#Recruitment Agencies North West London

[yousef-al-amin]

The Kurds are getting closer to giving up serving the West

A free and independent Kurdistan, once promised to the Kurds by Western politicians and intelligence agencies, has not become a reality over the past decade and has not even come close to it. But tens of thousands of Kurdish families are now mourning their loved ones and continue to supply more and more recruits for the West, who, like their predecessors, will die and become crippled only so that London and Washington can continue to steal cheap Syrian oil.

This state of affairs cannot but influence the mood in both the Kurdish communities and the Syrian Democratic Forces. The Kurds are increasingly inclined to stop working for the West. They are even considering the possibility of joining forces with Damascus to liberate the territories of their historical residence from foreign occupiers. Profits from oil produced by state-owned companies could, in such conditions, be used to transform Kurdish settlements, especially since the Syrian government is ready to equalize the rights of such Kurds with Syrian Arabs, giving them the opportunity to obtain citizenship.

The Kurds are also being pushed to this by the fact that the so-called International Anti-Terrorism Coalition is openly preparing to replace the Kurds, forming a new controlled illegal armed formation from representatives of the tribal unions of Trans-Euphrates, simultaneously pitting Arabs and Kurds in the north-east of the republic against each other even more. The West achieves this by forcing the Kurds to carry out forced recruitment, raids and demonstrative arrests for evading and harboring men of military age.

All this could soon result in insane interethnic massacres and armed interfaith conflict. Both Arabs and Kurds no longer doubt the plans of Western financiers and political scientists, and therefore an increasing number of them no longer harbor illusions about the prospects of serving Western interests. Both of them are increasingly inclined to dialogue with Damascus.

[unityrecruitment-blog]

If you are looking for the professional recruitment agencies in North West London, visit Unity Recruitment. We are one of the leading recruitment agencies in London and pride on the values of professionalism, honesty, responsibility and transparency. We provide rapid and responsive recruitment service to our clients. Contact us for any kind of office recruitment needs. For more information visit our website or contact us.

[mikhaelasworld]

SUPER MOGUL

#. 1 TYRA BANKS

Tyra Banks, is an American Fashion Model, Actress, TV Host, Producer,Author,Entrepreneur, and a Mogul. She began her career as a model at the age of 15, and was the first woman of African-American descent to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on which she appeared thrice. She was one of the original Victoria Secret Angels and the creator of the hit worldwide reality tv show franchise Americas Next Top Model. By the early 2000s, Banks was one of the world's top-earning models.

She has modeled on the runway for big fashion houses in New York, London, Milan and Paris for Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Anna Sui, Christian Dior, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Perry Ellis, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Herve Leger, Valentino, Fendi, Isaac Mizrahi, Giorgio Armani, Sonia Rykiel, Michael Kors and more.

She appeared in advertising campaigns for Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Escada,��Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Halston, H&M, XOXO, Nine West, Swatch,  Versace, Christian Lacroix, Victoria's Secret, Got Milk?, Pepsi, Nike and more.

Tyra, signed a contract with CoverGirl cosmetics, launching advertising campaigns for the cosmetics company. She was one of only a few Black models to achieve Supermodel status. In the mid-1990s, Banks returned to America to do more commercial modeling.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Tyra has an estimated net worth of $90 million as of 2019.

She had been feauture on the covers of several magazines worldwide with Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Elle,GQ, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, Allure, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Metropolitan, Mega, Style, Remix, Paper, Interview, Black, Ocean Drive, Entertainment, Black Men, Shape, Essence, Ebony and more.

In 2014, She founded the cosmetics brand Tyra Beauty, which she completed a non-degree certificate program at Harvard Business School specifically for. Tyra Beauty uses a multi-level marketing system to recruit sales distributors, who are called "beautytainers" by the company.

In 1998, Tyra, co-authored a book entitled Tyra's Beauty, Inside and Out. She announced in May 2010 that she would be writing a novel, titled Modelland, loosely based on her own modelling experience. It was published in September 2011, intended to be the first of a planned three-part series; Modelland topped The New York Times Best Seller list in October 2011. In 2018, Tyra and her mother, Carolyn London, co-authored a book entitled "Perfect is Boring".

In August 2016, Tyra, accepted a position as a personal branding guest lecturer at Stanford University.

#2. KIMORA LEE-SIMMONS

Known professionally as Kimora Lee-Simmons. She is an American Fashion Model, Fashion Designer, TV Personality, Occasional Actress, Entrepreneur and Mogul. She was discovered by Karl Largerfield at the age of 13 and signed her exclusive at Tutelage to be his model for Chanel.

She helped inspire Karl Lagerfeld's creative vision and call for racial inclusion, and paved the way for other mixed race models in the fashion world. Karl Lagerfeld deemed her the "Face of 21st Century".

She gained attention in the fashion world when she closed Lagerfeld's haute couture show in 1989 as the "bride" – the concluding bridal look signature to every Chanel show under Lagerfeld’s tenure.

Kimora, later modeled for Fendi, Valentino, Emanuel Ungaro, Christian Dior, Roberto Cavalli, Kenzo, Anna Sui, Geoffrey Beene, and Yves Saint Laurent and more.

In 1998, Kimora, then husband, music mogul and entrepreneur, Russell Simmons, was at the helm of "Phat Farm", an urban menswear brand. Simmons created a parallel women’s brand, "Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons", under the umbrella of "Phat Fashions".

Kimora, stepped in as Baby Phat's designer and creative director in creating a collection based on what she would wear.

Kimora has long been passionate about supporting AIDS research via amfAR (the American Foundations for AIDS Research). Kimora attended Lionel Richie’s performance to benefit amfAR at Cipriani Wall Street in April 2006 in NYC, and then the 'Cinema Against AIDS 2006', the annual event in aid of amfAR at Le Moulin de Mougins during the 59th International Cannes Film Festival in May 2006.

#3. ALEK WEK

Alek Wek, is a South Sudanese-British model and designer who began her fashion career at the age of 18. She has been hailed for her influence on the perception of beauty in the fashion industry.

She appeared in the music video for "GoldenEye" by Tina Turner.

She has modeled for big fashion houses in New York, London, Milan and Paris for Off-White, Akris, Balenciaga, Victoria Secret,Fashion by Look, Vivienne Westwood, DVF, Betsy Johnson, CR Book, Moschino, Viktor & Rolf, Michael Kors, Valentino, Lanvin, Versace, John Gallano, Ferragamo, Alexander McQueen, Baby Phat, Etro, Hermes, Givenchy, Sonia Rykiel,Christian Lacroix, Dries Van Nnoten, Schiaparelli,Chanel,Yves Saint Laurent,Dolce & Gabbana,Marc Jacobs and more.

