>>22011779

archive offliine

General Research #23833 >>19406790

Building a digital army: UN peacekeepers fight deadly disinformation

With smartphones, editing apps, and innovative approaches, some UN peacekeeping operations across the world are building a “digital army” aimed at combating mis- and disinformation on social media networks and beyond.

Designing ways to fight back against falsehoods that can trigger tensions, violence, or even death, the UN has been monitoring how mis- and disinformation and hate speech can attack health, security, stability as well as progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“It has become clear that business as usual is not an option,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a policy brief launched in June on information integrity on digital platforms.

“The ability to disseminate large-scale disinformation to undermine scientifically established facts poses an existential risk to humanity and endangers democratic institutions and fundamental human rights,” he wrote in the brief.

Disinformation can be dangerous in other ways. Several UN missions have reported social media campaigns in recent years targeting their peacekeeping work.

In 2019, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known by its French acronym MONUSCO, raised grave concerns about social media disinformation campaigns calling for violence against peacekeepers during an Ebola epidemic and following a deadly attack by an armed group in the restive eastern region.

By 2022, the Security Council had adjusted the mandates of its four largest peacekeeping operations – DRC, Central African Republic (CAR), Mali, and South Sudan – and added the task of preventing disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining a mission’s credibility

“This is a war that is going on through social media, the radio, and traditional news outlets,” said Bintou Keita, who heads MONUSCO. Fighting deadly disinformation has been a “painful curve” to learn of this new battlefield, but the mission has now become proactive on social and other media platforms, to help stop its spread, she added.

To fight back against disinformation, UN peacekeepers are putting new tools into the hands of civilians of all ages, including 15-year-old Blessing Kasasi in DRC.

An activist advocating for the rights of women and children, Ms. Kasasi readily joined a workshop in the capital city of Kinshasa, with 30 young people who learned about detecting “fake news” and countering it with the most effective weapon: the truth.

Guillaume Kingh-Farel, one of the workshop trainers, said disinformation is “used as a weapon of war to undermine MONUSCO’s peace efforts in the DRC”.

As such, the MONUSCO-supported workshop to train “a digital army capable of detecting false information” by producing content with the help of a smartphone and editing software and simultaneously spreading objective, credible information through “relay clubs” that disseminate these messages through their networks.

“From a smartphone, I will produce videos to echo good information,” Ms. Kasasi said after the workshop.

For UN peace operations, some communities they engage are welcoming the new approaches this summer.

In Mali, where a transitional Government has been in power since a coup in 2021, the UN mission, MINUSMA, hosted the first of its kind blogger festival, attracting nearly 400 participants in Mopti in early June.

“With the advance of technology, digital media is increasingly being used to spread misinformation,” said a popular local blogger who attended the event. “A festival to combat misinformation is an innovative approach to overcome this challenge, a useful means for deconstructing hate speech and fake news.”

By the end of June, at the Malian Government’s request, the UN Security Council terminated the mission, which is slated for a complete withdrawal from the country by 1 January 2024.

Other efforts are unfolding elsewhere. In early August, in Abyei, a contested zone straddling Sudan and South Sudan, the UN mission there, UNISFA, launched Voice of Peace, an internet radio station aimed at countering hate speech, and fake news.

Meanwhile, in DR Congo, MONUSCO’s initiatives continue to reach communities plagued by disinformation-triggered tensions. This includes recruiting digital experts, building multimedia products, and reaching out to communities, especially social media savvy youth, mission chief Ms. Keita said.

With these tools, she said MONUSCO has been trying to “beef up our capacity to monitor and to be present on digital platforms in such a way that we are not going to always be in a reactive mode, but in an anticipatory mode”.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/08/1139682

LNG Tankers Divert to Europe From Asia After Russia Halts Supplies to Austria’s OMV

Reporting by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Susan Fenton Reuters November 18, 2024

LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) – At least five cargoes of liquefied natural gas have diverted from Asia to Europe in the past few days, drawn by higher gas prices on the continent after Russia’s Gazprom halted supplies to Austria’s OMV, data from analytics firm Kpler showed.

On Saturday Gazprom halted supplies to top Austrian gas importer OMV after OMV threatened to impound some of the Russian state firm’s gas as compensation for an arbitration it had won over a contractual dispute.

