COLD WAR 2.0

Pentagon lauds reporting on US military killing civilians


Afghan villagers moving a dead body following an airstrike in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, in September 2019 that allegedly killed 40 civilians at a wedding celebration. 

(AFP/NOOR MOHAMMAD) (NOOR MOHAMMAD)


Tue, May 10, 2022,

The Pentagon congratulated The New York Times Tuesday for winning a Pulitzer Prize for its highly critical expose of civilian deaths in the Afghanistan war, saying the report forced the US military to examine its own behavior.

Last December the newspaper exposed cover-ups of what it called thousands of civilian deaths caused by US forces during the 20-year war, deeply embarrassing the US government.

Citing internal US documents, the report said the US military had advertised its ability to pinpoint targets to avoid civilians, using high-tech surveillance and closely-controlled drones.

But in many cases it misidentified targets, killing innocent villagers and children.

"That coverage was and still is not comfortable, not easy and not simple to address," said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

"We knew that we weren't always as transparent about those mistakes as we should have been," he told reporters.

"It made us ask ourselves some new difficult questions of our own, even as it forced us to answer these difficult questions," he said.

"That's what a free press at its very best does. It holds us to account," Kirby said.

The Pulitzer committee that awarded the prize Monday cited the Times for "courageous and relentless reporting that exposed the vast civilian toll of US-led airstrikes" in Afghanistan.

Kirby contrasted the Pentagon's long-delayed admission of the problems with Russia's actions in Ukraine.

"We're not afraid to admit that we take it seriously, and that we want to do better -- unlike Russia, unlike the unmitigated violence and destruction that they're causing on the people of Ukraine, without care, without acknowledgement," he said.

"No investigations, no transparency, no effort to even not cause civilian harm, much less the war crimes that their soldiers are committing on the ground," he said of the Russian forces.

"When you ask us tough questions, we answer them," he said of the US media.

"You're not seeing any of that from the Russian Ministry of Defense," he said.

pmh/dw

Summer heatwave bleaches 91% of Great Barrier Reef: report




Tue, May 10, 2022, 8:03 PM·1 min read

A prolonged summer heatwave in Australia left 91 percent of the Great Barrier Reef's coral damaged by bleaching, according to a new government monitoring report.

It was the first time on record the reef had suffered bleaching during a La Nina weather cycle, when temperatures would normally be expected to be cooler.

The Reef Snapshot report offered new detail on the damage caused by the fourth "mass bleaching" the world's largest coral reef system has experienced since 2016, which was first revealed in March.

"Climate change is escalating, and the Reef is already experiencing the consequences of this," the report warned.


The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which published the report late Tuesday, conducted extensive surveys of the World Heritage-listed reef between September 2021 and March 2022.

It found that after waters began to warm last December, all three major regions of the reef experienced bleaching -- a phenomenon that occurs when coral is stressed and expels brightly coloured algae living in it.

Although bleached corals are still alive, and moderately affected sections of the reef may recover, "severely bleached corals have higher mortality rates", the report said.

Of the 719 reefs surveyed, the report said 654 -- or 91 percent -- showed some level of coral bleaching.

The report was published 10 days before Australia's May 21 federal election, in which climate change policy has emerged as a key issue for voters.

Next month, the United Nations' World Heritage Committee will decide whether to list the reef as "in danger".

When the UN previously threatened to downgrade the reef's World Heritage listing in 2015, Australia created a "Reef 2050" plan and poured billions of dollars into protection.

mmc/djw/cwl

Despite public anger, Lebanon vote set to entrench status quo





Layal Abou Rahal
Tue, May 10, 2022,

Lebanon's elections Sunday won't yield a seismic shift despite widespread discontent with a graft-tainted political class blamed for a painful economic crisis and a deadly disaster, experts say.

Given Lebanon's sectarian-based politics, it will likely "reproduce the political class and give it internal and international legitimacy", said Rima Majed of the American University of Beirut.

"Maybe candidates from the opposition will clinch some seats, but I don't think that there will be a change in the political scene," said Majed, an expert in sectarianism and social movements.

Beirut voter Issam Ayyad, 70, put it more simply: "We will not be able to change."

The small country's political system has long distributed power among its religious communities, entrenching a ruling elite that has treated politics as a family business.

By convention, the Lebanese president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shiite.

In the current parliament, the Shiite Hezbollah party and its allies, including the Christian Free Patriotic Movement, command a majority.

The system has held back the emergence of non-sectarian political parties and civil society representatives.

The elections will be the first since a youth-led protest movement broke out in October 2019 against a political class seen as inept, corrupt and responsible for a litany of woes, from power blackouts to piles of uncollected garbage.

The anger exploded into months of street rallies but lost momentum as the Covid-19 pandemic hit, together with a financial crash that the World Bank has labelled one of the world's worst in modern times.

- 'Game of loyalty' -

Popular fury flared again after a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate that had languished in a Beirut port warehouse for years exploded in August 2020, killing more than 200 people and devastating entire neighbourhoods.

Successive governments have since failed to chart a path out of Lebanon's worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war that has sparked runaway inflation, deepened dire poverty and fuelled a mass exodus.

Where the Lebanese state has failed to provide basic services, traditional political leaders have tended to step in with their decades-old patronage networks -- a trend more alive than ever during the current crisis.

