Israel orders heads of Palestinian rights groups to stop work

August 22, 2022 

Israeli forces in the West Bank on July 26, 2022

 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

August 22, 2022 

Israel's domestic spy agency, Shin Bet, has ordered the directors of two Palestinian rights groups to stop their work and sever their connections with their organisations, Haaretz has reported.

"They told me that I need to know that the organisation that I work for is illegal, and that it is illegal for me to keep working there either in or out of the country, and that if I continue, they will act against me," said Khaled Quzmar, director of Defence for Children International – Palestine.

Quzmar told Haaretz that he received a call from a man who identified himself as a Shin Bet investigator and called him in for interrogation. The agency told him that this was the last warning that it would give. Nevertheless, he insisted to Shin Bet officers that the allegations were untrue.

"I said that I know my organisation 100 per cent and that it's a lie, and that if they have evidence that they can take me to court," he explained to Haaretz. "They said that if I continue to work at the organisation, they will take me to court." There was a clear threat from Shin Bet, he added.

The director of Al-Haq rights group, Shawan Jabarin, also told Haaretz that he received a call from a man who called himself Fahed and said that he was from Shin Bet. He too was called for interrogation.

READ: 9 European countries 'concerned' about Israel closing Palestine NGOs

"I told him that I am a man of the law, and that if he wants to, he needs to send me an official letter via a lawyer or to come to my home," said Jabarin. "He told me that continuing to work at Al-Haq and opening its offices is terrorism, and that I am a member of the PFLP. I told him that I am not, and that he is a liar who represents the forces of the occupation.

"He told me that I will pay a high price and that I will be detained and investigated. I asked him if this was a threat, and he said 'Yes'."

The Shin Bet order came just days after Israeli occupation forces raided the offices of seven Palestinian rights groups which were declared by Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz last October to be "terrorist entities".

PLO opens its offices to rights groups closed by Israel


Israeli forces raided and shut down 7 Palestinian NGOs allegedly having links to terrorism in Ramallah, West Bank on 18 August 2022 

[Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

August 22, 2022 

The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) yesterday announced that it had opened its offices as temporary headquarters for the seven rights groups closed by Israel, the PLO's Human Rights Department said.

Following an emergency meeting held in Ramallah, the PLO's Human Rights Department said that its decision comes in response to the Israeli decision to close the Palestinian rights groups.

During the meeting, Fatah Deputy Head, Mahmoud Al Aloul, said: "The closure of the seven Palestinian rights groups is part of the Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinians on a daily basis."

Head of PLO's Human Rights Department, Ahmad Al Tamimi, said that the department is ready to offer all the needed support for the rights groups to be able to resume their work.

Director of Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin, said: "The Israeli closure of the offices of the rights groups is a political measure which is targeting all Palestinians."

READ: US 'concerned' over Israel raids on Palestinian NGOs, admitting lack of evidence for terror claims

On Thursday at dawn, Israeli forces raided the city of Ramallah in the West Bank and closed the offices of seven Palestinian human rights NGOs.

The raid included six NGOs designated as "terrorist organisations" in 2021, as well as the Union of Health Work Committees, which Israelclaims is linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), outlawed by Tel Aviv.

Kuwait to lay off 750,000 Egypt workers

August 22, 2022

Expatriate workers in Kuwait City on 15 March 2020 

[YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP/Getty Images]

August 22, 2022 

Kuwait has announced that it will lay off 250,000 Egyptian workers next month and suspend all contracts with non-nationals.

Some 500,000 further Egyptian workers will lose their jobs over the next year as the Gulf country seeks to remove all expatriate workers across sectors.

Egyptians make up around 24 per cent of the total workforce in Kuwait, the Kuwait Times said in February, making them the largest expatriate group in the country.

For a long time, the largest group was Indian workers, but according to the same source they now make up 23.7 per cent of Kuwait's workforce.

The statistics report, by the State Audit Bureau, said that only 22.3 per cent of the workforce are Kuwaiti out of 77.7 per cent of non-Kuwaitis.

READ: Kuwait names first ambassador to Iran in over six years

Two years ago, a video of a Kuwaiti customer slapping an Egyptian cashier went viral with commentators saying it underscored racism in the country towards Egyptian workers.

The same year an Egyptian worker was stabbed to death in Kuwait whilst a Snapchat influencer called Egyptians "filthy servants."

In 2020 Kuwait's parliament proposed a draft law to reduce the number of foreign workers in the country with the aim of getting the number of Egyptians down to ten per cent.

The law stipulated that government agencies should not renew the residencies of foreign workers.

The decision to lay off 750,000 Egyptian workers has come as the cost of living across the world has soared and many families have struggled to buy basic goods.

