DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION

Most of Paris metro inaccessible to disabled users, transport chief admits ahead of Paralympics

IT'S 2024 GET WITH THE PROGRAM

There is one day to go before the 2024 Paralympics get underway in Paris, but its public transport network is almost impossible for disabled people to use, regional transport chief Valérie Pécresse said on Monday. Only a quarter of all rail services were found to be wheelchair-friendly, though the city's metro system is particularly "weak".


Issued on: 27/08/2024 -

A disabled person is pictured on his wheelchair at the entrance of a metro station in Paris on February 19, 2013.

 © Kenzo Tribouillard, AFP

The head of the Paris regional transport network admitted Monday that the city's metro system is near-impossible for disabled people to navigate as the French capital prepares to host the Paralympics.

The Games start Wednesday, with a lack of accessible metro transport for disabled visitors a major gripe.

The first Paris metro opened in 1900 and the network has grown into the busiest system in the European Union, with more than 300 stations spread over 16 lines carrying over four million passengers daily.

But only 29 stops are wheelchair-accessible.

Read more‘Obstacle course’ for the disabled: Can Paris transport be made accessible in time for the Olympics?

The city's historic metro lines "remain the weak spot" in terms of accessibility, said Valérie Pécresse, who as president of the Paris region also runs its transport network.

She called for a massive effort to fix the problem.

While all buses running in central Paris can take wheelchairs, only 25 percent of rail services – metros, trams and the RER suburban mass transit system – were accessible, she said.

Most of the metro could be modernised in terms of accessibility, she told reporters, although it would take 20 years and cost between 15 and 20 billion euros ($16.7 to 22.3 billion) in investment.

Such an effort "could become the great project of this decade", she said, dubbing the idea"A Metro for All".


Paris's preparations for the Paralympics, which run to September 8, has highlighted the lack of accessible transportation in the French capital.

However, Pécresse said some solutions had been put in place for the Games, including around 100 minibuses to take disabled visitors to competition venues.

There would also be a smartphone app to help them prepare their journeys.

Authorities expect up to 300,000 daily visitors during the Paralympics, about half that of the Olympics.

(AFP)

 

‘Not political decision,’ Macron says of Telegram founder Durov’s arrest in France for child porn, drug trafficking, fraud

The Telegram logo is shown on a computer screen in this illustrative file photo.

 — Reuters pic

PARIS, Aug 27 — Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of messaging app Telegram, was arrested in France as part of an investigation into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform, French prosecutors said on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron, making the first official confirmation of Durov’s arrest since he was detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, said there was no political motive in the arrest, despite many false comments online. He added that France remains deeply committed to lawful free speech.

“The arrest of the Telegram president on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” Macron wrote on X. “This is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to decide.”

In a subsequent statement, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Durov was arrested as part of a probe into an unnamed person launched by the office’s cybercrime unit on July 8.

The investigation is over suspected complicity in various crimes including running an online platform that allows illicit transactions, child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud, as well as the refusal to communicate information to authorities, money laundering and providing cryptographic services to criminals, the statement said.

Durov can be held until Wednesday, it added.

Reuters was unable to reach any lawyer representing Durov.

Telegram is a popular messaging and social media app akin to WhatsApp. The encrypted application, with close to 1 billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Durov’s arrest prompted criticism from X owner Elon Musk who said that free speech in Europe was under attack, and calls from Moscow for French authorities to accord Durov his rights.

Tensions between France and Russia have been mounting for months, with French authorities accusing Russia of trying to destabilize it ahead of the Paris Olympics in response to its more hawkish stance on the Ukraine war — claims Russia denies.

Durov, a 39-year-old billionaire cast as “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg” has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship.

The UAE foreign ministry, in its first comment, said in a statement that it had submitted a request to France “to provide him with all the necessary consular services in an urgent manner”.

Estimated by Forbes to have a fortune of US$15.5 billion (RM67 billion), Durov said in April some governments had sought to pressure him, but the app should remain a neutral platform and not a “player in geopolitics”.

Telegram gave no details of the arrest but said the Dubai-based company abided by European Union laws and its moderation was “within industry standards and constantly improving”.

“Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” Telegram said in a statement. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

The Kremlin on Monday said it had yet to see any official French accusations against Durov.

“We do not yet know what exactly Durov is accused of,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing. “With what exactly are they trying to incriminate Durov? Without (knowing), it would probably be wrong to make any statements.”

The Russian embassy in Paris said on X that French authorities had declined to cooperate with its requests for consular access, but said it was in contact with Durov’s lawyer. The embassy did not respond to a request for comment.

Telegram was founded by Durov, a self-confessed libertarian who left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he has sold.