"The elections are not meant to assess the performance of politicians," said Majed. "They are more a game of loyalty to whoever provides... the most basic services."

Public sector jobs have long been among the main handouts, but now fuel and cash assistance also feature high on the list, giving an advantage to established parties over new opposition groups that lack funds and foreign support.

While bolstered by the 2019 protest movement, new independent candidates have also failed to build a coherent front that could energise a dispirited electorate, observers say.

Nearly 44 percent of eligible voters plan to abstain, according to a survey last month of more than 4,600 voters by British charity Oxfam.

- Voter intimidation -

Polling expert Kamal Feghali said many voters had hoped the newcomers would run "with a unified list and programme" but said that instead their competing electoral lists "will scatter the vote".

While independents will likely do slightly better than in 2018, when only one of them won a seat, said Feghali, the winner once more is likely to be Hezbollah, Lebanon's biggest political and military force, and its allies.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, first formed as a resistance force against neighbour Israel, is now often described as a state within a state that is all-powerful in regions under its control.

Its pre-election intimidation tactics are "salient", said Oxfam, warning that such behaviour tells voters "that change might be denied, and in turn might lead to either a reduction in turnout or a distortion in voting behaviour".

In east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, three Shiite candidates were running on an anti-Hezbollah list but withdrew last month, despite the expiry of a legal deadline to do so.

The move stripped the anti-Hezbollah list of essential Shiite representation and was widely seen by local media as a result of pressure by the powerful movement.

lar/ho/dwo/fz/lg

Lebanon: small, multi-religious Mideast country

Lebanese protesters block a highway during a protest in the capital Beirut on November 29, 2021, as the country struggles with a deep economic crisis - 

Anwar AMRO Agence France-Presse

Beirut (AFP)

Lebanon, a small Mediterranean country wracked by political and economic turmoil and the fallout of the decade-old Syrian conflict next door, holds parliamentary elections on May 15.

Here are some key facts about Lebanon.

- Multi-confessional -

The country with the cedar tree flag is one of the smallest in the Middle East, at about 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 square miles).


Its population of around 4.5 million Lebanese is dwarfed by its diaspora, spread across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australia.

Lebanon is considered relatively liberal in a broadly conservative region. Political power is split between 18 recognised religious communities under a confessionalist form of government.

Lebanon is a parliamentary republic, with a 128-member house split between Muslims and Christians.

In line with Lebanon's "national pact" dating back to independence from France in 1943, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite.

- Between Israel and Syria -

Lebanon endured a brutal civil war between 1975 and 1990 and was under Syrian domination from the 1990s until troops withdrew in 2005.


Its political institutions have long been paralysed by disagreement between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps.

In March 1978, Israel launched "Operation Litani" in south Lebanon, which it said was to protect the north of its territory from fighters from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It withdrew partially in June that year.

In June 1982, Israeli troops invaded Lebanon and besieged Beirut, forcing the PLO to flee.

In mid-2006, a 34-day war pitted Israel -- whose troops had withdrawn from southern Lebanon in 2000 -- against the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.

In 2013, Hezbollah said it was fighting in Syria alongside the troops of President Bashar al-Assad, its involvement dividing the Lebanese political scene even more.

- Shelter for refugees -


Lebanon saw the influx of an estimated 1.5 million refugees following the outbreak of Syria's civil war.

More than three quarters of them live below the poverty line, according to the UN.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees also live in Lebanon, mainly in the country's 12 camps.

- Economic turmoil -

Lebanon is going through a severe economic crisis, described by the World Bank as one of the world's worst since the 1850s.

Lebanese residents have since 2019 suffered draconian banking restrictions on access to money.

Meanwhile, the local currency has plummeted some 90 percent against the dollar on the black market.

Around 80 percent of the population are struggling to escape poverty, the UN says.

For the first time in its history, Lebanon announced in 2020 it was defaulting on its debt payments.

The country lags in development in areas such as water supply, electricity production and waste treatment.

The pain was worsened by the August 2020 Beirut port explosion of ammonium nitrate fertiliser that devastated entire neighbourhoods and killed more than 200 people.

- Ties with France -

France is a traditional ally of Lebanon, with which it has historic, cultural, political and economic links, underpinned by the French language.

The close links go back centuries. In the 16th century after an accord with the Ottoman Empire, the kings of France became the official protectors of the East's Christians.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, France became in 1920 the mandate power in Lebanon, setting the country's borders with Syria. It granted it independence in 1943.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/05/lebanon-small-multi-religious-mideast-country#ixzz7Sx0hjjSD

Timeline: Lebanon in economic, political dire straits

11/05/2022

© IBRAHIM AMRO 

Protestors demand better living conditions and the ouster of a cast of politicians who have monopolised power and influence for decades, on October 22, 2019 in Beirut

Lebanon, which holds parliamentary elections on May 15, has been mired in a deep financial, economic and social crisis, aggravated by a political deadlock.

Lebanon’s then prime minister Hassan Diab delivering a statement at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on April 30, 2020

Here is a recap since turmoil broke out in October 2019.

– Protests erupt –

Mass protests follow a government announcement on October 17, 2019 of a planned tax on voice calls made over messaging services such as WhatsApp.

