How Palestinians keep Shireen Abu Akleh’s memory

Palestinians remember Shireen Abu Akleh.

By: Khaled Tayeh

RAMALLAH, Thursday, August 25, 2022 (WAFA) – Over 100 days have passed since Palestinians everywhere lived one of the toughest moments in 2022 when veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered in cold blood by Israeli gunfire in Jenin in May.

Abu Akleh’s importance comes from the fact that she was one of the most influential, prominent, and hard-working women in the field of journalism and media in Palestine who worked for over 25 years for Al-Jazeera, covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

On May 11, while covering an Israeli army assault in the northern occupied West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, Abu Akleh, 51, a Palestinian-American journalist from Jerusalem, was murdered by a bullet to the head fired by an Israeli sniper.

Ever since her killing, tributes have been pouring in her name as Palestinians do their best to keep her memory alive as Abu Akleh spent all of her life as a journalist advocating for Palestinians, exposing Israeli crimes to the world, and was even killed by an Israeli soldier while on duty.

Drawings, graffiti, images and murals in dedication of Abu Akleh with slogans of the phrases she said in her reports can easily be found anywhere in the West Bank cities and even in Arab areas inside Israel such as Nazareth, where activists set up a mural in tribute to the slain journalist.

Recently, the Ramallah Municipality named a central street after Abu Akleh. The street is located in front of Al-Jazeera office in Ramallah, where Abu Akleh worked, along with a wall mural. Her niece, Lina, said Shireen had a fear of heights, thus she didn't report from the balcony of the office. As a result, she'd go downstairs and report live from that street now named after her.

In Nablus, precisely in the town of Deir Sharaf, Palestinians installed a memorial in dedication of Abu Akleh on the road leading to Jenin; where the reporter went to cover the Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp, where she was shot dead by Israeli forces.

Many Palestinian universities such as Birzeit University, Al-Quds University and the Arab American University, launched scholarships and prizes in honor of Abu Akleh's name.

Birzeit University announced the Shireen Abu Akleh Award for Media Excellence, an annual award for Palestinian media workers, aimed at encouraging creativity and ethnic media work that tells the story of Palestine.

A number of Palestinian families have named their new baby-born daughters after the iconic journalist. Some even chose Jenin to be the name of their daughters as well.

The Bani Suhaila Municipality, to the east of the city of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, opened a square and named it after Abu Akleh.

Several Palestinian kids’ summer camps were named “Shireen” in several areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In Bethlehem, an art exhibition titled “At a Near Distance” was launched in dedication to Abu Akleh.

Not long ago, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate premiered a film titled “Shireen” and announced the establishment of the Shireen Abu Akleh Global Organization to support female journalists around the world.

The Palestinian Ministry of Women Affairs hosted a ceremony held in commemoration of Abu Akleh. The event was sponsored by President Mahmoud Abbas, and authors are currently working on books that tell Abu Akleh’s life story.

Despite all the reports, investigations released by major US prestigious media publications, as well as the thorough investigation by Palestinian General Persecution, which all confirmed that the veteran journalist was killed by an armor-piercing projectile fired directly at her head by an Israeli sniper, the report released by the US administration still failed to accuse Israel of Abu Akleh’s killing. To this day, Israel still hasn’t launched its own investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing.

Abu Akleh’s family still demands justice for the reporter and even sent a letter to US President Joe Biden accusing his administration of intentionally undermining efforts toward justice and accountability for Abu Akleh's killing.

“We, the family of Shireen Abu Akleh, write to express our grief, outrage and sense of betrayal concerning your administration’s abject response to the extrajudicial killing of our sister and aunt by Israeli forces on May 11, 2022, while on assignment in the occupied Palestinian city of Jenin in the West Bank,” wrote Abu Akleh's brother Anton, and niece, Lina, in their letter to President Biden.

Whatever the position of the US or Israel, Abu Akleh will be always remembered by the Palestinians and the world at large for her work and dedication to reporting the truth despite the dangers accompanying that.

