It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, June 07, 2024
40% of Germans in favor of recognizing Palestine as independent state : Survey
New representative survey also reveals majority of Germans support EU economic sanctions on Israel over its military offensive in Rafah
Anadolu staff |07.06.2024 -
Pro-Palestinian protesters, including students, carry banner saying ''Stop the genocide in Gaza'' as they gather to stage demonstration to show solidarity with Palestinians and condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza on May 31, 2024 in Berlin, Germany
BERLIN
More Germans are in favor than in opposition of recognizing Palestine as an independent state, a new survey revealed on Friday.
Some 40% of respondents said Germany should recognize Palestine as an independent state, while 27% said they were against such a move. About 33% indicated that they were not sure.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center left-liberal coalition government has repeatedly turned down calls for the recognition of Palestinian state, arguing that current conditions were not suitable to take such a step.
Last month, Spain, Norway and Ireland recognized a Palestinian state and urged other European states to follow their lead. This week Slovenia also recognized Palestinian statehood.
Potential EU sanctions on Israel
The representative survey by YouGov revealed that majority of Germans disapprove of Israel's military offensive in Gaza as it claimed too many civilian lives.
As many as 51% of Germans said they would support EU economic sanctions on Israel due to its military offensive in Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinian civilians were sheltering. Only 26% of Germans opposed such a move against the Israeli government.
The poll was conducted by YouGov between May 31 and June 5 among a nationally representative sample of 2,295 people.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack last Oct. 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Some 36,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah which began on May 6
GOSSIP
Furious George Clooney called White House to blast Biden for calling wife Amal's arrest warrant for Netanyahu 'outrageous'
7 June 2024,
George Clooney called top White House aide furious about Biden's dig on wife's work. Picture: Getty
By LBC
George Clooney reportedly called a senior White House aide to complain about US President Joe Biden’s criticism of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which Amal had signed off on
Amal Clooney, a prominent human rights lawyer, played a significant role in providing legal assistance with the arrest warrants sought by the ICC for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders accused of committing war crimes in Gaza.
Clooney was most upset by Biden’s claim that the warrants are ‘outrageous,’ according to the Washington Post, which first reported the news.
George Clooney was angry that Joe Biden called Amal Clooney's legal work 'outrageous.'. Picture: Getty
The actor was also concerned about legislation recently passed in the House of Representatives to sanction the ICC. He worried that sanctions would harm his wife and potentially lead to her being deported.
The bill is unlikely to become law, with Democrats calling the approach “overly broad” and the White House saying it is overreach.
The row comes as the Biden reelection campaign promotes a June fundraising event at which donors can meet Clooney, former President Barack Obama, and Julia Roberts.
George Clooney and President Biden met at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2022. Picture: Alamy
The campaign denied any concerns about Clooney cancelling the appearance and still plans to attend. The star has previously held fundraisers for Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama at his home in Los Angeles.
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, asked Amal to help review evidence of suspected war crimes.
Khan seeks to charge Netanyahu, Gallant, Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar and two other top Hamas leaders with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine,” she said in a statement after the warrants were announced.
The President is a strong defender of Israel and released a statement in response to the warrants saying:
“Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
Kenyan company becomes country’s first to 3D print prosthetic limbs
Kenyan cobbler, Stephen Ochieng’s life was changed forever following an accident a few years ago.
He was standing in a crowd of people at a packed station, all trying to board a train to get home after work when he fell under the train.
The damage to his legs was so severe they both had to be amputated.
Now, a new 3D printing company, Prothea Kenya, has helped him and other amputees to change their lives for the better.
"After suffering with a wheelchair in the slums, I met someone who introduced me to a prosthesis. Even though I got the previous one, it was very hectic in that after walking for a bit I would feel a lot of pain,” says Stephen.
Then, he was introduced to Prothea.
“When I went there, I found that their prostheses are very flexible, very affordable, they are cheap, they are very good," he says.
Cindy Cherotich also uses a prosthetic made by Prothea. The 24-year-old lost her leg in a motorcycle crash.
Still at high school at the time, the injury had a deep psychological impact, but says her prosthetic leg has helped her reclaim her independence.
Prothea is the first Kenyan company to successfully 3D printing prosthetic and was founded by Dr Nick Were so that people like Cindy and Stephen can have a better quality of life.