Egypt's unemployment rate hit 7.2 per cent this year. The North African state's economy has struggled over recent years due to widespread corruption, the aftermath of the global coronavirus pandemic and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Remittances from Egyptians abroad hit $31.5 billion in 2021 and constitute a major source of foreign currency, making it the fifth largest recipient of remittances in the world largely from Gulf countries.

Russian embassy in Canada weaponizes social media to fuel support for Ukraine invasion



By Ahmed Al-Rawi, for The Conversation

2022-08-22

In order to curb the spread of disinformation by official Russian news sources, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) recently made a symbolic move by banning Russia’s state-run RT news channel in Canada.

Yet this is an ineffective measure given the way social media channels controlled by the Russian Embassy in Ottawa are spreading disinformation, and how fact-checking is being weaponized by the Russian government to twist reality and confuse people about the war in Ukraine.

As a researcher who studies disinformation, I first investigated the way Arabic tweets with hashtags like #WeStandWithRussia and #RussiaHasAJustCause have been used since the beginning of this year.
New accounts

In my ongoing research, I’ve collected 26,440 tweets posted by 10,544 unique users who supported Russia. Over 27 per cent of the tweets were posted from accounts created in 2022, including 4,052 tweets in just one day on Feb. 15, 2022, and 5,457 tweets in the month of February alone. The highest number of tweets were posted in January and February 2022 by accounts created in these two months.

When I further examined the most-mentioned Twitter accounts that these users retweeted, I found they were the accounts of the Russian Embassy in Egypt (@Rusembegypt) followed by the Arabic-language Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (@Russia_AR). The majority of the other accounts frequently retweeted are related to other Russian embassies in the region.

These findings made me turn my attention to Canada.

The Russian Embassy in Ottawa runs its own Twitter account — @RussianEmbassyC — as well as a Telegram account and VK (Russia’s Facebook) public channels.

Similar to the findings in the Middle East, I have found that the Russian Embassy in Canada is active in spreading disinformation and promoting the Russian perspective on the events taking place in Ukraine.

‘Fake news’ accusations

Instead of heavily relying on RT or Sputnik, Canada’s Russian Embassy mostly retweets messages from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other Russian embassies from around the world. That includes tweets that attempt to discredit any factual reporting on the war.



The Russian embassy also frequently posts official statements attacking Canadian politicians as well as Canadian media for what it views as their biased positions about the war in Ukraine. That included an attack on the Canadian government and the news media for allegedly spreading lies.


The term fake news itself is weaponized to serve the interests of the Russian government, similar to the way Donald Trump frequently used the term fake news when he was president of the United States.

One of the most troubling features of this Russian disinformation campaign pertains to the weaponization of fact-checking practices. In a recent tweet, the embassy announced the launch of a new website called waronfakes.com, which attempts to lend credibility to official Russian propaganda.


The website allegedly provides fact-checking services on the war in Ukraine and is offered in five languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese). Ironically, no Ukrainian or Russian-language content is offered, revealing what foreign audiences are being targeted by the Russian government. Nonetheless Russian content is offered on a Telegram channel.
Sudden flurry of new accounts

To understand who’s retweeting the Russian Embassy’s messages, I collected 4,796 tweets from 2022 posted by 3,796 unique users. Similar to the case of the Middle East, the month of February 2022 had the highest number of Twitter accounts created that subsequently retweeted posts from the Russian Embassy.

While this might not prove any co-ordinated inauthentic activity, it does look suspicious.

The Russian Embassy in Canada mostly retweets messages sent by the Russian Foreign Ministry, like @mfa_russia and @mid_rf, and vice versa. The @mfa_russia account is the second-most active in terms of retweeting messages sent by the Russian Embassy.

Though the official and public efforts in Canada in terms of cracking down on Russian disinformation has been to ban the RT and Sputnik news channels, the reality is that Russian embassies are creating their own information echo chambers.

Social media also creates direct engagement with the Canadian public that cannot be blocked by CRTC. The embassy often sends direct messages like the one below via its Telegram channel:

The Russian Embassy’s Telegram message thanking the Canadian public for showing support. Author provided, Author provided

Other times, the embassy urges the Canadian public to mistrust news coverage of the events in Ukraine.


My analysis shows the CRTC’s decision to ban RT is ineffective because the news channel can be viewed on multiple platforms in Canada and elsewhere.

Russian disinformation has evolved to increasingly rely on various information sources, including the social media outlets of diplomatic missions around the world as well as fake fact-checking sites like waronfakes.com.

The disinformation war that Russia is fighting is being fought on different linguistic fronts — the English language is only one of them — and it’s mostly being waged on social media.

By Ahmed Al-Rawi, for The Conversation

Ahmed Al-Rawi is Assistant Professor, News, Social Media, and Public Communication, Simon Fraser University.

This is a corrected version of a story originally published on April 10, 2022. Figures have been updated in relation to the Arabic tweets and Russian embassy tweets.