K.T./M.K.

I tracked down the house Israel stole from my grandfather

It feels personal when I hear that the US embassy in Jerusalem will be built on land stolen from Palestinians.

Jalal Abukhater
Published On 28 Aug 2022

A woman holds up a sign reading 'stop the occupation' as Palestinian, Israeli, and foreign activists gather for a demonstration against Israeli occupation and settlement activity in the Palestinian territory, in Jerusalem's Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, on June 4, 2021 

[Ahmad Gharabli/AFP]

Last month, and coinciding with United States President Joe Biden’s visit to Jerusalem, the Haifa-based Adalah Legal Center released a report detailing how land designated for a planned US embassy was actually owned by Palestinians before it was stolen by Israel following the Nakba of 1948.

The descendants of the original owners include Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, as well as Palestinian Americans. Adalah, along with these descendants, shared in their report original documents serving as proof of ownership of the property in Jerusalem. The parties have demanded that the Biden administration cancels the plan to build a diplomatic mission on stolen land.

The revelations and the struggle of Palestinians to reclaim their land feel personal to me. They echo a similar battle for our past that my grandfather – and many others – waged.

After 1948, Israel legalised the systematic theft of Palestinian homes and properties in West Jerusalem, in particular through the Absentee Property Law. That 1950 legislation declared Nakba refugees “absentees” even if they were in the eastern part of Jerusalem and allowed the Israeli government’s Custodian of Absentee Property to take over their property.

Back then, the Americans themselves recognised this fact in a cable sent by the US consul general in Jerusalem in December 1948. The consul general wrote to the US secretary of state, stating that Israel was trying to “eliminate” the possibility of Palestinian refugees returning home, in defiance of a United Nations resolution passed earlier that month and supported by the US.

My family was one of the many Palestinian families that were denied the right to our homes in Jerusalem’s west side.

Our oasis

Before Israel, my grandfather owned a house in al-Qatamon, a modern and affluent neighbourhood of Jerusalem, located 2km (1.2 miles) south of the Old City. Established in 1860, Al-Qatamon included 204 Palestinian homes on land that spanned 20 hectares (49 acres). It was established to accommodate middle to upper-class Jerusalemite families who found life within the walls of the Old City too crowded.

The population of the neighbourhood was mainly Muslim and Christian, along with a few foreign families who lived there during the time of the British Mandate. Growing up, Palestinian writer and doctor Ghada Karmi brought al-Qatamon alive for me through her 2002 memoir, In Search of Fatima. In her book, Karmi described her family’s stone house and its garden full of citrus and olive trees. Karmi and her family were forced out of the neighbourhood when she was eight years old, during the Nakba.

Later, I came to hold documents that my grandfather and father had carefully kept, proving the ownership of our house in al-Qatamon. The papers showed that my grandfather had registered the property on April 21, 1939. He had bought it from another Palestinian Jerusalemite family, the Zmourrods.

Everything changed in 1948, following my family’s expulsion to East Jerusalem. My grandfather, though just 1km (0.6 miles) away from al-Qatamon, was suddenly an “absentee” under Israeli law.

The land registry deeds in my hands showed how on July 28, 1957, the Custodian for Absentee Property sold my family’s house to Israel’s Development Authority, so it could be taken over by new Jewish tenants. The same land registry deeds that listed my grandfather as the owner of this property now had another party selling it away.

Legal discrimination

In 1970, the Israeli Knesset passed the Legal and Administrative Matters Law, which effectively meant that Jewish owners who had to flee their property in East Jerusalem in 1948 would not be considered “absentees” in the then-newly occupied part of the city. They could return to claim their homes. That same law, however, did not extend similar benefits to East Jerusalem residents who once owned property in West Jerusalem. Those Palestinians, like my grandfather, remained “absentees”.

