CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

India seizes assets of late mining tycoon’s estate after probe prompted by Panama, Pandora Papers leaks

Two series of millions of leaked confidential documents revealed massive hidden networks of tax havens involving corrupt or unethical dealings by the wealthy. 

REUTERS

Nirmala Ganapathy
India Bureau Chief


NEW DELHI – The Indian authorities have seized the entire shareholding of late mining tycoon Anil Vassudeva Salgaocar’s estate, after opening an investigation against him on the basis of information disclosed in the Panama and Pandora Papers.

The move comes months after his widow Lakshmi Anil Salgaocar, who is the estate’s administrator, won a protracted case in Singapore’s High Court that involved assets implicated in the Indian investigation.

The Panama and Pandora Papers refer to two series of millions of leaked confidential documents, published from April 2016, that revealed massive hidden networks of tax havens involving corrupt or unethical dealings by the wealthy and elite across the globe.


Mr Salgaocar, a well-known industrialist who died in Singapore in 2016, is suspected of violating foreign exchange laws and not declaring millions of dollars of profits to the authorities, according to India’s Enforcement Directorate which tracks economic crimes.

He was also a member of the 2007 legislative assembly of Goa state.

The directorate, in a press release dated Aug 9, said that as part of investigations, it seized all the shares owned by his estate.

The assets seized comprise shares in 33 companies, with the estate’s ownership ranging from 0.1 per cent to 99.9 per cent. The 33 firms own 441 properties in the states of Goa and Karnataka, as well as in Mumbai.

The directorate said investigations showed that iron ore from mines owned by the tycoon in the states of Goa and Karnataka were exported to China through subsidiary firms set up in the British Virgin Islands and Singapore. All firms were set up between 2003 and 2012.

Profits amounting to US$690 million (S$932 million) earned by five of those firms in the British Virgin Islands between 2004 and 2012 were not declared to the Indian authorities, according to the investigations.

These firms “were not declared before Indian authorities and they acted as trading companies indulging in sale of iron ore produced in India to China which resulted in profit shifting outside India”, the directorate added.

By acquiring foreign exchange and holding assets outside India, Mr Salgaocar violated the country’s Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema), it said.

Under India’s laws, Indian nationals cannot freely acquire foreign exchange nor hold assets outside the country, among other things. Penalties include recovering three times the sum of money involved in the violations.

The directorate added that its investigations against Mr Salgaocar and his estate were initiated on the basis of the Panama and Pandora Papers leaks.

The Indian Express newspaper, whose journalists are part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that investigated the Pandora Papers, alleged in a 2021 article that six of his companies had been incorporated with the help of Panamanian offshore law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were managed by Panama-based corporate services provider OMC Group.

Sources from the directorate told The Straits Times that members of the Salgaocar family were cooperating with the investigations.

Under Fema, the family would have recourse to challenge the asset seizure, the sources said.

The authorities’ move against the estate comes six months after the family won a long-running legal dispute in Singapore that involved assets implicated in the current investigation.

Mr Salgaocar in 2015 sued his business friend, Mr Jhaveri Darsan Jitendra, in Singapore, accusing the man of misappropriating assets from a trust that the tycoon set up in 2003.

The firms in the British Virgin Islands that were used to trade iron ore and subsequently implicated in the Indian authorities’ investigations were set up through this trust.

Mr Darsan argued that no such trust was ever set up and that he funded the firms himself.

The High Court in February 2023 ruled against Mr Darsan, ordering him to transfer the trust assets, including the companies’ shares, to Mr Salgaocar’s estate.

Asked about the authorities’ seizure of the Salgaocar estate’s assets, the family’s advocate and solicitor Niru Pillai referred ST to the Singapore High Court order.

Mr Pillai noted that the family won the case here on all counts. He said he could not give more information related to the matter, as Mr Darsan had indicated his intention to appeal against the ruling.

The lawyer declined to say whether Mr Salgaocar’s family – his widow, two daughters Chandana a

Artificial intelligence will have more solid impact on Britain than Industrial Revolution, says British Deputy PM

Oliver Dowden

Oliver Dowden said: “This is a total revolution that is coming. It’s going to totally transform almost all elements of life over the coming years, and indeed, even months, in some cases."

Artificial intelligence will have a more significant impact on Britain than the industrial revolution, Oliver Dowden has said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said AI had enormous potential to speed up productivity and perform boring aspects of jobs, but also posed a significant threat to democracies.

Speaking in an interview with The Times, Dowden said: “This is a total revolution that is coming. It’s going to totally transform almost all elements of life over the coming years, and indeed, even months, in some cases.

“It is much faster than other revolutions that we’ve seen and much more extensive, whether that’s the invention of the internal combustion engine or the Industrial Revolution.”

Asylum claim applications processed by the Home Office are already using AI, and it could even be used in reducing paperwork that goes into ministerial red boxes.

Dowden said this streamlining of work would allow for faster future decision-making by governments.

“The thing that AI right now does really well, it takes massive amounts of information from datasets in different places and enables you to get to a point where you can make decisions.



“Ministers are never going to outsource to AI the making of decisions. But all of the work that goes into getting to that point . . . You can use AI to speed it up.”

While he acknowledged the growth of AI would lead to a significant restructuring of the economy, Dowden likened the change to the invention of the automobile.

He added: “We have a very tight labour market and the job of government is to make sure that people can transition.

“Ultimately, AI should have the capability to do the boring bits of jobs, so that humans can concentrate on the more interesting bits.”

However, Dowden also said that AI could be harnessed by terrorists to expand knowledge on dangerous material or conduct widespread hacking operations.

Details of more than 10,000 officers and staff at the Police Service of Northern Ireland were published online for a number of hours on Tuesday, following an “industrial scale breach of data”.

Dowden said: “You can shortcut hacking by AI. The ability to do destructive things — you can use AI to help you do those.

“Disaffected people exist already. Tie them in with AI, and that enhances, that proliferates, the kind of things that they can do.

“We need to be careful not to overstate these things and do it on an evidential basis, but there is the risk there that has to be addressed.”

Dowden said the leak of data announced by the Electoral Commission on Tuesday was “precisely” the kind of threat that ministers had been warning about.

The Independent

Priest: My conversion on LGBTQ rights tells an important story

 Opinion by Michael Coren • CNN

Editor’s Note: Father Michael Coren is an Anglican priest, journalist and writer. He is a columnist for the Toronto Star, frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail and the author of 18 books. The views expressed here are his own. Read more opinion on CNN.

I don’t think I was ever a homophobe, but I certainly came close.


Michael Coren - Courtesy Rev Michael Coren© Provided by CNN

That is a profoundly shocking thought, and extremely painful for me to say, especially as, for the past decade, I’ve been regarded in Canada as a Christian champion of equal marriage, same-sex blessings and the full affirmation of LGBTQ+ people in the church. The change, the transformation, the conversion – for that is what it was – came about for various reasons, but mostly because of a new reading and understanding of the Bible.

I became an ally because of a deeper faith. Here I now had to stand. I could do no other.

Some background and context: Until 2013 I was a Roman Catholic, and as a journalist and broadcaster with a fairly high profile, spoke and wrote frequently in support of Catholic sexual teachings. There are, of course, many Catholics who dissent from the official line, but the official line it remains. And according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.” Pope Francis has made some soothing and compromising comments but, at heart, very little has changed. In January 2023, Pope Francis told The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime,” yet then reiterated that homosexuality was “a sin” under Catholic doctrine. And while he encouraged bishops to welcome gay people into their ministries “with tenderness,” he also discredited larger attempts to alter existing church practices, which included attempts to provide church blessings to same-sex couples.

