Yara debuts world's first autonomous electric container ship




Yara debuts world's first autonomous electric container shipYara Birkeland, the world's first fully electric and autonomous container vessel, is moored in Oslo

Victoria Klesty
Fri, November 19, 2021

OSLO (Reuters) - The world's first fully electric and self-steering container ship, owned by fertiliser maker Yara, is preparing to navigate Norway's southern coast and play its part in the country's plans to clean-up its industry.

The Yara Birkeland, an 80-metre-long (87 yards) so-called feeder, is set to replace lorry haulage between Yara's plant in Porsgrunn in southern Norway and its export port in Brevik, about 14 km (8.7 miles) away by road, starting next year.

It will cut 1,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year, equivalent to 40,000 diesel-powered journeys by road, and is expected to be fully autonomous in two years.

For Yara it means reducing CO2 emissions at its plant in Porsgrunn, one of Norway's single largest sources of CO2 https://www.reuters.com/article/yara-esg-idUSKBN28H1FM, Chief Executive Svein Tore Holsether said.

"Now we have taken this technological leap to show it is possible, and I'm thinking there are so many routes in the world where it is possible to implement the same type of ship," he told Reuters.

Built by Vard Norway, Kongsberg provided key technology including the sensors and integration required for remote and autonomous operations.

"This isn't about replacing the sailors, it's replacing the truck drivers," Yara's Jostein Braaten, project manager for the ship, said at the ship's bridge, which will be removed when the vessel is running at full automation.

Yara debuts world's first autonomous electric container ship

The ship will load and offload its cargo, recharge its batteries and also navigate without human involvement.

Sensors will be able to quickly detect and understand objects like kayaks in the water so the ship can decide what action to take to avoid hitting anything, Braaten said.

The system should be an improvement over having a manual system, he added.

"We've taken away the human element, which today is also the cause of many of the accidents we see," Braaten said.

The ship, which will do two journeys per week to start with, has capacity to ship 120 20-foot containers of fertiliser at a time.

It is powered by batteries provided by Swiss Leclanche packing 7 megawatt hours over eight battery rooms, the equivalent of 100 Tesla cars, Braaten said.

(Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

40% of America’s trucking capacity is left on the table every day, MIT expert tells Congress

Nov. 18, 2021 at 8:59 a.m. ETFirst Published: Nov. 17, 2021 at 4:17 p.m. ET

By Victor Reklaitis

Testimony at Capitol Hill hearing comes as new infrastructure law delivers apprenticeship program and other provisions for trucking industry


A driver fuels up his big rig at a truck stop in Springville, Utah, on Nov. 5. 

GETTY IMAGES

American long-haul truck drivers are “seriously underutilized,” and the problem comes from the scheduling practices of shippers and receivers, an expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.

“This chronic underutilization problem does not seem to be a function of what the drivers themselves do or don’t do, but rather an unfortunate consequence of our conventions for scheduling and processing the pickup and delivery appointments,” said David Correll, a research scientist at MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, as he testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Long-haul, full-truckload drivers spend an average of 6.5 hours every workday driving ,even though federal safety regulations let them drive for 11 hours a day, Correll said.

“This, of course, implies that 40% of America’s trucking capacity is left on the table every day. This is, of course, especially troubling during times of perceived shortage and crisis, like we find ourselves now,” he told the House panel. Adding just 18 minutes of driving time to every existing truck driver’s day “could be enough to overcome what many of us feel is a driver shortage,” the MIT expert said.

Americans are dealing with a range of shortages and inflation as the U.S. economy snaps back from shutdowns tied to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. One main weak link in supply chains right now is the trucking industry, as MarketWatch has reported.

See: How trucking became the weak link in America’s supply chain

“Our existing warehouses and distribution centers do show the capacity to get trucks loaded and unloaded relatively quickly, but they do so only from around 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays, which represents one-third or less of every working day.” Correll said. “I submit to this committee that America’s current supply-chain problems are simply too big to commit only one-third of our weekdays to our best efforts at unclogging them.”

The $1 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into law on Monday features provisions aimed at truckers, such as an apprenticeship pilot program that opens the door to drivers aged 18 to 20 . That program comes from compromises after a trade group representing drivers — the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, or OIIDA — opposed fully opening up licensing to teen drivers.

The American Trucking Associations, or ATA, which lobbies for carriers and other players in the trucking industry, praised the apprenticeship program on Wednesday.