Still, my grandfather decided he wanted to claim his home. On March 28, 1972, as a resident of a Jerusalem “unified” under Israeli authority, he wrote a letter to the Custodian of Absentee Property. He requested that his house be returned to him since he was now a resident of Jerusalem and no longer “absent”. He finished his letter with these emphatic words: “This house is my private property and no one else has any connection with it.”

Nearly a month later, the Custodian of Absentee Property in Jerusalem wrote back, citing the Absentee Property Law as cause to turn down my grandfather’s plea.

With the documents in my hand, and relying on what my father knew, I pinpointed the exact location of the house and took my dad for a visit in the summer of 2021. We were not surprised to find it was still there, and that it was occupied by a Jewish Israeli family. The building had two extra stories added on top of the original one-storey house. Everywhere I looked in the neighbourhood, I saw evidence of our Palestinian existence, and I felt the heartache of our erasure.

The 1970 law enabled Jewish groups to claim ownership of property in East Jerusalem, most prominently in the areas of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan. To date, Palestinians displaced by Israel do not enjoy that right in West Jerusalem.

As Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and other neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem face eviction orders in favour of Jewish settlement, I cannot stop thinking about the sheer injustice of it all.

They claim Jerusalem is an undivided city, yet there are two laws governing two peoples in the most unequal manner. They claim we have rights, yet I believe they merely tolerate our existence. We lack the right to vote, the right to housing, the right to property – and with our ancestral homes stolen, the right to our history.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance

.
Jalal Abukhater is a Jerusalemite. He holds an MA in International Relations and Politics from the University of Dundee, Scotland.

The eroding rule of law in the U.S.
Hayat Bangash
Opinion 28-Aug-2022


Editor's note: Hayat Bangash is a freelance columnist on international affairs with degrees in business administration and war studies.

The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart is facing a storm of death threats. He is the Florida magistrate who approved a search warrant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to search the former U.S. President Donald Trump's expansive Mar-a-Lago estate. When it became public that the search warrant bears his signature, the Republican Party, the right-wing media, and the virulent supporters of Trump came after him.

As the search went ahead, the threats expanded to the wider judiciary and the FBI, prompting concerns that the rule of law in the U.S. is slowly but visibly eroding.

The situation has exacerbated after Trump's defeat in the 2020 election. Not only did he refuse to accept the election results but after the criminal proceedings following the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021, he has refused to accept the legitimacy of the legal system.

Had this been an act of a random U.S. citizen, it could have been termed an aberration. Coming from a former U.S. president instead, whose words are unquestioningly believed by a large portion of the American populace, this is putting a serious question mark on the rule of law in the U.S.

Clearly, Trump's ideas are not from the fringes of society. His presidential nomination leading to his election in 2016, his slim defeat in 2020, and his vote base's rejection of Republican Liz Cheney, who has denounced his antics, are proof that his ideology is firmly in the mainstream.

U.S. Representative Liz Cheney speaks at an election night event during the Wyoming primary election at Mead Ranch in Jackson, Wyoming, August 16, 2022. /CFP


Donations of millions of dollars are pouring into his political action committee and his party is gullibly defending his lies after the FBI search. The rhetoric of America First has morphed into Trump First.

The Western commentators, or at least a section thereof, have portrayed the image of the U.S. as responsible at home but detestable abroad. Ironically today, the U.S. is acting equally detestable at home. The detestation is not just aimed at a particular administration; it is the American political system that has become so rotten that it is threatening the very ideals of the nation's concept of democracy.

In the study of failing democracies that disrespect the rule of law, the U.S. has become exhibit-a. The Varieties of Democracy Index, Economist Intelligence Unit, Freedom House and the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index are all providing empirical evidence of the country's downward trajectory as its institutions continue to decay.

The American democratic model has thus failed to serve as an example for the rest of the world. No matter how loud Western intellectuals present the case of Capitol Hill as the epitome of democracy, the possibility of the U.S. turning despotic cannot be ruled out.

