French rail strike causes widespread weekend train cancelations

"It is a strike that we did not see coming, neither we nor the unions," 

SNCF Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Farandou 

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Passengers wait on the platform during the SNCF conductors strike at Gare de Lyon train station in Paris on Friday. Photo by Yoan Valat/EPA-EFE

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- France's state state-owned railway company says it has canceled more than half of its scheduled trips this weekend due to a nationwide strike by rail conductors.

SNCF imposed the drastic service cutbacks as about 10,000 conductors were on strike Saturday demanding better work conditions.

The three-day job action is expected to last until Sunday evening.

The cancelations severely affected rail traffic between France and Switzerland, where only one out of every three trains normally scheduled were running.

Trains to Switzerland and Italy were cut by two-thirds, trains to Germany were cut by half, while all trains to Spain were canceled, SCNF said.

Around 3,000 of the striking workers are employed by French intercity service providers, where they conduct passenger safety and traffic operations. Nearly 60% of intercity, or TGV, train service was canceled over the weekend.

Service is expected to gradually return to normal on Monday.

Union leaders say the strike is meant to draw more attention to rules requiring that members work three weekends per month and sleep away from home for more than 10 nights per month.

The conductors' union met twice with management without progress before the strike. Other unions joined in support, and have filed strike notice for both the Christmas and New Year's weekends to put pressure on SNCF.

The strike comes before the start of mandatory annual salary negotiations between the carrier and the French rail unions, which begin next week.

"It is a strike that we did not see coming, neither we nor the unions," SNCF Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Farandou told Swissinfo ahead of the weekend's slowdown.

Just Stop Oil activists protest in London against high energy bills

By Matt Bernardini

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Just Stop Oil protestors continued their demonstrations on Saturday, tucking themselves into bed displays at Harrods in London to protest Britain's high energy bills.

The protestors were lying on beds and sofas with signs reading "end fuel poverty." They were joined by other grassroots activists like Don't Pay UK and Fuel Poverty Action, who all want action over the country's skyrocketing energy prices.

"This government is allowing ordinary people to starve and freeze this winter as greedy energy companies squeeze every last penny out of us," a Just Stop Oil spokesperson told The Guardian. "The health service is in crisis, workers' wages are being squeezed and nurses are using food banks. Austerity is a political choice and the cost of living crisis is an unprovoked attack on ordinary people."

Don't Pay has called on people to cancel direct debits for their energy bills in response to the "mass default" among those who cannot afford to heat their homes.

The groups are advocating for "a universal, free band of energy to cover people's necessities".

This would be paid for by "ending all public money subsidising fossil fuels, a more effective windfall tax on energy companies and higher tariffs on luxury household energy use".

"Ordinary people cannot keep footing the bill for crises created by the wealthy," Stuart Bretherton, Fuel Poverty Action coordinator, told the Guardian.

Just Stop Oil protestors have gained global attention recently for their demonstrations. In October, two activists threw soup on a Vincent Van Gogh painting in London, and then demanded action on climate change.

Later that month a climate activist glued his head to a famous painting in a Dutch museum.

THAT'S TWO WORDS
Oxford Dictionaries names ‘goblin mode’ its word of the year

LONDON (AP) — Asked to sum up 2022 in a word, the public has chosen a phrase.

Oxford Dictionaries said Monday that “goblin mode” has been selected by online vote as its word of the year.

It defines the term as “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.”

First seen on Twitter in 2009, “goblin mode” gained popularity in 2022 as people around the world emerged uncertainly from pandemic lockdowns.

“Given the year we’ve just experienced, ‘goblin mode’ resonates with all of us who are feeling a little overwhelmed at this point,” said Oxford Languages President Casper Grathwohl.

The word of the year is intended to reflect “the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the past twelve months.” For the first time this year’s winning phrase was chosen by public vote, from among three finalists selected by Oxford Languages lexicographers: goblin mode, metaverse and the hashtag IStandWith.

Despite being relatively unknown offline, goblin mode was the overwhelming favorite, winning 93% of the more than 340,000 votes cast.

The choice is more evidence of a world unsettled after years of pandemic turmoil, and by the huge changes in behavior and politics brought by social media.

Last week Merriam-Webster announced that its word of the year is “gaslighting” — psychological manipulation intended to make a person question the validity of their own thoughts.

In 2021 the Oxford word of the year was “vax” and Merriam-Webster’s was “vaccine.”

