Europe and Asia Remain Oceans Apart – At Least on Security

European officials came to the SLD with two goals: to garner regional support for Ukraine and portray Europe as a reliable security partner in the Indo-Pacific. One was notably more successful.

By Dominique Fraser
June 13, 2023

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaks at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, June 4, 2023.

Credit: Flickr/ IISS

This year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security conference, featured the most high-level European delegation in the conference’s 20-year history. In addition to Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, six European defense ministers were in attendance.

European participation was driven by two objectives: to garner regional support for Ukraine and portray Europe as a reliable security partner in the Indo-Pacific.

On the first, the Europeans hoped for increased condemnation of Russia’s invasion and buy-in to Ukraine’s peace plan, which boils down to a full Russian retreat to pre-2014 borders and retributive justice. They also hoped to convince South Korea and Japan to send lethal equipment to Ukraine, and perhaps even to broaden the number of countries in the region willing to implement sanctions – although chances of that have always been slim.

The message they tried to impart was clear: What happens in Europe has security implications in Asia. Kallas warned that “aggression by a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council against its neighbor is a threat that has global implications. That is why Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is not only a European issue or a regional conflict.”

The reality remains that many in the region – particularly in Southeast Asia – simply do not agree. When they look at Ukraine, they see a regional European war without wider security implications and wish Europeans would stop trying to sell their internal issues as the world’s problems. Japan, which has long stated that Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow and which has expanded its cooperation with NATO, is the exception rather than the rule.

Indonesian Defense Minister and presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto’s peace plan for Ukraine could not be further from what Europe supports: neither a ceasefire and the start of negotiations, nor a demilitarized zone and formal U.N. referendum are on the table. While the under-consulted proposal raised more than one amused eyebrow, it nonetheless shows that Europe and much of the region remain oceans apart on the issue. While Europe frames the conflict as a global fight against tyranny and promises support for Ukraine “as long as it takes,” the transatlantic partners’ refusal to encourage peace negotiations is seen by many in the region as unrealistic and stubborn.

The second objective of the European delegation to Shangri-La was to sell Europe as a reliable security partner, to “build strategic trust.” This was favorably received even if Europe remains peripheral to the larger regional security debate. At the conference, the European message was one of multipolarity, offering to be an additional prong to avoid a bipolar region dominated by great power competition: “We are not a classic military alliance; we are not a traditional great power throwing its weight around,” Borrell said.

But Europe wants to expand its security footprint in the region. Germany, France, and the Netherlands have pledged to send vessels to the Indo-Pacific next year. Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius used his speech to sell Germany’s Zeitenwende, which he said includes taking more responsibility for the security of Germany’s partners. Heading from Singapore straight to New Delhi, Germany is close to sealing a deal to build six submarines for the Indian Navy in a bid to lessen the country’s military reliance on Russia.

These actions demonstrate just how uneven Europe’s twin goals in the region are. While Asian governments largely do not buy the argument that they have a direct stake in European security, a free and open Indo-Pacific is in Europe’s self-interest. In its 2022 Strategic Compass, the EU affirms that the bloc “has a crucial geopolitical and economic interest in stability and security in the region.”

This reflects a world whose center of gravity has shifted from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific. For those based in the region, this has been self-evident for a while. For Europe, used to being the geostrategic focal point and embroiled in security issues from Ukraine to Kosovo, it’s worth experiencing in forums such as the Shangri-La Dialogue.

To be sure, for all the increased military ties, Europe’s stake in the region remains more about economics than security. Outside of its relationship with Russia, China simply isn’t seen as a direct military threat. But for countries in the Indo-Pacific, the fact that the world’s third largest economic power is looking for greater engagement is positive, especially as the EU wants to deepen and diversify its partnerships as part of a “de-risking” strategy away from China.