He obtained his French passport in 2021 through a rare, fast-track procedure for high-profile foreigners exempting them from the usual legal requirements, including having lived in the country for at least five years.

The French foreign ministry, which is in charge of the procedure, did not reply to a Reuters request for comment. The Elysee presidential office also declined to comment, deferring to the foreign ministry.

According to French law, any foreigner can be granted citizenship under the special rules provided he speaks French and “contributes through his outstanding work to France’s influence and the prosperity of its international economic relations.”

Durov never lived in France and it was unclear what special link he had to the country. On June 10, Durov posted in his Telegram channel: “As a French citizen, I agree that France is the best holiday destination.”

His naturalization procedure is rare, with only 10-20 cases processed each year and each one requiring high-level political support, local media have reported.

Evan Spiegel, the co-founder of Snap, the maker of the Snapchat app, received French citizenship in 2018 under the same programme, local media reported at the time. Snap did not respond to request for comment. — Reuters

 

India adds 14.9 GW of solar capacity in 1H 2024

 

 

Fields of solar panels / Unsplash - Andreas Gucklhorn

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By bno - Mumbai Office August 26, 2024

India added 14.9 GW of solar capacity in the first half of the calendar year 2024, marking a 282% y/y increase, according to Mercom India Research's latest Q2 2024 India Solar Market Update.

These installations surpassed all previous half-yearly and annual records. The commissioning of several previously delayed projects contributed significantly to the capacity additions in the first half of the year. Solar capacity added in Q2 2024 stood at 5 GW, up 170% y/y from 1.8 GW, though it represented a 49% q/q decline from 9.9 GW.

During the quarter, 4.3-GW of large-scale solar projects were commissioned, including nearly 1.8-GW of open-access projects.

The Andhra Pradesh Rural Agriculture Power Supply Company (APRAPSCOM) plans to draw 7 GW of solar power from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) is addressing concerns raised by state power distribution companies regarding the potential challenges in securing a complete waiver of inter-state transmission system charges for renewable energy suppliers.

A recent report by the University of California Berkeley's India Energy and Climate Center (IECC) stated that India will likely face significant evening power shortages, of anywhere between 20 GW and 40 GW, by 2027 due to rapid electricity demand growth, even if all the thermal and hydro capacity currently under construction comes online as planned.

The report highlights that large-scale deployment of solar plus storage is the most viable solution to address these potential shortages. Solar and storage systems can be implemented much more swiftly than new thermal or hydro plants. 

To mitigate shortages, India will need to add 100-120 GW of new solar capacity by 2027, with 50-100 GW of this solar capacity paired with 16-30 GW of storage to provide around four to six hours of backup power.

Between May 2019 and May 2024, India's peak electricity demand increased by a staggering 68 GW, from 182 GW to 250 GW, representing an annual growth rate of 6.5%, according to the report. In 2023 alone, demand grew by 7%, significantly outpacing the global average growth rate of 2.2%.

India’s electricity demand is projected to quadruple by 2047, necessitating a massive expansion of low-cost renewable energy and storage to reduce consumer bills and sustainably power rapid economic growth, the report stated.

 

Italian journalist in Venezuela charged with terrorism amid post-election crackdown

Carmela Longo's detention is the latest in a string of arrests of journalists and media workers following Venezuela's July 28 disputed election, which incumbent President Nicolas Maduro claims to have won amid widespread fraud allegations. / bne IntelliNews

By José G. Marquez in Buenos Aires August 26, 2024

Venezuelan authorities have detained veteran entertainment journalist Carmela Longo in the wake of the country's disputed July 28 elections, according to local press freedom groups.

Longo, an Italian national with 40 years' experience in journalism, was arrested at her home alongside her 19-year-old son late on August 25, the National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) reported.

The arrest came shortly after Longo announced on social media that she had been dismissed from the pro-government tabloid Últimas Noticias, where she had worked for nearly two decades, most recently as editor-in-chief of the entertainment section.

According to the SNTP, Longo was charged with “terrorism” and “inciting hatred” during a remote court hearing, while her son was released without charge. Police reportedly seized laptops and cell phones from her residence. She was eventually released on August 26 and ordered to serve her sentence under house arrest, barred from leaving the country or discussing her case publicly.

The SNTP states that 12 press workers have been detained by President Nicolás Maduro's government in 2024, with eight arrests following the July 28 vote.

Five days prior to Longo's arrest, journalist Ana Carolina Guaita of La Patilla was also detained, with no official information available regarding her whereabouts or the charges against her.

Venezuelan authorities have arrested at least nine journalists and expelled 14 others in connection with the contested election, according to media watchdogs and free expression groups.

The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) documented 79 press freedom violations between July 29 and August 4 alone, mostly linked to election coverage and protests, and the current tally is likely much higher.

