RSF calls for US plan to evacuate Afghan journalists

Reporters Without Borders have stressed that the US should focus on evacuating Afghan journalists as well as its own citizens.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
21 August, 2021

The US have received surmounting pressure to protect those who have been allies to the West [Getty]

Reporters Without Borders called Saturday on US President Joe Biden to make "a special plan for evacuating endangered Afghan journalists" from Taliban-controlled Kabul.

RSF said the United States currently seemed to be concerned only with the evacuation "of its own citizens and former employees".

"This is blocking the evacuation of those on the lists of sensitive persons who are in danger," it added.

"We are receiving dozens and dozens of urgent evacuation requests," said RSF chief Christophe Deloire.

"Our problem today is not getting visas or seats on planes, it is making it possible for these people to access planes."

The NGO is calling on the US to postpone the end of its military operation at Kabul airport so journalists and rights activists from various countries and organisations can be identified and given access.

"It will be materially impossible to complete the evacuation of all those in great danger, including Afghan journalists, by 31 August," it said.

"The image of the United States as a defender of press freedom and human rights is at stake," Deloire said.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said it had received "hundreds of requests for help" from Afghan journalists, mostly women, who are "in panic and fear".

The Taliban, looking for a Deutsche Welle journalist now based in Germany, shot dead a member of his family on Wednesday and seriously wounded another, German radio reported.

UK
Extinction Rebellion targeting London with protests

By Orlando Jenkinson @Lando_jReporter - 

Kingston, Epsom, Elmbridge, Richmond, Wandsworth, Croydon

Extinction Rebellion previously staged an occupation of Westminster. 

Image: Alexander Savin / wikipedia

Environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion (XR) will stage a series of protests in London starting Monday (Monday, August 23).

The explicitly non-violent group said they plan to target the City of London in particular with two weeks of various demonstrations and direct actions planned, while other protest sites including Trafalgar Square are also likely to emerge.

In a small press release published ahead of Monday's demonstrations, the group described their plan for two weeks of civil disobedience in London as the 'Impossible Rebellion', and said:

"We’re at a crucial moment in history. Our climate is breaking down and life on Earth is dying: accelerated by our economic system and supported by politicians.

"Do you feel powerless to change anything? You are more powerful than you think.

"Join the Rebellion and together we will can make the politically impossible inevitable."

The latest stage in the group's ongoing drive to force governments to take emergency action on the climate crisis comes just days after the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a landmark report that laid out the daunting scale of the current climate crisis.

The report called the ongoing heating of the planet caused by fossil fuel use as "unequivocal" and said increasing numbers of extreme weather events like heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, floods and cases of food insecurity were assured in the coming years in Europe and across the globe.

UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres meanwhile called the report "Code Red" for humanity, warning there is precious little time left for humanity to decarbonize the world economy and therefore mitigate the most catastrophic effects of the crisis.

In response to the planned demonstrations, the Met Police said they would take a proactive approach to policing any disruption that arises.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Matt Twist, said: "It is clear to us, from reading and listening to their public announcements that Extinction Rebellion’s intention is to once again cause significant disruption to London and to London’s communities through acts of civil disobedience.

"There have been three previous extended periods of demonstrations by Extinction Rebellion in London. People going about their normal business saw bus routes being diverted or cancelled, significant roads closures, tubes and DLR routes being disrupted by spontaneous demonstrations, and the abstraction of hundreds, if not thousands of officers from their normal duties.

"Like everyone else, Extinction Rebellion have the right to assemble and the right to protest. However these rights are qualified and are to be balanced against the rights of others. They do not have the right to cause serious disruption to London’s communities and prevent them going about their lawful business."

A Met spokesperson added that their officers would "engage with organisers from Extinction Rebellion, hoping to minimise where possible any disruption to London’s communities". Meanwhile, specialist policing teams "who can respond and manage protesters in a safe manner who have built or locked themselves to complicated structures" would be placed on standby.

Ken Loach: Keir Starmer Is Mr Bean Trying to Act Like Stalin

AN INTERVIEW WITH KEN LOACH

Last week, Ken Loach was kicked out of the Labour party. In his first interview since his expulsion, the socialist filmmaker told Jacobin that Keir Starmer’s purge of the Left is driving the party to destruction.

Ken Loach said he was kicked out of the Labour Party last week after he refused an order to renounce left-wing friends and comrades who had been ejected. (Chris Payne / Flickr)

When Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party, socialist filmmaker Ken Loach was given pride of place — and a prominent seat on the conference floor, after rejoining the party he had left years earlier in disgust at Tony Blair. The Palme d’Or–winning filmmaker’s position drew the ire of Blairites like former MP Mike Gapes, who still today resent being “banished to the balcony” under the left-wing leadership.

But today, right-wingers are cheering, after the I, Daniel Blake director was expelled from the party last week. Loach, whose films are considered landmarks of social realism, said he was kicked out after he refused an order to renounce left-wing friends and comrades who had been ejected, along with the now-banned groupings of which they were members.