WATCH: U.S. Geological Survey adds livestream, new webcam views of Hawaii's Mauna Loa eruption

Image of a webcam deployed to monitor the Northeast Rift Zone eruption of Mauna Loa. Photo courtesy of K. Mulliken/USGS

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Geological Survey on Saturday announced that it has added several new webcam views and a livestream of the eruption of Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano.

Mauna Loa, one of the five volcanoes that form Hawaii's Big Island, began erupting on Monday for the first time in 38 years.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, a division of the USGS, said in a statement Saturday that it had added the webcams which can be viewed online.

At the time of publication on Saturday, the livestream showed lava erupting from Fissure 3 on the northeast rift zone of the volcano.

RELATED Lava from Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano eruption flows out of rift zone

The camera is located east of the fissure and looks west.



"The webcams are operational 24/7 and faithfully record the dark of night if there are no sources of incandescence or other lights," the USGS said in a disclaimer with the livestream on YouTube.

"Thermal webcams record heat rather than light and get better views through volcanic gas. At times, clouds and rain obscure visibility."

RELATED Mauna Loa, Kilauea volcanos erupting at same time in Hawaii

The USGS said in a statement Saturday evening that there has been "little change" in the eruption over the past 24 hours.

"Fissure 3 is generating a lava flow traveling to the north toward the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road) that has reached relatively flatter ground and slowed down significantly over the past several days, as expected," the statement reads.

Fragments of Pele's hair, which are strands of volcanic glass, have been wafted great distances and have been reported as far Laupāhoehoe.

RELATED Lava from Mauna Loa slows, still endangers highways

Poland seeks restitution of 'stolen' Kandinsky painting sold at German auction for $400K

By Adam Schrader

Poland’s Ministry of Culture and Natural Heritage has said it will take legal action and seek restitution after a Wassily Kandinsky painting believed to be stolen from the National Museum in Warsaw was sold at a German auction. Photo courtesy of Grisebach

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Poland's Ministry of Culture and Natural Heritage has said it will take legal action and seek restitution after a Wassily Kandinsky painting believed to be stolen from the National Museum in Warsaw was sold at a German auction.

"In connection with the sale of Wassily Kandinsky's watercolor "Composition", stolen in 1984 from the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw, at the German auction house Grisebach, we will take all possible legal steps to recover the work," the Ministry of Culture said in a statement on Thursday.

"At the same time, we emphasize that we consider the transaction carried out knowingly by the Grisebach auction house to be highly unethical and contrary to the standards that should apply on the international art market."

Kandinsky, the Blue Rider and Bauhaus painter, was born in Moscow but raised in the Ukrainian city of Odesa and graduated from the Grekov Odesa Art School. He made the painting "Untitled (1928)" with watercolor and pen with black ink on cardboard.

The painting was sold by Grisebach at an auction on Thursday for $408,328, according to a listing by the auction house.

In a description for the provenance of the painting, which is the term used in the art world to describe the tracking of such artifacts as they change hands over time, the auction house said the work had been consigned for sale by the Hamburg-based German philanthropist Maren Otto, who bought it in 1988 from Galerie Thomas in Munich.

The painting was acquired by Warsaw's National Museum from a private collection in 1982 but was stolen from the museum in June 1984 when it was presented in an exhibition titled Concepts of Space in Contemporary Art, according to a 1985 report from the International Foundation for Art Research.

"To this day, the seal of the National Museum in Warsaw has been preserved on the back of the watercolor, which clearly indicates its origin. The auction house itself, indicating the history of watercolors, admits that it was in Polish public collections," Poland's Ministry of Culture said in a statement ahead of the auction.

"Despite the request to withdraw the work by W. Kandinsky, the auction house Grisebach intends to sell it."

A Grisebach spokesperson told The Art Newspaper on Saturday that the auction house does not doubt that the purchase of the watercolor in 1998 was made in good faith.

"Grisebach first became aware of a possible theft from a Polish museum shortly before the auction through a communication from the Polish Ministry of Culture," the spokesperson said.

"This notification was immediately taken as an opportunity to enter into a further legal investigation. This led to the clear conclusion that there were no legal objections to the auction of the watercolor."

The spokesperson told The Art Newspaper that the auction house has contacted Otto and the purchaser and will "endeavor to bring about a supplementary judicial legal review by a court in order to obtain a binding clarification."

