CPAC set to stage far-right conference in Hungary -- as federal prosecutors zero in

Zachary Petrizzo, Salon
October 14, 2021

Matt Schlapp speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), 

photo by Gage Skidmore.

The American Conservative Union, the conservative grassroots organization that puts on the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC, is taking its tested model for hosting right-wing gatherings to the authoritarian nation of Hungary.

CPAC events have been held in various foreign countries over the years, but there is an unmistakable significance to staging one in the country ruled by right-wing despot Viktor Orbán, who has many fans among American conservatives and Trump supporters.

In a statement to Salon, CPAC's acting communications director, Regina Bratton, acknowledged that the event is scheduled for late March of 2022 in Hungary, saying the organization hopes it will be a "huge success."

"International CPAC in Tokyo" launched five years ago, Bratton said. "Since then, annual conferences have been added in Australia, Brazil and South Korea. There are plans for a CPAC Israel, and now organizers in Hungary who are passionate about protecting freedom have announced plans to host a future event," she continued. "The battle for freedom is the same in America as it is around the world. It is a battle against socialism."

Yet CPAC organizers also appear to be distancing themselves somewhat from the Hungarian event, which Bratton later said in a phone interview was not "an official CPAC conference" and was not being "put on by our organization here in the Washington, D.C., metro area." She described the sponsors of the Hungary conference as "an outside organization" comprised of "freedom-loving people" in that country. CPAC "was very happy the [Hungarian] government is allowing this to happen in their country," Bratton said.

Asked about the relationship between the CPAC sponsors in Hungary and the American Conservative Union, Bratton was not specific, saying only, "I don't believe they are a subsidiary of CPAC."

Although the relationship between ACU and the Hungarian CPAC event remains unclear, a former ACU employee told Salon the attempt to draw a distinction was largely cosmetic, and that the Hungary gathering had been on the table since before the COVID pandemic. Another individual familiar with planning for the Hungary event told Salon that the ACU has been closely involved from the beginning. An ACU spokesperson declined to comment on these claims.

News of the CPAC event in Hungary was first reported by a Hungarian news site called "24.hu," which quoted ACU executive director Dan Schneider saying, "Hungary is an excellent place to host the CPAC. The essence of conservative ideology is to preserve the best old values for everyone," he said, but "liberals are destroying everything traditional with their 'strange ideas.'"

One former ACU chairman, Al Cardenas, told Salon he has no idea why the group is holding an event in Hungary, saying he hasn't "heard of any reason" for the venture.

Michael Edison Hayden, a spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said he clearly saw a purpose behind the event.

"It's a threat," he explained, adding that Orbán's party, Fidesz, has "all but eliminated the free press, and have weakened democracy in that country to the point that it can't even be considered a democracy anymore. There is no reason to bring [CPAC] to Hungary unless that is a clear statement that that's what you want to do to the United States."

News of the Hungarian venture comes as ACU and its chairman, Matt Schlapp, reportedly find themselves targets of a federal probe. "Federal investigators are currently looking into possible criminal campaign-finance misdeeds at ACU during Schlapp's tenure," The Dispatch reported last week. "As part of the investigation, the FBI has interviewed former and current ACU employees about the financial dealings of the organization and its leaders."

When asked to comment on the reported investigation, Schlapp said he would respond with a statement. He did not do so before publication of this article.

ALBERT EINSTEIN VISITED IN 1900 TO SEE HIS FATHER'S WORK

How the hydroelectric genius of Einstein’s dad lit up an Italian town in 1899

The mill in Canneto sull’Oglio is again generating green energy, over a century after Hermann Einstein made the village one of the first in its region with electric streetlamps

By GIOVANNI VIGNA

Today

The Naviglio canal in Canneto sull'Oglio at the turn of the 20th century. The water drop can be seen behind the children. (Courtesy)

MANTUA, Italy — Over a century ago, Hermann Einstein, father of the famous Nobel laureate physicist Albert Einstein, installed a hydraulic turbine and generator in the San Giuseppe mill in Canneto sull’Oglio, a small town in the northern Italian province of Mantua. The enhancement brought light to the village’s public streets for the first time.

Last month, after a yearlong renovation, the old mill, on Molino Street alongside the banks of the Naviglio canal, reopened in all of its former glory. Now, the facility, which dates back to 1898, will once again provide energy to the town by making use of a small drop in elevation on Molino Street where the water flows down into the bed of the Oglio River.