The NGO Foro Penal reports nearly 1,700 arbitrary arrests in the wake of the protests, a figure corroborated by Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Can Lebanon’s battered economy survive a war between Israel and Hezbollah?

By — Kareem Chehayeb, Associated Press

Aug 26, 2024 


BEIRUT (AP) — The ferocious exchange of fire by Hezbollah and the Israeli military is raising fears of a regional war beyond the tense border.

The risks for Lebanon are far greater than in 2006, when a monthlong war with Israel ended in a draw. Lebanon has struggled with years of political and economic crises that left it indebted, without a stable electricity supply, a proper banking system and with rampant poverty.

And with Hezbollah’s military power significantly greater, there are concerns that a new war would be far more destructive and prolonged.

Can Lebanon afford any of it?

Planning for a 2006 war repeat — or worse

Since Hezbollah and Israel began firing rockets and drones at each other a day after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7, the conflict has been mostly limited to border towns. But with the threat of a wider war, Lebanon has scrambled to equip hospitals with supplies and prepare public schools to open up to people seeking shelter.

A rare Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut last month that killed a top Hezbollah commander set off a flurry of meetings between humanitarian organizations and the Lebanese government, said Laila Al Amine, who heads the Beirut office of international relief organization Mercy Corps. It’s one of some 60 organizations helping the government with its relief efforts.

The government and U.N. agencies prepared a comprehensive response plan this month outlining two possible scenarios: a limited escalation that would resemble the 2006 war, with an estimated 250,000 people displaced, and a worst-case scenario of “uncontrolled conflict” that would displaced at least 1 million people.

The U.N.-drafted plan, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, projects a monthly cost of $50 million in case of a limited escalation and $100 million if an all-out war breaks out.

The Lebanese government said that funding for the emergency will come from creditors and humanitarian aid organizations. But the authorities have struggled to find money to care for 100,000 currently displaced and an estimated 60,000 people living in conflict areas, which is costing about $24 million a month.

Environment Minister Nasser Yassin, who is spearheading relief operations, told reporters after an emergency government meeting Sunday that the morning attacks won’t change the plan.

“It already presents scenarios of all the possibilities that could happen, among them is an expansion of the hostilities,” said Yassin.

Indebted and cash-strapped Lebanon desperate for aid money

Decades of corruption and political paralysis have left Lebanon’s banks barely functional, while electricity services are almost entirely in the hands of private diesel-run generator owners and fuel suppliers. Public service institutions rely on aid groups and international donors to function at a barebones level. Lebanese who once lived in relative comfort are receiving food and financial aid to survive.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic further battered the economy, and the Beirut port explosion flattened several neighborhoods in the heart of the capital. Lebanon’s banks and the ruling elite have resisted painful reforms as a condition for an International Monetary Fund bailout while the infrastructure continued to wither and living conditions worsened.

Tourism, which officials had relied on to help rebuild the economy, has also taken a hit since the border conflict with Israel.

And unlike in 2006, Lebanon is hosting more than 1 million Syrian refugees who fled the conflict in their country. Health Minister Firas Abiad told the AP earlier this month that the Lebanese health system is ill-equipped to treat the additional population in the event of an all-out war, as international funding for Syrian refugees continues to decline.

In April, Yassin said the country had only half the money needed to respond to the conflict and ensuing humanitarian needs.

Lebanon faces tougher logistics

In 2006, Israel bombed the runways of Lebanon’s only airport, putting it largely out of commission, and imposed an air and sea blockade. Its bombardment crippled critical infrastructure and flattened neighborhoods, with damage and losses worth $3.1 billion, according to the World Bank.

But aid groups eventually were able to send supplies through the country’s ports and at times through the airport using the remaining limited runway space. In their assessment of the war, the U.N. said that their relief efforts was not in response to a humanitarian crisis. “People did not die from poor sanitation, hunger or disease. They died from bombs and shells,” U.N. OCHA said in a report a month after the war.

Many Lebanese were able to flee to neighboring Syria, where an uprising in 2011 plunged the country into a civil war. It’s unclear how easy crossing the border would be this time, both for civilians and aid groups.

It is also unclear whether the Beirut port, still not fully rebuilt after the devastating blast in 2020, would have sufficient capacity in case of a wider war. Its damaged grain silos collapsed in 2022, and the country relies on minimal food storage due to the financial crisis.

“Lebanon apparently has stocks of food and fuel for two-three months, but what happens beyond this duration?” Al Amine said. “We only have one airport and we can’t transport things through our land borders. It would be difficult to bring items into the country.”
An empowered Hezbollah

In 2006, Hezbollah reportedly had some 15,000 rockets in its arsenal, “but more recent unofficial estimates suggest this number has multiplied by almost 10 times,” said Dina Arakji, associate analyst at U.K.-based risk consultancy firm Control Risks.