Announcing his removal via Twitter, Loach was defiant — declaring that “Starmer and his clique will never lead a party of the people” and insisting “We are many, they are few.” Speaking to Jacobin in his first interview since his expulsion, the filmmaker paints a bleak picture of life inside the party for the Left. He told Mattha Busby that recent events suggest Labour is no longer interested in listening to its members — and that it is retreating to the staid, right-wing politics of Blair’s era, in the hope of coddling the Tory press.

This interview has been edited slightly for clarity and brevity, and the Labour Party was contacted for comment.

MB


What exactly happened with your ejection from the party?

KL


The letter that I got charged me with supporting a proscribed organization; well, in law as I understand it, if you pass a law to criminalize an act, you can’t prosecute someone for having done that before the law was passed. You can’t retroactively punish people for things that were not crimes when they did them.

All the ridiculous evidence that they trotted out against me quoted things that happened way before these proscriptions. So how does that stack up? I don’t have the energy or the will to be involved in a protracted dispute, because it’s such a waste of time. I’d rather work and do a film, than talk to malicious people. It’s like ending an abusive relationship, actually — it’s a weight off your shoulders.

MB


What was the extent of your involvement with these now-banned organizations?

KL


I’m not a member of any of the proscribed organizations. But I support many of the people who have been expelled, because they are good friends and comrades. A witch hunt within the party is in progress, and I will not renounce them. Party apparatchiks are exercising arbitrary and completely undemocratic rule; making the rules up as they go along. For someone like Keir Starmer, who is meant to be a senior lawyer and former head of the Crown Prosecution Service, to give it all his seal of approval just shows what a shoddy man he is.

MB


It seems there’s no love lost between yourself and the leader. What are your views on his leadership of the party more generally?

KL


What Starmer is trying to do is very clear. As a leader, he is totally untrustworthy and a plain liar. He said he would unite the party, but he has driven out over 120,000 members. His actions suggest that was his intention from day one, so there was no way he intended to unite the party. He consciously misled the membership. He revealed himself as untrustworthy and really unprincipled. And his intention, as far as I can see, is to have a small party with no troublesome activists, with no transformative program. It’s a retreat from left domestic policies on public ownership, housing, the welfare state, and the environment. It’s a retreat from a foreign policy based on international law and human rights.

What he’s doing through expulsions and driving people out is reproducing Blair’s party — a small party where he speaks to the electorate through the media and tries to convince the right-wing press that Labour is no threat to their power.

MB


You’ve been among those downplaying the issue of antisemitism in the party, and you were accused of Holocaust denialism. Do you think this played any role in your ejection?

KL


My position on Holocaust denial is very clear. I am totally opposed to it. It’s there on the record. “In a BBC interview, where speech overlapped, my words have been twisted to suggest that I think it is acceptable to question the reality of the Holocaust. I do not. The Holocaust is as real a historical event as the Second World War itself and not to be challenged,” it says. I’ve had threats to my family over this, people coming up to me in the street, pushing you up against the wall, just the foulest abuse.

MB


I can tell you are frustrated over events throughout the past several years. Do you harbor any bitterness over your expulsion?

KL


For me, it’s a badge of honor — I have no problem falling out with Starmer’s clique. Democracy is dead in the Labour Party: constituency parties have been shut down for no reason; resolutions have been ruled out of order if they’ve criticized Starmer or supported the Palestinians. They’ve been told they’re not allowed to pass resolutions commenting on the fact that they can’t pass certain resolutions. It’s a total denial of internal democracy.

MB


Sounds fairly Orwellian. Does it seem chaotic at all?

KL


The whole disciplinary process, there is no due process at all. People are told they’re suspended, they write back, they get no reply; it goes on for months and months. For Starmer, who made his name as a lawyer, it makes him look ridiculous. He’s a figure of fun. They said that with Gordon Brown as leader, it was like Stalin became Mr Bean; for Starmer, it’s the other way around, he’s Mr Bean trying to act like Stalin, and he’s doing it very clumsily.

MB


I have the image now of Stalin ordering Peter Mandelson to scrub clean the Mona Lisa and chastising him for not doing a good job. But on a serious note, what do you make of this moment in British politics?

KL


There is a huge question for democracy. Under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour was the largest political party in Europe: almost six hundred thousand members. The members were very strongly united on the party’s program, which would have been transformative. But a clique within the parliamentary party, most of them Blairites, successfully led efforts to undermine it. You know the story of the leaked emails from Labour HQ — a number of officials were actively working against a Labour victory in 2017 and rejoiced when they lost, amid the most foul-mouthed insults to people like Diane Abbott and the few MPs loyal to Corbyn, and now they’re being rewarded under Starmer. It all leads me to wonder whether it is possible to elect a party committed to transformative change; is the British establishment so all-powerful that it can stop it happening?

Ken Loach is a socialist filmmaker. His works include Kes and I, Daniel Blake.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER

Mattha Busby is a freelance journalist, currently based in Mexico, who has written widely on health policy and society.