“It was originally the idea of Hermann Einstein — Albert’s father — at the end of the 19th century to exploit the drop in the river,” said Paolo Magri, technical director of Garda Chiese, a consortium that protects waterways, deals with wastewater, and helps expand and maintain irrigation water networks. It was under Garda Chiese’s auspices that the restoration of the mill was performed.

“We invested 460,000 euros [roughly $531,000] to build a hydroelectric plant by installing a hydraulic auger, the screw invented by Archimedes. The great mathematician and inventor had designed the auger to lift liquids, but in this system it harnesses the force of the flowing water to produce a spinning motion — which, thanks to a generator, then produces electricity,” he said.

Hermann Einstein’s turbine had a maximum output of 16 kilowatts; the new system can reach 50. The plant will have an average annual production of 200,000 to 250,000 kilowatt-hours, enough to provide all the electricity needs for some 70 households in the town of nearly 4,400 people.

As part of an initiative to educate young people about the work of Hermann Einstein and keep his memory alive, the Canneto sull’Oglio municipality will build a pedestrian and cycling bridge geared toward local schools that will connect the Einstein mill with the Cartara mill, located a little further downstream.

The towers and river in Canneto sull’Oglio. (Sergio Scalvini)

Canneto sull’Oglio Mayor Nicolò Ficicchia called the project a winning mix of history, technology and environmental activism. “The San Giuseppe Mill is a building that has great historical value, and is now used to produce clean energy,” he said.
J. Einstein & Cie

Hermann Einstein moved his family from Ulm to Munich at his brother Jakob’s urging in the summer of 1880. There, the brothers established an electrical engineering company, Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, which produced equipment for the then-cutting edge electric street lighting. With Hermann in charge of sales and Jakob acting as technician, the factory grew to employ about 300 workers, though competition from other companies eventually caused the firm to go bankrupt in 1893.
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The following year, convinced by an Italian engineer, the brothers moved to Milan and built a factory in the town of Pavia, 25 kilometers (22 miles) south of the city, in record time. However, new financial issues forced this company out of business as well in 1896. Though the Einstein family had lost most of its money, Albert’s father ventured out on his own to establish yet another engineering company, this time in Milan, with the financial backing of some relatives.

Hermann Einstein. (Public domain)

Hermann Einstein arrived in Canneto sull’Oglio on February 6, 1898, with the goal of developing an innovative lighting system for the village. After conducting some local research, he presented town authorities with plans, which are still kept in the municipal archive.

“The proposal was submitted to the municipality a few days after Hermann Einstein’s arrival in the village,” said town councilman Gianluca Bottarelli, who oversees cultural affairs. “In September 1898, after complex negotiations, an agreement was reached. The German entrepreneur leased the municipal Madonna and San Giuseppe mills — which used the waters of the Naviglio canal to grind cereals — for a period of 25 years.”

In Canneto sull’Oglio, Hermann Einstein set out to radically modernize the mechanics of the San Giuseppe mill to create a real “electric light workshop” through the installation of a hydraulic turbine and generator, while ensuring that the grain milling continued.

A view of the town of Canneto sull’Oglio. (Daniele Spinosa)

The agreement also covered the construction, through the main streets of the town, of an electrical power grid for public and private use that was capable of powering 300 incandescent lamps. In September 1899 the project was completed and the new electric lights were switched on, making the town one of the first in the province of Mantua to boast street lamps.

The Einsteins were not strictly observant Jews. Between 1885 and 1888 Albert attended a Catholic primary school in Munich while being privately educated in the fundamentals of the Jewish religion at home. According to the documentary “Einstein in Italy,” recently broadcast by Italian public television station RAI, Albert went to Canneto sull’Oglio with his father in the summer of 1900 to see the generator and power network. But Hermann Einstein’s stay in Canneto sull’Oglio was short-lived and, as early as March 1900, he sold the business to his cousin Rudolf while remaining its guarantor.
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The hydroelectric generator in the San Giuseppe mill in Canneto sull’Oglio, northern Italy. (Courtesy)

Even though his situation had improved, Hermann Einstein continued to be frustrated and concerned over finances. The stress had a strong impact, and his health suffered in his final years. On October 10, 1902, Hermann Einstein died of heart failure at the age of 55 in Milan.

Today, electricity is taken for granted, but at the turn of the 20th century it was a precious commodity. In Canneto sull’Oglio the legacy of Hermann Einstein will shine on as residents remember the extraordinary innovation he brought into the daily life of the small local community.