“Apprenticeships that train younger talent to safely and responsibly operate this equipment will help thanks to the language from the bipartisan Drive Safe Act included in the IIJA, but we need to do more,” said Chris Spear, the ATA’s CEO and president, as he testified before the House panel.

The ATA has said there is a shortage of truck drivers, with 80,000 needed at the moment, and Spear said his trade group’s “annually reported numbers are sound and accurate.” The OOIDA has said there isn’t a shortage, maintaining the problem is retaining drivers, as many people don’t find the compensation sufficient for the long hours and weeks away from home.

Other provisions in the infrastructure PAVE, -0.31% law aimed at truckers include the establishment of an advisory board that would encourage women to pursue trucking careers, as well as a requirement for automatic emergency braking systems for new trucks in two years. But the OOIDA has criticized the measure for not funding projects for truck parking, saying that’s the “biggest safety need” for truckers.


This report was first published on Nov. 17, 2021.

John Deere employees’ new contract changes production incentives. Here’s how it works



Bill Steiden, Des Moines Register
Thu, November 18, 2021, 2:55 PM·4 min read

The main change in the contract with Deere & Co. that UAW members approved Wednesday was to elements of the company's production incentive program.

The company divides many of its production workers into teams and offers extra payment if a group exceeds stated goals, such as for the number of tractors it makes in a week. If a team exceeds the goal by 15%, the members get a 15% pay bump on their weekly check.

If the team exceeds the goal by more than 15%, the company still only pays them an extra 15% for that week. In those cases, the company sets aside more money for the workers but it only pays it out to them every 13 weeks.

More: John Deere employees approve third contract proposal, ending their five-week long strike

For example, if a team member normally makes $1,000 a week and the group exceeded its production goal by 20% in a given week, the company will pay the worker $1,150 — 15% more than the employee's base earnings.

At the same time, the company takes another $50 for each worker — the extra 5% they didn't receive for that week — and puts it into the fund. After 13 weeks, or once a quarter, the company divides whatever amount is in that fund among all the team members.
New incentive system will pay off more often

Under the new contract, the company said it will increase the amount it pays each week to 20% above the production target. That means a worker earning $1,000 a week will get $1,200 on a check instead of $1,150. Broadly speaking, the change speeds up when workers receive the extra money.

Managers also promised not to hike production targets as aggressively as they have in the past.

Previously, if a team averaged 20% above its target for six months, the company would change the goal. Either managers told workers to produce more goods every week, or they reduced the size of the team yet expected them to produce at the same rate.

The increased targets are supposed to make the company more efficient. But raising the bar also means weekly pay drops even if workers perform as well as they did before.

Abe Elam, a worker at Deere's Ottumwa Works and the sergeant-at-arms at United Auto Workers Local 74, said workers have long complained about how the company manages the program. Even when teams struggle to keep up with targets, he said, managers move some of the workers to other tasks, leaving the rest of team on the hook to meet the goal with fewer members.

More: Timeline shows key dates in the John Deere strike

Elam said those employees were set up to fail. And yet, he said, managers didn't listen. To have their concerns heard, the workers had to file grievances with the union, setting off a legal process with a mediator that could take years.

"You basically didn't know what you would get paid from week to week and year to year," Elam said. "... A lot of times, (managers) just say, 'It's the worker being lazy, not wanting to produce.' Well, that's not the case. All 7,000 (incentive-based) employees are lazy, right? That's ludicrous.

"It's because of a lack of parts. it's because of a lack of manpower. It's because of the standards that they gave us."

Under the new agreement, the company said it will task specific managers with investigating why some teams aren't hitting their targets. Union leaders hope managers will make changes to support those groups.

Diana Swartz, an assembler on the sprayer line at the John Deere Des Moines Works in Ankeny, said she voted for the contract because of its 10% wage raise, but that she hopes the changes to the incentive program work.

Previously: Head of largest U.S. labor group tells striking John Deere workers: 'The nation is watching'

She said members of her team have become frustrated this year because Deere has struggled to get parts from suppliers. Even though workers continue to do their jobs, she said, her team's goal of making 22 sprayers a day has been impossible since this summer. On their best days, they made 16.

"Our (incentive program) was so bad," she said. "It just gets strung along. Nothing's done about it."