"Comparing between traditional way of making prosthesis and 3D printing, with 3D printing we have significant customisation based on the scanning of the patient's limb,” he says.
“This increases comfort for the patient. The second is the time it takes. With 3D printing we can have the prosthetic made within 24hrs," says Dr Were.
The cost benefits are also significant. Traditionally an above knee prosthesis would cost around $3,500, while a below knee one would go for around $1,600.
However, 3D printing has reduced the cost to $1,400 for the above knee prosthesis and $800 for the below knee one.
While 3D prosthesis save both money and time, Dr John Ondiege, the chief orthopedist at Kenyatta National Hospital, says they still have to learn to use it properly.
"The turnaround time is so much reduced. A patient can come and in less than two hours the patient is already being trained to walk. They are doing what we call gait training," he says.
Over the past year, Prothea has produced more than 100 pieces for amputees all over Kenya.
The World Health Organization estimates that around five million Africans live with some sort of limb amputation.news
JORO, JORO, JORO
Venomous flying spiders the size of a human hand are about to invade New York
Just a picture is enough to give you the heebie-jeebies (Picture: Getty Images)
Bad news for arachnophobes living in or planning to visit New York this summer.
Venomous Joro spiders are expected to invade the east coast of the US – and their spread will be hastened by their ability to fly.
The spider species, native to east Asia, first appeared in the US in about 2010 and are most commonly found in Georgia.
But in the years since they’ve continued to spread north, and they’re expected to reach the New York and New Jersey areas in the coming weeks, NJ Pest Control says.
They’ve already been spotted in Maryland, prompting warnings about a potential east coast invasion from pest experts in recent months.
It’s thought they arrived on cargo shipments from Japan. Horrifyingly, they can grow to the size of a human palm and use a unique technique called ‘ballooning’ which helps them fly as they’re carried by the wind.
The spiders can move quickly thanks to a technique called ‘ballooning’ (Picture: David Madison/Getty Images)
A study released earlier this year by the University of Georgia found Joro spiders in both traffic-dense and rural areas.
However, they only seem to use their venom against pests, and they’re not thought to be a significant threat to the local ecosystem.
José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist at Rutgers University, said the species is able to make its way across the southeast thanks to an adaptability to a wide range of habitats and the ability to travel large distances by ballooning.
‘They can also hitch a ride on cars, like a lot of other species of spiders,’ Ramírez-Garofalo told The Times.
‘The climate across the northeast is very much like their native range, so they will have no problem moving into virtually any area north of the southeastern US.
‘We should expect to see Joros soon, as early as this year, but when they do arrive they will be in such small numbers that chances are you won’t actually see them.
The species is set to arrive in New York this summer (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
‘There is more of a chance that you will see one of our native garden orb weavers, which are also large and look a lot like Joros.
‘There are already spiders here that look like them and occupy a similar role in the ecosystem, and adding a relatively small number of Joros likely will not have a major effect.
‘They pose no threat to humans, as their venom is not considered medically significant.’
There haven’t been any reports of Joro sightings in New York or New Jersey yet, but the Department of Agriculture is monitoring their spread.
World Oceans Day: Joint Statement by High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius
On 8 June, we celebrate the World Oceans Day. Oceans are vital for life on Earth, playing a crucial role in climate regulation, providing more oxygen than all forests combined and being paramount in addressing pressing global challenges, such as food security, energy and fast-tracking green transition.
Ocean temperatures, however, have never been higher and marine life is disappearing at an unprecedented pace, putting the world at risk. Our oceans, functioning as our planet’s greatest carbon sink, cannot wait for the reversal of dramatic developments, and neither can we.
The task ahead is now to reach the number of sixty ratifications of the Agreement for it to enter into force and we can proceed to its effective implementation. Our objective is to make this happen by the June 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in France.
The EU is taking action. Ocean sustainability is a priority of the EU’s green diplomacy. At the 9th Our Ocean Conference held in Greece, earlier this year, the EU made 40 new commitments for a safe, secure, clean, healthy and sustainably managed ocean adding up to some € 3.5 billion from various EU funds, the highest EU contribution since the start of the Our Ocean Conferences a decade ago. Our engagement remains rooted on the principles of dialogue, partnership and solidarity with our partners around the globe.
Looking ahead, strengthening the nexus between oceans and climate change remains a priority for the EU. The EU also seeks to expand the scope of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean and advocates for an ambitious outcome of the negotiations on an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.