Exterior of the San Giuseppe mill in Canneto sull'Oglio, in the Italian province of Mantua. (Courtesy)

A man at work in the San Giuseppe mill in Canneto sull'Oglio, which has now been outfitted with an updated hydroelectric generator. (Courtesy)

The San Giuseppe mill in Canneto sull'Oglio in the 1960s. (Courtesy)

Why are teachers in our country paid less? Because we devalue what they do

Rod Graham
October 14, 2021

Teachers' Strike 

REUTERS:Michael Ciaglo


"Women's work"

Standard views by economists as to what determines wages will include worker productivity or supply and demand. Meanwhile, many economic sociologists claim that our societal assumptions about the value of a job influence the wages it can command. If a job is seen as "women's work," the wages for that job decline.

One version of this claim links the five c's — cleaning, catering, caring, cashiering and clerical work — to lower pay, because these jobs are predominantly female. One can see this without any complex analysis.

But when complex statistical models are used to tease out precise changes in pay, it gets worse. A study in 2009 showed the changes in the average wages of a profession as women move into it.

The study looked at changes from 1950 to 2000, and the findings were eye-opening. As highlighted in the Times, the pay for jobs in recreation declined by 57 percent over that period, as women entered the profession. As women became designers, wages fell by 34 percent. For biologists, 18 percent.

"It's not that women are always picking lesser things in terms of skill and importance … it's just that the employers are deciding to pay it less," said Paula England, one of the authors of the study. In other words, wages are not simply about productivity or the demand for a job. It is also about how much we value what that person does.

Since the advent of mass public education in the mid-19th century, teaching has been a female-dominated profession. By the late 1880s, women were 63 percent of the nation's teachers. The percentage of women in teaching has only increased, even as other professions opened to women in the late 20th century. By 2015-2016, there were 3.8 million public K-12 teachers in the US, of which about 77 percent were female.

The long association of teaching to femininity is partly to blame for the devaluing of the teaching profession. But there is another reason.

Draining the pool

One of the best books I have read over the past year was Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. McGhee, the former president of the think tank Demos, describes the consequences of the racial hierarchy in the US.

Many white Americans view public policy, as it relates to race, as a zero-sum game. They interpret policies that disproportionately benefit Black Americans as them losing something.

McGhee uses the example of public swimming pools closing across the country in the 1960s after civil rights legislation made separate swimming facilities unconstitutional. McGhee argues that white communities saw a sharing of privileges with Black Americans as a lessening of theirs. They voted to close public swimming facilities. As McGhee puts it, they preferred to "drain the pool" rather than share it with Black Americans. McGhee, clearly linking this to the policies of the Republic Party post-1960, sees this dynamic in other public goods as well, from social programs to public infrastructure to health care.

But there is something deeper here, and this is why I like McGhee's analysis. Our public school system is supposed to be a great leveler — a dismantler of racial and class hierarchy. Our schools are supposed to be places where young people from different backgrounds can meet, mingle and learn together. It is … a kind of pool.

And so it is with teaching.

Republicans have been attacking public schools since at least Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. Most liberal commentators will center their discussion on school choice and vouchers — something Reagan indeed brought up during his campaign. School choice, some may argue, is a way of starving a public school system. A more cynical view is that school choice would reduce the power of teachers' unions that almost universally support liberal policies.

Teachers are caretakers of that pool. As such, there is little mystery as to why what they do is devalued. Why would Republicans support a pay raise or better working conditions for people who are a part of a system they despise?

They want that pool drained and cemented over permanently.

Valuing value

Two factors work together to suppress the wages of teachers. There is the historical association of teaching as "women's work." And then there is the disdain by white conservatives for public goods that threaten to level a racial hierarchy.

Knowing the cause gives us some clues as to the cure. Until we address the undervaluing of teachers, an increase in teacher salaries or investments that improve their working conditions is a non-starter. The organizations that support K-12 teachers need to value value. Our expectations about what teachers deserve, their worth, and their social esteem are important in of themselves. Without public perceptions of teachers as valuable, lawmakers are simply not going to make teacher raises or smaller classroom sizes a major priority.

I am calling out our two most prominent K-12 organizations – The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. These organizations need to make a concerted effort to improve the public perception of teachers. They need to shift some time and energy away from partisan politics and invest it in demonstrating to the American public — and yes, this includes conservatives — the value public school teachers have in our society.


Rod Graham is a sociologist. A professor at Virginia's Old Dominion University, he researches and teaches courses in the areas of cyber-crime and racial inequality. His work can be found at roderickgraham.com

 Follow him @roderickgraham

 

Connection to nature during the pandemic linked with children's wellbeing

• Download PDF Copy

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2021

Children from less affluent backgrounds are likely to have found COVID-19 lockdowns more challenging to their mental health because they experienced a lower connection with nature than their wealthier peers, a new study suggests.