Ukrainian police foil attempt to steal Banksy mural


Police in Ukraine on Friday arrested eight people for trying to steal a mural by graffiti artist Banksy. Photo provided by Kiev Regional Government/Telegram

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Eight people who attempted to steal a mural by graffiti artist Banksy off the wall of a war-torn building in the Ukrainian city of Hostomel have been arrested, officials said Saturday.

Police said the group cut off a section of board and plaster bearing the artwork of a woman in a gas mask.

Eight people were arrested at the scene in the town near Kyiv. The graffiti is undamaged and police are protecting it, the governor of Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said on Telegram.

"These images are, after all, symbols of our struggle against the enemy," he said. "These are stories about the support and solidarity of the entire civilized world with Ukraine.

"We'll do everything to preserve these works of street art as a symbol of our victory."

Banksy, whose identity is unknown, is one of the most well-known street artists in the world and he has confirmed that he is behind pieces that have appeared in areas of Ukraine that had been attacked by Russian forces.

Banksy's pieces regularly fetch millions at auction, creating an incentive for thieves to take his public work, according to Forbes.

Banksy is one of the world's most famous artists, rising to prominence with stenciled designs in Britain in the early 1990's.

Looted art, artifacts seized by Manhattan DA were recovered from home of The Met trustee


Shelby White, a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, has been revealed as the former owner of looted artifacts recently returned to Turkey, including a life-size bronze statue of the Roman Emperor Lucius Verus.

 Photo courtesy of U.S. Consulate General Istanbul/Facebook

Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Nearly two dozen looted objects that were seized by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in recent months were recovered from the home of a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, reports said.

Warrants provided by the Manhattan DA to The Art Newspaper and Hyperallergic on Friday showed that 23 of the antiquities were seized by authorities from the home of Shelby White during a lengthy investigation into the provenance of the art and historical objects.

Investigators obtained the search warrants in June 2021 and in April 2022 that Homeland Security agents had "reasonable cause" to believe they were stolen, according to The Art Newspaper.

Some of those pieces have already been repatriated to Turkey and Italy, including a third-century statue worth $15 million, Hyperallergic reported.

The collection of White and her late husband Leon Levy was previously scrutinized in a study published in the American Journal of Archaeology in 2000 after more than 200 objects were displayed in an exhibition at The Met.

That study found that 93% of the works in that exhibit had no known provenance, which is the term used in the art world to describe the tracking of such artifacts as they change hands over time.

White previously repatriated parts of her collection in 2008 when she returned 10 objects to Italy and another two to Greece after public backlash.

RELATED Wellcome Collection ending display of Medicine Man, calling it racist, sexist, ableist

Officials in the United States, as well as researchers in the art world, have been increasing their efforts to repatriate stolen artifacts in recent years.

Last month, a highly anticipated database of the Benin Bronzes, a massive trove of art and cultural artifacts looted from the Kingdom of Benin by the British empire in 1897, was launched and could help shape the future of art restitution.

That project, Digital Benin, began in 2020 and has culminated with a catalog of 5,246 historic Benin objects currently held in 131 institutions across 20 countries.

RELATED France's Culture Ministry issues report on museums acquisition policies to curb art racketeering

The news came as it was revealed that Leon Black, a trustee and former board chair of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, has been accused of raping a woman at Jeffrey Epstein's mansion in New York City.

The lawsuit was filed by the woman, Cheri Pierson, in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday and she has demanded a jury trial.

Balochistan National Party leader Mengal raise concerns over gross violation of human rights in province

ANI

The head of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) and former Chief Minister of Balochistan Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal raised concern over the gross violation of human rights in the province.

Speaking at a workers’ convention in Quetta he said that the party has adopted a clear-cut stand against the gross violation of human rights in the province and continuously neglecting the problems of the people by different governments, reported Pak vernacular media, Dunya Daily.

Mengal said that BNP has never made any secret pact with anyone, but always worked for the protection of the collective national interests of Balochistan and the Baloch community.

The BNP leader said that every inch land of Balochistan is sacred to them and it is their duty to protect it. He said that they will pressurize the rulers to do what the party had promised to the public. Mengal said that Quetta is the stronghold of the BNP, reported by the vernacular media.

“Today under a well-planned conspiracy false news and rumours are being spread to weaken the party. But all these attempts will fail,” said Mengal.