COP26: The truth behind the new climate change denial


Rachel Schraer & Kayleen Devlin - BBC Reality Check
Wed, November 17, 2021

the sun

As world leaders met at the COP26 summit to debate how to tackle climate change, misleading claims and falsehoods about the climate spiralled on social media.

Scientists say climate change denial is now more likely to focus on the causes and effects of warming, or how to tackle it, than to outright deny it exists.

The 'd-words' v the planet


We've looked at some of the most viral claims of the past year, and what the evidence really says.
The claim: A 'Grand Solar Minimum' will halt global warming

People have long claimed, incorrectly, that the past century's temperature changes are just part of the Earth's natural cycle, rather than the result of human behaviour.

facebook post marked false which says: Exactly! Not global warming. It's all natural climate change not man made at all. That was to get the rich more money and it did. We are headed right back to where we started and just have to adapt. We have to learn from our experiences of these events. We have to be prepared not scared. I've learn so much this week from these two major snow storms we got and that brutal cold air. I learned that I'm not even prepared so now I must prepare because it's going to get worse and we can't rely on the government. Just ask Texas. We must adapt and be ready. The post links to an article about the Grand Solar MinimumMore

In recent months, we've seen a new version of this argument.

Thousands of posts on social media, reaching hundreds of thousands of people over the past year, claim a "Grand Solar Minimum" will lead to a natural fall in temperatures, without human intervention.

But this is not what the evidence shows.

A grand solar minimum is a real phenomenon when the Sun gives off less energy as part of its natural cycle.

Studies suggest the Sun may well go through a weaker phase sometime this century, but that this would lead, at most, to a temporary 0.1 - 0.2C cooling of the planet.

That's not nearly enough to offset human activity, which has already warmed the planet by about 1.2C over the past 200 years and will continue to rise, possibly topping 2.4C by the end of the century.

A simple guide to climate change

We know recent temperature rises weren't caused by the changes in the Sun's natural cycle because the layer of atmosphere nearest the earth is warming, while the layer of atmosphere closest to the Sun - the stratosphere - is cooling.

Heat which would normally be released into the stratosphere is being trapped by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from people burning fuel.

If temperature changes on Earth were being caused by the Sun, we would expect the whole atmosphere to warm (or cool) at the same time.
The claim: Global warming is good

Various posts circulating online claim global warming will make parts of the earth more habitable, and that cold kills more people than heat does.

These arguments often cherry-pick favourable facts while ignoring any that contradict them.

For example, it's true that some inhospitably cold parts of the world could become easier to live in for a time.

But in these same places warming could also lead to extreme rainfall, affecting living conditions and the ability to grow crops,

At the same time, other parts of the world would become uninhabitable as a result of temperature increases and rising sea levels, like the world's lowest-lying country, the Maldives.

We face climate extinction, at-risk nations say

There may be fewer cold-related deaths. According to a study published in the Lancet, between 2000 and 2019, more people died as a result of cold weather than hot.

However, a rise in heat-related deaths is expected to cancel out any lives saved.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says overall, "climate-related risks to health [and] livelihoods...are projected to increase with global warming of 1.5 degrees". Any small local benefits from fewer cold days are expected to be outweighed by the risks of more frequent spells of extreme heat.
The claim: Climate change action will make people poorer

A common claim made by those against efforts to tackle climate change is that fossil fuels have been essential to driving economic growth.

So limiting their use, the argument goes, will inevitably stunt this growth and increase the cost of living, hurting the poorest.

facebook post marked 'needs more context': Don't let Morrison's spin fool you, the Liberal/National climate change con means a world of hurt for everyday Aussies and comes loaded with crippling costs. Writing in the Spectator, Alan Moran does an excellent job exposing just why Morrison's climate change cuts will destroy jobs, raise the cost of living and cripple businesses. He writes, "Scott Morrison is heading off to lead Australia's team at the Glasgow climate change meeting. He goes with a formula that will continue the nation's shuffling towards diminished income levels from the politically motivated sabotage of the economy."More

But this isn't the whole picture.

Fossil fuels have powered vehicles, factories and technology, allowing humans over the past century to make things at a scale and speed which would previously have been impossible. This enabled people to make, sell and buy more things, and become richer.

But stopping using coal doesn't mean returning to the days of ox-drawn carts and hand-cranked machines - we now have other technologies that can do a similar job.

In many places, renewable electricity - powered by wind or solar energy for example - is now cheaper than electricity powered by coal, oil or gas.

