.

Abergel said the artwork’s move was not coordinated with the Israeli military, and that his Palestinian associates, whom he declined to name, were responsible for moving it into Israel and crossing through military checkpoints. He said he has no plans to sell the piece.

According to the international treaty governing cultural property to which Israel is a signatory, occupying powers must prevent the removal of cultural property from occupied territories. It remains unclear exactly how the 1954 Hague Convention would apply in this instance.

“This is theft of the property of the Palestinian people,” said Jeries Qumsieh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Tourism Ministry. “These were paintings by an international artist for Bethlehem, for Palestine, and for visitors to Bethlehem and Palestine. So transferring them, manipulating them and stealing them is definitely an illegal act.”

The Israeli military and COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body responsible for coordinating civilian affairs with the Palestinians, said they had no knowledge of the artwork or its relocation.

Banksy has created numerous artworks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent years, including one depicting a girl conducting a body search on an Israeli soldier, another showing a dove wearing a flak jacket, and a masked protester hurling a bouquet of flowers. He also designed the “Walled Off Hotel” guesthouse in Bethlehem, which is filled with his artwork.

A spokesperson for Banksy did not respond to requests for comment.

Bay Area artist’s missing work returns after 26 yearsThis is not the first time the street artist’s work has been lifted from the West Bank. In 2008, two other paintings — “Wet Dog” and “Stop and Search” — were removed from the walls of a bus shelter and butcher shop in Bethlehem. They were eventually bought by galleries in the United States and Britain where they were exhibited in 2011.

Abergel says it’s up to viewers to draw their own conclusions about the artwork and its implications.

“We brought it to the main street of Tel Aviv to be shown to the audience and to show his messages,” said Abergel. “He should be happy with it.”

Scharf reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Areej Hazboun in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Dozens injured as lightning sets off fire at Cuban oil storage tank

6 August 2022, 

Cuba Oil Fire. Picture: PA

Faustino Perez Hospital reported it was treating 49 people, two of them with critical injuries.

Lightning has struck an oil storage tank in the city of Matanzas in Cuba, causing a fire that led to four explosions which injured more than 50 people, authorities said.

Firefighters and other specialists were still trying to quell the blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, which began during a thunderstorm on Friday night, the Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted.

The official Cuban News Agency said the lightning strike set one tank on fire and the blaze later spread to a second tank.

The accident comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages. There was no immediate word on how much oil had burned or was in danger at the tank farm, which stores oil used to fuel electricity production.

A huge plume of smoke caused by a blaze after lightning struck an oil storage tank in Cuba (Ramon Espinosa/AP)

Officials at Faustino Perez Hospital reported 52 injured, according to the provincial government’s Facebook page.

The hospital’s director, Dr Taymi Martinez, said one person was in an extremely critical condition, three patients were in a critical condition and 10 in a serious conditions.

“I was in the gym when I felt the first explosion. A column of smoke and terrible fire rose through the skies,” said resident Adiel Gonzalez.

Authorities said the Dubrocq neighbourhood closest to the fire was evacuated, while Mr Gonzalez added that some people decided to leave the Versailles district, which is a little further from the tank farm.

A helicopter carrying water flies over the fire in Cuba (Ramon Espinosa/AP)

There were many ambulances, police and fire engines, he said.

Matanzas, which has about 140,000 inhabitants, is 62 miles from Havana, on Matnzas Bay.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel travelled to the area of the fire on Saturday, officials said.

By Press Association

Firefighters missing, dozens hurt as fire rages in Cuban oil tank farm

Cuban authorities say lightning struck a crude oil storage tank at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, causing a fire that led to four explosions which left dozens missing and injured.

The accident comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages. (AP)

A fire set off by a lightning strike at an oil storage facility has raged uncontrolled in the Cuban city of Matanzas, where four explosions and flames injured nearly 80 people and left 17 firefighters missing.

Firefighters and other specialists were still trying to quell the blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base on Saturday, where the fire began during a thunderstorm on Friday night, the Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted.

The government said later that it had asked for help from international experts in “friendly countries” with experience in the oil sector.

The official Cuban News Agency said lightning hit one tank, starting a fire, and the blaze later spread to a second tank.

As military helicopters flew overhead dropping water on the blaze, dense column of black smoke billowed from the facility and spread westward more than 100 kilometres (62 miles) toward Havana.

The Facebook page of the provincial government of Matanzas said the number of injured had reached 77, while 17 people were missing.

The Presidency of the Republic said the 17 were “firefighters who were in the nearest area trying to prevent the spread.”



'Smell of sulphur'

The accident comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages.

There was no immediate word on how much oil had burned or was in danger at the storage facility, which has eight giant tanks that hold oil used to fuel electricity generating plants.

“I was in the gym when I felt the first explosion. A column of smoke and terrible fire rose through the skies,” resident Adiel Gonzalez said. “The city has a strong smell of sulphur.”

Authorities said the Dubrocq neighbourhood closest to the fire was evacuated, while Gonzalez added that some people decided to leave the Versailles district, which is a little farther from the tank farm.

