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Havana Syndrome: How the Biden Administration Is Driving Cubans Into Misery
Fri, 22 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0000
Protesters have taken to the street on the island, decrying power blackouts and food shortages.
The post Havana Syndrome: How the Biden Administration Is Driving Cubans Into Misery appeared first on The Intercept.
Tom Power led an alliance that brought about the pioneering health initiative which has since been adopted by more than 70 countries – and has saved countless lives
Exactly 20 years ago an Irish civil servant named Tom Power won a remarkable battle against the tobacco industry when Ireland enacted the world’s first ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces.
TV crews from Japan, the US and elsewhere flocked to Dublin to record the events of 29 March 2004. No one knew what would happen. Would smokers revolt? Would pubs flout the law? Would a bold experiment go up in smoke?
Continue reading...Experts say UK-imposed sanctions will make no difference when hacking is part of ecosystem of dealing with Beijing
With the announcement that the UK government would be imposing sanctions on two individuals and one entity accused of targeting – without success – UK parliamentarians in cyber-attacks in 2021, the phrase “tip of the iceberg” comes to mind. But that would underestimate the iceberg.
James Cleverly, the home secretary, said the sanctions were a sign that “targeting our elected representatives and electoral processes will never go unchallenged”.
Continue reading...New Zealand did not follow the US and UK in imposing financial restrictions after accusing Beijing of links to cyber-attacks
Politicians, journalists and critics of Beijing were among those targeted by cyber-attacks run by groups backed by China, western intelligence services said this week.
The separate cyber-attacks hit the US, UK and New Zealand – all members of the Five Eyes alliance. The network of five countries, which also includes Canada and Australia, share security related intelligence.
Continue reading...More than half of the borrowed words relate to cooking, while Kintsugi, the increasingly popular art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer is also included
Katsu, donburi and onigiri are among 23 Japanese words added to the Oxford English Dictionary in its latest update.
More than half of the borrowed words relate to food or cooking. Santoku, a knife with a short, flat blade that curves down at the tip, and okonomiyaki, a type of savoury pancake, were both added. Okonomiyaki is derived from okonomi, meaning “what you like”, combined with yaki, meaning “to fry, to sear”.
Continue reading...The former star UBS and Citigroup trader was convicted of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating financial benchmark and served 5 1/2 years in prison
Britain’s financial regulator has identified shortcomings in how some motor insurance firms are valuing written-off or stolen vehicles.
A review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found evidence that suggests some firms are offering their customers less than their written-off or stolen vehicle is worth and, in some cases, are only increasing that offer when a customer complains.
Having your vehicle written off or stolen can be intensely stressful and we expect firms to offer the right support to help their customers.
We expect all motor insurers to take note of our findings and we are engaging directly with those that have issues that need to be addressed.
Continue reading...Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver killed while en route from Islamabad to dam construction site
Six people have been killed after a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in north-west Pakistan, in the third significant attack on Chinese interests in the country in a week.
The first two attacks targeted a Pakistani naval airbase and a strategic port used by China in the south-west province of Balochistan where Beijing is investing billions in infrastructure projects.
Continue reading...Carlos Alcaraz’s hopes for a Sunshine Double came undone in spectacular fashion after the top seed lost 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday to Grigor Dimitrov, who will move on to face Alexander Zverev in the Miami Open semi-finals.
Dimitrov, the 11th seed, won 77% of his first-serve points compared to just 56% for Alcaraz. He also won four of the five break points he faced and broke the Spaniard four times during the 92-minute encounter.
Continue reading...In rural Rajasthan, villagers have taken action against climate damage by constructing water-saving walls, trenches and dams to revive their farmland
The villagers of Surajpura have built a wall: a 15ft (4.5 metre) mud bulwark that snakes through barren land for nearly a mile, with an equally long trench dug beneath it. It might not look like it, but for the 650 residents who toiled on it for six months in 2022, it is an architectural marvel.