A study has found that children who increased their connection to nature during the first COVID-19 lockdown were likely to have lower levels of behavioral and emotional problems, compared to those whose connection to nature stayed the same or decreased - regardless of their socio-economic status.

The study, by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Sussex, also found that children from affluent families tended to have increased their connection to nature during the pandemic more than their less affluent peers.

Nearly two-thirds of parents reported a change in their child's connection to nature during the lockdown, while a third of children whose connection to nature decreased displayed increased problems of wellbeing - either through 'acting out' or by increased sadness or anxiety.

The results strengthen the case for nature as a low-cost method of mental health support for children and suggest that more effort should be made to support children in connecting with nature - both at home and at school.

The researchers' suggestions for achieving this include: reducing the number of structured extracurricular activities for children to allow for more time outside, provision of gardening projects in schools, and funding for schools, particularly in disadvantaged areas, to implement nature-based learning programs.

The study, published today in the journal People and Nature, also offers important guidance in relation to potential future restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We know that access to and engagement with nature is associated with wide-ranging benefits in children and adults, including lowering levels of anxiety and depression, and reducing stress."

Samantha Friedman, Study First Author, Researcher, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge

She added: "The COVID-19 lockdowns meant that children no longer had their normal school activities, routines, and social interactions. The removal of these barriers gave us a novel context to look at how changes in connection with nature affected mental health.

"Connecting with nature may have helped buffer some UK children against the effects of the lockdown, but we found that children from less affluent families were less likely to have increased their connection to nature during that time."

An increased connection to nature was reflected in reports of children spending time gardening, playing in the garden or doing physical activities outdoors. This was commonly linked to having more time available for these activities during the lockdown. Conversely, according to parents, a decreased connection to nature was explained by an inability to access some natural spaces due to travel restrictions in place at the time.

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"Connecting to nature may be an effective way of supporting children's wellbeing, particularly as children return to normal routines, such as school and extracurricular activities," said Dr Elian Fink, a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex who was also involved in the study.

She added: "Our findings could be helpful in redesigning lockdown rules should the UK need to return to these conditions in the future, and particularly to countries whose lockdown restrictions prevented children from accessing nature at all.

"Extending the amount of time that children can access nature, or extending the distance that children could be allowed to travel to access nature, could have a beneficial impact on their mental health."

The study used an online survey to collect responses from 376 families in the UK, with children between three and seven years old, between April and July 2020. Over half of these families reported that their child's connection to nature increased during the first COVID-19 lockdown. The remaining parents whose children's connection to nature decreased or stayed the same during this period also reported that their children were experiencing greater wellbeing problems.

A widely-used, gold standard questionnaire was used as a measure of each child's mental health - assessing emotional problems such as unhappiness, worrying, anxiety, and depression; and behavioral problems such as anger and hyperactivity.

"Mental health problems can manifest in different ways in different children. We found that a greater connection with nature was associated with reductions in both emotional and behavioural problems," said Fink.

She added: "In reality the contrasting experiences of access to nature between different socio-economic groups may be even starker than our study found because respondents to our online study were largely drawn from more affluent societal groups."

Parents with children between three and seven years old responded to the study survey with reference to one particular child. The researchers focused on this age group because they were likely to experience a lot of disruption due to the pandemic, and also have less understanding of what was happening.

"Our study revealed the wide range of ways that parents can help children get more connected to nature. This might be a bit daunting to some, but it doesn't have to be camping in the woods and foraging for food – it really can be as simple as going for a walk near your house or sitting outside for ten minutes a day," said Friedman.

Source:

University of Cambridge

Journal reference:

Friedman, S., et al. Understanding changes to children's connection to nature during the COVID-19 pandemic and implications for child well-being. People and Nature. doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10270.

REPORTS SAY HACKERS DEMANDING $10 MILLION IN RANSOM

Hospital has ‘no idea’ of scale of cyberattack havoc; recovery could take months

Day after major ransom attack identified at Hadera center, doctors report minimal progress on solving problem; experts unsurprised, predicting normality is at least 3 months away

By RICKY BEN-DAVID and NATHAN JEFFAY

Today, 6:41 am

Illustrative image: a computer hacker (iStock via Getty Images)


A day after falling victim to the biggest cyberattack in history on the Israeli health system, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center still has no idea of the amount of damage caused and does not know when they will be able to return to normal operations, according to a senior official.