Many ambulances, police and fire engines were seen in the streets of Matanzas, a city with about 140,000 inhabitants that is on Matnzas Bay.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel traveled to the area of the fire early on Saturday, officials said.

Local meteorologist Elier Pila showed satellite images of the area with a dense plume of black smoke moving from the point of the fire westward and reaching east to Havana.

“That plume can be close to 150 kilometres long,” Pila wrote on his Twitter account.

Viktor Orbán, heroically engaged in crusading against phantoms

Friend-of-illiberal-antidemocracy Viktor Orbán is another Donald Trump, but he's a capable Trump. Republicans positively adore the autocrat who as Hungary's prime minister has successfully killed press freedom, undermined judicial independence, sabotaged multiparty democracy, opposed immigration and sympathized with Putin.

Although Trump excelled in only two of Orbán's triumphs, he equaled Orbán in industrious grift. Both have kleptocratically helped to enrich family, political allies and themselves through instruments of their chief-executive power. Trump, as we know, now hopes to regain his position as the U.S. Treasury's pickpocket. 

Anne Applebaum's extraordinarily readable Twilight of Democracy analyzes Hungarian, Polish and Trumpian-American politics objectively and nightmarishly, as the work's title suggests. Twilight is as much a warning about a gothic tomorrow as it is commentary on the firmly established crypto-fascism of today. And Orbán is the star of the pyrotechnic show.

Thursday, at Republicans' "Conservative" Political Action Committee's annual coven, feudal liege Orbán fêted himself before the peasantry as the "leader of a country that is under the siege of progressive liberals." With exemplary Trumpian inconsistency, he also said the U.S. and Hungary are the world's preeminent mentors — the "siege" appears to be a weak one — in how to battle globalists, communists, "fake news" and the aforementioned progs.   

"The West is at war with itself," said Orbán. "The globalists can all go to hell; I have come to Texas,” he added in a poor plagiarism of Davy Crockett. Globalists, communists, progressives and fake newsers, however, were more interested in how he would handle widespread denunciations of his recent, "mixed race" speech, which, upon resigning, a close adviser called "pure Nazi." Orbán countered by saying that Europeans prefer not to cohabitate with nonEuropeans and that "a Christian politician cannot be racist." No comment.

America's Father Coughlin³, Fox News' Tucker Carlson, took to the airwaves on Orbán Eve, asking, "So Viktor Orban is now a Nazi because he wants national borders?" No, rather, he's a Nazi because he has killed press freedom, undermined judicial independence, sabotaged multiparty democracy and sympathized with the bloodthirsty Vladimir Putin.

The Washington Post notes that "Carlson helped raise Orban's U.S. profile with a special broadcast from Budapest last year," which is half correct. Carlson raised Orbán's profile but CPAC's curia regis in Budapest was held in May of this year, which The Washington Post covered. The Post's Dave Weigel and Isaac Arnsdorf might want to start reading their own paper.  

And of course Trump did his part to further elevate Orbán in the pin-wheeling eyes of America's fascists, hunkered down in the Republican Party's fortress of delusion —  you know, hunkered because of the nonexistent progressive siege.

Trump hosted the Hungarian Nazi at his Saudi Arabian golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, releasing a statement addressing Orbán as his "friend." One supposes that a man who knows nothing about the world would see such a friend in the vein of: "Few people know as much about what is going on in the world today," as the clueless former president wrote.

Orbán's most splendid moment came when he attacked the fascistically commonplace — enemies everywhere. "They did not want me to be here.... They hate me and slander me and my country as they hate you and slander you." Trumpian Republicans get a weird kind of kick from feeling persecuted and victimized, so the Hungarian's misconceived whining was a nice touch.  

Orbá wrapped up his dismal polemics with some early yearning for the U.S. and European Union's 2024 elections. "These two locations will define the two fronts in the battle being fought for Western civilization," he said. "Today we hold neither of them yet. We need both. You have two years to get ready."

As we do — and as we must.

https://www.pmcarpenter.com/

Senate parliamentarian kills key part of Democrats’ prescription drug plan in the Inflation Reduction Act


The plan would allow for manufacturers to rebate Medicare if they increased drug prices higher than inflation.

Eric Garcia


The Senate Parliamentarian killed a key aspect of Democrats’ proposed plan to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices on Saturday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Saturday morning that Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough released her guidance saying that the inflation rebate aspect of Democrats’ legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, should be more limited in scope.

“While there was one unfortunate ruling in that the inflation rebate is more limited in scope, the overall program remains intact and we are one step closer to finally taking on Big Pharma and lowering Rx drug prices for millions of Americans.” he said.

Mr Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced their agreement on the legislation last Wednesday, with a key part of the legislation being that Medicare would be allowed to negotiate drug prices.

In addition, the legislation would have required drug companies to pay Medicare back the the difference between the inflation rate and the drug price increase if it raises prices higher than the rate of inflation.

Democrats, who have only 50 Senators, hope to pass their legislation through a process called budget reconciliation, which would allow them to pass the legislation with a simple majority and sidestep a Republican filibuster. But this requires a unified front from all Senators, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie breaker.

