Iraqi authorities on Sunday ordered the shutdown of LED advertisement screens installed across Baghdad after a hacker managed to show a pornographic film on one, security forces said, announcing the arrest of a suspect.

On Saturday evening, "a person managed to hack into an advertising screen in Uqba bin Nafia Square", a major intersection at the centre of the Iraqi capital, a security source who requested anonymity told AFP.

The hacker "showed a pornographic film for several minutes before we cut the power cable," he said.

Videos of the pornographic film being screened as cars passed by in central Baghdad were widely shared on social media.

These "immoral scenes" prompted the authorities to "turn off all advertising screens in Baghdad" while they review security measures, explained the security official.

The interior ministry also announced in a statement that a suspect had been arrested, without giving details.

Several screens that usually show advertisements for household goods or political candidates before elections were switched off on Sunday morning, according to an AFP photographer.

Largely-conservative Iraq announced in 2022 that it was planning to block pornographic websites, but many have been left accessible.

In Part 2 of our interview, Left Bloc leader Jorge Costa discusses the recent rise of the far-right Chega (Enough) party in Portugal with Green Left’s Dick Nichols. (Read Part 1 of the interview here.)

Chega (Enough) is a late arrival in the wave of far-right reaction in Europe. What features does it share with other far-right forces? Why did it emerge so belatedly? Does it have support in the state apparatus, judiciary, armed forces and police?

For many years there was a party, the Party of the Social and Democratic Centre (CDS-PP), which was kind of a gathering together of the remnants of the dictatorship, political personnel from its last years, with close connections with the church and sections of the bourgeoisie, sections of the employers’ confederation, etc.

At its electoral peak, CDS-PP got the same score that Chega gets today, around 12%. CDS-PP disappeared from the political landscape and its cadres are now orphans. They are not in Chega — they did not become politicians for the far right.

But the far right absorbed the popular vote this party had, so you can see this as a kind of aggiornamento [updating] from the grassroots of the right wing, from its voting base.

When you note the political personnel of these new ultra-right political parties — not only Chega but also Iniciativa Liberal (IL, Liberal Initiative) — they come from the middle cadres of the traditional right-wing parties.

So, rather than Nazi and fascist groups getting parliamentary representation and growing, we have sectors from the previously existing right-wing formations fragmenting and reorganising, adopting elements of the radicalised right — of Donald Trump and Viktor Orban, and also of the ultra-liberal right from all over Europe.

In the case of Chega, we should also note its organic fragility. For example, one-third of its elected members on local council executives resigned from the party last year. Not for any specific political difference, but because of clashing personalities and personal ambitions. Also, the last congresses of the party were ruled to be irregular by the Constitutional Court.

So, this is an organisation that is still very weak, which still gets its representatives and candidates from people with very loose connections with the party itself, and that reflects its lack of real social presence. Yes, Chega is very visible in parliament. It has a very charismatic leader, André Ventura (who came from the [liberal-conservative] Social Democratic Party), but it is a very loose organisation with very little capacity for street mobilisation.

The only sector with real far-right influence in its organised ranks is the police. In no other sector, in no other expression of protest, does Chega have anything comparable, not even in massively mobilised sectors, like teachers and nurses. Nowhere else does the far right have any capacity for mobilisation.

Nonetheless, the far right still connects with the traditional themes of the Portuguese right: anti-Roma racism, colonial nostalgia and Salazarism, the normalisation of the fascist dictatorship and the Colonial War viewed as an heroic epic. All that goes with macho nostalgia and a very strong rejection of feminism. These are the main features of the Portuguese far right narrative, as represented by Chega.

Then there is IL, another radicalised party of the right, but which is very different. IL is an ultra-liberal party, inspired by Hayekism [based on Friedrich Hayek's ideas], one of many European parties of this type. An extremist liberal party, anti-Marxist but not ultra-conservative, with an agenda focused on economic issues like lowering tax rates.

IL has a high-income support base and is much more concentrated in wealthy inner-city milieux. Its typical voter is younger and more educated. It does not express xenophobic and racist ideas openly and refuses to make them part of its agenda.

Socialist Party (PS) Prime Minister António Costa aims to build the PS vote by splitting the right and frightening left voters into seeking shelter with PS against Chega’s rise. How does the Left Bloc counter this tactic?

The main way that the Left Bloc deals with this is by explaining that Chega is a “federation of discontent” — discontent with neoliberal policy and its results in wages, health, education, etc. — despite its lack of policies to answer these needs, or even a more radical version of neoliberal policies. This is the direct result of the bad politics of the socialist government.

So, we answer the far right by finding the largest unity in the movements that resist fascism, racism, misogyny, homophobia or transphobia, but also by underlining our opposition to PS neoliberalism and by responding on the terrain of alternative economic and social policy.

This orientation coincides with how protest has developed in the first year and a half of the PS’s absolute majority. Every demonstration that has emerged comes with left-wing demands: those of the teachers, of the health workers, of the workers in the legal system; the demands of the feminists, the demands of LGBTIQ+ movement, the demands of young people who are fighting for housing.

They all connect with the left and with our left demands. They have no connection with, and there is no presence of, the far right in these demonstrations. This is very, very important because the opposition in the streets to the Costa government is not a far-right opposition at all. It is mainly led by social movements and trade unions, which connect directly with the left-wing parties and the left-wing opposition, either with the Portuguese Communist Party or the Left Bloc.

That is the way we can create a left-wing pole of attraction that can win over those social sectors in the working class who are in shock because of the neoliberal policies of the PS and could be more vulnerable to far-right demagogy.

In the Spanish state, support for far-right party, Vox, which mainly comes from the rich and very rich suburbs, is also concentrated among Spanish speakers in the poorest and most abandoned Mediterranean coastal regions with large migrant worker populations. Is the Portuguese situation similar? What does the Left Bloc propose to counter the influence of Chega?

The characteristics of immigration in Portugal are quite different from Spain. Here, Chega is closely connected to the interests of our intensive monoculture in agriculture, which is very much dependent on immigrant labour.

So, Chega has shifted its message more to themes like Romaphobia, corruption in politics, ultra-conservatism around LGBTIQ+ and feminist concerns, and opposition to euthanasia and abortion. These are the main issues along which the far right tries to build its identity, more than with a straightforward racist and anti-immigrant stance, which would, at a certain point, clash with the interests of some of its own supporters and financiers.