© ANWAR AMRO 

Police and forensic officers work at the scene of the massive explosion at the port of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, on August 5, 2020

In a graft-plagued country with poor public services, many see the tax as the last straw, with demonstrators demanding “the fall of the regime”.

The government of prime minister Saad Hariri scraps the tax the same day.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the presidential palace in Baabda on December 28, 2021

But protests continue over the ensuing weeks, culminating in huge demonstrations calling for the overhaul of a ruling class in place for decades and accused of systematic corruption.

 Lebanon’s former premier Saad Hariri, pictured on July 15, 2021

Hariri’s government resigns in late October.

– First default –

Lebanon, with a $92 billion debt burden equivalent to nearly 170 percent of its gross domestic product, announces in March 2020 that it will default on a payment for the first time in its history.

In April, after three nights of violent clashes, then-prime minister Hassan Diab says Lebanon will seek International Monetary Fund help after the government approves an economic rescue plan.

But talks with the IMF quickly go off the rails.

– Catastrophic blast –

A massive explosion on August 4, 2020 at Beirut port devastates entire neighbourhoods of the capital, kills more than 200 people and injures at least 6,500.

© JOSEPH EID 

$100 traded at around 1.5 million Lebanese pounds on the black market on March 16, 2021 as Lebanon battled its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war

It emerges the huge pile of volatile ammonium nitrate that caused one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded had been left unsecured in a warehouse for six years, further enraging the Lebanese public.

 Lebanon’s capital Beirut, with buildings in darkness during a power outage on October 11, 2021

– Political impasse –

Diab’s government resigns shortly after the blast after just over seven months in office.

© IBRAHIM AMRO

 A Lebanese Shiite fighter takes aim with a Kalashnikov amid clashes in the Tayouneh suburb of Beirut, on October 14, 2021

Diplomat Mustapha Adib is named new premier but bows out after less than a month, and Hariri, who already served as prime minister three times, is named in October.

– One of worst crises –

Amid runaway inflation, authorities announce in February 2021 that bread prices will rise further.

In June, the World Bank says Lebanon’s economic collapse is likely to rank among the world’s worst financial crises since the mid-19th century.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati, third from right, with an International Monetary Fund delegation


– New government –

After nine months of political horse-trading, Hariri steps aside on July 15, 2021 saying he is unable to form a government.

Billionaire Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s richest man and already twice prime minister, forms a new government on September 10 after a 13-month vacuum.

– Bloody clashes –

But the new government is shaken by demands from the powerful Hezbollah for the judge investigating the Beirut blast to be removed on grounds of political bias.

Tensions come to a boil on October 14, 2021 when a shootout kills seven people following a rally by Hezbollah and its ally Amal demanding Tarek Bitar’s dismissal.

– Accord with IMF –

On January 24, 2022 the IMF launches talks with Lebanese officials.

Mikati’s government meets for the first time after months of negotiations between rival factions.

On February 11 the IMF calls for fiscal reforms to ensure Lebanon can manage its debt load as well as measures to establish a “credible” currency system.

On April 7, the lender says it has reached a staff-level agreement to provide Lebanon with $3 billion in aid over four years.

Timeline: Lebanon's ordeal - Economic and political crises since civil war


By Reuters Staff

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon is in the throes of a financial crisis widely seen as the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-90 civil war, encouraging a new wave of emigration from the country.

With hard currency growing ever more scarce, the Lebanese pound has lost some 80% of its value, depositors have been shut out of their savings and unemployment are poverty are soaring.

Here are Lebanon’s main previous post-war upheavals.

2005

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri is killed on Feb. 14 when a massive bomb exploded as his motorcade travelled through Beirut; 21 others also died.

A combination of subsequent mass demonstrations and international pressure force Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon. Lebanese Shi’ite allies of Damascus stage their own big rallies in support of Syria.

Lebanon enters a new era free of Syrian domination. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group and close ally of Damascus, enters government for the first time.

2006

In July, Hezbollah crosses the border into Israel, kidnaps two Israeli soldiers and kills others, sparking a five-week war. At least 1,200 people in Lebanon and 158 Israelis are killed.

After the war, tensions in Lebanon simmer over Hezbollah’s powerful arsenal. In November, Hezbollah and its allies quit the cabinet led by Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and organise street protests against it.

2007

Hezbollah and its allies maintain a sit-in protest against the Siniora government for the entire year. Their stated demand is veto power in the government.

In May, fighting erupts at a Palestinian camp in northern Lebanon between the Lebanese army and Sunni Islamist militants of the Fatah al-Islam group. Thousands of Palestinian refugees are forced to flee the Nahr al-Bared camp. In September, Lebanese troops seize control of the camp after more than three months of fighting that kills more than 300 people.

2008

May 6, 2008 - Siniora’s cabinet accuses Hezbollah of running a private telecoms network and installing spy cameras at Beirut airport. The cabinet vows legal action against the network.

May 7 - Hezbollah said the move against its telecoms network was a declaration of war by the government. After a brief conflict Hezbollah takes control of mainly Muslim west Beirut.

May 21 - After mediation, rival leaders sign a deal in Qatar to end 18 months of political conflict. Parliament elects Michel Suleiman, the army chief, as president.
2011

In January, Saad al-Hariri’s first government is toppled when Hezbollah and its allies quit because of tensions over the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

The tribunal later indicts four senior members of Hezbollah for the murder of Rafik al-Hariri. Hezbollah denies any role in the assassination. Its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said the authorities would not be able to find the indicted men.