While the EU’s Global Gateway is seen as little more than a paper tiger, Europe’s interests are in part driving progress on a number of free trade agreements with Australia, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, and recently relaunched talks with Thailand. Another upside is that a part of the transatlantic alliance can still talk to China, including on security issues: while snubbing U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu was willing to meet bilaterally with Borrell, Pistorius, and U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, reflecting Europe’s balancing act between its major security guarantor, the United States, and important economic partner China.AUTHORS

GUEST AUTHOR
Dominique Fraser is a research associate at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) in Australia. Her work focuses on the geopolitical relationship between Europe and Asia. She has published extensively in Nikkei Asia, The Diplomat, The Straits Times, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and elsewhere.

Tech war: new US sanctions against 31 Chinese entities put supercomputing under the spotlight

Shanghai Supercomputing Technology Co, tied to a municipal-level supercomputing centre, has been placed on the US Entity List

The Shanghai Supercomputer Centre forms an integral part of China’s push to achieve computing self-sufficiency, according to analysts

Ann Cao in Shanghai
Published: 13 Jun, 2023
SCMP


The US government on Monday restricted exports to 31 Chinese entities, including a supercomputing company in Shanghai. 

Photo: Shutterstock

Washington’s latest addition of 31 Chinese companies, including a key supercomputing facility in Shanghai, to its export blacklist has thrust the next-generation computing technology into the centre of Sino-US rivalry.

On Monday, the Biden administration restricted exports to Shanghai Supercomputing Technology Co – an enterprise jointly backed by the Shanghai Supercomputer Centre (SSC) and Chinese supercomputer maker Dawning Information Industry – accusing it of “acquiring and attempting to acquire” US-origin items to support China’s military modernisation.

“This entity has supported the operation of supercomputers located in the [People’s Republic of China], specifically by offering cloud-based supercomputing capabilities to support hypersonics research,” the Bureau of Industry and Security under the US Department of Commerce said in a statement.

The Chinese company’s activities were “contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests”, the agency said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Tuesday characterised the US move as “hysteria” and a weaponisation of economic and trade issues, adding that Beijing will “take necessary measures” to protect the country’s interests.

Supercomputers, which are capable of performing a massive amount of calculations in seconds, are useful in the development of military systems such as missile defence and nuclear weapons.

“Supercomputing centres have been at the forefront of the US-China tech war,” said Zhang Xiaorong, director of Chinese research institute Shendu Technology. “The vast majority of China’s supercomputers use American chips and software.”

The SSC is a municipal-level facility that belongs to the middle echelons of China’s supercomputing centres, second to national-level centres, according to Zhang.

Its subsidiary Shanghai Supercomputing is based in the Lingang New Area. Part of a free-trade zone, the area has been tasked by local authorities with creating a “multi-computing-power supply system” that can generate more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in industry value by 2025.

A view of the Shanghai Astronomy Museum in the Lingang Special Area. 

Photo: Xinhua

The system was envisioned as a first-class provider of hyper-converged computing solutions, which combine all services provided by traditional data centres, such as storage, computing and networking.

It will put a special focus on high-performance computing services, such as scientific computing and engineering simulation, according to the official website of the SSC.

SSC is at the core of China’s computing power strategy, and plays an important role in national defence, scientific and technological innovation, and economic development, according to a mainland-based analyst, who requested anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive matter.

While the new US sanctions are expected to affect, to a certain degree, the supply of computing power in Shanghai and nearby regions, as well as the sanctioned entity’s collaboration with American firms, the analyst said substantial and industry-wide damages, like those seen in the Chinese semiconductor industry, are unlikely.

That is because China has already established independent innovation capabilities and market competition in its computing centre industry, he said.

Engineers working at a supercomputer centre in Wuhan, China’s central Hubei province. 

Photo: AFP

Founded in 2000 with funding from the Shanghai government, the SSC aims to support the city’s transformation into a digital economy by setting up a “public computing power service platform” that provides both supercomputing and intelligent computing.

The centre has business deals with leading US technology companies, including Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD and Intel, according to the SSC website.