On the other hand, studies predict that if we don't act on climate change by 2050, the global economy could shrink by 18% because of the damage caused by natural disasters and extreme temperatures to buildings, lives, businesses and food supplies.

Such damage would hit the world's poorest the hardest.
The claim: Renewable energy is dangerously unreliable

Misleading posts claiming renewable energy failures led to blackouts went viral earlier in the year, when a massive electricity grid failure left millions of Texans in the dark and cold.

These posts, which were taken up by a number of conservative media outlets in the US, wrongly blamed the blackout on wind turbines.


Are frozen wind turbines to blame for Texas power failures?

"Blackouts are an artefact of poor electricity generation and distribution management," says John Gluyas, executive director of the Durham Energy Institute.

facebook post marked 'misleading': The Reconciliation bill is the Green New Deal & that's how we should refer to it. It's climate scam socialist programs, green energy that won't keep the lights & heat on, and CCP supplied EV batteries. It's America-last & will hurt the poor the most & make everyone more poor.

He says the claim that renewable energy causes blackouts is "nonsensical.... Venezuela has oodles of oil and frequent blackouts".

According to Jennie King from the think tank ISD Global, this discrediting of renewable energies is a "key line of attack for those keen to preserve reliance on, and subsidies for, oil and gas".

Is Putin right about wind turbines and birds?

Critics of renewable energy schemes also claim the technology kills birds and bats, ignoring the studies that estimate that fossil fuel-powered plants kill many times more animals.

There's no doubt some wildlife, including birds, are killed by wind turbines.

But according to the LSE's Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment: "The benefits for wildlife of mitigating climate change are considered by conservation charities... to outweigh the risks, provided that the right planning safeguards are put in place, including careful site selection."

EU plans to ban food imports from deforested areas


Deforestation in regions like the Amazon has Europeans worried (AFP/CARL DE SOUZA)


Wed, November 17, 2021

The EU plans to bar food and wood imports from deforested areas, according to a proposal unveiled Wednesday aimed at using its trade power to drive sustainability.

The draft law, which Brussels wants to turn into binding rules for all 27 European Union nations, would require companies show their soy, beef, palm oil, cocoa, coffee and wood products are certified "deforestation-free".

It follows an international pledge made at the COP26 summit last week to end deforestation by 2030.

"This proposal is a truly ground-breaking one," the EU commissioner for climate action policy, Virginijus Sinkevicius, told a media conference.

"It targets not just illegal deforestation but also deforestation driven by agricultural expansion," he said.

Under the EU plan, two criteria would have to be met: that the commodities are produced in accordance with the origin country's laws; and that they were not produced on land deforested or degraded since the beginning of 2021.

Imports from higher-risk countries would be subject to tighter checks.

The European Commission did not say when it hoped to have the new legislation adopted.

The rules could impact countries such as Brazil, where European disquiet at razing of the Amazon rainforest by cattle farmers is holding up implementation of an EU-Mercosur trade deal.

Clearing of the Amazon hit a new record last month, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.

The environmental protection group WWF says the huge EU market is responsible for 16 percent of global deforestation linked to international trade.

It and other NGOs welcome the EU plan as a first step, but say it does not go far enough. Greenpeace says it does not address deforestation from other commodities such as rubber and maize, or from pig and poultry farming.

- Waste and soil -

Other sustainability proposals presented alongside the anti-deforestation rules were on waste management and improving the health of soils.

"These initiatives show that the European Union is serious about the green transition and just keeps moving forward with it," said the Commission vice president in charge of overseeing the EU's Green Deal, Frans Timmermans.

On waste, the Commission wants to see "circular economy" principles attached to the way it sends abroad its millions of tonnes of discarded metals, cardboard, plastic, textiles and other detritus.

Waste exports to non-OECD countries would be restricted and allowed only if those destinations agree and were able to handle them sustainably. Currently the two top destinations for EU waste in that category are Turkey and India.

Shipments to OECD countries would be monitored and suspended if grave environmental problems arose. Those destinations include Britain, Switzerland and Norway.

The soil strategy aims for a mix of voluntary and mandatory measures to increase soil carbon in farmland and fight desertification, to get soil ecosystems healthy by 2050.

rmb-jug/del/tgb

EU pitches new plan to battle global deforestation from home


Deforested mountains from massive limestone quarries are seen in Ipoh, Perak state Malaysia, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. Deforestation affects the people and animals where trees are cut, as well as the wider world and in terms of climate change, and cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide. World leaders are gathered in Scotland at a United Nations climate summit, known as COP26, to push nations to ratchet up their efforts to curb climate change.

