Adele shares message to mark fourth anniversary of Grenfell Tower disaster

KEIRAN SOUTHERN, PA

15 June 2021, 




Adele paid tribute to survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire as she marked the fourth anniversary of the disaster.

The chart-topping singer recorded a video message for the Grenfell United campaign group and called for the official inquiry into the blaze to be hastened along.

Adele, 33, said there are “so many unanswered questions” surrounding the tragedy and “no-one has been held accountable for that night’s events”.

A total of 72 people died in the west London blaze, which happened four years ago on Monday.

Adele added: “Grenfell United is still out here, fighting tirelessly for the justice and for the change that not only they deserve, that their community deserve, but that the whole country deserves.

“For that, I’d like to thank you. Thank you for putting your pain aside for all of these years to fight the fight. I can’t imagine the kind of personal consequences that has on you.

“I really hope that this time next year, you will have the answers that you need to finally, finally be able to breathe together. I love you. I’ll see you soon. Stay strong. We’re all with you.”

Adele, who is from Tottenham, north London, visited Grenfell shortly after the fire and has frequently shared messages of support for survivors.

UK urged to intervene in Belarus crisis over ‘human rights violations’

BRONWEN WEATHERBY, PA

15 June 2021

The UK has been urged to use its “power” as a nation to strengthen sanctions placed on the Belarusian president and his regime amid ongoing concerns about human rights violations taking place in the country.

The leader of the Belarusian opposition Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya addressed the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday afternoon as part of a one-off evidence gathering session on the current crisis.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya told the session: “This is the moment countries need to unite to put pressure on the regime.”

Members of the Belarusian community protest (Niall Carson/PA)

Two other panels of expert witnesses were invited to speak alongside Ms Tsikhanouskaya about what can be done stop the authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko and his Russian backers and to help create a democratic state.

The committee’s findings will be used to make recommendations to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

Mr Lukashenko, who was elected to power in 1994, won re-election for a sixth time in 2020 with 80% of the vote, in a ballot deemed “neither free nor fair” by the European Union. The “fraudulent elections” sparked mass protest.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya said: “Last summer, people showed the regime it was ready to see the end of a dictatorship. After the fraudulent elections people went onto the streets to protest against stolen votes. The regime answered with cruelty, brutality and torture.

“Since August more than 35,000 people have been detained, there are hundreds of political prisoners. These detentions continue, and there are around 1,000 more every month.

“People are scared now, no one feels safe, and people have to consider if they are kidnapped what will happen to their children or elderly parents. And the borders are closed too so there’s no escape.

“But people are not giving up and they are continuing to fight. And while the demonstrations have stopped, they are using other ways to continue the uprising.”

Ms Tsikhanouskaya said workers have launched a labour movement ready for a national strike, and disaffected members of law enforcement still on the inside of the regime are providing information to the opposition.

Volunteers are also continuing the effort by holding small rallies and travelling to remote areas without internet connection and to see elderly citizens to show them “the reality” of the situation.

Mr Lukashenko has been placed under renewed scrutiny since May this year after a commercial Ryanair Flight to Belarus was redirected and grounded “on the basis of a false bomb scare” in order to arrest journalist and critic of the regime Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend.

Asked about her thoughts on the kidnapping, Ms Tsikhanouskaya said: “I was shocked, I couldn’t believe he created an international crisis over a matter of personal revenge. It was a really big mistake, and shows he was acting more out of emotion than strategically.

“We believe it was an example of the impunity he felt. No sanctions had been put in place since December and he felt he could cross this red line.”

Ryanair owner Michael O’Leary gave evidence to the Transport Select Committee on Tuesday morning, calling the diversion of one of his airline’s flights a “premeditated breach of all the international aviation rules”.

However, the aviation mogul said the continued ban on flying over Belarus would not be beneficial for the industry or its customers in the “long-term” and urged international authorities to work towards getting “appropriate assurances from the Belarusian and/or Russian authorities that this will never happen again”.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya thanked the UK Government for what it had done so far in supporting sanctions against Mr Lukashenko, and doubling financial support to human rights and community groups in Belarus – but said sanctions must now extend to individuals, including judges and prosecutors, as well as on businesses and oligarchs who financially support the regime.