The group has also “acquired more advanced weaponry, including precision missiles and variants of Iranian arms, as well as Chinese and Russian weaponry,” she said.

Hezbollah, which relies on a network of Iran-backed allied groups that could enter the conflict, has also substantially expanded its drone arsenal and capabilities, against which Israeli air defenses are less effective.

Lebanese officials and international diplomats hope that an elusive cease-fire agreement in Gaza will bring to calm in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has said it will halt its attacks along the border if there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

Associated Press videographer Ali Sharafeddine contributed to this report.

Left: The Hilton Beirut Habtoor Grand hotel is seen, with a general view visible in the background, in Beirut, Lebanon, August 19, 2024. Photo by Amr Alfiky/REUTERS

LZ experiment sets new record in search for dark matter

Published On:  August 26, 2024

Written By

:Lauren Brion, Berkeley Lab strategic communications

Researchers sit between two outer layers of LZ during construction. Scott Haselschwardt of U-M is the fourth person from the right. The clear inner tank was later filled with a special liquid scintillator; photomultipliers on the outer wall collect light from background particle interactions. 

Image credit: Matthew Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Facility

One of the greatest puzzles in the universe is figuring out the nature of dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up most of the mass in our universe.

New results from the world’s most sensitive dark matter detector, LUX-ZEPLIN, have narrowed down possibilities for one of the leading dark matter candidates: weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs.

LUX-ZEPLIN, abbreviated LZ, is a collaboration of 38 institutions, including the University of Michigan.

Led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, LZ hunts for dark matter from a cavern nearly one mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. The experiment’s new results explore weaker dark matter interactions than ever searched before and further limit what WIMPs could be.

“These are new world-leading constraints by a sizable margin on dark matter and WIMPs,” said Chamkaur Ghag, spokesperson for LZ and a professor at University College London, or UCL.

He noted that the detector and analysis techniques are performing even better than the collaboration expected.

“If WIMPs had been within the region we searched, we’d have been able to robustly say something about them,” he said. “We know we have the sensitivity and tools to see whether they’re there as we search lower energies and accrue the bulk of this experiment’s lifetime.”

The collaboration found no evidence of WIMPs above a mass of 9 gigaelectronvolts/c2, or GeV/c2. For comparison, the mass of a single proton is slightly less than 1 GeV/c2. The experiment’s sensitivity to faint interactions helps researchers reject potential WIMP dark matter models that don’t fit the data, leaving significantly fewer places for WIMPs to hide.

“We’ve demonstrated that LZ is very much a discovery-capable machine,” said LZ physics coordinator Scott Haselschwardt, a recent Chamberlain Fellow at Berkeley Lab and now an assistant professor at U-M. “If dark matter presents itself in this range, we’ll be ready to see it.”

Even though the team did not discover a dark matter signal in its latest batch of data, there will be plenty more opportunities over the course of LZ’s lifetime.

“This result is only after 25% of our data, so we definitely need to get the other 75%,” said Gregory Rischbieter, a research fellow in the U-M Department of Physics and the LZ calibration analysis coordinator who helped develop and fine-tune the software modeling framework used for distinguishing dark matter signals from background noise.

“Although a signal is still eluding us, we have the world’s best detector for this range of dark matter. If anything, it’s more motivation to keep looking.”

Wolfgang Lorenzon, professor of physics, helped U-M join the LZ collaboration in 2015. His team was responsible for reducing radon—the largest contributor to LZ’s background—in the xenon circulation system.

“It’s detective work,” he said. “Our detector works really well—in some respects, better than we anticipated. That we haven’t seen dark matter yet isn’t because of the instrument. It’s because dark matter hasn’t revealed itself yet.”

Kaiyuan “Sky” Shi, a graduate student in physics, is also part of the current U-M LZ cohort.

The new LZ results were presented at two physics conferences Aug. 26: LIDINE 2024 in São Paulo and TeV Particle Astrophysics 2024 in Chicago, where Haselschwardt is delivering a presentation. A science paper will be published in the coming weeks.

An array of photomultiplier tubes that are designed to detect signals from particle interactions occurring within LZ’s liquid xenon detector. Image credit: Matthew Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Facility

‘Looking for buried treasure’

The results analyze 280 days’ worth of data: a new set of 220 days collected between March 2023 and April 2024 combined with 60 earlier days from LZ’s first run. The experiment plans to collect 1,000 days’ worth of data before it ends in 2028.

“If you think of the search for dark matter like looking for buried treasure, we’ve dug almost five times deeper than anyone else has in the past,” said Scott Kravitz, LZ’s deputy physics coordinator and a professor at the University of Texas. “That’s something you don’t do with a million shovels—you do it by inventing a new tool.”