The wall passed its strength test last year when it stopped rainwater runoffs, and the trench channelled the water to parched farms in the drought-prone region of Rajasthan in north-west India, reviving them for the first time in more than two decades.
Continue reading...Calls for fair legal process for opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal amid claims rivals to Modi are being targeted before elections
Arvind Kejriwal: the Delhi chief minister jailed by Modi’s government
The chief minister of Delhi has been remanded in custody for a further four days amid international criticism of his arrest on corruption charges last week.
A Delhi court ruled on Thursday that a powerful central government agency could keep Arvind Kejriwal in jail until 1 April as part of a corruption investigation his party decried as a “political conspiracy” before national elections beginning next month.
Continue reading...Some schools are acting on the misbegotten notion that Palestinian freedom is a threat to Jewish safety.
The post Pro-Israel Advocates Are Weaponizing “Safety” on College Campuses appeared first on The Intercept.
Leader of India’s Common Man party has spent his career rooting out everyday corruption and is now in jail weeks before general election begins
When Arvind Kejriwal emerged on to India’s political scene in 2011, he was an outsider with over a decade of activism behind him. Today he is one of the country’s most recognised opposition leaders and his political party governs two powerful states.
Yet Kejriwal’s swift rise from newcomer to political heavyweight, standing up against the might of the Narendra Modi government, has appeared to come at a cost. Last week, Kejriwal, who is the longstanding face of India’s anti-corruption movement, was detained on corruption charges – becoming the first sitting chief minister to be arrested. He will be held in custody for at least 10 days.
Continue reading...Another federal government program to fight foreign disinformation falls flat.
The post Government-Made Comic Books Try to Fight Election Disinformation appeared first on The Intercept.
Famous for its repression and torture, Teodoro Obiang’s Equatorial Guinea got an aid delivery from U.S. Special Operations forces.
The post Squeezed by African Coups, Biden Cozies Up to the World’s Worst Dictator appeared first on The Intercept.
Lee Jong-sup is being investigated over allegations he tried to improperly influence an inquiry into death of marine while he was defence minister
South Korea’s ambassador to Australia resigned on Friday as questions about his appointment while he is under a corruption investigation battered President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ruling party less than two weeks from a closely fought parliamentary election.
Lee Jong-sup, who was appointed ambassador to Australia just four weeks ago, is being investigated over allegations he tried to improperly influence a probe into the death of a marine last year while he was defence minister.
Continue reading...Musk made hay of his legal battle against secret surveillance but continued selling X user data to a company that facilitates government monitoring.
The post Elon Musk Fought Government Surveillance — While Profiting Off Government Surveillance appeared first on The Intercept.
From his perch on a government commission, Jacob Helberg fearmongered about TikTok in Congress. He also works for a giant defense contractor.
The post Tech Official Pushing TikTok Ban Could Reap Windfall From U.S.–China Cold War appeared first on The Intercept.
The Pentagon’s own program to minimize civilian harm is stalled, the Government Accountability Office’s audit says.
The post Biden Decries Civilian Deaths in Gaza as Pentagon Fails With Its Own Safeguards appeared first on The Intercept.
The World Nature Photography award winners have been announced from a pool of entries from all corners of the globe – including a baby elephant in Kenya and an owl-like plant in Thailand. The top award and cash prize of $1,000 went to Tracey Lund from the UK for her image of two gannets under the water off the coast of the Shetland Islands. Lund and her fellow winners were drawn from thousands of images
Continue reading...Judge says Arvind Kejriwal can be held until next Thursday, as his party’s leaders condemn accusations as politically motivated
An Indian court has ruled that Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, will be kept in custody for six days after his dramatic arrest on corruption charges.
Kejriwal, the top elected official for the Indian capital, was taken in by police on Thursday night as part of an investigation into an alleged scam involving kickbacks for alcohol licensing deals.
Continue reading...“I saw scenes that were horrific and I never want to see again,” said Yasser Khan, a surgeon from Toronto.