Dr. Amnon Ben Moshe, administrative director of the Hadera institution, said that staff still have no access to the main systems used for viewing and updating hospital medical records, and for administration.

On Wednesday, the hospital was hit by a still-unresolved ransomware attack, forcing it to shut down its technology network and causing delays in care.

“We’re in a similar situation to yesterday, when we identified the situation and saw the cyberattacks,” he told The Times of Israel.

Questioned on the current situation, Ben Moshe said: “We don’t know the extent of the damage.” Regarding the timescale for getting back to normal, he said: “We have no idea. We just worked all night.”

Cybersecurity experts say the process could be a very long one.

Ido Geffen, a vice president at CyberMDX, an Israeli startup that offers cybersecurity solutions for medical devices and clinical assets, told The Times of Israel that the full recovery of data could take months.

Einat Meyron, a cybersecurity consultant and cyber resilience expert, said: “There is a long road ahead to recovery. We’ve seen similar events in the US, Belgium, and Portugal for example where hospitals were attacked, and they needed about three to six months just to get to a point where they could start working [normally] again.”

Channel 12 reported Thursday that the attackers left an email address on the servers that were attacked. An outside company acting on behalf of the hospital made contact with the hackers, who demanded $10 million dollars in ransom.

The report noted that as a government hospital they were barred from paying ransoms.

A hospital ward at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center on October 14, 2021, as staff try to manage without regular IT systems (courtesy of Hillel Yaffe Medical Center)

At Hillel Yaffe, some non-urgent procedures have been canceled, but most of the hospital’s work is continuing, using alternative IT systems, some of which have been installed specially. The ability of doctors to access nationally-held patient records which include their medical background (as opposed to internal hospital records) hasn’t been interrupted. This is because Hillel Yaffe recently introduced hand-held devices that provide this access.

Hospital management praised its staff for facing the new challenges well, in a statement on Thursday. “Along with the efforts of cyber and computing experts to rehabilitate the computer systems and investigate the incident, the medical work continues and our teams provide a very good response in the face of the existing challenges.”

Cybersecurity experts say that the attack, while serious, could have been worse. “In this attack, we know it came from the internet, meaning an attacker gained access to a password and then was able to get into the network,” said Geffen. “The good thing is, no medical devices or critical equipment were affected, as far as we know. In similar attacks in the US and Europe, critical devices that patients were connected to were indeed affected and that is a much worse situation.”

He added: ”Right now, the hospital is likely in the containment phase, making sure the attack doesn’t spread and trying to ensure all critical operations are still working. Then comes the investigation and recovery phase to determine what exactly happened and try to recover data.”

This is a long process if the hospital is to be sure that no “backdoors,” namely malware by which unauthorized users can get around security measures and regain access, are left in place.

“This can take months because it’s a careful operation to make sure the hackers didn’t leave any backdoors,” Geffen said.

US government discloses more ransomware attacks on water plants
By Sergiu Gatlan
October 15, 2021

Image: Ivan Bandura

U.S. Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) Sector facilities have been breached multiple times in ransomware attacks during the last two years, U.S. government agencies said in a joint advisory on Thursday.

The advisory also mentions ongoing malicious activity targeting WWS facilities that could lead to ransomware attacks affecting their ability to provide potable water by effectively managing their wastewater.

Since they are part of the 16 U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, their compromise and incapacitation via spearphishing and outdated software exploitation attacks would directly impact national security, economic security, and public health or safety.

Multiple ransomware strains were used in the incidents revealed in this advisory to encrypt water treatment facilities' systems, including Ghost, ZuCaNo, and Makop ransomware:

In August 2021, malicious cyber actors used Ghost variant ransomware against a California-based WWS facility. The ransomware variant had been in the system for about a month and was discovered when three supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) servers displayed a ransomware message.

In July 2021, cyber actors used remote access to introduce ZuCaNo ransomware onto a Maine-based WWS facility's wastewater SCADA computer. The treatment system was run manually until the SCADA computer was restored using local control and more frequent operator rounds.

In March 2021, cyber actors used an unknown ransomware variant against a Nevada-based WWS facility. The ransomware affected the victim's SCADA system and backup systems. The SCADA system provides visibility and monitoring but is not a full industrial control system (ICS).

In September 2020, personnel at a New Jersey-based WWS facility discovered potential Makop ransomware had compromised files within their system.