A fifth Hezbollah member is indicted in 2013

2012

Hezbollah fighters deploy into Syria, secretly at first, to aid Syrian government forces facing a mostly Sunni rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. The group plays a major role in beating back the rebellion.

2015

A crisis about waste erupts when authorities close the main landfill site near Beirut, having arranged no alternative. Large protests broke out as rotting waste filled streets and demonstrators chanted “You stink!” at the government. It became a glaring symbol of the failures of a sectarian power system unable to meet basic needs like electricity and water.

2017

Saad al-Hariri’s ties with Saudi Arabia, which is furious at Hezbollah’s expanding role in Lebanon, hit a nadir in November 2017 when it was widely acknowledged Riyadh had forced him to resign and held him in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia and Hariri publicly deny this version of events, though France’s Emmanuel Macron confirmed that Hariri was being held in Saudi Arabia.

2019

Amid a stagnant economy and slowing capital inflows, the government is under pressure to curb a massive budget deficit.

Proposals to cut the state wage and pension bill meet stiff opposition. The government vows to enact long-delayed reforms but fails to make progress that might unlock foreign support.

Oct. 17 - A government move to tax internet calls ignites big protests against the ruling elite. Lebanese of all sects take part, accusing leaders of corruption and economic mismanagement.

Hariri quits on Oct. 29, against the wishes of Hezbollah. Lebanon is left rudderless as the crisis deepens. A hard- currency liquidity crunch leads banks to impose tight curbs on cash withdrawals and transfers abroad.

2020

After two months of talks to form a new, Hariri-led coalition government hit a dead end, Hezbollah and its allies back Hassan Diab, a little-known academic and former education minister, for the post of prime minister.

March 7 - Diab announces Lebanon cannot repay a maturing bond and calls for negotiations to restructure its debt.

May 1 - Beirut signs a formal request for IMF assistance after approving a plan setting out vast losses in the financial system. The banking association rejects the plan, saying its proposals for restructuring the banking sector would further destroy confidence in Lebanon.

July - IMF talks are put on hold pending agreement on the Lebanese side over the scale of financial loses. The Lebanese pound touches lows close to 10,000 to the dollar. The rate was 1,500 in October.


Writing by Tom Perry and William Maclean; editing by Ed Osmond

Ukraine war revives France-Spain MidCat gas pipeline project



Valentin BONTEMPS
Tue, May 10, 2022,

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Madrid has revived calls to build a huge gas pipeline between Spain and France dubbed MidCat that would boost Europe's energy independence from Russia.

What is MidCat?

Initially launched in 2003, the 190-kilometre (120-mile) Midi-Catalonia (MidCat) pipeline would pump gas across the Pyrenees from Hostalric just north of Barcelona to Barbaira in southern France.

Its aim was to transport gas from Algeria through Spain to the rest of the European Union. There are currently only two small gas pipelines linking Spain and France.

But following several years of work, the project was abandoned in 2019 after energy regulators from both countries rejected it amid questions over its environmental impact and profitability.

Why restart it?

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the EU has vowed to end its dependence on gas from Russia, which currently supplies nearly 40 percent of the bloc's gas needs.

A 750-kilometre deepwater pipeline called Medgaz already links gas-rich Algeria with southern Spain.

A second underwater pipeline, called GME links Spain to Algeria via Morocco but Algiers in November shut supply through it due to a diplomatic conflict with Rabat.

Spain also has six terminals for regasifying and storing liquefied natural gas (LNG) transported by sea, the largest network in Europe.

Gas which arrives in Spain by sea and pipeline from Algeria could then be sent on to the rest of Europe though MidCat.

The MidCat pipeline is "crucial" to reduce the EU's reliance on fossil fuels and "end the Kremlin's blackmail", EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Friday in Barcelona in a reference to Russia's threats to halt its gas supplies to the bloc.

What are the obstacles?

The MidCat pipeline faces several hurdles, starting with its huge price tag estimated in 2018 at 440 million euros ($460 million). It would also take three to four years to complete.

"MidCat cannot be approached as a short-term solution," France's ambassador to Spain, Jean-Michel Casa, said during an interview with Barcelona-based daily newspaper La Vanguadia in March.

In addition, there is a lack of connections between France and Germany, the country which is most interested in finding alternatives to Russian gas.

It would be "much simpler to bring gas directly by boat to Germany," said Thierry Bros, an energy expert at the Science Po university in Paris.

"This would of course require building gas terminals in Germany" but their cost would not be higher than building MidCat, he told AFP.

What support?

Despite the debate over its usefulness, MidCat enjoys significant support, especially in Spain where the authorities are pushing for Brussels to declare the project to be of "community interest".

France has so far been more reserved but according to Madrid this position is changing.

There is a new "perception of the risks and opportunities" that MidCat brings, Spanish Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said, adding Paris "has understood" that Midcat "must" be built.

There are also questions over the financing for the project.

Madrid argues Brussels should foot the bill, not Spanish taxpayers, because the project would benefit the entire EU.

But the European commission has not yet committed to funding it.