She called on UK officials to keep Belarus on the international agenda and to take the lead in investigating the Government, also urging countries to prevent Mr Lukashenko in abusing Interpol to have dissenters extradited back to Belarus.

Others who joined in the conversation included Professor Philippe Sands QC, professor of public understanding of law at University College London, who highlighted the “serious violence” taking place in Belarusian prisoner camps.

Victoria Fedorova, head of NGO Legal Initiative, said that without any recourse for justice inside Belarus legal proceedings and sanctions started by other nations are their only hope.

Astronomers map motion in galaxies spanning hundreds of millions of light-years

Shane McGlaun - Jun 15, 2021,

A group of scientists comprised of astronomers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), with help from scientists in China and Estonia, have mapped the motion of galaxies via huge filaments that connect the cosmic web. Researchers have found that these long tendrils of galaxies spin on a scale spending hundreds of millions of light-years. The rotation is said to be on enormous scales never before seen.

Cosmic filaments are massive bridges made of galaxies and dark matter that connect clusters of galaxies. The filaments funnel galaxies towards and into large clusters that sit at the end of the filaments. These filaments are described as a type of cosmic superhighway, and astronomers have mapped the motion of galaxies in those filaments using the Sloan Digital Sky survey.

The Sloan Digital Sky survey is a survey of hundreds of thousands of galaxies. Using Sloan data, scientists were able to determine a new and interesting property of the filaments; that property is that the filaments spin. According to astronomer Peng Wang, despite being thin cylinders similar to pencils that span hundreds of millions of light-years, the filaments are only a few million light-years in diameter.

The massive tendrils of matter rotate and have such massive scale that the galaxies inside them are like specks of dust. The tendrils move like a helix or in corkscrew-like orbits circling around the middle of the filament while traveling along it. Spins of this type have never been seen on such massive scales, and the implication is that there must be an unknown physical mechanism responsible for creating torque on these objects.

Exactly how the angular momentum responsible for the rotation is generated is one of the key unsolved mysteries of cosmology. According to the standard model of structure formation, small overdensities in the early universe grew via gravitational instability as matter flowed from under to overdense regions. This type of potential flow is irrotational or curl-free. Researchers say there is no primordial rotation in the early universe.

That means any rotation present in the universe must be generated as structures form. Cosmic webs in general and filaments specifically are intimately connected with galaxy formation and evolution. These filaments also have a significant impact on galaxy spin, often regulating the direction of how galaxies and their associated dark matter halos rotate. However, the astronomers admit it’s unknown if the current understanding of structure formation predicts the filaments themselves should spin.

 

Police deployed at South Korea THAAD base as U.S. seeks upgrades

By Elizabeth Shim

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense base in Seongju, South Korea, has become the site of frequent clashes between protesters and police. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

June 15 (UPI) -- South Korea's military continues to deliver materials and equipment to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense base in Seongju, as the United States aims to enhance interoperability of Patriot and THAAD systems on the peninsula.

Seoul made deliveries six times in May and multiple times in June. The military made its fourth delivery of the month to the THAAD site early Tuesday, News 1 reported.

Supplies began to arrive at the location at about 6 a.m. but local protesters may have attempted to block the vehicles from entry. More than 50 people also held a sit-in at a nearby village hall, according to Newsis.

Police began to force the group to disband at about 6:50 a.m., with more than 1,000 officers deployed to the area. The vehicles were able to enter the base about 7:30 a.m., News 1 said

The Soseong-ri All-Source Situation Room, an anti-THAAD group, said that police have been mobilized about twice a week to "secure a regular overland transportation route" for the military.

Activists who claim the THAAD base is illegal clashed with police. No injuries were reported.

"The more police there are, the more severe the human rights violations at Soseong-ri," activists said, according to Newsis. "As long as police enable illegal construction at the THAAD base, [clashes] will inevitably continue at Soseong-ri."