Attackers had also infiltrated WWS plants' networks attempting to poison the drinking water, as it happened in March 2019 when a former employee at Kansas-based WWS facility failed in his attempt to use unrevoked credentials for malicious purposes after he resigned.

While not included in the advisory, an unknown threat actor also gained access to the water treatment system for Oldsmar, Florida, in February 2021 and tried to poison the town's drinking water by raising the levels of chemicals used to clean wastewater to hazardous levels.

Other breaches of water treatment facilities have happened over the past two decades, including a South Houston wastewater treatment plant in 2011, a water company with outdated software and hardware equipment in 2016, the Southern California Camrosa Water District in August 2020, and a Pennsylvania water system in May 2021.

"To secure WWS facilities—including Department of Defense (DoD) water treatment facilities in the United States and abroad— [..] , CISA, FBI, EPA, and NSA strongly urge organizations to implement the measures described in the Recommended Mitigations section of this advisory," the joint advisory says.

You can find the complete list of mitigation measures recommended by the four federal agencies here.

International Ransomware Summit Sets Sights on Crypto

Representatives from the EU and 31 countries called for a collaborative crackdown on crypto and ransomware risks.

By Scott Chipolina
Oct 15, 2021 

In brief
Representatives from the EU and 31 governments have called for a global approach to ransomware.
The Biden administration has already taken several steps to crack down on ransomware and crypto.

Representatives from the European Union (EU) and 31 other countries met during a virtual summit this week to coordinate a global response to ransomware, per the Wall Street Journal.

“We are dedicated to enhancing our efforts to disrupt the ransomware business model and associated money-laundering activities,” the representatives reportedly said in a collective statement yesterday.

The representatives also said that internationally coordinated scrutiny of cryptocurrencies would be integral to facing the ransomware threat head-on. Ransomware groups, they said, can easily transfer any stolen funds to jurisdictions that aren’t up to scratch on tracking illicit transactions.

“We also recognize the challenges some jurisdictions face in developing frameworks and investigative capabilities to address the constantly evolving and highly distributed business operations involving virtual assets,” the representatives added.

Ransomware activities—and their associated ties to cryptocurrencies—have become a major focus for the Biden administration’s national security agenda.
National security, ransomware, and crypto

In the United States, President Biden has made ransomware a priority for the administration’s approach to national security.

Earlier this summer—amid ransomware attacks against Colonial Pipeline and meat processing firm JBS—the U.S. Department of Justice said it would elevate ransomware to a similar priority level as terrorism.

The Biden administration also spent the summer setting up a bespoke ransomware task force, aimed at combating cyberattacks and tracing cryptocurrency ransoms.

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser said during an accompanying briefing that the administration is working on ways to quell the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for illegal activities.



In August, the Biden administration also dusted off the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program—an initiative from 1984 that has paid over $150 million to over 100 informants that helped prevent acts of terrorism.

The State Department is even incorporating cryptocurrency payments—to the tune of $10 million—to dark web informants that can identify any person who is participating “in malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure.”

To top this all off, there are also rumors the Biden administration is eyeing an executive order to crack down on the crypto industry.

Yet, ransomware remains a global problem, as U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during this week’s virtual summit.

“No one country, no one group can solve this problem,” Sullivan said.

(STATE)  CAPITALI$M IN SPACE

US firm sees 'exciting' moment as space tourism booms


Issued on: 15/10/2021 - 

Space Adventures will use a Russian Soyuz rocket for its return to the booming space tourism industry

 Handout Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP/File

Moscow (AFP)

As competition in the space tourism industry heats up, a US-based firm said Friday it was excited to re-enter the sector with the upcoming launch of a Japanese billionaire.

Space Adventures, headed by Tom Shelley, is set in December to send Japanese tycoon Yusaku Maezawa to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

It's the company's first launch in over a decade after suspending trips to the ISS as NASA bought up seats on Russia-operated flights and no other vehicles were available.

"It's a very exciting time for us," Shelley, 48, the president of Space Adventures, told AFP during an interview in Moscow on Friday.

He added that Space Adventures with Russia was planning future launches "to innovate and find new offerings" for clients.

Shelley said the next Space Adventures flight to the ISS -- scheduled for late 2023 or early 2024 -- will give one of its clients an opportunity to complete a spacewalk.

The return of Shelley's company to the industry with Russia was made possible after the succesful flight of Elon Musk's SpaceX last year that delivered astronauts to the ISS.

The move rendered NASA less dependant on Russian launches, freeing up seats with Moscow's space agency, Roscosmos.