Also, Chega voters are different from their Vox counterparts. The typical Chega voter is male, middle-aged to elderly, and from the popular classes. As I said, the more highly educated, urban right-wing voter who might vote Vox in Spain tends to vote IL in Portugal.

Abridged and edited from a longer interview at links.org.au

An unprecedented anti-corruption storm is currently sweeping through the field of medicine in China.

Over the last three weeks, intensive inspections have been launched in medical institutions nationwide, with tip-offs from the public and industry-related personnel increasing on social media platforms, and numerous reports of fallen officials have emerged one after another… So far, at least 20 provincial disciplinary authorities have spoken out against corruption present in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, while at least 176 hospital heads have been probed - more than double the number in 2022 - during the "most vigorous" crackdown ever seen in the healthcare industry.

Initiated by the National Health Commission (NHC), along with nine other departments, in late July, the systematic anti-corruption campaign has impressed many with its top-down rapidity, fierce momentum, and strong determination.

Why is the current anti-corruption campaign in the medical industry necessary and urgent? What are the deep-rooted problems that are a cause of distress for the public? From the bribery of pharmaceutical companies to the unaffordability of treatment for ordinary patients, how were medical costs gradually inflated? What are the blind spots within the industry and hidden means through which ill-gotten gains are laundered in this profitable industry chain?

Industry insiders, clinicians, and medical representatives reached by the Global Times pointed out that medical corruption in China has led to the exploitation of the healthcare system, ultimately causing harm to ordinary people and damaging the reputation of the national healthcare service delivery. In order to address the issue of difficulties in accessing medical services amid an aging society, large-scale anti-corruption efforts and systematic reforms are deemed necessary.

Meanwhile, many grassroots doctors and experts stressed that the actions of a corrupt few do not represent the vast majority of diligent and dedicated frontline healthcare professionals. The achievements of China's healthcare reforms in recent years cannot be erased or negated by a few cases of corruption.

China's top anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, or the CCDI, published an article on July 28, targeting opaque collaborations, bribery of officials in public hospitals, and the misuse of prescriptions for personal profit among other illegal practices.

The NHC held a press conference on Tuesday, reiterated six key areas of focus for rectification during this campaign, which include crackdown on medical institutions engaging in "kickback sales" of drugs and devices, as well as the improper use of medical insurance funds, stressing that the pharmaceutical field is the "main battleground" for safeguarding the health of the people.

Compared with previous efforts, the current round of anti-graft campaigns involves the participation of more governmental agencies, which is more far-reaching and affecting more high-powered individuals in the medical sector, pharmaceutical firms, and relevant associations, Xu Yucai, a veteran in medical reform, told the Global Times.

Rough estimates show that at least 30 "deans," "directors," and "Party chiefs" in the medical system have been investigated across various levels in hospitals over the last three weeks, and about half of them have retired. More violators are being pressured to voluntarily surrender.

A number of regions, including Beijing, Inner Mongolia, and Sichuan, have made reporting hotlines available to the public. A wave of complaints has since been received from several places and some of the country's well-known hospitals.

Insiders told the Global Times that guidelines on discipline in hospitals have intensified, as relevant inspections of key heads of department are increasing.

Amid the campaign, a slew of cancellations of medical conferences and events sponsored by pharmaceutical companies have been witnessed, which is evidence of a deterrence effect.

"Currently, the [domestic medical representatives] industry is basically in a vigilant state," a medical representative told the Global Times on condition of anonymity. "Both domestic and foreign-funded pharmaceutical companies are generally freezing their contacts with hospital and officials, and some have migrated their businesses online exclusively or are more discreet, as many in the industry are now cautious and apprehensive."

The medical representative noted that workshops and training programs in the medical sector have been largely canceled as these platforms have been found to have become a convert channel for bribery and kickbacks.

IN-DEPTH / IN-DEPTH China vows unprecedented, year-long anti-graft campaign in medical sector to rectify prominent malpractices Resolute crackdown By Hu Yuwei , Lu Yameng and Leng Shumei Published: Aug 15, 2023 11:15 PM Representatives of the disciplinary watchdog conduct an inspection of drug procurement, sales, and use at a hospital in Luliang county, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, on August 7, 2023. Photos: VCG

Representatives of the disciplinary watchdog conduct an inspection of drug procurement, sales, and use at a hospital in Luliang county, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, on August 7, 2023. Photos: VCG

An unprecedented anti-corruption storm is currently sweeping through the field of medicine in China.

Over the last three weeks, intensive inspections have been launched in medical institutions nationwide, with tip-offs from the public and industry-related personnel increasing on social media platforms, and numerous reports of fallen officials have emerged one after another… So far, at least 20 provincial disciplinary authorities have spoken out against corruption present in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, while at least 176 hospital heads have been probed - more than double the number in 2022 - during the "most vigorous" crackdown ever seen in the healthcare industry.

Initiated by the National Health Commission (NHC), along with nine other departments, in late July, the systematic anti-corruption campaign has impressed many with its top-down rapidity, fierce momentum, and strong determination.

Why is the current anti-corruption campaign in the medical industry necessary and urgent? What are the deep-rooted problems that are a cause of distress for the public? From the bribery of pharmaceutical companies to the unaffordability of treatment for ordinary patients, how were medical costs gradually inflated? What are the blind spots within the industry and hidden means through which ill-gotten gains are laundered in this profitable industry chain?

Industry insiders, clinicians, and medical representatives reached by the Global Times pointed out that medical corruption in China has led to the exploitation of the healthcare system, ultimately causing harm to ordinary people and damaging the reputation of the national healthcare service delivery. In order to address the issue of difficulties in accessing medical services amid an aging society, large-scale anti-corruption efforts and systematic reforms are deemed necessary.

Meanwhile, many grassroots doctors and experts stressed that the actions of a corrupt few do not represent the vast majority of diligent and dedicated frontline healthcare professionals. The achievements of China's healthcare reforms in recent years cannot be erased or negated by a few cases of corruption.