The same intellectuals and non-governmental organizations have been passing judgments on the governance models of other countries on scales of democratic compliance. Likewise, the U.S. government has given preferential treatment to other governments on how closely they resemble the American system. But it is time they realize that the supposed yardstick itself is rotting.

Any hope for abatement in the American political circus is far from sight. Despite facing extensive attacks, the U.S. Department of Justice is knee-deep in its commitments, the January 6 insurrection trial is one of the most complex criminal trials in the department's history, and Trump, on the other side, is showing no signs of toning down his aggression.

The fissures that became alarmingly evident with Trump's election in 2016 are now ripping apart the society. Americans, already divided on racial lines, are further segregating under political polarization. As the legal system wears out, it is not an overstatement that we may well be looking at the U.S. returning to the days of the Wild West.

The U.S. is a major country and, therefore, has certain responsibilities at the international level as well. In case the ever more popular Trump, with little regard for the rule of law, comes back to the White House, implications for global peace will be appalling. The FBI has recovered top-secret documents from Trump that are possibly related to the American nuclear arsenal. Seeing how the country keeps its secrets, its commitment to international law also comes into question.

Truth Social is headed for bankruptcy
Prospects that Donald Trump's Truth Social will survive are growing bleak

By TOM BOGGIONI
PUBLISHED AUGUST 28, 2022 4:00AM (E

This illustration photo shows a person checking the app store on a smartphone for "Truth Social", with a photo of former US president Donald Trump on a computer screen in the background, in Los Angeles, October 20, 2021. (CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on Raw Story

According to a report from the Washington Post, prospects that Donald Trump's Truth Social will survive are growing bleak with the company that had planned to take the social media platform public now suggesting that a probable bankruptcy is on the horizon.

As the report points out, Truth Social has not been paying for web-hosting fees to the point where attorneys are now involved, traffic is collapsing, the value of stock in the company is plunging and money is running out.

With the Post reporting, "Former president Donald Trump's Truth Social website is facing financial challenges as its traffic remains puny and the company that is scheduled to acquire it expresses fear that his legal troubles could lead to a decline in his popularity," WaPo's Drew Harwell wrote that the former president's legal problems have added another cloud of Truth Social's future.

In a filing this week, Digital World Acquisition, which planned to take Trump Media & Technology Group public, is now issuing warnings about what the future may bring.

"The company warned this week that its business could be damaged if Trump 'becomes less popular or there are further controversies that damage his credibility.' The company has seen its stock price plunge nearly 75 percent since its March peak and reported in a filing last week that it had lost $6.5 million in the first half of the year," the report states adding, "There are signs that the company's financial base has begun to erode. The Trump company stopped paying RightForge, a conservative web-hosting service, in March and now owes it more than $1 million, according to Fox Business, which first reported the dispute."

According to Harwell, "Trump's businesses have faced many similar payment battles over the years. In past SEC filings, Digital World has also noted that 'a number of companies that were associated with [Trump] have filed for bankruptcy' and that 'there can be no assurances that [Trump's media company] will not also become bankrupt.'"

"In fact, Digital World's filings have been consistently downbeat on the likelihood that Truth Social will be a success. Trump's company 'may never generate any operating revenues or ever achieve profitable operations,' it said in May, and if it is 'unsuccessful in addressing [its] risks, its business will most likely fail,'" the report adds while noting that traffic on the site has collapsed, with Harwell writing, "Trump, the site's most popular user, has fewer than 4 million followers, and the site's most active trending topics, including #DefundTheFBI, have shown only a few thousand people posting to them in recent days, data from the site shows. For comparison, Twitter says it has about 37 million people in the U.S. actively using the site every day... But in the days since the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Truth Social's viewership has slowed, according to traffic estimates from Similarweb, an online analytics firm. Its U.S. audience has tumbled to about 300,000 views per day, down from nearly 1.5 million on the day of its launch."