THEY ARE ALSO CHRISTIANS

Caught in the crossfire, Ethiopian minority flees to Sudan


Issued on: 21/08/2021 - 

Ethiopians from the Qemant ethnic group have fled to neighbouring Sudan after violence in the Tigray region spilled over into their homeland ASHRAF SHAZLY AFP


Basinga (Sudan) (AFP)

Dragged into a conflict not of their making, members of Ethiopia's Qemant ethnic group say their only choice was fleeing to Sudan -- marking another bleak turn in a widening war.

"Houses were burned, and people killed by machetes," said refugee Emebet Demoz, who, like thousands of others, ran from her village last month. "We couldn't even take the bodies and bury them."

Thousands have been killed since fighting erupted in November in Ethiopia's northernmost Tigray region, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent in troops to topple the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the regional ruling party, saying the move came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.

The violence has since sucked in other groups in bitter battles over land, and has spread from Tigray into Ethiopia's neighbouring Amhara region, homeland of both the Amhara people and the ethnic minority Qemant.

Amhara fighters supported Abiy's forces, in an attempt to settle a decades-long dispute over territory they claim was seized by the TPLF during its nearly three-decade rule before Abiy took power in 2018.

Ethiopian refugees from the Qemant ethnic group queue for food at a camp in Sudan, with officials saying they are expecting more to come 

ASHRAF SHAZLY AFP

The Qemant have long chafed under the cultural and economic influence of the dominant Amhara people, and in recent years have called for self-rule.

A 2017 referendum on the question of creating a Qemant autonomous zone ended in rancour, with the resulting territorial dispute sparking increasingly frequent clashes between the two groups.

"The Amhara fighters backed by the government wanted us off our land," 20-year-old Emebet said. "They are killing us because we're an ethnic minority."

- 'Refused to take sides' -

But Amhara regional spokesperson Gizachew Muluneh squarely denied that members of the Qemant ethnic group were being targeted.

Amhara leaders say the Qemant's quest for self-rule has largely been stoked by Tigrayan rebels, who they allege are fighting a proxy war by backing the group.

Gizachew told AFP that those described as refugees were "pro-terrorist TPLF, and they are created by TPLF for the purpose of distracting Ethiopia and Amhara".

Ethiopia Simon MALFATTO AFP

The United Nations estimates that some 200,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Amhara, where the violence is driving a wedge deeper between the ethnic groups.

"The Amharas wanted us to pick their side in the conflict against the Tigrayans," said refugee Balata Goshi. "We refused to take sides, so they fought us."

Clashes between the Amhara and Qemant forced thousands to flee in April this year, according to the UN's humanitarian agency.

Qemant campaigners claim that their historic homeland includes villages bordering Sudan.

But that has also led to accusations that the Qemant have received support from Sudan, which has territorial issues with Ethiopia, mostly in areas located near the Amhara region.

Many Ethiopian refugees are living in basic conditions with plastic sheeting for shelter in Sudan ASHRAF SHAZLY AFP

Relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa have also soured over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, which downstream Egypt and Sudan fear threatens the water they depend on.

For civilians like Emebet stuck in the middle, the violence left her no option but to leave.

She is part of a stream of some 3,000 Qemant refugees who have crossed into Sudan in recent weeks, Sudanese officials said.

"We are expecting more Qemantis to arrive, as well other ethnicities," said Mohamed Abdelkareem, from Sudan's refugee commission.

Sudan already hosts more than 60,000 refugees from Ethiopia, according to the UN, putting heavy pressure on a country already struggling with its own acute economic crisis.

Over 60,000 Ethiopian refugees have fled to Sudan seeking shelter from conflict at home in recent months ASHRAF SHAZLY AFP

Emebet has found shelter in the Sudanese border town of Basinga, cramped inside a school converted into a makeshift camp, now a temporary home for a thousand refugees.

There are basic food supplies, but she is sleeping under plastic sheeting that offers little shelter from either sweltering heat or heavy rains.

"We are safe here at least," she said.

- 'Can't go back' -

Refugees said they are victims of long-running ethnic strife.

"Tensions had already been rising for years," said Aman Farada, a 26-year-old refugee from Ethiopia's northern city of Gondar.

"Initially, it was inter-ethnic disputes, but now it's the government fighting us."

Kasaw Abayi believes the Amharas used the Tigray conflict as "an excuse" to expand their control over other land.

Many of the Ethiopian refugees fear they will be in Sudan for a long time until peace is restored at home ASHRAF SHAZLY AFP

"They see the entire area as theirs, so they want neither us (Qemant) nor the Tigrayans there," said the 50-year-old builder.

Early in the fighting, Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, declared victory after his forces seized Tigray's regional capital Mekele.

But in June, the TPLF recaptured much of Tigray, including Mekele, and pushed east and south into the Amhara and Afar regions.

The UN says the conflict has driven 400,000 people into famine-like conditions. Fighting continues.

