Elizabeth Taylor's First Authorized Biography: 'She Said Her Entire Life Was a Fight'

Story by Brenton Blanchet • 4h ago

The first time author Kate Andersen Brower encountered Elizabeth Taylor, it wasn't in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or Cleopatra. It was in the supermarket.


HarperCollins Publishing© Provided by People

The New York Times bestselling author remembers going to the store with her mother growing up in the '80s, and seeing Taylor's face on tabloids — with ex-husband Larry Fortensky, with Michael Jackson, and often critiqued for her weight. That's how Brower was introduced to the Academy Award winner. And as she reveals in the authorized biography Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon (out Dec. 6 via HarperCollins), she was much more than just those fragments of her life. She was human.

"I had this kind of image of her — the punchline, someone who was out of control," Brower tells PEOPLE of her childhood memories of Taylor, who died in March 2011 at the age of 79.

"Getting to go through her life, to see her inner thoughts and how she was working through things psychologically all the time. And also how empathetic she was to other people, how she struggled being a working mother of four kids, struggled to find true love… I just think there was so much more to her than we could see."

RELATED: Elizabeth Taylor's 1961 Oscars Dress Discovered in Suitcase Decades After Event



Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty© Provided by People

For the biography, which is three years in the making and marks the first-ever authorized story of the icon's life, Brower dives into the "more."

With the go-ahead to explore the family and estate's archives (including 7,358 letters and personal notes) and interviews with 250 of Taylor's closest loved ones and other acquaintances, the author took on the "tremendous responsibility" to document Taylor's life, in her own words, and in the words of those who knew her best.

Brower spoke to notable names like Demi Moore, Carol Burnett, and Colin Farrell for the book, the actress' four children, and even some of Liz's former loves — including George Hamilton, Robert Wagner, and her last surviving husband Senator John Warner, who initially gave Bower the green light to write the book before he died in 2021.

With their help, and the help of Taylor's archives, she was able to tell the story of not just a woman who was an iconic actress, who was struggling with addiction, who was a victim of abuse, or who was a champion for those with AIDS in the '80s — but as someone who considered herself a "full-fledged human being, as she liked to say."

"She said her entire life was a fight," Brower shares. "The resilience is the refusing to be a victim. Her father did beat her up. And he beat her because he felt intimidated that his 12-year-old was making more money [as a child star] than he was. And they had a reconciliation when she was in her 20s. But I mean, the fact that she wouldn't let herself be victimized even though she was on paper, a victim. I think that's terrible that he did that. But she got up again, like she almost died in her 20s when she had pneumonia, and she kept going and going. It was the never giving up."

Related video: Dame Elizabeth Taylor's diamond ring belonged to a Nazi's ex-wife  Duration 1:09  View on Watch

RELATED: Elizabeth Taylor's Grandson Quinn Tivey Carries on Her AIDS Activism: 'Grandma Stood Up'

NY Daily News Archive/Getty© Provided by People

Addiction is a heavy topic in The Grit & Glamour of an Icon, as Taylor opened up in personal letters about the struggles she faced being addicted to drugs.

At one point, her son Chris told Brower about a specific incident that took place in the '70s, which prompted him to move away. Chris, in the book, recalled how his mother asked him to give her an injection of Demerol in her knee sometime when she put her skirt around her hips and handed him a needle to do it himself.

He couldn't bring himself to do it, Brower says.

"And he walked out of the room and left Washington, DC because she was just so unhappy there," she says. "He said she had this dead behind-the-eyes look on her face handing him the syringe. It's just like 'God, you think she has everything.' But really, there was always a void as she was trying to fill."

In the book, the author makes note of instances of abuse that Taylor suffered at the hands of her loved ones. The actress was married eight times to seven husbands throughout her life, and Brower writes of one moment where Eddie Fisher, Taylor's fourth husband, held a gun to her head in 60s and said "Don't worry, you're too beautiful to kill."

"She said being married to him was a slow suicide," Brower explains. "So she needed to leave. So she got out of these situations that she was in that were abusive. But I think that the thing about her too, is that she always thought that she was her best when she was married. But if you just look at it, the period of time when she was the most impactful and was when she was single."

Some of the letters Taylor wrote were never even sent, including ones she penned to Richard Burton and close friend Michael Jackson after they died.

As for those who knew Taylor well and are still remembering her legacy today, Brower says the family was happy with the book, after finally being "ready" to tell Taylor's story for the first time.

"I got a call from her son, Chris, who had read it and said that it was hard for him to read sometimes, but that it brought back all of these memories about his mom," she says.

"But that there were things that he learned in reading it because her life was so big, no one person was there for all of it. She was always surrounded by an entourage of people. But in the long run, the family is happy with it, because they were ready."

Arizona Is Getting a Big, New Chip Fab. Biden and Apple CEO Are Psyched

Story by Stephen Shankland • CNET

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will announce on Tuesday that it's building a second new factory in Phoenix to create cutting-edge processors.

TSMC is building a fab in Phoenix, one of a pair the Taiwanese semiconductor giant has committed to operating in the United States. TSMC

That's big news for companies like Apple, AMD and Nvidia, whose chief executives will join President Joe Biden to laud the development.

