Children's tales of sheep and wolves seen as seditious

Five arrested in Hong Kong over children's books deemed seditious

WAIT TILL THE FIND OUT ABOUT THE COYOTE AND THE ROAD RUNNER
BY RACHEL SCULLY - 07/22/21 

© Getty Images

Hong Kong police arrested five trade union members on Thursday over children's books that they say are seditious, The Associated Press reported.

The members were arrested on suspicion of publishing seditious material under a colonial-era law that the government had hardly used before the anti-government protests began in 2019, according to Reuters.

The two men and three women arrested were members of the General Association of Hong Kong Speech Therapists, and had published three children's books. The books follow a village of sheep that must deal with wolves from another village. The sheep later take action against the wolves by going on strike or escaping on a boat, the association's website said, according to the AP.

Li Kwai-wah, a senior superintendent of the national security department, said the books have seditious intent. One book, "Defenders of the Sheep," referenced the 12 Hong Kong activists arrested at sea while trying to flee the city after being charged in connection to anti-government protests in 2019.

In the book, the wolves "try to occupy the area” and eat the sheep, but the sheep fight back using their horns.

Li said the publishing of these books “brings hatred against the government and administration of justice, and (incites) violence to others," according to the AP.

In June, police also arrested several editors and executives of a pro-democracy newspaper as part of a recent crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in the city. Four editors and journalists charged with endangering national security have been denied bail, according to the AP.

In Hong Kong, children's tales of sheep and wolves seen as seditious
Hong Kong's national security police arrest five people from a trade union for sedition due to books they produced for children, the latest arrests made amid a crackdown on dissent in the city

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Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of Police National Security Department, poses with evidence including three children's books on stories that revolve around a village of sheep which has to deal with wolves from a different village, before a press conference in Hong Kong on July 22, 2021. (AP)

Hong Kong police have arrested five people on sedition charges over children's books they had published.

Officials said that characters of wolves and sheep in the books were aimed at inciting hatred towards the city's government amongst youngsters.

Thursday's arrests were the latest involving suspected critics of Hong Kong's government that have raised fears about the shrinking space for dissent since China imposed a national security law in June 2020 to put an end to Beijing-critical protests in the semi-autonomous city.

Police said one book, "Defenders of the Sheep Village", was connected to the protests. In the story, wolves want to occupy the village and eat the sheep, who in turn use their horns to fight back.

Those arrested were members of a speech therapists' union who produced books for children. Police said the five were two men and three women aged between 25 and 28. They did not identify them by name.

Footage from broadcaster TVB showed police taking one of those detained back to the union's office, before emerging with boxes of evidence.

READ MORE: Hong Kong court jails seven over train station attack on protesters

Police officers leave a building with a hooded suspect, centre, after searching evidence in Hong Kong on July 22, 2021. (AP)

Sheeps and wolves

The association had published three children's books on stories that revolve around a village of sheep which has to deal with wolves from a different village.

In the books, the sheep take actions like go on strike, or escape by boat, according to the synopses published on the association's website.

The five from the union were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious material under a colonial-era law rarely used before the anti-government protests began in the former British colony.

Senior police superintendent Steve Li told a media briefing that police were concerned by the books because of the information inside for children which "turns their mind and develop a moral standard to be against society".

READ MORE: Hong Kong arrests 117 people in first year of national security law

They highlighted two other books produced by the union in addition to "Defenders of the Sheep Village".

The second told the story of 12 sheep taken by wolves to the beasts' village where they would be cooked, potentially alluding to the 12 Hong Kong people captured by China in August last year at sea as they tried to flee the city by boat.

Li said the story was not factual and incited hatred against authorities.

The third book tells the story of wolves sneaking through a hole into the sheep village and shows the wolves as dirty and the sheep as clean.

This aimed to create hatred against the government, Li said.

READ MORE: Hong Kong police arrest former Apple Daily editor under security law

A police officer stands in front of a screen during a news conference after five people were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to publish "seditious material" with the intent of inciting public hatred towards the government among children, in Hong Kong, China on July 22, 2021. (Reuters)

Sedition law

First convictions under the sedition law can carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison, police said.

Police also said they froze $20,600 (160,000 Hong Kong dollars) in assets linked to the union.

The General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists could not be reached for comment.

Authorities have denied any erosion of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong — which returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula aimed at preserving its freedoms and role as a financial hub — but say China's national security is a red line.

Security officials have said law enforcement action is based on evidence and has nothing to do with an individual's political stance, background or profession.

Homeland Security Warns South Florida Boaters Planning To Take Part In Flotilla To Cuba

By CBSMiami.com Team

July 22, 2021 

MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning to South Florida boaters planning to take part in a flotilla to Cuba.

“It is illegal for boaters to depart with the intent to travel to Cuba for any purpose without a permit,” according to an advisory they issued on Thursday.READ MORE:Cuban Experts Sound Off On What Biden Sanctions Will Mean For People On The Island

According to Osdany Veloz, an organizer of the boaters, the planned trip is to go to international waters near the island, but not cross into Cuban waters, to let island residents know they have supporters in South Florida.