Meanwhile, Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Asghar Khan Achakzai said that they will not surrender in the struggle for the dignity of the Pashtun community and restoring peace in Balochistan, reported Pak vernacular media, Qudrat.

He added that if the unrest continued in Pashtun areas under a consolidated conspiracy then controlling youth would become impossible.

He was addressing a protest rally against the closure of the Afghan-Pak border and the problems people and traders are facing, reported the vernacular media.

The Pakistan-Afghan border in Balochistan which remained closed for over a week was reopened Monday, Geo News reported.

The Pak-Afghan border, also known as the “Friendship Gate” was closed last Sunday after an armed man opened fire from the Afghan side, killing a Pakistani soldier, the previous week.

The incident left two security personnel injured and prompted the closure of the border between the two countries at Chaman, Balochistan, Dawn reported quoting official sources.

He further said that no one would be allowed to do terrorism in Pakhtunkhwa. He criticized the government for not showing any concern for Pashtuns but exploiting the resources in Pashtun lands, reported Qudrat.

Pakistan’s defence forces have been conducting counter-insurgency operations, specifically targeting Balochistan Liberation Army members, in the Bolan area in the Kacchi district of Balochistan.

Cases of physical intimidation and enforced disappearances of the local Baloch population have significantly increased even as the offensive against the Baloch liberation force rages on, International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) Reported.

Reports suggest that there is continuous pressure on Pakistan from China to safeguard the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Chinese citizens that are involved in the project.

The mainstream media in Pakistan has remained silent on the issue and very limited information is available on social media. The alleged inhuman treatment of the Pakistan army towards Baloch citizens comes at a time when they are already suffering from food and water scarcity after the monsoon floods that hit Balochistan earlier this year.

Balochistan National Party leader Akhtar Mengal had accused the Pakistan security forces of carrying out fake encounters and enforced disappearance of Baloch locals.

Cases of fake encounter and disappearance grew by three folds during Imran Khan’s tenure as prime minister. This despite the fact that the Baloch National (Menghal) Party was in coalition with Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Collectively, these incidents have resulted in thousands disappearing in the Baloch province. IFFRAS reported, citing Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, an organisation that looks into missing persons, that more than five thousand people are still missing. The missing include students, activists, women and children, it said. (ANI)

This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

Balochistan [Pakistan], November 22 (ANI)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BALOCH 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BALOCHISTAN 

An assassination, a feud and the fight for power in Iraq's Kurdistan
Story by By Amina Ismail • 

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the old city of Erbil© Thomson Reuters

ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The marriage of convenience between Iraqi Kurdistan's political dynasties is on the rocks.

While the dominant Barzani and Talabani clans have long been at loggerheads over power and resources in a region rich in oil and gas, power-sharing governments have largely kept a lid on mistrust since the two sides fought a civil war in the 1990s.


FILE PHOTO: Kurdish region's Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and Iraqi Kurdistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani attend a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris© Thomson Reuters

But the lingering acrimony has spilled into the open with a vengeance since a rare assassination in the city of Erbil, and the fallout is putting the uneasy alliance through one of its stiffest tests since the war, diplomats and analysts say.

On Oct. 7, shortly after Hawker Abdullah Rasoul set off in an SUV from his home on a leafy street in Erbil, a bomb ripped through the car, killing him and wounding four family members.

Rasoul was an intelligence officer, and a defector.

After nearly two decades with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a party dominated by the Talabani family, he moved to Erbil this year and switched sides, three security sources and a Kurdish source told Reuters.

When he was killed, Rasoul, 41, was helping the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the party ruled by the Barzani family that he had been keeping tabs on for years, the sources said.

The brazen assassination was captured by security cameras and the KDP released a 27-minute video about the killing, pointing the finger of blame firmly at the PUK.

The PUK has strongly denied the accusations, saying they are politically driven, but the killing has triggered a series of incidents that have strained the power-sharing arrangement.

Political relations have deteriorated to the point where PUK ministers have boycotted meetings of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), long a symbol of peaceful power-sharing.

Some PUK officials say privately that without compromise on a range of issues, the party might eventually break away and form its own administration in its Sulaimaniya stronghold.

The antagonism is also complicating a project to expand one of the biggest gasfields in Iraq, which is in PUK territory, damaging the region's hopes of starting exports to Europe and earning much-needed revenue.