To do so, the Senate Parliamentarian must subject the bill to a “Byrd Bath” wherein she determines if the legislation is germane to the budget or if it is considered an “extraneous matter.” The Senate Parliamentarian’s guidance is non-binding, but it requires the vice president to overrule the parliamentarian, which is unlikely to happen.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he kept the Senate out of session on Friday to give Ms McDonough a chance to thoroughly review the legislation but that the Senate would vote on the motion to proceed, which would begin debate, on Saturday.

Democrats are currently waiting for Ms McDonough to release her guidance on Senator Raphael Warnock’s legislation in the bill that would cap the price of insulin for people with diabetes to $35. Mr Warnock faces a tough re-election in Georgia this November.

Dems lose key piece of health agenda in spending bill

Parliamentarian nixes Democrats’ plan to lower drug prices for Americans with private insurance.


Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the parliamentarian's ruling "good news" in a statement Saturday. | Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN
08/06/2022 

Democrats’ plan to control drug prices for 180 million Americans with private health insurance has suffered yet another setback.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled Saturday that a core piece of the party’s plan can’t pass the chamber with fewer than 60 votes, following arguments from both parties last week.

Albeit a blow to the majority party, which had hoped to campaign this fall on lowering drug prices for all Americans, the nonpartisan parliamentarian’s vetting means the core of the plan Democrats are trying to steer past the GOP filibuster is finally cleared for floor debate, more than a year after they began crafting the far more sweeping version once called Build Back Better.

Yet the plan will now move forward without a provision that would have penalized drugmakers for hiking costs faster than inflation in private insurance plans as well as Medicare.

The exclusion of the private insurance price limits means there is little left that will reduce costs for the vast majority of Americans who receive health insurance through their private sector employer. Democrats are still waiting on a separate parliamentarian ruling on their policy to cap the cost of insulin both inside and outside of Medicare.

The decision also means tens of billions less in federal savings in the bill overall, a potential threat to Democrats’ hopes of offsetting the cost for shoring up Obamacare’s subsidies.

Still, Democrats argue that the bill will move forward in the coming weeks with its most important provision intact: a repeal of the longstanding ban on the federal government directly negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the parliamentarian’s ruling “good news” in a statement Saturday.

“Medicare will finally be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices, seniors will have free vaccines and their costs capped, and much more,” he said.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a key negotiator on the House version of the bill, said the provision “would break the iron curtain Big Pharma has maintained against negotiating drug prices, and that’s game-changing. If it passes, Pharma won’t be able to continually stick it to the consumer at their will and whim. And that’s especially important with inflation hammering folks at the pump and the grocery store.”

But Welch, who is running to replace the retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), acknowledged the parliamentarian’s ruling is still a big win for the drug industry.

“It would essentially mean that pharma companies could raise price increases well beyond inflation,” he said in an interview in the days leading up to the vote.

Drug companies and Senate Republicans had planned for months to target the inflation caps provision — through a process known on Capitol Hill as a “Byrd bath.” Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters that they went through the bill “line by line” in an effort to bring every challenge they could find.

Democrats who have pushed the policy for years had been confident it could pass under the Senate’s strict reconciliation rules, which limit what kinds of bills can pass with a simple majority. Only proposals that are primarily related to federal spending or revenue can fly, but not those that make major policy changes and only have an “incidental” impact on the federal budget.

Democrats argued that the bill needs inflation caps for drug prices across the board in order to function, warning that failing to do so will mean that pharmaceutical companies can hike prices even higher for people with private insurance to make up for what they lose from the cost controls the bill still imposes on Medicare.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said such points are “normally the kind of argument that is persuasive with the parliamentarian.”

“You can’t untangle the private sector from the public sector — one doesn’t work without the other,” he said.

Backers of the provision also pointed to the Congressional Budget Office’s finding last year that the inflation caps provision would save the government around $80 billion over a decade to argue that it should be allowed to remain in the bill.

Yet reconciliation experts and industry insiders were equally certain that the provision would get knocked out of the package.

“A lot of people think that if something gets a significant CBO score, it can’t be considered incidental — but it’s more about whether the policy implications outweigh the budgetary ones,” said Stephen Northrup, a lobbyist who previously worked as the health policy director for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. “If the inflation cap were limited to Medicare, you could draw a very direct relationship between the policy and the score. But when you extend it to the commercial market, the relationship becomes more tenuous. It looks less like you’re trying to save money than you’re trying to extend a policy that has impact beyond the federal budget.”

Democrats do not currently have a backup plan for the policy, though some advocates are now pushing to try to apply inflation caps to other federal insurance programs such as Medicaid and the insurance for federal employees.

Even if they are able to do so, progressives who originally pushed for much more sweeping drug price controls are disappointed that their already watered-down plan has become even weaker over the past year.

Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who worked for months on crafting the drug pricing language and wrangling the votes to pass it, blamed the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on Capitol Hill for the inflation cap provision’s demise.

“The special interests always work against us getting relief to hard-hit Americans, particularly seniors,” he told POLITICO ahead of the parliamentarian’s ruling. “So what a surprise that the special interests — and you’ve seen the numbers on how many lobbyists they have — are trying to protect their profits.”