While this is not the first time that the US has imposed export curbs against Chinese supercomputing entities, the latest sanctions come as renewed interest in artificial intelligence, sparked by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, fuels surging demand for computing power.

China has been doubling down on its efforts to boost data and computing facilities.

The country’s Eastern Data and Western Computing project, which aims to build data hubs and computing centres in key areas in western and eastern China, is designed to “optimise the allocation of existing computing power resources”, said Chen Jia, a researcher at Renmin University of China.


Ann Cao is a Shanghai-based technology reporter for the Post, covering technology start-ups and policies in the city and eastern China. She graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a master's degree in journalism.

Bonn climate talks at risk of collapse, after 7-day agenda debate

Published on 13/06/2023,

With governments unable to agree on agenda, all the negotiations so far in Bonn could go to waste

An observer watches the talks in Bonn (Photo credit: UN Climate Change)

By Joe Lo

Seven days into climate talks in the German city of Bonn, governments have not been able to agree on an agenda, sparking fears of two wasted weeks of talks while the climate crisis worsens.

Talks on issues like reducing emissions and adapting to climate change have continued but the Pakistani co-chair of the talks Nabeel Munir warned that all their work could be wasted if the agenda is not officially adopted.

Towards the end of a two-hour open meeting, Munir told negotiators they were like “a class of primary school” and urged them to “please wake up, what is happening around you is unbelievable”. The room of negotiators and campaigners applauded his words.

Munir said 33 million people had been impacted by floods in Pakistan last year, worsened by the climate crisis. “A third of the country [is] under water and I go back and tell my people that we were fighting for agenda for 2 weeks. Come on, is it worth it?” he said.

The Overshoot Commission is talking about solar geoengineering. Not everyone thinks it should

Urging agreement, Zambia’s lead negotiator Ephraim Mwepya Shitima warned there was a “danger” of losing progress, affecting “the credibility of the process” and “even disrupting some of the critical functions of the [UN climate change agency] if we leave this places without adopting the agenda”.

The Bonn talks happen every June and allow negotiators to progress technical talks and prepare the ground for the following Cop summit each November. A failure to agree an agenda in Bonn would make constructive talks at Cop28 difficult.

The last time they collapsed without an agenda being agreed was in 2013, when Russia objected to being ignored at the previous Cop meeting in Qatar and insisted on discussing that in Bonn.
Finance split

Developed countries and some developing nations are split on how prominent to make climate finance on the agenda.

A group of developing countries want an agenda item on “urgently scaling up financial support from developed country parties” to be added.

Rich world’s leaders fail to commit to Paris global financing summit

But developed countries and some more climate vulnerable developing ones oppose this, arguing that the agenda item was proposed too late and that finance is discussed elsewhere in climate talks.

This second group wants an agenda item on talks, known as the mitigation work programme, to reduce emissions to give the world a better chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C. But the first group opposes this, without their agenda item being included.
The push

Bolivian negotiator Diego Pacheco, who represents the Like-Minded Developing Country coalition, made the first group’s arguments most prominently yesterday.

“In our hunger for action, discussions have centred exclusively on scaling up ambition against the backdrop of broken promises, failed commitments and low delivery of means of implementation and support from developed countries,” Pacheco said.

World Bank set to take on risk of insuring carbon credits amid market upheaval

Speaking on behalf of the G77+China group, which includes all developing countries, Cuba’s negotiator Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta said an agenda item on finance was “long overdue” as the “promised finance hasn’t been there since 2009”.

It is clear that there is no intention to talk about financing… Muy despite the fact that on a day like today in 1992 in Rio, this United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was opened for signature, @UNFCCC, let’s live up to it and stop talking nonsense.#CubaqG77 pic.twitter.com/mdbFmkOXtZ

— Pedro Luis Pedroso C (@PedroPedrosoC) June 12, 2023

In 2009, developed countries collectively promised to deliver $100 billion a year by 2020 to developing countries to help them reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. They failed to do so and have yet to reach this target, although they expect to this year.