The rifts are a source of alarm to Western countries, and especially the United States. It has backed both factions, most recently in the fight against Islamic State.

Washington is worried about the spreading influence of Iran, which has long-standing ties to the PUK and has stepped up missile attacks on Iranian Kurdish dissidents in northern Iraq in recent weeks.

A U.S. official told Reuters that Washington was extremely concerned about the recent tensions between the PUK and KDP.

"What we try to explain to our partners up here is that we don't want unity for unity's sake, we need you guys to be able to cooperate with each other on certain discreet issues that are in our interest, but also in your interest," the official said.

TENSE STANDOFF

After Rasoul's death, the KDP-dominated Regional Security Council accused a PUK security agency of the killing. It detained six men it identified as operatives involved and issued arrest warrants for another four senior PUK security officials, according to security council statement a week after the attack.

PUK officials reached out to the government shortly after the assassination to help with the investigation, but they did not receive a response and have had no access to the findings, a senior PUK official said.


Neither the security council, the government nor a spokesperson for the PUK responded to questions for this story.

Long-simmering mistrust between the two sides had already deepened this year due to a wave of defections from PUK security agencies.

The senior PUK official told Reuters there had been eight. He said the PUK believed its former head of intelligence, Salman Amin, who defected earlier this year, had been encouraging people to switch sides.

Amin has been another bone of contention. Following his move to Erbil, Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani gave him a senior security role, further enraging the PUK, the senior party official said.

Reuters was unable to reach Amin for comment. Barzani's office did not respond to requests for comment.

While analysts say a return to full-blown civil war is unlikely, a tense standoff between armed security personnel in Erbil last month underlined the risk of escalation.

With relations deteriorating, PUK forces raided Amin's home in Sulaimaniya on Oct. 24, four PUK members and a Kurdish official said. Three of the sources said the PUK was looking for sensitive documents Amin had taken from its intelligence office and weapons.

In a tit-for-tat move, about 100 security men commanded by Amin approached the house of Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani in Erbil the next day and threatened to raid it, the PUK sources and the official said.

Three of the sources said Kurdish President Nechrivan Barzani had to intervene to defuse the situation.

"It could've easily turned ugly," the senior PUK official said.

Then, on Nov. 9, PUK leader Bafel Talabani flew to Erbil accompanied by Qubad, dozens of security personnel, and one of the men wanted for Rasoul's killing, in a move seen as being deliberately provocative, according to a Kurdish source.

The group was unable to leave the airport until the president intervened again, the source said.

WASTED OPPORTUNITIES

The stakes are high for the Kurds, who were big winners from the downfall of Saddam Hussein. They deepened their autonomy, attracted foreign investment in oil and gas, and secured a slice of power in Baghdad, where the president must be a Kurd.

But despite their oil riches, the region suffers from high unemployment and chronic public services, encouraging many people to try to emigrate to Europe. Attacks by neighbouring Turkey and Iran on Kurdish militants there have underlined the limited control Iraqi Kurds have over their frontiers.

Analysts say the rivalry is also weakening the influence Kurds have within Iraq's federal centre in Baghdad. That's complicating disputes over the ownership of oil and gas assets, as well as allocations from the federal budget.

"It affects social peace, it affects stability ... and it affects the overall economic situation in terms of market and business confidence," said Shivan Fazil at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

"(The rift) is more about wasted opportunities and how these tensions distract the KRG from addressing the governance issues and meeting the needs of its population, and hence exacerbating grievances," Fazil said.

Set against the current backdrop of political strife among Iraqi Shi'ites, the fragile government in the north adds to a picture of a country still wracked by instability two decades after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

And Baghdad is watching events in Kurdistan closely.

An Iraqi state security source said the PUK and KDP were being led by hawks and that their power struggle was at "a very critical stage".

'WHY SHOULD WE TOLERATE THIS?'

Ties between the two groups have been strained in the past, notably in 2017 when the Kurds held a referendum that won overwhelming support for independence from Baghdad, only to backfire when Iraqi forces seized swathes of Kurdish territory.

The PUK and KDP traded blame, particularly over the loss of the city of Kirkuk, which has one of Iraq's oldest and biggest oilfields.

This year, the two sides were locked in a dispute over who should become Iraq's president. The federal post finally went to KDP-backed Abdul Latif Rashid in October, rather than the PUK's candidate, Barham Salih.