TSMC is already building a chip fabrication plant, or fab, in the Arizona city -- a $12 billion investment to make processors with the newer 5-nanometer manufacturing process it uses to make iPhone processors and other chips today. At a ceremony to mark the arrival of the first chipmaking equipment at the fab, it'll announce it'll also make improved 4nm chips there and build a second fab to make significantly more advanced 3nm chips. The total investment: $40 billion.

Customers of TSMC currently rely on fabs in Taiwan, but modern fabs in the US could help ensure a US supply of processors too. More US chip manufacturing also can encourage a broader manufacturing ecosystem, including some business partners that supply chipmakers with equipment and materials and others that test, package, assemble chips after they're made.

It's unlikely the US will match the breadth of Asia's electronics manufacturing anytime soon, but if politicians and businesses get their way, the semiconductor industry might avoid the fate of industries like steelmaking and textiles that largely vanished from the US.

Processors are critical to just about every modern product and industry, not just phones and laptops. They are used to control cars, refrigerators, military hardware, toys and power plants. A global chip shortage triggered by the COVID pandemic kept products like Ford F-150 pickups and Sony PlayStations out of customers' and revealed just how vulnerable global supply chains are.

The TSMC expansion comes weeks after of Micron's $20 billion "megafab" investment in New York announced in October, which ultimately could reach $100 billion, and Intel's announcement of $20 billion in two new fabs outside Columbus, Ohio, which also could reach $100 billion investment this decade.

More disruptions are possible. Russia's invasion of Ukraine showed that political borders aren't necessarily fixed. That has particular importance to Taiwan, the island nation that China claims as its own and that's home to most of TSMC's manufacturing.

Related video: 'A really significant milestone': Biden to visit Arizona chip maker facility

Duration 3:52

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All these forces combined to nudge Congress into passing the CHIPS and Science Act. It promises nearly $53 billion in subsidies for fabs, research into the semiconductor technology that underpins processors and spending to train future workers. And it's a much more assertive industrial policy than the US had in the past, when most chipmaking moved overseas to its current stronghold in Asia.

"We saw during the pandemic that something that we took for granted, global supply chains, were actually a key vulnerability for economic and our national security," Ronnie Chatterji, acting deputy director for industrial policy at the White House's National Economic Council, said in a press briefing.

Biden lobbied for the CHIPS funding and has touted it often as a success in rebuilding US manufacturing abilities. The idea is to try to encourage private companies to make their own investments knowing they'll find an economically favorable climate.

"This is a marked departure from the economic philosophy that has governed for much of the last 40 years in this country," said Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council. With the old strategy, "you said that government should get out of the way, cut taxes for large companies, cut regulations, and assume that the American economy American families would benefit."

The new policy can mean a subsidy of about $3 billion to boost fab construction that otherwise costs about $10 billion. That makes the US more competitive with Asian countries like Taiwan, South Korea and China, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has said. Intel has a major presence in Chandler, immediately next to Phoenix, and is building $20 billion in new fabs there.

Building fabs takes a long time. TSMC broke ground on its 5nm fab in April 2021, and it won't start producing chips until 2024. The newly announced 3nm fab won't make chips until 2026.

TSMC's Arizona fabs will employ about 10,000 people overall, 4,500 of them working directly for TSMC. In addition, building the fabs employs more than 10,000 construction workers, the company said.

In addition to the over 10,000 construction workers who helped with construction of the site, TSMC Arizona's two fabs are expected to create an additional 10,000 high-paying high-tech jobs, including 4,500 direct TSMC jobs. When complete, TSMC Arizona's two fabs will manufacture over 600,000 wafers per year, with estimated end-product value of more than $40 billion.

One big fan of TSMC's expansion is Nvidia, which relies on TSMC to manufacture its graphics chips and AI accelerators. "Bringing TSMC's investment to the United States is a masterstroke and a game-changing development for the industry," CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement.

Deese and Chatterjee stopped short of promising that the new investments would benefit from the CHIPS funding. Details of how to apply won't even arrive until the first quarter of 2023. But they pointed to comments from chip manufacturing executives who touted the legislation as a reason for their US investments.

"The passage of the CHIPS and Science Act was absolutely critical in providing the long-term certainty for companies like TSMC to expand their footprint and really expand their investment commitment to the United State," Deese said.

FOR-PROFIT MEDICINE U$A

Hospital shutdown spurs questions about private equity in health care

Story by Jon LaPook • 

After a car accident last month, Latifa Dixon, a mother of two, arrived at the emergency room at Delaware County Memorial Hospital in suburban Philadelphia only to learn the ER had just shut down. Twenty-eight-year-old Cecilia Vizuete, who was having trouble feeding her one-year-old daughter because of a breast infection, said she was told by a security guard to search Google Maps for another hospital. Shirley Posey arrived there suffering from shortness of breath and tightness in her chest.

"This was the closest hospital to me and I needed help," Posey said when CBS News met her outside Delaware County Memorial. Posey later recovered, but not until she raced to an urgent care, collapsed, and was transported by ambulance to another hospital.

