FIRST HORROR THEN FEAR

Children who survived Colombian plane crash share story of mother's survival for days

AP | | Posted by Singh Rahul Sunilkumar
Jun 12, 2023 

Manuel Ranoque, father of the two youngest children, told, the oldest of the four siblings had described to him how their mother was alive for about four days.

The four Indigenous children who survived 40 days in the Amazon jungle after their plane crashed have shared limited but harrowing details of their ordeal with their family, including that their mother survived the crash for days before she died.

Soldiers of the Colombian Air Force give medical attention inside a plane to the surviving children of a Cessna 206 plane crash in the thick jungle, while they are transferred to Bogota by air in San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia, June 9, 2023. (via REUTERS)

The siblings, aged 13, 9, 4 and 1, are expected to remain for at least two weeks in a hospital receiving treatment after their rescue Friday, but some are already speaking and wanting to do more more than lie in bed, relatives said. (ALSO READ: Amazon plane crash: How children who were lost for 40 days survived)

Manuel Ranoque, father of the two youngest children, told reporters outside the hospital Sunday that the oldest of the four siblings — 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy — had described to him how their mother was alive for about four days after the plane crashed on May 1 in the Colombian jungle.

Ranoque said before she died, the mother likely would have told them: “Go away,” apparently asking them to leave the wreckage site to survive. He provided no more details. Authorities have not said anything about this version.

Details of what happened to the youngsters, and what they did, have been emerging gradually and in small pieces, so it could take some time to have a better picture of their ordeal, during which the youngest, Cristin, turned 1 year old.

Henry Guerrero, an Indigenous man who was part of the search group, told reporters that the children were found with two small bags containing some clothes, a towel, a flashlight, two cellphones, a music box and a soda bottle.

He said they used the bottle to collect water in the jungle, and he added that after they were rescued the youngsters complained of being hungry. “They wanted to eat rice pudding, they wanted to eat bread,” he said.

Fidencio Valencia, a child’s uncle, told the media outlet Noticias Caracol that the children were starting to talk and one of them said they hid in tree trunks to protect themselves in a jungle area filled with snakes, animals and mosquitoes. He said they were exhausted.

“They at least are already eating, a little, but they are eating,” he said after visiting them at the military hospital in Bogota, Colombia. On Saturday, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez had said the children were being rehydrated and couldn’t eat food yet.

Later, Valencia provided new details of the children's recovery two days after the rescue: “They have been drawing. Sometimes they need to let off steam.” He said family members are not talking a lot with them to give them space and time to recover from the shock.

The children were travelling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to the town of San Jose del Guaviare when the plane went down.

The Cessna single-engine propeller plane was carrying three adults and four children when the pilot declared an emergency due to engine failure. The small aircraft fell off the radar a short time later and a search for survivors began.

Dairo Juvenal Mucutuy, another uncle, told local media that one of the kids said he wanted to start walking.

“Uncle, I want shoes, I want to walk, but my feet hurt," Mucutuy said the child told him.

“The only thing that I told the kid (was), 'When you recover, we will play soccer," he said.

Authorities and family members have said the siblings survived eating cassava flour and seeds, and that some familiarity with the rainforest’s fruits were also key to their survival. The kids are members of the Huitoto Indigenous group.

After being rescued on Friday, the children were transported in a helicopter to Bogota and then to the military hospital, where President Gustavo Petro, government and military officials, as well as family members met with the children on Saturday.

An air force video released Friday showed a helicopter using lines to pull the youngsters up because it couldn’t land in the dense rainforest where they were found. The military on Friday tweeted pictures showing a group of soldiers and volunteers posing with the children, who were wrapped in thermal blankets. One of the soldiers held a bottle to the smallest child’s lips.


Gen. Pedro Sanchez, who was in charge of the rescue efforts, said that the children were found 5 kilometers (3 miles) away from the crash site in a small forest clearing. He said rescue teams had passed within 20 to 50 meters (66 to 164 feet) of where the children were found on a couple of occasions but had missed them.