Maezawa, 45, will board a Soyuz rocket operated by Roscosmos together with his assistant Yozo Hirano and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

Space Adventure's president Tom Shelley tells AFP it's an 'exciting time' for space tourism Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV AFP

The December launch comes in the middle of a flurry of non-professional launches.

SpaceX this year sent an all-civilian crew on an orbit of the Earth, a first in the history of amateur space travel.

In Moscow, Shelley said the boom in civilian launches meant the general public was becoming "more aware" of space travel.

"2021 has turned into a very interesting year within the private spaceflight industry," he said.

It's "not just something that has been talked as something for the future, but it is happening now".

Space Adventures has sent seven tourists to the ISS. The last was Canadian Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte in 2009.

© 2021 AFP

SPACE RACE 2.0

From spy satellites to mobile networks, S.Korea hopes new rocket gets space program off ground

Reuters
October 15, 2021


By Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea plans to test its first domestically produced space launch vehicle next week, a major step toward jumpstarting the country’s space programme and achieving ambitious goals in 6G networks, spy satellites, and even lunar probes.

If all goes well, the three-stage NURI rocket, designed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) to eventually put 1.5-ton payloads into orbit 600 to 800km above the Earth, will carry a dummy satellite into space on Thursday.

South Korea’s last such booster, launched in 2013 after multiple delays and several failed tests, was jointly developed with Russia.

The new KSLV-II NURI has solely Korean rocket technologies, and is the country's first domestically built space launch vehicle, said Han Sang-yeop, director of KARI's Launcher Reliability Safety Quality Assurance Division.

"Having its own launch vehicle gives a country the flexibility of payload types and launch schedule," he told Reuters in an email.

MILITARY AND CIVILIAN BENEFITS

It also gives the country more control over “confidential payloads” it may want to send into orbit, Han said.

That will be important for South Korea’s plans to launch surveillance satellites into orbit, in what national security officials have called a constellation of “unblinking eyes” to monitor North Korea.

So far, South Korea has remained almost totally reliant on the United States for satellite intelligence on its northern neighbour.

In 2020 a Falcon 9 rocket from the U.S. firm Space X carried South Korea’s first dedicated military communications satellite into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NURI is also key to South Korean plans to eventually build a Korean satellite-based navigation system and a 6G communications network.

“The program is designed not only to support government projects, but also commercial activity,” Oh Seung-hyub, director of the Launcher Propulsion System Development Division, told a briefing on Tuesday.

South Korea is working with the United States on a lunar orbiter, and hopes to land a probe on the moon by 2030.

TRIAL LAUNCH

Given problems with previous launches, Han and other planners said they have prepared for the worst.

The launch day may be changed at the last minute if weather or technical problems arise; the craft will carry a self-destruct mechanism to destroy it if it appears it won’t reach orbit; and media won’t be allowed to observe the test directly.

At least four test launches are planned before the rocket will be considered reliable enough to carry a real payload.

According to pre-launch briefing slides, the rocket’s planned path will take it southeast from its launch site on the south coast of the Korean peninsula, threading its way over the ocean on a trajectory aimed at avoiding flying over Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other major land masses.

"This upcoming launch may be remembered as the hope and achievement of Korean rocketry historically no matter the launch is successful or not," Han told Reuters.

SENSITIVE TECHNOLOGY

Space rockets on the Korean peninsula have been fraught with concerns over their potential use for military purposes, leaving South Korea’s efforts lagging more capable programmes in China and Japan.

"Modern rocketry in Korea couldn't devote its capability much in R&D of rockets because of long-standing political issues," Han said.

The United States has viewed North Korea’s own satellite launch vehicles as testbeds for nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile technology. A North Korean space launch in 2012 helped lead to the breakdown of a deal with the United States.

"North Korea, of course, will not look favourably on South Korea’s rapidly advancing space capabilities, which are far more technologically advanced than those possessed by the North," said James Clay Moltz, a space systems expert at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.

South Korea’s push into space comes as it speeds ahead with its own military ballistic missile systems after agreeing with the United States this year to end all bilateral restrictions on them.

"There is no concern on military applications in NURI launch vehicle development," said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at the Korea Aerospace University. Unlike the liquid-fuelled NURI, South Korea’s military missiles use solid fuel, which is better for weapons, he added.

South Korea is not seen as a "threat" by either Russia or China, so it seems unlikely to affect their space programs, which are already highly militarized, Moltz said.

"Many space launch technologies are inherently dual-use," he said, but noted that he hopes NURI’s development will "not lead to an arms race in space, but instead a safer ‘information race’" where South Korea has better intelligence to head off any future crisis.