I suppose I could have tried to find a way to ignore this, but life’s messy realities do find a way. In March 2014, the humanitarian organization World Vision US announced that it would hire Christians in same-sex marriages in its US offices. The organization’s motives were entirely noble, if a little naïve. Within two days, numerous leading evangelical groups denounced the charity, threatening to withdraw support. World Vision apologized, reversed its new policy and asked for forgiveness. It seemed such a cruel over-reaction, such a humiliation of good people.

At around the same time, Canada’s then-foreign minister John Baird criticized the Ugandan president for legislation that could lead to life imprisonment for gay sex. I supported Baird on my television show, arguing that even those of us who disagreed with same-sex marriage surely condemned such a monstrous policy. As a result, I was roundly attacked by Christian conservatives, Catholic as well as Protestant.

I felt as if I were being pushed against a wall of uncertainty. My defense of traditional Christian teachings on the issue was, I’d always assumed, based on love rather than hate. I started to question myself. Was that a self-defense mechanism, a comforting denial of truth? Perhaps. And that creeping doubt led me to return to scripture. “Tolle Lege,” said that mysterious voice to St. Augustine. Take up and read. So, I did.

The Bible can be as gentle as a watercolor and as powerful as a thunderstorm. It can be taken literally or taken seriously but not always both. It’s a library written over centuries, containing poetry and metaphor as well as history and biography, and without discernment, it makes little sense. It has to be, must be, read through the prism of empathy and the human condition.

The thing is, the Bible hardly mentions homosexuality, which is of course a word not coined until the late 19th-century. The so-called “gotcha” verses from the Old Testament are specific to ancient customs and are often misunderstood. The Sodom story, for example, wasn’t interpreted as referring to homosexuality until the 11th-century. Lot – the hero of the text – offers his virgin daughters to the mob in place of his guests, so it can’t exactly be used as a compelling morality tale!

Ezekiel in the Hebrew Scriptures says, “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me” (Ezekiel 16:49-50).

The Old Testament never speaks of lesbianism, and its mentions of sex are more about procreation and the preservation of the tribe than personal morality and romance. It also has some rather disturbing things to say about slavery in Genesis and in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, about ethnic cleansing in Deuteronomy and even killing children in First Samuel. So a precise guide to modern manners it’s certainly not.

Jesus doesn’t mention the issue, and St. Paul’s comments, mainly in his letters to the Romans, are more about men using young male prostitutes in pagan initiation rites than about loving, consenting same-sex relationships. There is, however, one possible discussion in the New Testament. It’s when Jesus is approached by a centurion whose beloved male servant is dying. Will Jesus cure him? Of course, and Jesus then praises the Roman for his faith. The Greek word used to describe the relationship between the Roman and his “beloved” servant indicates something far deeper than mere platonic affection.

Then there’s the love of David and Jonathan, Jesus refusing to judge and the pristine beauty of grace and justice that informs the Gospels. Most of all, there’s the permanent revolution of love that Jesus didn’t request but demand. His central teaching, remember, is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. We’re told this in three of the four Gospels — Matthew (22:35-40), Mark (12:28-34) and Luke (10:27). It’s a transformational moment for Christians, to know that only by loving others can we properly know and love God.

As I read more, I prayed more. As I prayed more, I reached out to gay Christians, who taught me lessons in forgiveness that shamed me. I made a public apology in my syndicated newspaper column for harm caused to the LGBTQ+ community by my writing and broadcasting. As a consequence, I felt the full force of those on the political and religious right. I’ve reported from Northern Ireland and the Middle East but seldom seen such visceral hatred. Abuse, threats, attacks on my children and campaigns to have me canceled and fired. Thank God, because it confirmed everything that I’d come to believe.

I became an Anglican, and three years later entered seminary. I’m now a priest, spend my time trying to preach the genuine song of the Gospels, and write books and columns doing the same. In other words, I’m a Christian conservative’s nightmare. But for me, a dream lived. I found truth. I found Jesus. This straight, 64-year-old man, married for 36 years and with four children, has a lot to be grateful for. Most of all, I thank the gay community for teaching me so much about what Christianity really means.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MICHAEL COREN

Students at David Solomon's alma mater slam the Goldman Sachs CEO of 'blatant ignorance and disrespect' during a debate

Story by rhogg@insider.com (Ryan Hogg) 


Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon speaks at the bank's investor day this February. BRENDAN MCDERMID / REUTERS© BRENDAN MCDERMID / REUTERS

David Solomon was criticized of "blatant ignorance and disrespect" at a college event.
The Goldman Sachs CEO discussed divestment issues with students at his alma mater Hamilton College.

Goldman Sachs didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Students at David Solomon's alma mater have accused the Goldman Sachs CEO of having "blatant ignorance and disrespect" during a conversation about fossil fuel divestment.

Three seniors at New York's Hamilton College wrote a letter accusing the executive of "belittling" them during a discussion about the university's climate change initiatives.

Solomon, who graduated from the private liberal arts college in 1984, was attending a networking event at the college in March this year when the students challenged him on the issue of divestment.

The letter says that Solomon was speaking to "a group of six or so people," who "were all non-male, and at least half were people of color."

Related video: Goldman Sachs departures: 90 partners have left under Solomon (CNBC)  Duration 2:17  View on Watch

It adds that throughout the discussion, Solomon's attitude and behavior toward the students came from a "position of power."

"Despite knowing nothing about us and our roles in our communities and history of activist work, Solomon claimed he does more in a week to help climate change than we will ever do in our entire lives. When we asked him to elaborate, he attributed his "capital accumulation" and position of power," the letter read.

The letter also claims that Solomon pointed to the group, claiming that they must have benefitted from a financial aid.

"Once we all looked shocked at the claim, he quickly backtracked, citing the statistic that something like 80% of Hamilton students are on some kind of financial aid," it adds.

The students also said Solomon suggested fossil fuel divestment was a "stupid movement" and said that the university likely had a higher exposure to fossil fuels than it claimed.

They alleged that Solomon also called them hypocrites for driving cars and using electricity while supporting divestment, adding that he told them they would "see how the world really works" if they visited countries like China, India, and Cambodia.

"At one point, he laughed and told us he'd be dead in thirty years, so climate change would be our problem anyway," the letter also says.

Goldman's spokesman Tony Fratto told Insider in a statement: "David Solomon has enormous respect for the students at Hamilton College. He did not and would not say things to offend them. We strongly dispute the claims that he did."

Solomon has had a tough time at Goldman lately, with a big bet on its consumer banking business ending in a mess and partners voicing their concerns about him to the firm's board.

Even Solomon's DJ side hustle has brought him issues, with sources telling Insider they were fuming at his use of a private company jet to promote his gig.

Today, most Americans are ‘Oppenheimer communists’

Opinion by Avraham Shama, Opinion Contributor•The Hill


“Oppenheimer,” the acclaimed movie by Christopher Nolan, has brought to life the fear of communism of the 1940s and the 1950s. And recently, a similar concern has emerged that Russia wants to annex Ukraine and further spread into Europe and beyond.

The dread back in the 40s and 50s was that the communist ideology, already at work in Russia, was taking root in the United States and turning it communist. The dogma was already spreading in institutions of higher education such as the University of California at Berkeley and among top scientists such as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.

Never mind that he was never a member of the Communist Party — in fact, he distanced himself from it — and that the Communist Party of the United States of America was relatively small and its goals modest.

Such fear became so palpable that the U.S. House of Representatives initiated the Un-American Activities Committee to investigate disloyalty and subversive acts of Americans. This led to the creation by the Senate of the Government Operations Committee, later known as McCarthyism, and to the outlawing of the party by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954.