The military said more than 20 vehicles were used to deliver essential supplies to soldiers and construction material.

Confrontations between police and protesters in South Korea come at a time when the U.S. military could be seeking to upgrade the THAAD base on the peninsula.

U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler said Wednesday in a statement to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that "development efforts associated with U.S. Forces Korea" are designed to "improve Patriot and THAAD interoperability and bring a Patriot launch-on-remote capability ... in Fiscal Year 2021."

Karbler also said a new integrated capability that will leverage "THAAD's AN/TPY-2 radar together with the Patriot radar" will be "fielded this summer" with USFK.

South Korea's defense ministry previously said facility improvements were being made on the base.

Australia trade deal paves way for ‘climate-destructive deals’
By Rosie Greenaway
-June 15, 2021

Reacting to the news that Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison have agreed a free trade agreement (FTA) between the UK and Australia, the Soil Association (SA) says British farmers ‘justifiably feel betrayed’.

Johnson hails the FTA as marking ‘a new dawn in the UK’s relationship with Australia, underpinned by our shared history and common values’.

“Our new free-trade agreement opens fantastic opportunities for British businesses and consumers, as well as young people wanting the chance to work and live on the other side of the world.

“This is global Britain at its best – looking outwards and striking deals that deepen our alliances and help ensure every part of the country builds back better from the pandemic,” comments the UK’s PM.

But the news from Downing Street has been met with disappointment from some quarters. Liz Bowles, associate director of the SA, says: “Barely 24 hours after pledging more ambitious climate action through the G7 group, the UK has agreed a trade deal that threatens to offshore our climate impact and exacerbate the ecological emergency.

“Australian farmers are permitted to use growth hormones, prohibited pesticides, battery cages and sow stalls, and they are responsible for far more antibiotic use than producers in the UK. What happened to the Conservative manifesto pledge that there will be no compromise on our environmental, animal welfare and food standards?

“This deal has been agreed without adequate Parliamentary oversight or public scrutiny, and could pave the way for low standard, climate-destructive deals with other nations such as the United States and Brazil. The government’s promise of a cap on tariff-free imports for 15 years, plus tariff rate quotas and other safeguards, will offer scant reassurance to farmers who justifiably feel betrayed.”

Ikea fined over spying campaign in France

NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY15 June 2021, 7:55 am



A French court has ordered home furnishings giant Ikea to pay some 1.1 million euros (£946,600) in fines and damages over a campaign to spy on union representatives, employees and some unhappy customers in France.

Two former Ikea France executives were convicted and fined over the scheme and given suspended prison sentences.

Among the other 13 defendants in the high-profile trial, some were acquitted and others given suspended sentences.

The panel of judges at the Versailles court found that between 2009 and 2012, Ikea’s French subsidiary used espionage to sift out trouble-makers in the employee ranks and to profile squabbling customers.

Ikea France was convicted of receiving personal data obtained through fraudulent means in a habitual way, and ordered to pay one million euros in fines and about 100,000 euros in damages.

Ingka Group, which owns and operates most Ikea stores, noted in a statement after the verdicts that the French retail operation “has strongly condemned the practices, apologised and implemented a major action plan to prevent this from happening again.”

“We will now review the court’s decision in detail and consider if and where any additional measures are necessary,” the group said.

Trade unions accused Ikea France of collecting personal data by fraudulent means, notably via illegally obtained police files, and illicitly disclosing personal information.

Lawyers for Ikea France denied that the company had any strategy of “generalised espionage”.

A lawyer for the unions, Solene Debarre, expressed hope that the verdict would “make some companies tremble”, adding: “One million euros isn’t much for Ikea, but it’s a symbol.”

The company, which said it cooperated in the investigation, had faced a potential financial penalty of up to 3.75 million euros.

Prosecutor Pamela Tabardel asked the court to hand “an exemplary sentence and a strong message to all companies”.

The executive who was in charge of risk management at the time of the spying, Jean-Francois Paris, acknowledged to French judges that 530,000 to 630,000 euros a year were earmarked for such investigations.