LZ’s sensitivity comes from the myriad ways the detector can reduce backgrounds, the false signals that can impersonate or hide a dark matter interaction.

Deep underground, the detector is shielded from cosmic rays coming from space. To reduce natural radiation from everyday objects, LZ was built from thousands of ultraclean, low-radiation parts. The detector is built like an onion, with each layer either blocking outside radiation or tracking particle interactions to rule out dark matter mimics.

And sophisticated new analysis techniques help rule out background interactions, particularly those from the most common culprit: radon.

This result is also the first time that LZ has applied “salting”—a technique that adds fake WIMP signals during data collection. By camouflaging the real data until “unsalting” at the very end, researchers can avoid unconscious bias and keep from overly interpreting or changing their analysis.

“We’re pushing the boundary into a regime where people have not looked for dark matter before,” said Haselschwardt of U-M. “There’s a human tendency to want to see patterns in data, so it’s really important when you enter this new regime that no bias wanders in. If you make a discovery, you want to get it right.”

Light bounces off the LZ detector’s inner photomultiplier tubes and woven mesh wire grids. Image credit: Matthew Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Facility
Beyond WIMPs

Dark matter, so named because it does not emit, reflect or absorb light, is estimated to make up 85% of the mass in the universe but has never been directly detected. Still, it has left its fingerprints on multiple astronomical observations.

Life as we know it wouldn’t exist without this mysterious yet fundamental piece of the universe. Dark matter’s mass contributes to the gravitational attraction that helps galaxies form and stay together.

LZ uses 10 tonnes of liquid xenon to provide a dense, transparent material for dark matter particles to potentially bump into. The hope is for a WIMP to knock into a xenon nucleus, causing it to move, much like a hit from a cue ball in a game of pool. By collecting the light and electrons emitted during interactions, LZ captures potential WIMP signals alongside other data.

“We’ve demonstrated how strong we are as a WIMP search machine, and we’re going to keep running and getting even better—but there’s lots of other things we can do with this detector,” said Amy Cottle, lead on the WIMP search effort and an assistant professor at UCL.

“The next stage is using these data to look at other interesting and rare physics processes, like rare decays of xenon atoms, neutrinoless double beta decay, boron-8 neutrinos from the sun, and other beyond-the-Standard-Model physics. And this is in addition to probing some of the most interesting and previously inaccessible dark matter models from the last 20 years.”    

Members of the LZ collaboration gather at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in June 2023, shortly after the experiment began the recent science run. Image credit: Stephen Kenny/Sanford Underground Research Facility

LZ is a collaboration of roughly 250 scientists from 38 institutions in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Switzerland, South Korea and Australia; much of the work building, operating and analyzing the record-setting experiment is done by early career researchers. The collaboration is already looking forward to analyzing the next data set and using new analysis tricks to look for even lower-mass dark matter. Scientists are also thinking through potential upgrades to further improve LZ, and planning for a next-generation dark matter detector called XLZD.

“Our ability to search for dark matter is improving at a rate faster than Moore’s Law,” Kravitz said. “If yo

u look at an exponential curve, everything before now is nothing. Just wait until you see what comes next.”

LZ is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics and th

e National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science user facility. LZ is also supported by the Science & Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Institute for Basic Science, Korea. The LZ collaboration acknowledges the assistance of the Sanford Underground Research Facility.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for DARK MATTER 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for DARK ENERGY 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ETHER 

Israeli Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound
August, 26, 2024 -


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Israeli settlers, under police protection, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, one of Islam’s holiest sites, sparking renewed tensions.

Israeli settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday, according to a report from the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The incursion, protected by Israeli police officers, has become a regular occurrence despite Jewish law forbidding entry to the site due to its sacred status.

Israeli authorities have also repeatedly barred Palestinians from attending Friday prayers at the site since October 7, forcing many to pray in the streets near Jerusalem al-Quds’ Old City. Israeli forces have additionally been reported to have attacked Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque.

Meanwhile, Israeli Army Radio, citing national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, reported that he intends to build a synagogue within the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

Ben-Gvir's remarks have been met with criticism. Opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned the regime's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allowing the far-right minister to remain in the government, stating on X (formerly Twitter), "The whole region sees Netanyahu’s weakness against Ben-Gvir. He can’t control the government even when it comes to a clear attempt to destabilize our national security. There is no policy, no strategy, no government really."

Tensions within the Israeli government have escalated over the issue. War minister Yoav Gallant expressed concern, posting on X that altering the status quo of the Al-Aqsa Mosque would be a "dangerous, unnecessary and irresponsible act." He warned that Ben-Gvir's actions jeopardize the Israeli regime’s national security and international standing.