For nearly a century, Delaware County Memorial delivered babies, treated trauma and tended to the critically ill. That all changed earlier this year, when its current owners, a Los Angeles-based for-profit company called Prospect Medical Holdings, began cutting services at the 168-bed hospital in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. First the maternity ward went, then the operating rooms and the I.C.U., and then, last month, the emergency department closed its doors to the community's nearly 85,000 residents.




The shutdown has raised questions about the role of private equity as it piles into the health care space, snapping up everything from local doctors' practices to specialty clinics, even hospices. According to the consultancy Bain & Company, private equity firms posted a record year for deal volume in health care in 2021, with the total value of those deals topping $150 billion.

Backed by private equity investment, Prospect Medical Holdings rapidly grew to own 20 hospitals in six states by 2018. In 2016, it bought Crozer Health, a nonprofit Pennsylvania health system that was in danger of failing.

A CBS News investigation found that of those 20 hospitals owned by Prospect Medical, five have closed. In addition to Delaware County Memorial, Prospect Medical has suspended all services at Springfield, another acute care hospital in the same Pennsylvania health system. It also closed three hospitals in a San Antonio health system it purchased in 2012.

In court proceedings, Prospect Medical argues it is not seeking to close Delaware County Memorial for good. In a statement to CBS News, the company said it is working to transition the hospital to a "100 patient facility for those in need of behavioral health and other services." As part of the plan, the hospital will lose inpatient "acute care services," which includes the lone emergency room in the community of Upper Darby.

"There aren't resources nearby and so we find that people wait longer to go to the hospital," county official Monica Taylor told CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook, adding that closing what's considered a safety-net hospital will hit the area's low-income population hardest.

"We wouldn't see a hospital closing down if this were a more affluent area," said Taylor. "It leaves a gaping hole in this community that is going to be very hard and very difficult to fill."

"What they cared about was making money"

In a presentation provided to Delaware County officials, Prospect Medical cited struggles with high labor costs, record inflation for supplies and pharmaceuticals, and the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic for its decision. Taylor said she believes the company has not been upfront, and has been reluctant to share its financials with the county.

"I had the sense they were not giving us all the information," Taylor said.

Prospect Medical has faced scrutiny before. In 2019, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha's office investigated a proposed company transaction. Prospect Medical owns two hospitals in the state, that Neronha said were "in real danger of closing" because of the debt Prospect Medical had taken on.

"This had nothing to do with the pandemic," Neronha told CBS News. "Hospitals all over the country were facing the pandemic … but the problems here were exacerbated, frankly, by greed."


A van from the county medical examiner's office waits at the entrance of Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, on Jan. 4, 2021. The hospital is now closed. 

Pete Bannan/ MediaNews Group//Daily Times 

Neronha invoked state law to force Prospect Medical to turn over its finances. A ruling by the Attorney's General's office found the company put "every hospital in its system…at risk of reduction of services, sale or closure."

Related video: Hospital closure leaves patients scrambling, owners collect millions

Duration 8:17

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"They didn't care about health care," Neronha said. "What they cared about was making money for their investors."

Neronha hired two different outside experts to follow the money and discovered one reason why Prospect Medical was experiencing financial strain. In 2018, company owners took out a $1.12 billion loan, using proceeds to pay themselves and their private equity shareholders a $457 million dividend, according to the company's financial statements, obtained by Neronha's office in the course of the investigation.

"It'd be like a homeowner going to a bank, taking out a $100,000 loan, and instead of using it to invest in their property or pay for their kids to go to college, what they did was they just basically stuck it in their pockets as cash," Neronha told CBS News.

The company's financial statements revealed that to pay back that $1.12 billion loan, Prospect Medical sold the land and the buildings from hospitals they owned in California, Connecticut and Pennsylvania to a real estate investment trust for $1.386 billion. The documents show Prospect Medical then leased those hospitals back from the real estate investment trust.

"So now you're even in a worse position because you have no equity any longer," Neronha said. "You don't own anything that you can then go to the bank and use as collateral to raise more money when you need it."

In Delaware County, that lease-back arrangement instead meant the health system was saddled with $35 million a year in rent.

CBS News submitted detailed questions to Prospect Medical about these financial decisions, including about the $457 million dividend and the lease-back arrangement. The company, through a spokesman, declined to answer those questions.

"They are drawing the value out of these hospitals as they would money from a piggy bank," said Eileen O'Grady, campaign director with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit organization that has raised concerns about Prospect Medical to attorneys general in the six states where the company owned hospitals. "Meanwhile, the company's owners have made out like bandits."

Neronha's office confirmed to CBS News that the Prospect Medical CEO's personal share of the $457 million dividend was about $90 million.

"What they've done is extremely evil"

One of the early investors in Prospect Medical's 2016 purchase of the Pennsylvania health system told CBS News that the company entered into the arrangement as the only bidder and "last hope for these failing hospitals." When the purchase was announced, local officials said it came with a promise: to invest $200 million to "dramatically increase…service to the community."

"They tried to tell us that they were going to run us the same way," said emergency nurse Angela Neopolitano, who worked at Delaware County Memorial for 41 years. Instead Neopolitano, who was president of the local nurses' union, says Prospect Medical dismantled the hospital piece by piece, leading to longer waits in the emergency room and forcing staff to transfer more patients to other hospitals.