The post “Man-Made Hell On Earth”: A Canadian Doctor on His Medical Mission to Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
This mini-essay was my contribution to a round table on Power and Governance in the Age of AI. It’s nothing I haven’t said here before, but for anyone who hasn’t read my longer essays on the topic, it’s a shorter introduction.
The increasingly centralized control of AI is an ominous sign. When tech billionaires and corporations steer AI, we get AI that tends to reflect the interests of tech billionaires and corporations, instead of the public. Given how transformative this technology will be for the world, this is a problem.
To benefit society as a whole we need an ...
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. A decade ago, social media was celebrated for sparking democratic uprisings in the Arab world and beyond. Now front pages are splashed with stories of social platforms’ role in misinformation, business conspiracy, malfeasance, and risks to mental health. In a 2022 survey, Americans blamed social media for the coarsening of our political discourse, the spread of misinformation, and the increase in partisan polarization.
Today, tech’s darling is artificial intelligence. Like social media, it has the potential to change the world in many ways, some favorable to democracy. But at the same time, it has the potential to do incredible damage to society...
Fascinating analysis of the use of drones on a modern battlefield—that is, Ukraine—and the inability of the US Air Force to react to this change.
The F-35A certainly remains an important platform for high-intensity conventional warfare. But the Air Force is planning to buy 1,763 of the aircraft, which will remain in service through the year 2070. These jets, which are wholly unsuited for countering proliferated low-cost enemy drones in the air littoral, present enormous opportunity costs for the service as a whole. In a set of comments posted on LinkedIn...
Another federal government program to fight foreign disinformation falls flat.
The post Government-Made Comic Books Try to Fight Election Disinformation appeared first on The Intercept.
Regulating cannabis use is no longer radical but an increasingly normalised strategy. The ‘tough on drugs’ approach is archaic
Germany’s cannabis reforms were approved this week, overcoming the final legislative hurdle when the Bundesrat, Germany’s upper house, voted through the bill that passed with a huge majority in the Bundestag (lower house) last month. Germany is a significant addition to the growing list of countries defecting from the drug war consensus that had held for more than half a century. More than half a billion people now live in jurisdictions establishing legal adult access to cannabis for recreational use.
When Germany’s new law comes into force on 1 April, it will decriminalise possession of up to 25g of cannabis for personal use (and up to 50g in the home), allow requests to remove criminal records for past possession offences, legalise home growing of up to three cannabis plants for personal use, and establish a regulatory framework for not-for-profit associations within which cannabis can be grown and supplied to members.
Continue reading...Adam says if you put food in a cold oven it won’t cook evenly. Cathleen says it makes no difference. You decide whose argument is half-baked
Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror
Recipes tell us to preheat for a reason – so that food will cook the way it’s supposed to
We did a pizza taste test once and I couldn’t tell the difference. I don’t think Adam could either
Continue reading...Judges issue unanimous decision and say Palestinians are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance
The international court of justice has ordered Israel to allow unimpeded access of food aid into Gaza, where sections of the population are facing imminent starvation, in a significant legal rebuke to Israel’s claim it is not blocking aid deliveries.
A panel of judges at the UN’s top court, which is already considering a complaint from South Africa that Israel is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, issued the ruling after an emergency measure in January obliging Israel to admit emergency aid.
Continue reading...Judge orders disgraced crypto mogul to forfeit $11bn in assets and says he showed no remorse for his crimes
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul who perpetrated one of the largest financial frauds in history, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11bn in assets. His lawyer reiterated a pledge to appeal the sentence the same day.
The judge, Lewis Kaplan, issued the penalty in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday. Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy to launder money late last year.
Continue reading...Sir John Mitting will rule on whether undercover officers broke the law by deceiving women like me. Yet he’s a member of a male-only club
Those of us involved in the so-called spy cops scandal have followed with interest the recent media coverage of the men-only Garrick Club and its membership list of high-profile individuals. It is not news to us that senior judges and powerful men in the security services have been members. Included among the elite was the chair of the public inquiry into undercover policing, John Mitting. Since his appointment as inquiry chair in 2017 we have been calling this out, as we believe it is an obvious conflict of interest – yet our concerns have predictably been ignored.