Gazprom notified OMV of the planned halt on Friday, causing European gas prices at the Dutch TTF hub to surge, making it more profitable to send gas to Europe rather than Asia.

“The JKM-TTF spread flipped into negative territory last week amid Russian pipeline gas supply concerns and an upcoming cold spell, which saw traders divert LNG cargoes away from Asia and towards Europe,” said Laura Page, manager of gas and LNG insight at Kpler.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub was trading at 46.00 euros per megawatt hour on Monday, or $14.49 per mmBtu, the highest level since Nov. 23, 2023. The Asian benchmark Japan Korea Marker (JKM) was trading at around $14/mmBtu, LSEG data showed.

Vivert City LNG tanker, which loaded a cargo from Equatorial Guinea and was heading to Bangladesh, diverted on Friday and is now heading towards Britain’s South Hook terminal.

Gaslog Windsor tanker, which had a cargo loaded with U.S. LNG from Sabine Pass that was initially headed to China, changed its destination on Friday towards Britain’s Isle of Grain terminal.

BW Lesmes tanker had a cargo loaded form Nigeria and was initially headed to China but changed direction towards Britain’s Isle of Grain.

“One of the main reasons ships are switching to the UK, though, is likely that the UK’s terminals weren’t so busy as some of the main Continental terminals, meaning there were more spare unloading slots for traders to access when they decided to divert Asian cargoes to Europe,” said Alex Froley, senior LNG analyst at data intelligence firm ICIS.

The Diamond Gas Crystal, originally headed to South Korea, has switched back and is now heading to the Dutch Gate terminal.

The Flex Vigilant tanker has diverted from China and is now headed to Europe, awaiting orders.

Russian gas exports through Ukraine to Europe – the main transit route for Russian gas to the EU – were stable on Monday, according to Gazprom.

Ukraine has said it will not extend a gas transit deal with Russia once a five-year agreement expires at the end of the year.

https://gcaptain.com/lng-tankers-divert-to-europe-from-asia-after-russia-halts-supplies-to-austrias-omv/

>>22011929

"… a younger generation with new ideas to enter the field"

The socialists can try their hand at it and quit when they find out how much manual labor is involved

The dedicated socialists can form collective farms and just like the Soviet Union and China's "Great Leap Forward" in comes the famine

Remember when the "CHAZ" commies went to plant their own food?

Peru Becomes New Center of Rivalry Between the U.S. and China

Published Nov 16, 2024 3:53 PM by The Maritime Executive

The U.S. has moved to counter China’s investments in a mega port in Peru with the Department of State funding an initiative that will establish a sister relationship between the ports of Hueneme in California and Paita in Peru.

As China’s President Xi Jinping inaugurated the $3.5 billion megaport of Chancay, South America’s first Beijing-funded port infrastructure project, the U.S announced that Hueneme and Paita will establish a sister port relationship, a move that is largely designed to safeguard Washington’s interest. It was a part of a series of agreements the U.S. announced with Peru timed to the start of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum 2024.

The two ports signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that defines the relationship, with the deliverables being fostering trade relations, enhancing commercial exchanges, and promoting economic development. The key focus areas will include improving transparency in procurement, sharing best practices in port management, exploring green energy initiatives, and collaborating on sustainable port development strategies.

The U.S. embassy in Peru said in a statement that the Department of State is funding the initiative but did not reveal the amount of commitments.

The U.S. wants to secure its interests in South America through the port of Paita which is strategically located on the northern coast of Peru in the Piura Region. This makes the facility, which is jointly owned and operated by Terminales Portuarios Euroandinos (TPE) and DP World, serve as a key gateway for Peru and South American trade to international markets. Over the past decade and a half, Paita has become Peru’s most important port for exporting agricultural goods and seafood products, generating more than 1,000 direct and indirect jobs in the north of the country. It handles about 10 percent of Peru's freight traffic with an annual capacity of 650,000 TEU.

“In the North of Peru, TPE stands out as the main port for agro-exports and is the potential gateway for importing products. This characteristic makes it a strategic port on the West Coast of South America. I have no doubt that the signing of this MoU will bring mutual benefits in terms of development as green ports, commercial strategies, as well as safety and security,” said Eduardo Cerdeira, CEO of TPE.