Two weeks after the crash, on May 16, a search team found the plane in a thick patch of the rainforest and recovered the bodies of the three adults on board, but the small children were nowhere to be found.

Soldiers on helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle, hoping that it would help sustain the children. Planes flying over the area fired flares to help search crews on the ground at night, and rescuers used speakers that blasted a message recorded by the siblings’ grandmother telling them to stay in one place.

Colombia’s army sent 150 soldiers with dogs into the area, where mist and thick foliage greatly limited visibility. Dozens of volunteers from Indigenous tribes also joined the search.

Ranoque, the father of the youngest children, said the rescue shows how as an “Indigenous population, we are trained to search” in the middle of the jungle.

“We proved the world that we found the plane... we found the children,” he added.

Some Indigenous community members burned incense as part of a ceremony outside the Bogota military hospital Sunday to give thanks for the rescue of the kids.

Luis Acosta, coordinator of the Indigenous guard that was part of the search in the Amazon, said the children were found as part of what he called a “combination of ancestral wisdom and Western wisdom... between a military technique and a traditional technique.”

The Colombian government, which is trying to end internal conflicts in the country, has highlighted the joint work of the military and Indigenous communities to find the children.

Opinion: Yes, the incel community has a sexism problem, but we can do something about it

by Michael Halpin and Finlay Maguire, The Conversation

June 12,2023

A number of online communities and social media influencers engage in misogynistic 

rhetoric. Incels — short for involuntary celibates — are one of these communities. 

Credit: Shutterstock

A judge in Ontario's Superior Court has ruled that a 2020 attack on a Toronto massage parlor was an incel-inspired act of terror. This is the first time that an incel-related crime has been labeled a terror offense.

Law enforcement groups in Canada and the United States have identified incels as a growing terror threat.

A number of online communities and social media influencers engage in misogynistic rhetoric. Incels—short for involuntary celibates—are one of these communities. Incels are men who see themselves as unable to establish romantic relationships with women. Incels believe they are victims of lookism, which they define as a social bias in favor of attractive people.

Incels have been connected to hate crimes against women and celebrate attacks that target them. Despite the link between incels and violence, public figures like Jordan Peterson defend incels and see them as unfairly marginalized.

Online misogyny

To better understand incel misogyny, we analyzed every comment made on a popular incel discussion board over a period between 2017 and 2021. In total, we collected more than 3.5 million comments. Some incels say they are not misogynistic, but we found that misogyny is widespread within the incel community.

In the comments we analyzed, incels used misogynistic slurs nearly one million times. They use misogynistic slurs to describe women 3.3 times more often than non-misogynistic terms. More than 80 percent of discussion board threads contained at least one misogynistic slur. Some users only referred to women using misogynistic slurs.

Our research is not just about the number of misogynistic slurs that incels use, but also the types of slurs they use. Many of these terms are explicitly hostile and dehumanizing. Slurs like "foid" are used to label women as uncaring machines, while words like "roastie" aim to body shame sexually active women.

While our data shows that incels hate all women, incels particularly target racialized women with sexist and racist terms. Incels dehumanized and sexualized racialized women by saying they were sexually available to all white men. Incels labeled women "race traitors" for dating outside their race.

Why are incels targeting women? Incels argue that women and society treat them like subordinate, failed men and "beta males." As we argue, incels weaponize this subordination by saying women should be rented, bought and sold like property to "solve" the "incel problem." Incels see themselves as the "real victims," who are being attacked by women, feminism and society. They think eliminating women's rights will improve society.

What can we do to address online misogyny?

Our study shows that incels do not become misogynistic within the incel community. Instead, they are already misogynistic when they arrive in the community. This suggests that men are becoming misogynistic in other communities, such as men's rights groups like Men Going Their Own Way and those formed around online influencers like Andrew Tate. These communities can serve as a pipeline for incels.

Efforts to disrupt online misogyny will need to focus on multiple communities and the networks between them. Simply shutting down online forums or discussion boards is not likely to be effective. Incels and other communities pop up in new locations, and these groups see censorship as validation of their beliefs.