‘From Canada with love’: Canadians are paying to write messages on Ukrainian rockets

By Stewart Bell  Global News

Posted August 22, 2022 

View image in full screen

Ukrainian rockets with messages from Canadian donors. SaveMyRocket.com

“Love from Toronto.”

“Putin … with loathing from Canada.”

“Liam from Canada says F—k you Putin.”

The rockets Ukrainian forces have been firing at the Russian army in recent weeks have carried taunting messages from Canadians.

Photos taken by Ukrainian troops show inscriptions requested by Canadians on artillery, mortar and howitzer shells.

READ MORE: Memes, stamps and profane slogan tees: Ukraine war merch funds war efforts

They are part of a fundraising campaign that allows donors to brand Ukrainian rockets launched into Russian-held territory.

In exchange for a pledge, Ukrainian troops will pen a donor’s words on a shell and shoot it at Russian positions.

Afterwards, the sponsor gets a photo of the shell and video of it firing. The donations are used to buy equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Soldiers at the front lines will write your message in permanent marker on an artillery shell,” the fundraising website says. “Wish someone a happy birthday. Ask for a date … Send greetings to Putin.”

Depending on the type of munitions, minimum pledges range from $150 to $2,000. According to the website, the process takes two weeks.

View image in full screen

Ammunition inscribed with a message from Canadian donor. Signmyrocket.com

“It felt like a small revenge,” said Nika, a Ukrainian-Canadian from Manitoba who participated. Global News is identifying her by her first name only due to security concerns.

She said her 86-year-old grandfather still lives in Ukraine and has to hide in a bomb shelter due to Russian attacks. “We feel helpless watching this horrific war unfold,” she said.

The message she put on the rocket read: “Glory to Ukraine. Canada is with you.”

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Ukrainian M777 howitzer shell with message from Canadian donor. Signmyrocket.com

Writing messages on weapons is a longstanding tradition, but as a fundraising tool in a conventional armed conflict, it may be unprecedented.

“This is probably new,” said Jessica Davis, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service analyst specializing in finance.

An expert on national security law, Prof. Leah West of Carleton University, said she did not see any legal problems for Canadians who take part in the campaign.

Ukrainians have launched scores of innovative fundraising drives to finance their defences against the invasion ordered by President Vladimir Putin six months ago.

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Anton Sokolenko, the 21-year Ukainian IT student behind Sign My Rocket. Handout

Anton Sokolenko said he started Sign My Rocket on Telegram because so many supporters of Ukraine wanted to pay to write on ammunition.

A 21-year-old IT student and volunteer at a Ukrainian non-profit group that supports the armed forces, Sokolenko said two web designers later created the website.

“And the site is very important, so people around the world can express their hatred to Russians, make a donation to the Ukrainian army and get something in exchange,” he said in an interview.

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A maple leaf on a Ukrainian rocket, top, paid for by B.C. residents, and a message from Toronto. SignMyRocket.com

Donors can also write messages on the turret of a T-72 tank or the barrel of a howitzer, as well as on a grenade dropped from a drone.

So far, the campaign has raised more than US$200,000. The money has been used to purchase vehicles, drones and other gear, Sokolenko said.

He shared photos showing a half-dozen rockets with messages he said Canadians paid to have written onto the shell casings.

View image in full screen

Ukrainian rocket with a message paid for by a Canadian donor. Signmyrocket.com

All have been fired already, although he didn’t know exactly where.

“With love from Canada,” read one of them, paid for by Rob, an Alberta resident who Global News is identifying only by his first name for security reasons.

In an interview, he said many of his friends were Ukrainian-Canadians, and while he had donated to humanitarian groups, he also wanted to help the troops.

“I just wanted to do something,” he said. “It’s not a lot, but I’m willing to have my little part in it.”

He said he had also paid to put a message on an M777 howitzer shell: “F—k Putin – Ukraine will always be free!!”

View image in full screen

Canada sent M777 howitzers like this one to Ukraine. The barrel is marked with a message from a sponsor. Signmyrocket.com

The Canadian government sent several howitzers to Ukraine in April, provided training on their use and later sent replacement barrels.

A B.C. resident, who Global News is identifying only by his first name Ethan, said he had put a message on a shell as a birthday gift for a Ukrainian friend.

“My motivation for purchasing a shell message was that I wanted my money to go directly to a Ukrainian on the frontlines, instead of some faceless charity,” he said.

“I strongly support Ukraine, and I hope our government continues to send support to them.”

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca

Iran and Russia save each other’s car industries

Russia's automotive sector has collapsed following the imposition of sanctions that cut it off from essential parts imported from Europe. Iran has been under sanctions for years and is now stepping in to help Russia revive its stalled car production. / bne IntelliNews


By bne IntelliNews August 22, 2022

Russia is turning to Iran to help rescue its car industry. Extreme sanctions imposed on Russia in March have seen its car production come to a screeching halt as essential imported parts are now unavailable. Iran has been under sanctions for decades, but has managed to develop a large automotive sector that caters to its domestic demand, and it is only too happy to help.