In response, Ben-Gvir accused Gallant of bowing to Hamas and pursuing a "defeatist" policy against Hezbollah.

Israeli Hardliner Ben-Gvir Repeats Call for Prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound

The supermoon rises behind the Dome of the Rock shrine at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP)

26 August 2024 AD ـ 21 Safar 1446 AH

Israel's hardline Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir repeated a call for Jews to be allowed to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, drawing sharp criticism for inflaming tensions as ceasefire negotiators seek a deal to halt fighting in Gaza.

"The policy allows prayers on the Temple Mount, there is equal law between Jews and Muslims - I would build a synagogue there," Ben-Gvir was quoted as saying by Army Radio in a post on social media platform X, following an interview on Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office immediately put out a statement restating the official Israeli position, which accepts decades-old rules restricting non-Muslim prayer at the mosque compound, known as Temple Mount to Jews, who revere it as the site of two ancient temples.

"There is no change to the status quo on the Temple Mount," Netanyahu's office said.

The hillside compound, in Jerusalem's Old City, is one of the most sensitive locations in the Middle East, holy for both Muslims and Jews, and the trigger for repeated conflict.

Ben-Gvir, head of one of two hardline religious-nationalist parties in Netanyahu's coalition, has a long record of making inflammatory statements appreciated by his own supporters, but conflicting with the government's official line.

Monday's comment was condemned by some of his own cabinet colleagues, but Netanyahu's dependence on the support of Ben-Gvir's party to hold his right-wing coalition together means that the minister is unlikely to be sacked or face any significant penalty.

Monday's comments came less than two weeks after he triggered outrage by visiting the compound with hundreds of supporters, many of whom appeared to be praying openly in defiance of the status quo rules.

With negotiators trying to reach a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and bring back 109 Israeli and foreign hostages, and with tensions running high with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon, Ben-Gvir's comments were criticized for weakening Israel's position.

"Challenging the status quo on the Temple Mount is a dangerous, unnecessary and irresponsible act. Ben-Gvir's actions endanger the state of Israel and its international status," Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who has clashed repeatedly with Ben-Gvir, said in a statement on X.

Ben-Gvir has also been criticized by some Orthodox Jews, who consider the site too holy a place for Jews to enter.

Jordan condemns Israeli minister Ben-Gvir's call to build synagogue inside Al-Aqsa Mosque

Foreign Ministry calls minister's statement 'violation of international law and unacceptable provocation that requires clear-cut international position condemning it'

Laith Al-Jnaidi |26.08.2024 - Update : 26.08.2024



AMMAN, Jordan

Jordan on Monday condemned a call by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to build a synagogue inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

In a statement, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry called his statement as "a violation of international law and an unacceptable provocation that requires a clear-cut international position condemning it."

The statement added that Ben-Gvir's statement "fuels extremism and endeavors to change the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its holy sites through imposing new facts and practices driven by a bigoted exclusionary narrative."

It stressed that the entire Al-Aqsa Mosque site is an exclusive place of worship for Muslims, and the Jordan-run Jerusalem Waqf Department is the legal entity supervising Al-Aqsa Mosque affairs.

The ministry affirmed that it will move international courts against the Israeli attacks on the holy sites.

Ben-Gvir claimed Monday that Jews have the right to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, saying that he would build a synagogue at the flashpoint site.

It was the first time for the Israeli minister to openly speak about building a synagogue inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque. However, he has repeatedly called in recent months for allowing Jewish prayers at the site.

His call came amid repeated incursions into the complex by illegal Israeli settlers under police protection.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is considered the third holiest site in Islam. Jews refer to the area as the Temple Mount, believing it to be the location of two ancient Jewish temples.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. In 1980, Israel annexed the entire city, a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

Israel has faced international condemnation over its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed over 40,400 people since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar


Egypt slams Israeli minister for call to build synagogue inside Al-Aqsa Mosque

Foreign Ministry says Ben-Gvir's statement escalates tensions, hinders Gaza cease-fire efforts

Ibrahim al-Khazen |26.08.2024 - 


ISTANBUL

Egypt on Monday denounced Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for a call to build a synagogue inside Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, saying his statement is heightening tension in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Israel is legally responsible for adhering to the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and preserving Islamic and Christian sanctities.

It also demanded Israel comply with its obligations as an occupying power, and "stop such provocative statements aimed at further escalation and tension in the region."

The ministry added that Ben-Gvir's statement against Al-Aqsa Mosque further complicates and aggravates the situation across the Palestinian territories, and hinders efforts to reach a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

The statement also said his statement poses "a great danger" to the future of the final settlement of the Palestinian issue based on the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Ben-Gvir claimed Monday that Jews have the right to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, saying that he would build a synagogue at the flashpoint site.