The inquiry had been established two years earlier by the then prime minister, Theresa May, as a direct result of investigations by women like me into the disappearances of our ex-partners, and the subsequent revelations of their true identities as Metropolitan police undercover officers. The abuse of women, and institutional sexism in the police, are fundamental to understanding the significance of this inquiry.
Alison is one of eight women who first took legal action against the Metropolitan police over the conduct of undercover officers and a founder member of Police Spies Out of Lives. A core participant in the public inquiry into undercover policing, she is one of the authors of Deep Deception – The Story of the Spycop Network by the Women who Uncovered the Shocking Truth
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The justices didn’t seem to buy the tenuous theory that would allow the doctors to sue the FDA over medication abortion.
The post Anti-Abortion Doctors Struggle to Explain Mifepristone Harms Before Supreme Court appeared first on The Intercept.
I helped with airlifts in Afghanistan, aid to the Ukrainian front, and building roads in Rwanda. None of it prepared me for the challenges of Gaza.
The post Organizing Aid to Gaza Led Me to a Harsh Truth: Biden Is on Board for Ethnic Cleansing appeared first on The Intercept.
Musk made hay of his legal battle against secret surveillance but continued selling X user data to a company that facilitates government monitoring.
The post Elon Musk Fought Government Surveillance — While Profiting Off Government Surveillance appeared first on The Intercept.
Online footage show jet on fire as Ukrainian security expert claims it was shot down
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said in a statement that energy facilities in six Ukrainian regions had been attacked in Russian missile and drone attacks.
The barrage hit thermal and hydro power plants in central and western Ukraine, power grid operator Ukrenergo said on Friday.
Russian missile and drone attacks overnight damaged Ukrainian thermal and hydro power plants, electricity grid operator Ukrenergo said on Friday. There were emergency shutdowns in the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. The Dnipropetrovsk governor, Serhii Lysak, said “critical infrastructure” was bombed and a man taken to hospital. Explosions were heard in Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi regions and the city of Dnipro after Russian cruise missiles were spotted, national media outlet Suspilne reported.
Poland scrambled planes as Ukraine came under missile attack on Friday morning, the Polish defence force said. The operational command said Polish and allied aircraft were activated due to “intense activity of long-range aviation of the Russian Federation” related to missile strikes against targets in Ukraine.
A Russian SU-35 Flanker fighter jet has crashed into the sea off Sevastopol, Crimea. Footage online showed a jet on fire, spiralling into the ocean and exploding. The Russian-installed governor of the illegally occupied region, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Thursday the pilot ejected and was picked up by rescuers but gave no details as to the cause of the crash.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, told the speaker of the US House of Representatives during a phone call on Thursday that it was vital for Congress to pass a new military aid package for Ukraine. Mike Johnson, the speaker, has held up a bill for months that would supply $60bn in military and financial aid.
“We recognise that there are differing views in the House of Representatives on how to proceed, but the key is to keep the issue of aid to Ukraine as a unifying factor,” Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy said he briefed Johnson about the situation on the battlefield and also spoke about “the dramatic increase in Russia’s air terror”. The Ukrainian military later said that its top commander, Oleksander Syrskyi, spoke to the US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Charles Brown, about battlefield issues.
Zelenskiy, in a CBS interview, has warned that Vladimir Putin will push Russia’s war “very quickly” on to Nato soil unless he is stopped in Ukraine. Zelenskiy acknowledged that his troops are not prepared to defend against another imminent major Russian offensive, and highlighted the urgency for American Patriot missile defence systems and more artillery.
The US is telling American companies making and selling parts that can be used in missiles and drones to stop shipping their goods to more than 600 foreign parties who might divert them to Russia. The parts have been found in Russian munitions recovered in Ukraine.