Spain also wants the pipeline to be compatible with the transport of green hydrogen, in the hopes this will boost its appeal to Brussels which has made financing renewable energy projects a priority.

vab/mg/ds/rl

The 1997 chess game that thrust AI into the spotlight

AI has come a long way since Deep Blue's chess victory in 1997, with the technology used in everything from financial analysis to weather forecasting

 (AFP/Patrick T. FALLON)

Cedric SIMON, Laurent BARTHELEMY and Joseph BOYLE
Tue, May 10, 2022, 

With his hand pushed firmly into his cheek and his eyes fixed on the table, Garry Kasparov shot a final dark glance at the chessboard before storming out of the room: the king of chess had just been beaten by a computer.

May 11, 1997 was a watershed for the relationship between man and machine, when the artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer Deep Blue finally achieved what developers had been promising for decades.

It was an "incredible" moment, AI expert Philippe Rolet told AFP, even if the enduring technological impact was not so huge.

"Deep Blue's victory made people realise that machines could be as strong as humans, even on their territory," he said.

Developers at IBM, the US firm that made Deep Blue, were ecstatic with the victory but quickly refocused on the wider significance.

"This is not about man versus machine. This is really about how we, humans, use technology to solve difficult problems," said Deep Blue team chief Chung-Jen Tan after the match, listing possible benefits from financial analysis to weather forecasting.

Even Chung would have struggled to comprehend how central AI has now become -- finding applications in almost every field of human existence.

"AI has exploded over the last 10 years or so," UCLA computer science professor Richard Korf told AFP.

"We're now doing things that used to be impossible."

- 'One man cracked' -

After his defeat, Kasparov, who is still widely regarded as the greatest chess player of all time, was furious.

He hinted there had been unfair practices, denied he had really lost and concluded that nothing at all had been proved about the power of computers.

He explained that the match could be seen as "one man, the best player in the world, (who) has cracked under pressure".

The computer was beatable, he argued, because it had too many weak points.

Nowadays, the best computers will always beat even the strongest human chess players.

AI-powered machines have mastered every game going and now have much bigger worlds to conquer.

Korf cites notable advances in facial recognition that have helped make self-driving cars a reality.

Yann LeCun, head of AI research at Meta/Facebook, told AFP there had been "absolutely incredible progress" in recent years.

LeCun, one of the founding fathers of modern AI, lists among the achievements of today's computers an ability "to translate any language into any language in a set of 200 languages" or "to have a single neural network that understands 100 languages".

It is a far cry from 1997, when Facebook didn't even exist.

- Machines 'not the danger' -

Experts agree that the Kasparov match was important as a symbol but left little in the way of a technical legacy.

"There was nothing revolutionary in the design of Deep Blue," said Korf, describing it as an evolution of methods that had been around since the 1950s.

"It was also a piece of dedicated hardware designed just to play chess."

Facebook, Google and other tech firms have pushed AI in all sorts of other directions.

They have fuelled increasingly powerful AI machines with unimaginable amounts of data from their users, serving up remorselessly targeted content and advertising and forging trillion-dollar companies in the process.

AI technology now helps to decide anything from the temperature of a room to the price of vehicle insurance.

Devices from vacuum cleaners to doorbells come with arrays of sensors to furnish AI systems with data to better target consumers.

While critics bemoan a loss of privacy, enthusiasts believe AI products just make everyone's lives easier.

Despite his painful history with machines, Kasparov is largely unfazed by AI's increasingly dominant position.

"There is simply no evidence that machines are threatening us," he told AFP last year.

"The real danger comes not from killer robots but from people -- because people still have a monopoly on evil."

cds-lby/jxb/ach

ILLEGAL ZIONIST OCCUPATION
After Israel ruling, West Bank families fear evictions 'at any time'







Gareth BROWNE
Tue, May 10, 2022, 

The threat of losing his West Bank land has loomed over Ali Mohammed Jabbareen for more than two decades, but he now fears an Israeli court decision may finally force him to go.

Jabbareen, 60, lives in the Palestinian village of Jinba, part of the Masafer Yatta area in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that has been at the centre of a protracted legal battle.

In the early 1980s, the army declared the 3,000 hectare (7,400 acre) area a restricted military area -- calling it "Firing Zone 918".

The army said it was uninhabited, and that anyone claiming to live there was doing so illegally.

The roughly 1,000 Palestinians who live there say Masafer Yatta was their people's home long before Israeli soldiers set foot in the West Bank.


Israel's top court ruled against the Palestinians last week, saying they had "failed to prove" their claim to permanent residence before its declaration as a military training zone.

The European Union condemned the decision on Tuesday, saying "the establishment of a firing zone cannot be considered an 'imperative military reason' to transfer the population under occupation".

The ruling made no specific mention of evictions, which are usually followed by demolitions such as one carried out Tuesday at Silwan in annexed east Jerusalem.

But Jabbareen fears they could be carried out with little notice.

"We have no information about the demolitions," he told AFP as he gazed through the open door of his one-room house at an Israeli military patrol stirring up dust on the unpaved road nearby.

Army units with clearance to destroy his home, "could come at any time", he said.

- 'No other place to go' -

Masafer Yatta residents insist they lived in the area even as control of the West Bank changed hands -- from the British mandate period through Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967, the year the Israeli occupation began.

The isolated community is in the West Bank's "Area C" -- which is under full Israeli control -- and is more than an hour's drive from the nearest paved road.