Instead, academics, policymakers and the public need to directly challenge misogyny. We can engage with and challenge incel communities to disrupt their ability to operate as misogynistic echo-chambers.

We also need to keep supporting organizations that advance gender equity. In addition to organizations that advocate for women, we also need to support groups for men that challenge sexism and promote healthy and positive ideas about masculinity.

We can amplify the voices of men who have left the incel community. We can also identify and support men who decide not to join the incel community, particularly because our data suggests that the men who did not make misogynistic comments appeared to leave the community.

All of us can challenge how science is misused to create misogynistic misinformation. A page on the incel website we analyzed provided links to hundreds scientific studies that they believe support their sexist claims.

Many of these studies were misinterpreted, misquoted or presented out of context. We can adapt existing tools, such as online fact-checkers, to more efficiently counter such incorrect and misleading misogynistic claims.

What can incels do? The site we studied tells its members to not persecute, harass or attack others. Based on our research, those rules don't seem to apply to attacking or harassing women. To the extent that incel communities care about misogyny, they need to do better at challenging it in each other.

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Incel terrorist attacks pose an increasing threat

New life breathed into Tunisia’s bagpipes


By AFP
June 11, 2023

Tunisian musician Montassar Jebali, 32, says the mizwad is 'gaining ground' and will have its international breakthrough -

 Copyright AFP FETHI BELAID

Aymen JAMLI

At his workshop in Tunisia’s capital, Khaled ben Khemis pieces together a type of bagpipe once banned from airwaves but now embraced by artists infusing its sound into new musical styles.

Known as a “mizwad”, it “must be made from natural elements”, the 50-year-old craftsman said, taking two cow horns and connecting them to pieces of river reed and a goatskin bag for producing the musical notes.

He has made the instrument for 30 years.

Most musical historians agree the mizwad first appeared in Tunisia at the beginning of the 20th century and was confined to working-class suburbs for decades before growing in stature to now be incorporated into other genres, including hip-hop and jazz.

The increased popularity has seen commercial manufacturers turning out mizwads.

But modern variations that replace natural materials with plastic “do not have the soul of those made with reeds”, ben Khemis said of the new models, which cost up to 1,000 dinars ($320).

He acknowledged the instrument has, however, evolved.

“Before we played out of tune, and we made it in a hurry,” he said.

– Bad image –

The mizwad spawned its own musical style that was frowned upon by authorities for associations with alcohol, drugs and prison — where many songs were composed.

“It was a musical genre whose reputation was bad just like those who played it,” said Noureddine Kahlaoui, a self-described mizwad “activist” aged in his seventies.

“Criminals and those on the run were always found by authorities at mizwad concerts,” said the popular artist who has played the instrument for 40 years.

The songs address “daring subjects criticising society, politics, migration and racism”, said Rachid Cherif, a musicology researcher.

Mizwad concerts are traditionally held in poor and marginalised neighbourhoods, particularly for weddings.

Song lyrics can be abrasive and considered rude, drawing resentment from families and sometimes triggering brawls at parties.

These elements combined to see Tunisia’s authorities ban the mizwad on public television channels until the 1990s — leading folk artists to undertake a restoration of the instrument’s image.

In July 1991, a “Nouba” concert that mixed folk, popular and Sufi music was staged in Carthage’s ancient Roman amphitheatre and broadcast on television, marking a fundamental step in the mizwad’s rehabilitation.

But some snobbery toward the instrument remains.

In 2022, officials from Tunis’s municipal theatre refused to allow a mizwad show, deeming the institution too prestigious to host such a concert.

– Jazz and rap –

“Despite the criticism, we have worked so that this original heritage can progress,” said Kahlaoui, who describes the mizwad’s evolution as “dazzling”.

For the researcher Cherif, “the mizwad occupies a prominent place in the history of Tunisian popular music” due to its fundamental identity. It “consolidates the idea of belonging to a nation, an ethnic group and a culture”, he said.