Record-breaking heat wave in Europe will be the norm by 2035, analysis shows

By Amarachi Orie and Angela Dewan, CNN
Thu August 25, 2022

A construction worker drinks water during a heat wave in Seville, Spain on June 13, 2022.

London (CNN)The record-breaking heat wave that swept across Europe this year will become the "average" summer by 2035, even if all countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by as much as they have pledged to, according to an analysis published Thursday.

The analysis by the UK's Met Office Hadley Centre, commissioned by the country's Climate Crisis

 Advisory Group (CCAG), looked at how quickly temperatures are changing across the region using historical records of mean summer temperatures since 1850, and comparing them against model predictions.

Taking a longer-term view, the analysis found that an average summer in central Europe by 2100 would be more than 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than it was in the pre-industrial era. Scientists now say that all heat waves bear the fingerprints of human-induced climate change, caused primarily by burning fossil fuels.

"This data serves as an urgent reminder of the need for countries to go well beyond their nationally determined contributions so far pledged under the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to under 1.5°C if possible," said the CCAG in the release.

Nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, lay out each countries' planned emissions cuts in order to reach the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 2C, or 1.5C if possible.

Part of the Guadiana river has dried up in drought and heat in Villarta de los Montes, Spain.

The UK set an all-time national temperature record in July after it exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time. Other local records were broken in parts of Spain, Portugal and France, which have also been battling wildfires as both heat and drought leave forests and grasslands tinderbox dry.
"In the aftermath of the 2003 European heatwave, which is estimated to have killed over 70,000 people, I predicted that such temperatures, so exceptional at the time, would become the norm under continued emissions. That prediction has now been realized," said Peter Stott from the Met Office Hadley Centre. "The risks of extreme weather, including fires, drought and flash floods, will keep increasing rapidly unless emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced substantially."

Paris Agreement pledges fall short

The new findings were published just over two months ahead of the COP27 international climate talks in Egypt. Countries last year agreed to align their emissions plans with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C by the end of COP27.
An analysis by the Climate Action Tracker last year found that none of the world's major economies -- including the entire G20 -- had a plan that met their obligations under the Paris Agreement. Some countries have put forward more ambitious plans since then.

Women fighting the heat in Seville, Spain on June 13, 2022.

To contain global warming, the CCAG is arguing for countries to reduce emissions "urgently, deeply and rapidly"; to remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere in "vast quantities to reduce the total from today"; and to "buy time" to complete those two.

To do that, the committee said the world should repair broken parts of the climate system, starting with the Artic.

It added that "to create a manageable future we must refreeze the Arctic Ocean which has already warmed to 3.5C above the pre-industrial levels and is exacerbating the extreme weather events around the world."

An 'extreme heat belt' will impact over 100 million Americans in the next 30 years, study finds

CCAG Chair David King said in a statement that the science was clear that extreme weather is "at least in large part a consequence of human-induced climate change."

"The data released by the Met Office today shows that, even if countries meet their commitments to reduce emissions they have made so far, the situation is still set to get worse, with weather in Europe predicted to become even more extreme than seen this summer," he said.

"This data doesn't fully account for the instability of the Arctic, which we now know is a global tipping point which that could have major cascading consequences for the entire planet."

Greta Thunberg accused of time travelling after she's ‘spotted’ in 120-year-old photo

A 120-year-old photo of a Greta Thunberg doppelganger has been unearthed and it's left many convinced the climate activist is "100 per cent a time traveller"

Social media users have been leaving comedic comments regarding the fact that Greta is here to 'save us'

 (Image: Eric A Hegg/University of Washington Libraries)NEWS

By Milica Cosic

News Reporter

26 Aug 2022

People have been left convinced that Greta Thunberg is a time traveller after being "spotted" in a 120-year-old photograph.

A picture of "Greta" has taken the internet by storm after social media users were convinced the age-old picture of a woman mining in a field is actually the Swedish activist.

While the now 19-year-old has been fighting for climate justice for most of her life, it seems that she is actually a lot older than some might expect.