"They kept on cutting services," Neopolitano said. "Things wouldn't get fixed. Our elevator in the back of the emergency room had been broken for over a year. When they closed the I.C.U., that was the knife in my heart."

Neopolitano said at one point, the credit cards used by paramedics within the health system to fill their ambulances with fuel were disabled because Prospect Medical "didn't pay their bill."

The company did not respond to questions about its specific investments at Delaware County Memorial, but in an annual report said it had lived up to its commitment to invest $200 million in Crozer Health.

The company did not respond to a question about whether it neglected to pay fuel bills for ambulances, which was first reported in an investigation of the company by ProPublica. The company told ProPublica a company credit card was rejected because it had a charge limit as a security measure, and it increased the limit when it was brought to their attention to ensure there was not a disruption of services.

Now, the company has pivoted to a plan to convert Delaware County Memorial into a behavioral health facility. An executive with the hospital told the Philadelphia Inquirer last week that the new incarnation would not be "a moneymaker… but we go from losing $18 million a year to making $3 million and providing needed services to the community."

The shut down of Delaware County Memorial in September has sparked a legal battle which has drawn in Pennsylvania's attorney general and governor-elect Josh Shapiro.

In October, a judge granted an emergency injunction to keep the hospital open. Yet weeks later, the state's health department shut it down anyway, after Prospect Medical notified the department of staffing issues.

In a statement to CBS News, Prospect Medical said the ongoing litigation limits what it can say, but that the company is communicating with state health officials about its "multiple efforts to address those staffing issues." The company has pledged to save the facility by turning it into a "desperately needed 100-patient facility for those in need of behavioral health and other services."

Next week, a judge will hear arguments over whether to require Prospect Medical to find a way to re-open the hospital's doors. Shapiro's office has asked the judge to hold Prospect Medical in contempt and to fine it $100,000 for every day it does not resolve the staffing issues.

Neopolitano told CBS News she thinks that the $457 million dividend Prospect Medical's owners and private equity investors paid themselves should have gone back into the hospitals and into the community.

"What they've done is extremely evil, in my words," said Neopolitano of Prospect Medical. "To gain a dollar, you maybe destroyed lives, maybe even ended lives, because they can't get the help they need."

A STEP TOWARDS UBI

Canadian government paid $4.6 billion in COVID-19 benefits to people who were not eligible: AG

The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, December 6, 2022 

OTTAWA - Canada's auditor general says COVID-19 benefits were delivered quickly and helped mitigate economic suffering, however, the federal government hasn't done enough to recover overpayments.

In a new report looking into the federal government's delivery of pandemic benefits, Karen Hogan said the programs provided relief to workers and employers affected by the pandemic and helped the economy rebound.

At the same time, the auditor general says the Canada Revenue Agency and Employment and Social Development Canada have not followed up by verifying payments.

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The landing page for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit is seen in Toronto, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Giordano Ciampini

Hogan estimates $4.6 billion was paid to people who were not eligible, while another $27.4 billion in payments to individuals and businesses should be further investigated.

“I am concerned about the lack of rigour on post-payment verifications and collection activities,” Hogan said in a news release.

The audit found that efforts to recover overpayments have been limited, with the Canada Revenue Agency collecting $2.3 billion through voluntary repayments.

Pre-payment controls were also lacking, though the report said the federal government made some changes to those controls for individual benefits.

However, the CRA made few changes to improve prepayment controls for businesses to mitigate risks of overpayment.

Hogan also flagged that there was a lack of sufficient data to assess the effectiveness of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program.

Although the subsidy did go to businesses in industries hardest hit by the pandemic, the report said the effect of the subsidy on business resilience is unclear because the agency collected limited data from businesses.

The auditor general has offered the federal government a set of recommendations to improve the collection of overpayments and to fix data gaps relating to businesses.

Government organizations reviewed in the audit say they have accepted the recommendations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2022.

U$A

Ransomware group targeted dozens of schools in 2022, new report finds

Story by Nicole Sganga • 5h ago

More than 40 educational organizations, including 15 in the United States, suffered ransomware attacks launched by the cybercriminal group known as Vice Society, researchers at cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks revealed in a report published Tuesday and obtained by CBS News.


Ransomware Attack© Getty Images/iStockphoto

Researchers from Palo Alto Network's threat research team, Unit 42, found that hackers targeted the United States in the largest numbers – followed by the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Brazil, Germany and then Italy.

The report tracked how the group, which first surfaced in the summer of 2021, uses a double-extortion playbook. Not only does the consortium of cybercriminals hold data hostage for a hefty fee, but it also threatens to leak the data online.

"Education is so vulnerable to this type of attack because oftentimes organizations don't have the best cybersecurity in place and the best funding for it," said Ryan Olson, vice president of threat intelligence at Palo Alto Networks. "Schools can't compete with a bank or a tech company as far as what they can buy and deploy, and that means that a threat actor who gets into that network is facing a lot less, a lot fewer barriers to go in and launch their attack.

Cybersecurity expert discusses rise in ransomware attacks

 Duration 3:52   View on Watch

The threat actors have been on the radar of federal law enforcement for months.

Earlier this year, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint bulletin warning that "the education sector, especially kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) institutions, have been a frequent target of ransomware attacks" in recent years.