Cuesta yesterday said the $100 billion promise was a “fraud” and that developing countries need somewhere between $6,000 billion and $100,000 billion.

At Cop28, countries will renew discussions on a new climate finance target set to be adopted by 2024, which is expected to supersede the previous $100 billion finance goal. But negotiations at last year’s Cop27 did not resolve substantive matters yet, such as the exact amount of the new goal.

The Arab group proposed a new goal of $1.1 trillion per year by 2030, while a report commissioned by the UK presidency of Cop26 estimated a similar amount of $1 trillion needed for developing countries (excluding China) to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts.

Tom Evans, policy advisor at E3G said developed countries were keen to see other major emitters like China playing a much bigger role when it comes to financing the climate transition.

The resistance

Developed countries like the European Union, USA and the United Kingdom opposed this agenda item on finance. They said they accepted that finance was important but argued that the agenda item was proposed too late and that finance is being discussed in other parts of the climate talks including the mitigation work programme that Bolivia and others are blocking.

The EU’s negotiator said she was “confused as to why we now have new proposals on the table now after having already launched the work for the session last Monday”, adding that “we have already ample places that we are negotiating on finance”.

China’s negotiator said that the proposal was new because other countries had added items too. When they got to Bonn, he said, a reference to the mitigation work programme had been added, which “motivated” them to add other items as well.

Confusion surrounds China’s pledged climate finance towards the Global South

The US’s negotiator Trigg Talley said that adding a new agenda item in response to an agenda item is “unprecedented” and the precedent of doing this should not be set.

China’s representative said that the other places finance is discussed, which the EU had mentioned, are just “dialogues” rather than “negotiations”. Negotiations involve more decision-making than dialogues, which are just an exchange of views.

CAN International campaigner Harjeet Singh said developed nations were “side-stepping critical finance discussions, thereby evading their obligations and historical accountability for the climate crisis”.
The other nations

Bolivia’s proposal was supported by Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, on behalf of the Arab Group and Senegal, on behalf of the world’s poorest countries.

But both the Aosis group of small island nations and Costa Rica, on behalf of the Ailac group of Latin American states, opposed finance having its own agenda item, proposing to include it in the mitigation work programme discussions instead.

Turkiye joins Australia in race to host Cop31 climate talks

Developed nations like Norway, New Zealand, Australia and Canada backed the EU and US’s position. They were supported by Switzerland’s negotiator Franz Perez.

He said that the split was not between developed and developing nations, as he was speaking on behalf of the environmental integrity group which includes Mexico and South Korea, which are considered developing nations under the United Nations classification.

While resisting an agenda item on finance, developed countries did agree to developing nations proposal for an agenda item on governments plans to adapt to climate change.

RIP
John Romita Sr: Marvel artist who contributed to Spider-Man and Wolverine dies

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption,
John Romita worked on many Spider-Man projects for Marvel, as well as a Superman cover for DC
By Paul Glynn
Entertainment reporter



Marvel Comics artist John Romita Sr, who helped to create characters such as Wolverine and Spider-Man's girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, has died aged 93.


He also had a hand in other favourites such as Kingpin and the Punisher.


His death was confirmed on Tuesday by his son and fellow comics artist John Romita Jr, who confirmed his father had "passed away peacefully in his sleep".

"He is a legend in the art world and it would be my honour to follow in his footsteps," he posted on social media.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Romita graduated from Manhattan's School of Industrial Art in 1947 and served in the army before starting working in comics.

He gained a reputation working on titles for companies would become Marvel and DC - Timely Comics and National Comics.

From 1966 he worked with Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee on The Amazing Spider-Man, replacing original artist Steve Ditko, while helping it to become the company's top-seller.

His tenure saw the introduction of Spider-Man's love interest Mary Jane Watson and his adversary Punisher, the assassin; as well as the crime boss Kingpin.