Establishing the sister relationship between the two ports came on the same day that China and Peru inaugurated Chancay port, which is located approximately 50 north of Lima and is designed to serve as a major hub for Chinese trade with South America. Chancay which has an initial annual capacity of 1 million TEU is expected to strengthen Peru's maritime infrastructure on the Pacific coast, allowing transshipment of cargo to Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama. It will permit the countries to bypass ports in Mexico and the U.S. as they trade with Asia while China emphasizes it as a key link to build direct trade.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/peru-becomes-new-center-of-rivalry-between-the-u-s-and-china

The bold was me, wanted to highlight the waste of time this is

>>22012146

Study Finds Prejudice Against COVID-19 Unvaccinated Around The World

by Tyler Durden Saturday, Dec 10, 2022 - 10:00 PM

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times

People who have received COVID-19 vaccines express discriminatory attitudes toward unvaccinated people, a new study of over 15,000 citizens of 21 countries across the world suggests.

“Individuals who comply with the advice of health authorities morally condemn the unvaccinated for violating a social contract in the midst of a crisis,” two Denmark-based scientists wrote in their paper, published Thursday in Nature.

“Those who refuse vaccines report that they feel discriminated and pressured against their will.”

To measure COVID-19 vaccination status-based prejudice, researchers asked some 15,233 people how they feel if a close relatives of theirs are going to marry a vaccinated or unvaccinated person—a question that has long been used in surveys on discrimination along racial, ethnic, or partisan lines.

Specifically, participants were presented with brief descriptions of a series of fictitious individuals and asked to imagine that these are people whom one of their close relatives intends to marry. They were shown two profiles at a time, side by side, and asked to rate each profile by saying whether they agree or disagree with statements such as, “I would be unhappy if this person married one of my close relatives,” and “I think this person is untrustworthy.”

One of the six attributes describing these targeted individuals has been their COVID-19 vaccination status, randomly varying between “fully vaccinated” and “unvaccinated.” The other attributes were age, occupation, hobbies, personality, and “family background,” which distinguished between people “born and raised in [the respondent’s country]” and people who “immigrated from the Middle East.”

The Findings

Across six countries—Germany, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa, and the United Kingdom—selected to represent both affluent Western and developing non-Western nations, the unvaccinated were found to be disliked among vaccinated people (14 percentage points) as much as people with drug addiction (15 percentage points), and significantly more so than people who had been in prison (10 percentage points), atheists (7 percentage points), or people with mental illness (6 percentage points).

In addition, the overall dislike of the unvaccinated among vaccinated people (13 percentage points) was found to be two and a half times greater than that of Middle Eastern immigrants (5 percentage points). In fact, according to the paper, unvaccinated people face significantly more hostility than immigrants even in 10 countries that are deemed unfriendly to immigrants. Interestingly, discriminatory attitudes against unvaccinated Middle Eastern immigrants were found to be just as strong as those toward unvaccinated natives.

By contrast, researchers found that the unvaccinated respondents on average showed almost no discriminatory attitudes toward the vaccinated.

“The results demonstrate that prejudice is mostly one-sided,” the authors wrote. “Only in [the] United States and Germany do we find that the unvaccinated feel some antipathy towards the vaccinated. But even here we do not find statistical evidence in favor of negative stereotyping or exclusionary attitudes.”

“The observation that vaccinated individuals discriminate against those who are unvaccinated, but that there is no evidence for the reverse, is consistent with work on the psychology of cooperation,” said leading author Alexander Bor, a political psychologist at the George Soros-funded Central European University (CEU).

A Psychological Explanation

Such prejudice can be explained by a psychological mechanism against “free-riding,” according to the study. In other words, a highly polarized and moralized sentiment surrounding COVID-19 vaccination activated this mechanism in vaccinated people, causing them to see those who refuse to get the jabs as morally-failed “free riders” of a collective effort.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/study-finds-prejudice-against-covid-19-unvaccinated-around-world

India Rolls Out Subsidies and Preferential Financing for its Shipyards

Published Nov 17, 2024 10:01 PM by The Maritime Executive

India is set to unveil a new policy aimed at incentivizing domestic shipbuilding. The ports, shipping and waterways ministry (MoPSW) is finalizing a cabinet note on incentives to promote domestic shipyards, reported the Indian business newspaper Mint. The proposed incentives are primarily focused on encouraging the development of fuel-efficient and technologically advanced vessels.