A photo - which was taken in 1989 by Eric Hegg - and depicts three children working at a gold mine in Canada 's Yukon territory.

Others on Twitter have suggested that the activist is 'immortal' 

(Image: Eric A Hegg/University of Washington Libraries)

Captured in the grainy black and white picture is a child who looks eerily similar to the globally recognised teenager.

To add to the confusion, none of the kids in the viral image are named - so they could in fact be anyone.

The image, which was most recently shared by Paul Joseph Watson on Twitter, has racked up over 3,500 likes.

Users took to the social media site to share their disbelief at the uncanny resemblance, with one writing: "I'm not one for conspiracy theories but she is 100 per cent a time traveller."

While another said: "'So 'Greta Thunberg' is in a photo from 120 years ago, and it's my new favourite conspiracy.

"Greta's a time traveller, from the future, and she's here to save us.

"120-year-old photo sparks theories that climate activist & environmental heroine, Greta Thunberg, is, in fact, a 'time-travel' who has travelled thru time to save our planet!"

A third added: "Wishing her all the best and success in her mission to save the Earth. We can use the help we can get!"

Since being unearthed in 2019, the photograph has gained a lot of attraction 

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

A fourth also comedically added: "What was her mission in the Yukon and which time space coordinates will she be travelling to next?"

It has been reported that the photo now belongs to the University of Washington in Seattle and, since being unearthed in 2019, it has since attracted massive attention.

Speaking about this, archivist Lisa Oberg told CBC: "We've had about 15 to 20 requests just to talk about the photo, and we're getting into almost the triple digits now, in terms of requests to use the photo."'

IT'S ACTUALLY THE DOPPLEGANGER PHENOMENA

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/08/art-meets-science-doppelgangers-dont.html

In pictures: Swiss glaciers have shrunk by half in 85 years - and the melt is speeding up

Shocking new images reveal the extent to which Swiss glaciers have shrunk since the 1930s - Copyright

ETH Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL

By Charlotte Elton • Updated: 25/08/2022

Switzerland’s 1,400 glaciers have shrunk by more than half in the last 85 years, a new study has found - and the rate at which they are melting is only accelerating.

The alpine country is famous for its majestic icy landscape.

But according to researchers from ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Swiss glaciers have lost half their total volume since the early 1930s.

Since 2016, they have lost a further 12 per cent.

The new analysis reveals the “big picture” of a warming mountain landscape, explains Daniel Farinotti, Professor of Glaciology at ETH Zurich and WSL

A Flourish chart

“Glacier retreat is accelerating,” he says.

“Closely observing this phenomenon and quantifying its historical dimensions is important because it allows us to infer the glaciers’ responses to a changing climate.”

Ski resorts like Zermatt have called off summer skiing - usually offered year-round - as record temperatures threaten the ice.

Record high temperatures spark avalanche in Italy as largest Alpine glacier collapses

Are melting glaciers causing the Earth to move under our feet?

Before and after pictures reveal how much Swiss glaciers have melted

Shocking before and after images reveal the extent of the melt.

Where ice once coated the ground, the rocky slope is grey and bare. Huge ice floes have diminished into small blue lakes.

The images are shocking visual proof of a warming climate. They are also the data researchers used to calculate the glacial loss.

By painstakingly mapping thousands of photos, scientists reconstructed the topography of the glaciers over time.

By doing so, they could calculate the changes in volume.

A Flourish chart

“While there may have been growth over short-​term periods, it’s important to keep the big picture in mind,” Farinotti says.

“Our comparison between the years 1931 and 2016 clearly shows that there was significant glacial retreat during this period.”

By area, Switzerland’s glaciers amount to about half of all the total glaciers in the European Alps. According to the head of the World Metreological Association, they will shrink to 5 per cent of their current size by the end of the century.

Wherever there are glaciers, this phenomenon is replicated. A 2019 study suggested that the world loses 390 billion tons of ice and snow per year.