In recent years, a new generation of musicians has taken up the instrument, mixing it with contemporary genres offering more room for creativity such as rap and world music.

“Thanks to what I learnt during my studies, I understood what could be done with this instrument,” said Montassar Jebali, 32, who plays mizwad in several jazz and hip-hop ensembles.

Jebali studied Arabic music at the Higher Institute of Music of Tunisia, where the mizwad is not taught.

“I used my academic knowledge to find out which instrument it went well with,” he said.

Jebali’s concerts and those of other contemporary mizwad players have been popular with young Tunisians.

“The mizwad is gaining ground” and will have its international breakthrough, he said. “Perhaps not tomorrow, but after tomorrow.”

Experts warn of ‘one of the most dangerous periods in human history’ amid nuclear arsenal development 

BY LAUREN SFORZA - 06/12/23 
THE HILL

Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
This photo made from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, shows a Yars missile launcher of the Russian armed forces being driven from a shelter in an undisclosed location in Russia. The Russian military on Wednesday launched drills of its strategic missile forces, deploying Yars mobile launchers…

A group of experts warns that that the development of nuclear arsenals is leading to a perilous period in history.

“We are drifting into one of the most dangerous periods in human history,” Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said in a statement. “It is imperative that the world’s governments find ways to cooperate in order to calm geopolitical tensions, slow arms races and deal with the worsening consequences of environmental breakdown and rising world hunger.”

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s new report shows that the rising number of nuclear warheads in military stockpiles threatened global security and stability. The global inventory of warheads in military stockpiles increased by 86 in 2023, according to the report.

The report noted that the United States and Russia have nearly 90 percent of all nuclear weapons across the globe. China has increased its arsenal from 350 warheads to 410 warheads in 2023, a move that the report said could signal that China may have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as either Russia or the United States by 2030.

“China has started a significant expansion of its nuclear arsenal,” said Hans Kristensen, a fellow at the organization’s weapons of mass destruction program. “It is increasingly difficult to square this trend with China’s declared aim of having only the minimum nuclear forces needed to maintain its national security.”

The report said that India and Pakistan were both expanding their arsenals, as well as North Korea. The report added that it estimated North Korea may have assembled about 30 warheads and has enough material for between 50 and 70 warheads.

The report also added that the Russia-Ukraine war has set back nuclear arms control and disarmament diplomacy, saying that countries were being less transparent about nuclear forces in the wake of the conflict.

“In this period of high geopolitical tension and mistrust, with communication channels between nuclear-armed rivals closed or barely functioning, the risks of miscalculation, misunderstanding or accident are unacceptably high,” Smith said. “There is an urgent need to restore nuclear diplomacy and strengthen international controls on nuclear arms.”

China expands nuclear arsenal as global tensions grow: study

By AFP

June 12, 2023

China's DF-41 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles are shown off during a military parade in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China - Copyright AFP/File GREG BAKER

The nuclear arsenals of several countries, especially China, grew last year and other atomic powers continued to modernise theirs as geopolitical tensions rise, researchers said Monday.

“We are approaching, or maybe have already reached, the end of a long period of the number of nuclear weapons worldwide declining,” Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told AFP.

The total amount of nuclear warheads among the nine nuclear powers — Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States — was down to 12,512 at the outset of 2023, from 12,710 at the start of 2022, according to SIPRI.

Of those, 9,576 were in “military stockpiles for potential use”, 86 more than a year earlier.

SIPRI distinguishes between countries’ stockpiles available for use and their total inventory — which includes older ones scheduled to be dismantled.

“The stockpile is the usable nuclear warheads, and those numbers are beginning to tick up,” Smith said, while noting that numbers are still far from the over 70,000 seen during the 1980s.

The bulk of the increase was from China, which increased its stockpile from 350 to 410 warheads.

India, Pakistan and North Korea also upped their stockpiles and Russia’s grew to a smaller extent, from 4,477 to 4,489, while the remaining nuclear powers maintained the size of their arsenal.

Russia and the United States together still have almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons.