Protecting our oceans is a shared responsibility and only the implementation of global solutions, such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the BBNJ Agreement, can contribute to this.
Climate change exacerbated marine heatwave
If only the water were a little warmer… Salcombe, South Devon. Image: Ollie Taylor/Shutterstock
A new study has revealed that the North Atlantic marine heatwave of 2023 was exacerbated by climate change
The UK is blessed with an exceptionally varied and beautiful coastline, which means that from seaside piers to tiny rocky coves and the long wind-whipped stretches of sand, there’s a beach for every mood in the UK. However, as beautiful as our beaches are, when it comes to a beach holiday there’s a problem. As anyone who has splashed into the British seas will have noticed, the water, even in high summer, can be a little bracing. Except that is, for last summer. With sea temperatures on the more sheltered beaches being several degrees warmer than average it meant that bathing was a pleasure rather than merely a feat of endurance.
The reason for those added degrees was a very strong marine heatwave created, as was widely reported at the time, by strong high-pressure systems in the North Atlantic and over the UK. Now though, new research has shown that while high-pressure weather conditions were the main driver behind the unusually high sea temperatures, warming due to climate change exacerbated the situation.
Like hurricanes, marine heatwaves are categorised from 1-5 with 5 being an extreme marine heatwave. In June 2023 some coastal waters in northwest Europe experienced sea-surface temperatures of up to 5°C higher than normal, which meant that they were classed as a category 5 marine heatwave. This was followed by another marine heatwave in September 2023 and, according to the UK Met Office, we are currently experiencing a category 1 (+1-2°C) marine heatwave with pockets of category 2 (+2-3°C). Moving towards the Norwegian part of the North Sea, it is reaching category 3/4 (>+4°C) in areas.
The study, led by UK Met Office scientists and a consortium of British and Irish institutions, including Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), showed that the UK experienced its longest-ever category 2 marine heatwave (16 days), with temperatures around the British Isles reaching a 16°C peak in June 2023 instead of the typical 13.5°C.
The study showed that the marine heatwave developed quickly due to high-pressure weather conditions, including reduced levels of cloud cover, strong sunshine, weak winds and tropical air. Additionally, the high-pressure dominant over the North Atlantic made for minimal swell activity which resulted in little mixing of warmer surface waters with colder deep-sea waters. This allowed the sea surface water to warm unusually quickly.
The study also found that the influence of the warmer sea water led to warmer land temperatures than average, and heavier rainfall through stronger, warmer and more moist sea breezes.
The authors of the report say that although the study shows climate change was not the direct driver, the warming trend for sea-surface temperatures over the last two decades exacerbated the scale of the marine heatwave, making it reach category 2 instead of 1. Worryingly, the authors also suggest that such high sea surface temperatures will become commonplace by the middle of the century without strong mitigation to slow the rise of greenhouse gas emissions.
Explained: Why US regulators want to investigate Nvidia, OpenAI and Microsoft
Action is the latest aggressive measure by President Joe Biden's administration against Big Tech companies
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, left, shakes hands with Microsoft chief technology officer Kevin Scott at a conference at Microsoft headquarters in May,
The US plans to open antitrust investigations against Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI over their increasing dominance and partnerships in the artificial intelligence sector.
The regulatory attempt to rein in the three high-flying technology companies is the latest aggressive measure by US President Joe Biden's administration against Big Tech's business practices.
The investigations will be split between two regulators, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The Justice Department will investigate Nvidia, while the Federal Trade Commission will probe Microsoft and OpenAI.
FTC chairwoman Lina Khan in January said the agency launched a “market inquiry” into companies such as Microsoft and OpenAI, as well as Amazon, Alphabet and Anthropic.
“At the FTC, the rapid development and deployment of AI is informing our efforts across the agency, as we work to promote fair competition and protect Americans from unfair or deceptive tactics,” she said at the FTC Tech Summit. “There is no AI exemption from the laws on the books, and we’re looking closely at the ways companies may be using their power to thwart fair competition or trick the public.”
The agency is scrutinising Microsoft's $650 million deal with Inflection AI, the Wall Street Journal reported.
As part of the deal, Inflection's AI model would be hosted on Microsoft's cloud platform and much of its team would join Microsoft's Copilot programme.