Bill Gates promotes climate measures in Democrats’ economic package

Caroline Vakil - THE HILL- 9h ago

Microsoft founder Bill Gates touted climate measures included in a major reconciliation package Democrats are seeking to pass, saying on Friday that the U.S. “can’t afford to miss” the opportunity to tackle climate change and bolster American energy security.


Bill Gates promotes climate measures in Democrats’ economic package

He wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times that the sweeping climate, tax reform and health package, referred to as the Inflation Reduction Act, “may be the single most important piece of climate legislation in American history. It represents our best chance to build an energy future that is cleaner, cheaper and more secure.”

He referred to some of the incentives included in the bill, such as strengthened tax credits to businesses making solar panels and wind turbines, among other electricity sources that would be emissions-free, over the next decade.

According to the Times, the legislation would offer such companies tax credits over 10 years, compared with tax credits previously provided by Congress that lasted just one or two years.

“These incentives would also provide the private sector with the confidence to invest for the long term. This legislation would begin to transform the parts of our economy that are hardest to decarbonize, like manufacturing, which we must do to reach net-zero emissions,” Gates wrote.

“As many Americans face summer blackouts, power shortages and high electricity bills, these measures would help build a modern, reliable power grid so all can have access to affordable, abundant and clean energy,” he added.

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced they had reached a deal on a tax reform, climate and health package, considered a major feat after Democrats were unable to overcome an impasse on passing a social spending bill last year.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), a critical vote on the legislation, which will require the backing of all 50 Senate Democrats to pass through budget reconciliation without GOP support, signaled she approved the package on Thursday after reaching a separate deal with Schumer.

Gates credited both Schumer and Manchin for reaching a deal on the package while also warning that “although it appears the legislation will pass, success is not guaranteed, so it’s critical to keep pushing for it.”

This is how Chinese criminal empire spread in Nepal

Krishna Timalsina
July 28, 2022

LONG READ

KATHMANDU: A team of police deployed from the District Police Office Rupandehi raided a suspicious call center in Tilottama-2 Janakinagar on July 24.

The call center named Blue Sky Business Solutions was found involved in fraud business.

Police raided the call center and nabbed a Chinese national, the accused of the crime, an Indian national, and 258 Nepali youths being used in the fraud business.

According to the police, thousands of Indian citizens including Nepalis have been cheated by this call center.

The police informed that the gang had been running a fraud business for months sending messages through social media saying that they have won a lottery, hacking other people’s social networks including Facebook, and asking for a certain amount of money to collect lottery tickets and goods.

The police are now investigating using the details they got from the laptop, desktop, CPU, mobile, pen drive, various hard disks, iPad, etc. recovered from this call center. Chief of Area Police Office, Butwal DSP Thug Bahadur KC shared that the recovered goods and gadgets have been sent to the forensic lab for investigation.

After the arrested Indian citizen Niranjan Kumar stated that their head office is in China and they also have call centers in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan, the police raided a call center run by another Chinese citizen in Gairigaon, Tinkune, Kathmandu.

Those Chinese citizens who have been living and working illegally in Nepal for a long time were producing and selling liquor called ‘Chinese millet local liquor’ in that inn without government permission.

The main planner of this call center running under the name of Sky World Service Pvt Ltd was also Chinese. Kathmandu police have detained 41 people including one Chinese citizen from the call center. It has been found that this gang gives loans through various mobile wallets and takes all the details from banking to three generations of borrowers.

It has been found that this group, which gives a maximum loan of 20,000 for a day, charges interest up to 5,000. For debt collection and fraud, the gang used ‘honey trap’ girls in Kathmandu.

A Chinese gang that used technology in Nepal to cheat millions through Nepali youths was also arrested on the dam side of Pokhara on June 30. Two Chinese men and one woman were operating this call center through a company called New Diamond Technology.

The frauds had used the citizenship of Suman Tamang of Kakani-7 of Nuwakot to run this company. The police seized Rs 4,597, 180 along with 89 Nepalis who had been used in their (Chinese) fraudulent business.

The Chinese, who came to Pokhara on a visit visa, had been cheating Nepalis in the name of a software company by renting a flat in Bajra Inn Hotel on the dam side for 6 months.

Series of Chinese nationals’ crimes in Nepal

The police arrested 22 Chinese including 10 men and 12 women from Budhanilkanth in Kathmandu on April 25. They came to Nepal as tourists and were involved in illegal work.

According to the Department of Immigration, the Chinese who have overstayed their visas and are involved in activities such as online gambling are now in jail.

Soon after, on June 7, Nagadhunga police arrested 4 Chinese and one Nepali driver with 38.9 million rupees procured through an unknown source. According to the police, 4 Chinese tourists, including 50-year-old Chinese citizen Aung Jai King, were returning to Kathmandu with undisclosed money collected from a call center and an online gambling house operating outside the valley in a vehicle numbered BAB 5710.

The Department of Money Laundering has confirmed that the source of the money recovered from them has not been disclosed.