Qemant refugees say they see little chance of returning to Ethiopia any time soon.

"We can't go back," said Emebet. "How can we return when this government is still in place?"

© 2021 AFP

Leak and destroy: On the hunt for climate killing gas



Issued on: 22/08/2021 - 

Chad Dorger (L), Senior Environmental Program Associate at Tradewater Refrigerant Solutions, picks up empty refrigerant tanks from Rick Karas (R) in Peotone, Illinois, on August 11, 2021 

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI AFP


Peotone (United States) (AFP)

After finding a rusty gas canister near his midwest US home, Rick Karas checked online if it was worth anything. Incredibly, it turned out to be a coveted commodity in the battle against climate change.

His roughly basketball-sized container was filled with CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), a potent greenhouse gas that is perfectly legal to possess but which has been globally banned from manufacture for decades.

Absent a government mandate to destroy the ample existing stocks, a handful of companies have stepped in to hunt down the gases in a process funded by selling carbon credits they earn from destroying the chemicals.

Karas connected online with a company called Tradewater, which subsequently led to one of its staffers picking up the can at his home in tiny Peotone, Illinois, about an hour's drive from Chicago.

Minutes later he had a $100 bill and the gas -- once standard in car air conditioners or refrigerators and packed into cans that leak over time -- was on its way to the incinerator.

"I feel good. A little cash in the pocket and it helps the environment," Karas, who raises bees, told AFP, though he was completely unaware of the climate connection.

That's the way the Chicago-based firm prefers it.

They make no mention of their mission in online ads targeting would-be sellers and they even do business under a different name, Refrigerant Finders, to sidestep what remains a politically charged subject in the United States.

Companies like Tradewater collect potent greenhouse gases at their facility near Chicago and then sends then for destruction

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI AFP

Chad Dorger, who picked up Karas's tank, noted that 80 percent of customers don't care what happens to the gas, but for the rest it can get tricky.

"They will flat out refuse (to sell) and they'll say, 'No, I want this to be used. Or I don't believe in that climate change hoax," he said.

Still, the taming of CFCs has been one of the success stories in humanity's patchy efforts to tackle the manmade emissions that are driving stronger storms, drier droughts and the massive, deadly wildfires that have come roaring after them this summer.

- The right to pollute? -

The United Nations trumpets the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which barred making CFCs so as to repair a thin layer of ozone in the atmosphere that shields life on Earth from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays, as the "only UN treaty ever that has been ratified by every country on Earth."

The cans that hold the refrigerants, which are powerful heat-trapping gases, can rust and over time leak their contents

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI AFP

It's hard to debate the logic. Besides their corrosive effect on the ozone layer, CFCs are also a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat up to 10,000 times more efficiently than carbon dioxide.

Global CFC concentrations fell steadily until about 2012 after the Protocol took effect, but startled scientists discovered in 2018 that the pace of that slowdown had dropped by half during the preceding five years.

Evidence pointed to factories in eastern China. Once CFC production in that region stopped, the ozone layer's healing process appeared to be back on track.

There's not many voices against destroying CFCs, but carbon offsets are more complicated.

Under the scheme, a polluting company or individual buys a credit equivalent to a metric tonne of carbon dioxide, with the money going directly or indirectly into an emissions reduction plan, like planting trees or investment in renewable energy sources.

But some critics accuse big business of paying for a quick fix rather than seeking to truly overhaul the environmental impact of their operations, while some botched offset projects have failed to deliver.

"For some hardcore environmentalists, that is giving someone the right to pollute and we shouldn't pollute," said George Washington University economics professor Michael Moore.

Tradewater's leaders, however, are very clear about what they do and why.

"If companies like ours don't destroy this refrigerant, it will leak into the atmosphere," chief operating officer Gabe Plotkin told AFP.

Tim Brown (L) and Gabriel Plotkin (R) of Tradewater pose for a picture at their warehouse in Elk Grove Village, Illinois 

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI AFP

"There's no government mandate to do it. There's no financial incentive to do it. And in some cases there's no will to do it," he added.

© 2021 AFP

Sufis strive to protect their heritage in war-torn Libya



Issued on: 22/08/2021 - 

A 2012 attack forced the Sufi seminary in the Libyan town of Zliten to close, but in recent years it has discreetly reopened to students of the mystical Islamic tradition Mahmud TURKIA AFP

Zliten (Libya) (AFP)

Bullet holes scar the minaret of the Sufi mosque in Libya's Zliten, but followers of the Muslim mystical tradition are working to renovate and preserve their heritage.

A handful of students sit cross-legged on the floor of the mosque in the Asmariya zawiya, transcribing on wooden tablets as their teacher chants Koranic verses.

Elsewhere in the complex, named for its 16th-century founder Abdessalam al-Asmar, scholars pore over old manuscripts on theology and Islamic law.

The zawiya -- an Arabic term for a Sufi institute offering a space for religious gatherings, Koranic education and free accommodation to travellers -- also includes a boarding school and a university.