Few of the homes are connected to a water supply system or power grid.

Jabbareen built his house into a rocky outcrop in the heart of his farmland. It is currently home to 12 people, who scratch out a living raising sheep and growing vegetables.

"This is my land and they want to expel me from it," he said.

Some residents of Masafer Yatta were first kicked out in 1999.

The following year, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) helped some of the families challenge their expulsion in court.

They secured a temporary reprieve that remained in force pending the high court's final decision last week.

Roni Pelli of the ACRI said the verdict was "inherently flawed".

"The villages in Masafar Yatta are the homes of the petitioners, and they have no other home."

She insisted expelling them was "illegal," and backed a long-standing allegation made by Israeli critics that the army uses the military zone designation as a pretext to grab West Bank land.

The Israeli human rights group Akevot, which specialises in state and military archival research, has obtained a document from 1981 in which then agriculture minister and future prime minister Ariel Sharon proposed to set up the firing zone.

Sharon, in the document, says the military zone declaration will ultimately make it easier to expel the Palestinian residents.

- 'We are the opposite' -

It was not immediately clear if the residents have any further legal recourse to ward off evictions.

Inside Jabbareen's house, where blankets are piled high against a wall, he gestured to a nearby Jewish settlement and reflected on what he termed grossly unequal treatment in the West Bank.

Some 475,000 settlers now live in the West Bank in communities considered illegal under international law, alongside some 2.7 million Palestinians.

They are frequently granted permission to build permanent structures with proper electrical connections, while many Palestinians are denied building permits and live under the threat of eviction, he said.

"They build with concrete," he said of the settlers.

"They are provided with electricity and water. The army is guarding them, but we are just the opposite."

gb/bs/fz/dv

Tokyo to recognise same-sex partnerships from November

Japan is the only Group of Seven nation that does not 

recognise same-sex unions 

(AFP/Philip FONG)


Tue, May 10, 2022

Tokyo will begin recognising same-sex partnerships from November after revising current rules, officials said Wednesday, becoming the largest city in Japan to do so.

Japan is the only nation of the Group of Seven countries that does not recognise same-sex unions, and its constitution stipulates that "marriage shall be only with the mutual consent of both sexes".

But in recent years, local authorities across the country have made moves to recognise same-sex partnerships, although such recognition does not carry the same rights as marriage under the law.

"We collected opinions from the public for the past two months and we heard opinions (from same-sex couples) who said they want to be recognised as partners," a Tokyo government spokesman told AFP.

The metropolitan government plans to ask legislators to approve revising a local ordinance next month, and will then begin accepting applications for the certificates in October and issuing them in November.

The city is considering offering various services currently only available to married couples to those with the partnership certificate, including applying for city-administered apartments, the spokesman said.

Tokyo's Shibuya district in 2015 became the first place in Japan to begin issuing symbolic "partnership" certificates to same-sex couples.

Many areas have followed suit, with activists saying more than 200 municipalities now recognise same-sex partnerships, granting couples rights including the ability to visit a partner in hospital and rent property together.

In a landmark ruling last year, a court in northern Sapporo said Japan's failure to recognise same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a verdict hailed by campaigners as a major victory.

But Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been cautious on the possibility of any legislative changes at the national level to recognise same-sex unions.

Taiwan is currently the only place in Asia with marriage equality, having taken the unprecedented step of legalising same-sex unions in 2019.

nf/sah/mtp

Polygamy: Muslim women in India fight 'abhorrent' practice

Geeta Pandey - BBC News, Delhi
Tue, May 10, 2022,

A Muslim bride in India

A 28-year-old Muslim woman's petition to a court, seeking to prevent her husband from taking another wife without her written consent, has put the spotlight on the practice of polygamy among Indian Muslims.

Reshma, who uses only one name, also wants the Delhi High Court to order the government to frame laws to regulate the "regressive practice" of bigamy or polygamy.

According to court documents, she married Md Shoeb Khan in January 2019 and in November the following year, they had a baby.

Reshma accuses her husband of domestic violence, cruelty, harassment and dowry demands. He has levelled similar allegations against her.

She also says that he's abandoned her and their baby and he plans to take another wife.

Describing his action as "unconstitutional, anti-sharia, illegal, arbitrary, harsh, inhuman and barbaric", she says "this practice needs to be regulated to curb the plight of Muslim women".

While the court dwells on their acrimonious relationship and the legality of polygamy, the case has stirred a debate on the practice which is illegal in India except among Muslims and some tribal communities.

About 2% of the global population lives in polygamous households, according to Pew Research Centre's 2019 report. The practice is banned in much of the world, including in Muslim-majority countries such as Turkey and Tunisia, and is extensively regulated in most countries where it is allowed. The UN has described it as "an inadmissible discrimination against women" and called for it to "be definitely abolished".

But in India, the issue is a political hot potato. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised to enact a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) - a contentious piece of legislation that will mean marriages, divorces and inheritance will no longer be governed by their religious law but will come under a common law applicable to all citizens.

And at a time when the country is highly polarised along religious lines, any reform suggested by the government is bound to be considered an onslaught on Islam by a majority of Muslims.