Organizers said they will set sail from South Florida if 100 boaters show up. The trip was set for last Monday and then pushed to Thursday as a possible launch date. Now it will happen on Friday.

Veloz posted on Instagram that boaters will meet at Bayside at 6:30 a.m. and leave for Key West at 7 a.m. After safety checks by the Coast Guard, they will depart for Cuba at 3 p.m. Their destination is 15 nautical miles from Havana.

“The purpose is to stay on the border, not trespassing, stay in international water and just let the Cuban people know we’re also fighting for their freedom, so once and for all they can be a free country,” said Jorge Lopez, who plans to make the trip.

The plan is to set off flares, fireworks, and Chinese lanterns at sunset and then make the return trip to Key West.

DHS said in the advisory that any boater intending to enter Cuban territorial waters must get permission from the U.S. Coast Guard. Violators risk facing fines of $25,000 a day and 10 years in prison, the advisory said.

People who bring foreign nationals into the U.S. illegally risk facing fines of up to $250,000 a day and five years in prison, the department said.

Thousands of Cubans took to the streets Sunday, July 11th, to protest limited access to COVID-19 vaccines and basic goods. The country is going through its worst economic crisis in decades.

The protests in the island nation have sparked an outpouring of support in Florida, which is home to the nation’s largest community of Cuban exiles. Throngs of people in Miami, Orlando, and the Tampa area have rallied in support, sometimes shutting down major thoroughfares.

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Bezos gets almost as much TV coverage in one day as the climate crisis has received in 2020

Only a few days before Bezos' space trip, more than 150 people lost their lives during a tragic flooding in western Europe.

 by Andra Maciuca
22 July 2021
in Business, Business and Economics, Environment, News


Jeff Bezos got almost as much media coverage in one day as the climate crisis got in all of 2020, according to recent analysis by an American press watchdog.

Figures released by Media Matter showed Bezos’ trip into space received 212 minutes of coverage on 20 July.

By comparison, programmes dedicated only 267 minutes to climate change discussions throughout last year, indy100 has reported.

Jeff Bezos

On Tuesday, Jeff Bezos went into space to reignite his rocket company’s ambitions. The Amazon founder billionaire took off in Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft.

After sending his thanks to Amazon employees and customers who “paid for all this”, the world’s richest man faced online criticism.

Robert Reich, former secretary of labour under President Bill Clinton and a professor of public policy at University of California, Berkeley. “Amazon workers don’t need Bezos to thank them. They need him to stop union busting — and pay them what they deserve,” Reich wrote.

Deadly floods in Western Europe and America

But only a few days ago, more than 150 people have lost their lives during a tragic flooding in western Europe, which hit Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

And earlier this month, flooding in New York city has prompted a stark warning that “climate change is here”, after commuters battled deep subway floods and motorists were rescued from inundated cars.

The storm also hit Florida and Georgia and caused at least one death.

Andra Garner, environmental researcher at Rowan University, told The Guardian that flooding in New York City “has already become more frequent than in the past, and as long as we continue to warm the planet, we can expect more of this, not less”.

Her research predicts that the city could experience severe floods of more than 2.25 metres every five years by 2030, which is enough to inundate the first floor of a building.

By contrast, the same level of water damage was predicted once every 25 years in the 1970s.

Amazon forest

Recent research has shown that there are also serious problems with the Amazon rainforest, which is now producing more carbon dioxide than it absorbs.

According to a study, the forest has been emitting more than a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

This means it is now causing faster climate change, whereas before it was tackling it by absorbing emissions, The Guardian has reported.
Mexico

At the beginning of July, the Gulf of Mexico was on fire because of fossil fuels.

Footage of bright orange flames leaping out of the water, were dubbed an “eye of fire” on social media, with many expressing shock at the apocalyptic scenes.

John Kerry, the US envoy for climate change, has urged all big economies to bring plans to cut emissions before the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November.

Kerry said: “The climate crisis is the test of our own times and, while it may be unfolding in slow motion to some, this test is as acute and as existential as any previous one. Time is running out.”

Related: New York warned ‘climate change is here’ after subway is flooded

Amazon rainforest now produces more CO2 than it absorbs

Jeff Bezos thanks Amazon workers for paying for his space flight

Can we really move heavy industry to space to solve the climate crisis, as Jeff Bezos has suggested?

‘Alexa, can we just put all the pollution in space?’

Harry Cockburn
Environment Correspondent

Jeff Bezos calls for heavy industry to be relocated to space.mp4

ONE SCIENCE WAG SAID WE COULD HOLLOW OUT ASTEROIDS TO LIVE IN, I FIGURE YOU STUFF THEM WITH THE POLLUTION INSTEAD


Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, has said his brief sojourn into space gave him a newfound appreciation of the fragility of our ravaged planet, and that the way to protect it from further pollution is to move all heavy industry into space.

As people around the world are already grappling with the deadly impacts of the worsening climate crisis, his suggestion has prompted much eye-rolling.