Russia’s war has seen hundreds of foreign companies leave the country, but no sector has been harder hit than the automotive. AvtoVaz, maker of the Lada, has seen its production come to a virtual standstill as the company, formerly run by Renault until its exit last month, set up a “spoke and wheel” model that means most of the more sophisticated parts were imported from Western Europe. Those imports have stopped now and the company has few alternative options to replace them.

Sixteen European car manufacturers (including four of the top 10 by market share) sold close to half a million units of Russia’s total sales of 1.67mn in 2021, making the country the eight-largest car market in the world in terms of global sales volumes, and Russia accounted for a fifth (18%) of market leader Renault’s total sales worldwide. Now overnight, almost all those foreign firms have packed their bags and left. Car sales were down by 84% in May and production has come to a virtual standstill, with only 3,000 cars produced in June, according to reports.

Iran has always been on Moscow’s radar as a possible ally in a showdown with the West. Russia has been preparing for economic warfare since at least 2014, when the sanctions regime was first introduced with the creation of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC). This long land and sea corridor traverses southern Russia, through the Caspian Sea to Iran and across the vast Iranian plateau to connect with the port of Chabahar and the Persian Gulf. This southern route was often seen as a back-up for Russia if its Western trade routes were cut off.

When they came the sanctions were more extreme than anything the Kremlin was expecting. They have been made worse by “self-sanctioning”, as companies in sectors that have not been sanctioned, including automotive, pulled out anyway for reputational reasons. The Putin administration has been forced to work extra quickly to help revive its faltering economy. As bne IntelliNews reported, sanctions remained a largely Western affair, with most of the rest of the world sitting on the fence, refusing to impose sanctions themselves and maintaining trade ties, even if they are not actively supporting Moscow.

Iran, China and a slew of other secondary countries have said they would pick up the slack where Western firms departed from. China has already seen exports to Russia recover and is Moscow’s biggest trade partner; Iranian brands are largely unknown in Russia, but Iran’s expertise in operating under sanctions has caught Russia’s attention. In particular, the Russians were surprised to see how quickly Iranian car manufacturers were able to reverse engineer parts from Peugeot, Citroen and Renault for their own auto part markets.

Iranian forays into Russia’s auto market

In recent weeks there has been growing talk of the carmaker Iran Khodro Company, branded as IKCO, and its rival SAIPA, as well as a raft of smaller players, once again sending their models to the Russian market, suitably adapted to the colder climes of Moscow.

Iran Khodro and SAIPA have previously exported their vehicles to northern markets, but with varying degrees of success. According to data from Russia’s Autostat agency, as of July 1, 2022, there were 10,400 Iran Khodro cars in Russia, which are represented by the Samand model (class C sedan), produced in 2006-2008. However, that is a tiny number when set against the circa 100,000 car sales a month in Russia pre-war.

The Samand is set to be discontinued in the Iranian market, as it has been on the production line for over two decades, but sanctions on Iran have forced the carmaker to keep producing the old stock due to a lack of research and investment into new models and the absence of outside support.

A third (34%) of Iranian cars are registered in Russia’s Central Federal District (3,500 units). Another 26% in the Volga (2,700 units) and 18% in the Urals (1,900). Accordingly, these three districts account for 78% of Iran Khodro cars located in Russia, according to Avto Novostidnya.

Russians tend to keep their cars for longer than in western Europe, as bne IntelliNews reported in a deep dive into car ownership and age, but the car market is one of the most vibrant of those in the Former Soviet Union (FSU), supported by a large domestic industry, albeit almost exclusively run by international companies until recently. That means the longevity of the Samand bodes well for the engineers of IKCO in Tehran, who were often criticised for not making sure their models were suitable for the colder climes.

Now with new Iranian models on the verge of launching, in part due to the cannibalisation of Peugeot’s pre-sanctions joint venture with IKCO, and Iran’s penchant for ignoring intellectual property rights because of sanctions – a policy Russia has now adopted through laws allowing for parallel imports – a tie-up between the Iranian and Russian automotive sectors is an obvious move: a partnership with AvtoVaz is on the horizon to keep both domestically produced players on the roads. Representatives of 21 Iranian companies are set to showcase over 99 automobile parts and equipment at the MIMS Automobility Moscow 2022, which is due to be held on August 22-25.

According to Iranian automotive professional Amir-Abbas Farnoudi, since the Russian auto industry has been sanctioned by the West, this exhibition is “a great opportunity for Iranian auto part manufacturers to introduce their capacities and capabilities to the Russian market”, IRIB reported.