SY Qureshi, former chief election commissioner and scholar of Islam, says in India, "the general perception is that every other Muslim has four wives" and that they have numerous children which will eventually lead to Muslims outnumbering Hindus, but that is not true. (Only 14% of India's 1.3 billion people are Muslims while Hindus make up 80% of the population.)

Muslim men in India are allowed to marry up to four women and the sanction for polygamy, he says, comes from the Quran, but it's permitted only under "strict conditions and restrictions" which are almost impossible to fulfil.

"The Quran says that a man can take a second or a third or a fourth wife but only from among orphans and widows and that he must treat them all equally. Anything else is a violation. But loving equally is almost impossible in practice. It's not just about buying them same clothes, it is much more than that," he adds.

A Muslim marriage

The guidance on polygamy, Mr Qureshi says, was included in the Quran in the 7th Century amid tribal warfare in Arabia when a lot of men died young and polygamy was meant to help widows and orphans. "Otherwise, Quran actually discourages the practice and looks down upon it."

Critics such as women's rights activist Zakia Soman say that today there's no war in India and polygamy - a "misogynistic and patriarchal" practice - must be banned.

Founder of the Mumbai-based Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA - Indian Muslim Women's Movement), Ms Soman says polygamy is "abhorrent - morally, socially and legally" and the fact that "it's legally allowed makes it problematic".

"How can you say that one man can have more than one wife? The community has to move ahead with the times. In today's day and age, it's a gross violation of a woman's dignity and human rights."

In 2017, the BMMA surveyed 289 women who were in polygamous relationships and queried them about their physical, mental, emotional and financial status. They have released a report chronicling 50 cases.

Muslim women fight against instant divorce

The women who sleep with a stranger to save their marriage

"We found that they were trapped in situations that were hugely unjust and for all of them, it had been a traumatic experience and many had developed mental health issues," Ms Soman says.

The BMMA, which had earlier campaigned extensively against the controversial practice of instant divorce in Islam until it was banned a few years back, petitioned the Supreme Court in 2019, calling for a ban on polygamy.

There are other legal challenges too, including one by Ashwini Kumar Dubey, a lawyer and leader of India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

This has led to accusations from conservative Muslims that it's an interference in their religion.

"In Islam, laws are divine, we look up to the Quran and Hadith for directions. No man has the right to change what was made lawful by Allah," says Dr Asma Zohra, head of the women's wing of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) which is opposing Mr Dubey's petition in court.

Polygamy among Muslims, she says, is "rare and a non-issue" and accuses the BJP of pursuing a "majoritarian agenda to dictate to the minority community".

"Have you ever come across a Muslim man who has four wives? In the year 2022, most men say it's hard to support one wife, leave alone supporting four. And the rate of polygamous marriages is the least in the Muslim community."

Her assertion is based on the data that found polygamy prevalent amongst all religions - a survey based on the sample size of 100,000 marriages by the Census of India in 1961 showed polygamy among Muslims to be 5.7%, the lowest among all communities.

Percentage of population by religion that is polygamous

The subsequent Census have been silent on the issue and most recent data on polygamy comes from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) of 2005-06 which shows a steep decline in the numbers for all religions:

Polygamy has declined among all religions

"Since this data is quite outdated, we have to look at the trends. So if we analyse the Census data from 1930 to 1960, there was a consistent decline in polygamy among all communities and in each decade, it was lowest among the Muslims," says Mr Qureshi, adding that the NFHS study is the only exception.

In his 2021 book The Population Myth: Islam, Family Planning and Politics in India, Mr Qureshi calls on the Muslim community to demand a ban on polygamy. "If it's not practised widely, then what do you have to lose by a ban?" he asks.

The reason for that, Dr Zohra says, are religious - and political.

How Muslim women fought, and won, divorce battle

What a breakfast murder says about wife beating in India

"It's people saying Muslims are so rigid, but the provision is in the holy book and no-one can change that. Many tribal communities in the north-east have multiple wives and no-one targets them, then why do you target us? It's part of Islamophobia."

All this talk of a ban on polygamy, she says, is an attack on the community, an "interference in their personal religious laws".

Ms Soman agrees that at a time when the country is polarised along religious lines, Muslims are suspicious of the BJP government's intentions.

But, she says, that "if we don't set our house in order, others will come and do it - and they may have an agenda".

"But polygamy is a practice which, in the end, is violative of women's rights and it must go."

Data interpretation and graphics by BBC's Shadab Nazmi

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/10/polygamy-is-not-polyamoury.html

Family of Marine freed from Russian custody rejects Ted Cruz's claim that he helped get him home: 'We are not appreciative'


Hannah Getahun
Mon, May 9, 2022, 8:59 PM·3 min read

Joey and Paula Reed with a portrait of their son, the Marine veteran Trevor Reed, at their home in Fort Worth, Texas, in February.

AP Photo/LM Otero, File

Ted Cruz expressed public relief that the US citizen Trevor Reed was released from Russian prison.

Reed's father said he was not "appreciative" of Cruz's lack of action in helping to free his son.

A family spokesperson told Insider Cruz could've used his influence to speak with President Trump.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas "didn't do anything" to aid in the Marine Trevor Reed's release from Russian custody, Reed's father, Joey Reed, said.

Trevor Reed was detained in Moscow in 2019 after being convicted of attacking Russian police. He suffered during his stay in a Russian prison, including getting a suspected broken rib and catching COVID-19, his family has said.