Journalists have described the relocation of heavy industry to space as the “dumbest idea ever”, and suggested that after the pollution which his company Amazon has generated across Earth, the natural next step is for him to try and pollute space.

But what does he mean, and why is he saying it? Is it possible? Could there be any real benefits? Is he a visionary, or delusional? Will his comments seem just as inane in a thousand years’ time?

The Independent spoke to space science experts and a philosopher, to examine the thinking behind Bezos’ plan and the possibility of it coming to fruition.

But before we explore their responses, let’s look exactly at what Bezos said.

In an NBC interview immediately after returning to Earth, asked what the trip meant to the wider world, Bezos replied: “Listen, we have to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build the future.


“We live on this beautiful planet. We saw this – you can’t imagine how thin the atmosphere is when you see it from space. We live in it and it looks so big. It feels like this atmosphere is huge and we can use it and disregard it and treat it poorly. When you get up there and you see it, you see how tiny it is and how fragile it is.

“We need to take all heavy industry, all polluting industry, and move it into space, and keep Earth as this beautiful gem of a planet that it is.”

“Now that’s going to take decades and decades to achieve. But you have to start. Big things start with small steps. We need reusable rocket vehicles and we need to practise with them. That’s what this sub-orbital tourist mission allows us to do – to practice over and over. This is the very beginning of that and it’s exciting.”

While the irony of Bezos’ newfound appreciation of the delicate nature of our planet has not been lost on those pointing out the huge environmental toll of the consumerism Amazon perpetuates, the new sense of scale Bezos alludes to is a noted psychological phenomenon among astronauts.

It is called the “overview effect”, in which voyagers to space when looking back at the world far below them sometimes discover a profound connection to the Earth and the universe, along with exasperation for the trifling issues being fought over on our home planet.

But it is also open to interpretation – based on your pre-existing values and place on Earth – and has previously been described as being like a “Rorschach test for what you believe in”.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise that a man worth $200bn acquired largely through the sale of manufactured goods sees the future through a lens of manufacturing.

But even if it were possible, is Bezos’ quest really the best way of dealing with polluting industries?

Philosopher Roman Krznaric, the author of The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, believes Bezos’ plan is, for now, a distraction from the existential threats we’re already facing.

He told The Independent: “A good mountaineer knows that you should always have your base camp in order before you attempt a risky peak. Well, we certainly haven’t got base camp Earth in order yet.

“I’m all for jetting off to Mars and sending heavy industry into space – but only once we’ve first learned to live within the ecological boundaries of the one planet we know that sustains life.

“Heading for the stars is not just extremely risky business but distracts us from dealing with the urgent problems we’re facing right here right now, especially the climate crisis.”

He added: “I’m happy for Bezos, Branson, Musk and their super-rich friends to be space tourists, but let’s not make colonising space the ultimate goal of the human race.”

There are clearly numerous obstacles to beginning to manufacture goods in space, but John Bridges, professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester, is not convinced Bezos assertion of just “decades and decades” is based on a solid scientific foundation.

He told The Independent: “Before we even start to think seriously about this in any sort of timeframe, the space science industries need to develop what we call In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU).

“That includes extracting water and metals from lunar regolith (the surface of the Moon) and perhaps asteroids.

“ISRU is still at a very early stage – there is an interesting experiment called MOXIE on the Perseverance rover to extract oxygen but it is still very early days to be considering this.”

However, he didn’t write off Bezos’ ambitions. He said: “I think we need visionaries to put out long term ideas, controversial or otherwise.”

Another consideration is the huge costs involved in even beginning to move heavy industry to Space.

Dr Joan Pau Sanchez Cuartielles, a senior lecturer in astrodynamics and mission design at the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, at Cranfield University in the UK, said: “My first immediate thought is that the added cost of moving polluting industry into space may be higher than investing in less polluting alternative industry.

“Of course, Bezos talks about many decades from now and access to space may eventually become relatively cheap.

“Nevertheless, I doubt it may eventually be worth it. Space manufacturing will certainly be very advantageous to access to manufactured products in space and some industries may find the microgravity conditions of Earth orbit advantageous for some manufacturing processes. Some elements that are rare in the Earth’s crust may feasibly be more accessible in space.

“However, it seems hard to believe that polluting industries may move to space, simply to pollute somewhere else [to] avoid the costs of polluting here.”

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💖YA TULSI

Tulsi Gabbard Had Harsh Words For Jeff Bezos' Trip To Space

BY SAM RAMSDEN/JULY 21, 2021 

Former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard had harsh words for Jeff Bezos ahead of his recent space excursion. According to The New York Post, Gabbard, a Democrat who previously represented Hawaii and ran for President back in 2020, took to social media to express her disdain for the Amazon founder's venture into space, telling the billionaire to "stay up there."

In the tweet posted on Tuesday, July 20, Gabbard wrote, "Bezos, please stay up there. Do the world a favor." Shortly afterwards, she added in a follow-up tweet, "The only problem I have with Bezos' Blue Origin space rocket ship into outer space is that it's going to come back."