Historian Fathi al-Zirkhani says the site is the Libyan equivalent of Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar University, a global authority in Sunni Islam.

But despite Sufism's long history across North Africa, Libya's plunge into chaos after dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted in a 2011 revolt gave a free hand to militias.

They included hardline Islamists, who are deeply hostile to Sufi "heretics" and their mystical nighttime ceremonies aimed at coming closer to the divine.

"(Previously) dormant ideological currents, with backing from abroad, took advantage of the security vacuum to attack the zawiyas," Zirkhani said.

In August 2012, dozens of Islamist militants raided the site, blowing up part of the sanctuary, stealing or burning books and damaging Asmar's tomb.

But today, craftsmen are busily restoring terracotta tiles and repairing damage caused by the extremists.

Students at the Asmariya zawiya come from all corners of the Islamic world to study the Sufi tradition, which has a long history in North Africa 

Mahmud TURKIA AFP

The tomb is surrounded by scaffolding but still bears its green silk cover, delicately embroidered with gold.

The zawiya hosts several hundred students, including many from overseas, who enjoy free food and lodging.

"I came to Libya to learn Koran here," said Thai student, Abderrahim bin Ismail, in faltering Arabic.

Houssein Abdellah Aoch, a 17-year-old from Chad wearing a long blue tunic, said he was working hard to commit verses to memory.

"I'm hoping to memorise the entire Koran then go home and become a religious teacher," he said.

- 'Fear and mistrust' -

When the call to prayer rings out, all rise and head through an arcaded courtyard to the mosque for noon prayers.

Libya's longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi viewed the Sufis with suspicion but after his 2011 overthrow, Sunni extremists posed a greater threat to the mystics 

Mahmud TURKIA AFP

It is a scene repeated daily for hundreds of years, but the zawiya has had a turbulent few decades.

Kadhafi, who ruled Libya with an iron fist for four decades after seizing power in a 1969 coup, was suspicious of the Sufis.

"He infiltrated the zawiya with his secret services, creating a climate of fear and mistrust," said an employee, who asked to remain anonymous.

"Kadhafi chose to divide the Sufis to control them better."

But Kadhafi's authorities "loosened the stranglehold in the mid-1990s, which allowed the zawiyas to regain their autonomy," he added.

After Kadhafi's overthrow in 2011, another danger emerged. The attack in Zliten, on the Mediterranean coast east of Tripoli, was echoed across the country.

Islamist militants used diggers and pneumatic drills to destroy numerous Sufi sites across Libya -- attacks echoed in Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere.

Zirkhani says the people who attacked the complex in Zliten were "extremists known to the state".

But in the chaos of post-revolt Libya, they have never been held to account.

The zawiya has also suffered from a lack of funds as it seeks to rebuild and restore its treasures.

Zirkhani showed AFP dusty old manuscripts he wants to preserve for posterity.

The seminary has a large collection of old Islamic manuscripts that historian Fathi al-Zirkhani is eager to preserve for posterity

 Mahmud TURKIA AFP

"We have neither the means nor the know-how to restore them," Zirkhani said. "We need help from (UN cultural agency) UNESCO and European institutions."

But there are some signs of hope for Sufis in Libya.

The zawiya was closed for six years following the 2012 attack. But in 2018 it discreetly reopened, and Sufis have been able to exercise their customs more publicly.

Last October in Tripoli, they took to the streets of the old city to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed -- a festival frowned upon by more austere currents of Islam.

© 2021 AFP

Disney pushes for private arbitration in Scarlett Johansson's 'Black Widow' lawsuit

Elise Brisco
USA TODAY

Disney has filed a motion to settle a lawsuit brought by "Black Widow" star Scarlett Johansson behind closed doors.

The motion was filed to Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday afternoon by Disney attorney Daniel Petrocelli. In documents obtained by USA TODAY, Petrocelli argued that the contract between Disney and Periwinkle Entertainment Inc., the company representing Johansson, included an agreement to settle any disputes through "binding arbitration" in New York City.

Disney's request for arbitration is the company's first filing in the case since Johansson filed suit on July 29, alleging her contract with Marvel was breached when "Black Widow" was released on the Disney+ streaming service at the same time as in theaters.

In Friday's filing, Disney argued the complaint put forth by Johansson and Periwinkle Entertainment has "no merit."

"There is nothing in the Agreement requiring that a 'wide theatrical release' also be an 'exclusive' theatrical release," Petrocelli wrote.

Petrocelli cited box office numbers, noting that the combined opening weekend revenue from ticket sales in theaters and Disney + Premiere Access receipts totaled more than $135 million. That surpassed other Marvel Cinematic Universe films that were released before the pandemic, including "Thor: The Dark World," "Ant-Man and the Wasp" and "Guardians of the Galaxy," Petrocelli wrote.

"Disney is now, predictably, trying to hide its misconduct in a confidential arbitration," Johansson's attorney John Berlinski told USA TODAY in a statement. "Why is Disney so afraid of litigating this case in public?"