 (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

RAF CASERT
Wed, November 17, 2021

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Wednesday pitched a new plan for the bloc's citizens to battle global deforestation from home, offering assurances that a sip of coffee or bite of chocolate will not have come at the cost of trees.

Following up on deforestation commitments made at the recent COP26 climate meeting on global warming, the 27-nation EU is proposing that companies must ensure that products for sale in the market of 450 million people do not harm forests elsewhere.

“We must take the responsibility to act at home,” EU Vice President Frans Timmermans said.

If approved by EU member states and the European Parliament, the Commission's proposal would force companies and producers to give assurances that products are “deforestation-free.”

Deforestation in South America, Africa and Asia is driven mainly by agricultural expansion. The key commodities the EU is targeting are soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee.

To compel company compliance, businesses would need to collect geographical coordinates from where the commodities were grown and make sure they did not impact deforestation. They would also need to perform due diligence to make sure everything meets EU standards.

Deforested mountains from massive limestone quarries are seen in Ipoh, Perak state Malaysia, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. Deforestation affects the people and animals where trees are cut, as well as the wider world and in terms of climate change, and cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide. World leaders are gathered in Scotland at a United Nations climate summit, known as COP26, to push nations to ratchet up their efforts to curb climate change. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

The EU hopes that with the scheme it can save some 3.2 billion euros ($3.6 billion) annually in carbon emissions.

“Our deforestation regulation answers (the) citizens' call to minimize the European contribution to deforestation and to promote sustainable consumption," Timmermans said.

“It ensures that we only import these products if we can ascertain that they are deforestation-free and produced legally,” he said.

At COP26, over 100 nations representing more than 85% of the world’s forests pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. Among them were several countries with massive forests, including Brazil, China, Colombia, Congo, Indonesia, Russia and the United States.

Environmental groups cautiously welcomed the plan, even though they said the proposals still contained far too many loopholes.

“For the first time there is a glimmer of hope that the EU – one of the world’s biggest markets – could curb its destructive impact on the world’s forests," Greenpeace campaigner Sini Eräjää said .

“EU governments and the European Parliament must tighten up the law so people can be sure that what’s in their shopping basket isn’t linked to the destruction of nature,” Eräjää added.

___

Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

ZIONIST INTIMIDATION

Video: Palestinian kids lined up for photo in Israeli raid


TIA GOLDENBERG
Thu, November 18, 2021, 

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A video has emerged showing an Israeli soldier lining up school-aged Palestinian children and photographing them in a nighttime raid on their home. The video shines a light on the military's tactics in the occupied West Bank, which activists say violate Palestinian rights.

The video was released Wednesday by the Israeli rights group B'tselem and shows soldiers in a Palestinian home after dark. The Palestinian adults are seen gathering up the children from the home — some of them appearing to have been roused from sleep — and ushering them onto a balcony. A girl is seen crying, and a woman comforts her by saying “it's just routine.”

The soldier raises his phone to take a picture of the children — many of them grade-schoolers and younger — and implores them to “say cheese.”

The incident caught on camera, which according to B'tselem and the military took place in the West Bank city of Hebron in September, was filmed by a B'tselem activist. She is heard challenging the soldier: “They are kids. You like when soldiers come and take pictures of your kids?”

The video comes after a recent report by former Israeli soldiers and the Washington Post described an effort by Israeli soldiers to gather photos of Palestinians in the West Bank for use in surveillance technology that could assist the military to identify lawbreakers. Critics say the initiative is an intimidation tactic and violates privacy rights of Palestinians.

“It seems that for the military, all Palestinians, including school-age children, are potential offenders. At any time, it is permissible to wake them up at night, enter their homes and subject them to a lineup,” B'tselem wrote in a statement.

The military said the soldiers arrived at the house in Hebron after Palestinians were seen throwing stones from it at a nearby settlement. The soldiers entered the home to identify the stone throwers, according to the military.

“While the soldiers were in the suspects’ home, minors were photographed by the officer at the scene in order to identify the stone throwers. The officers’ actions at the scene diverted from standard protocol,” the military said, adding that a soldier was “reprimanded for his wrongful actions.”

