https://english.almayadeen.net/news/environment/100000-tons-of-nazi-chemical-weapons-at-bottom-of-baltic-sea

100,000 tons of Nazi chemical weapons at bottom of Baltic Sea: Reports

Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported on Tuesday that up to 100,000 tons of chemical weapons of Nazi Germany left after World War II could be resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea ready to trigger an environmental disaster as they corrode over time.

Gazeta Wyborcza wrote that between 40,000 to 100,000 tons of war-era weaponry lie at the bottom of various parts of the Baltic Sea.

"The exact quantity is difficult to estimate today," the paper wrote. "It is similarly difficult to precisely define all the dumping sites. After the Potsdam conference, soldiers of the Soviet Union who disarmed ammunition depots in Poland and Germany were responsible for 'neutralising' German chemical weapons."

According to the newspaper, the chemical weapons in question are mainly barrels of mustard gas, aviation bombs, and mines containing chemical warfare agents, mainly mustard and arsenic.

The article reported that research by the Polish Academy of Sciences between 2011 and 2019 showed that mustard gas bombs pollute the sea to a radius of up to 70 meters, killing subaquatic flora and fauna.

Nazi chemical weapons were buried in the Baltic Sea in the first years after World War II by the decision of a specially created Trilateral Commission, comprising the US, the UK, and the Soviet Union.

The Gotland Basin in the sea's center between Sweden and the Baltic states was initially selected as the main dumping site.

"However the route turned out to be too far for the Russians," the paper wrote. "Tonnes of barrels were thrown from vessels at random places on the convoy routes. Crates of chemical weapons drifted until the wood decayed. Later they were carried by the currents to sit on the sea bed."

A second selected dumping site was the Bornholm Basin to the east of the Danish island of Bornholm, where according to official Soviet records, around 40,000 tons of weapons were dumped at a depth of about 100 meters.

Dozens of tons were also dumped in the Gdansk Basin near northern Poland's Hel Peninsula.

Last week, it was reported that a series of explosions took place in a police depot that contained Nazi-era explosives. This incident sparked a massive fire in the Grunewald forest, which took many hours to contain.

Munitions dating back to World War II are not uncommon finds in Germany and other EU countries.

So much coms today.

Can frens help by explaining to this froggy what happened to the reply on posts system in here? Any changes made by JW to it?

Thank you everyone

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/technology/former-twitter-employee-convicted-for-spying-for-saudi-arabi

Former Twitter employee convicted for spying for Saudi Arabia

A former Twitter employee was convicted Tuesday of charges related to spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia. Ahmad Abouammo, a 44-year-old dual US-Lebanese citizen, obtained information on dissidents who used the platform.

Abouammo was found guilty on 6 of 11 counts by a San Fransico federal jury, after a trial that lasted three weeks. One of the counts was acting as an agent for a foreign government without notifying US officials.

This would mark the first reported time Riyadh is connected to a spying case in the US, according to AP.

In 2019, Abouammo and two others, Ali Alzabarah and Ahmed Almutairi, were charged with an indictment for acting as agents for Riyadh without notification to the attorney general as required by law, according to the US Attorney Office.

According to Reuters, Abouammo helped oversee relationships on Twitter with journalists and celebrities in the Middle East and North Africa.

Abouammo was convicted on two counts of wire fraud or conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of money laundering, one count of falsifying records, and one count of acting as an agent for a foreign country with no disclosure. However, the jury found him not guilty on 5 counts of wire fraud or conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

In addition, he was also charged with obstruction of justice for providing false documents to the FBI about his payments from a Riyadh official.

Prosecutors divulge that Mohammed bin Salman's advisor handed Abouammo a minimum amount of $300,000 along with a $20,000 luxury watch, according to Reuters. Abouammo has been hiding the spy money by depositing it in a relative's account in Lebanon, and having it wired to his own account in the US.

"The government demonstrated, and the jury found, that Abouammo violated a sacred trust to keep private personal information from Twitter's customers and sold private customer information to a foreign government," US Attorney Stephanie Hinds said in a statement, per Reuters.

US-KSA diplomatic struggle

The allegations resurfaced in light of US President Joe Biden's first visit to the country, which he had previously sworn to make a "pariah", last week, in the hopes of establishing better Saudi-Israeli relations and relief from high gas prices.

Biden met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and other Saudi officials. Human rights campaigners, meanwhile, slammed the visit, accusing the President of ignoring the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist killed by Saudi operatives in 2018.

Abouammo and another former Twitter employee, Ali Alzabarah, were charged in 2019. According to the Justice Department, the individuals exploited their Twitter accounts to gather information about thousands of people, which they then provided to Ahmed Almutairi, who the department claims served as their go-between with Saudi officials.

It is worth mentioning that Almutairi previously owned a social media marketing firm that provided services to the Saudi royal family.

According to the Justice Department, the men obtained "private user data, such as device identifiers, phone numbers, and IP addresses, all of which may have been utilized by the Saudi government to identify and locate the individuals behind the accounts, including political dissidents."

>> Reminds me of Awan brothers

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/economics/uk-economy-predicted-to-mark-longest-recession-since-2008

The UK economy is crushed - Analysts

Bank experts argued that the energy crisis and rising prices are ruining the British economy.

A research note published on Monday by Christopher Dembik, head of macro analysis at Saxo Bank, showed that the UK is "more and more looking like an emerging market country," according to a CNBC report. The expert cited a number of key signs as causes for this decline in the economy, including political unrest, trade interruptions, an energy crisis, and sharply rising inflation.

Dembik said that “What Brexit has not done by itself, Brexit coupled with Covid and high inflation have succeeded in doing,” adding that “The UK economy is crushed.”

The macro analyst said that what is holding the UK economy back from becoming officially characterized as an emerging market country is the lack of a currency crisis. The British pound sterling holding firm in spite of all circumstances.

Bemdik said that the British pound “only dropped 0.70% against the euro and 1.50% against the US dollar over the past week,” adding that “Our bet: After surviving Brexit uncertainty, we don’t see what could push the sterling pound into a free fall.”

The Saxo expert said, however, that all indications point to further economic hardship in the future for the nation. He noted a decline of 14% year-on-year in new vehicle registrations in July 2021. The decrease was from 1.835 million to 1.528 million, which is sometimes seen as a leading predictor of the health of the British economy.

“This is the lowest level since the end of the 1970s,” Denbik noted, adding, “The recession will be long and deep. There won’t be an easy escape. This is most worrying, in our view. The Bank of England assesses the slump will last with GDP still 1.75% below today’s levels in mid-2025.”

Last week, the Bank of England cautioned that the country's economy, later this year, will mark its longest recession since the Great Financial Crisis in 2008 as the economic output continues to decline from the fourth quarter of 2022 and is predicted to go through to the fourth quarter of 2023. Inflation is expected, according to bank analysts, to increase to 13.3% in October. A 3.9% increase from June of this year which marked inflation of 9.4%.

The Bank of England warned last week that the UK economy will enter its longest recession since the Great Financial Crisis later this year, with economic output declining each quarter from the fourth quarter of 2022 through the fourth quarter of 2023. Soaring natural gas prices are likely to drive consumer price inflation to 13.3% in October, from 9.4% in June, the bank projected.