Mike Fleet, an Iraq analyst, said the KDP no longer felt it needed to abide by past power-sharing agreements.

"These two parties can't play ball with each other, they have less say and less of a voice because they don't have a united voice in Baghdad anymore," he said.

"A lot of the impact of that is on the people who rely on the current system to get paid, and salaries aren't, so quality of life is becoming more difficult, especially in Sulaimaniya," he said, referring to the PUK's stronghold.

Analysts say the KDP is seeking to assert itself at a time when the PUK has been weakened a leadership feud, financial pressures and delayed salary payments.

The PUK has long complained that the regional administration in Erbil does not distribute revenues equally, accusing the KDP of favouring its areas.

"Why should we tolerate this?" said one of the PUK officials. "We have a list of demands, and I still have hope that we won't get to a separation, but we won't have a choice if they don't deliver."

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Editing by Tom Perry and David Clarke)

US police rarely deploy deadly robots to confront suspects

By JANIE HAR and CLAUDIA LAUER

today

A police officer uses a robot to investigate a bomb threat in San Francisco, on July 25, 2008. The liberal city of San Francisco became the unlikely proponent of weaponized police robots on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022, after supervisors approved limited use of the remote-controlled devices, addressing head-on an evolving technology that has become more widely available even if it is rarely deployed to confront suspects. 

(Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The unabashedly liberal city of San Francisco became the unlikely proponent of weaponized police robots last week after supervisors approved limited use of the remote-controlled devices, addressing head-on an evolving technology that has become more widely available even if it is rarely deployed to confront suspects.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 on Tuesday to permit police to use robots armed with explosives in extreme situations where lives are at stake and no other alternative is available. The authorization comes as police departments across the U.S. face increasing scrutiny for the use of militarized equipment and force amid a years-long reckoning on criminal justice.

The vote was prompted by a new California law requiring police to inventory military-grade equipment such as flashbang grenades, assault rifles and armored vehicles, and seek approval from the public for their use.

So far, police in just two California cities — San Francisco and Oakland — have publicly discussed the use of robots as part of that process. Around the country, police have used robots over the past decade to communicate with barricaded suspects, enter potentially dangerous spaces and, in rare cases, for deadly force.

Dallas police became the first to kill a suspect with a robot in 2016, when they used one to detonate explosives during a standoff with a sniper who had killed five police officers and injured nine others.

The recent San Francisco vote, has renewed a fierce debate sparked years ago over the ethics of using robots to kill a suspect and the doors such policies might open. Largely, experts say, the use of such robots remains rare even as the technology advances.

Michael White, a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University, said even if robotics companies present deadlier options at tradeshows, it doesn’t mean police departments will buy them. White said companies made specialized claymores to end barricades and scrambled to equip body-worn cameras with facial recognition software, but departments didn’t want them.

“Because communities didn’t support that level of surveillance. It’s hard to say what will happen in the future, but I think weaponized robots very well could be the next thing that departments don’t want because communities are saying they don’t want them,” White said.

Robots or otherwise, San Francisco official David Chiu, who authored the California bill when in the state legislature, said communities deserve more transparency from law enforcement and to have a say in the use of militarized equipment.

San Francisco “just happened to be the city that tackled a topic that I certainly didn’t contemplate when the law was going through the process, and that dealt with the subject of so-called killer robots,” said Chiu, now the city attorney.

In 2013, police maintained their distance and used a robot to lift a tarp as part of a manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, finding him hiding underneath it. Three years later, Dallas police officials sent a bomb disposal robot packed with explosives into an alcove of El Centro College to end an hours-long standoff with sniper Micah Xavier Johnson, who had opened fire on officers as a protest against police brutality was ending.

Police detonated the explosives, becoming the first department to use a robot to kill a suspect. A grand jury declined charges against the officers, and then-Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown was widely praised for his handling of the shooting and the standoff.

“There was this spray of doom about how police departments were going to use robots in the six months after Dallas,” said Mark Lomax, former executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association. “But since then, I had not heard a lot about that platform being used to neutralize suspects ... until the San Francisco policy was in the news.”

The question of potentially lethal robots has not yet cropped up in public discourse in California as more than 500 police and sheriffs departments seek approval for their military-grade weapons use policy under the new state law. Oakland police abandoned the idea of arming robots with shotguns after public backlash, but will outfit them with pepper spray.