A Russian court on Thursday sentenced journalist Mikhail Feldman to two years in prison for denouncing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive on Ukraine.
Against the backdrop of war in Ukraine, several central and eastern European countries began marking on Thursday the 20th anniversary of the largest expansion of Nato when formerly socialist countries became members.
Continue reading...The Defense Department blew the deadline for a mandatory briefing to Congress on coups by U.S.-trained African military officers.
The post Pentagon Ignores Law Calling for Report on How It Trained So Many African Coup Leaders appeared first on The Intercept.
Famous for its repression and torture, Teodoro Obiang’s Equatorial Guinea got an aid delivery from U.S. Special Operations forces.
The post Squeezed by African Coups, Biden Cozies Up to the World’s Worst Dictator appeared first on The Intercept.
Judge says Arvind Kejriwal can be held until next Thursday, as his party’s leaders condemn accusations as politically motivated
An Indian court has ruled that Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, will be kept in custody for six days after his dramatic arrest on corruption charges.
Kejriwal, the top elected official for the Indian capital, was taken in by police on Thursday night as part of an investigation into an alleged scam involving kickbacks for alcohol licensing deals.
Continue reading...Congress passed a one-year ban on UNRWA funds even as several Western countries have resumed funding for the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians.
The post U.S. Doubles Down on Defunding UNRWA — Despite Flimsy Allegations appeared first on The Intercept.
Reform-minded district attorneys like Minnesota’s Mary Moriarty are facing backlash for prosecuting police shootings and misconduct.
The post Prosecute a Cop? You’ll Face Removal From Office appeared first on The Intercept.
Protesters have taken to the street on the island, decrying power blackouts and food shortages.
The post Havana Syndrome: How the Biden Administration Is Driving Cubans Into Misery appeared first on The Intercept.
The Republican Study Committee’s annual budget also calls to permanently defund UNRWA and eliminate the National Labor Relations Board.
The post House Republicans Want to Ban Universal Free School Lunches appeared first on The Intercept.
Anger over the civilian carnage in Gaza has galvanized some veterans who experienced disastrous U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan up close.
The post Anti-War Veterans Groups Echo Aaron Bushnell’s Demand for a Ceasefire in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
From his perch on a government commission, Jacob Helberg fearmongered about TikTok in Congress. He also works for a giant defense contractor.
The post Tech Official Pushing TikTok Ban Could Reap Windfall From U.S.–China Cold War appeared first on The Intercept.
Moderate PAC, funded by Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, became the first outside group to run ads in a contested Democratic primary.
The post GOP Megadonor’s PAC Fires Off First Ads in Summer Lee’s Democratic Primary appeared first on The Intercept.
The Post needs $100 million; its owner gave that amount to retired Adm. William McRaven and Eva Longoria to direct to charity.
The post Bezos Cuts $50M Check to Celebrity Admiral as Washington Post Flounders appeared first on The Intercept.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. A decade ago, social media was celebrated for sparking democratic uprisings in the Arab world and beyond. Now front pages are splashed with stories of social platforms’ role in misinformation, business conspiracy, malfeasance, and risks to mental health. In a 2022 survey, Americans blamed social media for the coarsening of our political discourse, the spread of misinformation, and the increase in partisan polarization.
Today, tech’s darling is artificial intelligence. Like social media, it has the potential to change the world in many ways, some favorable to democracy. But at the same time, it has the potential to do incredible damage to society...
Fascinating analysis of the use of drones on a modern battlefield—that is, Ukraine—and the inability of the US Air Force to react to this change.
The F-35A certainly remains an important platform for high-intensity conventional warfare. But the Air Force is planning to buy 1,763 of the aircraft, which will remain in service through the year 2070. These jets, which are wholly unsuited for countering proliferated low-cost enemy drones in the air littoral, present enormous opportunity costs for the service as a whole. In a set of comments posted on LinkedIn...
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