“The big picture is we’ve had over 30 years of the number of nuclear warheads coming down, and we see that process coming to an end now,” Smith said.

– China ‘stepping up’ –

Researchers at SIPRI also noted that diplomatic efforts on nuclear arms control and disarmament had suffered setbacks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For instance, the United States suspended its “bilateral strategic stability dialogue” with Russia in the wake of the invasion.

In February, Moscow announced it was it was suspending participation in the 2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START).

SIPRI noted in a statement that it “was the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty limiting Russian and US strategic nuclear forces”.

At the same time, Smith said the increase in stockpiles could not be explained by the war in Ukraine as it takes a longer time to develop new warheads and that the bulk of the increase was among countries not directly affected.

China has also invested heavily in all parts of its military as its economy and influence have grown.

“What we’re seeing is China stepping up as a world power, that is the reality of our time,” Smith said.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

WAR IS ECOCIDE

Riverside Ukraine city left with mud and memories

ByAFP

June 12, 2023

Upstream of the destroyed Kakhovka dam, the banks of Dnipro have become stinking mudflats -

 Copyright JIJI PRESS/AFP/File STR

Dave CLARK

Zaporizhzhia residents braved grey skies and driving rain to visit the banks of the Dnipro, not to relax in riverside bars and resorts, but to contemplate a sea of mud.

When the Kakhovka dam was breached last week — in what Kyiv and its allies believe was an act of Russian sabotage — the river level upstream dropped dramatically.

In the city of Zaporizhzhia, a sandy beach now gives way to a stinking mudflat, and sightseers have been left to survey the damage 15 months of war has dealt to their environment.

Despite the devastation, the riverside is still a place of contemplation for some, like 32-year-old Andrii Vlasenko, who was walking alone sweeping the mud with his metal detector.

Andrii and his wife and child fled a Russian-occupied area to the south of the city a year ago and he has so far been unable to find work.

Five months ago, his 63-year-old father was killed by shellfire in his home village.

For him, the newly exposed riverbed is an opportunity to forget his pain and indulge his peaceful hobby as a metal detectorist.

“I came maybe to find something. At least, while searching my soul retreats. That’s why,” he said.

His morning’s haul was meagre — no gold or silver, but one Ukrainian coin and one Soviet-era kopek.

Before the war, citizens of Zaporizhzhia had access to beach holiday resorts on the Azov Sea coast, now occupied by Russian forces and completely beyond reach.

Now, with the retreat of the Dnipro, even the small family resorts in the forests south of the city no longer open onto sandy riverbanks but onto slimy silt.

– Knee-deep in silt –

Yuriy Kara, a 39-year-old IT specialist, sheltered from the rain under the hatchback of his car, sipping a coffee and bitterly reflecting on the scene.

“I was here in the first day when water started dropping. On June 9, the water was closer. It drops every day,” he said, as a seabird splashed into the shallows to search for food.

“I was just discussing it with my friend, that soon there will be no Dnipro river for us.”

Opinions differ about how far the river has fallen but retired steel worker Gennadiy, stripped to his underpants and knee-deep in water under a tall jetty, had the answer.

Pointing at the tide marks on the stone pile towering above him, he made his estimate.

“So the water level was… How can I show you? It was up there. Look, see that brick? It was up to the higher one, three metres,” he told AFP reporters.

The changes to the Dnipro have also served as a reminder to the city that, even though Ukraine is counter-attacking Russian troops nearby, the war can still reach them in unsettling ways.

Cellphone company employee Anna Lashuna, 28, and her sisters fled Russian-occupied territory in June last year and are fearful for an elderly grandmother they left behind.

“No-one even thought that they could do something like this,” she said of the shrunken river.

“We do not know what to expect next from them. It could get worse. I hope it will end as soon as possible.”