She had been feauture on the covers of several magazines worldwide with Vogue, Harpers Bazaar,Forbes, Elle, Paper, Pop, Stylist, Re-Edition, Glamour, Dazed, i-D, Arise, L'officiel, Purple, Essence, Ebony,Style, Red, Cosmopolitan, Porter, Pride, Archetype and more.

Alek also designs a range of designer handbags called "Wek 1933", which are available throughout selected Selfridges department stores. The name refers to the year her father was born. Her inspiration for the designs came from the brass-clasp briefcase carried by her father.

Since 2002, Alek has been an advisor to the U.S. Committee for Refugees Advisory Council, which helps to raise awareness about the situation in Sudan, as well as the plight of refugees worldwide.

She is a missionary for World Vision, an organisation which combats AIDS, an ambassador for Doctors Without Borders in Sudan, and devotes time to UNICEF.

In July 2012, she returned to South Sudan with the UN Refugee Agency to highlight the stories of refugees returning from the north and the massive efforts needed to build and stabilise the country. In 2012, Alek teamed up with Amarula as the face of their campaign African Originals.

[newstfionline]

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Teen well-being (The Atlantic) Teens who participated in a 1,523 respondent survey between May and July this year were assessed for various mental well-being measures including life satisfaction, happiness, depression symptoms and loneliness. Their responses were then compared to the results of the same survey in 2018, and much to the surprise of the researchers, the teens were pretty much on par, and the percentage of teens depressed or lonely was lower in 2020 than in 2018. This is not to say that teens escaped the malaise that gripped the nation, far from it: 63 percent were concerned about catching the virus, 27 percent said a parent lost their job, 29 percent knew someone who caught the virus. No, the reason for the shift is that those considerable sources of anxiety were compensated for by the fact that teens were finally sleeping the correct amount of time: in 2018, just 55 percent of teens slept seven or more hours a night, and this year 84 percent slept seven or more hours a night while school was in session.

Cruise ship dismantling booms after pandemic (Reuters) Business is booming at a sea dock in western Turkey, where five hulking cruise ships are being dismantled for scrap metal sales after the COVID-19 pandemic all but destroyed the industry, the head of a ship recyclers’ group said on Friday. Cruise ships were home to the some of the earliest clusters of COVID-19 as the pandemic spread globally early this year. In March, U.S. authorities issued a no-sail order for all cruise ships that remains in place. On Friday, dozens of workers stripped walls, windows, floors and railings from several vessels in the dock in Aliaga, a town 45 km north of Izmir on Turkey’s west coast. Three more ships are set to join those already being dismantled. Before the pandemic, Turkey’s ship-breaking yards typically handled cargo and container ships, Kamil Onal, chairman of a ship recycling industrialists’ association, told Reuters. “But after the pandemic, cruise ships changed course towards Aliaga in a very significant way,” he said of the town.

Europe tightens rules as virus surges (AP) Governments across Europe are ratcheting up restrictions to try to beat back a resurgence of the coronavirus that has sent new confirmed infections on the continent to their highest weekly level since the start of the pandemic. The World Health Organization said Tuesday there were more than 700,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in Europe last week, a jump of 34% from the previous week. Britain, France, Russia and Spain accounted for more than half of the new infections. Italy and France are restricting parties and putting limits on restaurants and bars. The Netherlands went further and ordered the closing of all bars and restaurants, And to discourage partying at home, it banned the sale of alcohol after 8 p.m. The Czech Republic is closing all schools until Nov. 2, while Latvia is ordering teenagers to switch to distance learning for a week. And Britain unveiled a three-tiered system for deciding what restrictions to impose, based on how severe the outbreak is in certain areas. Those moves reflect a new approach to containing the virus among governments wary of hurting already fragile economies. Officials are eager to avoid the total lockdowns they imposed in the spring that resulted in heavy job losses. Instead, they are relying on a patchwork of regional or targeted restrictions that have sometimes caused confusion and frustration by those affected. The U.N. health agency appeared to support the new approach, with WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic saying lockdowns should be a “last resort.”

With winter on the way and windows open, Europe’s students prepare for the cold (Washington Post) With winter on its way and coronavirus guidelines advising teachers to keep classroom windows open, students across Northern Europe are preparing for the chill by packing blankets in their school bags and layering up in warm clothing. There is increasingly a consensus among experts that good ventilation is one of the best ways to prevent the virus from spreading. Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organization, said last month that children “can survive a bit of cold, and they’re going to have to, because ventilation is so important.” With temperatures in Germany frequently dropping to freezing, children in the city of Bochum are bracing for a crisp learning environment as officials advise teachers to open the windows for fresh air every 20 minutes. Children have been told to bring blankets and wrap up. Although some schools struggle with the advice that the cold air needs to be brought in, schools in Denmark and other Nordic education systems are taking lessons—and young students—outside. More than half of about 200 Norwegian schools surveyed in a poll by researchers Ulrich Dettweiler and Gabriele Lauterbach last month said they were holding more classes outdoors—a move some already had planned on that was further propelled by the pandemic.

Belarusian crisis escalates (Foreign Policy) Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has demanded that President Aleksandr Lukashenko resign by Oct. 25 or face nationwide strikes. “[On] Oct. 26, all enterprises will begin a strike,” she said in a statement, “all roads will be blocked, state-owned stores will no longer have any sales.” Tikhanovskaya is hugely popular among protesters but fled to Lithuania in the aftermath of the controversial Aug. 9 election, which saw Lukashenko win by a landslide amid allegations of electoral fraud. Tikhanovskaya’s ultimatum is part of a wider escalation of tensions between Lukashenko and anti-government protesters. On Monday, the government authorized police to use lethal force against protesters after the ninth consecutive Sunday of massive protests in the capital of Minsk.