The comments were shared just before Bezos, the current richest man in the world, blasted off into space on his very own rocket named New Shepard. The rocket was created by his intergalactic company Blue Origin and launched at 9:12 a.m. from a remote location in Texas. 

Tulsi wasn't the only person to criticize Bezos' mission

As the BBC reported, Jeff Bezos' mission lasted a total of 10 minutes and 10 seconds, and on the momentous flight, he was joined on board by his brother, Mark Bezos, an 82-year-old space pioneer, Wally Funk, and an 18-year-old student — who became the youngest person ever to launch into space.

Arriving back on Earth, the billionaire thanked "every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this." However, as The Independent reported, Bezos received a wave of further backlash for his comments.

Writing on social media, Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one of the most prominent figures to criticize Bezos, accusing the Amazon founder of exploiting his staff in order to fund his mission into space. "Yes, Amazon workers did pay for this – with lower wages, union busting, a frenzied and inhumane workplace, and delivery drivers not having health insurance during a pandemic," Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter. 

Speaking to MSNBC, Bezos defended his excursion, insisting that humans need to move "all polluting industry" into space. "It's going to take decades and decades to achieve, but you have to start, and big things start with small steps... that's what this sub-orbital tourism mission allows us to do, it allows us to practice over and over," he explained (via the BBC).

Read More: https://www.thelist.com/464523/why-jeff-bezos-upcoming-trip-to-space-has-twitter-divided/?utm_campaign=clip

UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson ordered to pay Syrian boy £100,000

British courts on Thursday ordered former far-right leader Tommy Robinson to pay a Syrian boy hundreds of thousands for libelling the child.


Robinson is the founder of the far-right English Defence League [Getty]

The New Arab & agencies
22 July, 2021

Judges ordered British far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson to pay £100,000 to a Syrian boy after ruling on Thursday that he had libelled the child.

Jamal Hijazi was attacked in the playground at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, northern England, in 2018.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, claimed in two Facebook videos that Hijazi was himself a perpetrator of violence.

Robinson, who represented himself, maintained his comments were broadly true, saying he had "uncovered dozens of accounts of aggressive, abusive and deceitful behaviour" by Hijazi.

But High Court judge Matthew Nicklin said Robinson had failed to prove his allegations and ruled in Hijazi's favour, granting him £100,000 ($137,000, 116,000 euros) in damages.

Catrin Evans, Hijazi's lawyer, said the comments led to her client receiving death threats.

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The New Arab Staff
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Another member of Hijazi's legal team welcomed the decision as a vindication.

"It took great courage for our client, Jamal Hijazi, to pursue his libel action against such a prominent far-right and anti-Islam activist as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon," said Francesca Flood.

"We are delighted that Jamal has been entirely vindicated."

Nicklin said Hijazi suffered "particularly severe" consequences from the videos.

"The defendant's allegations against the claimant were very serious and were published widely," he said.

English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson loses libel case against Syrian schoolboy

Mr Robinson maintained he was an independent journalist during the trial

By Daniel Smith
 22 JUL 2021

Tommy Robinson

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Tommy Robinson has lost a libel case brought against him by a Syrian schoolboy who was filmed being attacked at school.

The English Defence League founder – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – was sued by Jamal Hijazi, who was assaulted in the playground at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield in October 2018.

Shortly after the video of the incident went viral, Mr Robinson claimed in two Facebook videos that Jamal was “not innocent and he violently attacks young English girls in his school”.

In the clips viewed by nearly one million people, the 38-year-old also claimed Jamal “beat a girl black and blue” and “threatened to stab” another boy at his school, allegations the teenager denies.

At a four-day trial in April, Jamal’s lawyers said that Mr Robinson’s comments had “a devastating effect” on the schoolboy and his family who had come to the UK as refugees from Homs, Syria.

Mr Robinson, who represented himself, argued his comments were substantially true, claiming to have “uncovered dozens of accounts of aggressive, abusive and deceitful behaviour” by Jamal.


However, in a judgment delivered on Thursday, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled in Jamal’s favour and granted him £100,000 in damages.

Israel appoints task force to assess NSO spyware allegations


Senior inter-ministerial team assembled.

Israel has set up a senior inter-ministerial team to assess growing allegations that spyware sold by an Israeli cyber firm has been abused on a global scale, Israeli sources said.

One source said the team is headed by Israel's National Security Council, which answers to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and has broader areas of expertise than the Defence Ministry, which oversees exports of NSO Group's Pegasus software.

Another source said the National Security Council is not involved and that the assessment is being carried out by senior defence, intelligence and diplomatic officials.

Both sources requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

"This event is beyond the Defence Ministry purview," the first source said, referring to potential diplomatic blowback after prominent media reports this week of suspected abuses of Pegasus in France, Mexico, India, Morocco and Iraq.

On Wednesday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a series of investigations to be carried out into the Pegasus spyware case.

Macron's phone was on a list of potential targets for possible surveillance on behalf of Morocco in the Pegasus case, France's Le Monde newspaper said.

The head of Mexico's financial intelligence unit, Santiago Nieto, said the current government had not signed contracts with companies used to procure Pegasus, but added that the previous Mexican administration had done so as "tactics of control, intimidation and manipulation".