It was the first time for the Israeli minister to openly speak about building a synagogue inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque. However, he has repeatedly called in recent months for allowing Jewish prayers at the site.

His call came amid repeated incursions into the complex by illegal Israeli settlers under police protection.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is considered the third holiest site in Islam. Jews refer to the area as the Temple Mount, believing it to be the location of two ancient Jewish temples.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. In 1980, Israel annexed the entire city, a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

Israel has faced international condemnation over its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed over 40,400 people since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar

 

Q&A: Expert explains how recent Supreme Court decisions and a shift in judicial tactics are reshaping US politics

by Nina Raffio, University of Southern California

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

In the wake of recent Supreme Court terms with controversial decisions on presidential immunity, abortion and other hot-button issues, public trust in the court sits at historic lows.

USC research, published in The Forum, reveals that the current discontent is tied to a bigger shift—and irony—in U.S. politics: The legal strategies once used to advance liberal causes are now being wielded by conservatives and others to block progressive policy in climate change and housing.

USC News spoke with Jeb Barnes, a professor of political science at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and co-author of The Forum paper, for insights into how these judicial tools have evolved and what this means for the future, especially in the lead-up to the November election.

How has the relationship between liberals and judicial policymaking changed?

After a series of highly partisan confirmation processes and controversial high-profile decisions, like the Dobbs decision that overturned "Roe v. Wade," liberals have grown increasingly critical of the Supreme Court. Less attention, however, has been paid to growing structural tensions between changes in liberals' policy goals and the nature of judicial policymaking, which is often better suited to impeding action than facilitating change.

The result is often deeply ironic, as judicial policymaking tools developed by liberals to further their agenda in the 1960s and '70s are now being used against them.

What are some examples?

The most obvious example is that conservatives have taken a page from civil rights groups like the NAACP and built capacity to use constitutional law to further their policy goals, resulting in significant victories in campaign finance, gun rights, affirmative action and abortion.

A similar—but less visible—form of political jujitsu has occurred in administrative law. In the 1970s, liberals developed procedures aimed at forcing businesses to consider environmental costs and slow down large-scale developments. Now, in response to climate change, environmentalists want to build a green energy infrastructure but face significant "not-in-my-backyard" resistance from local interests, which are using the same procedural obstacles liberals once used against polluters. We see a similar dynamic in housing.

How is this relevant to the upcoming elections?

The courts will be a key issue in the upcoming presidential election. Much of the media focus will be on judicial appointments and Supreme Court decisions. However, keep an eye out for Democrats' calling for initiatives to build things, such as Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign promise to construct 3 million starter homes by the end of her first term.

As Democrats continue to embrace what some have called "abundance" or "supply-side" liberalism, expect to see tensions between them and the courts grow beyond any discontent with specific Supreme Court justices or decisions.

More information: Thomas F. Burke et al, The Post-Brown Era in Judicial Policymaking, The Forum (2024). DOI: 10.1515/for-2024-2008

Provided by University of Southern California Report finds 'withering of public confidence in the courts'

Book: Healing America's divisiveness requires changing how we think

by Sharita Forrest, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The tumultuous 2024 U.S. presidential election season is fraught with partisan battles over contentious issues such as abortion, immigration, racial violence and climate change.

In a national political culture so heated and discordant that expressing differing views is often met with attacks on the speaker's motives, patriotism and intelligence, is there a path forward to healing and civility?

A new book titled "The Certainty Trap: Why We Need to Question Ourselves More—and How We Can Judge Others Less," by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign sociology professor Ilana Redstone says that much of the divisiveness in today's political discourse springs from certainty's toxic influence on our thinking and the assumptions we make about those who disagree with us. The book is scheduled for release on September 2 by Pitchstone Publishing.

Oftentimes, it's our lack of humility about our core values, beliefs, principles and goals—and our refusal to see how, in many cases, other perspectives and solutions exist and are equally valid—that does the most damage, Redstone says.

Correcting the destructive course that the U.S. is currently on demands that we stop, take a breath—or perhaps two or three—and be open to critically examining our thinking, including our tendencies to label opposing arguments about prickly societal issues as right or wrong before defining the terms that we are supposedly arguing about. For example, how do we define the "costs" or "benefits" of the solutions that we are debating? And what others might there be that we haven't yet considered?

Redstone writes that "the challenge before us is to continually find the doubt and uncertainty, interrogate and clarify our thinking—each and every time we think the solution to a complex problem is obvious or easy."

"When it comes to the provisional nature of our knowledge—but also in terms of being clear about what we think—we need to make an additional commitment. We need to understand that no ideas are exempt from criticism, questioning or examination. I would also say no idea is off the table or untouchable. And that can be very freeing," she said.