Similarly, on February 13, Chinese citizen Zhang Li was arrested at Tribhuvan International Airport with 4.840 kg gold. A 36-year-old man with passport number EJ 0248131, who came to Nepal as a tourist, Li was arrested while checking near the airport customs office arrival tunnel gate.

On October 29, 2021, Sankhuwasabha police arrested Wu Ching Ling, a resident of Sichuan, China and Zhang Fuhen, a resident of Shandong, were arrested with a tool to mold Rudraksha in various shapes.

It has been confirmed that they had been cheating the people and selling them the artificial one-faced or multi-faced Rudraksha the business of creating one-faced or multi-faced Rudraksha for a long time.

37 people, including Chinese nationals, were arrested from the Mid-Baneswor area of ​​Kathmandu on February 22. According to the Kathmandu police, they were involved in online illegal transactions, call bypass and gambling.

Later on the same day, the police raided a building in Sanothimi, Bhaktapur. At that time, 81 people including Chinese nationals were arrested. They were also involved in online fraud and call bypass business.

Similarly, on 7 July 2021, a team deployed from the Metropolitan Police Complex Teku and Lainchaur recovered the remains of endangered wild animals from a hotel run by Chinese nationals in Jyatha Galli, Kathmandu. Four more Chinese nationals arranging gambling there were also arrested at that time.

Staying in the hotel as tourists, they had 2 electric tables used to play gambling, 410 pieces of plastic balls called ‘mahjong’ in Chinese.

Police recovered Rs 889,155 in cash, 7 mobile phones from different companies, 1 piece of tiger skin, 1 piece of cow skin, 1 piece of a skin-like object, 20 pieces of the shell-like object, 900 pieces of Bodhichitta, 20 kg of rudraksha from there.

According to the police, 2 passports, 35 ATM cards of different banks in China, 250 voucher sheets (written), 68 voucher sheets (unwritten), 2 items that looked like tiger teeth, 2 sharp iron knives, and 1 sharp iron sword were also found there.

On May 9, 2019, 49-year-old Wang Chun Yan was arrested at Tribhuvan International Airport with Rs 100,000, US$ 13,000 and INR 8,000 while he was about to leave for China.

On July 30, 2021, Kathmandu Police arrested 56-year-old Shi Jhiwi from Jiangsu Province, China, from Thamel while producing alcohol illegally. Those Chinese nationals who came to Nepal on a tourist visa were running Home Sweet Smell Hotel and Restaurant Pvt Ltd by renting the house of Chinta Lama in Thamel.

On 20 September 2017, police arrested Chinese citizen Li Wan with 50,000 US dollars in Rasuwa. Likewise, earlier, a Chinese citizen Wang Chung was arrested from Timure in Rasuwa with 18,432 US dollars on 20 January 2017.

Those Chinese citizens who have been living and working illegally in Nepal for a long time were producing and selling liquor called ‘Chinese millet local liquor’ in that inn without government permission.

Similarly, a team of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Police, with the help of a special team of the Chinese police, arrested 122 Chinese citizens from 9 different houses in Kathmandu on December 26, 2020.

They were arrested with the help of a special team of the Chinese police on the basis of information that Chinese citizens were cheating Chinese nationals through cybercrime from Nepal.

747 cell phones, 331 laptops, 98 CPUs, 99 monitors, 22 pen drives, 327 SIM cards and 67 passports were recovered from 9 houses in Tarakeshwar, Manmaiju, Maharajganj, and Budhanilkantha then.

As the Chinese security officers took away all the equipment seized from the arrested Chinese nationals, the Nepal police did not find any trace of the Chinese fraud.

Nepal police had handed them over to the Chinese officials after the Ministry of Public Security of China made a written request to return all those devices. At that time, around 230 Chinese security personnel had come to Kathmandu with weapons in two planes of China Southern and China Eastern to pick up the Chinese involved in the online fraud.

According to the police, these Chinese entered Nepal after China launched an operation against its citizens in Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Laos. Therefore, Chinese security officials came to Kathmandu with a special plane to pick them up.

Likewise, Sohrakhutte police arrested two Chinese nationals on May 30, 2020, for teasing, cheating and abusing Nepali girls in Dhalku, Thamel. They had been living in the Thamel area for a long time as tourists.

According to the police, the Chinese men ran a business of tempting the Nepali girl in many ways and trafficking them to China where they (the girls) would be used as domestic slaves.

On January 3, 2021, Chinese citizens Li Weiping and Li Xiangjiang were kidnapped while staying in a hotel in Gaushala, Kathmandu. Wu Chaw and Zhang Wei, Chinese citizens who came to Nepal as tourists, put them in a taxi and took them to Marminga in Sindhupalchok.

After a week, Nepal Police rescued the kidnapped Chinese from Sindhupalchowk.

On March 13, 2020, a Chinese team armed with swords and homemade weapons suddenly attacked a Nepali taxi driver in Jyatha Galli in Thamel, Kathmandu. After Thamel merchants and bankers retaliated against the Chinese, the police arrested Wang Yun Feng, a Chinese merchant who led the Chinese crowd.