For Nagorno-Karabakh’s Dueling Sides, Living Together Is ‘Impossible’ (NYT) Armenians and Azerbaijanis lived side by side in the Soviet days, until conflict over the disputed mountain territory called Nagorno-Karabakh exploded in the late 1980s into riots, expulsions and a yearslong war. The violence left personal wounds festering for decades, as stubborn as the tan and gray stone ruins of Azerbaijani villages still scattered in the Armenian countryside. In the last two weeks, those unhealed scars have erupted into a modern-day conflagration of trench warfare, drone strikes and artillery bombardments. More than 500 Armenian soldiers have died, along with scores of civilians and an unknown number of Azerbaijanis. A cease-fire brokered in Moscow over the weekend has failed to hold, and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has threatened a further escalation of his offensive. For the region’s populace, the war is a continuation of on-off strife over both territory and history, with roots going back more than a century. The days when the Soviet Union kept a lid on such conflicts, and Azerbaijanis and Armenians mostly lived together in peace, feel like an irrevocably lost world. “Each wants to say that he is the master of this land,” said one refugee who left Azerbaijan in 1989. “To live together is, put simply, impossible.”

China’s Xi lays out plan to build Shenzhen into global rival to troubled Hong Kong (Washington Post) Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced plans to make Shenzhen an international trade hub and talent center, setting up the mainland metropolis as a business alternative to its politically troubled neighbor, Hong Kong. In a speech on Wednesday, Xi called for Shenzhen to take the lead in developing high-value innovative industries and drawing international talent. He said Shenzhen will develop its finance sector and international trade capabilities—which are Hong Kong’s economic strengths. The top-level support for Shenzhen was a clear message for Hong Kong, which lies just across a river from Shenzhen, said Victor Gao, a chair professor at China’s Soochow University and a former Foreign Ministry official. “If you do not have stability, if you are caught up in revolution, or great turmoil, or anarchy, then you will lose out on whatever advantages and resources you may have previously had,” Gao said. “Then your economic development will reverse course.” Hong Kong, which was supposed to enjoy self-governance in most of its affairs until 2047, has become a thorn in Beijing’s side because of large-scale public protests against China’s tightening control.

Japan’s navy adapts to the digital generation (Times of London) Japan’s navy is to launch a new, scaled down warship to compensate for a drop in recruitment among young people who cannot tolerate long periods at sea without access to their smartphones. The 30FFM frigate is designed for a crew of about 90 sailors, half that of the older vessels. The smaller crews reflect the crisis in recruitment faced by the Maritime Self-Defense Forces. The navy is struggling to fulfill its recruitment quotas, and in 2018 reached only 60 per cent of its target. In that year, it raised the upper age limit for recruits from 26 to 32. It has also taken steps to overcome the principal disincentive to would-be sailors—enforced isolation from the outside world. Sailors can now send emails from their mobile phones and have limited wireless internet access.

Thailand declares emergency after unprecedented protest (AP) Thai authorities declared a strict new state of emergency for the capital on Thursday, a day after a student-led protest against the country’s traditional establishment saw an extraordinary moment in which demonstrators heckled a royal motorcade. After the pre-dawn declaration, riot police moved in to clear out demonstrators who after a day of rallies and confrontation had gathered outside Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s office to push their demands, which include the former general’s stepping down, constitutional changes and reform of the monarchy. The protest Wednesday in Bangkok’s historic district, not far from glittering temples and royal palaces, was the third major gathering by student-led activists who have been pushing the boundaries of what is considered acceptable—and legal—language by publicly questioning the role of Thailand’s monarchy in the nation’s power structure.

Southeast Asia flood deaths near 40 as new storm approaches (Reuters) Nearly 40 people have died in Vietnam and Cambodia and scores more were missing, including rescuers, due to prolonged heavy rain and flash flooding as tropical storm Nangka edged towards the Vietnamese coast on Tuesday. Heavy rains since early October have caused deadly floods and landslides in several provinces in central Vietnam and displaced thousands of people in western Cambodia, officials and state media said. The floods are expected to worsen over the coming days, with tropical storm Nangka forecast to dump more rain as it makes landfall in Vietnam on Wednesday.

Coronavirus lockdown 2.0 deepens divisions in Israel (AP) When Israel went into lockdown last spring, Jerusalem pub owner Leon Shvartz moved quickly to save his business—shifting to a delivery and takeaway model that kept him afloat throughout the summer. Then came the second lockdown. With restaurants and shops shuttered again, Shvartz’s business is struggling to survive. He has laid off 16 of his 17 employees. By contrast, Israeli software maker Bizzabo, which operates in the hard-hit conference-management sector, quickly reinvented itself last spring by offering “virtual events.” It has more than doubled its sales and is expanding its workforce. Such tales of boom and bust reflect Israel’s growing “digital divide.” Even before the pandemic, Israel had one of the largest income gaps and poverty rates among developed economies, with a few high earners, mostly in the lucrative high-tech sector, while many Israelis barely get by as civil servants, in service industries or as small business owners. Those gaps have widened as the second nationwide lockdown, imposed last month, dealt a new blow to an economy already hit hard by the first round of restrictions. The fallout from the pandemic has also deepened long-simmering divisions among Israeli Jews, pitting a largely secular majority against a powerful ultra-Orthodox minority.

[mattkennard]

Business Is Booming for the U.K.'s Spy Tech Industry

Published: The Intercept (11 May 2018)

DRIVING INTO CHELTENHAM from the west, it is hard to miss the offices of Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, the United Kingdom’s surveillance agency. The large, doughnut-shaped building sits behind high-perimeter fencing with barbed wire and many levels of security. The facility – used to eavesdrop on global emails and phone calls – is located on the edge of the sleepy Gloucestershire town, which feels like an incongruous location for one of the world’s most aggressive spy agencies.

Cheltenham has a population of just 117,000 people, and GCHQ’s presence has turned the area into one of Europe’s central hubs for companies working in the fields of cybersecurity and surveillance. GCHQ says it employs almost 6,000 people in Cheltenham and at some smaller bases around the U.K., although the agency has in recent years secretly expanded its workforce, reportedly employing thousands more staff.

People in the area are now talking of a cyber “corridor” that stretches for 50 miles from Malvern, just north of Cheltenham, all the way to Bristol, where the Ministry of Defence has its equipment and support headquarters at Abbey Wood. Many quaint English towns, known for their farming and country pubs, have seen an influx of companies dealing in cybersecurity and electronic spying. Even office space on former farms is being used for this burgeoning industry.

Chris Dunning-Walton, the founder of a nonprofit called Cyber Cheltenham, or Cynam, organizes quarterly events in the town attended by politicians and entrepreneurs. “Historically, there has been a need for the companies that are working here to be very off the radar with their relationships with GCHQ and to some extent, that does exist,” says Dunning-Walton. But since Edward Snowden leaked information in 2013 about GCHQ’s sweeping surveillance activities, the agency has been forced to come out of the shadows and embrace greater transparency. One consequence of this, according to Dunning-Walton, is that GCHQ is now more open to partnering with private companies, which has helped fuel the cyber industry around the Cheltenham area.