Photo: VCG

Photo: VCG

Shock and awe

China's top anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, or the CCDI, published an article on July 28, targeting opaque collaborations, bribery of officials in public hospitals, and the misuse of prescriptions for personal profit among other illegal practices.

The NHC held a press conference on Tuesday, reiterated six key areas of focus for rectification during this campaign, which include crackdown on medical institutions engaging in "kickback sales" of drugs and devices, as well as the improper use of medical insurance funds, stressing that the pharmaceutical field is the "main battleground" for safeguarding the health of the people.

Compared with previous efforts, the current round of anti-graft campaigns involves the participation of more governmental agencies, which is more far-reaching and affecting more high-powered individuals in the medical sector, pharmaceutical firms, and relevant associations, Xu Yucai, a veteran in medical reform, told the Global Times.

Rough estimates show that at least 30 "deans," "directors," and "Party chiefs" in the medical system have been investigated across various levels in hospitals over the last three weeks, and about half of them have retired. More violators are being pressured to voluntarily surrender.

A number of regions, including Beijing, Inner Mongolia, and Sichuan, have made reporting hotlines available to the public. A wave of complaints has since been received from several places and some of the country's well-known hospitals.

Insiders told the Global Times that guidelines on discipline in hospitals have intensified, as relevant inspections of key heads of department are increasing.

Amid the campaign, a slew of cancellations of medical conferences and events sponsored by pharmaceutical companies have been witnessed, which is evidence of a deterrence effect.

"Currently, the [domestic medical representatives] industry is basically in a vigilant state," a medical representative told the Global Times on condition of anonymity. "Both domestic and foreign-funded pharmaceutical companies are generally freezing their contacts with hospital and officials, and some have migrated their businesses online exclusively or are more discreet, as many in the industry are now cautious and apprehensive."

The medical representative noted that workshops and training programs in the medical sector have been largely canceled as these platforms have been found to have become a convert channel for bribery and kickbacks.

Chain of medical corruption

High medical spending has long been one of "three burdens" - along with housing and education - for Chinese citizens. In an aging society, the cost burden of managing chronic conditions plagues many senior citizens, and is a source of public complaint.

Back in the 1990s, as medical services moved toward market compliance, the government reduced investment and hospitals began to sell drugs at a mark-up to make up for shortfalls in public funding. At the same time, competition intensified among pharmaceutical companies, while corruption spaces grew gradually.

The culture of kickbacks or bribery among hospital officials and pharmaceutical enterprises across many regions in China has been a long-standing open secret.

Medical corruption may occur in the entire process, from listing, bidding, procurement, to usage and payment. Every stage involves relevant departments, hospital management personnel, clinicians, and pharmacists, Xu said.

In this chain, medical representatives are those who "thread the needle," and the senior hospital officials are the key figures who can determine the clinical usage and the quantity purchase of products from the bid winner, according to Xu.

The expert said that some kickbacks are hard to investigate as they could be disguised as sponsorship or invitations to medical conferences.

Xu, also the former deputy head of the health commission in Shanyang county, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, told the Global Times that in recent years, as previous anti-corruption moves have sealed off the traditional benefit delivery pipeline between pharmaceutical companies and medical personnel, some poorly scrutinized medical associations have turned to "academic activities" as a disguise to transfer the benefits. Bribes are thus laundered through so-called training or consultancy fees.

A doctor from a certain top-tier hospital once disclosed to the media that some academic conferences typically offer ordinary doctors a fee of 1,200 yuan ($165) per hour for lectures, 1,800 yuan for experts, and 3,000 yuan for top-level experts.

Additionally, the procurement of large medical equipment is another hotbed of corruption. In case of illegality disclosed in recent years, inappropriate high-priced medical equipments are commonly seen. In May, China's anti-corruption body exposed a hospital chief in Southwest China's Yunnan Province for receiving 16 million yuan in bribes for buying a medical accelerator worth 15 million yuan.

A practitioner surnamed Tao from the Shanghai disease control and prevention system told the Global Times that the selection of self-funded vaccines has also become a means of making money in some grassroots disease control centers.

"County-level disease control centers are allowed to select vaccines from different manufacturers on the provincial whitelist. Currently, this process lacks standard rules, and the head of the county center holds the principle decision-making power in that regard," said Tao.

To address this issue, the Chinese government has implemented several measures to crack down on corruption in the medical industry. One such initiative was the establishment of the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) in 2018, which oversees the country's healthcare system and is responsible for regulating medical expenses and combating fraud.

Xu recalled that obvious efforts have been made in medical reform since the establishment of the NHSA. The centralized pharmaceutical procurement system launched in China in 2018, for example, has reduced the prices of certain drugs, by pooling the demands of member cities and granting contracts to manufacturers with the lowest bids. These policies have played a great role in eliminating kickbacks and price manipulation.

Additionally, the government has encouraged the use of electronic payment systems to reduce cash transactions, which were often used to facilitate bribery, Xu said.

The programs have successfully reduced medical costs for patients and have, so far, helped save about 300 billion yuan in medical insurance costs and patient expenditure, the Xinhua News Agency reported in July 2022.

Furthermore, the Chinese government has strengthened its enforcement actions against corrupt practices in the medical field. Numerous high-profile cases have been investigated and prosecuted, leading to the arrest and punishment of doctors, hospital administrators, and pharmaceutical company executives involved in bribery and embezzlement.

With deepened medical and healthcare system reform, China's public healthcare system withstood the tests of the H7N9 bird flu, the Middle East respiratory syndrome, and COVID-19, as well as natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods over the last decade.

The era when pharmaceutical representatives freely prowled outpatient clinics and hospital wards is long gone. Instead, signs warning that "Pharmaceutical representatives are prohibited from entering" are now posted throughout healthcare facilities.

"Over the last decade, China hasn't remitted in its anti-corruption efforts, but corruption remains increasingly pervasive and hidden. This is why a fundamental system rebuilding and resolute crackdown are imperative as medical corruption undermines the credibility of the healthcare system and erodes social trust," Xu said.

However, while the shocking and heart-wrenching phenomenon of corruption in medical industry has aroused the indignation and condemnation of the Chinese people, a growing sentiment among the public, which is stigmatizing the entire healthcare industry and fostering a collective resentment toward medical professionals, has gone viral on the internet.