Farnoudi added that the main goal of attending the exhibition is to form long-term co-operation with Russian car and auto part manufacturers, adding: “Companies were selected to participate in this exhibition that have the necessary technology for producing auto parts or to offer up-to-date technical engineering services so that they can operate directly in the Russian market.” According to Farnoudi, IKCO has also showcased one of the latest automobiles manufactured by the company called Tara in this exhibition in order to test the taste of Russian consumers.

“Iran Khodro's goal to re-enter the Russian market is completely strategic and planned,” he said.

“Russia is the fifth-largest car consumption market in the world and is one of the most attractive markets, with complexity and intense competition in the region. For this reason, for the last two years, studies, planning and negotiations have been carried out for Iran Khodro to re-enter this market. And we are in the process of reaching good agreements, which will be announced as soon as the results are obtained,” Farnoudi added.

New models

Iran Khodro is placing its bets on the first Iranian-made crossover. Named the Rira, it is based on a Peugeot 2008, Asbe Bokhar reported on June 28. The car is reminiscent of Russia's own classic Lada Riva, made in Soviet times, that was a rip-off of the Fiat 124 born out of a joint venture between the Soviet Union and Fiat signed in 1966. A giant new factory was built at Togliatti, named in honour of the chairman of the Italian Communist Party at the time, Palmiro Togliatti. This is the same factory that was taken over by Renault which was sold back to the Russian state for one ruble in April.

The development of Iran’s Rira model has been stymied by US sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic over Tehran’s nuclear programme. The US placed specific automotive sanctions on the country in 2018 as part of former US president Donald Trump’s so-called maximum pressure campaign. Iran Khodro partner PSA Group pulled out of Iran under sanctions pressure, following its merger with other companies including US automakers to create automotive giant Stellantis.

The Rira is equipped with an EF7 Plus turbocharged engine, or TC7 Plus. The 1.7-litre 16-valve turbocharged four-cylinder engine is capable of producing 160 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and 240 Nm of torque at 1,600 to 4,500 rpm. Iran Khodro’s head of development and manufacturing Kianoush Pourmojib said the company would start mass production of the Rira before September 2023.

Like Iran Khodro, AvtoVaz’s production is also based on Renault’s technology, making the tie up between the two countries even more appealing, and the co-operation is not all one-way. AvtoVaz is now offering Renault engine parts to Iran Khodro’s biggest rival, SAIPA. Iran’s second-largest car producer SAIPA Corp. has agreed to purchase Lada engine blocks from Russia’s largest carmaker AvtoVaz to restart production of a Renault model, Mag Auto reported on August 16.

As part of the announced deal, the SAIPA-produced Renault Logan, a rebadged car known as the L90 Tondar, will be made with a Lada Largus engine. The Lada Largus is also essentially rebadged, sold as a version of the Renault-developed first-generation Dacia Logan MCV.

Renault officially departed Iran following the re-imposition of sanctions on the country by the US Trump administration in 2018. The company no longer featured in the supply chain from the following year. SAIPA is considering several options for the engine of its locally made Logan. These are 1.6-litre engines with capacities of 90 and 106 horsepower, while there is also a 122-horsepower, 1.8-litre engine version.

Chinese-Iranian JVs could come to Russia

The Iranian deals are part of a larger push by Russia to revive its auto industry with help from its friends. Iran’s long history of Chinese automotive manufacturing joint ventures is also of interest to the Russians, who have also turned to the increasingly sophisticated Chinese automotive producers for help.

China has already set up two car plants in Russia, and Chinese car manufacturer Chery is in talks with Russian manufacturers about producing more cars in Russian plants, Tass reported last week. Chery already sold 40,874 cars in Russian in 2021, according to Association of European Business, but says that now it needs to localise production of parts in Russia if output is to expand.

Russia has also approached Chinese companies for help re-launching the historic “Moskvitch” brand at the AvtoVaz factory in Togliatti that was supposed to be based on technology supplied by Russia’s famous truck-maker Kamaz. However, the US has also sanctioned Kamaz and according to bne IntelliNews industry sources, no progress has been made on the widely reported project. No CEO has been appointed and a chief designer has also yet to be hired.

China, despite having generally unheard-of brands to many western buyers, has more than 200 car manufacturers producing every type of car imaginable and its share of the Russian market is bound to expand rapidly as it steps into the shoes of the departed foreign brands.

In recent years, Chinese car producers have also set up in Iran, like the case of Chery, which created a $370mn plant in Babol in northern Iran. It remains to be seen if the Chinese will use their Iranian base of operations to export cars to Russia, but co-operation between the three countries is now on a set upward trajectory at the expense of foreign luxury marques missing out on the Russian market.