And, according to Italian environmental group, Legambiente, 200 Alpine glaciers have disappeared since the end of the 19th century.

A melting glacier could force Nepal to move its Everest base camp by 2024
A melting glacier is moving the Italian-Swiss border near one of the world's largest ski resorts

Why is glacial melting bad?

Glacial melting has serious implications.

The ice floes form over millennia, as snow accumulated in cold places compacts and recrystallises as ice.

They cover 10 per cent of the earth’s surface and, along with the ice caps, hold roughly 70 per cent of the world’s fresh water.

Jewelry designer unmasked as Russian spy luring NATO chiefs into honeytraps

By Dana Kennedy
August 27, 2022

Maria Adela Kuhfeldt Rivera, who's real name is Olga Kolobova, was a Russian spy posed as a jewelry designer frolicking with NATO officers.

A beautiful jewelry designer who criss-crossed Europe for 10 years was actually a Russian spy who infiltrated NATO by charming and seducing commanders.

She was known as Maria Adela Kuhfeldt Rivera but her real name was Olga Kolobova, and she was a spy working on behalf of Russia’s GRU foreign intelligence service, according to the investigative site Bellingcat, which used photo-matching software to out her.

Rivera took up residence in Rome, Malta and Paris before making Naples, Italy, her home base. She owned a jewelry boutique and talked her way into the city’s international party scene, including soirees and balls attended by NATO officers, the outlet reported.

Olga Kolobova often painted herself as a lonely woman coming from an abusive family, according to her friends.@sereinjewelry

Olga Kolobova was an agent working for Russia’s GRU foreign intelligence service.@sereinjewelry

Olga Kolobova often flirted with NATO officers from a command base in Bagnoli, Italy.

Napoli/ROPI via ZUMA Press

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She spoke fluent English and Italian and one unidentified officer told Bellingcat the two had a brief romance. A US Navy officer said he had a “little crush” on her.

She told European friends that she had been abandoned in Russia by her Peruvian mother and raised by an abusive family.

In 2012, Maria Adela, who was actually the daughter of a colonel in the Russian military, married a purportedly Italian man.

But he was in reality Ecuadoran and Russian, and he died mysteriously at the age of 30 due to “double pneumonia and systemic lupus”.

After his death, she settled down in Naples and began befriending NATO diplomats.

Marcelle D’Argy Smith, the former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, was one of her unwitting friends.

“She was like a goddaughter or a niece. It was upsetting to find out,” Smith said. “She was very beautiful, very understated. She had lots of male friends, but they never seemed worthy. She was so attractive and the men looked ordinary and I never understood it.”

Marcelle D’Argy Smith claimed Olga Kolobova was too attractive to date so many ordinary men.courtesy/Bellingcat

One NATO officer admitted to dating alleged Russian spy Olga Kolobova.@sereinjewelry

Olga Kolobova owned a jewelry boutique in Naples, Italy.

Colonel Sheila Bryant, then inspector general of the US Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, was suspicious of Maria Adela’s story, Bellingcat said.

She told colleagues to “limit access” to highly confidential military information around her.

Suddenly, in 2018, Maria Adela left for Moscow — and her friends in Europe haven’t seen her since. Bellingcat theorized she had her cover blown in some way by outside intelligence services.

NATO chief warns about Russia's Arctic military build-up on Canada visit

By Euronews • Updated: 27/08/2022 -

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say goodbye at 4 Wing Cold Lake air base in Cold Lake Alta,. - Copyright AP Pho

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called for more investment in the Arctic as Moscow reopens hundreds of soviet-era military sites.

Stoltenberg warning came while he was visiting Canada’s Arctic region - the first time a NATO security general has done so in the history of the alliance.

During the visit, Stoltenberg also stressed that the shortest route for Russian missiles and bombers to reach North America would be through the North Pole.

"Russia has set up a new Arctic Command. It has opened hundreds of new and former Soviet-era Arctic military sites, including airfields and deep water ports. Russia is also using the region as a testbed for many of its new and novel weapons systems,” Stoltenberg said.