In this climate of fear and anxiety, anyone — especially respected figures like Oppenheimer — became guilty by association. This cost Oppenheimer humiliation and his top security clearance — Q clearance — in 1954. Many others lost their livelihoods.

Now we’re all “Oppenheimer communists.” The goals of the party then were for workers to have the right to organize, for employees to have decent working conditions and better wages and for Black workers to be treated fairly. Today, such goals are supported by almost every American, regardless of political affiliation. Indeed, they are considered basic rights. The Communist Party USA of the 1940s didn’t even dream of paid vacation leave, paid sick leaves and paid maternity and paternity leaves.

Furthermore, at its peak in 1947, the Communist Party had 75,000 members, according to one estimate. Imagine that: 75,000 unarmed people creating such deep, almost irrational, fear among a population of 144 million in 1947.

It is hard to comprehend that such a small number of people mobilized the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate and the president of the United States to take such disproportional measures to stop the demands for better working rights and conditions.

But a more realistic explanation is that those drastic measures were calculated political acts by the U.S. government to solidify an emerging, post-World War II political order that became to be known as the Cold War.

And now, the U.S. is confronting a similar situation — Russia’s threat to take over Ukraine and increase its influence in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. But unlike the fear of communism immediately after World War II, the United States is in a more solid position to deal with it appropriately, not disproportionately.

Finally, a significant number of the scientists developing the bomb that ended the war and ensured the U.S. global leadership for years to come were immigrants, some from Germany. Some were rejected by the Nazis because they were doing “Jewish physics,” while German scientists preferred “Deutsche Physik.”

Now, many immigrants are leading tech companies (55 percent of startups), and populating university faculties (22 percent) and medical centers (29 percent). This bodes well for the continued U.S. leadership in science, technology and economics. But it requires that our leaders be willing to support and even recruit such immigrant talent.

Avraham Shama is the former dean of the College of Business at the University of Texas, The Pan-American. He is a professor emeritus at the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico. His new book, “Cyberwars: David Knight Goes to Moscow,” was recently published by 3rd Coast Books.

Women's World Cup attracts new fans - and helps advertisers clean up football's image

Family-friendly ads starring female players are cashing in on the boom in the women's game

Visa is one of the big names sponsoring this summer's World Cup, which comes at a time of booming interest in women's football. EPA

Tim Stickings
Aug 11, 2023


Advertisers are using the Women’s World Cup to appeal to a new football audience, as TV spots for gambling, drink and flashy cars are replaced by audiobooks, healthy food and family-friendly content.

Brands want to be associated with a boom in women’s football and sponsorship from big names such as Visa and McDonald’s means they think it will last, experts said.

Major brands have invested in slick adverts that show England’s Alessia Russo dribbling through a supermarket for Adidas and youngsters imitating Australian superstar Sam Kerr’s trademark back-flip for Nike.

An inventive video by French mobile network Orange showed what appeared to be pulsating scenes from the men’s game – only to reveal that the footage was an AI ruse and the thrilling football was really being played by women.

During this week’s round of 16, international skincare brands L'Oreal and Eucerin and women’s deodorants Sure and Dove put their products under TV viewers' noses at half time.

READ MORE
Morocco inspire the Arab world after departing Women's World Cup as history-makers

Some of these would be far less likely during a men’s game, where viewers are assumed to like betting – then to mysteriously want a payday loan an advert or two later.

But this is not a Barbie caricature of what women want. Brands have realised that the World Cup has an all-the-family audience and there are campaigns by holiday website Booking.com, Marks & Spencer’s food and breakfast cereal Weetabix.

Meg Templeton, director of global brand partnerships at content creation business Footballco, said the company’s research found that “literally everyone is excited about this tournament”.

The breadth of the audience "has been a little shocking to brands" who thought it would appeal mainly to women, she told The National.

“But the audience in general is super, super broad and big now, and growing.”

England's Alessio Russo is one of the big names signed up by Adidas for its World Cup marketing. Photo: Adidas

Growing audience

The interest from brands has been reflected in impressive World Cup viewership. The average attendance in the group stage was 25,476, an increase of 29 per cent compared with the 2019 tournament in France.

Australia’s final group game against Canada drew a TV audience of 2.4 million in the host nation, higher than any of their matches at the men’s World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

Advertisers in England are cashing in on a surge in interest since the Lionesses won Euro 2022 last summer.

Attendances at the Women’s Super League, the top division in England, more than doubled in 2022-2023. The Women’s FA Cup final sold out Wembley for the first time with 77,390 watching Chelsea win the trophy, a world record for a women's domestic game.

Marks & Spencer’s adverts encourage healthy eating under the slogan “eat like a Lioness”, in a campaign featuring Lauren James, Georgia Stanway and Alessia Russo. There was also a photoshoot with the England team in M&S blazers.

Younger Generation Z viewers are particularly keen on content focusing on individual players and “people have a bigger affinity for brands that therefore support those players”, Ms Templeton said

.
England's Lauren James, Georgia Stanway and Alessia Russo are promoting a Marks & Spencer's healthy food drive. Photo: M&S


A recruitment advert for Britain’s Royal Air Force, which has been shown during the World Cup, shows a woman marshalling efforts to prevent a space collision in what is meant to be a symbol of a “modern, future-facing RAF”.

There have also been TV adverts for audiobooks, airlines, holidays, video games, family cars, soft drinks, crisps and oven chips. Visa sponsors player-of-the-match awards and McDonald’s has the rights to the fair play prize.

Dr Christina Philippou, a football finance expert who contributed to a UK government review of the women’s game, said advertisers who “want to be associated with success” were trying to send positive messages.

“There is a difference between the standard football audience and what you would see attending women’s games. There’s obviously a lot more families, there’s a lot more women. The community is a lot more diverse,” she said.

“What we are seeing is people being given a chance to watch football in a safe environment and that brings diversity with it. The sponsors are following suit and trying to show that same message.”

Online and social media adverts are also key as matches take place in Australia and New Zealand’s time zones and fans in the rest of the world often catch up online.

Pitchside advertisements in Australia and New Zealand are seen by millions of viewers on TV, online and on social media. AP

Chelsea jumped on Lauren James’s emergence for England to advertise tickets to see her at domestic games. The social media drive hit a snag when she was sent off against Nigeria.

“It’s a World Cup that, more than the last World Cup, is taking place outside of 90 minutes on the pitch because of that time difference and because of the way that people want to consume content now,” Ms Templeton said.

“They can’t just rely on the TV advertising for this one if they want to make sure the story’s going throughout the day. If you’re advertising on TV at 8.30am, what happens during prime time?”

A combination of the men’s winter World Cup in Qatar and some pandemic-related rescheduling means women have dominated the footballing airwaves for two straight summers.

They think this is something that’s here to stay

Dr Christina Philippou, football finance expert

An exciting tournament this year, in which favourites such as Germany and the US have gone out early while underdogs Haiti, Jamaica and Morocco have impressed, has been a good advert for women's football.

With the next major international tournament not until Euro 2025, the test is now whether brands will sustain their interest at what Adidas has called a “tipping point for the women’s game”.

Preparations for the World Cup were clouded when Fifa accused networks of making miserly offers for broadcast rights and threatened a blackout in the big five countries – England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France.

But there is hope that this is a breakthrough moment, with Google this week announcing a partnership with Arsenal and Liverpool to “reduce the visibility gap” around women’s football.

Dr Philippou said big-name sponsors who would not tend to throw money at short-term projects were treating women’s football as a long-term investment.