Paris — the only official to have admitted to the alleged illegal sleuthing — said his department was responsible for handling the operation on orders from former Ikea France CEO Jean-Louis Baillot.

Paris was convicted of fraudulently gathering personal data, fined 10,000 euros (£8,600) and given an 18-month suspended sentence.

Baillot, who denied ordering up a spy operation, was convicted of receiving fraudulently collected data and complicity in the scheme.

He was fined 50,000 euros (£43,000) and given a two-year suspended sentence.

Another former CEO of Ikea France was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Ikea France’s lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud, said the company had not decided whether to appeal.

He said the case was marked by a lack of hard evidence and holes, and noted that the fines were well below the maximum possible.

“The court took into account the action plan that Ikea put in place after the revelation of the facts, in 2012. That’s very satisfying,” Mr Daoud said.

The company fired four executives and changed internal policy after French prosecutors opened a criminal probe in 2012.

Trade unions alleged that Ikea France paid to gain access to police files that had information about targeted individuals, particularly union activists and customers who

THIRD WORLD USA

How Detroit residents are building their own internet

Faced with a stark digital divide, Detroit community groups are mobilizing to build an internet network block by block

By Aaron Kalischer-Coggins | May 28, 2021

VIDEO

Detroit has historically been one of the least connected cities in America, with about 40 percent of Detroit residents lacking any home internet access at all. Things are changing, though, thanks in large part to projects like the Equitable Internet Initiative (EII), a collaboration between the Detroit Community Technology Project and a network of community organizations.

EII has an ambitious goal: to strengthen neighborhoods by building low-cost, high-speed internet for the underserved communities of Detroit, to increase digital literacy, and to train residents to be “digital stewards.” And against all odds, they are succeeding.

Over the past six years, EII has built and maintained an impressive internet network across large swaths of Detroit, training digital stewards from the community to set up and install wireless access points, fiber hookups and hotspots, and educating residents on how to safely and effectively use the internet.

The onslaught of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns around the country exacerbated an issue that has been pervasive for decades: the digital divide. As many Americans logged into Zoom to conduct business, chat with their family and watch Netflix, millions of others were offline and disconnected, struggling to find information about COVID-19, schedule vaccine appointments and apply for unemployment. This is the digital divide: the gap between those who have digital connectivity, and those who do not. This disparity is especially pronounced in communities of color, as well as low income communities.

According to Nyasia Valdez, network manager for Grace in Action in Southwest Detroit, one issue behind the digital divide in Detroit is affordability for residents. “In some areas of Southwest, there is only one internet provider, versus in other areas where there are three or four. So if their only option is $100 a month, then that’s what they have to pay.”

The areas that the Equitable Internet Initiative serves are predominantly communities of color, and the digital stewards that EII train and employ come from these communities. “It’s easier to make a community member a technician than a technician a community member,” according to digital steward Shiva Shahmir.

The stewards help install and maintain EII’s high speed network, which is wireless, point-to-point and provides a 25mbps up and down speed. It utilizes donated connections from 123Net, an enterprise ISP, who beams a gigabit connection from the top of the Renaissance Center, the highest point in Detroit, to the three anchor organization partners: Grace in Action, Church of the Messiah, and North End Woodward Community Coalition. From there, the stewards create wireless distribution networks to community hubs, and then to residential homes.

Now, EII is working on resilience plans for the future. First are solar charging stations, which are set up around Detroit and provide free, high speed internet access, as well as device-charging.

EII is also creating portable network kits, which are battery-powered cases that provide wireless signal to a four block radius, and can be used in situations where there is a network outage.

Finally, EII is developing an intranet, a system for communicating offline and solely via their network. This allows people to communicate privately and offline. “Law enforcement agencies are often asking me, can they become a part of our network,” says the Rev. Wally Gilbert, project manager for EII. “I say no, we guarantee the users of our network privacy, we don’t do any data collection. We want the community to feel safe communicating.”

“Access to information is like liberty. Whenever that is restricted or limited for the sake of capitalism, it’s so symbolic of oppression because people can’t make up their own minds,” says Shahmir. “When they don’t have that information, can they really make the best decisions for themselves?”