IMAGE SOURCE,MARC STAMAS
Many of his famous characters have gone on to appear in countless TV shows and films

In the early 1970s, Romita became Marvel's art director - a role he would serve in for more than two decades - contributing to the design of characters including Wolverine, who first appeared in an Incredible Hulk publication.

He also helped to come up with Luke Cage, one of the earliest black superheroes to feature in a Marvel comic book.

Other enduring Spider-Man characters he was involved in originating included the villainous Vulture, mobster Hammerhead and the sonic-powered Shocker, as well as the Hobgoblin, journalist Robbie Robertson and Gwen Stacy's father George Stacy.

He completed artwork for a number of classic titles including The Night Gwen Stacy Died, from 1973; and the wedding of Spider-Man's alter-ego Peter Parker and Mary Jane in 1987.

'I can make it better'

Romita semi-retired in 1996 but continued to work on Spider-Man projects for Marvel as well as a Superman cover for DC.

Many of his famous characters have gone on to appear in TV shows and films, both live-action and animated, and his death comes the week after Sony's Spider-Man sequel, Across the Spider-Verse proved to be a box office success.

"No matter what success I've had, I've always considered myself a guy who can improve on somebody else's concepts," he said in a 2002 interview. "A writer and another artist can create something, and I can make it better."

The same year, the artist was inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame, and later the Inkwell Awards Hall of Fame in 2020.

Romita is survived by his wife, Virginia, and two sons Romita Jr and Victor.

Evgeny Prigozhin claims Russian Defense Ministry has tried twice to ‘destroy’ Wagner Group

June 13, 2023
Source: Meduza

Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin said in an audio recording published Tuesday that the Russian Defense Ministry has twice tried to “destroy” his paramilitary cartel. The clip was posted by Prigozhin’s press service.

“We’re not just talking about some interference, we’re talking about physical, intentional destruction. Both then and now,” the tycoon says in the recording.

According to Prigozhin, the Russian military’s most recent attempt to sabotage Wagner Group came during the battle for control of Bakhmut, when the Defense Ministry allegedly “tried to close [Wagner fighters in the city] with no weapons.”

The first attempt, he said, came on February 8, 2018, when Wagner fighters were attacking ISIS positions in Syria and suffered heavy losses at the hands of the U.S. Air Force. Prigozhin insists in the recording that the U.S. had repeatedly warned Russia’s military commanders that it was preparing an airstrike in the area so they could remove their units from the impact zone but that nobody notified Wagner Group.

Prigozhin also says in the clip that he believes the ministry's attempts to “destroy” Wagner Group were motivated by envy, and that Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu’s personality played a significant role: “This is a person who can’t stand it when somebody does something better than him. So he wants everyone to go around kissing his feet, but Wagner Group has never done that,” he says.

Amnesty: Possible war crimes in recent Israel-Gaza fighting

PublishedShare

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

A four-storey building where 42 people from the extended Nabhan family 

was destroyed in an Israeli strike on 13 May

By David Gritten

BBC News

War crimes were possibly committed during last month's fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International says.

A report by the human rights group concludes that Israeli forces conducted apparently disproportionate air strikes which killed Palestinian civilians.

It also says indiscriminate Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket fire killed both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

Amnesty is calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate.

A spokesman for PIJ said the group welcomed the report, while there was no immediate response from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Thirty-four Palestinians and one Israeli were killed in the latest round of cross-border fighting, which erupted on 9 May and ended five days later with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

It began when Israeli warplanes carried out overnight air strikes that killed three senior commanders of PIJ's military wing in their homes as well as 10 civilians, including relatives and neighbours of the men.

Amnesty International said the dropping of precision-guided bombs on densely-populated areas when families were sleeping suggested "that those who planned and authorised the attacks anticipated - and likely disregarded - the disproportionate harm to civilians"."Intentionally launching disproportionate attacks... is a war crime," it warned.