A METAPHOR UNLEASHED

Unchained bull runs wild in the corridors of an Israeli bank

The animal escaped from its owner in the central city of Lod

By MICHAEL DAVENTRY August 22, 2022, 11:06 am 

You’ve heard of a bull in a china shop, but how about one in an Israeli bank?

A bovine wrecked havoc in Lod on Monday morning after it made a daring escape from its owner.

The animal tore through a parking lot in the central Israeli city before clambering into a nearby branch of Bank Leumi.

Footage shared on Twitter by @MeirLayosh showed the bull skidding across polished floors.

It is later seen being chased down corridors by several men.

At one stage, the group attempts to restrain the animal using thin ropes or chord – but are unsuccessful in doing so.

“In the early morning hours a bull entered one of Bank Leumi’s office buildings in Lod,” Bank Leumi said in a statement, Haaretz reported.

“He was caught and led outside the premises. At the same time, the case was reported to the local authorities and the city’s veterinary service to handle the incident.

“There were no injuries and no damage was done.”

The animal was eventually restrained by its owners and tranquilised by a local vet.

No one was hurt in the incident, and Israeli media said the bull was doing well.

SPACE RACE 3.0

Who Needs the Government to Go to Venus?

Monday, 22 August, 2022 - 
Adam Minter

Space scientists have waited nearly four decades for a taxpayer-funded spacecraft to be put to death when it sinks into the atmosphere of Venus. On Tuesday, Rocket Lab USA Inc., a private space launch provider, announced that the wait was almost over. But instead of relying on the government space agency to pay the rent, Rocket Lab will self-finance the mission, set to launch in May 2023. If successful, it would become the first private spacecraft to visit another planet.

It won’t be the last. Thanks to the emergence of private, low-cost rockets and satellites, space science is about to undergo a welcome revolution. Scientists will no longer need to rely solely on taxpayers and government generosity to explore the solar system. Instead, private institutions and funds will play a key role in paying for exploration and basic science beyond Earth. Human knowledge will increase as a result of this change. Eventually, so will the bottom line.

Historically, science was a private endeavor followed by those who had the time, money, and motivation to do so. Benjamin Franklin’s groundbreaking work on electricity was a hobby; So, too, were flying machines manufactured in the Ohio Bicycle Workshop of the Wright brothers. If a person is short of money, institutional support from universities, scientific societies, and museums can fill the gap, as the Smithsonian did for Robert Goddard when he launched the first liquid-fueled rockets in the early 20th century. was constructed.

World War II and the Cold War changed the funding equation. To ensure that innovation remained an engine for the American economy, and for national security reasons, Congress centralized scientific funding in institutions such as the National Science Foundation.

Aerospace funding and research was concentrated in military and civilian programs such as NASA. Some of this, such as the Moon landings, had an obvious application (beating the Soviet Union). But other research programs leaned more towards science for the sake of science. For example, on December 14, 1962, NASA’s Mariner 2 spacecraft completed the first successful mission to another planet when it passed Venus. Over the next half century, NASA and Congress supported dozens of additional robotic explorers, including pioneer flybys of every planet in the Solar System.

Yet for all the scientific merits of these missions, decades can and do elapse between the time they were conceived and the time they were launched. In large part, the problem is money; Only a handful of missions are selected out of dozens of missions proposed to NASA.

Fortunately, innovation has begun to erase the government’s lock on space exploration. Over the past two decades, private and public entities have developed a new class of small, affordable satellites, known as Smallsats and CubeSats. These small-sized crafts are built to standardized dimensions, some as small as a Rubik’s Cube, and typically only weigh a few pounds. Unlike custom-built satellites, which have dominated the space age and can cost hundreds of millions of dollars or more, CubeSats often use off-the-shelf consumer-grade components and cost more than $1 million. may decrease. While they certainly aren’t as capable as their larger, bespoke counterparts, the lower cost means they can be developed and launched more quickly and at less cost.

Similarly, companies such as Rocket Lab and SpaceX have created a private rocket-launch marketplace that has substantially reduced the cost of accessing space. For example, the cost of launching 1 kilogram on NASA’s workhorse Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2011, was about $30,000 (in 2021 dollars). Today, a SpaceX Falcon 9 can launch a kilogram for about $1,500. Meanwhile, the number of rockets launched annually has doubled in the past decade, providing opportunities for smaller satellites that would never have reached space a decade ago.

Those falling costs are prompting space scientists, space agencies and space entrepreneurs to rethink what kind of science is possible. In June, Rocket Lab launched Capstone, a microwave oven-sized NASA CubeSat taking an unusual, deep space route to orbit the Moon (it will arrive in November). The entire mission cost just under $30 million, of which a third went to Rocket Lab’s launch and orbital insertion on its spacecraft. Rocket Lab President and CEO Peter Beck said at a recent conference that he sees the project as a demonstration that, for “tens of millions of dollars” one can “go to an asteroid”. And can go to the moon, can go” and travel to another planet. ,

As Beck notes, it never existed before. Now that that happens, private companies, individuals and universities can consider space exploration without seeking government funding. Beck is a good example. He has spoken publicly about his fascination with Venus for a long time. To satisfy their curiosity, Rocket Lab is collaborating with a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on its Venus mission. As planned, it would launch on the same rocket platform responsible for the capstone and carry a smaller probe with a scientific payload of about 1 kilogram. This is scientific protection, an age-old model of funding, and this is just the beginning.