Northrop Grumman, the world’s fifth-largest arms manufacturer, has located its European cyber and intelligence operations in Cheltenham, where it has two offices in the center of the town. In the nearby city of Gloucester, a 20-minute drive west of Cheltenham, Raytheon, the world’s third-largest arms company, in 2015 opened a Cyber Innovation Centre that it says is focused on “big data, analytics and network defense.” BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, the cyber arm of the world’s fourth-largest arms company, also has offices in Gloucester, where it says it “delivers information intelligence solutions to government and commercial customers.”

Many of these companies are secretive about the work they do – especially when it concerns surveillance technology – and refuse to speak to the media. But L3 TRL Technology – which is based in Tewkesbury at the northern tip of this new cyber corridor – does grant an interview via email.

L3 says it provides “electronic warfare” equipment that can jam communication signals and gather intelligence. A spokesperson for the company says it plays “a crucial role in counter terrorism and the protection of military forces with our electronic warfare solutions.” He declines to provide any information about any of the company’s customers. But a video posted on YouTube by a Middle Eastern news agency reveals one potential client: It documents a recent meeting between L3’s parent company and Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy commander of the UAE military.

According to government records, the U.K. has sold weapons and other equipment worth £7.3 billion ($9.9 billion) to the UAE in the past decade, including components for telecommunications eavesdropping technology and “intrusion software,” which is used to hack into targeted phones and computers.

Another Cheltenham-based company is CommsAudit, whose flagship product is a surveillance system called Spectra Black, a portable device that can monitor cellphone calls and other wireless communications. CommsAudit did not respond to a request for comment and does not publicly disclose the identities of its customers. The company was, however, showcasing its products at the 2017 DSEI arms fair in London, which was attended by government delegations from across the world.

Latching onto this wave of innovation, last year, the British government pledged £22 million ($30 million) in funding for a new cyber business park on a patch of land close to GCHQ’s headquarters. “It will act as a ‘honeypot’ for cyber security and high tech supply chain businesses,” the promotional literature said, creating 7,000 jobs, while boosting the number of private companies in the area that can then potentially become GCHQ’s clients. There is a lot of largesse to go around. GCHQ takes the majority of the share of the roughly £2.8 billion ($3.8 billion) budget for Britain’s intelligence services and has twice the number of personnel of MI5 and MI6 combined.

David Woodfine, a former head of the Ministry of Defence’s Security Operations Centre, worked inside GCHQ’s Cheltenham headquarters for two years. He left in September 2013 to found Cyber Security Associates, a Gloucestershire-based company providing cyber consultancy services to the public and private sector.

Woodfine says toward the end of his tenure at GCHQ, there was a realization that the agency needed to partner more with private industry. “From a GCHQ perspective, I think their whole attitude has changed from quite a hard approach – ‘we’ll keep everything in-house’ – to ‘actually, we need to open up.’ They changed their recruiting, their apprenticeship schemes, so they are attracting more young talent into their organization.”

The National Cyber Security Centre – which opened in 2016 under the remit of GCHQ – is currently piloting new “Cyber Schools Hubs” in Gloucestershire. The idea is to send staff into local schools to “encourage a diverse range of students into taking up computer science,” in effect grooming the next generation of cyber-competent spies.

GCHQ offers meager salaries compared to the private sector, but the agency can offer prospective employees the chance to work with technologies that they could not use anywhere else – because if they did, they would be breaking the law. “That’s a good way of retaining people on public sector pay,” says Woodfine. “So you can argue that they don’t join for the money, they join for the ability to learn and to test their techniques and their abilities.”

A GCHQ employee can work with the agency for a few years, learn about its tools and methods, and then take that knowledge with them to a job in the more lucrative private sector, where there are plenty opportunities for surveillance innovation. According to the London-based advocacy group Privacy International, the U.K. has 104 companies producing surveillance equipment for export to foreign governments and corporations. Only the United States – with 122 companies – has more.

SINCE 2013, SALES of surveillance and hacking technology have been controlled under the Wassenaar Arrangement, which was signed by 42 countries, including the U.S. and most of Europe. The arrangement is intended to prevent authoritarian regimes from obtaining arms and sophisticated spy tools that could be used to commit human rights violations. However, it is not legally binding. And the U.K. has continued to sell eavesdropping equipment to a number of countries with questionable human rights records, such as Honduras, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, China, and Qatar.

Inside the bustling Victoria train station in central London, Digital Barriers, the world’s premier video analytics company, has its offices. Video analytics sounds like an arcane branch of the high-tech industry, but in terms of surveillance technology, it is a field that has rapidly advanced in recent years. Zak Doffman, chief executive at Digital Barriers, founded the company in 2010 after recognizing that in the area of video intelligence, there was a gap in the international market. Digital Barriers’s technology is designed to analyze video – and identify people’s faces – in real time, where the cameras are placed, rather than having to rely on retrospective analysis.

In its London offices, the company demonstrates to this reporter how even with a scarf wrapped around a person’s face, its software can successfully identify them within a few seconds using a standard surveillance camera. Facial-recognition technology is notoriously inaccurate and can produce false positives, but Digital Barriers claims its software can pick out obscured and blurred faces in crowds and match them with photographs that are held on databases or published on the internet. It is, the company says, most useful for counterterrorism operations. But in the wrong hands, wired up to a nationwide camera network, the technology could potentially be used to trace the movements of millions of people in real time. “We built the business primarily in the public sector working for government agencies,” says Doffman. “We are now working increasingly in the private sector with the commercial customers.”

Digital Barriers’s website boasts that it has clients in more than 50 countries. Doffman won’t reveal the names of his customers, and when questioned about the export licensing process, he says the company’s products are exempt. “It’s not export control per se,” he says, “so there’s no formal restrictions on the technology.” What would he do if countries with authoritarian governments wanted to buy the system? Doffman says only that Digital Barriers has a “moral code on this stuff.”

People within this industry want the technology to remain uncontrolled; they argue that countries with authoritarian governments don’t want this type of video surveillance anyway. “Countries where you have a lot of corruption, the last thing they want is facial recognition,” says one industry source, because of elite factionalism. But that seems scant reassurance for dissidents living in dictatorships that can now freely access this technology at the right price.