The IDF said that during the fighting which followed, its aircraft struck more than 400 military targets belonging to PIJ and killed three other senior commanders of its military wing, which it blamed for the firing of dozens of rockets and mortars at Israel the previous week.

Amnesty investigated nine strikes, including those that targeted the three PIJ commanders in their homes.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

A 9 May strike on an apartment in Gaza City killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander

 Tareq Ezzedine and five civilians

Amnesty also said it "identified a pattern of extensive destruction of property" in Gaza as a result of the Israeli strikes that "failed to meet the exceptions under which attacking homes and other civilian objects would be justified".

It cited the targeting on 13 May of a four-storey building in the Jabaliya refugee camp that was home to 42 people from the extended Nabhan family.

Amnesty found no evidence that the building had been used to store weapons or any other military equipment, or that rockets had been launched nearby.

"In our investigation, we heard vivid accounts of bombs obliterating homes, of fathers digging their little girls out from under rubble, of a teenager fatally injured as she lay in bed holding a teddy bear," said Amnesty's Middle East director Heba Morayef.

"More frightening than any of this is the near certainty that, unless perpetrators are held to account, these horrifying scenes will be repeated."

PIJ responded to the Israeli strikes by firing more than 1,400 rockets towards Israel, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to take cover in bomb shelters.

The IDF says 1,139 crossed into Israeli territory in total and that about 430 headed for populated areas were intercepted by its missile defence systems.

An Israeli woman and a Palestinian labourer from Gaza were killed by rockets that hit an apartment in Rehovot and a building site in Shokeda respectively.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted hundreds of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip

Amnesty says rockets that fell short in Gaza also appear to have killed three Palestinian civilians, including two children.

The report cites relatives of the children as saying they died when a rocket hit al-Sahaba street in Gaza City on the afternoon of 10 May.

PIJ denied at the time that a rocket hit the area and blamed Israeli strikes, but witnesses told a researcher that individuals associated with the group removed remnants of a rocket in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

"Known for their inherent inaccuracy, rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups are indiscriminate; these attacks must be investigated as war crimes and victims be granted prompt and adequate redress," Ms Morayef said.

PIJ spokesman Tariq Salmi did not comment on that allegation.

But he told the BBC that Amnesty's report "proves that the occupation [Israel] was the one that began the aggression by committing grave crimes".

"The enemy uses the weapons it has to kill Palestinian civilians and we are doing our part to defend ourselves against the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people," he added.

Israel has said it takes extensive measures to try to avoid harming civilians.

Israel 'informed US on plan to build thousands of new settlement homes'

Israel has vowed to continue expanding its illegal settlements despite US concerns and condemnation from elsewhere in the international community.

The New Arab Staff
13 June, 2023

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law [Getty]

Israel has told the United States that it plans to build new homes in illegal settlements at the end of June, an Israeli official reportedly said on Monday.

The official told The Times of Israel that the housing units "would be in the thousands".

News website Axios initially reported that Israel had told the US of plans for new settlement homes, and said soon-to-be announced plans would include at least 4,000 homes.

The US has voiced concerns over the project, saying it could negatively affect talks with the Palestinians.

The US "has been clear that advancing settlements is an obstacle to peace and the achievement of a two-state solution," Reuters on Monday reported a White House National Security Council spokesperson as saying.

Reports last week said Israel's Civil Administration was to discuss the launch of the E1 settlement project which, if implemented, would effectively cut the occupied West Bank in half.

The highly controversial and illegal E1 settlement scheme envisions the construction of thousands of housing units for Israeli settlers which will link Jerusalem to the Ma'ale Adumim settlement northeast of the city.

It would be the last link in a chain of Israeli settlements separating East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

But it was put on hold after pressure from Washington.

President Joe Biden’s administration worked for weeks to delay the E1 project, The Times of Israel reported, quoting US officials.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has vowed to continue settlement building despite condemnation from the international community.