Many of the use policies already approved are vague as to armed robots, and some departments may presume they have implicit permission to deploy them, said John Lindsay-Poland, who has been monitoring implementation of the new law as part of the American Friends Service Committee.

“I do think most departments are not prepared to use their robots for lethal force,” he said, “but if asked, I suspect there are other departments that would say, ‘we want that authority.’”

San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin first proposed prohibiting police from using robot force against any person. But the department said while it would not outfit robots with firearms, it wanted the option to attach explosives to breach barricades or disorient a suspect.

The approved policy allows only a limited number of high-ranking officers to authorize use of robots as a deadly force — and only when lives are at stake and after exhausting alternative force or de-escalation tactics, or concluding they would not be able to subdue the suspect through alternate means.

San Francisco police say the dozen functioning ground robots the department already has have never been used to deliver an explosive device, but are used to assess bombs or provide eyes in low visibility situations.

“We live in a time when unthinkable mass violence is becoming more commonplace. We need the option to be able to save lives in the event we have that type of tragedy in our city,” San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said in a statement.

Los Angeles Police Department does not have any weaponized robots or drones, said SWAT Lt. Ruben Lopez. He declined to detail why his department did not seek permission for armed robots, but confirmed they would need authorization to deploy one.

“It’s a violent world, so we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.

There are often better options than robots if lethal force is needed, because bombs can create collateral damage to buildings and people, said Lomax, the former head of the tactical officers group. “For a lot of departments, especially in populated cities, those factors are going to add too much risk,” he said.

Last year, the New York Police Department returned a leased robotic dog sooner than expected after public backlash, indicating that civilians are not yet comfortable with the idea of machines chasing down humans.

Police in Maine have used robots at least twice to deliver explosives meant to take down walls or doors and bring an end to standoffs.

In June 2018, in the tiny town of Dixmont, Maine, police had intended to use a robot to deliver a small explosive that would knock down an exterior wall, but instead collapsed the roof of the house.

The man inside was shot twice after the explosion, survived and pleaded no contest to reckless conduct with a firearm. The state later settled his lawsuit against the police challenging that they had used the explosives improperly.

In April 2020, Maine police used a small charge to blow a door off of a home during a standoff. The suspect was fatally shot by police when he exited through the damaged doorway and fired a weapon.

As of this week, the state attorney general’s office had not completed its review of the tactics used in the 2018 standoff, including the use of the explosive charge. A report on the 2020 incident only addressed the fatal gunfire.

—-

Lauer reported from Philadelphia. AP reporter David Sharp contributed from Portland, Maine.

Reformers take 6 of 14 UAW board seats, could win majority

By TOM KRISHER

FILE - A sign is posted during a demonstration outside a General Motors facility in Langhorne, Pa., on Sept. 23, 2019. Reform-minded candidates won several races Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022, as members of the United Auto Workers union voted on their leaders in an election that stemmed from a federal bribery and embezzlement scandal involving former union officials. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

DETROIT (AP) — Reform-minded candidates won several races as members of the United Auto Workers union voted on their leaders in an election that stemmed from a federal bribery and embezzlement scandal involving former union officials.

In unofficial results posted early Sunday on a federal court-appointed monitor’s website, challengers took six of 14 seats on the union’s International Executive Board. They could win as many as eight, including the presidency, and control a majority, depending on the outcome of three runoff elections.

The reform candidates, most part of a slate called UAW Members United, campaigned on taking a more confrontational stance in bargaining with Detroit’s three automakers. They want to rescind concessions made to companies in previous contract talks, restoring cost-of-living pay raises and eliminating a two-tier wage and benefit system.

The adversarial stance is likely to raise costs for General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which almost certainly would be passed on to consumers. Even without the election, costs likely would have gone up as workers seek a bigger share of billions of dollars in profits.

In the race for president, incumbent Ray Curry defeated challenger Shawn Fain by 614 votes. Curry had 38.2% of the vote to Fain’s 37.6%. But neither got a majority in the five-candidate field, so there will be a runoff election in January.

Mike Booth and Rich Boyer, both from Members United, took two of three vice president slots. Two vice president candidates from Curry’s Solidarity Team slate, incumbent Chuck Browning and Tim Bressler, will compete in a runoff for the third vice president slot.

Members United candidate Margaret Mock ousted current Secretary-Treasurer Frank Stuglin. Reform-minded candidates took three regional director slots, with another headed for a runoff.