Berlinski and his team "look forward" to presenting evidence to prove Disney's alleged wrongdoing, he said.

Disney vs. Scarlett Johansson:
A look at more stars who reworked Hollywood deals during COVID-19


After Johansson filed her complaint, a statement from Disney called the suit "especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Bryan Lourd, co-chairman of the Creative Artists Agency and Johansson’s agent, issued a response to Disney, saying the company "shamelessly and falsely accused Ms. Johansson of being insensitive to the global COVID pandemic." The response was "a direct attack on her character," Lourd said.

'A direct attack on her character':
Scarlett Johansson's agent slams Disney response to 'Black Widow' suit

The case's first hearing is scheduled for Oct. 15 in Los Angeles Superior Court

Op-Ed: Boomers, polarization, the environment, and no, none of it’s OK


By Paul Wallis
Published August 21, 2021


“OK Boomer” is a polarizing buzz phrase. It perpetuates a lot of false myths. It’s like “old white guys” (We had a choice?) and about as totally counterproductive as a talking point. There are a few explanations required.

(For the record; polarization was a short-lived academic party trick many decades ago. It kept people interested for about 5 minutes until everyone got bored with it as a one-trick-wonder. Then it became media psychology, and proved there was nothing interesting about it, and never could be. Then it became standard political social engineering.)

About the myths

The myth of Boomer affluence is one of the most misleading. According to this myth, nothing was ever paid for, it all just came along. It didn’t. it all had to be paid for, the hard way for most Boomers. Pay was lousy, and life experience doesn’t make too many deals. The past was lived in, in the usual half-ass mix of not enough money and rising prices.

This particular myth appeals to the sort of people who live in the “Fetch!” society; you go out and fetch a six-digit job, a family, and social status. You wind up about 50 and wondering where everything went. “Everything” in this case is a shopping list, success is a cliché image of someone else, etc. Quality of life back then was better than this Idiot World Theme Park, but what wouldn’t be?

The Boomer-era media created this myth to sell products. There was no ideology, just a sales pitch. It’s like a fashion; it’s just a style, not a fact for many people in every generation.

The myth of Boomer apathy is another. The Boomer era started in 1945, just after the worst war in history. By 1961, Rachel Carson’s iconic Silent Spring came out, beatnik (young Boho culture) was giving rise to the 60s revolution, etc. Apathy wasn’t a currency with teenagers. The world was getting ugly around then. The Cold War was and still is an existential threat.

A tired Greatest Generation, our parents, didn’t quite get it; some didn’t get it at all. This was where the Generation Gap solidified into a hard fact. Non-violence, antiwar protests, peace, and the rest of the litany didn’t get much traction, particularly with the right wing press.

Feminism also didn’t get much of a welcome. One of the uglier hidden histories of those decades is that domestic violence was common, divorce rates soared, and few if any of the basic feminist values got heard, let alone discussed seriously. Feminism as it now is was a thankless task, and a huge achievement.

Among the myths is a pseudo-image regarding early environmentalism. Environmentally, the Boomers tried, usually unsuccessfully. You could protest anything, sure, but getting results was a very different matter. The current state of the world shows how little impact those early environmental movements had in real terms. Nobody listened.

(It should be noted that some of these protests were highly suspect and perhaps sabotaged by so-called “radicals” who invariably derailed discussion with more polarizations. How do you walk into someone’s office, call them all criminals, and expect action? Went down well with the anti-human right wing press of the time, of course. Like the Black Bloc, the idea was to discredit environmentalism. You don’t save rainforest by burning someone’s car, for example. Worth thinking about for this generation.)

Anti-Millennial crap explained

Simultaneously with the polarizing OK Boomer came the anti-Millennial propaganda. “They’re lazy, they want everything, etc. etc.” Wrong on all counts. Millennials are sharp, alert, broke, and worried, with good reason. This world is full of nuts, and they’re “inheriting” a murderous, mismanaged, dunghill.

This process of choreographing a mutual hate campaign is a boringly standard and very old media tactic. Create an argument, make ever-more-extreme statements, feed in more hate on both sides, and then claim to be geniuses representing something. The technique still works, although mainly just with the illiterate. People don’t just naturally hate their grandparents; someone has to tell them they do.

(Actually, you’re morons, you polarizing psych guys. You always have been. You’re always in the way of any and all human rights and aspirations. Usually it’s calling something socialism, or whatever the buzzword for conformists is that week. Disappear into whatever current stupefyingly self-righteous coma you’re in now and stay there. Take your geriatric hate preachers with you.)

Health, education, housing, and other things young people can’t have

While this merry little dance of the mythologies was going on, the next two generations effectively got priced out of every market on Earth. Undiluted decades-long hype turned the housing market into a game of Monopoly nobody but the property sector could win.

Unaffordability is the new status game. An insular corporate culture of “great numbers” for all occasions has basically destroyed real income values. That’s if you have an income, which many people effectively don’t. Debt is piled on the young like never before. Animals look after their kids; this society doesn’t even pretend to try.