“If you’re looking at stuff that might not be sustainable, you’re normally going to get the less big brands. But we are seeing the likes of Barclays and Visa. There’s been a lot of big brands that have been involved recently,” she said.

“Inevitably there might be blips along the way. But in terms of a long-term project and the long-term sustainability, I think the indications, at least from the sponsors, are that they think this is something that’s here to stay.”

Why UK's migrant barge evokes memories of its shameful history of maritime incarceration

Thousands were once crammed in horrendous conditions on former Royal Navy men of war


 

The Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge passes Prawle Point Cliffs near Salcombe, Devon during transportation by tug boat from dry dock in Falmouth, Cornwall to Portland in Dorset. PA


James Langton
Aug 11, 2023

In the words of one inmate, they were “schools of abominable pollution” and “nurseries of deep crime”, where “those who have been discharged from them have overrun England and spread vice and immorality everywhere in their track”.

Not conditions on board the migrant barge Bibby Stockholm, as some human rights activists might have us believe, but the words of Jørgen Jørgensen, a Danish adventurer unfortunate enough to be locked on a British prison hulk in the early 19th Century.

But while guests on the Bibby Stockholm have en suite bathrooms, free internet and three meals a day, many see a direct connection to the country’s past, when thousands were locked up in appalling conditions on decommissioned men of war known as “hulks”.

For Amnesty International, the migrant barge was like the "prison hulks from the Victorian era” and an "utterly shameful way to house people who've fled terror, conflict and persecution”.

The Guardian newspaper reported: “Prison ships have forever been associated with the worst excesses of English injustice.”


Columnist Tim Adams even quoted Napoleon on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, reminding his troops “Soldiers, let those among you who have been prisoners of the English describe to you the hulks, and detail the most frightful miseries which they endured!”

Cost effective

Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge has ensuite bathrooms, free internet. 

PA Wire

The UK government sees it differently. For Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, the barge - built originally to accommodate offshore gas workers - is a humane and cost-effective way to house hundreds of young men who have illegally crossed the English Channel on small boats while their applications for asylum are processed.

But memories of the hulks - used to incarcerate prisoners of war and convicts awaiting transportation to Britain’s colonies - still linger, making such comparisons inevitable in the heated debate around illegal migration.

Their use is embedded in literature, like the convict Magwitch who escapes from one in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, or Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo’s, Les Misérables, imprisoned on the notorious Bagne of Toulon, former galley ships used by the French as hulks.

Using ships as prisons was first proposed by the British government at the end of the 18th Century, prompted by a shortage of jails on land. The War of Independence had made it impossible to transport convicts to the American colonies, and British prisons were overflowing.

The solution was “hulks”, former Royal Navy warships, stripped of their masts and weapons and moored on river banks. The first prison hulk opened for business in 1776 with the Justicia moored on the banks of Thames, and her inmates doing hard labour onshore during the day.

Between 40 and 50 of these hulks would be used as prisons during the 19th Century, including old warhorses like HMS Bellerophon, a 74-gun ship of the line that had fought at Trafalgar and the Battle of the Nile.

Masts removed, their decks could accommodate hundreds of prisoners, with the gun ports nearest the shore boarded up to deter escapes.

Phased out

During the American War of Independence, captured American soldiers were held on prison ships off the coast of New York. Conditions for those regarded as traitors to the crown were appalling, with around 10,000 dying in captivity - a worse casualty rate than in battle.

Poor food and hygiene combined with overcrowding were a general feature of the hulks on both sides of the Atlantic. They did little to deter crime, with an inmate called Williamson, sentenced to death in 1791, telling the press before his execution they were “A college of villainy – from whence every man comes out a master of arts; having taken every possible degree of scoundrelism”.

They had largely been phased out by the 1890s. One of the last was the Success, built in Calcutta in 1840 as a merchant ship, then converted to hold prisoners in Australia in the 1850s.

A contemporary description of life on-board reported “Leg-irons, spiked iron collars, straight iron jackets, body irons, with handcuffs attached, were also used on some of the prisoners doing their sentences on board the Success.

“The spiked iron collar was a shocking means of punishment, and was so constructed that the wearer was obliged to remain always in a stooping attitude, which induced ill-health in many, and was the cause of death to not a few.”

The ship was eventually bought by a group of entrepreneurs, hoping to cash in on her history as a floating museum. In 1907, the Success arrived on the River Liffey in Ireland, where the Weekly Irish Times called her ‘Britain’s Last Convict Ship’ and an “Ocean Hell.”

Still afloat in 1936, the women’s magazine Britannia and Eve called the ship “A floating chamber of horrors. But the 20th century would have many worse examples of floating prisons.

Among the worst were the “death barges” used by both sides in the Russian Civil War of 1918-19. Originally cargo barges they were moored on the River Volga, packed with prisoners in appalling conditions.

HMS Maidstone became a floating “internment holding area” in 1969. Photo: Wikipedia

A doctor visiting a barge held by the “Whites”, as the opponents of the Red Army revolutionaries were known, found “festering wounds of those who were still alive and the noses and ears of the dead were crawling with maggots. An unbearable stench overwhelmed everyone who approached the hatch.”

There were also reports of at least one mass execution in March 1919, when as many as 4,000 prisoners of the Revolutionary Military Committee were thrown into the Volga, weighed down with stones.

Not to be outdone, the Nazis used ocean liners in Lubeck on the Baltic Sea to hold concentration camp inmates late in the Second World War. Attacked by the Royal Air Force, which mistakenly believed them military targets, three ships were sunk in May 1945, with the loss of up to 7,000 lives.

The British were not done with prison ships, though. During the Irish War of Independence, they deployed HMS Argenta, originally a cargo ship from Texas, to hold Republican prisoners of war.

During Northern Ireland’s Troubles, nearly 50 years later, the submarine support ship HMS Maidstone became a floating “internment holding area” in 1969, holding Irish Republicans without trial.

Vernon C Bain Correctional Centre, acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest floating prison. Photo: wikipedia

In the 1980s, two accommodation barges built in Sweden for the oil and gas industry were purchased by the New York City Department of Correction to reduce overcrowding in its prisons.

Both barges were later sold, with one becoming Her Majesty’s Prison Weare in 1997, moored at Portland Harbour on England’s south coast. Intended to relieve overcrowding, HMP Weare was eventually closed in 2005 as it was too expensive to maintain.
Temporary solution

Most modern prison ships used as a temporary solution for overcrowding, moored for as long as needed. The exception is the Vernon C Bain Correctional Centre, acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest floating prison.

Opened in 1992, the massive structure, resting on a barge, has become a permanent fixture on New York City’s East River, close to the notorious Rikers Island jail. It can house up to 800 inmates, with facilities including a basketball ball court and a library.

Meanwhile, back in England, the first migrants have spent their first nights on the Bibby Stockholm. After a breakfast of cereals, eggs, cheese, jam and butter, some seemed happy, although one told the BBC it was like “entering Alcatraz” - the notorious island prison in San Fransisco Bay.

Others are taking legal action to avoid being sent to floating accommodation. Some, despite crossing to Britain by boat, are citing a fear of water

Palestinians Accept first Saudi Ambassador

by Reuters and Algemeiner Staff



Palestinian Authority (PA) Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki holds a news conference at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, May 22, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Francois Walschaerts.

Palestinian officials welcomed a first Saudi Arabian ambassador on Saturday, they said, in a show of support even as the Gulf kingdom is considering the prospect of establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

Saudi Arabia, Islam’s birthplace, has championed the Palestinian cause and shunned official ties with Israel but the U.S. is seeking to promote what could be a historic Middle East deal that would include normalizing Israeli-Saudi relations.