One of the Israeli sources deemed it "doubtful" that new curbs would be placed on Pegasus exports, and said the objective "is to find out what happened, to look into this issue and learn lessons".

Commenting on the development, an NSO spokesperson said: "We welcome any decision made by the government of Israel, and we are convinced that the company’s activities are without flaw."

Addressing a cyber conference on Wednesday, Bennett did not mention the NSO affair.

'Wrong assumptions'

A global investigation published on Sunday by 17 media organisations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, said Pegasus had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists.

NSO has rejected the reporting by the media partners, saying it was "full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories".

Pegasus is intended for use only by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and crime, NSO said.

Such purposes are also what guide Israel's export policy, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said in a speech.

But, in a reference to the allegations around Pegasus, he added: "We are currently studying the information published on the matter."

At the conference, Bennett said Israel has memorandums of understanding with dozens of countries about cyber security, which he wants to upgrade into a "global cyber defence shield".

Israel eyes changes to spyware export policy; Macron, Merkel troubled by abuse reports

DAN WILLIAMS
REUTERS
PUBLISHED  JULY 22, 2021

FILE PHOTO: Israeli cyber firm NSO Group's exhibition stand is seen at "ISDEF 2019", an international defence and homeland security expo, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 4, 2019. REUTERS/Keren Manor STRINGER/REUTERS

An Israeli parliamentary panel may seek changes to defence export policy over reports that software sold by Israel’s NSO Group was used to spy on journalists, officials and rights activists in several countries, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday.

Among suspected targets of NSO’s Pegasus software is French President Emmanuel Macron, who convened his cabinet on Thursday over calls for investigations. Amid mounting EU concern, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin that spyware should be denied in countries where there is no judicial oversight.

“We certainly have to look anew at this whole subject of licences granted by DECA,” Ram Ben-Barak, head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, told Israel’s Army Radio, referring to the government-run Defence Export Controls Agency.

Israel has appointed an inter-ministerial team to assess reports based on an investigation by 17 media organisations that said Pegasus had been used in attempted or successful hacks of smartphones using malware that enables the extraction of messages, records calls and secretly activates microphones.

NSO has rejected the reporting by the media partners as “full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories”. Reuters has not independently verified the reporting.

NSO says it does not know the specific identities of people against whom clients use Pegasus. If it receives a complaint of Pegasus having been misused by a client, NSO can retroactively acquire the target lists and, should the complaint prove true, unilaterally shut down that client’s software, the company says.

Other world leaders among those whose phone numbers the news organisations said were on a list of possible targets include Pakistani Prime Minister Imram Khan and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.

The Israeli government team “will conduct its checks, and we will be sure to look into the findings and see if we need to fix things here”, said Ben-Barak. A former deputy chief of Mossad, he said proper use of Pegasus had “helped a great many people”.

TARGETING TERRORISTS, CRIMINALS

DECA is within Israel’s Defence Ministry and oversees NSO exports. Both the ministry and the firm have said that Pegasus is meant to be used to track terrorists or criminals only, and that all foreign clients are vetted governments.

But the alleged misuse has stirred questions within Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s cross-partisan coalition, one of whose members, the liberal party Meretz, queried Defence Minister Benny Gantz about NSO exports in a meeting on Thursday.

Gantz “emphasized the importance of upholding human rights within the framework of weapons sales,” a joint statement said.

After Army Radio also aired an interview on Thursday with Szabolcs Panyi, a Hungarian journalist who said Pegasus had been found on his cellphone, NSO chief Shalev Hulio vowed to investigate.

“If he was indeed a target, I can assure you already that we will cut off the systems of whoever took action against him, because it’s intolerable for someone to do something like this,” Hulio told the station.

In keeping with NSO and Defence Ministry refusal to identify client countries, Hulio stopped short of confirming that Hungary had Pegasus. Budapest has not commented on the matter other than to say Hungary’s intelligence-gathering is conducted lawfully.

He said NSO has worked with 45 countries and rejected around 90 others as potential clients. The company has shut down five Pegasus systems for abuse, Hulio said, adding that the software cannot be used against Israeli or U.S. mobile phones.

Amnesty stands by Pegasus research, dismisses 'false rumours'

The purported denial by Amnesty, earlier, sparked responses from BJP leaders

Web Desk July 22, 2021 


The Pegasus scandal, which revolved around the use of spyware to snoop on a wide range of public figures, took a curious turn on Thursday morning.

Since the start of the week, multiple media outlets had reported on the possible use of the Pegasus spyware to target journalists, dissidents and politicians, based on research conducted by Amnesty International and French NGO Forbidden Stories.

On Thursday morning, media reports claimed Amnesty International had released a statement, apparently, distancing itself from the Pegasus scandal. According to the reports, the statement said, "Amnesty, and the investigative journalists and media outlets they work with have made clear from the outset in very clear language that this is a list of numbers marked as numbers of interest to NSO customers, meaning they are the kind of people NSO clients might like to spy on. The list contains the kind of people NSO's clients would ordinarily be interested in spying on..." NSO Group is the Israeli company that developed Pegasus.