Observers and medical practitioners clarified that the recent highly publicized crackdowns do not imply widespread corruption within the healthcare system.

They stressed that corrupt individuals within the healthcare system are still a minority, and many conscientious and judicious healthcare workers also detest various forms of medical corruption.

A front-line doctor in East China's Shandong Province told the Global Times on Sunday that the vast majority of grassroots doctors are far from corrupt, as most of them, especially young doctors, always follow the principle of curing disease and saving lives first.

Clinical doctors from top-tier hospitals in China are sharing their schedules on social media, with some claiming that they work 12 hours a day and have to work overtime voluntarily at weekends, resulting in a total work duration of 80-100 hours per week.

Some clinicians are also facing pressure from research. "For those unfortunate projects that did not receive research funding, doctors have to bear the expenses of animal experiments, reagents, consumables, and labor costs. Many people even pay out of their own salaries to support research projects," said Dr. Chen Yu, an attending physician at a large top-tier hospital in Shanghai, as cited by financial media outlet Yicai.

"To fundamentally solve the problem, other supporting measures are still needed, such as raising the prices of medical services, so that medical staff and medical institutions can receive reasonable remuneration and see their true value reflected," Cai Jiangnan, an economics scholar, also executive chairman of the CHIP Academy, told the Global Times.

Cai also suggested establishing a fair system of pharmaceutical production and distribution, and improving China's ability to conduct research and manufacture innovate drugs.

Medical anti-corruption may cause "growing pains" in the short term, but it will bring long-term wellbeing and win the hearts of the people, Cai said.

A new study suggests children near oil and gas wells are 5-7 times more likely to develop lymphoma.

After dozens of childhood cancer cases surfaced in Southwestern Pennsylvania in 2019, state health officials embarked on a multi-study project to determine whether the region’s boom in oil and gas extraction might be to blame. This week, the results of that work are in: Epidemiologists at the University of Pittsburgh, which was contracted to do the research, found evidence that minors living close to fracking sites are over 5 times more likely to develop a rare type of childhood cancer. They also found a greatly increased risk of asthma attacks and lowered birth weights.

The eight counties that make up Southwestern Pennsylvania comprise one of the nation’s most important fossil fuel-producing regions. Much of the state’s natural gas is buried thousands of feet beneath the earth, under sheets of fine-grained rock known as shale. These once-inaccessible fuel reserves were unlocked in the early 2000s with the widespread adoption of fracking, a method of fuel extraction that involves injecting huge volumes of water and other chemicals underground to shatter bedrock and free up oil and gas reserves. The number of fracking wells has increased more than tenfold over the last two decades, and Pennsylvania is second only to Texas in the number of wells it contains.

While previous research has identified numerous chemicals used in fracking as capable of causing cancer — among them formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium, benzene, and ethylene oxide — the science that actually links fracking directly to adverse public health outcomes is still coming into view. This week’s studies helped to fill this gap by using existing medical records from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The authors analyzed cancer incidence data from 2010 through 2019, which included 498 total cases in children born and diagnosed in the eight-county study area. Of the four types of cancer analyzed, they found significant evidence that children living within five miles of an active oil and gas well were 5 to 7 times more likely to develop lymphoma. They did not find evidence that the other three childhood cancers — leukemia, brain tumors, and bone cancers — were associated with proximity to oil and gas development.

However, James Fabisiak, an author on all three studies that were released this week, said that doesn’t mean a connection to those cancers can be ruled out. A separate state-wide study from Yale University last year found a link between fracking and a subtype of leukemia in children aged 2 to 7.

“In any scientific study like this, you always have some uncertainty about the negative result,” Fabisiak told Grist. “If I had more patients, if I had more sample size, might I find a statistically significant difference?”

The researchers wanted to understand how each phase of the fracking process affects the health of nearby residents. Before workers start injecting fluid into the earth, they often have to clear sites, build roads, and drill deep crevices in the ground. The subsequent fracking phase of the process is typically short, lasting only about three to five days, while the production phase, when fuel is actually extracted from the ground, takes much longer — from a few weeks to decades.

The studies analyzed records of more than 46,000 patients, aged 5 through 90, over the past two years, and found that people with asthma are 4 to 5 times more likely to have an asthma attack if they live near a fracking well during production. The researchers also connected this phase of the fracking process to lower birth weights. On average, babies born to people living near oil wells during the production process were 1 ounce smaller at birth. (The researchers noted that such a difference does not usually pose a significant health risk.)

Fabisiak said that he found the findings of the asthma study to be most troubling, given how widespread the condition is — more than 25 million Americans have asthma.

“I have a son who grew up with asthma, and I know the burden of what that particular disease has on an individual in a family,” he said.

The studies were not able to identify what particular hazard connected with fracking caused the adverse health effects that they observed in Southwestern Pennsylvania, but it builds on research documenting the relationship between fossil fuel development and asthma and birth defects in other parts of the world. It’s well-known that flaring, a practice that involves burning off unwanted gas, can generate substantial air pollution, and that the chemicals used in fracking, if not properly extracted and disposed of, can leak into the soil and groundwater, exposing nearby residents for prolonged periods. Fabisiak said that drawing a direct link between those hazards and poor health outcomes should be the work of future studies.

A slew of Antioch and Pittsburg officers were arrested following an FBI probe into civil rights violations and investigation tampering.

Nine officers across two police departments in East Bay, Calif. were arrested by FBI agents Thursday after being indicted by a federal grand jury. Of those officers were the slimy Antioch cops exposed for calling Black people gorillas, n-words and all types of degrading insults in their texts.

Over 100 FBI agents were deployed to arrest current and former officers from the Antioch and Pittsburg police departments, according to KRON4 News. The 30-page federal indictment accuses the group of crimes including college degree benefit fraud and violating the civil rights of civilians. As if the APD isn’t in enough hell upon the state and federal probes into their employees’ bigoted banter, two of them were accused of slinging anabolic steroids. They were also accused of trying to destroy the evidence. Another APD cop, Morteza Amiri, was accused of excessive force for deploying his K-9 on 28 people and then saving images of the bloody dog bites in his camera roll.

At this point, what haven’t they been accused of?