[ads4services]

A Few Great Ideas For Your Own Classifieds Site

1. Product Catalog or Comprehensive Corporate Website

One of the unduly forgotten applications of a good classifieds script is running a full-fledged corporate website on it. The built-in CMS allows you to create all sorts of pages, include news and current events, product and services description page and categories. And, of course, the catalog of the products presented by your company (equipment, machinery, devices, furniture, etc). You can break the product catalog in several sub-categories, if needed. Besides you can include a number of fields to provide extensive description of all the features of your products and/or services, insert video and plenty of pictures to present each item in the most favorable light.

2. Vehicle Classifieds Portal

You can also create a fast growing and popular on-line multi-category vehicle classifieds portal that offers exciting and effective service to buy and sell any type of vehicles, accessories and related services. Classified ads can include vehicle specs, photos, mileage, price, year, body style, fuel type, exterior and interior color and more. And powerful and flexible search tools will have buyers searching for their specific vehicle. With your own vehicle classified website, you are instantly gaining the competitive edge by offering the highest variety of vehicles on a single website.

3. Business Directory

There is an effective way to create a fast growing and attractive Business for Sale Directory Service and give your customers access to a wealth of new business opportunities and resources. Your target audience will include startup business owners, entrepreneurs, investors, business brokers, managers, everybody looking to start a new business. You can easily create a SEO-friendly online business directory designed to offer businesses for sale, franchise opportunities, and feature business wanted ads.

It's a chance to organize a unique on-line marketplace where your customers advertise their businesses and expose multiple business opportunities to prospective buyers.

4. Restaurant and Hotel Guide

You can create a clean-cut Yellow Pages-style online Restaurant and Hotel Guide. It features popular neighborhood locations or tourist hot spots, and serves as a great town/city guide for visitors and locals alike. You can add extra sections (entertainment, sports and recreational activities) to turn your website into a veritable city/town community making money on banner advertisements from local service providers and listing fees. Such a guide for your local community is a steady source of income from local businesses lined up to post their classifieds ads on your resource.

5. Travel Agency Website

What do you think about a travel agency website? Great overview of travel packages on the front page. Hot/discounted tours posted as Featured Ads. Detailed description of every tour on Static pages, with a summary of offers for every country also on a static page with links to individual descriptions. Sounds good, doesn't it? Each listing displays essential field data: price, starting date, ending date, countries visited, a colorful slide show of places of interest, detailed description with an itinerary, and the ability to book the tour by sending a reservation request (event calendar). Summary of all the offers by continents, countries and regions worldwide can be presented at the front page.

6. Collectibles Website

One of the most obvious and simple applications of a classifieds software is creating a collectable website. You can have an all-in-one collectable website for your local area, or run a nation-wide collectable website on a more specific category (dolls, coins, toys, knives, artwork, antiques, jewelry, glass, pottery, radios, photos, sports items, memorabilia, etc.), or even a very focused website (Pre-WWII Silver Dollar Collectable, or Bowie Knives of the World). You can set up a collectible community and let fans like you build it and grow it. Change the design, look and feel, use advanced SEO features to get your items indexed by search engines to get max exposure and attract new members.

7. On-line Career Network

A good classifieds script can serve as an efficient tool to create a popular on-line career network serving Career Builders and Recruiters in your region, nation-wide, or worldwide. You can develop your unique job website that will serve the needs of businesses and recruitment agencies by offering thousands and thousands of full-time, part-time, and contract job vacancies everyday! It is also a great way of letting individuals advertise their skills and capabilities looking for their dream jobs. With career-related classifieds website, you will give people a voice and a platform to promote themselves, make them visible and available for new career opportunities. Feel free to contribute to your nation's economy by reducing unemployment and overcoming the recession.

Classified Ads Service aberdeen Classified Ads Service aberdeenshire Classified Ads Service argyll Classified Ads Service armagh Classified Ads Service bedfordshire Classified Ads Service belfast Classified Ads Service berkshire Classified Ads Service birmingham Classified Ads Service brechin Classified Ads Service bridgnorth Classified Ads Service bristol Classified Ads Service buckinghamshire Classified Ads Service cambridge Classified Ads Service cambridgeshire Classified Ads Service channel islands Classified Ads Service cheshire Classified Ads Service cleveland Classified Ads Service co fermanagh Classified Ads Service conwy Classified Ads Service cornwall Classified Ads Service coventry Classified Ads Service craven arms Classified Ads Service cumbria Classified Ads Service denbighshire Classified Ads Service derby Classified Ads Service derbyshire Classified Ads Service devon Classified Ads Service dial code dungannon Classified Ads Service didcot Classified Ads Service dorset Classified Ads Service dunbartonshire Classified Ads Service durham Classified Ads Service east dunbartonshire Classified Ads Service east lothian Classified Ads Service east midlands Classified Ads Service east sussex Classified Ads Service east yorkshire Classified Ads Service england Classified Ads Service essex Classified Ads Service fermanagh Classified Ads Service fife Classified Ads Service flintshire Classified Ads Service fulham Classified Ads Service gainsborough Classified Ads Service glocestershire Classified Ads Service gwent Classified Ads Service hampshire Classified Ads Service hants Classified Ads Service herefordshire Classified Ads Service hertfordshire Classified Ads Service ireland Classified Ads Service isle of man Classified Ads Service isle of wight Classified Ads Service kenford Classified Ads Service kent Classified Ads Service kilmarnock Classified Ads Service lanarkshire Classified Ads Service lancashire Classified Ads Service leicestershire Classified Ads Service lincolnshire Classified Ads Service llanymynech Classified Ads Service london Classified Ads Service ludlow Classified Ads Service manchester Classified Ads Service mayfair Classified Ads Service merseyside Classified Ads Service mid glamorgan Classified Ads Service middlesex Classified Ads Service mildenhall Classified Ads Service monmouthshire Classified Ads Service newton stewart Classified Ads Service norfolk Classified Ads Service north humberside Classified Ads Service north yorkshire Classified Ads Service northamptonshire Classified Ads Service northants Classified Ads Service northern ireland Classified Ads Service northumberland Classified Ads Service nottinghamshire Classified Ads Service oxford Classified Ads Service powys Classified Ads Service roos shire Classified Ads Service sussex Classified Ads Service sark Classified Ads Service scotland Classified Ads Service scottish borders Classified Ads Service shropshire Classified Ads Service somerset Classified Ads Service south glamorgan Classified Ads Service south wales Classified Ads Service south yorkshire Classified Ads Service southwell Classified Ads Service staffordshire Classified Ads Service strabane Classified Ads Service suffolk Classified Ads Service surrey Classified Ads Service twickenham Classified Ads Service tyne and wear Classified Ads Service tyrone Classified Ads Service utah Classified Ads Service wales Classified Ads Service warwickshire Classified Ads Service west lothian Classified Ads Service west midlands Classified Ads Service west sussex Classified Ads Service west yorkshire Classified Ads Service whissendine Classified Ads Service wiltshire Classified Ads Service wokingham Classified Ads Service worcestershire Classified Ads Service wrexham Classified Ads Service wurttemberg Classified Ads Service yorkshire

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Chris Squire who Died: June 27, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona

Christopher Russell Edward Squire (4 March 1948 – 27 June 2015) was an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist, backing vocalist and a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. He was the longest-serving original member, having remained in the band until his death and appearing on every studio album released from 1969 to 2014. In 2017, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes.