At a ceremony in Jordan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s diplomatic adviser Majdi al-Khalidi received a copy of the credentials of Ambassador Nayef Al-Sudairi as a non-resident envoy, official Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

The move was “an important step that will contribute to further strengthening the strong brotherly relations that bind the two countries and the two brotherly peoples,” al-Khalidi said, according to Wafa.

Palestinian analyst Talal Okal said the diplomatic appointment was a half-step toward an official Saudi representation office in the occupied West Bank. “It is also a message Saudi Arabia was committed to the rights of the Palestinians in a fully sovereign state,” he added.

PALESTINIAN CONCERN

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said last week that Abbas’s Western-backed Palestinian Authority is hoping to engage with Saudi Arabia over their concerns about the potential normalisation with Israel.

U.S., Israeli and Saudi officials have said any such agreement would be some way off, with complex issues to be resolved, including an escalation in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the possibility of development of civilian nuclear power by Saudi Arabia.

Palestinians are concerned that any agreement may weaken support for their cause in the wider Arab world and undermine their hopes of an independent Palestinian state.

Saudi Arabia has quietly accepted the so-called Abraham Accords that have normalised ties between Israel and Gulf states United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

When asked if he would consider concessions to the Palestinians as part of a Saudi deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an NBC interview this month: “The Palestinians should have all the power to govern themselves and none of the powers to threaten us.”

Members of his hard-right coalition, however, have ruled out any concessions.

Saudi Arabia names first 'non-resident ambassador for Palestine'

Ambassador Nayef Al-Sudairi is the country's current ambassador to Jordan

Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Jordan Nayef Al-Sudairi (left) is taking on the new role. File/Saudi Embassy Jordan

Simon Rushton
Aug 12, 2023

Palestinian officials have welcomed the first Saudi Arabian non-resident ambassador, according to reports.

A copy of the credentials of Ambassador Nayef Al-Sudairi was presented to Majdi al-Khalidi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's diplomatic adviser, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

The appointment represents "an important step" underscoring the desire of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "to strengthen relations with the brothers of the State of Palestine and give it a formal boost in all areas", Mr Al-Sudairi said in a video broadcast by the Saudi Arabian state-affiliated Al-Ekhbariya channel.

Palestinian analyst Talal Okal said the diplomatic appointment was a half-step toward official Saudi representation office in the West Bank.

"It is also a message Saudi Arabia was committed to the rights of the Palestinians in a fully sovereign state," he added.

READ MORE
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismisses 12 governors in West Bank and Gaza

Mr Al-Sudairi is the current ambassador to Jordan, where Saturday’s ceremony took place.

Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic file for Palestine has traditionally been handled by the embassy in Amman, AFP reported.

A Palestinian Authority official told AFP that with this announcement "Saudi Arabia has reaffirmed its recognition of the state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital".

"This is one part of several steps and we will continue to develop the relationship with them," he said.

RUSSIAN OCCUPIED GEORGIA

Strikes in South Ossetia: drivers and hospital staff haven't received salaries for several months

Zhanna TarkhanovaTskhinval

Strikes in South Ossetia

In South Ossetia, employees of two enterprises have simultaneously gone on strike. These include public transport drivers who have not received their salaries for several months, and workers in the catering department of the Republican Hospital, who are demanding the protection of their labor rights.

Reports of these protests have been circulating on South Ossetian Telegram channels. However, government-affiliated media has remained silent on the matter, and neither the president nor any other government representative has addressed the striking workers.
Broken promises

On one of the Telegram channels, public transport drivers are asserting that the President of South Ossetia, Alan Gagloev, had pledged a salary increase before the elections. However, instead of this, they have not received any payment for several months, contrary to his assurances.

“We are not only enduring hardship, but so are our families and the citizens who are left with no choice but to walk. The managerial personnel and all the officials drive expensive foreign vehicles, owning both personal and official cars. Regrettably, the authorities remain indifferent to the predicaments of ordinary citizens. New public transportation isn’t being acquired, and the existing fleet isn’t being repaired,” express the protestors in their state of outrage.

As for the employees in the hospital’s catering department, the situation is even more strained. Workers from the laundry and accounting departments have also joined the protest. Their discontent stems from deteriorating working conditions and meager salaries ranging from 7,000 to 8,000 rubles [$71-81], devoid of any bonuses.

On the afternoon of August 11, the strikers were notified that instead of the president, his assistant, Nikolai Gagloev, would meet with them. Nonetheless, he too failed to make an appearance.

Is illegal hunting in South Ossetia a new type of business? Scandal involving president and a Russian blogger

Investigation of high-profile murder completed in South Ossetia. How does it benefit the President?

South Ossetian authorities trying to shut down only opposition party

“Eminence grise”

The authors of the pro-presidential Telegram channel, who endorsed Alan Gagloev’s candidacy in the presidential elections, have put forth a theory suggesting that the “power behind the throne” – Alan Dzhioev, the head of the presidential administration, bears responsibility for fueling the growing anti-government sentiments among the labor collectives:

“It’s understandable that people are frustrated; they are receiving meager salaries. The matter of salary hikes has been raised repeatedly, yet no funds have materialized. The ongoing protest is being orchestrated by Jioev and Plieva [minister of health – JAMnews], who have informed the staff that the leadership of the republic is declining salary increases.

Plieva is attempting to deflect accountability for the salary situation, shifting the blame onto the president. Conversely, Dzhioev has been engaging in discreet negotiations with other stakeholders for a considerable time, potentially undermining Gagloev’s position.”

How South Ossetia may weather sanctions on Russia

JAMNews spoke to experts from South Ossetia on how the region can survive sanctions on Russia

Cancellation of payments

Sources informed JAMnews that the cause behind the ongoing protests lies in the actions of the newly established authorities, who have annulled previously existing allowances, consequently leaving diligent workers with meager salaries. The average income for catering staff and their colleagues stands at approximately 12,000 rubles [$122].

In stark contrast, part-time doctors who are registered across various positions amass a combined total of 100,000 to 150,000 rubles [over $1,000 to $1,500] per month.

This stark inequality threatens to ignite social tensions, especially considering Alan Gagloev and his team’s inability to augment the budget.

“It’s highly likely that a multitude of payments may cease by the end of September,” disclosed our insider from the ministry of health.

As per the informant, South Ossetian healthcare is currently grappling with an unprecedented crisis; all surgical practitioners have resigned. Patients afflicted with appendicitis and cholecystitis are being redirected to Vladikavkaz.

“The root cause can be traced back to the actions of the minister of health, Agunda Plieva. She has fostered unbearable working conditions, and heaven forbid anyone with a grave ailment from being admitted to the republic’s hospital.

Surgeons have been stripped of their compensation for on-call duties. The authorities have deemed it fit for them to work without any additional allowances. A similar approach has been extended to catering, laundry, and accounting staff.”

First meeting between Alan Gagloev and Putin, and why are they dissatisfied in South Ossetia

On why it’s taken so long, and why the Russian President is unhappy with the South Ossetian President

Fiscal shortfalls

In December 2022, following intense deliberations, the South Ossetian Parliament reached a consensus on the primary parameters of the 2023 budget. Revenues were determined at 8.78 billion rubles [approximately $89 million], while expenditures amounted to 8.86 billion rubles [over $90 million].

Consequently, the budget for 2023 exhibited a deficit of roughly 80 million rubles [approximately $815,000].

The cornerstone of South Ossetia’s revenue structure is derived from financial aid provided by Russia. For the year 2023, this assistance was anticipated to total more than 7.2 billion rubles [over $73 million], with a significant portion—5.8 billion rubles [exceeding $59 million]—pledged by President Gagloev and his team for directing towards the socio-economic advancement of South Ossetia.