In a 2020 text, Wenger told Amiri that they needed to “go 3 nights in a row dog bite!!!” Amiri emphasized the message, according to the indictment, and Wenger replied with a homophobic slur about a senior officer, saying they should give the lieutenant “something to stress out about lol.”

In another text that year, Amiri sent Wenger eight graphic images of people with dog bites and described the work week as “very eventful,” according to the indictment.

Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who was a target of the racist police messages, issued a statement in response to the arrest calling it a “dark day” for the city.

“People trusted to uphold the law allegedly breached that trust and were arrested by the FBI. Today’s actions are the beginning of the end of a long and arduous process. Today’s arrests are demonstrative of the issues that have plagued the Antioch Police Department for decades,” he said.

Simultaneously, the Contra Costa DA’s office, FBI and California Attorney General’s Office are investigating the officers involved. Over the past 2 two years of the probes, nearly half the Antioch Police Department was accused of something. More arrests could be on the way.

Replace the word stop with keep whenever applicable

The future is here, robots are out here parking our cars, cleaning our floors, and now delivery food and groceries to communities across America. But if we’re to succeed in this new robot-run world, we need to learn to live with our autonomous friends, and not keep robbing the little delivery robots.

Because that’s what’s happening in some communities that have started rolling out delivery robots to carry out grocery runs and drop off takeout orders. According to Autoweek, businesses in Los Angeles and Greenville, NC, have reported thefts from their delivery bots.

The LA delivery robots operate across West Hollywood and were built by a company called Serve Robotics. So far, operators in the area have reported the theft of goods from these robots, such as food. As Autoweek reports:

Early on delivery robot developers have tried to allay commercial customers’ concerns over the potential for theft from robots, showcasing locked compartments and plenty of surveillance tech on the robots themselves, in addition to loud sirens. After a honeymoon period of sorts early on in the pandemic where robots were generally left alone, this is no longer the case, and sirens aren’t stopping acts of theft and vandalism in all cases.

The robberies aren’t limited to California, and reports have also emerged of vandalism affecting GrubHub robots operating on the East Carolina University campus in Greenville, NC. There, robots have been found flipped upside down and have even been discovered in a creek.

In order to protect the bots, they are equipped with all manner of surveillance tech. But actually prosecuting people for stealing from these machines is proving much trickier than it is for people who shoplift from a physical store.

Despite the crimes falling under the same legislation for theft and vandalism, Autoweek reports that the low priority for police forces investigating such incidents means prosecution for these crimes remains unlikely.

Still, while the spate of robberies appears to be spreading, robot operators across the country say their little worker bots are still managing to hit a 99.9% delivery completion rate.

He was only arrested after multiple officers showed up to the scene.

Public urination is never a good idea, but arresting an innocent child for doing something like that is maybe taking the law a little too seriously. Unfortunately, that’s what happened to a 10 year old in Mississippi, Fox Memphis reports.

On August 10th, Latonya Eason stopped by an attorney’s office in Senatobia, MS for some legal advice. Her two children, a daughter and her 10 year old son Quantavious, waited in the car while she was in the office. At some point, Quantavious needed to use the restroom, so he got out of the car and went to pee behind it. At the same time, a Senatobia Police officer just happened to be passing by and caught the kid peeing behind the car.

But it was no biggie; Latonya said the officer was just going to give them a warning: “I was like son, why did you do that? He said, ‘Mom, my sister said they don’t have a bathroom there.’ I was like you knew better, you should have come and asked me if they had a restroom. [The officer] was like you handled it like a mom. He can get back in the car,” she said to Fox Memphis. It wasn’t a big deal — until other officers became involved.

Eason said several other officers showed up, including a lieutenant who said that Quantavious had to be arrested and taken to jail for peeing. Eason admits her son shouldn’t have peed, but she says arresting him over it was doing too much.

“No, him urinating in the parking lot was not right, but at the same time I handled it like a parent, and for one officer to tell my baby to get back in the car, it was okay, and to have the other pull up and take him to jail? Like no. I’m just speechless right now. Why would you arrest a ten year old kid?” she said.

Quantavious said he was scared and started shaking when the officers took him to jail. Once there, they held him in a cell, charged him with “child in need of services” and then released him to his mother.

keep reading : https://jalopnik.com/police-arrested-10-year-old-peeing-behind-his-moms-car-1850752223

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has a reckless plan for achieving U.S. global dominance: giving away other countries’ territory.

Ramaswamy is already under fire for his objectively terrible plan to let China invade Taiwan after 2028 if he were elected. Now, the presidential hopeful thinks that Russia should be allowed to keep the parts of Ukraine it currently occupies.

“Our goal should not be for Putin to lose. Our goal should be for America to win,” Ramaswamy told CNN Thursday night.

Ramaswamy said that U.S. involvement in Ukraine is strengthening the Russia–China military alliance—and the only way to break that alliance and bring Russia around to the American side is to give Vladimir Putin what he wants.

“I would freeze the current lines of control, and that would leave parts of the Donbas region with Russia,” Ramaswamy explained. “I would also further make a commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to NATO. But there are even greater wins that I will get for the United States.”

Ramaswamy seems to be under multiple false impressions with this diplomatic plan, the first being that the United States has the authority to simply give away parts of another sovereign nation. He also appears to believe that if he visits Moscow, he can single-handedly buddy up to Putin enough to convince the Russian leader to drop a highly advantageous military alliance.

And as anchor Jim Acosta rightly pointed out, Putin is unlikely to stop with Ukraine. He wasn’t satisfied with annexing Crimea in 2014 and now wants all of Ukraine. If he is allowed to keep parts of Ukraine, it’s possible that he’ll try to invade somewhere else such as Poland, a NATO member—which would require military intervention from the rest of the members.

This plan is just as bad as Ramaswamy’s strategy for Taiwan. Earlier this week, Ramaswamy proposed letting China take over Taiwan after 2028, which he believes is when the U.S. would build up its own supply of semiconductors. Taiwan produces about 60 percent of the global supply of semiconductors, which are microchips crucial to making all electronic devices.

Ramaswamy said he intends to dramatically up the firepower around Taiwan during his first term, to make clear to Beijing that they should “not mess” with the island until the U.S. has semiconductor independence. After that, China can do whatever it wants. It did not seem to occur to him that China would likely interpret these moves as acts of aggression and respond in kind. Nor does he seem to realize that it’s highly unlikely China would listen to his proposed arrangement.