KNOW THE 1%; GNOME OF ZURICH
Sergio Ermotti: George Clooney of Swiss banking tasked with mega-merger

By AFP
June 12, 2023

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti, 62, is nicknamed the "George Clooney of Paradeplatz" - 

Copyright AFP/File ARND WIEGMANN

Nathalie OLOF-ORS

Sergio Ermotti returned as chief executive of UBS to mastermind the merger with Credit Suisse — an onerous task which begins in earnest on Monday after the takeover was finalised.

“Today we welcome our new colleagues from Credit Suisse to UBS,” he said, vowing: “We’ll create a bank that our clients, employees, investors and Switzerland can be proud of.”

Ermotti has to smooth out the controversial shotgun marriage of two of the world’s most important banks.

Nicknamed the “George Clooney of Paradeplatz”, after the Hollywood star and the Zurich square at the heart of Switzerland’s banking industry, the silver-haired 63-year-old is known for always being immaculately dressed.

The Swiss banker has a reputation that lives up to such star billing, having turned around the fortunes of UBS after the 2008 global financial crisis as he ran Switzerland’s biggest bank from 2011 to 2020.

His rise has also been like a Hollywood tale having gone from local apprentice to the two-time boss of a top global bank.

Having steadied the ship once before at UBS, can Ermotti do it again?

– Bumpy flight –

Ermotti has warned the coming months will be “bumpy” for the new megabank, whose sheer size has raised concerns in Switzerland in the event that it runs into trouble one day.

At the Swiss Economic Forum conference in Interlaken on Friday, he was asked if he saw himself as a kind of Superman figure, a clean-up man responsible for restoring order, or the new coach of a football team.

He chose the latter option, saying the task was to “make something good out of a not ideal situation”.

Ermotti will have to merge two institutions which were both among the 30 banks around the world deemed of global importance to the banking system — in short, too big to fail.

Following the collapse of three banks in the United States, Credit Suisse’s share price plummeted on March 15 as investor confidence evaporated.

On March 19, the Swiss government, the central bank and the financial regulators strongarmed UBS into buying Credit Suisse for $3.25 billion to prevent it from collapsing — and potentially triggering a global banking meltdown.

UBS chairman Colm Kelleher turned once more to Ermotti, thinking him the “better pilot” to navigate the bank’s completely altered flight path than its Dutch CEO Ralph Hamers.

Hamers swiftly vacated the hotseat and Ermotti returned to the helm on April 5.

– Path to the top –

As a child, Ermotti dreamed of a career in football but made his mark instead as one of the most talented bankers of his generation.

At 15, he quit school to become an apprentice at the Corner private bank in Lugano, his home town in the Italian-speaking south of Switzerland.

From there, he started out on a dazzling journey seen as a shining example of the Swiss apprenticeship system.

After a stint at the US bank Citigroup, he rose through the ranks of the US investment bank Merrill Lynch between 1987 and 2004, completing his training along the way via the advanced management programme at Britain’s prestigious Oxford University.

In 2005, he joined the Italian bank UniCredit for five years, where he notably headed the markets and investment banking division.

He was then entrusted with the CEO role at UBS, running Switzerland’s biggest bank from 2011 to 2020.

UBS came in for fierce criticism after its bailout by the state during the 2008 financial crisis.

But the losses in 2011 of a rogue trader who blew $2.3 billion in shady transactions was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Heads rolled and UBS turned to Ermotti, who was little-known within Switzerland, having made his career mainly in London, New York and Milan.

But he returned home after being overlooked for the CEO role at UniCredit.

He made cuts in the investment bank, refocused UBS on wealth management and settled the disputes accumulated by the bank, including the Libor and exchange rate manipulation scandals.

In 2021, he became the chairman of the reinsurance giant Swiss Re.

But when Kelleher sounded him out about returning to UBS to integrate Credit Suisse, Ermotti said he felt the “call of duty” to return.

China’s installed non-fossil fuel electricity capacity


By Karen Graham
AFP
June 12, 2023

Enviro Friendly cited data compiled by environmental think tank Ember to look at countries whose solar electricity capacity has grown the most over the past 15 years. - Canva

China’s non-fossil fuel energy sources now exceed 50% of its total installed electricity generation capacity.