Prioritized allocations encompassed wages, social security provisions, utility expenses, procurement of medications, dressings, and other medical supplies, as well as investments in social welfare and education.

Anticipated self-generated revenues—comprising taxes and non-tax sources—were forecasted to reach nearly 1.7 billion rubles [over $72 million]. However, the administration encountered difficulties in realizing the complete collection of tax earnings.

In June, the government introduced modifications to the draft legislation governing the 2023 state budget. According to Deputy Finance Minister Marina Tibilova, “the revisions pertain to reallocating funds from the Investment Program to provide financial support for socio-economic development, amounting to 50 million rubles [over $509 thousand], to address the expenses associated with settling a portion of the electricity debt incurred by the republic.”

Tibilova advocated for allocating resources to co-finance the gradual wage increase for specific law enforcement agencies within the republic.

Funding for election campaign

Amidst the deepening social and economic crisis, associates of Alan Gagloev have initiated an unofficial campaign in anticipation of the parliamentary elections slated for June 2024.

The ruling Nykhas party has commenced the distribution of gas leak detectors among Tskhinvali’s residents, an endeavor carried out with the unwavering support of the presidential administration. Overseeing this promotional endeavor is Andrey Ottaev, the custodian of youth policies within the presidential administration.

The “Nykhasovtsy” faction has committed to disbursing 200 such sensors, asserting that this initiative will extend into the future. Ottaev stated that “all requisite equipment was procured through the resources of the Nykhas party.”

He also indicated that alongside distributing the sensors, they intend to install signage at bus stops, furnishing information about routes and transportation schedules.

However, the origins of funding for the pro-presidential party remain undisclosed by Ottaev. Moreover, the president himself has yet to meet with his former constituents—drivers, nurses, cooks—to whom he pledged considerable ben

HERESIOLOGY

The Jewish false messiah who died a Muslim: The Shabbtai Zvi enigma

He began as an eccentric with unusual customs, sparked a revolution and drew masses of believers in the Jewish world; Even after his conversion to Islam and the subsiding euphoria around him, the Sabbatean movement influenced Hasidism, and some argue, Zionism as well

Shmuel Munitz|14:51

He only lived for 50 years, but in that tumultuous time, he became the greatest false messiah the Jewish world has known. Shabbtai Zvi, who caused euphoria throughout the Diaspora, has fascinated generations of scholars.

Shabbtai Zvi was born in 1626 in Izmir in the Ottoman Empire. The date we have for his birth is the 9th of Av, which fits nicely with the belief that the Messiah will be born on the day Jews remember the destruction of the two temples.

 
Shabbtai Zvi
(Illustration: from the book of Thomas Conan, Amsterdam, 1669)

As a young man, he studied Kabbalah, which greatly influenced the Sabbatean movement. Renowned scholar, Gershom Scholem, claims there is evidence to suggest that he suffered from bipolar disorder. His moments of transcendence and enlightenment followed by great sadness are well documented. At a certain point, Zvi declared himself to be the Messiah. He would publicly cry out God’s full four-lettered name, despite clear Halachic prohibition on doing so. At first, he wasn’t taken seriously.

He was forced to divorce his first two wives as he wouldn’t sleep with them and refused to touch them. His strange behavior, coupled with activities in contravention of Halacha and his messianic claims, led to his expulsion from Izmir. He found his way to Salonica where he “married” a Sefer Torah in a festive celebration including a chuppa. Yes, he really did. He was eventually thrown out of Salonica too.

In 1658, he arrived in Kushta (Istanbul), where he continued with his rather unusual customs including celebrating the three Pilgrimage Festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot in the same week. These practices, compounded by his announcement of the cancellation of mitzvot, led to the community of Kushta expelling him too. With his tail between his legs, he returned to Izmir and made it to Eretz Israel in 1662 by way of Rhodes and Cairo.

He married a woman named Sarah, a prostitute from Livorno, whom he arranged to have brought to Eretz Israel. In 1665, searching for a cure for his troubled soul, he traveled to Gaza to meet scholar and mystic, Nathan of Gaza. Instead of curing him, Nathan of Gaza convinced Shabbtai that he was indeed the Messiah. Every messiah needs one esteemed individual to believe in him.

Nathan, who claimed to have had a vision of Shabbtai as the Messiah before their meeting, took on the role of prophet regarding the Messianic issue: He sent letters declaring the good news all over the Jewish world. Masses, including prominent rabbis, were very excited about the news. Some communities even introduced a prayer for the wellbeing of Shabbtai Zvi, “Messiah of Israel”, referring to him as AMIRAH, a Hebrew acronym for the phrase "Our Lord and King, his Majesty be exalted" (Adoneinu Malkeinu Yarum Hodo). As the Sabbatean movement initially led to mass return to mitzvot, the opposition of rabbinical institutions was minimal. Until it inflated and got out of control.


Nathan of Gaza
(Illustration: from the book of Thomas Conan, Amsterdam, 1669)

“A broad variety of weird and wonderful explanations have been given to account for the movement’s enormous, rapid success,” says Dr. Avishai Bar-Asher, head of the Jewish Studies program at the Jewish Thought Department at the Hebrew University. “At its peak, Sabbatean Messianism was a mass movement. It was by no means marginal. It wasn’t a small defined group like the Messianic faction of Chabad for example - whose adherents believe that the Lubavitcher Rebbe is the Messiah. This was a movement that was almost everywhere.“

How many Jews followed him at the time? “A lot. Almost no Diaspora community was untouched by Sabbateanism. Multitudes followed him – in Turkey, Greece, Amsterdam, Poland, Hamburg, Morrocco, Italy and as far afield as Yemen. There were always people who opposed the movement. But the appeal was enormous. The movement spread quickly into diverse regions. At the movement’s peak, even initial opponents became adherents. People sold their property and started preparing for the journey to the Eretz Israel and for Redemption.“

Abrogation of prohibitions was a core revolutionary idea in the movement: Sabbateanism held that the historical role played by commandments that had accompanied the Jewish People had come to an end in the Messianic Age. Stretching Kabbalistic beliefs, Sabbateanism claimed that to repair the world, one must perform “transgressions for their own sake.” Sin for the sake of sin. Sabbatean theology, developed by Nathan of Gaza, stated that the sins were Shabbtai Zvi’s way of getting close to transgressors, to stop them and bring about correction.

“Shabbtai Zvi was first and foremost a Kabbalist. He operated within the Kabbalistic tradition. This was his theology and practice. He enhanced and improved it,“ explains Dr. Bar-Asher. “The divine and cosmic connection between male and female is well known in Kabbalah, as is the idea that any human sexual act affects the divine system.”

Even at the height of Sabbatean euphoria, there were pockets of resistance including Rabbi Jacob ben Aaron Sasportas from Hamburg. “Sasportas fought a long hard battle against Shabbtai Zvi, and kept a record of it for posterity," sats Dr. Bar-Asher. "It’s important to understand that even Sasportas would praise the positive aspects he identified in Sabbatean activity – like the mass movement of returning to religious practice. People became more religious and the synagogues filled up. This was regarded in a positive light, even by those opposing Shabbtai Zvi’s messianic claims.“


The Temple Mount
(Photo: AP)

Samuel Primo was Shabbtai Zvi’s personal scribe. Bar-Asher tells us that “Primo was the ‘Messiah’s scribe.' He wrote down what Shabbtai Zvi said and spread his message far and wide. He was among the people closest to Shabbtai Zvi – what we would call today a personal secretary and public relations officer. He remained loyal to Shabbtai Zvi even after the latter’s conversion to Islam and - despite claims that he completely left the movement - acted as an underground Sabbatean leader in Adrianople, Turkey for many years.“

His third wife, Sarah, was a prostitute – something Sabbateans never denied. This is reminiscent of the biblical story of Hosea who was commanded by God to marry a prostitute and have children with her. The idea is that the messiah, by his actions, will begin turning around the current order,” Bar-Asher explains. “Before the Messiah arrived, the world had operated under a certain order. Messianic Sabbateanism believed that the Messiah would change that order and all kinds of things that had been forbidden, would now be allowed,” he explains.