The military's statement did not explain why the minors needed to be photographed in order to be identified nor which action diverted from protocol. The military declined to answer further questions, including about the surveillance technology mentioned in the Washington Post report.

A post on the Israeli military's website from June, which refers to the surveillance technology in passing, says it was working to increase soldiers' use of technology in the West Bank to help apprehend Palestinian outlaws.

“We have advanced technology, smart cameras with sophisticated analytics, sensors, which can alert in real time about a suspicious activity and the movement of a suspect,” battalion commander Uriel Malka is quoted as saying. “The goal was that all combatants and commanders in the field will know how to operate these systems in the best way.

In another development, international rights group Amnesty International accused a British heavy machinery company of allowing its diggers and excavators to end up in the hands of clients who use them to demolish Palestinian homes and construct settlements in the West Bank.

The group said J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited's equipment is sold to an Israeli intermediary, who then sells it onward to customers that include the Israeli Defense Ministry. Amnesty said use of a middleman doesn't absolve it of ensuring its equipment is not used to violate human rights.

“JCB’s failure to conduct proper human rights due diligence on the end use of its products represents a failure to respect human rights,” the group said in its Thursday report.

The company is among more than 100 businesses listed in a U.N. database of companies that operate in Israel’s West Bank settlements. The company could not immediately be reached for comment on the Amnesty report.

The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements, built on occupied land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state, to be illegal. Israel rejects such claims, citing the land’s strategic and religious significance, and says the matter should be resolved in negotiations.

Also on Thursday, one of the five Palestinian hunger strikers protesting against Israel’s controversial policy of being detained without charge ended his strike after reaching a deal with Israeli authorities, said a prisoner rights group.

According to a statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents former and current prisoners, Alaa al-Araj ended his 103-day hunger strike after Israeli authorities agreed to his immediate release from so-called “administrative detention.”

Rights organizations say Israel’s policy of holding Palestinians without charge denies them the right to due process, while Israel says it is needed to protect sensitive intelligence that, if exposed, could compromise military sources.

Israel’s Shin Bet security agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel has been under increasing pressure to release the five prisoners who have been on hunger strike for months. Last week, Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and Gaza held demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners.

Hunger strikes are common among Palestinian prisoners and have helped secure concessions from Israeli authorities in recent years.

A sixth prisoner ended his 113-day hunger strike last week after Israeli authorities said he would be released from detention in three months time.

Cleaner for Israeli defense minister charged with espionage

Thu, November 18, 2021

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has charged the housekeeper for the country's defense minister with espionage for offering to spy for hackers reportedly linked to Iran, Israeli officials said Thursday.

The man, identified as Omri Goren, reportedly has a criminal record but worked at Defense Minister Benny Gantz's home as a cleaner and caretaker.

How he got close, personal access to an Israeli leader with security clearance remains something of a mystery, even to experts. The incident raised questions about how thoroughly such workers are vetted.

The Shin Bet security service, which announced the arrest, said it was reviewing its vetting procedures.

According to the security service and the indictment, Goren saw reports in the Israeli media about a hacker group called “Black Shadow." He looked up the group and used the Telegram app to contact one of its agents, presenting himself as someone who worked for Gantz. Goren demonstrated his access to the defense minister by sending photographs of various items in Gantz's home, including his computer.

The government said Goren, also identified in the indictment under the name Gorochovsky, discussed infecting Gantz's computer with malware but was arrested before any plans were carried out. He had no access to classified material, it said.

Goren’s public defender, Gal Wolf, was quoted in news reports as saying the suspect was desperate for money and had no intention of damaging national security.

Israeli media reported that Goren has been sentenced to prison on four occasions, including for armed robbery and breaking into homes. According to the reports, he did not undergo a security review before working for Gantz.

The incident drew attention on Thursday from Israel's robust cybersecurity industry, especially for the hackers' reported connection to the country's archrival, Iran. “Black Shadow” is well-known in Israel for crashing widely-used web sites.

Experts said the group's activities appear to be an example of a state willing to use cyberterrorism to undermine feeling of safety among civilians living in a rival country.

The fact that Goren allegedly reached out to the hackers - and not the other way around - reflects to some extent the group's success at spreading word of their brand.

“I think they got more than what they hoped to,” said Lionel Sigal, who leads cyber threat intelligence at Israel-based CYE and is a veteran of the Defense Ministry. “People here know ‘Black Shadow.’ It's a common term here, now."