Squire was widely regarded as the dominant bassist among the English progressive rock bands, influencing peers and later generations of bassists with his incisive sound and elaborately contoured, melodic bass lines. His name was associated with his trademark instrument, the Rickenbacker 4001. From 1991 to 2000, Rickenbacker produced a limited edition signature model bass in his name, the 4001CS.

Squire was born on March 4, 1948 in the north west London suburb of Kingsbury, to Peter and Joanne Squire. He grew up there and in the nearby Queensbury and Wembley areas. His father was a cab driver and his mother a secretary for an estate agent. As a youngster Squire took a liking to Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald records belonging to his father, though his main interest was church music. At age six, he joined the church choir at St. Andrew's in Kingsbury as a treble with Andrew Pryce Jackman, a friend of his who lived nearby. The choir got to perform at St. Paul's cathedral. Their choirmaster, Barry Rose, was an early influence on Squire. "He made me realise that working at it was the way to become best at something". Squire also sang in the choir at his next school, Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, then located in Hampstead. He played the harmonica on his way home from school.

Squire did not consider a music career until the age of sixteen when the emergence of the Beatles and the Beat music boom in the early 1960s inspired him to "be in a group that don't use music stands". A school friend recommended that Squire take up the bass after pointing out his tall frame and large hands, thinking they were ideal for playing the instrument. Squire then purchased his first bass, a Futurama, which he described as "very cheap, but good enough to learn on." In 1964, on the last day before the summer holidays, Squire's headmaster suspended him and a friend for having their hair too long and they were given two shillings and sixpence to have it cut. Instead, they went home and never returned. After his mother took him to a recruitment agency and enquired for work related to music, Squire landed work selling guitars at a Boosey & Hawkes shop in Regent Street. He used the staff discount offer to purchase a new bass, a Rickenbacker 4001, in 1965

In September 1967, Squire joined Mabel Greer's Toyshop, a psychedelic group that included Peter Banks, singer Clive Bayley and drummer Bob Hagger. They played at the Marquee club where Jack Barrie, owner of the La Chasse drinking club a few doors down, saw them perform. "The musicianship ... was very good but it was obvious they weren't going anywhere", he recalled. One evening at La Chasse, Barrie introduced Squire to Jon Anderson, a worker at the bar who had not found success as the lead singer of The Gun or as a solo artist. The two found they shared common musical interests including Simon & Garfunkel, The Association and vocal harmonies. In the following days they developed "Sweetness", a track later recorded for the first Yes album.

As the band developed, Anderson and Squire brought in drummer Bill Bruford, keyboardist Tony Kaye and Banks for rehearsals. The five agreed to drop the name Mabel Greer's Toyshop; they settled on the name Yes, originally Banks's idea. The band played their first show as Yes at a youth camp in East Mersea, Essex on August 4, 1968. Squire spoke about the band's formation: "I couldn't get session work because most musicians hated my style. They wanted me to play something a lot more basic. We started Yes as a vehicle to develop everyone's individual styles." Squire developed a bass solo named "A Bass Odyssey".

In August 1969, Yes released their self-titled debut album. Martyn Adelman, who had played drums with Squire's first group, did the album photos. Squire received writing credits on four of the album's eight tracks—"Beyond & Before", "Looking Around", "Harold Land", and "Sweetness".

After Bruford left the band and was replaced by Alan White in July 1972, Squire altered his playing to suit the change in the band's rhythm section. He felt he was "playing too much, though I was never really sure. With Bill, the things that I did felt right ... With Alan, I found that I was able to play a bit less than before and still get my playing across".

Squire described his playing on "The Remembering (High the Memory)" from Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) as "one of the nicest things I think I've ever played".

Squire was the only member to play on each of their 21 studio albums released from 1969 to 2014. He was seen as one of the main forces behind the band's music, as well as being "perhaps the most enigmatic" group member. Heaven & Earth was his final studio album.

While most of the band's lyrics were written by Anderson, Squire co-wrote much of their music with guitarist Steve Howe (with Anderson occasionally contributing). In addition, Squire and Howe would supply backing vocals in harmony with Anderson on songs such as "South Side of the Sky" and "Close to the Edge".

During the band's formative years Squire was frequently known for his lateness, a habit that Bruford often complained about. Because of this, Squire would frequently drive at unsafe speeds to get to gigs on time, once causing an accident on the way to a gig in West Germany after he fell asleep at the wheel, although nobody was injured. A posthumous commemorative brown plaque was titled in such a way as to make reference to his habitual lateness, namely " 'The Late' Chris Squire ".

As Squire, along with Alan White and Steve Howe, co-owned the "Yes" name at the time, the 1989 ABWH line-up without him (which contained Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe) could not record under that name.

Following Squire's death on June 27, 2015, the band's show on August 7 of the same year marked the first Yes concert ever performed without him. Former member Billy Sherwood replaced Squire during their 2015 North American tour with Toto from August to September 2015, as well as their performances in November 2015, as announced when the band first revealed Squire's disease in May 2015

On May 19, 2015, Yes announced that Squire had been diagnosed with acute erythroid leukemia, and would take a break from performing while receiving treatment.

In the late evening of June 27, 2015, Squire died from the illness at age 67 while still receiving treatment in his adopted hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. Yes' official Facebook page confirmed the news the next day. Tributes were paid by fellow musicians Brian May, Geezer Butler, Gene Simmons and Tom Morello, as well as bandmates Geoff Downes and Bill Bruford.

Squire's death was central to the song "Fragile" from the 2016 collaborative debut album between Jesu and Sun Kil Moon. In the song, Mark Kozelek recounts his experiences as a Yes fan, particularly in light of the death of a friend, also named Christopher. Squire was given a writing credit due to lyrics from his Yes composition "Onward" being quoted through backing vocals.