"Impacts from these attacks have ranged from restricted access to networks and data, delayed exams, canceled school days, and unauthorized access to and theft of personal information regarding students and staff."

The intelligence memo singled out Vice Society for "disproportionately targeting the education sector with ransomware attacks."

And while comprehensive ransomware data proves hard to come by, cybersecurity researchers warn that schools – particularly K-12 institutions – continue to attract the attention of ransomware gangs.

Most schools are not required by law to report cyberattacks to the public, but researchers at K-12 Security Information Exchange say that more than 1,200 cybersecurity incidents have occurred since 2016 at public school districts, nationwide. Earlier this year, the Virginia-based nonprofit published a report accounting for at least 209 ransomware attacks against K-12 institutions from 2016-2021.

The new findings by Palo Alto Networks revealed "noticeable spikes" in attacks perpetrated by Vice Society during the spring and fall months, an indication the group may be "timing campaigns to coincide with this sector's unique calendar year."

"You could guess attackers just happened to hit in the fall, but it's much more likely they were thoughtful about making an impact as the schools are beginning," said Olson.

Vice Society operates unlike other notorious ransomware groups, opting out of the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, in which criminal gangs sell or rent their hacking software or services to the highest bidder, according to researchers. Instead, the group utilizes pre-existing ransomware – including well-known variants HelloKitty and Zeppelin – to extort victims.

Researchers at Palo Alto Networks have not tied the group's members to a specific geographic location, though posts and communications from the cybercriminal gang have appeared on the dark web in both English and Russian.

Researchers estimate the threat actors "have impacted more than 100 organizations in total," including 40 cases impacting educational organizations, 13 targeting health care and 12 targeting state and local governments.

According to Palo Alto Networks' analysis, of the schools and education organizations targeted by the cybercriminal group, 15 are based in the U.S., with 10 located in the United Kingdom. Other incidents are sprinkled across Colombia, Brazil, France, Malaysia, Austria, Canada and Ukraine.

The report noted, "the group appears to be targeting more educational organizations based in California."

Earlier this year, a ransomware attack targeted Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the U.S. Although school administrators have not confirmed the actors behind the incident, Vice Society has publicly claimed credit for the Labor Day weekend breach.

The district characterized the cyberattack as a "significant disruption to our system's infrastructure," with 500 gigabytes of data stolen. Still, classes continued.

"If you hit a company and shut down their financial payment system, that's going to be frustrating for that company," Olson said. "But if a school starts to shut down in an area, it is going to impact all of the students, teachers, their parents. It's absolutely going to be news. That's going to put a lot of pressure on administrators to get things working again. Ransomware actors want people in a position where they need to get operations going again quickly, because that's what's going to make them pay."

After LAUSD administrators refused to pay a ransom, cybercriminals posted more than 250,000 files and images on the dark web, including potentially sensitive information, according to the cybersecurity firm Checkpoint Research.

"Vice Society and its consistent targeting of the education industry vertical, particularly around the September time frame, serves as a warning that this group has shaped their campaigns to take advantage of the school year in the U.S.," Palo Alto Networks said in its report. "It's likely they'll maintain use of the tactics to impact the cyberthreat landscape moving forward, as long as their activities continue to be lucrative for them."

Earlier this year, CISA previewed a plan to enhance cybersecurity protections in local communities, with a focus on the particularly vulnerable: K-12 schools, hospitals and water treatment facilities. CISA Director Jen Easterly noted in October that not all organizations are "investing millions and billions of dollars like some in the finance and energy [sectors] are."

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Monday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event in Washington, D.C., "Even the smallest organizations stand on the frontlines defending against the most sophisticated nation states and non-nation state threats."

The cabinet secretary warned that cyberattacks continue to "[grow] in number and gravity," allowing U.S. adversaries to launch "a new kind of warfare" with a single keystroke.

For their part, Olson said researchers at Palo Alto Networks are currently developing better cybersecurity tools to help preempt attacks launched by Vice Society. "One of the things we looked at is, how long were threat actors inside the network before they actually launched an attack?" Olson said. His team identified an average "dwell time" of six days.

"Tracking all of this information is what allows us to respond more quickly and more effectively to incident response cases," Olsen said.

Fuel runs short at S.Korean petrol stations as top union begins strike alongside truckers

Story by By Ju-min Park and Heekyong Yang • Today

Signs reading 'Gasoline sold out, due to a strike by truckers' are seen at a gas station in Seoul© Thomson Reuters

UIWANG, South Korea (Reuters) -A nationwide strike by South Korean truckers has led nearly 100 petrol stations across the country to run dry, government data show, and a national trade union launched a general strike on Tuesday in support of the drivers.

The truckers' strike over a minimum pay programme, which began on Nov. 24, has seen two negotiation sessions between the union and the government, but so far there has been no breakthrough.


Protesters chant slogans during a rally in support of the ongoing strike by truckers at a port in Busan© Thomson Reuters

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said it held rallies at 15 sites across the country, with about 25,000 unionised workers attending as part of its general strike.

As supplies of fuel and construction materials run low, the South Korean government has stepped up pressure to end the strike. Last week, the government issued a "start work" order to force 2,500 striking drivers in the cement industry back on the road.