In 2019, Microsoft first announced an investment in OpenAI, maker of the popular AI tool ChatGPT. The company has since increased investments in OpenAI and partnered with the company on several levels, including using ChatGPT in its offerings such as GitHub Copilot, Designer, Teams and BingChat.
Microsoft has also not been shy about its partnership with chipmaker Nvidia, which has had an unprecedented, meteoric rise as its AI chip technology continues to be in strong demand.
The regulatory and legal remedies sought by the US ultimately revolve around concerns that the partnerships between the three companies could lead to less choice, and ultimately drive up prices due to a lack of competition.
Lina Khan of the Federal Trade Commission has not been shy with her criticisms of Big Tech. AFP
That notion, however, is not without scrutiny.
Alden Abbott, who served as the FTC's general counsel from 2018 to 2021, is cautious and somewhat critical of the recent regulatory attempts.
“I do not know the details of the antitrust investigations, but the antitrust enforcers should not take actions that will slow innovation in this space. Keep in mind that there is no big AI monopolist, and we are not talking about mergers among the big AI players,” he said.
“As a general matter, partnerships between AI innovators and large high-tech companies such as Microsoft and software/chips innovator Nvidia should be applauded,” he added.
Mr Abbott, who now works for the Mercatus Centre at George Mason University in Virginia, US, also reflected on the potential upside of technology company partnerships, saying that competition might actually be enhanced, rather than stifled.
“By bringing complementary technologies on board, the two large established companies [Microsoft and Nvidia] may be able to enhance their competition with the other big leading competitors in [the] AI space, including Google, Meta and IBM,” he added.
Microsoft, unlike Nvidia and OpenAI, is not new to US federal regulatory scrutiny.
In 1998, the technology giant, based in Redmond, Washington, found itself accused by the Justice Department of unfairly stifling competition from rival companies, in particular, Netscape, which at the time had a popular web-browser on both Windows and Macintosh computer platforms.
String of mysterious attacks across Europe opens new front in Russia’s war on the West
Joe Barnes Thu, June 6, 2024
Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said Russia may have been behind a fire at the Marywilska 44 shopping centre in Warsaw
- Dariusz Borowicz/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS
First, a warehouse in east London being used to supply aid to Ukraine burned down. Weeks later, an Ikea in Vilnius, Lithuania, mysteriously caught fire.
Swedish investigators were already looking into the possibility that several railway derailments could have been caused by a state-backed saboteur.
Then an inferno engulfed the largest shopping centre in Warsaw, Poland’s capital. It was Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, who began joining the dots to suggest the West was under attack by Russian espionage.
“We are examining the threads – they are quite likely – that the Russian services had something to do with the Marywilska fire,” he said last month.
His claims were further bolstered when a former Russian soldier was arrested north of Paris this week after explosives detonated in his hotel room.
Warnings from European intelligence agencies that Russia is plotting acts of sabotage on the Continent in its escalation of the stand-off with the Nato military alliance have been thrust into the limelight.
An intelligence assessment shared with Western governments claims that Russia’s notorious GRU military intelligence agency, known for its attacks on foreign soil using highly-trained agents, is now turning to criminal gangs to carry out attacks in Europe.
The Kremlin’s spy network was dealt a blow in the weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24 2022, when more than 600 of its intelligence officers in Europe with diplomatic cover were expelled.
Britain resorted to a similar tactic when James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, expelled Col Maxim Elovik, Moscow’s defence attache, after the allegedly Russia-linked arson attack on the east London warehouse that was being used by a business providing aid to Ukraine.
Four men will go on trial next year accused of setting fire to the commercial property, a court heard last month.
Lack of sophistication
Alexander Lord, lead Europe-Eurasia analyst at Sibylline, a geopolitical risk firm, said: “The capabilities these gangs can provide are pretty low-level, but they can still achieve Russian foreign policy objectives, namely, destabilising the West, deterring European decision-makers against supporting Ukraine and exacerbating polarisation and societal tensions across not only Nato but the European Union.”
The lack of sophistication is a particular worry for Western intelligence services, with the proxies now relied on by the Kremlin more likely to cause collateral damage because of their lack of skills with explosives.
A Western counter-intelligence officer told the Financial Times: “There is a greater chance of collateral damage and casualties as the proxies are not skilled in tradecraft, such as explosives.”