Man-sized halibut reeled in in the North Sea

By Christian Spencer | June 11, 2021

VIDEO

Story at a glance:

A Scottish man bought a 169 pound, 6 foot long halibut caught in the North Sea for his fishmonger business.

Halibut off Alaska can weigh up to 500 pounds.

A 250 pound Alaskan halibut can lay 4 million eggs.

A Scottish fishmonger bought a halibut caught in the North Sea that was the size of an average man.


A Halibut is seen on the line of a fisherman on July 23, 2013 in Ilulissat, Greenland. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

With the help of four men, Campbell Mickel brought the nearly 170-pound, 6-foot-long fish into his store, the New York Post reported.

“It’s a beast and it wasn’t cheap that’s for sure,” Mickel said. “It was wrapped up after I bought it and shipped to me on two pallets.”

In the city of Edinburgh, Mickel has his own seafood market and sells fillets of fish to nearby restaurants.

“The hardest part was getting it into the shop window on display,” he said. “It took four men to get it up there, it’s not the easiest job in the world lifting the dead weight of 169 lbs. slimy fish. It dwarfed the other halibut next to it.”

“We have filleted it now and started delivering it to our restaurant customers around Edinburgh, so it’s fair to say halibut will be on the menu this week. Everyone is used to small halibut, a regular one weighs between 22-30 lbs., so this is really special,” he added.

While Mickel’s halibut is impressive, Alaskan halibut can grow to be 8 feet long and 5 feet wide, and weigh 500 pounds, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.

A 50-pound female halibut can produce about 500,000 eggs, and a 250-pound female can produce 4 million eggs.

“It’s fantastic news for our seas and oceans to see this size come out,” Mickel said. “I’m delighted to see that fish this size can still exist. It’s good news for the oceans and I’m looking forward to seeing more that have had the time to thrive and grow – as this one has.”

US Senate passes bill to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday

By Tanner Stening | tstening@masslive.com

The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a bill to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday, according The Hill.



Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years prior, has been celebrated by Black communities for years as the day slavery officially ended in the U.S.

The bill’s passage comes just days before the holiday is celebrated on June 19, and now awaits passage in the House.

Juneteenth became an officially recognized holiday in Massachusetts, thanks to an amendment added by State Rep. Bud L. Williams, of Springfield, and Maria Duaime Robinson, of Framingham, to a COVID-19 spending bill signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker last year.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the state’s first Black governor, in 2007 signed a proclamation to recognize Juneteenth as a day of observance. For the first time in Massachusetts, the historic day will be recognized as a state holiday this coming weekend.

Biden chooses tech critic Lina Khan to lead FTC

The move could signal a more progressive agenda for the Federal Trade Commission.

Abrar Al-Heeti

CNET
June 15, 2021 

Lina Khan was confirmed by the Senate to be commissioner of the FTC on Tuesday.

Getty Images

President Joe Biden selected big tech critic Lina Khan, a Democrat, to serve as chair of the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, the agency said. Her swearing in came soon after the Senate confirmed Khan in a 69-28 vote to be a commissioner of the FTC, according to CNBC.

"I look forward to working with my colleagues to protect the public from corporate abuse," Khan said in a statement.

Khan, 32, previously worked as an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School, and served as counsel to the US House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, helping in the investigation of digital markets related to Google, Apple and other big tech companies.

Tuesday's move could indicate Biden hopes the FTC takes on a more progressive agenda, CNBC notes. The president said in March he would nominate Khan to be an FTC commissioner.

Khan will take over for FTC Acting Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a Democrat. The FTC is comprised of five commissioners, of which no more than three can be from the same party. In her role, Khan will vote on enforcement issues involving competition and consumer protection.

Khan tweeted, "I'm so grateful to the Senate for my confirmation. Congress created the FTC to safeguard fair competition and protect consumers, workers, and honest businesses from unfair & deceptive practices. I look forward to upholding this mission with vigor and serving the American public."


First published on June 15, 2021 at 2:27 p.m. PT.