He was released on April 27 as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the US. Reed was swapped for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot sentenced for drug smuggling.

"He didn't do anything," Joey Reed said of Cruz in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. "He's an embarrassment to the state of Texas, let me just say that. I don't care what or who runs against him, I will work for their campaign to defeat that son of a bitch."

The father was so dissatisfied with Cruz' actions surrounding his son that when Cruz called to congratulate the Reed family after publicly showing support for his son's release, the elder Reed said he asked: "Where have you been for the last 2 1/2 years?"

"I hit him point-blank: 'We are not appreciative,'" Reed told The Dallas Morning News.

"They don't need celebratory tweets or phone calls when their loved one has been released," Jonathan Franks, a spokesperson for the Reeds, told Insider. "They need tweets and phone calls when their loved ones are in jail."

Reed called Cruz asking for help years prior, but Cruz's staff said he couldn't speak out about his son's detainment publicly because the senator was an "enemy of Putin," Reed said.

Franks told Insider the call between the Reeds and Cruz's staff member was "unfortunate" and that the senator had not called to check in again until Trevor Reed's release.

Franks also said that it was not a partisan attack — rather, the family wanted to emphasize that Cruz's outsize influence in the world of politics could have been beneficial to the family's fight.

"Particularly when Trump was president, it would've helped a lot if Ted Cruz had picked up the phone and called the president and said, 'Bring this kid home.'" Franks told Insider. "We were almost there. Like, he could have picked up the phone, called Trump, and told him to make a deal."

Franks told Insider that he could not confirm if Cruz had taken such an action privately without the family's knowledge.

Cruz said he did not speak out partly because administration officials told him it could be "counterproductive" since he had been so against Russia's proposed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, he told The Dallas Morning News in a statement.

Joey Reed told the news outlet that GOP Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas also publicly went against the Nord Stream 2 and had still been a vocal advocate for Trevor Reed's release.

Representatives for Cruz did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Business Insider

Trump’s Former Fixer Says Missing Tapes Would Prove Trump Lied

Jose Pagliery
Mon, May 9, 2022,

Jose Pagliery/The Daily Beast

Michael Cohen—former President Donald Trump’s one-time fixer, lawyer, and consigliere—walked into an acrimonious deposition Monday morning to testify that his former boss lied under oath and ordered his security guards to get “rid of” protesters they later beat up.

He also said evidence showing Trump lied was likely destroyed.

Cohen recently surfaced as a surprise witness in a lawsuit over the way Trump Organization corporate security goons attacked demonstrators protesting the way then-candidate Trump called Mexicans “rapists.” He claims he was in the room when Trump made the order. The company says that’s a lie.

Trump Organization Accused of Hiding Witness Who Knew if Trump Lied

But what will inevitably devolve into an evidence-less “he said, he said” situation could have been resolved with two Trump Tower corporate security videotapes—which mysteriously disappeared.

According to court paperwork listing the evidence at the upcoming trial, the demonstrators who sued only got one building surveillance tape, which purportedly shows corporate security chief Keith Schiller making his way through the lobby to fight demonstrators outside the building on New York City’s Fifth Avenue.

But the building regularly took security video on the 26th floor outside Trump’s office and in the elevator, which would easily prove if what Cohen claims is true—that he was in the room when Trump allegedly gave the order and walked alongside Schiller out of the suite and down the lift.

Cohen claimed Monday those tapes were probably destroyed. He also said security tapes were overseen by Trump Organization chief operating officer Matthew Calamari, a Trump loyalist who would never allow his boss to be embarrassed or implicated in criminal behavior by allowing incriminating evidence to “come to light.”

“The truth is the truth, and the truth never benefits Donald,” he said to reporters waiting across the street from Manhattan’s iconic Grand Central Terminal.

Trump Admits He Oversaw Pay for Executive Who Got Fishy Perks

Calamari already testified in this case back in 2016 and did not seem to reveal anything damning against the company. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning.

The Daily Beast pointed out that Cohen would be face-to-face with Trump’s newest bulldog lawyer, Alina Habba, a relatively unknown attorney from New Jersey who has become a prominent fixture on MAGA-friendly media outlets.

When asked how he felt about battling someone who used to have his job, the lawyer who took the fall for Trump’s porn star hush-money scheme, lost his law license, and spent years in federal prison issued a warning.

“It’s a mistake and unfortunately, as we all know, it didn’t work out well for me. I don’t suspect it’ll work out well for her,” he said.

Cohen then walked into the building for his 10 a.m. appointment at the offices of the law firm Belkin Burden Goldman, one of several representing Trump.

The One Trump Lawyer the Rest of Trump’s Legal Team Loathes

Minutes later, Habba showed up on 42nd Street in a chauffeured, black SUV and walked into the same building.

“I think there’ve been enough courts that have spoken on his credibility,” she said. “I think it’s ironic he’s come out of the woodwork a couple of weeks before trial. And the truth will come out. I actually look forward to spending a few hours questioning Mr. Cohen.”

Although this case is an otherwise forgettable tale about raging corporate security guards in the early days of Trump’s political campaign, it’s already presenting the potential to land the twice-impeached former president in serious trouble.

When he testified behind closed doors last year, Trump admitted to personally overseeing Calamari’s compensation—which includes untaxed, corporate perks that have been investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.