Multiple media publications reported the statement. Some of the reports appeared to be based on a story in Calcalist, an Israeli business publication.

The purported denial by Amnesty International sparked responses from BJP leaders who attacked critics of the Narendra Modi government. The opposition had alleged the Modi government had used Pegasus to snoop on multiple people in India including journalists, activists and politicians.

Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP's IT operations, tweeted, "The global fishing expedition launched by a syndicated of media organisations put out a malicious report with no evidence. They do not know the source of the list of phone numbers, nor do they know if numbers were spied on. This is nothing but an attempt to undermine democracies."

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya tweeted, "When a low credibility organization like Amnesty itself calls out the lies of The Wire, one can imagine the levels of depravity they have reached. Those low lives can go back to window shopping negative stories on India. India will march on!" The Wire was the only Indian media outlet that had been in the list of publications provided access to the findings of Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International on Pegasus.

However, by midday on Thursday, Amnesty International issued a statement on its website declaring it stood by its research on the Pegasus scandal.

The statement was in response to "false allegations on social media and inaccurate media stories". The statement said, "Amnesty International categorically stands by the findings of the Pegasus Project, and that the data is irrefutably linked to potential targets of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The false rumours being pushed on social media are intended to distract from the widespread unlawful targeting of journalists, activists and others that the Pegasus Project has revealed."

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shared a screen-shot of the title of the Amnesty statement and wrote "For all the journalists who told me in Parliament that @amnesty had 'done a u-turn' — never base your stories on @OpIndia_com propaganda!"

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Will Probe for Credible Proof, Shut Down If Necessary: NSO Group Responds to Pegasus Row


The Pegasus spyware hardly leaves any trace that would allow it to be detected. (Representational image)

NSO Group responded to the fresh row over sale of the spyware to government clients said the list is not a list of targets or potential targets of Pegasus.

LAST UPDATED:JULY 21, 2021,

Israeli surveillance company NSO Group, which sells Pegasus spyware worldwide in a fresh statement on Wednesday said the list of Indian phone numbers reported as potential surveillance targets for hacking by the government is “not related to the NSO group."

The company has grabbed headlines after an investigative report found a list of more 50,000 phone numbers in which more than 1,000 people in 50 countries, including journalists, politicians, government officials, chief executives and human rights activists, were found to be under surveillance by governments around the world.

NSO Group responded to the fresh row over the sale of the spyware to government clients said the list is not a list of targets or potential targets of Pegasus. “The numbers in the list are not related to NSO group," it said.

“Any claim that a name in the list is necessarily related to a Pegasus target or Pegasus potential target is erroneous and false. NSO is a technology company. We do not operate the system, nor do we have access to the data of our customers, yet they are obligated to provide us with such information under investigations." the statement further said.

The company said it will investigate for any “credible proof of misuse of its technologies and will shut down the system where necessary."

Moreover, the company said it would no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter. “In light of the recent planned and well-orchestrated media campaign lead by Forbidden Stories and pushed by special interest groups, and due to the complete disregard of the facts, NSO is announcing it will no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter and it will not play along with the vicious and slanderous campaign.

According to the report, several Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, two union ministers, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and some 40 journalists, were among those whose phone numbers were listed as potential targets for hacking through the Israeli spyware.

The Indian government has, however, denied the accusations. Union IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had dismissed the reports as “baseless" and said that the allegations levelled just ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament were aimed at maligning Indian democracy.

A 32-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor will likely discuss the issue during a meet on July 28. The agenda of the meeting is ‘Citizens’ data security and privacy’, according to the notification issued by Lok Sabha Secretariat.

The panel, which has maximum members from the ruling BJP, has summoned officials from the Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The issue has emerged as a major issue in the proceedings in Parliament as opposition parties launched a scathing attack on the government. Describing the entire snooping incident as a matter of “national security concern", Tharoor had demanded an explanation from the government.

Saudi Arabia denies Pegasus spyware allegations

Saudi Arabia has dismissed allegations it used Israeli-supplied Pegasus malware to spy on journalists and human rights activists, branding them as 'baseless' and  'untrue'

Saudi Arabia denied the claims [Getty]

Saudi Arabia has dismissed as "baseless" allegations it used Israeli-supplied Pegasus malware to spy on journalists and human rights activists.

"A Saudi official denied the recent allegations reported in media outlets that an entity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia used software to monitor phone calls," the official SPA news agency reported late Wednesday.

"The source added that such allegations are untrue, and that KSA's policies do not condone such practices."

Saudi Arabia was one of a number of governments around the world accused of using Pegasus spyware to monitor the activities of dissidents and other critics, following an investigation by a consortium of media companies, including the Washington Post, the Guardian and France's Le Monde.

Israel's NSO Group and its Pegasus malware -- capable of switching on a phone's camera or microphone and harvesting its data -- have been in the headlines since 2016, when researchers accused it of helping spy on a dissident in the United Arab Emirates.