The price of launching into space will continue to drop over the next few years, and scientists are already seriously thinking about how to take advantage of the savings. Private companies wishing to market their rockets or explore asteroids and planets for potential future mining and other resource extraction can work closely with them on low-cost, high-risk missions. Foundations and universities that fund science can begin to envision grants that pay for deep space exploration. And wealthy individuals who are interested in funding something that others don’t have will have a new, prestige-boosting way of funding science.

It is a kind of scientific revolution, which will expand not only human knowledge but also human ambition.

The End of the Retail Recession Is Good — or Maybe Bad

Monday, 22 August, 2022 - 

Conor Sen

It has been a messy year for macroeconomic analysis. The wild fluctuations in inflation, energy prices, the stock market and consumer behavior have all made mistakes by companies and investors alike. Retailers have been caught in these shifts, as evidenced by both Walmart and Target’s mishandling of consumer behavior that began in March. Stores had a lot of goods that consumers didn’t buy because they shifted their spending to travel and leisure, or were squeezed by inflation.

Fixing these mistakes has caused trouble for retailers. But this week both Walmart and Target said on earnings calls that they are almost back where they want to be. This is important because it means retail may again shift to being the driver of growth, putting pressure on the economy. And it raises the question of whether the economic weakness will last longer.

There are many ways to show how retail has slowed growth. Changes in private inventory reduced real GDP growth by 2% in the second quarter as companies began to liquidate their excess inventories. In 2021, retailers added 400,000 jobs as they resumed post-pandemic job cuts, but since February this year, they have cut 20,000 more.

This change has also been reflected in the freight business. The trucking market fell this spring once retailers changed their behavior, and sea freight rates fell as demand changed and the supply chain normalized.

When you’re in a store that becomes heavily stocked, simply selling off the inventory often isn’t enough—you cancel orders too, and that adds to the negative economic impact. Walmart said it canceled “billions of dollars to help align inventory levels with expected demand,” and Target said its second-quarter inventory actions included “more than $1.5 billion across our discretionary categories.” including the removal of declining receipts.

But the thing about inventory cycles is that changes, while sometimes abrupt, tend to be minimal. Addressing the excess inventory, John Rainey, Walmart’s chief financial officer, said, “At the end of Q1, we said it would take a few quarters to work out. I’ll just reiterate that it’s true. Target, for its part, said it was more or less where it wanted to be, which is why it anticipates a favorable profit margin for the rest of the year.

All this should change the mindset of those who are constantly focusing on slow economic growth. Joe Weisenthal of Bloomberg News noted this week that the economy is reeling from some retail shocks from last spring, with trucking-company stock prices rallying.

Walmart and Target going back to the expanded list in the next quarter or two could point to faster economic growth for the rest of this year. Surveys of companies may soon pick up new orders again. Freights falling for months and prices of goods may rise again.

This will be mixed news for the Federal Reserve as it considers optimal monetary policy. On the one hand, it will show that the risks of recession are indeed very high, with retail being the first industry to complete its post-pandemic slowdown and return to growth. On the other hand, accelerating growth at a time when the Fed is looking to slow it down could signal an alarming rise in inflation.

But it appears that we are moving into the next few months. The retail slump of the last five months is coming to an end, and now there will be a new phase of growth. The question is what this will mean for inflation, and in turn, how the Fed will handle it.

Extinction: 5 species we recently lost

The world is seeing a rapid acceleration in species extinction rates. Currently, more than 1 million species are at risk of dying out. Here are a few animals we've already lost ― and not too long ago.



Bramble Cay Melomys

In 2019, the Bramble Cay melomys was officially declared extinct due to human-related climate change. Warming ocean temperatures and higher seas washed away the vegetation the animals used for shelter and food. Bramble Cay melomys lived on Australia's isolated Bramble Cay island on the surface of the Great Barrier Reef's northern tip.

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Pak's ex-PM Imran Khan gets protective bail in terrorism case

Khan, 69, was booked on Sunday under the Anti-Terrorism Act on Sunday

By PTI Updated: August 22, 2022



Pakistan's ousted prime minister Imran Khan was granted protective bail till Thursday by the Islamabad High Court in a terrorism case registered against him for threatening police, judiciary and other state institutions during a rally here on Saturday.

Khan, 69, was booked on Sunday under the Anti-Terrorism Act on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, moved the court seeking pre-arrest bail in the case.