Now tell me – How do Millennials or anyone under 30 manage to afford anything right now? What’s the future for people who can’t pay for anything much? Given the entry of artificial intelligence and the obsolescence of so many types of work, how do they get regular incomes?

“That’s their problem,” you say? No, you idiots, it’s the incoming disaster for the world. How do they get mortgages, pay for education and health, or have lives, on gig-economy income streams? What happens to all your capital and asset values if they can’t afford to play your stupid game of Self-Worshipping Monopoly? Markets crashing and assets devaluing on a routine basis? Bingo.

They and future generations are truly 2000% screwed. They’re broke already, despite this ludicrous $30-40 trillion of money they’re supposed to have in their 30s. That’s a drop in the bucket, particularly over any extended period of time. They won’t even be able to afford the holy credit cards.

While we’re on the subject – How do they no-doubt-so-pleasantly while away the intervening decades or so? With what? How do they live, by eating press releases? A (very) few privileged and highly patronized kids who managed to afford an education and survived the ever-shrinking jobs markets will be OK, but most won’t.

Health? Who can afford to be healthy? Most people already can’t, thanks to the totally irrational US business culture’s infatuation with gouging the world. It’s a sort of “genocide by spreadsheet”. Happy?

No, it’s not OK

Many of us Boomers truly hated the insular society from the start. Not much has changed. It was precisely what we fought against. We have nothing against Millennials or their even unluckier follow-up generations. It hasn’t occurred to us that polarization, which we’ve seen so often, achieves anything at all.

Read this article by Greta Thunberg and friends in The New York Times. Be extremely thankful you’ve got kids able and trying to stand up for themselves. Listen to them for once. They’re talking about climate, but the macro “environment” they’re growing up in is a pigsty/sewer at best. Who’s responsible for that? Not them. They’ll have to clean it up.

Boomers don’t expect you useless self-proclaimed “elites” (Ha! “Elite” what? Professional bores, boors and incompetents?) to do anything. You never have. What you do, you invariably screw up and pay yourselves for doing it.

No, it’s not OK, you generation-molesting sycophantic vermin. Get back in your dear little middle aged delusory day care centers, shut up, and get out of the way of humanity. Now.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/boomers-polarization-the-environment-and-no-none-of-its-ok/article#ixzz74Ff20xTx

New England preps for 1st hurricane in 30 years with Henri

As of 5 p.m. Friday, the National Weather Service suggested the storm might make landfall first in eastern Long Island before careening further north.

Boaters got their craft out of the water Friday at the boat ramp in Mattapoisett Harbor as Tropical Storm Henri churned its way toward New England.


By PHILIP MARCELO and PAT EATON-ROBB, Associated PressAugust 20, 2021


PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — New Englanders bracing for their first hurricane in 30 years began hauling boats out of the water and taking other precautions Friday as Tropical Storm Henri barreled toward the Northeast coast.

Henri was expected to intensify into a hurricane by Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Impacts could be felt in New England states by Sunday, including on Cape Cod, which is teeming with tens of thousands of summer tourists.

Henri’s track was imprecise, but as of 5 p.m. EDT Friday, the National Weather Service suggested it might make landfall first in eastern Long Island before careening further north. The White House said President Joe Biden was briefed on the storm’s track.

Radar Map


Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday urged people vacationing on the Cape to leave well before Henri hits, and those who planned to start vacations there to delay their plans. “We don’t want people to be stuck in traffic on the Cape Cod bridges when the storm is in full force on Sunday,” he said.

Baker said up to 1,000 National Guard troops were on standby to help with evacuations if needed.

“This storm is extremely worrisome,” said Michael Finkelstein, police chief and emergency management director in East Lyme, Connecticut. “We haven’t been down this road in quite a while and there’s no doubt that we and the rest of New England would have some real difficulties with a direct hit from a hurricane.”

Finkelstein said he’s most concerned about low-lying areas of town that could become impossible to access because of flooding and a storm surge.

Thursday marked exactly 30 years since Hurricane Bob came ashore in Rhode Island as a Category 2 storm, killing at least 17 people and leaving behind more than $1.5 billion worth of damage. Bob, which left streets in coastal towns littered with boats blown free of their moorings, knocked out power and water to hundreds of thousands for days.

Large swaths of the Eastern seaboard were mopping up on Friday from the effects of Henri’s predecessor, Tropical Depression Fred. In North Carolina, Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher said four people died and five individuals remained unaccounted for, down from around 20 people reported missing on Thursday.

The weather service warned of the potential for damaging winds and widespread coastal flooding from Henri, and officials in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York cautioned that people could lose power for a week or even longer. Authorities urged people to secure their boats, fuel up their vehicles, and stock up on canned goods.

The system was centered in the Atlantic Ocean about 345 miles (560 kilometers) south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and about 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of Montauk Point, New York. It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph).