Bar-Asher advises caution regarding details surrounding Shabbtai Zvi’s wives and his refusal to sleep with his first two wives. Various groups, both supporters and opponents, had a plethora of vested interests in how they portrayed Zvi.

“Shabbtai Zvi’s sexual behavior was a critical link in stories told about him. We must remember that in addition to many followers during Shabbtai Zvi’s lifetime, there were all sorts of groups and individuals that continued Shabbtai Zvi long after his death. Some of these groups found it prudent to portray him in a certain way, while others chose to paint a more ascetic, conservative picture. Shabbtai Zvi’s biography is adorned with efforts to portray a perfect character, so it’s hard to tell where the writer’s imagination ends and historical reality begins. Opponents of Sabbateanism also clearly had a vested interest in portraying him in a certain manner.“

The spectacular downfall

In 1666, a man named Nehemiah HaCohen informed on Shabbtai Zvi to the Ottoman authorities who feared rebellion. Zvi was subsequently declared a traitor. He was imprisoned and the Sultan gave him two options: execution or conversion to Islam. He chose Islam and was granted the new name of Aziz Mehmed Effendi.

Most of Shabbtai Zvi’s followers were shocked and abandoned their beliefs following the conversion. A minority did follow him converting to Islam in his wake. Small groups within Jewish communities continued with their, now clandestine, Sabbatean beliefs.

“Nathan of Gaza – who originally opposed Shabbtai Zvi’s conversion to Islam – ultimately didn’t abandon him, going to great lengths to update his messianic view after Zvi’s conversion. Nathan, along with others held fast to Shabbtai Zvi and tried to come up with all sorts of hidden reasons for his conversion to Islam, viewing the conversion as part of his messianic process,” Bar-Asher tells us.

“After Shabbtai Zvi’s death in 1676, there was a need to update the messianic theology from a different angle. His remaining followers developed a variety of intriguing systems. Some believed he had just “vanished” and would return to reveal himself at some later date. Others believed that Shabbtai Zvi was only the first messiah, Mashiach ben Yosef, announcing the arrival Mashiach ben David - the final messiah who would bring about full redemption.

Bar-Asher adds that “From his third wife, Sarah, Shabbtai Zvi had a son, Ishmael Zvi. Some followers pinned their hopes on him. It’s unclear what became of him.”

Sabbateanism resonates for years after his death: In the 18th century, another false messiah, Yaakov Frank arose. The Frankist movement had many similarities with Sabbateanism: Believers abrogated religious laws as part of the cult surrounding their messiah, and a Sabbatean sect called the Dönme, descended from followers of Shabbtai Zvi who converted to Islam, exists in Turkey to this very day.

King of Jordan approves ‘draconian’ cybercrime law

Fourteen rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, previously said in a joint statement the law is ‘draconian’.

Jordan's King Abdullah II 

Published On 12 Aug 2023

The King of Jordan approved a cybercrime bill that will crack down on online speech deemed harmful to national unity, a bill opposition lawmakers and human rights groups have warned against.

King Abdullah II gave his approval on Saturday with the bill now slated as law and set to take effect one month after it is published in the state newspaper Al-Rai, which is expected on Sunday.

The legislation will make certain online posts punishable with prison time and fines.

Posts that could be targeted include those seen as “promoting, instigating, aiding, or inciting immorality”, demonstrating “contempt for religion”, or “undermining national unity”.

The bill will additionally target those who publish names or pictures of police officers online and outlaws certain methods of maintaining online anonymity.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed the bill after amending it to allow judges to choose between imposing prison time and fines, rather than ordering combined penalties.

Jordan’s lower house of parliament passed it last month.

‘Draconian’ law

Before the parliament’s vote, 14 rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, said in a joint statement the law is “draconian”.

“Vague provisions open the door for Jordan’s executive branch to punish individuals for exercising their right to freedom of expression, forcing the judges to convict citizens in most cases,” it said.

The United States, a key ally and Jordan’s largest donor, also criticised the law.

The measure is the latest in a number of crackdowns on online speech in the kingdom, including social media blackouts. In December, it blocked the TikTok app after users shared live videos of worker protests.

Human Rights Watch said in a 2022 report authorities increasingly target protesters and journalists in a “systematic campaign to quell peaceful opposition and silence critical voices”.

KEEP READING
Rights groups, opposition slam proposed cyber crime law in Jordan

In water-scarce Jordan, azolla plant helps empower women farmers

Photos: Jordan’s beekeepers busy as honey demand soar

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Billions of Intel CPUs are leaking passwords and killing performance


By Monica J. White

August 11, 2023 



A scary vulnerability has recently been discovered in some Intel processors, and while the best CPUs are not affected, billions of chips could be. According to the researcher who first spotted the Downfall vulnerability, “everyone on the internet is affected.” This is made worse by the fact that a skilled hacker could steal some of the most sensitive data from affected computers, including passwords.

Downfall was discovered by a senior research scientist from Google, Daniel Moghimi, who created a page dedicated to it, detailing how it works and what it can possibly do. Downfall targets the Gather Instruction in Intel chips, which normally helps the CPU quickly access various data spread all over different parts of its memory. However, with the flaw, internal hardware registers can be exposed to software. If the software is compromised, it’s possible that hackers could seize sensitive data from the PC.

The affected CPUs all belong to Intel’s mainstream and server processor lineups, starting from Skylake all the way up to Rocket Lake. This means that, unless you’ve upgraded your CPU in the last few years, you’re definitely affected, but you can check out Intel’s full list of chips that are vulnerable.

As Moghimi notes, you don’t even need to own an Intel processor to potentially be affected. As Intel dominates the server market, cloud computing environments might be hit by this as well, where “malicious customer could exploit the Downfall vulnerability to steal data and credentials from other customers who share the same cloud computer,” says Moghimi.

While pulling off an actual hack with Downfall seems tricky, there’s a lot at stake, which is why Intel has already released a fix — but the downside is a massive performance loss. Intel was quick to say it would be releasing new microcode for the chips that are affected, and it recommended that users update their firmware to prevent being affected by Downfall. It’s here now, but as noted by Phoronix, the price to pay for not having your password leaked is massive.

Sora Shimazaki / Pexels

Intel itself estimated a performance loss of up to 50%, with AVX instructions most affected. The good news is that for most users, this won’t be an issue, but the bad news is that AI-related workloads and overall high-performance computing (HPC) tasks are hit pretty hard.

Phoronix tested the impact on Linux with four different CPUs, including a Xeon Platinum 8380, Xeon Gold 6226R, and an Intel Core i7-1165G7. Performance losses range from 6% up to 39%, which, while not as bad as Intel predicted, is still not great.

You don’t need to update your processor if you’re not worried about being affected by Downfall. While Moghimi recommends it, Intel itself allows users to opt out of the extra mitigation in order to restore the full performance of their CPU. If you’re not using your PC for HPC tasks, it sounds like you might as well keep the mitigation on, but Intel has detailed the process of turning it off if you’d rather get rid of it.