The petition filed by his lawyers Babar Awan and Faisal Chaudhry stated that Khan was a target of the ruling PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) for his fearless criticism, and extremely bold and blunt stance against corruption and corrupt politicians, the Dawn newspaper reported.

And to achieve this malicious agenda, acting in a most unfortunate and clumsy manner, a false and frivolous complaint has been registered against him by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) police at the behest of the incumbent government, it added.

The plea further alleged that the government had decided to cross all limits to arrest Imran under false accusations and was hell-bent to sort out the petitioner and his party at all costs.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani took up the petition and asked what objections were raised on it.

Awan informed the judge that an objection pertaining to approaching the relevant forum was raised on the plea. At that, Justice Kayani said an objection pertaining to biometrics was also raised.

During the proceedings, Awan claimed that Imran's residence has been surrounded and... he cannot even approach the relevant court.

Underlining that Khan had no past criminal record, the bail application stated that the former premier was ready for any investigation involved in the case, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Quoting sources at the registrar's office, the report said that the office had raised three objections to Khan's application for protective bail -- first, he did not get his biometrics done; second he came to the high court instead of approaching an anti-terrorism court; and third, a certified copy of the terrorism case against him was not provided to the office.

The case against Khan was registered at the Margalla Police Station of Islamabad.

The FIR said that at the PTI's rally at F-9 park on Saturday, Khan had "terrorised and threatened top police officials and a respected female additional sessions judge" with the aim to stop them from performing their functions and abstain from pursuing any action against any individual related to his party.

It says that Khan's speech had spread fear and uncertainty among the police, judges and the nation.

In his address, Khan had threatened to file cases against top police officials, a woman magistrate, Election Commission of Pakistan and political opponents over the treatment meted out to his aide Shahbaz Gill, who was arrested last week on charges of sedition.

He had also taken exception to Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry, who had approved Gill's two-day physical remand at the request of the capital police, and said she should prepare herself as action would be taken against her".

Khan's pre-arrest bail application stated that the government, in an illegal effort to settle a political score, has decided to illegally and unlawfully victimise the petitioner.

Noting that the government had registered 17 FIRs against Khan, it said the most recent FIR against was politically motivated, in which the former prime minister had been falsely involved with mala fide intention and ulterior motives to humiliate him.

Moreover, the plea highlighted that the FIR was registered after an unexplained inordinate delay of 24 hours. The contents of the FIR reflect that the alleged offence is not made out. The case in hand is of further inquiry.

The plea contended the case was based on surmises and conjectures and that no evidence was available on record against Imran in connection with the case.

It also contended that there was no direct or indirect evidence available on record against Imran in the case, which created serious doubt in the prosecution story. 

Political tension soars in Pakistan as ex-Premier Khan’s supporters dig in to prevent his arrest

Imran Khan granted pre-arrest bail till Aug. 25, ordered to appear before anti-terrorism court in 3 days
Islam Uddin |22.08.2022


ISLAMABAD

Political tension in Pakistan deepened after authorities registered a case against former Prime Minister Imran Khan under the Anti-Terrorism Act and hundreds of his supporters reached his residence in Bani Gala near the capital Islamabad to show solidarity.

Meanwhile, Islamabad High Court granted pre-arrest bail to Khan till Aug. 25 and ordered him to appear before the anti-terrorism court in three days.

The situation remained tense in the capital after Khan's close aid and former Federal Minister Murad Saeed tweeted last night that the government has issued orders to arrest the former premier, urging the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s supporters to come out of their homes to protect Khan.

Soon after his tweet, hundreds of people along with their families gathered outside Imran Khan’s residence and blocked all entrances.

“Imran Khan is a red line for us,” Saeed said.

According to Islamabad police, they registered a case against Khan for "terrorizing and threatening" police officers and a female judge at a rally in Islamabad on Saturday.

The cricketer-turned-politician had said he will take action against the officials for the alleged torturing of Shahbaz Gill, his close aide and chief of staff, in police custody. Gill faces sedition charges for remarks that allegedly aimed to incite mutiny within Pakistan’s powerful military.

Former Federal Minister Ali Amin Gandapur also warned that they will take over Islamabad if the police arrested Khan.

“If Imran Khan is arrested by the imported govt we will take over Islamabad and my message to police is that don’t be part of this political war anymore,” he tweeted.

Earlier on Sunday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said the government was mulling over the ex-premier's arrest.

Khan has staged a series of popular anti-government protests since being ousted from power in a no-confidence vote in April.

As he addressed a rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Sunday, many users in Pakistan complained of disruption in YouTube service, where the speech was being live-streamed.

NetBlocks, an organization that tracks internet outages, confirmed the development.

Khan called the "temporary blocking" a “new low” and “gross violation of freedom of speech.”