The hurricane watch stretched across the South Shore of Long Island from Fire Island Inlet to Montauk, and the North Shore from Port Jefferson Harbor to Montauk. It also covered the coast from New Haven, Connecticut, to Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts; and Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Block Island.

The main threats were expected to be storm surge, wind, and rain, forecasters said. Storm surge between 3 and 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) was possible from Watch Hill, Rhode Island, to Sagamore Beach.

Rainfall between 2 to 5 inches (5 to 12 centimeters) was expected Sunday through Monday over the region.

Henri was heading northwest Friday morning, but forecasters expect it to make a turn toward the north and approach the coastlines of New York and New England. New York hasn’t had a direct hit from a major hurricane season storm since Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc in 2012.

At Safe Harbor Marina in coastal Plymouth, Massachusetts, Steve Berlo was among the many boaters having their vessels pulled out of the water ahead of the storm

“It’s rare, but when it happens, you want to be sure you’re ready,” said Berlo, 54. “Got to protect our second home. So that’s that. Now I can sleep tonight.”

In the Hamptons, the celebrity playground on Long Island’s east end, officials warned of dangerous rip currents and flooding that’s likely to turn streets, like mansion-lined Dune Road on the Atlantic coast, into lagoons.

Ryan Murphy, the emergency management administrator for the Town of Southampton, said that while the storm’s track continues to evolve, “we have to plan as if it’s going to be like a Category 1 hurricane that would be hitting us.”

The National Weather Service also warned residents and beachgoers on the North Carolina coast of rip currents and rough surf associated with Henri. Meteorologist Steven Pfaff of the weather service’s Wilmington office said swells from Henri were expected to create hazardous surf conditions beginning Friday and continuing on Saturday.

At the U.S. Navy’s submarine base in Groton, Connecticut, personnel on Friday were securing submarine moorings, installing flood gates in front of doors on some waterfront buildings, and doubling up lines on small boats, officials said. Families were being encouraged to watch the forecast and make any necessary preparations.

The Coast Guard urged boaters to stay off the water, saying in a statement: “The Coast Guard’s search and rescue capabilities degrade as storm conditions strengthen. This means help could be delayed.”

At the Port Niantic marina in Niantic, Connecticut, Debbie Shelburn and her employees were already busy Friday hauling boats out of the water and into a large storage building.

“Basically, it’s become all hands on deck. No matter your position — mechanic, whatever — everybody is out there helping with the logistics of moving the boats and getting them secure on land,” she said.

Eaton-Robb reported from Columbia, Connecticut. Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak in New York, Skip Foreman in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and William J. Kole in Warwick, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.

New attacks from APT31 are targeting Russia, U.S, and Canada


By Dr. Tim Sandle
Published August 21, 2021

The Positive Technologies Expert Security Center has revealed details of new cyberattacks launched by APT31, the criminal group known for targeting global government agencies. He origin of the threat appears to be stemming from China.

As a result of this attack, more than a dozen malicious emails have bene dispatched around the world. This email onslaught occurred between January and July 2021. In terms of global reach, traces of the group were found in the U.S., Canada, Mongolia, the Republic of Belarus, and – for the first time – Russia.

These attacks leveraged previously unseen malicious content: The group’s new tool is a Remote Access Trojan that allows criminals to control a victim’s computer or network, and steal any file from an infected machine.

A Remote Access Trojan is a tool used by malware developers to gain full access and remote control on a user’s system, including mouse and keyboard control, file access, and network resource access.

Read more: North Korean hackers APT38 have conducted $600 million crypto heist

A detailed analysis of the malware samples, as well as numerous overlaps in functionality, techniques, and mechanisms used enabled researchers to attribute the detected samples to APT31.

In particular, the researchers detected a link to a phishing domain inst.rsnet-devel[.]com, which imitates the domain of federal government bodies and government bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation for the Internet segment – a malicious domain likely designed to mislead government officials and companies that work with government agencies.

In terms of what is known about the group’s new tool:
It uses techniques to avoid detection and self-deletes after it accomplishes its goals, as well as deletes all the files it created, and registry keys
In some cases, such as in attacks in Mongolia, the dropper was signed with a valid digital signature that was most likely stolen, indicating the attacker’s high level of knowledge
The malware can be used as a part of a global campaign that includes cyber espionage
In order to make the malicious library look like the original version, criminals named it MSVCR100.dll—the library with the exact same name is part of Visual C++ for Microsoft Visual Studio and is present on almost all computers. In addition, it contains as exports the names that can be found in the legitimate MSVCR100.dll

It is of further concern that the Positive Technologies researchers believe the potential malware is only version is 1.0, based on the value embedded in the code and contained in the network packages.

The trends indicate that the hacker group is expanding the geography of its interests. The researchers believe further attacks stemming from this group will be revealed soon, including against Russia. Based on the changes that have taken place over the last year, researchers believe the group is not afraid to make significant changes to their tools – so future malicious programs may be completely different from those already researched.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/new-attacks-from-apt31-are-targeting-russia-u-s-and-canada/article#ixzz74FeN2L1H