According to Yale 360, China set a goal in 2021 for renewable capacity, including wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear power to exceed fossil fuel capacity by 2025, a target that it has hit two years ahead of schedule.

By the end of 2022, China’s installed power generation capacity was 2,564.05 GW, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

And while China has devoted extensive resources to the construction of renewable energy capacity in recent years, the Chinese industry accounts for around 60 percent of all electricity demand, according to Bloomberg’s estimates, reports Oil Price.com.

Residential demand for electricity was just 17 percent in 2020. This inconsistent utilization of resources means that China’s energy consumption mix remains weighted toward fossil fuels, principally coal, Reuters reported in March 2023.

It is important to remember that power capacity refers to the maximum amount of electricity a power plant can produce under ideal conditions. It’s a measure of how much electricity a solar farm can generate at noon on a cloudless day, or how much a coal plant can produce when operating at full blast.

Because fossil fuel plants operate closer to their capacity than solar and wind plants do, the newly released figures may obscure how much electricity China is actually drawing from renewables.

PEDOPHELIA PAYMENT
JPMorgan Chase agrees to settle with Jeffrey Epstein victims

MAJORITY OF PEDOPHILES ARE STR8

By AFP
June 12, 2023

JPMorgan Chase agreed to settle with victims of Jeffrey Epstein as Wall Street reckons with its role in the scandal - 

JPMorgan Chase reached an agreement in principle to settle a class action lawsuit brought by victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme, the two sides said Monday.

“The parties believe this settlement is in the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse,” said a joint statement.

It gave no financial details of the agreement, and said the settlement is “subject to court approval.”

The agreement comes on the heels of a parallel Deutsche Bank settlement announced in May, as the litigation forces Wall Street banks to reckon with their role in the scandal involving the disgraced Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.

News of the agreement came on the same day that US District Judge Jed Rakoff granted class-action certification to the claims, which were brought by plaintiff Jane Doe 1 “individually and on behalf of others similarly situated.”

In a 30-page ruling Monday, Rakoff concluded that Jane Doe 1’s fellow victims were numerous enough to qualify as a class and that the case otherwise met the requirements.

“The core of this case — plaintiffs allegation that JPMorgan supported Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking venture while it knew or should have known that venture was in operation — involves a common set of law and fact,” Rakoff wrote.

– ‘We regret it’ –

The lawfirm Boies Schiller and Flexner, which represented plaintiffs in both the Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan cases, hailed the agreement as a step towards justice.

“Taken together or individually, the historic recoveries from the banks who provided financial services to Jeffrey Epstein, speak for themselves,” said David Boies.

“It has taken a long time, too long, but today is a great day for Jeffrey Epstein survivors, and a great day for justice.”

JPMorgan Chase reiterated that it regretted its association with Epstein.

“We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous,” said a bank spokeswoman.

“Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it. We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.”

In May in a parallel case, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75 million to settle litigation brought by the victim.

JPMorgan began its banking services with Epstein as early as 1998, but did not cut him off until 2013.

Plaintiffs had alleged that JPMorgan either knew or should have known from 2006 that it was supporting a sexual predator, but that the bank kept Epstein as a client well beyond that period.

The case has included a deposition from JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, with questions focusing on when top officials became aware of Epstein’s conduct and why he wasn’t cut off earlier.

JPMorgan has blamed former executive Jes Staley for maintaining the relationship with Epstein. Litigation between the bank and Staley is ongoing, along with cases between JPMorgan and the US Virgin Islands, according to Monday’s joint statement.

On Friday, attorneys for the victims asked the court to order a second round of testimony from Dimon, alleging that the bank had “strategically withheld” documents prior to Dimon’s May 26, 2023 deposition that impeded their questioning.

Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of paying young girls for massages, but served just 13 months in jail under a secret plea deal.

Later awaiting trial on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex, he killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019 at age 66.