Winners will be sworn in on Dec. 12. Ballots for the runoff elections will be mailed Jan. 12 with a Feb. 28 deadline to return them. Votes will be counted starting March 1, according to the website of Monitor Neil Barofsky.

In an interview, Fain said the election puts the companies on notice “to get ready. We’re coming for you.” He said companies are making billions of dollars and have closed or spun off plants and failed to give the Stellantis plant in Belvidere, Illinois, a new vehicle to build after it stops making its current model.

“It’s just a fact that over the years our leadership has become way too close to management,” he said.

Curry’s slate said in a statement that it is fighting for all active and retired members. “Our member expectations are high, and our team has the experience and proven track record to both build coalitions for the fight and deliver results,” it said.

Curry, elected by a vote of the International Executive Board in 2021 to replace retiring Rory Gamble, said at a September candidates’ forum that he has put financial safeguards and reforms in place and has plans to bring union members “back into greater days.” He said the union also has plans to recruit new members.

“We don’t just make false demands and deliver false hopes,” he said.

Turnout in the election for the 372,000-member union was low. Of about 1 million ballots mailed to active members and retirees, only 10.5% were returned.

The 2023 contract talks come at a critical juncture for the union, which faces a transition from internal combustion vehicles to those that run on batteries. With fewer moving parts, fewer people will be needed to make electric vehicles, and jobs making engines and transmissions could be shifted to battery assembly plants that might not be unionized.

The election came after union members last December decided to directly vote on leaders for the first time instead of having them picked by delegates to a convention.

Under the old system, convention delegates were picked by local union offices. But the new slate of officers was selected by the current leadership, and there was rarely any serious opposition.

The voting happened after 11 union officials and a late official’s spouse pleaded guilty in the corruption probe, including the two former presidents, Gary Jones and Dennis Williams. Both were sentenced to prison. The first criminal charges in the probe were filed in 2017.

To avoid a federal takeover, the union agreed to reforms and Barofsky’s appointment to oversee the UAW and elections of the executive board.

SPACE JUNK DARK SKIES POLLUTION

SpaceX gets federal approval to launch 7,500 communication satellites

By A.L. Lee


A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches more than 30 first-generation Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center in September. The aerospace manufacturing company has been seeking to expand its broadband network around the world. File photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 2 (UPI) -- SpaceX, the American aerospace manufacturing company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has received federal approval to launch 7,500 satellites in an operation that would expand the company's Starlink internet services around the world.

Thursday's decision by the Federal Communications Commission, although not everything SpaceX wanted, was seen as a monumental victory for the company as it seeks to grow its broadband network amid increasing competition from major players like DISH and Amazon.

Two years ago, SpaceX asked the government for permission to deploy nearly 30,000 satellites as part of the mission. But the FCC, in its announcement, appeared to be taking a wait-and-see approach by placing limits on the initial rollout.

NASA also raised concerns about collisions and the overall scope of the operation because SpaceX was already approved in 2018 to launch 12,000 of its first-generation satellites.

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For now, the FCC deferred "action on the remainder of SpaceX's application" -- indicating that additional deployments could happen at a later time.

A little more than 3,500 of the older model satellites are currently in orbit, providing services to about 500,000 Starlink subscribers as of Jun

Starlink has since expanded its product offerings and built up its customer base in sectors such as residential, business, recreational vehicles, boats, and planes.

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"Our action will allow SpaceX to begin deployment of Gen 2 Starlink," the agency said in the decree while adding that the slow rollout was intended "to address concerns about orbital debris and space safety."

Musk has touted the ability of the newer satellites to lessen mobile dead zones and provide stronger connectivity from anywhere on Earth as long as the sky is clear.

T-Mobile is likely to become the first American company to feature the Gen 2 network in its devices after announcing a partnership with SpaceX last August.

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SpaceX's newly approved second-generation satellites will be deployed in the Starlink internet network constellation that circles the Earth in low orbit amid tons of space junk.

Musk said previously that the newer satellites were a lot bigger than the older model primarily due to the large size of the antenna.

As part of the deal, SpaceX will be required to partner with NASA, the National Science Foundation, and other major satellite service providers to ensure the operation is being run by the book.

SpaceX is also a central partner to NASA's Artemis mission, which will return astronauts to the moon for the first time in 50 years and ultimately pave the way for mankind to reach Mars.