In April 2016 asteroid 2002 XR80 received an official permanent name from the International Astronomical Union in honour of Squire. Asteroid (90125) Chrissquire was discovered December 11, 2002 and is a main-belt asteroid with an orbital period of 4.08 years.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.23

534 BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character on stage. 1248 – Conquest of Seville by Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile. 1499 – Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck is hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in 1497, claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV of England. 1531 – The Second War of Kappel results in the dissolution of the Protestant alliance in Switzerland. 1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship. 1733 – The start of the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in what was then the Danish West Indies. 1808 – French and Poles defeat the Spanish at Battle of Tudela. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Chattanooga begins: Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant reinforce troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and counter-attack Confederate troops. 1867 – The Manchester Martyrs are hanged in Manchester, England, for killing a police officer while freeing two Irish Republican Brotherhood members from custody. 1876 – Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Magear Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain. 1890 – King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to succeed him. 1910 – Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden. 1914 – Mexican Revolution: The last of U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair. 1924 – Edwin Hubble's discovery, that the Andromeda "nebula" is actually another island galaxy far outside our own Milky Way, is first published in The New York Times. 1934 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis. 1939 – World War II: HMS Rawalpindi is sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. 1940 – World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers. 1943 – World War II: The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 1943 – World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces. 1946 – French naval bombardment of Hai Phong, Vietnam, kills thousands of civilians. 1955 – The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia. 1959 – French President Charles de Gaulle declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals". 1963 – The BBC broadcasts An Unearthly Child (starring William Hartnell), the first episode of the first story from the first series of Doctor Who, which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama. 1971 – Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time. 1972 – The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at launching the N1 rocket. 1974 – Sixty Ethiopian politicians, aristocrats, military officers, and other persons are executed by the provisional military government. 1976 – Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment. 1978 – Cyclone kills about 1,000 people in eastern Sri Lanka. 1978 – The Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 goes into effect, realigning many of Europe's longwave and mediumwave broadcasting frequencies. 1980 – The 6.9 Mw  Irpinia earthquake shakes southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 2,483–4,900, and injuring 7,700–8,934. 1981 – Iran–Contra affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua. 1985 – Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid. 1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada. 1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125. 2001 – The Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary. 2003 – Rose Revolution: Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections. 2004 – The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the largest religious building in Georgia, is consecrated. 2005 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia and becomes the first woman to lead an African country. 2006 – A series of bombings kills at least 215 people and injures 257 others in Sadr City, making it the second deadliest sectarian attack since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. 2007 – MS Explorer, a cruise liner carrying 154 people, sinks in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands. There are no fatalities. 2009 – The Maguindanao massacre occurs in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, Philippines; 58 opponents of Andal Ampatuan Jr. are kidnapped and killed. 2010 – Bombardment of Yeonpyeong: North Korean artillery attack kills two civilians and two marines on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea. 2011 – Arab Spring: After 11 months of protests in Yemen, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh signs a deal to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity. 2015 – Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle became the first rocket to successfully fly to space and then return to Earth for a controlled, vertical landing.

[careertimessa]

Top 10 Companies Hiring Recruitment Specialists Graduates and Professionals in South Africa

Find all Top Companies Hiring Recruitment Specialists Graduates and Professionals for Vacancies in South Africa

Job and Employment Opportunities are available in the following areas of South Africa: Gauteng (Johannesburg and Pretoria), Western Cape (Cape Town), Kwazulu Natal (Durban, Pietermaritzburg), Mpumalanga (Ermelo, Nelspruit, Bushbuckridge), North West (Rustenburg), Free State (Bloemfontein, Bethlehem)  Eastern Cape (Port Elizabeth, East London), Limpopo (Thohoyandou, Polokwane, Louis Trichardt, Giyani)

Companies and Agencies are looking for both fresh recent graduates and experienced professionals for work with the following skills and qualifications:

No experience

6 months plus experience

5 years experience

Certificates, Diploma, BCom, BA, Honours, Masters, PhD

Matric, Undergraduate, Postgraduate

Types of Jobs Opportunity Offered on Career Times:

Weekend Jobs

Part-time Jobs

Contract Jobs

Online Jobs

https://careertimes.co.za/job_tag/top-10-companies-hiring-recruitment-specialists-graduates-and-professionals-in-south-africa/

[shropsnews4u]

Shrewsbury + Ambitious plan will see big improvements to Shropshire roads maintenance

Shropshire Council has begun to implement an ambitious plan that will see significant improvements to the way that the council manages and maintains the county’s roads

Steve Davenport, Cabinet member for highways and transport, said:

“We’re ambitious in ensuring that our infrastructure is suitable for the future, and to match our ambitions we’re bringing in people who can instil national best practice into the way we work.

“At the start of this year we appointed a consultant to review the council’s entire highways service and provide advice on how to make crucial improvements based on his experience of running very successful highways operations elsewhere.

“He worked with the council while we recruited a permanent assistant director for infrastructure. We’re delighted to say that Steve Smith – who has been engaged in national highway working groups for many years – has now joined us in this role.

“We’re now looking to complete our key appointments with a new Head of Highways in the coming months.”

During his time with the council the consultant prepared an initial improvement plan that is now being implemented, and is already being recognised and complimented by many stakeholders.

The key benefits from the improvement plan which are now being built upon by the permanent team were:

Improved contract management which is already deriving greater value from our supply chain.

Ensured that the county was able to maximise its funding with bids resulting in more funding from government than ever before to invest in our roads.

Improvements in the ways of working to ensure that more potholes are being fixed permanently first time and a significant reduction in our backlog.

A greater focus on customer engagement.

Bringing some functions back in-house where value can be evidenced.

Councillor Davenport added:

“We are continuing to identify improvements to develop the service further and are confident that councillors and residents will see the full benefit of these changes over the coming months.

“The consultant’s initial contract was extended by two months to ensure that momentum for change was not lost in the period before Steve Smith took over.

“The agency from which the consultant was procured was paid £140,500, exclusive of VAT which the council is able to claim back. This has proven excellent value as all overheads were included such as leave, sick pay, employer contributions – meaning this would be the equivalent of a middle management role in the council over the two financial year periods he was employed.

“As well as investing in large projects such as the North West Relief Road, we’re undertaking an unprecedented amount of resurfacing of our roads this year. This year we’ve carried out 276km of surface dressing (the equivalent of resurfacing the route from Shrewsbury to London), which is twice the amount carried out in previous years.”