On-strike Cambridge doctors asked to return to UNDERSTAFFED  labour ward

AND THEY AGREE

IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIAImage caption,

The British Medical Association (BMA) is leading its fifth junior doctor strike


The British Medical Association has agreed some of its members can return to hospital for one night because of low staffing in a labour ward.


The BMA said it accepted a request from the NHS for doctors to work Saturday's night shift at an obstetrics unit in Cambridge University Hospital.


Junior doctors are staging a four-day walkout in an ongoing dispute over pay.


A BMA spokesman said it granted a "limited derogation" and said its main concern was patient safety.



The Rosie is the trust's maternity hospital

"We want to thank the trust and regional team, along with NHS England, for flagging appropriate concerns in a timely way," said the BMA spokesman.

"Our priority is patient safety."

A Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said "derogations are made to ensure safe staffing levels".

The trust's maternity wards are located at the Rosie Hospital, which sits beside Addenbrookes Hospital.

POSTMODERN FUEDALISM
New Cambodian cabinet to feature children of the powerful

Reuters
Thu, August 10, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: New Cambodian cabinet to feature children of the powerful


(Reuters) - Outgoing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has unveiled a list of people expected to feature in a new cabinet, including several sons and daughters of close allies and serving ministers.

Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for nearly four decades, is in the process of handing over power to his son, Hun Manet, after their Cambodian People's Party swept an election last month from which the main opposition was barred.

The 71-year-old on Thursday nominated about 50 people for his son's cabinet, many of whom are directly related to ministers and senior officials in his administration.

Hun Sen did not specify what positions they would hold. The rubber-stamp parliament is set to approve the new prime minister and cabinet on Aug. 22.

Among those expected to be in the new cabinet are Cham Nimul, daughter of industry minister Cham Prasidh, Sar Sokha, son of interior minister Sar Kheng and Tea Seiha, son of defence minister Tea Banh.

While giving up the job of prime minister, Hun Sen looks set to remain engaged with government.

He has said he will become head of the upper house Senate, meaning he will be acting head of state when the king is away, and he will lead the ruling party.

He also recently said he would step back into the prime minister's job if his son did not perform well.

Western-educated Hun Manet, 45, has said little about his vision for Cambodia, which, under his father's rule, developed into what the World Bank calls a lower middle-income country but at the cost of what critics say has been the trampling of human rights.

Hun Sen's government has rejected accusations of rights abuses as well as of corruption and nepotism.

This week, Hun Sen announced that Khuon Sodary had been designated as president of the National Assembly, the first woman to hold the position.

(Reporting by Reuters staff; writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; editing by Robert Birsel)

OPINION
OPINION,
Opinions|Politics
Hun Sen has been terrible for Cambodia. His son could be worse

Cambodians continue to fight for democracy, as a new generation of the elite – inexperienced and entitled – takes over. The world needs to stand up, too.

Mu Sochua
Published On 11 Aug 2023

Hun Manet, son of Cambodia's outgoing Prime Minister Hun Sen, is poised to take over from his father. Here, he stands before he leads a procession to mark the end of an election campaign of Cambodian People's Party, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, July 21, 2023 [Heng Sinith/AP Photo]


Last month’s elections in Cambodia should have dispelled any illusion that democracy – for long under attack – is even alive in the country.

The campaign, and subsequent ballot, was a tightly-controlled and stage-managed process, which deprived the country’s 9.7 million registered voters of a political alternative. It was mere theatre, and the result was entirely predictable.

Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won their preordained landslide in a contest in which they faced no credible opposition. The election was about paving the way for a handover of power from Hun Sen to his son, Hun Manet, and entrenching a dictatorship that has ruled the country for 38 years.

Even before the polling booths closed on July 23, it was a foregone conclusion that Hun Sen’s CPP would romp to ‘victory’. And, so it was, with the CPP taking 120 of 125 available seats in Cambodia’s National Assembly.

Suppression was rife. Voters who dared to damage or destroy their ballots as a sign of protest faced the prospect of jail time or having to pay a hefty fine. And independent media were muzzled against speaking out on Hun Sen.

I, and dozens of other exiled political opponents, exemplify the outcomes of those that choose to participate in Cambodia’s increasingly Soviet-style interpretation of democracy.

My former party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, won over 43 percent of the vote in the 2013, 2015 and 2017 elections, despite open corruption and interference by Hun Sen and his government. Our presence, and growing competition with the incumbent administration, would be healthy in any other democratic country. However, for Hun Sen, we posed too much of a risk – and, like others in my country’s dark history, we were dissolved for allegedly orchestrating a ‘foreign coup’ against the government.

This time, a similar fate befell Candlelight, a new opposition party, which was on course to defeat Hun Sen’s CPP until its abrupt disqualification in May 2023. The party was barred from fielding candidates because it “submitted a photocopied document rather than an original copy”, as part of its application, and Candlelight’s members and activists were subsequently targeted and incarcerated by government forces.

And yet, still, even against this backdrop, peaceful opposition found a way to manifest. National counts show that upwards of half a million Cambodians spoiled their ballots, despite threats of fines or arrest. This accounts for one in 18 votes cast at the elections, and, together with the consistent birth of new opposition forces, suggests that the will for a democratic alternative to the CPP will not be suffocated, irrespective of government corruption and intimidation.

It also, arguably more than ever, shows the need for the international community – and in particular, democratic leaders in the West – to call out the abuses of the Hun Sen administration and to enact punitive measures against him and his son, Hun Manet.

This cannot come soon enough. For, as part of the ongoing succession plan, we are now witnessing a solidification of the Cambodian elite into key positions of influence. Beyond the handover of the premiership to Hun Manet, which will take place later this summer, many ministries are now being stuffed with woefully inexperienced children of party loyalists, who will continue the legacy of their parents.

This sad reality has already been evidenced in the appointment of Say Sam Al as minister for the environment – a figure, who, despite showing some initial interest in working together with young environmentalists, quickly gave way to the ruling tradition of arresting and imprisoning those who seek to defend the natural world.

Other appointees, including the new minister of defence, Tea Seiha – son of the current minister of defence, Tea Banh – and Minister of the Interior, Sar Sokha, also seem grossly inappropriate. The latter, in particular, seems to share Hun Manet and Tea Seiha’s lack of grounding for office, raising concerns that he will not be able to prevent the increasing power of the Chinese mafia and their roles in human trafficking and other crimes against ordinary Cambodians.

These machinations are playing out at the same time as many young people leave for opportunities abroad, or risk imprisonment for trying to protect those that are most vulnerable in society.

The international community has a historic and binding responsibility when it comes to Cambodia. Many of its members were signatories to a commitment, when there were first free and fair elections in June 1993, that sought to underpin democracy in Cambodia. They have a responsibility, under the Paris Peace Accords, to defend human rights and to call out the continuing abuses of the CPP.

They must make it clear, both to Hun Manet and others who take power with him, that the international community insists on positive democratic change in Cambodia, starting with the release of all political prisoners and amnesty for all exiles who wish to return to their country of birth.

The new leadership must not seek to divide the population, as their parents have done, or silence their opponents. And, in the case of Hun Manet, there must be a demand that he is a legitimate ruler.

The Cambodian people are hungry for democracy, for quality healthcare and education, for freedom, and for three meals a day. The international community has an obligation to respond, demand change, and, if required, coordinate visa and asset sanctions against those of the CPP who want to destroy the democratic future of my country.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance

Mu Sochua
Former member of parliament, Cambodia, and vice president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party
Mu Sochua was previously a member of the Cambodian parliament and vice president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party. She is a former minister of women's and veterans' affairs. She is lives in exile in the United States.