(Reporting by Josh Smith. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Orbital outpost’s orientation restored after brief fault, crew not in danger — space firm

The station’s orientation was impacted in the course of testing the thrusters of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft

MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. The International Space Station (ISS) has restored its normal position after it briefly moved out of its orientation testing the engines of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft and the crew is not in danger, the Energia Space Rocket Corporation (part of Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmos) told TASS on Friday.

"In the course of testing the thrusters of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, the station’s orientation was impacted. As a result, the ISS temporarily moved out of its orientation," Energia said.

The orbital outpost’s orientation was promptly restored by the staff of the ISS Russian Segment’s main flight control group, the space rocket corporation specified.

"The station and the crew are not endangered," it stressed.

Currently, 10 crewmembers are working aboard the ISS: Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

Three of the crewmembers, Novitsky, Peresild and Shipenko, will come back to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on October 17.

GUESS WHO

Fox News host unleashes homophobic attack on Pete Buttigieg

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
October 15, 2021

Des Moines, Iowa - September 21, 2019: Pete Buttigieg, Democratic presidential candidate, speaks to the crowd at a political rally.

New dads in Japan can take 35 weeks off with full pay for paternity leave. Spain's news dads? 12 weeks full pay. Sweden: 11 weeks. Iceland's new fathers get 11 weeks of full paid time off. Canadian new dads get between five and eight weeks. In the U.S., no federal law requires paid paternity leave, although the Family and Medical Leave Act allows unpaid time off.

Unlike 86 percent of Americans who support paid paternity leave, Fox News personality and fascism and white supremacism promoter Tucker Carlson opposes it, apparently, and made that crystal clear in the form of a homophobic attack against U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg Thursday night.

That attack was so broad and so ugly it extends to every man who takes paternity leave, which is unfortunate given that studies show men who take paternity leave are less likely to get divorced, among other long-term benefits.

"Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child. Paternity leave, they call it, trying to figure out how to breastfeed – no word on how that went," Carlson said, mocking new dads, fathers in general, men who take paternity leave, and gay fathers.

U.N. deal offers no guarantees of free movement for Rohingya on island: leaked copy




October 15, 2021
By Poppy McPherson

(Reuters) - A deal for the United Nations to start work on a remote Bangladeshi island where the government has sent thousands of Rohingya refugees offers no guarantee they will be allowed to move freely to the mainland, according to a copy of the agreement.

The Bangladesh government has moved nearly 19,000 Rohingya refugees, members of a persecuted mostly Muslim minority from Myanmar, to Bhasan Char island from border camps, despite protests by refugees and opposition from rights groups, who have likened it to an island jail and said some relocations were involuntary.

Refugees have called for freedom of movement between the remote and floodprone island, several hours off the coast, and the sprawling mainland camps near the port town of Cox’s Bazar, while dozens have died in recent months attempting to flee on rickety boats.

The U.N refugee agency, which had previously refused to provide humanitarian services on Bhasan Char until assessments were completed, did not respond to request for comment on why the deal, signed in early October, had not been made public or its contents.

In an Oct. 9 statement, the agency said the agreement covered “key areas of protection, education, skills-training, livelihoods and health, which will help support the refugees to lead decent lives on the island and better prepare them for sustainable return to Myanmar in the future”.

Bangladesh government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

A leaked copy of the deal seen by Reuters says the United Nations would be “permitted unhindered access” to the population and further relocations would be voluntary. But it says any travel between the island and mainland would be on an “as needs” basis, the precise details of which would be determined between the United Nations and Bangladesh.

They can “move on and within Bhasan Char for their daily activities”, it says.

The deal refers to Rohingya as "forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals/refugees", reflecting the refusal of Bangladesh, which is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, to confer refugee status on the group.

In a statement on Friday, the non-profit organisation Fortify Rights, which said it had examined the agreement, called on the United Nations and Bangladesh to revise it to include freedom of movement to the mainland.

“UNHCR’s lifesaving services are essential and needed on the island, but the agency must ensure it is not propping up a refugee prison with this agreement,” said the group's regional director, Ismail Wolff.

More than a million Rohingya live in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar, the vast majority in 2017 after a military crackdown that included mass killings and gang rapes and which the United Nations said was carried out with genocidal intent.

Myanmar denies genocide, saying it was conducting a legitimate campaign against insurgents who attacked police posts.

(Reporting by Poppy Elena McPherson; Editing by Robert Birsel)