NATO'S UGLY STEP CHILD
After years of war, Libya's Benghazi a chaotic urban sprawl



After years of war, Libya's Benghazi a chaotic urban sprawlBenghazi was the epicentre of the 2011 revolt that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi, sparking years of lawless chaos in Libya (AFP/Abdullah DOMA)More

Thu, November 18, 2021, 9:05 PM·3 min read

Over a decade of war in Libya the second city Benghazi has mushroomed to twice its size, creating an unplanned and chaotic urban sprawl.

The fighting has displaced countless families, forcing many to build new homes without permits in a jumble of unplanned neighbourhoods that often lack infrastructure, from proper roads to schools or sewerage systems.

As the oil-rich but poverty-stricken North African country tries to stabilise and rebuild, authorities are scrambling to address the legacy of years without urban planning.


"We had to leave our homes in the city centre because of the war," said one Benghazi resident, Jalal al-Gotrani, a health ministry employee in the northeastern coastal city.

"When the fighting stopped, we found our houses destroyed and uninhabitable. We couldn't afford to pay rent, so we had to build a little house in an unplanned neighbourhood."

Benghazi was the epicentre of the 2011 revolt that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi, sparking years of lawless chaos in Libya.

The city was the site of the 2012 jihadist attack that killed the US ambassador Christopher Stevens, and it saw more heavy fighting between 2014 and 2017 that pulverised large districts.

Gotrani, who supports a family with six children on a salary of just $130 a month, said that so far "there has been no state plan and no help to rebuild the areas that were destroyed".

- 'Stop building' -

As a result, entire informal neighbourhoods have sprung up in outlying areas zoned for farming, with no building permits and no masterplan.

"Stop building and contact the planning department!" reads a notice on the fence of one unauthorised building site on the outskirts of Benghazi.

The state faces a surge in unregulated building that "it can't keep up with", said Abu Bakr al-Ghawi, housing minister in Libya's unity government, which took power in March.

Municipal planning chief Osama al-Kazza warns the phenomenon is creating districts that lack roads, green spaces and schools and are unconnected to vital water and sewerage networks.

The eastern city has swelled from 32,000 hectares to 64,000 hectares since the last urban masterplan in 2009, largely due to unlicensed buildings which now make up half the city, he said.

"More than 50,000 housing units are outside the public plan" -- half of the city's buildings -- Kazza told AFP.

"Development is running ahead of planning."

After years of war, Libya's Benghazi a chaotic urban sprawlAn illegal construction project is pictured in Benghazi, where entire informal neighbourhoods have sprung up in outlying areas zoned for farming, with no building permits and no masterplan (AFP/Abdullah DOMA)

- Homeless again -

Libya's capital Tripoli, some 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) to the west, has also seen entire districts emerge without a single building permit, for similar reasons.

A year-long battle between eastern-based general Khalifa Haftar and Tripoli-based armed groups caused massive damage to the outskirts of the capital, displacing thousands and creating a housing crisis.

A year of relative peace since an October 2020 ceasefire, with UN-led efforts underway to bring a more permanent peace, has focused minds on the massive job of reconstruction.

Ghawi said the government is working with Libyan and foreign consultants to lay out a new nationwide urban development strategy, the third in the country's history.

The last one, in 2009, was never implemented because of the war and the years of lawlessness that followed the overthrow of Kadhafi.

But a scramble to enforce planning laws without providing alternative housing has had human consequences.

In recent weeks, authorities in Tripoli have demolished a string of structures built since Kadhafi's fall, including cafes and restaurants -- but also homes.

Yet by demolishing unlicensed buildings without providing their occupants with alternatives, authorities risk making some families, already displaced by war, homeless for a second time.

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Rare original copy of US constitution auctioned for $43 mn


The document is one of only 11 known surviving copies of the US charter

 (AFP/Yuki IWAMURA)


Thu, November 18, 2021,

An extremely rare original copy of the US Constitution sold Thursday for $43 million -- a world record for a historical document at auction -- with a cryptocurrency consortium that coveted the text outbid by another investor.

Sotheby's auction house, which staged the sale, said the item was one of only 13 known surviving copies of the US charter, signed on September 17, 1787 at Philadelphia's Independence Hall by America's founding fathers including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison.

The winning bidder was not immediately identified.