On August 8, 2076, 2 Chinese citizens who were going to Istanbul by Turkish Airlines were arrested on charges of theft inside the ship.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of police arrested 13 doctors working at Apollo International Clinic in Thamel, China Great Wall Health Center in Bouddha, China People’s Hospital and China Dental Hospital on 28 February 2018. They were doing medical work in Nepal charging expensive service charges and without legal permission.

Similarly, on August 25, 2019, Nepal Police arrested five Chinese nationals who were illegally withdrawing money from ATMs.

Metropolitan Police Complex Kathmandu arrested 4 Chinese nationals who were staying at Maya Manohar Hotel on Durbarmarg along with one person who had withdrawn money from the ATM of Nabil Bank on Durbarmarg in the middle of the night.

The police recovered 1.26 million Nepali rupees and more than 9000 US dollars from them.

From dollar smuggling to human trafficking

On 20 September 2017, police arrested Chinese citizen Li Wan with 50,000 US dollars in Rasuwa. Likewise, earlier, a Chinese citizen Wang Chung was arrested from Timure in Rasuwa with 18,432 US dollars on 20 January 2017.

Similarly, a Chinese woman named Yan Kun Duan was arrested on September 29, 2017, while trying to go to Bhutan from Nepal with 46,480 US dollars. On June 15, 2015, Chinese woman Yang Hong was arrested at the airport along with 98,500 dollars.

On 14 January 2017, three Chinese people who were going to Rasuwa with 260,000 US Dollars, 180,000 Euros, and some Australian Dollars were arrested in Nagadhunga. Earlier, On Yi Wang, a Chinese citizen was arrested at Kathmandu airport with 74 thousand US dollars, 76 thousand Euros, and 48 thousand Swiss francs on 27 August 2015.

Looking at the data of the Nepal Police, it has been found that the Chinese were initially involved in illegal dollar transactions by smuggling gold and red sandalwood. The police had increased their surveillance on the Chinese after arresting Kovin Li, a Chinese national with 40,000 US dollars from Bhaktapur, for the first time, on 4 October 2010.

Later, in the same month, the police arrested three Chinese from Swayambhu in Kathmandu with three hundred thousand US dollars. Then, in December 2011, another Chinese was arrested for smuggling dollars to the Tatopani border. Police recovered 97,223 dollars from him in Jagati, Bhaktapur.

Similarly, on 30 August 13, 2019, the Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police issued a notice in this regard.

The notice stated that Nepali girls were trafficked by Chinese nationals in the form of brides. After a long investigation, the police concluded that under the pretext of marriage Nepali girls were being trafficked. Four victim girls were rescued from Chinese marriage bureaus operating in various places in Kathmandu.

6 Chinese human traffickers were also arrested in this connection. It was found that they cheated Nepali girls of 20 lakhs by showing them the temptation to get married to a Chinese young man and to go to China easily. The gang of Chinese youths choosing Nepali girls at the Marriage Bureau office and taking Nepali girls to China by making marriage registration papers at the district administration office is inactive due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Nepal is becoming a transit for smuggling

According to the police, the Chinese have now made Nepal a transit point for wildlife smuggling.

There is a record that the police also seized 162 kg of pangolin from the Chinese who brought it to Nepal from the Congo, Africa via Turkey.

According to the police report, on 29 January 2018, Chinese citizens Que Xiorong and Que Liba O were arrested at the Kathmandu airport with the pangolin. Soon after, on 21 August 2018, the police caught three Chinese people in a hotel in Thamel with a sea horse and a tiger skin. The owner of the Kathmandu One Hotel was the Chinese citizen Chen Kang.

According to the police, the presence of Chinese in the crime network of Nepal was very little till 2004. There was no need to monitor activities other than the Free Tibet Movement. But now the Chinese are spreading the net illegal activities everywhere. They have become a headache for the police.

The Chinese are at the forefront of smuggling yarsagumba, sunakhari, tiger bones and various herbs. In addition, the Chinese have expanded their crime network in the medical sector in Nepal.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of police arrested 13 doctors working at Apollo International Clinic in Thamel, China Great Wall Health Center in Bouddha, China People’s Hospital and China Dental Hospital on 28 February 2018. They were doing medical work in Nepal charging expensive service charges and without legal permission.

According to the police, even now, some Chinese are involved in the business of operating similar hospitals by pretending to be Nepalis.

The Chinese even beat up the police

The activities of the Chinese were not limited to illegal trade. At a time when the whole world was in shock due to Corona, on 8 May 2020, the Chinese staged a gherao in front of the gate of the main administrative body Singha Durbar with the demand to be allowed to return home and beat up some policemen.

DSP Hari Bahadur Basnet of Metropolitan Police Circle, Singha Durbar and a female police officer were injured when 33 Chinese nationals who gathered in the restricted area pelted stones at police.

Soon after, on 10 March 2022, a 28-year-old Chinese citizen named Chong Zhenjian, who was doing suspicious activities in the northern area of ​​Sankhuwasabha, was arrested. He was running illegal trade from the restricted area of ​​Kimathanka, the border crossing between Nepal and China.