A giant of Israeli tech with 850 employees, NSO insists its software is only intended for use in fighting terrorism and other crimes, and that any other use is the work of "rogue" operators.

Those claims are rubbished by human rights group Amnesty International.

"NSO's spyware is a weapon of choice for repressive governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, placing countless lives in peril," Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.

The UAE normalised its relations with Israel in a US-brokered deal last year, but regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia still has no formal ties with the Jewish state.

UK
NHS budget to fund health staff’s pay rise, Downing Street says

The Government has announced that nurses, paramedics, consultants and other NHS staff will get the rise / PA Wire

Sophia SleighPolitical Correspondent@SophiaSleigh

The three per cent pay rise for health staff will be paid for from within the NHS budget, Downing Street said on Thursday.

The confirmation risks sparking a fresh row over the hike.

No10 insisted the money would not be diverted from funds “already earmarked” for the NHS frontline.

But the revelation left open from where the funding would be found in the NHS budget.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ““The pay uplift will be funded from within the NHS budget.

“But we are very clear that it will not impact funding already earmarked for the NHS frontline.

“We gave the NHS a historical settlement in 2018 which saw its budget rise by £33.9 billion by 2023/24...we provided £92 billion to support the NHS and social care through the pandemic.”

Pressed if the pay settlement was not being funded from NHS frontline expenditure, where it would come from, he added: “It will be funded from within that budget but it won’t stop any funding that has been eamarked for the frontline from taking place.”


There is “no way” the NHS can pay for the planned three per cent pay rise for staff out of its own budget, health chiefs warned on Thursday.

The Government has announced that nurses, paramedics, consultants and other NHS staff will get the rise while other public sector workers, such as police, will see their pay frozen.

However, nurses and trade unions said it is not enough and are threatening to strike following the offer to NHS staff in England and Wales.

Big questions remain over where the money will come from and there have been suggestions it could be funded through a mooted increase in National Insurance that was intended to pay for the overhaul of social care.

The chief executive of NHS Employers, an organisation that supports NHS leaders, suggested the health service could not fund the pay rise through “efficiencies”.

Danny Mortimer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The key question is: Is the Government going to fund this pay award properly?

“What we can’t have is a situation where the assumption is that the NHS will make efficiencies, will cut the number of staff or reduce the services it provides to pay for this pay award.

“What we can’t have is a situation where some parts of the NHS, particularly the services that provide specialist public health services, don’t receive the pay award in the same way that my members who run services in hospitals do.”

Former NHS Trust chairman Roy Lilley told Talk Radio: “The NHS only has a budget up until September because there’s been no spending review. The NHS doesn’t know what money it’s going to get after September, so it doesn’t know how it’s going to pay for this uplift.”

He added: “If it’s three per cent, you’re looking at about probably £2 billion. There’s no way the NHS can find £2 billion to pay this.”

The Times reported on Thursday that the rise was likely to be funded from an increase in National Insurance that was intended to pay for social care reforms.

Asked if taxes were going to increase to fund the pay rise, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t think they are because if the economy continues to perform strongly, if it can grow, our tax receipts will grow without having to put up tax rates. So, it means that we can afford a little bit more.”

Pressed on where the money will come from, Mr Kwarteng replied: “I’m not going to write a future budget on the 22nd of July.”

 

Study: Young workers now value respect over 'fun' perks in the workplace

Researchers at University of Missouri and Kansas State University discovered having respectful communication outweighs 'fun' work perks when attracting and retaining young workers

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

Research News

 

Millennials, often referred to as the "job-hopping generation," represent a group of young workers who once grabbed the national spotlight with their publicized demands for "fun" work perks, such as happy hours. However, researchers at the Novak Leadership Institute at the University of Missouri and Kansas State University discovered today's young workers -- ages 21-34 -- represent a life-stage shift toward placing more value on having respectful communication in the workplace over trendy work perks.

"Millennials have been called the 'entitled generation,' and they kind of give young workers a bad rap because their often-publicized interests began with wanting to have fun in the workplace, but today's young workers have shifted toward interests in doing valuable work and finding meaning in their day-to-day job functions," said Danielle LaGree, an assistant professor of strategic communication at Kansas State University, who earned her doctorate at the Missouri School of Journalism. "Leaders and managers are the ones who have the power to help foster that connection of meaningful work, determine what employee well-being means and how to communicate that meaning in a respectful way to their employees."

The team of researchers, which includes experts from the Novak Leadership Institute and the MU Department of Communication, were able to identify this shift in workplace values for young workers after surveying more than 1,000 full-time workers, ages 21-34, who represent 18 different career areas, including the service industry. The team analyzed how participants rated, on a 1 to 5 scale, how each of the following workplace culture aspects were representative of their current place of employment -- respectful engagement, autonomous respect, occupational resilience, job satisfaction, employee loyalty and retention, and job engagement.

While previous studies have reported leaders and managers spend 70-90% of their time communicating, LaGree believes this study shows more emphasis needs to be placed on training leaders and managers on how to be effective communicators and convey respectful communication with their employees. She believes that even though the study was completed before the COVID-19 pandemic began, their results continue to be relevant in today's workplaces, which may have adjusted to more of a hybrid workplace split between work and home offices, or gone entirely remote.