Their theory was displayed earlier this week when the former Russian soldier, from Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, was badly burned in an explosion on Tuesday in a hotel room in Roissy-en-France, near Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport.
Investigators confirmed they had discovered bomb-making materials, as Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, arrived in France to join commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
It is a trend tracked from the beginning of the year, with intelligence officers going “tick, tick, tick down a list of all of the things that have been identified as stuff that Russia would do in advance of a conflict to immobilise,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at the Chatham House think tank.
“And since then, that pattern has just got stronger,” he added.
Unexplained explosions
Despite the lack of sophistication in some of the alleged acts of sabotage, military facilities have also been targeted.
In Germany, two men were arrested for allegedly plotting to blow up a Nato site in the south of the country that is used by the West to support Ukraine.
The Russian-German dual citizens were arrested after they were caught carrying out what the interior ministry said was “surveillance” of the US military facility.
Poland arrested a man it said was suspected of helping Russian intelligence prepare an attack on Mr Zelensky. The country’s railways, which carry military aid east to Ukraine, have also been targeted.
A Western official said: “We are seeing sabotage continue as another ascent of Russia’s behaviour.”
These more advanced incidents will further raise questions over the unexplained explosions at a BAE Systems munitions factory in Wales, which supplies shells used in Ukraine, and at a similar facility owned by German arms firm Diehl.
Russian agents were blamed for a similar attack on a Czech arms depot in October 2014, where weapons destined for Kyiv were also being stored.
Mr Lord said: “If we start to ask ourselves why this is happening now, the discussions in Western capitals around ever-growing Western involvement in Ukraine, I think what the Russians are seeing is a potential mission creep threat for them.
“Over the last two-and-a-half years, we’ve seen previous ‘red lines’ being crossed, and the Russians haven’t done anything to respond to that.”
‘Intimidation’ attempts
Nato, which is vying for a greater role in the supply of weapons and munitions to Ukraine, has taken a greater interest in the alleged malign acts by Russian-backed agents.
Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s secretary-general, recently said: “I can say that we have seen increased Russian intelligence activity across the alliance. Therefore we have increased our vigilance.”
Top Nato officials have warned the alliance could be at war with Russia in the next two decades, with those timescales drastically shrinking, to as little as two years, in similar warnings from national governments.
The Dutch government has warned of Russian attempts to “intimidate” both Nato and EU countries.
Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch defence minister, recently told EU counterparts that electricity and water supplies, as well as undersea infrastructure, were particular weak spots.
Mr Giles said: “It’s something that everybody should be aware of because it is another example of Russian hostile activity that seeks to disrupt our countries and could be preparation for something more severe.”
It has also raised the question of whether the West is capable of handling malign threats from a hostile state, after so long focusing on counter-insurgency work in the Middle East.
Mr Lord said: “There are capability gaps in this regard. The focus on counter-terrorism post-9/11 was incredibly important, but the relatively benign international situation, aside from the terror threats, after the fall of the Soviet Union has led to an element of complacency that great power, competition and confrontation was a thing of the past.
“The invasion of Ukraine has radically upended that notion and Western intelligence agencies, police forces and militaries are now scrambling [to] plug capability gaps considering the severity of the state actor threat.”
Blast at Romanian DIY store injures at least 13 people
Four of the injured are said to be in a serious condition.
An explosion at a chain home improvement store in north-eastern Romania has injured at least 13 people, four seriously, authorities said.
A mobile intensive care unit was dispatched to the scene in the town of Botosani, in Suceava county, emergency authorities said.
Four of the injured are in serious condition, while 10 were conscious but suffered “various traumas and burns” and are receiving medical attention.
Emergency helicopters were alerted, and two ambulances and two fire trucks were sent to the scene to extinguish a blaze.
At least four people were seriously hurt (Romanian Emergency Services via AP)
A search and rescue mission is under way inside the store. It is not immediately clear what caused the blast, nor whether the injured were customers or staff members.
Two of the victims in serious condition will be transported to a hospital in the city of Iasi, about 68 miles to the south, while two will be airlifted to the capital, Bucharest, to receive faster medical care, according to the ministry of health.
Some of the injured suffered burns of 10-15% to the upper parts of their bodies, it said.
Video footage shared by the emergency authorities showed part of the building’s facade had been blown out by the explosion, with air-conditioning units strewn across the area in front of the store amid a blanket of debris.