Protesters chant slogans during a rally in support of the ongoing strike by truckers in Uiwang© Thomson Reuters

President Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday ordered preparations to expand that order to sectors such as oil refining and steelmaking, where additional economic damage is expected.

The anti-graft Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said it kicked off an investigation last week to investigate whether the truckers' union unfairly refused to work. The union is not cooperating with the probe, a KFTC official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The KCTU, an umbrella union under which the truckers' union falls, has called the President's "start work" order the equivalent of martial law and says the government should negotiate.


Related video: South Korea: Truckers strike for minimum wage protections
Duration 2:51
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South Korean workers rally in support of truckersDailymotion

South Korea: About 25,000 truckers go on strike, conduct 16 rallies across country 

At one of its demonstrations near the Uiwang container depot, where striking truckers are camping out, KCTU chief Yang Kyung-soo said the truckers are on the "front lines" of protecting workers' lives and rights. Leaders of member unions made financial contributions to the ongoing strike by truckers.


Protesters chant slogans at a news conference in support of the ongoing strike by truckers in Seoul© Thomson Reuters

Lee Bong-ju, head of the truckers' union, said unionised truckers would raise the level of their protest starting Wednesday, without elaborating.

As of Monday afternoon, nearly 100 petrol stations had run out of fuel. About 60% of them were in Seoul and Gyeonggi province, a densely populated region near the capital, according to Korea National Oil Corp data. That is up from the 21 petrol stations that the industry ministry had said were out of fuel on Nov. 29.

Amid soaring fuel costs, as many as 25,000 truckers are calling on the government to provide a permanent minimum-pay system known as the "Safe Freight Rate", which was introduced temporarily in 2020 for a small portion of more than 400,000 truckers.

In their second strike in less than six months, those truckers are fighting the bitter cold and the government's narrative that they are well paid "labour aristocracy".

Yoon has said the government will not give in to the union's demands and likened the strike to North Korea's nuclear threat. The government has said it would extend the current programme for three more years.


Finished vehicles are parked and wait to be delivered at an airport due to the nationwide strike by truckers in Gwangju© Thomson Reuters

The impact of a general strike is unclear and depends on participation, said KCTU spokesperson Han Sang-jin.

Another KCTU official said some workers in the service and construction sectors had launched "solidarity strikes", but did not know how long they would continue.

"By being here, we are hoping to cheer up our truckers," Park Dae-ku, an unionised worker at a government-run science museum, told Reuters. Park took a few hours off to join the rally at Uiwang but is not planning to walk out of work.

The strikes have disrupted South Korea's supply chain, and cost the country 3.5 trillion won ($2.65 billion) in lost shipments over the first 12 days, the industry ministry said on Tuesday.

Losses are expected to have grown in several industries, but traffic at ports has improved slightly to 69% of its pre-strike average since the back-to-order was issued, according to the government.

($1 = 1,320.8200 won)

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Bell: Vindicated! Smith under fire, UCP retools sovereignty act

Opinion by Rick Bell • 6/12/22  - Calgary Sun

We got the message loud and clear.


Premier Danielle Smith looks into the gallery as the throne speech is delivered in the Alberta legislature on Nov. 29, 2022.

But it was a different message than the one we heard from supporters of Premier Danielle Smith.

They told us to shut the hell up.

They told us to stop being negative.

They told us we were in the pockets of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley.

They told us if Trudeau and Singh didn’t like the sovereignty act it must be Grade A good and must not be tweaked or walked back in any way.

Yes, they told us we were all lily-livered leftist lowlifes intent on destroying Alberta.

And they REALLY told us to stop suggesting Smith’s sovereignty act needed a makeover.

Danielle knows best. Danielle will kick Trudeau’s butt. Danielle is not to be questioned.

It is a strange attitude for those who are said to have a strong suspicion of politicians and the power they wield.

But we persisted, knowing many Albertans didn’t have a clue what Smith was doing.

They heard her inner circle could change laws without going to the elected members of the legislature for the green light.

It didn’t make sense.

The Smith-led majority in the legislature could also go to war with Ottawa even if the feds were doing something constitutional as long as they considered the government of Canada was up to doing harm, whatever that means.

A Leger poll found only one in three Albertans thought the sovereignty act was needed for the Smith government to stand up for Alberta.

The number was even lower in Calgary and Edmonton and, outside the cities, the level of support was just under four in 10.

Not even a majority.

And that was before the last week where the rollout of the sovereignty act was an example of political slapstick, the very definition of a self-inflicted wound, another episode of amateur hour, more bumbling, fumbling and stumbling.

They chose to stick the Kick Me sign on themselves.

The Smith government offered up a “clarification” a week ago.

That dog wouldn’t hunt.

Then, on Monday, who would have thunk it.

We get a clarification of a clarification that isn’t a clarification.

It is much more.

Team Smith, the UCP members of the legislature, vote for changes to the sovereignty act .

Changes the Smith supporters said would be evidence of caving to the leftist legions of doom.

Is the Smith government now in the bad books with their own true believers?

Are those who said the sovereignty act was flawed in some way vindicated?

Why did the UCP politicians do such a thing?