A group of cryptocurrency investors had raised $40 million to try to buy the document but failed to secure the prize, the consortium said.

"We didn't get the constitution, but we made history nonetheless" the group, ConstitutionDAO, said on Twitter.

"We broke the record for the largest crowdfund for a physical object and most money crowdfunded in 72h, which will of course be refunded to everyone who participated," it said.

A Sotheby's spokesman said the sale -- for $43.2 million including commissions -- was a world record for a historical document offered at auction.

Selby Kiffer, a manuscripts and ancient books expert at Sotheby's, said in September that this copy was probably part of an edition of 500 printed the day before the signing, and likely came off the printing presses on the evening of September 16 1787.

The text, with its celebrated opening of "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union," went on to be ratified by the individual states, starting with Delaware in December 1787 and ending with Rhode Island in May 1790.

It officially became the United States' founding charter on June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth of 13 states to ratify it.

The original copy sold Thursday -- one of just two still in private hands, in this case the US collector Dorothy Tapper Goldman -- was estimated last September at between $15 and $20 million.

- Gone in eight minutes -

In the end it went for more than twice that sum, and in just eight minutes as bidders in the New York auction room but also on the phone from around the globe upped their offers.

The cryptocurrency consortium that sought the rare document called itself ConstitutionDAO, the last three letters standing for "decentralized autonomous organization."

It had raised some $40 million in the cryptocurrency ethereum in recent days, but fell short at the auction. According to its Twitter account, it had more than 17,000 contributors.

Such groups have begun forming loose coalitions recently to raise funds to bid on expensive collectibles, including one group that pulled together $4 million for a rare Wu-Tang Clan album that had previously been owned by jailed hedge fund founder Martin Shkreli.

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Folkster Bongeziwe Mabandla sings South African blues


Bongeziwe Mabandla sings love songs in his home language, Xhosa, on his latest album (AFP/GUILLEM SARTORIO)

Claire DOYEN
Thu, November 18, 2021

Bongeziwe Mabandla cuts a striking figure: a muscular folk musician with his trousers rolled up above his ankles, there is still something of the little boy who grew up in the hills of South Africa.

Nominated for a South African Music Award in 2018, Mabandla has grown hugely popular in his home country and has performed at concerts and festivals overseas.

He cut his latest album during the height of the pandemic, drawing on the heritage of maskandi, the musical tradition of migrant workers.

During apartheid, trains crossed South Africa carrying workers in livestock cars to labour on the gold and coal mines.

Others walked miles to work sugar cane fields.

Men left their wives and children behind, and during their long absences they created a new genre of music.

They sang about their loneliness, their labour, and the travails of everyday life.

Thus was born the "Zulu blues".

In his thirties -- he refuses to reveal his exact age -- Mabandla performs with his guitar, alone on stage with a drummer.

On his latest album Iimini, or "The Days", he sings love songs in his home language, Xhosa, with all of its distinctive clicks.

"Xhosa language is very lyrical, very expressive," he told AFP. "It's a form of activism, keeping your culture, loving yourself."

Even those who don't speak the language can understand the emotions of what he's singing.

His voice conveys both the hurt and the jumbled feelings that love can engender.

"It really speaks about how love can change you," he said of the lead single "Zange", or "Never".

- "Humble" -

Born in a village in the south of the country, Mabandla burst onto the Afro-folk scene in 2012 with his debut album Umlilo.

He'd discovered the guitar as a child in the Eastern Cape, the vast southeastern province that's home to a rich tradition of music and literature.

"My childhood was very happy, I grew up with my mother. A normal, humble sort of growing up," he said. "I never thought I'd be a musician."

Like many others from rural South Africa, he left for the city in the early 2000s, hoping to make his way in Johannesburg, home to much of the country's recording industry.

He cites among his influences American artists Tracy Chapman and Lauryn Hill, as well as the Zulu singer Busi Mhlongo -- a pioneer of modern interpretations of the maskandi sound.

For Iimini, he decided to incorporate some sampling and electro elements.

So he tapped Mozambican producer Tiago Correia-Paulo, the former guitarist of South African hip hop group Tumi and the Volume, which enjoyed international success before breaking up.

The end result is well-paced, rhythmic sequences and RnB-style escalations that fill the room.

At a recent concert in Johannesburg, the crowd shouted out "Yebo!", a South African word of approval, as the crowd sang and danced in a concert hall that Covid had for too long left silent.

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