The details are the evidence to reveal the level of a criminal network that Chinese citizens are spreading in Nepal.

Chinese networks have spread everywhere from gold, dollars, wildlife parts, herbal smuggling, hacking, human kidnapping, attempted murder, human trafficking, drug trafficking, online fraud, gambling and game centers and illegal medical practices.

According to the police, the presence of Chinese in the crime network of Nepal was very little till 2004. There was no need to monitor activities other than the Free Tibet Movement. But now the Chinese are spreading the net illegal activities everywhere. They have become a headache for the police.

The police have handed over all those arrested to the Chinese government except those involved in serious crimes.

Taiwan Dominates the World’s Supply of Computer Chips – No Wonder the US Is Worried

In recent years, Taiwan’s autonomy has become a vital geopolitical interest for the US because of the island’s dominance of the semiconductor manufacturing market.

Representative image. Photo: Unsplash

Maria Ryan

THE CONVERSATION

One aspect of Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan that has been largely overlooked is her meeting with Mark Lui, chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC). Pelosi’s trip coincided with US efforts to convince TSMC – the world’s largest chip manufacturer, on which the US is heavily dependent – to establish a manufacturing base in the US and to stop making advanced chips for Chinese companies.

US support for Taiwan has historically been based on Washington’s opposition to communist rule in Beijing, and Taiwan’s resistance to absorption by China. But in recent years, Taiwan’s autonomy has become a vital geopolitical interest for the US because of the island’s dominance of the semiconductor manufacturing market.

Semiconductors – also known as computer chips or just chips – are integral to all the networked devices that have become embedded into our lives. They also have advanced military applications.

Transformational, super-fast 5G internet is enabling a world of connected devices of every kind (the “Internet of Things”) and a new generation of networked weapons. With this in mind, US officials began to realise during the Trump administration that US semiconductor design companies, such as Intel, were heavily dependent on Asian-based supply chains for the manufacturing of their products.

In particular, Taiwan’s position in the world of semiconductor manufacturing is a bit like Saudi Arabia’s status in OPEC. TSMC has a 53% market share of the global foundry market (factories contracted to make chips designed in other countries). Other Taiwan-based manufacturers claim a further 10% of the market.

As a result, the Biden administration’s 100-Day Supply Chain Review Report says, “The United States is heavily dependent on a single company – TSMC – for producing its leading-edge chips.” The fact that only TSMC and Samsung (South Korea) can make the most advanced semiconductors (five nanometres in size) “puts at risk the ability to supply current and future [US] national security and critical infrastructure needs”.


This means that China’s long-term goal of reunifying with Taiwan is now more threatening to US interests. In the 1971 Shanghai Communique and the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the US recognised that people in both mainland China and Taiwan believed that there was “One China” and that they both belonged to it. But for the US it is unthinkable that TSMC could one day be in territory controlled by Beijing.

Also read: Amid US-China Trade War, Where Does India Stand in the Semiconductor Ecosystem?

‘Tech war’

For this reason, the US has been trying to attract TSMC to the US to increase domestic chip production capacity. In 2021, with the support of the Biden administration, the company bought a site in Arizona on which to build a US foundry. This is scheduled to be completed in 2024.

The US Congress has just passed the Chips and Science Act, which provides $52 billion (£43 billion) in subsidies to support semiconductor manufacturing in the US. But companies will only receive Chips Act funding if they agree not to manufacture advanced semiconductors for Chinese companies.

This means that TSMC and others may well have to choose between doing business in China and in the US because the cost of manufacturing in the US is deemed to be too high without government subsidies.

This is all part of a broader “tech war” between the US and China, in which the US is aiming to constrain China’s technological development and prevent it from exercising a global tech leadership role.

In 2020, the Trump administration imposed crushing sanctions on the Chinese tech giant Huawei that were designed to cut the company off from TSMC, on which it was reliant for the production of high-end semiconductors needed for its 5G infrastructure business.


TSMC factory in Taichung’s Central Taiwan Science Park. 

Photo: Briáxis F. Mendes/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons

Huawei was the world’s leading supplier of 5G network equipment but the US feared its Chinese origins posed a security risk (though this claim has been questioned). The sanctions are still in place because both Republicans and Democrats want to stop other countries from using Huawei’s 5G equipment.

The British government had initially decided to use Huawei equipment in certain parts of the UK’s 5G network. The Trump administration’s sanctions forced London to reverse that decision.

A key US goal appears to be ending its dependency on supply chains in China or Taiwan for “emerging and foundational technologies”, which includes advanced semiconductors needed for 5G systems, but may include other advanced tech in future.

Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan was about more than just Taiwan’s critical place in the “tech war”. But the dominance of its most important company has given the island a new and critical geopolitical importance that is likely to heighten existing tensions between the US and China over the status of the island. It has also intensified US efforts to “reshore” its semiconductor supply chain.