The UCP MLAs say they heard from Albertans who wanted to see changes to the sovereignty act if it was ever going to get to the finish line, something they hope happens this week.

They heard from Albertans, mainstream Albertans, but obviously not the individuals who specialize in hurling abuse at all who dare deviate from the Smith playbook.

Now it all makes sense when provincial government deep thinkers deflected many probing questions about the sovereignty bill by washing their hands of the matter.

“You’ll have to ask the premier. You’ll have to ask the justice minister.”

The premier did indicate where the sovereignty act was going, speaking to it on her weekend radio show.

She talked of “awkward wording” and “confusion” and “some concern” out there in the real world.

A face-saving exercise on what is supposed to be the premier’s Job Number One.

“You never get things 100% right all the time,” says Smith.

She’d proven that’s true.

There are those who now smell blood in the water.

They want Smith’s sovereignty act deep-sixed.

They feel the UCP cannot put this Humpty Dumpty back together again.

On Monday, Tyler Shandro, Alberta’s top lawman, took questions about the sovereignty act.

Shandro was a favourite of former premier Jason Kenney and now is a favourite of Smith even though he was right behind those COVID restrictions the Smith supporters despise so much.

Anyway, Shandro confirms the UCP politicians decided to try to clean up the sovereignty act after “feedback from Albertans.”

Exactly the “feedback” the press reported on for the last week.

Shandro would only go so far.

“I’m not going to characterize it as a mistake,” says Shandro, of the botched sovereignty act rollout.

Nobody cares how he characterizes it.

Yes, it is a curious day when you could be excused for being just a little nostalgic, looking back to those few days when the Smith government actually looked like they might know what they were doing.

rbell@postmedia.com

'Bumbling and stumbling': Alberta's UCP caucus votes for changes to sovereignty bill

Opposition demands she  explain to Albertans whether she is authoritarian or incompetent

Yesterday 5:11 p.m.

EDMONTON — Alberta's governing United Conservative caucus says it wants changes to fix a bill that grants sweeping, unchecked powers to Premier Danielle Smith and her cabinet to pass laws behind closed doors without the scrutiny and approval of the legislature.



Smith, meanwhile, is facing Opposition demands to explain to Albertans whether she is authoritarian or incompetent, given the way her signature sovereignty bill has rolled out.

“She either got caught in her attempt to seize power and is now desperately scrambling to cover that up, or she literally didn’t know what was in her bill and very possibly still doesn’t,” Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley said during question period Monday.

“She’s lost people’s trust with this bumbling and stumbling.

“Her bill is beyond saving. Why won’t she just withdraw it?”

Smith responded that she welcomes the changes.

"I want to make sure that we get this bill right and I’m grateful that my caucus is going to propose amendments to do that.”

Smith said over the weekend that amendments were in the works to reverse provisions of the sovereignty bill that grant her cabinet the unfettered powers.

She told her Saturday morning radio talk show that the unchecked powers were never supposed to be in the bill, but she didn’t explain how they got there.

"You never get things right 100 per cent right all the time," she said on the show.

In a news conference Monday, Justice Minister Tyler Shandro declined multiple times to explain how those provisions made it into the bill if they weren’t supposed to be there in the first place.

Shandro also rejected a suggestion they had made an error.

“I’m not going to characterize it as a mistake,” he said. “Folks had questions and they’re asking for clarity and we’re taking that feedback.”

Smith’s United Conservative caucus said in a news release Monday that it voted to propose an amendment to clarify that any changes cabinet makes to laws under the act can’t be done in secret, but must instead come back to the house for the normal process of debate and approval.

Related video: 'It's a no-win for any of us': Calgary Mayor on Alberta Sovereignty Act

Duration 5:51

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The caucus also voted to change the act to more narrowly spell out when cabinet can take action.

Under the current bill, cabinet has wide latitude to respond to whatever federal law policy or program it deems harmful to Alberta’s interests.

With the amendment, harm would be defined as anything a majority of the legislature deems to be an unconstitutional federal intrusion in provincial areas of responsibility.

“These proposed amendments reflect feedback we’ve received from Albertans who want to see aspects of Bill 1 clarified to ensure it gets across the finish line,” government whip Brad Rutherford said in the release.

The release does not contain suggested legal wording of the amendments and the amendments have yet to be presented to the house.

The bill is now in second reading.

Political scientist Duane Bratt said the proposed amendments represent a major climbdown.

"Both of those were flagged early and often by critics of the bill. Those were two of the most outrageous things in there,” said Bratt, with Mount Royal University in Calgary.

He said the outstanding question is how did these clauses end up in the bill in the first place.

"Either they meant it that this is something they wanted to do … meant it and didn't think anyone would notice, meant it but didn't anticipate the backlash or they were just cut-and-pasting legislation and they didn't think it all through."

Either way, said Bratt, "it looks incompetent."

Smith introduced the bill a week ago, characterizing it as a deliberately confrontational tool to reset the relationship with a federal government that she accuses of interfering in constitutionally protected areas of provincial responsibility from energy development to health care.

The bill has been widely criticized by political scientists and legal experts as constitutionally questionable and a threat to the checks and balances that underpin a healthy democracy.