The Israeli group Peace Now said Netanyahu was taking these steps to appease settler leaders in the West Bank who are allies of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the extreme-right Religious Zionism Party.

Last month, Israel allowed settlers to move back into the Homesh outpost near the town of Nablus in the West Bank.

Homesh, which sits atop the Burqa hill, was evacuated in 2005.

In March, the Knesset passed a law repealing the 2005 ban on Israelis residing in Homesh and three other settlements in the northern West Bank, and a military order was issued implementing the legislation.

Emirati astronaut Al Neyadi tracks tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea from space




The eye of the storm is visible from the ISS

Yamama Badwan, Staff Reporter

Sultan Al Neyadi, the Emirati astronaut, documented the tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea from the International Station.

The Emirati astronaut shared the video on Twitter and wrote, “Watch as a tropical cyclone forms over the Arabian Sea from these views I captured.

The ISS provides a unique perspective on several natural phenomena, which can assist experts on Earth in weather monitoring.🌩️🌀

Stay safe, everyone!”

Al Neyadi reviewed his passage over the Arabian Peninsula, specifically the United Arab Emirates from west to east, as well as the city of Al Ain and Jebel Hafeet, then over the Hajar Mountains to the Sultanate of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

He said that he is trying to cover the weather from space, and to photograph the tropical storm that appears on the horizon, as well as the eye of the hurricane — that is, its center — where he directed the camera downward and began to take many pictures of the hurricane, but he described the scene as terrifying due to the presence of heavy cloud and thunderstorms.

The eye of the hurricane is an area characterized by calm weather in general in the midst of strong tropical cyclones, and it is a semi-circular area with a diameter that usually ranges from 30 to 65 km.

It is also surrounded by the eye wall, which is a ring of high-altitude thunderstorms with severe weather.

London court orders UK-registered firm to pay nearly $1 mln to Beirut blast victims

By Maya Gebeily

June 13, 2023

A demonstrator holds a black and white Lebanese flag during a protest for Families of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion against Lebanon's top public prosecutor who charged the judge investigating the Beirut port blast and ordered the release of those detained in connection with the explosion in front of the Justice Palace in Beirut, Lebanon January 26, 2023. 

REUTERS/Aziz Taher/File Photo

BEIRUT, June 13 (Reuters) - A London court has ordered a British-registered company to pay more than 800,000 pounds ($1 million) in damages to victims of the 2020 blast at Beirut's port, a lawyers group in Lebanon said on Monday, in the first such verdict over the explosion.

More than 220 people were killed in the Aug. 4, 2020, blast when a huge shipment of ammonium nitrate fertiliser that had been sold by British-registered firm Savaro Ltd exploded.

On Jan. 31, the High Court in London found Savaro Ltd liable for death, personal injury and property damage in a case brought by the Beirut Bar Association on behalf of blast victims.

On Monday, the court ordered Savaro to pay 100,000 pounds plus interest each to three relatives of deceased victims, and slightly over 500,000 pounds to a wounded woman, according to a statement by the Association.

Reuters was unable to find contact details for Savaro or for its listed director.

"It's the first time that any court anywhere renders decisions as to liability and damages in the Beirut port explosion after approximately three years," said Camille Abou Sleiman, a lawyer from legal firm Dechert who was overseeing the case for victims and their families for free.

"It's the first ray of hope in the long march to justice and closure for the victims," Abou Sleiman told Reuters.

But the question of who exactly will pay remains unclear. The woman listed as Savaro's owner and sole director at Britain's Companies House, Marina Psyllou, told Reuters in 2021 that she was acting on behalf of another beneficial owner whose identity she declined to disclose.

Psyllou submitted a request in 2021 to Companies House to wind up Savaro. The Beirut Bar Association asked British authorities to halt that voluntary liquidation.

Lebanon's own probe into the blast has sputtered out. Earlier this year, investigating judge Tarek Bitar was charged with usurping powers after he filed his own charges against top security and political officials over the explosion.