But despite his only campaign points being battling “wokeness,” taking away rights, and, apparently, allowing authoritarian governments to do whatever they want, Ramaswamy is somehow rising in the polls.

A year after the far-right Mises Caucus took over the Libertarian Party, its membership and financial numbers are down. Some state parties, including New Mexico, Virginia and Massachusetts, have splintered or disaffiliated from the national party. Leaked documents Hatewatch obtained show the Libertarian National Committee is squabbling and worried that their takeover is “turning into a disaster.”

Members of the national Libertarian Party (LP) leadership board for months have squabbled and aired concerns about the LP’s challenges under the leadership of the far-right Mises Caucus (MC), according to a cache of leaked documents Hatewatch obtained.

The leak contains hundreds of pages of text messages, group chats and confidential memos between members of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC). Hatewatch received the leak from John Hudak, a libertarian critic of the MC.

Members of the LNC, which steers the national party, have acknowledged the leak in publicly available communications.

The leak appears to come from Miguel Duque, an MC-affiliated LNC representative from Washington state. In a document titled, “START HERE The Takeover has failed by Miguel and Anna Johnson Duque,” Duque’s wife appears to detail their reasons for leaking the documents. Metadata suggests the Duques created the document on Aug. 13. The departure of Lainie Huston, the former interim executive director of the LP, who announced she was leaving her position on July 31 after internal conflicts, appears to have motivated the couple in part. The documents include memos, Discord group chats and text messages between the Duques and LNC members.

The Duques blamed the LNC’s failures on a “lack of vision, which leads back to” LNC chair Angela McArdle. Miguel Duque is still on the LNC, and the documents suggest he and his wife are concerned with staffing issues and a slow response to challenges the LP has faced over fundraising and membership. The Duques claimed these challenges are made worse by the LNC’s inability to obtain “functional data” through software “tools.” The documents detail concerns about CiviCRM, a nonprofit donor fundraising software and internal conflicts between LNC members.

The MC won control of the LP’s national governing body at its national convention held in Reno, Nevada, in 2022. McArdle won the position of chair of the LNC with over 69% of the vote that year. MC candidates won two-thirds of LNC positions at the convention. MC members considered the victory a “takeover” and called it the “Reno Reset.”

“We believe the massive opportunity of the Takeover / Reno Reset has thus far been utterly squandered, that this Party is being severely injured by the avoidable mistakes by leadership outlined here,” the Duque’s document states.

McArdle and others lauded their victory as a turn from what they viewed as left-wing management by the LP’s former LNC. The new leaders stripped the LP’s platform of its pro-abortion rights plank and began posting pro-secession rhetoric. They also stripped the platform of its plank that condemned bigotry as “irrational and repugnant.”

After Hatewatch published an article about the MC’s far-right rhetoric and ties, members of the newly formed LNC attempted to pass a resolution condemning the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as “irrational and repugnant.” The resolution failed.

When asked for comment, Miguel Duque responded that he condemns the SPLC “as irrational and repugnant,” referencing the failed resolution. However, in a text message to McArdle contained in the leak, Anna Johnson Duque said she was “secretly thrilled” the resolution failed due to internal LNC politics.

McArdle and others thought the turn to far-right rhetoric and the MC’s management would appeal to Libertarians, who McArdle believed were “far more right leaning” than the MC. McArdle said during a debate for the position of LNC chair that the MC would “make this [party] functional and not embarrassing for you.”

The leaked documents show McArdle has waning confidence in the Reno Reset. “The takeover is turning into a disaster,” McArdle said in a confidential memo from May that the leak contains. “Members have asked me what we are doing. We spend lots of time in executive session, dealing with lawsuits and personnel issues,” she wrote in the memo, titled “LNC Dysfunction - Is There A Realistic Path Forward?”

The memo does not explicitly state the nature of the lawsuits. The LNC has filed one lawsuit against the eight Michigan Libertarian candidates over their use of the LP trademark after a leadership dispute in that state. The candidates ran separately from the LP.

The LP has further lost state affiliates. New Mexico and Virginia both disaffiliated, though the LP organized new parties in both states. Massachusetts has two Libertarian parties: One controlled by the MC and another that splintered over concerns about the MC’s far-right rhetoric. Pennsylvania has the Keystone Party, which libertarians formed after they saw the LP as “veering too hard to the right.”

McArdle also aired concerns over the LP’s finances. Publicly available monthly reports that LNC officials prepare have showed that membership and financials have taken a sustained a steady fall since the MC took over. According to the June 2023 membership report, the LP’s “sustaining members” – those who have donated at least $25 in the 12 preceding months, according to the LP’s bylaws – have dropped to slightly over 14,000. This was a 6.5% drop from the preceding month, and a drop of nearly 3,000 since Dec. 2022.

“In the face of financial challenges, we have lost the purpose and vision of what we set out to do and are thrashing around like a drowning person. It is very hard to save someone who is thrashing about,” McArdle wrote in the document.

McArdle echoed the Duques and said the LP’s staff say their “main fundraising tool and data are a disaster.”

When asked for comment about the leak and her remarks in the memo, McArdle said: “We’re in an excellent place right now, we’re going to kick ass in 2024, and prove wrong the depraved vultures who pay attention to this sort of gossip.”

The Duques wrote, “Fundraising and membership are down for various reasons, and the data is so wrecked that it’s very difficult to objectively pinpoint the real reasons or the severity.”

Hatewatch asked Holly Ward, the former chair of the Virginia Libertarian Party that disaffiliated, what she believed to be the reason for the drop in funds and members.

After seeing portions of the leaked material, Ward told Hatewatch it “is clear that even the Mises Caucus knows that what they set out to accomplish has failed, as any movement built on hatred and division is destined to fail.”

She concluded: “They have, for a time, been able to lie to their supporters about this fact, but their internal conversations make clear they are no longer able to lie to themselves.”

Stonewall was a riot — but in some cities, Pride officials have banned “political” groups and welcomed cops. Now activists are organizing radical Pride marches to show that Pride is a protest, not just a party.