Certainty that we are right cultivates the conviction that our knowledge is definitive and distorts our thinking—an error in judgment that Redstone calls the "settled question fallacy." That is, we behave as though the reasons behind our position or judgment are conclusive, the path forward is obvious and the right decision is clear, failing to recognize that there is often a multiplicity of potential causes and that almost any solution has a combination of costs and benefits.

Redstone explains that the pitfall of blinded certainty is that it prompts us to shut down our thinking and close off inquiry and dialogue, particularly when we are confronted with those difficult, hot-button issues where we feel most threatened by disagreement. Throughout the book, she examines numerous examples of these issues—including biological sex and gender, wage inequality and gun control—that are flash points in today's culture wars as she discusses the need to broaden our thinking, begin asking more questions and be open to others asking them, too.

For example, the author points to the polarized media coverage and heated public discourse surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic safety mandates in early 2020. News stories either featured those who favored business closures and stay-at-home mandates to flatten the curve, slow transmission of the disease and prevent hospitals and health care agencies from being overwhelmed—or depicted those who questioned these measures as callous and indifferent to the potential loss of human life.

"(A)n uncertain response might have led us to a different set of questions," she wrote. "How should we think about the economic and human costs of closing businesses? What's the right way to evaluate the mental health consequences that might come from the social isolation of being housebound?"

On this and other contentious, complex issues, "our deep need to simplify and have clarity often precludes us from a more complete understanding of the world we live in and the interactions in which we engage," Redstone observed.

Along with the political polarization dividing Democrats and Republicans, as well as other political groups, the ripple effects of the certainty trap include the erosion of our social trust, as well as an increase in extremism and violence, according to the author.

When we live in a world awash with information, misinformation and ambiguity, where we feel pressured to be "right," respond quickly and stridently defend our beliefs, how do we then avoid the certainty trap and its counterproductive and destructive outcomes, including ruptures in our personal relationships?

And, better yet, how do we prepare today's young people and future generations to listen to the better angels of their nature? How might we encourage them to think clearly and to carefully weigh all the potential causes and ramifications of a decision—before hitting "send" or, worse still, firing the first shot of that second civil war that growing numbers of Democrats and Republicans believe is "imminent?"

The good news, Redstone said, is that these skills can be taught, learned and practiced, and she describes several guidelines that can help people of all ages question and clarify their thinking. This can, in turn, lead us to have richer, more productive discussions than many of those that are currently contaminating our public discourse and fraying our social bonds.

The author advocates teaching these skills from elementary school through college, so that interrogating and clarifying their thinking becomes natural for young people. By encouraging them to see nuance and complexity, and to be comfortable with uncertainty, Redstone says they may be less apt to judge or condemn those with whom they disagree.

According to the author, certainty and democracy are incompatible. And the risks of doing nothing as our conversational airspace shrinks into a no-fly-zone are great—and could cost us democracy itself.

However, surrendering our certainty can be difficult, Redstone acknowledges.

"But leaving it behind doesn't require anyone to admit to being wrong—and maybe you're not wrong at all. It means just being a little less sure you're right."

Provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

The ethics around academic discourse, scientific integrity, uncertainty, and disinformation in medicine

Putin has Increased the Number of Political Prisoners from One or Two Each Year at the Start of His Rule to Several Hundred a Year Now, Memorial Says

 

Putin has Increased the Number of Political Prisoners from One or Two Each Year at the Start of His Rule to Several Hundred a Year Now, Memorial Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 26 – Between 1999 and today, the Putin regime has put behind bars approximately 1500 people whom rights activists classify as political prisoners. More than 750 of them are still there. And each year, the authorities are incarcerating such prisoners at an increasing rate, from one or two a year early on in this period to several hundred annually now.

            Those are the conclusions of the Memorial human rights group in a report about human rights developments in Russia under Putin, as featured in a lengthy article by the Vyorstka news agency (verstka.media/issledovanie-kak-menialos-kolichestvo-politzakluchennih-pri-vladimire-putine).

            Memorial describes how Russian repression has evolved and predicts that even if the Kremlin does not give new orders for more people to be incarcerated for political reasons, the size of the existing repressive organs is now so great that there is little reason to think they won’t continue to do so to justify their own existence.

            Over the last two years, ever more women and non-Russian activists have become political prisoners; and their associates still outside the barbed wire are calling on the international community to do more for these groups than was the case in the most recent prisoner exchange (idelreal.org/a/my-prizyvaem-obratit-vnimanie-i-na-politicheskih-uznikov-natsionalnyh-dvizheniy-v-rossii-/33088477.html).