Maria Ryan, Associate Professor in US History, University of Nottingham

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

PATRARCHY IS MISOGYNY & FEMICIDE

US: Outrage after Indian-origin woman, tortured for not bearing son, commits suicide

Mandeep Kaur was found dead after releasing a video on social media explaining how she faced daily beatings, infidelity for 8 years



By NI
Published: Sat 6 Aug 2022

The suicide of 30-year-old Indian-origin woman Mandeep Kaur, who went to New York after getting married and was tortured by her husband for not bearing a son, has left millions shocked in India and abroad.

Kaur hanged herself, but not before releasing a heart-rending video narrating excruciatingly painful details of the torture she faced at the hands of her husband Ranjotveer Singh Sandhu, sparking a storm on social media.

Many questioned why Sandhu was still allowed to keep the couple's minor daughters, while the Uttar Pradesh Police registered a case of abetment to suicide and domestic violence against her husband and in-laws. American authorities have also begun their own probe.

Speaking to ANI, the victim's sister Kuldeep Kaur divulged the horrific details of what Mandeep went through on a daily basis for nearly eight years, since the day she was married.

"My sister was married in February 2015. Soon, they went to New York and he started torturing her. He wanted a son and wanted Rs50 lakh in dowry," said Kuldeep Kaur.

An FIR has been registered at the Najibabad Police Station of Bijnor in UP against the husband and her in-laws. A case has been registered in Najibabad Police Station of Bijnor District on August 5 at 6.33pm under sections 306 (Abetment of suicide), 498-A (Domestic violence), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (Punishment for wrongful confinement) and Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, a police official said.

The FIR was filed by Jaspal Singh, father of Mandeep Kaur, wherein he accused Mukhtar Singh, father of Ranjotveer Singh Sandhu, Kuldeep Raj Kaur, mother of Ranjotveer Singh Sandhu and Jasveer Singh, brother of Ranjotveer Singh Sandhu for the suicide.

The 30-year-old Indian-origin woman was domestically abused by her husband Ranjotveer Singh Sandhu for close to eight years. Another video also went viral on the net, which purportedly showed the victim being beaten up.

She is survived by her two daughters, aged four and six, whose custody currently is with Sandhu.

Social media platforms went berserk after the incident was reported.

According to Instagram page @TheKaurMovement, the New York Police Department is investigating the case as a homicide rather than a case of suicide.

In one of the videos posted by the user, Mandeep is heard narrating her daily ordeal. She said that she tried her best for eight years and that one day everything would be fine. She charged her husband with extra-marital affairs and daily beatings in an inebriated state. All through the video, she was seen sobbing and saying how she couldn't take being abused anymore right before she committed suicide.

Tired of her husband's harassment, Mandeep made a video narrating her painful existence. Shortly after the video went viral on social media, she was found hanging by the fan of the house in New York where she lived.

SECOND AMENDMENT FETISH

AR-15s to Be Stored in County Schools to Protect Against Mass Shootings

BY THOMAS KIKA 

ON 8/6/22 

A North Carolina school district has taken a controversial step to increase security in the wake of recent school shootings that have happened across the country.

On Friday, Madison County Schools in Western North Carolina announced that, in collaboration with the county sheriff's office, it would be outfitting every building in the district with an AR-15 assault rifle, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times. The move comes in response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.

In the wake of the tragedy, a national conversation about gun violence and safety reemerged, with some advocating for stricter gun control laws and others pushing for stricter security in schools. Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood said that the decision was made to help his deputies be prepared to take action in the event of an active shooter situation in the district.

A school district in North Carolina has outfitted all of its buildings with AR-15s to provide extra security in the event of a shooting. Above, a shot of an AR-15-style rifle at an NRA convention.

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP 

"Those officers were in that building for so long, and that suspect was able to infiltrate that building and injure and kill so many kids," the sheriff told the newspaper. "I just want to make sure my deputies are prepared in the event that happens."

In addition to the firearms, Harwood said that each school building in the district has been outfitted with a safe, which will store extra ammunition for the rifles. The safes will also be stocked with "breaching tools," which could be used in the event that a shooter has barricaded themselves in a classroom, as happened in Uvalde.

"The reason we put the breaching tools in the safes is that in the event we have someone barricaded in a door, we won't have to wait on the fire department to get there," Harwood said. "We'll have those tools to be able to breach that door if needed. I do not want to have to run back out to the car to grab an AR, because that's time lost. Hopefully, we'll never need it, but I want my guys to be as prepared as prepared can be."

Madison County Schools currently has six locations: Brush Creek Elementary, Hot Springs Elementary, Mars Hill Elementary, Madison Middle School, Madison High School, and Madison Early College High.

Gun safety experts and advocates have decried the decision in Madison County. Allison Anderman, senior counsel and director of local policy at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, called the move "horrific" as a response to mass shootings, in a statement to USA Today.

"Where there are more guns, there is more gun violence," she said.

In a tweet, Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a gun safety advocacy group, also criticized the move, echoing Anderman's sentiment that more firearms are not the solution.

"What problem are these North Carolina sheriffs solving?" Watts wrote. "The hundreds of officers in Uvalde had access to AR-15s but chose not to engage a gunman with an assault rifle and a death wish. 'MORE GUNS' is not a solution - keeping guns away from kids/teens is."


Newsweek reached out to Madison County Schools for comment.