In 2016, Toronto was preparing for its annual Pride march. For the first time, Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, would attend alongside the thousands in the parade, with Black Lives Matter (BLM) as guests of honor. But BLM was angry, after years of seeing Blockorama — the only Pride month event for black queers — moved further from the march, even as police were welcomed at the parade. Objecting to their presence, BLM blocked the march for thirty minutes.

This cop involvement especially mattered because Toronto Pride had first begun in 1981 as a protest against a police raid on four bathhouses in the city. That February, officers armed with crowbars and sledgehammers had arrested over two hundred fifty gay men in “Operation Soap.” Black activists who participated in that first Pride were back in 2016 and were joined by both younger protesters and indigenous drummers in bringing the march to a halt. Faced with the protests, Toronto Pride’s executive director, Mathieu Chantelois, signed off on BLM’s demand not to allow the police to return in future — but then backtracked, claiming he had only done so to get the march moving again. After widespread criticism, Chantelois resigned; next time around, the police float was noticeably absent.

Toronto is hardly the only city where police have joined Pride. In a similar action in Britain last year, activists from Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSM) broke through the barriers at London’s Pride march to stage a die-in. Holding funeral bouquets and draped in pink veils, they held up the march for twenty-three minutes — one minute for each person that had died in police custody since 2020 — to protest metropolitan police officers joining the parade.

One participant in the protest, Ink, explains, “I watched friends cheer on the police at London Pride, despite understanding their role in oppressing queer people. In the wake of Black Lives Matter, the presence of police at pride became especially unconscionable and we felt it was important to reclaim Pride as a space hostile to the presence of the state and its violence.”

Criticisms of mainstream Pride, made by queer participants like Ink who would prefer to see it returned to its roots in protest, have been bubbling under the surface for years. In 2001, Sylvia Rivera, a transgender activist who cofounded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries alongside fellow Stonewall riots veteran Marsha P. Johnson, called modern Pride “a big smokescreen.” Baulking at how corporations use Pride to present themselves as virtuous — what we now call pinkwashing — she mourned a modern Pride that only believes in the “almighty dollar,” stating “this is no longer my Pride.”

Gay rights have progressed, but activists still debate assimilation versus liberation — whether queer people should adapt to the norms and values of wider society or else change society to one that doesn’t privilege certain queer identities. Indeed, as Pride events have become mainstream, so too have certain versions of fitting in. Equality for some LGBTQ people means the freedom to marry, adopt kids, or even to get a well-paying job at an arms company with the same rights and protections as a straight colleague. That is lauded as progress whilst queers who can’t — or don’t want to — obey such norms continue to be marginalized.

Corporations and the state use diversity and inclusivity in this way to wash themselves clean. At this year’s Pride in Washington DC, arms industry giant Lockheed Martin drove a sponsored float through the city, much to the disgust of socialists and queer activists. This year in London, big oil was the target of protests as activists picketed the annual LGBTQ awards sponsored by BP, Shell, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Santander, Amazon, and Nestlé. Days later, this July 1, five activists from Just Stop Oil were arrested after jumping in front of BP’s float and halting London’s Pride parade, reminding onlookers that there will be no pride on a dead planet.

In recent years, Reclaim Pride groups sharing these criticisms of contemporary Pride celebrations have sprung up from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Oslo, Norway, and New York City. Some groups have tried to reclaim Pride by protesting, as BLM and LGSM have. Others have chosen opt out and create their own celebrations that stay true to Pride’s roots in a riot against police violence.

In 2019, as preparations were underway for the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, activists in New York City organized an opposing Queer Liberation March instead. The official parade ran for twelve hours because there were so many corporate floats, notes Paul Nocera from New York’s Reclaim Pride Coalition. He told Jacobin how activists had become disillusioned with Pride — and the way acceptable queerness was policed by letting in some people and shutting out others: “The barricades don’t just contain people, they set up an entertainment dynamic where the people on one side are the audience and the people on the inside are the entertainment. This is a march, we’re not the entertainment,” he explains. “It really gives so much control over the message, the method, the anger. All the aspects of what we’re trying to do in our march get squashed . . . the cops want to have a march that doesn’t mean anything, that doesn’t make any complaints.”

For activists in New York, it was important to have a protest with radical politics to mark the anniversary. Each year since, they have held one on the same day as New York’s official Pride parade. Sometimes — Nocera told me — he gets disillusioned and exhausted, “It’s really tough because we do this every year and I don’t see anything changing — so what the hell are we marching for? But I was reminded that this is the moment when the community gathers together and link arms. Whether were faced outward and yelling and screaming or faced inward and having a teary eye, it’s still the gathering of the community, and that’s hugely important,” says Nocera. “To not have a march, to not have any radical gathering of people and spirits, that would be a huge loss.”

Over in England, Sheffield Radical Pride (SRP) took things a step further and organized the city’s only Pride march this year, scheduled for July 22 to coincide with Tramlines music festival when tens of thousands descended on the city. In 2018, the previous organizers declared the event was a march of “celebration, not protest.” They banned political groups from taking part and demanded banners and placards be inspected for approval to avoid causing offense. This sparked outrage from many in the queer community, who criticized Pride Sheffield for conveniently forgetting the previous fifty years of history. Since the pandemic, Sheffield has struggled to organize a Pride and 2023 marks the third year the council has not funded one.

Over winter, a group of young, largely transgender activists started conversations about how their organizing could reach the wider city and decided they should step in and organize this year’s event. They want to turn Pride back into a street movement they hope those at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 could be proud of. A month before the march, SRP announced cops and corporations were banned. “It’s exciting and it’s fun . . . I’m glad that we have the opportunity to make Sheffield’s only Pride one that is genuinely radical and one that is free of corporations and cops,” says Alex, one of the organizers.

This year, the theme for the Queer Liberation March in New York was “Trans + Queer; Forever Here!” Nocera says trans people have been at the forefront of organizing the march for years, but they felt in 2023 trans liberation needed special attention. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently tracking 491 anti-LGBTQ bills in the United States, and a large number of those attack trans people in various ways such as limiting their access to health care and preventing social transition or education about trans people in schools. Some have already passed laws attempting to limit drag performances and prevent cross-dressing. In New York, where trans people led the Stonewall riots, Nocera says the focus of this year’s march has given a sense of “continuing the legacy of Stonewall which is protest, resistance and resilience as a community.”