The new incentive program is the second phase of the existing Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Policy (SBFAP), which was adopted in 2016 and slated to expire in 2026. In the first phase of SBFAP, 313 vessel orders encompassing both domestic and export orders have been procured by 39 shipyards. So far, 135 vessels have been delivered.

During the second phase, the government reportedly wants to allocate $2.1 billion for the program. This will help provide a 25 percent subsidy for specialized vessels, rising to 30 percent for green and highly specialized vessels.

Another significant proposal is issuing credit notes worth 40 percent of a ship’s scrap value. After a demolition sale, the credit note could be reimbursed against the cost of constructing a new vessel at an Indian shipyard. Through this proposal, the government is hoping to encourage fleet renewal of Indian vessels. Around 44 percent of India’s merchant shipping fleet is above 20 years of age, data from MoPSW shows.

In addition, the government is also considering to introduce a purchase preference policy beginning in fiscal year 2031. This means vessels seeking new registration for coastal cargo transport in India would need to be built at a domestic shipyard.

India is targeting the shipbuilding industry as one of the critical pillars in achieving its Atmanirbhar Bharat vision (self-reliant India). The goal is to increase the percentage share of India-built ships in India’s fleet to seven percent by 2030 and 69 percent by 2047. The subsidy programs are key in making Indian yards as competitive as those of China and South Korea.

India is also in the process of giving the shipping industry infrastructure status for the first time. Currently, only shipbuilding and shipyards have infrastructure status, but the broader coverage will help reduce project costs for the shipping sector. Infrastructure status means a company can float infrastructure bonds, hence attracting investments from commercial banks and other kinds of concessions.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/india-rolls-out-subsidies-and-preferential-financing-for-its-shipyards

>>22012380

Mitch McConnell’s Freighted Ties to a Shadowy Shipping Company

After drugs were found aboard the Ping May, a vessel owned by his wife’s family’s company, Colombian authorities are investigating.

Lee Fang October 30, 2014

Before the Ping May, a rusty cargo vessel, could disembark from the port of Santa Marta en route to the Netherlands in late August, Colombian inspectors boarded the boat and made a discovery. Hidden in the ship’s chain locker, amidst its load of coal bound for Europe, were approximately 40 kilograms, or about ninety pounds, of cocaine. A Colombian Coast Guard official told The Nation that there is an ongoing investigation.

The seizure of the narcotics shipment in the Caribbean port occurred far away from Kentucky, the state in which Senator Mitch McConnell is now facing a career-defining election. But the Republican Senate minority leader has the closest of ties to the owner of the Ping May, the vessel containing the illicit materials: the Foremost Maritime Corporation, a firm founded and owned by McConnell’s in-laws, the Chao family.

Though Foremost has played a pivotal role in McConnell’s life, bestowing the senator with most of his personal wealth and generating thousands in donations to his campaign committees, the drug bust went unnoticed in Kentucky, where every bit of McConnell-related news has generated fodder for the campaign trail. That’s because, like many international shipping companies, Chao’s firm is shrouded from public view, concealing its identity and limiting its legal liability through an array of tax shelters and foreign registrations. Registered through a limited liability company in the Marshall Islands, the Ping May flies the Liberian flag.

McConnell’s ties to the Chaos go back to the late 1980s, when James Chao began donating to the senator. In 1993, McConnell married James’s daughter, Elaine Chao, a Republican activist and former Reagan administration official who would later serve as secretary of labor in the George W. Bush cabinet. James Chao emigrated to the United States from Taiwan, and founded the Foremost Maritime Corporation upon settling in New York. The company has grown significantly over the years, from acting as maritime agent during the Vietnam War to controlling a fleet of approximately sixteen dry-bulk cargo ships in operation today.

Foremost acts as a shipping agent, purchasing vessels made primarily in China and coordinating shipment of commodities. Records reviewed by The Nation reveal that Foremost transports corn, chemicals and other goods to cities throughout the world. The company has offices in New York and Hong Kong.

More:

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mitch-mcconnells-freighted-ties-shadowy-shipping-company/

>>22011936

Dear Meathead:

You have done unto us, you have done unto the little children

Niw you reap that which you have sown