NATO’s secretary-General also noted that after Finland and Sweden join the alliance, seven of the eight Arctic countries will be NATO members, except only Russia.

Before this visit, Canada has been wary of a NATO presence in its Arctic region.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed the geopolitical situation.

"It is important that we all recognise the shifting geopolitical realities that the world is now facing and across the NATO alliance countries are investing more in the ability to secure NATO territory including across the Arctic," Trudeau said.

Canada has also been previously criticised for not spending enough on its military as a NATO member. But in June, it announced a €3.8 billion investment in modernizing its NORAD facilities.

NORAD, or the North American Aerospace Defense Command, is a joint venture with Washington to detect incoming Russian aircraft or missiles.

Stoltenberg and Trudeau also said climate change is creating new security challenges in the arctic, as melting ice is making the area more accessible to militaries.

And Stoltenberg expressed concerns about cooperation between Beijing and Moscow for shipping and resources exploration in the Arctic.

China is also planning to construct the world's largest icebreaker fleet.

NATO announces increased presence in the Arctic

Photo: AP Photo / Virginia May


POSTED BY: NORWAY TODAY STAFF

28. AUGUST 2022

NATO and the US signal that they will be more active in the Arctic in light of Russia increasing its military activity in the country’s Arctic regions.

“NATO must increase its presence in the Arctic,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

He adds that Russia is in the process of reopening Soviet-era military bases in the country’s own Arctic regions and that Moscow is deploying new and modern weapons, including hypersonic missiles, there.

China has also shown increasing interest in the region, according to Stoltenberg.

On Friday, the US State Department announced that it would appoint a special ambassador for the Arctic for the first time.

The plan, which must be approved by the Senate, is intended to advance “American interests and cooperation with allies and partners in the Arctic,” a statement from Washington said.

The Arctic region includes areas belonging to Russia, the USA, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

Economist who got it spectacularly wrong on Brexit says ‘Liz Truss is nearest thing we’ve got to Margaret Thatcher’

"Patrick Minford is such a marginal view even within academia. His views are Economics equivalent of ‘flat earth.’"

by Joe Mellor
2022-08-27 


The Government can look forward to a post-Brexit windfall worth £135 billion after the UK leaves the European Union, a report claimed in 2017.

The Economists for Free Trade (EFT) group said Brexit will be “overwhelmingly positive” for the British economy provided the Government adopts the right policies.

The EFT – headed by Professor Patrick Minford – says the priority for the Government should be to bring down trade barriers with the rest of the world once Britain has left the EU while reducing the burden of regulation and taxation on firms and individuals.

Yes it is that Patrick Minford who is calling Truss the new Thatcher,

Back in July BBC’s Nick Robinson interviewed Liz Truss.

He asked: “Will borrowing billions of pounds, you say over £30billion increase or decrease inflation?”


Ms Truss replied “My tax cuts will decrease inflation.”

Mr Robinson interjected: “Really? You don’t point to a single Chancellor or a single Governor of the Bank of England, a single leading economist who thinks that cutting taxes with borrowed money does anything other than increase inflation.

Ms Truss hit back: “Patrick Minford. He’s written an article about it this weekend.”
Who is he?

In 1981 over 300 economists wrote a letter criticising Margaret Thatcher’s disastrous economic policies, Minford defended the government and received a letter from Thatcher congratulating him for his efforts.

John Spiers wrote on Twitter: “Liz Truss just told Radio 4 that she wants to follow the advice of Patrick Minford, a fringe economist who said that for Brexit to succeed economically we would have to get rid of farming and manufacturing and live with much bigger wage inequality.”

Now he has told the Times that Liz Truss is the nearest thing we have to Margaret Thatcher.

Reactions

Not everyone is convinced…

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Related: Boris Johnson will ‘run the country’ from Chequers

 and people aren’t having it