Organizers of Sheffield’s trans-led march have also seen the recent attacks on the trans and queer community from both far-right street mobilization and the UK government. One of the recent attacks from the British state came from the Tories’ so-called equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch. In April, she announced plans to change the legal definition of “sex,” which could see the trans community lose vital rights and protections.

For the trans community, pride has to be a protest — because pretending they can safely celebrate their identity simply isn’t an option. Across the UK, grassroots Trans Pride marches have appeared, with the largest held annually in London. Another of their organizers, Matt, tells me that the vitriol targeted at trans people is the first step to revoking everyone’s rights: “This pushback and backlash against trans rights is a gateway to repealing more equalities and targeting more minorities. It’s being done by some people in the name of feminism and women’s rights but really, these people are partnering with fascists.” He adds, “Rights aren’t this permanent thing once you’ve achieved them — they can also go away.”

In making Sheffield Pride a protest, Matt and Alex hope honest conversations can be had about queer liberation and the challenges it faces: “We’re not putting on this façade about how everyone’s super-accepting and how some company is going to sell you products and hire you and therefore homophobia is over,” says Matt. “We’re not going to radicalize everyone who comes. But we can tell people how it is for queer people now and we can’t be silenced through threats over funding or permissions.”

As groups like Sheffield Radical Pride and the Reclaim Pride Coalition continue organizing marches, we can hope Pride is slowly returning to something Sylvia Rivera might recognize — and be proud of.

US. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday said her country’s government should declassify documents related to its role in the violent 1973 overthrow of Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, nearly five decades ago.

“It’s very important to frame the history of what happened here in Chile with Pinochet’s dictatorship. And also to acknowledge and reflect on the role of the United States in those events,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said in a video conversation with Camila Vallejo, a spokesperson for the Chilean government.

“The transparency of the United States could present an opportunity for a new phase in our relationship between the United States and Chile,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who led a congressional delegation to Chile and other Latin American nations — an effort sponsored by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The Nixon administration was closely involved in efforts to prevent Allende, a democratic socialist, from assuming power in 1970 and in the subsequent overthrow of the Chilean government on September 11, 1973. The CIA has acknowledged that it “actively supported” the viciously repressive military junta led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who was later arrested and indicted for human rights violations.

While some U.S. documents related to the Chile coup have been declassified, Ocasio-Cortez has called for the declassification of “all information” at the State Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon detailing U.S. involvement in the coup.

In July, Ocasio-Cortez introduced an amendment to the annual U.S. military policy bill that would have aimed to declassify the documents, but the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee blocked the amendment from receiving a vote.

“It’s time for the U.S. to acknowledge its history of contributing to regime change and destabilization in Latin America,” the New York Democrat said at the time. “To reset this relationship, we must take full, public responsibility for our historical role — and demonstrate with our present actions that we will not support human rights abuses.”

Ocasio-Cortez and fellow lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), are now set to travel to Colombia.

In a statement earlier this week, Casar noted that “U.S. foreign policy has too often contributed to instability in Latin America: we should be protecting democracy rather than supporting coups, and we should be creating peace and prosperity across the Western Hemisphere rather than replaying the Cold War.”

“Now is the time to talk about our history, jointly fight the climate crisis, and invest in lasting peace,” said Casar.

Human bones from the Early Neolithic period discovered in Spain's Sierra de Atapuerca cave system's Galera del Slex cave have been studied again by researchers at the Universidad de Alcala.

The team describes their examination of the site, fossils, and context of the remains in an article titled "Early Neolithic human remains from Galera del Slex in Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain" that was published in Quaternary Science Reviews. This investigation was done to piece together the history of the people who were discovered there.

For thousands of years, people have used the Galera del Slex cave. Numerous human and animal remains, 53 panels of engravings and red and black cave paintings, dozens of fire hearth ruins, and pieces of ceramic vessels may all be found in the cave.

The cave entrance was sealed just as the Bronze Age was coming to an end, creating a time capsule that survived until its discovery in 1972. Over time, a more nuanced image began to emerge, but at first the objects and remains were all assumed to date from the Bronze Age.

In the decades following discovery, 2,700 human remains were gathered from various cave regions. In addition, several hearths, the remains of torches that were placed in strategic locations, more than 6,000 ceramic fragments (at least 336 containers), tools, flint, an axe that had been polished, and 341 animal bones, mostly rabbits, were also discovered.

The remains of five people were found in the cave's two deep chasms, Sima A and Sima B.

Sima B

Three people are found in Sima B's vertical shaft, and the positioning and surroundings of the remains imply intentional placement. One person (I-1) is discovered to have all of the skeleton remains present, showing that it was thrown into the chasm just after passing away.

The others could have been moved from another area to the shaft because they are not as complete. The authors note that using the pictures of the original excavation to rebuild this location presents significant challenges.

Sima A

From the depths of Sima A, two people and six pottery vessels that were later dated to the Early Neolithic were found. The two people were initially thought to be a tragic pair of Bronze Age cave explorers who became disoriented and fell into the 15-meter-deep crevice of the Sima A features. Neolithic ceramics, on the other hand, point to an older, deliberate placement. According to the authors, this intention is consistent with the custom of 5,000–6,000 years ago, when pottery vessels were frequently left as funerary offerings in Neolithic cemeteries.

According to forensic analysis, one of the people (I-5) was a female who was 13 years old when she passed away. Her full and assembled remains were discovered resting against the far wall of the chasm floor, close to the six porcelain urns.

The other bones (I-4) were of an adult guy who was found face down and without the lower half of his skeleton, indicating that he may have been a more unfortunate explorer than the others.

Three of the remains—one from the young girl (I-5) of Sima A and two from Sima B—have undergone radiocarbon dating, which dates them to the latter half of the 6th millennium BCE, or more than 7,000 years ago, making them some of the oldest Neolithic human remains ever discovered in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula. It is by more than 1,000 years the oldest Neolithic funeral site in the instance of the 13-year-old girl.

It's interesting to note that individual I-4 of the Sima A funeral site is significantly more modern, dating to just over 4,000 years old. This is consistent with the first excavation interpretation of a Bronze Age spelunker who ran into some terrible luck.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2023-08-year-old-girl-iberian-cave-early.html