Indigenous leaders have called it a heavy-handed trampling of treaty rights. Business groups, including the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, warn the legal uncertainty surrounding the bill is not good for investment.

Concerns remain over the provision that would grant Smith’s cabinet the right to order provincial entities — municipalities, schools, health regions, city police forces and others — to flout federal laws.

There is also concern that the legislature is usurping the role of the courts by deciding on its own under the bill what is constitutional and what is not.

“This is a good first step,” said law professor Martin Olszysnki with the University of Calgary.

“But it doesn’t address the fundamental underlying premise of the statute that the legislature can give itself the role of the courts in passing judgment on the validity of federal laws.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2022.

— With files from Colette Derworiz in Calgary

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

UCP caucus votes to propose changes to Alberta's controversial sovereignty act

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Alberta sovereignty act isn't power grab, deputy premier says

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Tech business flourishing in Ghana

Issued on: 06/12/2022 - 

In Ghana, we met the team behind a logistics start-up called Swoove. They were finalists in an Africa-wide, technology-entrepreneur competition. And despite an economic downturn in Ghana, their business is flourishing. FRANCE 24's Carolyn Lamboley reports.

Initial transition deal signed in Sudan, hundreds of citizens protest

Issued on: 06/12/2022 

© france24

More than a year after the October 2021 coup, some civilian groups and the ruling military in Sudan have agreed to a two-year transition. Hundreds of citizens protest against the deal in Khartoum. FRANCE 24's regional correspondent Bastien Renouil explains.

Scepticism greets Sudan's post-coup political deal

Story by AFP • 

The signing of an initial deal by Sudan's military regime and civilians has been widely hailed by the international community, but many at home eye it with deep scepticism.


Sudan's military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (C R) and paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (C L) alongside civilian leaders following the signing of an initial deal aimed at ending a deep political crisis© ASHRAF SHAZLY


Demonstrators flee water cannon fired by riot police during clashes with security forces on Monday in Khartoum© -

Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, has been mired in deep turmoil since army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan carried out a military coup in October last year, derailing a transition to civilian rule.

That power grab came just two-and-a-half years after enormous street protests had pressed the army into ousting long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

Many dared believe the resultant power-sharing arrangement would guarantee freedoms and provide justice, but the coup extinguished those hopes, provoking donors into suspending funding and exacerbating a long-running economic crisis.



Paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo© ASHRAF SHAZLY

Events of the last year have also fed into worsening security crises in far-flung regions.

On Monday, senior military figures and civilian groups agreed an accord laying the groundwork for re-establishing a civilian authority -- a move welcomed by the United Nations, Washington, London, Brussels, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, among others.



A demonstrator takes cover behind a makeshift shield during clashes with security forces in Sudan's capital© -

The deal, phase one of a two-phase process, was signed by the main civilian bloc, the Forces For Freedom and Change, which had for months opposed engaging with the army in the wake of the coup.

It stipulates that non-military signatories will agree on a prime minister to steer the country through a new 24-month transition.

"The soldiers will go to the barracks, and the parties to the elections," Burhan promised during the signing ceremony, to loud applause.

His deputy, paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, even admitted that the coup had been "a political mistake."

But Sudanese analysts, a senior cabinet minister and a regional governor caution that the deal risks being over-hyped.

- 'Merely symbolic move' -

Kholood Khair, founder of the Confluence Advisory, a Khartoum-based think-tank, notes that the agreement improves the international community's perception of Burhan.

But "it works out less well for the civilians ... who will have to do the hard work and sell it to the public."

And "it does not inspire confidence that it will lead to the kind of reforms that people want to see."

Pro-democracy activists have voiced strong opposition to the deal.

Crowds of angry protesters took to the streets on Monday, chanting "no to the settlement" and "betrayal."

"It's merely a symbolic move that should be developed further to a more concrete deal," said Sudanese analyst Othman Mirghani.

Otherwise, "it would be a meaningless step."

Monday's deal sets broad guidelines for a civilian-led transition that largely fell short on specifics and timelines.

It pledges accountability, reforms to the security sector and bars the army from conducting non-military related businesses, in a country where this institution has wide-ranging commercial interests.

Dagalo himself -- head of a long-feared paramilitary group -- has pledged justice to families of people killed by security forces over the years, a key demand of activists.

Signatories to the deal have pledged to hammer out the details of transitional justice, accountability and security reform "within weeks".

Mirghani says such complex issues could instead take months to thrash out.

- 'No trust' -

The deal "is also contingent on... public trust in the agreement and the protagonists," Khair said.

"And frankly that doesn't exist," she added.

The deal was met by strong opposition from key ex-rebel leaders who two years ago signed a peace deal hammered out with the short-lived transition government.

Discussions over implementation of the 2020 peace deal have been slated for phase two of Monday's agreement.

Ex-rebel leader Mini Minnawi, who is also governor of the restive Darfur region, slammed the agreement as "exclusionary."

Finance minister and ex-rebel Gibril Ibrahim said it was "far from a national accord and does not lead to free and fair elections."

"It will be hard to proceed with a comprehensive deal without agreeing with armed groups, most notably those of Ibrahim and Minnawi's," said the analyst Mirghani.

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