Late Pleistocene, Upper Palaeolithic Sleds from eastern North America, L'Anthropologie 127(2), April-June 2023

2023, L'Anthropologie

James Harrod

Here are described two sleds, presumed to date to the time of the Clovis (Llano) archaeological culture or approximately 13,500-12,500 years ago, that were discovered at saline springs in New York state and Kentucky state. For what purpose these sleds may have been intended and why they were abandoned are addressed by referring to eastern Eurasian ethnography. The proboscidean components used in their construction may have restricted use of these sleds to ritual activities. 

Résumé Dans cet article, sont décrits deux traîneaux, dont on présume qu'ils datent de l'époque de la culture Clovis (Llano), aux environs de 13500 à 12500 ans. Ces traîneaux ont été découverts au niveau de sources d'eaux salées dans les états de New York et du Kentucky. À quoi ces traîneaux ont pu être destinés et pourquoi ont-ils été abandonnés ? Ce sont les questions abordées ici, en se référant à l'ethnographie eurasienne de l'Est. Les composants proboscidiens utilisés dans leurs constructions pourraient avoir restreint l'utilisation de ces traîneaux aux activités rituelles.

Spain begins exhuming civil war victims from Franco basilica
By AFP
June 12, 2023

The vast hillside mausoleum was built after the civil war by Franco's regime -- in part by the forced labour of 20,000 political prisoners - 

Copyright POOL/AFP Ian Vogler

Diego URDANETA

Experts on Monday began exhuming Spanish civil war victims from a huge basilica near Madrid, where the body of former dictator Francisco Franco once lay.

The move comes as Spain gears up for an early general election on July 23 in which Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faces an uphill battle.

The team will seek to exhume the remains of 128 victims of the 1936-39 civil war from the complex at the Valley of Cuelgamuros, formerly known as the Valley of the Fallen, the democratic memory ministry said.

The aim is to “recover those bodies and deliver them to their families to give them a dignified burial,” the ministry said in a statement sent to AFP.

“This is not about politics, it is simply a matter of pure humanity.”

A laboratory has been set up in the basilica carved into a mountainside to allow the archeologists, forensic experts and scientific police to do their work.

The remains of some 33,000 people from both sides of the civil war are buried anonymously at the complex, which is topped by a 150-metre (500-foot) stone cross.

Many of the remains were moved to the site 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Madrid from cemeteries and mass graves across the country without their families being informed.

While the site is ostensibly dedicated to the memory of all those killed on both sides of the war, only two graves at the basilica were ever marked: those of Franco and of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of Spain’s fascist Falange party.

The government relocated Franco’s remains to a civilian cemetery in 2019, and did the same with those of Primo de Rivera in April.

– ‘Long overdue’ –

Many relatives of those buried there have long campaigned to be able to lay their loved ones to rest near their families under their own names.

“Finally, and perhaps too long overdue, Spanish democracy is providing an answer to these victims,’ government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez told public television.

Honouring those who died or suffered violence or repression during the civil war and the Franco dictatorship that followed has been a top priority for Sanchez, who came to power in 2018.

A so-called democratic memory law which came into effect in October 2022 aims to turn the Valley of Cuelgamuros into a place of memory for the dark years of the dictatorship.

It also promotes the search for victims who are buried in mass graves across Spain and annuls the criminal convictions of opponents of the Franco regime.

But the law has been politically divisive, with right-wing parties saying it needlessly dredges up the past.

– Long Franco dictatorship –

Opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the right-wing Popular Party (PP), has vowed to repeal the law if he comes to power in next month’s election.

Surveys suggest the PP will win the snap polls but will need the support of far-right party Vox to govern.

A prominent NGO that represents victims of the Franco regime, the Association for the Reparation of Historic Memory, welcomed the exhumations.

But it deplored that families concerned “learned of the exhumation from the press and are not there.”

“The Franco family was able to carry the dictator’s body from the Valley of the Fallen on their shoulders,” it added in a tweet.

Franco ruled Spain with an iron fist since the end of the civil war intil his death in 1975, one of Europe’s longest dictatorships.

His regime was notorious for imprisoning, torturing and killing people who spoke out against his rule.