LaGree acknowledges the extent to which leaders and managers can foster supportive cultures and outcomes is still unclear, yet she believes their study strongly contributes to the concept that workplaces are intensely social experiences.

"As we see here with our research, actively recognizing employees for the value they bring to their organization will help equip them to bounce back after adversity, to perform better in their jobs and be more committed to their organizations in the long term," LaGree said. "I think that's especially relevant today, even though this study was conducted before the coronavirus pandemic."

Margaret Duffy, executive director of the Novak Leadership Institute and a professor of strategic communication in the Missouri School of Journalism, believes employers risk losing younger employees if they don't make an effort to use respectful communication in the workplace.

"There's a giant risk for employers if they don't help employees have a sense of purpose and a sense of well-being and engagement," Duffy said. "Coming to work may not be joyful every day, but if work is something where I can feel fulfillment, I can feel respected as a human being and most important, that I can feel that I have earned the respect and recognition that I'm given by my boss and by my co-workers."

###

The study, "The effect of respect: respectful communication at work drives resiliency, engagement, and job satisfaction among early career employees," was published in the International Journal of Business Communication. Other co-authors are Brian Houston and Haejung Shin at MU. The study was funded in part by the Novak Leadership Institute.

The Novak Leadership Institute was established in 2017 with an endowment of $21.6 million from MU alumnus David Novak and family. A strategic communication graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, Novak is the retired CEO of Yum! Brands, the world's largest restaurant brand (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC).

'Nobody wants to work anymore': How a simple phrase became the oversimplified scapegoat for every problem plaguing the American labor market

"Instead of no one wants to work anymore," former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said, "Try no one wants to be exploited anymore."

insider@insider.com (Ben Gilbert) 

© Ben Gilbert / Insider A Starbucks location in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania offered a variety of additional incentives to new hires, including "Free College" and "Free Spotify." Ben Gilbert / Insider

On a recent trip to Pennsylvania, I heard the phrase "nobody wants to work anymore" over and over.

It's become common since businesses began reopening fully this spring.

As with so many memes this year, this one began on TikTok and spread quickly.

Maybe you've seen it on a sign at your local Taco Bell drive-thru, or as part of a screed on social media: "Nobody wants to work anymore."

The phrase has become strikingly common in current American society, and taken at face value, it stands to reason that everyone has collectively decided to stop working.

On a recent trip near Reading, Pennsylvania, I heard the phrase no less than three times in 24 hours from three completely different people.

My colleague Áine Cain recently traveled through several states and saw the same signs everywhere, from Virginia to upstate New York:

© Courtesy of Kevin Greenlee Signs in Virginia (left) and New York. Courtesy of Kevin Greenlee

It even spread to the most popular show on cable news, "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

"The government is paying people more to not work than to work," Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on his primetime show in May. "So why would they work? Would you?"

While some Americans are receiving more money in unemployment than they would from a minimum wage job, the situation is much more complicated than Carlson makes it out to be.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has been the catalyst for a variety of huge changes in the labor market, including a drastic decrease in women - especially women of color - participating as a result of lacking access to childcare and major retailers like Amazon hoovering up available workers with higher wage minimums.

Some workers simply say they've had enough of being overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated during a particularly stressful moment: So-called "rage quitting" has become more common after 15 months of life with the coronavirus. And that's all before we start talking about long-term trends in worker wages, which have been on the decline for years.

"Instead of no one wants to work anymore," former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said, "Try no one wants to be exploited anymore."

© Rachel Flores 9 employees quit en masse at a Burger King location in Nebraska. They cited egregious working conditions. Rachel Flores

So why, exactly, is the phrase "Nobody wants to work anymore" so common, even across political, class, and cultural lines?

Like so many things in 2021, this meme appears to have its origins on TikTok: On April 9, a user shared a video of her local McDonald's drive-thru.

"We are short staffed," a sign above the drive-thru microphone said. "Please be patient with the staff that did show up. No one wants to work anymore."

That video - more specifically, the sign in the video - quickly transcended TikTok: A phrase that originated with frustrated retail and fast-food chain managers rapidly became the go-to explanation for why it took so long for your aunt to get her burger at Chili's.

"I suspect this is a mix of media amplification of critical opinions of Millennials/Gen Z workers who want to change what work is and the growing job shortage," Diara Townes, a program manager at the Aspen Institute who has studied narratives and patterns of spread, told Insider.

Older generations will always believe younger generations to be lazier and more entitled than their generation was, just as our parents' grandparents told them about hardships "back in my day."

"It leans on the long-held belief that 'young people are entitled' and prefer instant gratification," Townes said. "And it appears bipartisan likely because - as social research has shown - as some people age their politics shift to be more conservative, adding to the generational effect."

One thing is clear: When businesses offer higher wages, they're able to attract more workers. Whether they will do that or continue to criticize potential employees remains to be seen.

Got a tip? Contact Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@insider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.
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