"Everything that is moving forward is outside of the country," said Paul Naggear, whose daughter Alexandra was killed by the blast and who was one of the claimants.

"It shows you how much they've obstructed things in Lebanon. It was really good to hear this news, because it's progress."

($1 = 0.7948 pounds)

Reporting by Maya Gebeily Editing by Mark Potter

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BEIRUT 

AI SNAFU

Jordan: 'Faulty algorithm' denying welfare support to people in need

Arbitrary factors such as water consumption and the age of cars restrict access to a World Bank-financed cash programme, according to HRW

Jordanian youths use a hand cart in Amman's Wahdat district on 10 January 2021 (AFP)

By Rayhan Uddin
Published date: 13 June 2023 

Jordanians in need are not receiving vital financial support due to a World Bank-financed cash transfer programme that relies on unreliable data and a "faulty algorithm" to allocate funds, according to a new report.

While the scheme is intended to tackle poverty it is in fact fuelling social tensions by using arbitrary factors - such as water consumption and the age of family cars - to determine whether people have a right to social security, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a 74-page report published on Tuesday.

Jordan's cash transfer programme, Takaful, applies an algorithm that uses 57 socio-economic indicators to estimate people's income and wealth and then distributes funds to the households this deems to be the poorest.

The report said the programme is "undermined by errors, discriminatory policies, and stereotypes about poverty".

"The World Bank should phase out its financing of poverty-targeting algorithms and prioritise projects that advance universal social protection," Amos Toh, senior technology and human rights researcher at HRW, told Middle East Eye.

"That is, programmes that ensure everyone receives income support at key moments throughout their lives, such as old age, unemployment, or sickness."

Under the current system, factors such as owning a car less than five years old, or a business worth over 3,000 dinars ($4,200) automatically disqualify a household from funds.

Families who consume large amounts of water and electricity can also be less likely to qualify for support.

For the report, HRW interviewed 36 individuals or families who had applied to use Takaful and other assistance programmes, as well as government officials, and civil society groups.

One of the residents interviewed in the report, from the town of Tafilah in southern Jordan, said her family's ownership of a car played a role in the denial of funds.

“The car destroyed us,” she said. “We use it to transport water and for other needs. But sometimes we don’t have the money to fill it up with diesel.”

'Not reaching enough people'

The owner of a tailoring shop in downtown Amman said his business could be the reason why he did not receive support, despite the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic had forced him to take out 12,000 dinars ($16,900) in loans to cover his basic needs.

In addition, the algorithm favours larger households for funds but assesses this based on the number of Jordanian citizens in the family.

This could discriminate against Jordanian women married to non-Jordanian men, as they are unable to pass on their citizenship to their spouse or children, says HRW.

The ways in which the government collects financial data have also been prone to errors, the report added. For example, the programme did not allow people to declare living expenses that exceeded their income, interviewees said.

In response to the report, the World Bank said the poverty targeting methods it uses helped to facilitate the delivery of funds but were "not substitutions" for interactions between people and institutions.

"[Takaful] has proven to be amongst the most redistributive and cost-effective poverty reduction programs currently active in Jordan," it added.

But Toh questioned the programme's ability to reach those most in need.

"Takaful only distributes regular cash transfers to about 20 percent of households living under the poverty line most recently announced by the government," he said.

"Both the [International Labour Organization] and the [International Monetary Fund] have raised concerns that Takaful is not reaching nearly enough people and families that are struggling with poverty."

Jordan is currently facing a cost of living crisis and rising youth unemployment.

In December, the country was hit by rare protests triggered by taxi and truck drivers striking over rising fuel prices.

In the financial year 2021-2022, the average annual income in Jordan - which is considered a middle-income country - ranged from $4,096 to $12,695.

The poverty in the country rate rose to 24 percent in 2021 due to the pandemic, according to the World Bank.