  The post Ambitious plan will see big improvements to Shropshire roads maintenance appeared first on Shropshire Council Newsroom.

https://ift.tt/3622qrt

[ericfruits]

How Britain’s cops spent lockdown

Policing and the pandemic How Britain’s cops spent lockdown

A decline in crime gives police forces the chance to catch up on their to-do lists

WHEN THE nation shut down in March, something both remarkable and utterly obvious happened to everyday crime: it plummeted. Graham Farrell, a criminologist at the University of Leeds who looked at data from the Lancashire Constabulary, found that within a week of lockdown recorded crime in Lancashire declined by 41%. Shoplifting was especially hard hit, falling by 62%. It is a difficult crime to commit when most shops are closed.

But not all crime fell. After lockdown started, even as overall crime declined in London just as it did elsewhere, drug offences recorded by the Metropolitan Police shot up (see chart). Drug offences data are a good indicator of disruption in organised crime since that is the mainstay of such groups, says Rick Muir of the Police Foundation, a think tank.

One reason for the rise is that the drugs trade became easier to disrupt. While other businesses shut down, it kept going. “Organised criminals are innovative people. They responded well, from their perspective, so actually there weren’t long term shortages or price rises within the UK,” says Steve Rodhouse, a director general at the National Crime Agency (NCA). But the business demands face-to-face contact, and drug dealers who were out on the streets when everybody else was inside were abnormally conspicuous.

At the same time, while demands on the police declined, the supply of officers rose as leave was cancelled and new recruits promised by Boris Johnson last year arrived. Police forces used the time to tackle their to-do lists. Among the things they did was “progressing complex investigations, for example county lines”, a national network of drug-runners, says Julia Mulligan, North Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner. North Yorkshire police worked with their counterparts in areas that supply drugs, including Merseyside, West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. And as Peter Neyroud, a criminologist at Cambridge University and a former chief constable puts it, “It’s a great time to serve warrants, because everyone has to be at home.”

In London, the Metropolitan Police drew up a list of roughly 1,000 “prolific” offenders engaged in drug-related and violent crimes. Officers visited 733 to encourage them to “diversify away from crime”, says Commander Bas Javid of the Met. In the event, they spoke to 304, of whom 43 have expressed an interest in taking part in the scheme.

Another tactic used by the Met was to identify what it calls “micro beats” of 250 locations in London with high levels of violent crime and drug activity. In one special operation in a week in May the Met arrested 222 people. Long-running investigations also came to a head. On July 2nd the NCA announced that it had arrested 746 people and seized £54m in cash, two tonnes of drugs and 77 firearms as the result of investigations done over four years with various forces and other agencies.

As restrictions are loosened, the trends are reversing. Recorded offences rose in the past few weeks and drugs offences have fallen. That suggests that police once again have their hands full with everyday crime. But it may also mean that their efforts at disrupting the networks responsible for these crimes have had an effect. ■

Editor’s note: Some of our covid-19 coverage is free for readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. For more stories and our pandemic tracker, see our hub

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Catching up on their to-do lists"

https://ift.tt/3iFbh6m

[paulbenedictblog]

%news%

New Post has been published on %http://paulbenedictsgeneralstore.com%

Bbc news Sospechoso del Estado Islámico deportado por Turquía 'varado en la frontera'

Bbc news

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Translating...

Image copyright DHA/DHA/AFP by Getty Images

Image caption The deported man is allegedly a captured member of the Islamic Speak team

A US citizen suspected of being an Islamic Speak militant is stranded on the border between Greece and Turkey, after Turkey expelled him.

The alleged militant modified into deported on Monday as Turkey launched a force to repatriate captured jihadist combatants held in its prisons.

Greek police said they refused him entry when he tried to depraved the border shut to the Greek city of Kastanies.

The actual person is reported to win spent the night stuck between the 2 borders.

He has been named by Turkey's Demiroren Recordsdata Company as Muhammed Darwis B and is claimed to be a US citizen of Jordanian descent.

A Turkish legit told AFP files agency that he had refused to be returned to the US and as an different asked to be sent to Greece.

On Tuesday he modified into still stuck on a strip of road between the 2 countries and witnesses said he had been attempting to state to journalists on the Turkish aspect.

The fate of foreign IS combatants has been a key ask for the reason that defeat of the team in territory it managed in Syria and Iraq.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated that 2,500 such militants are in penitentiary in Turkey.

Based fully on theGeorge Washington University Program on Extremism, 82 American citizens are known to win travelled in a foreign nation to affix jihadist groups since 2012. Of these, 19 win returned - 15 men and four girls - and 13 win been charged.

A spokesperson from the US Speak Department said it modified into "responsive to reports of the detainment of a US citizen by Turkish authorities" however had no extra voice resulting from privateness concerns.

Bbc news Unfinished alternate since defeat of IS

There can even be few extra graphic illustrations than this of the unfinished alternate left over from the US-led Coalition's navy campaign to defeat IS.

More than 70 countries got together to defeat and dismantle the jihadist caliphate that had terrorised gargantuan swathes of Iraq and Syria. But as with diversified navy campaigns within the Center East, they failed to space sufficiently for the aftermath.

Following the final battle towards IS at Baghuz in Syria in March, hundreds of IS combatants and their dependants were interned in camps. Turkey, which has been intriguing IS participants for years, now has round 2,000 of them in its prisons.

Turkey, Iraq and the Kurdish authorities all resolve on Europe and the West to flee up and clutch inspire their voters however as much as now governments win been extremely reluctant to manufacture so, partly for grief that prosecutions may perhaps also merely fail.

Turkey's present expulsions now threaten to power them into action.

Bbc news Who else has Turkey deported?

Turkey's interior ministry said it had additionally deported a Dane speculated to be an IS member on Monday. Danish authorities said their citizen had been arrested on arrival in Copenhagen.

Germany said one of its voters had additionally been expelled.

Turkey said bigger than 20 diversified European suspects, including 11 French voters, two Irish nationals and various extra Germans, are within the heart of of being repatriated to their countries of origin.

Turkey has no longer confirmed whether these being repatriated were seized in Syria, or in Turkish territory.

Some IS participants and their members of the family were captured in north-eastern Syria in October, when Turkey launched a depraved-border operation towards the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) there.

On the time, the SDF said it modified into protecting bigger than 12,000 suspected IS participants in seven prisons within the house, on the least 4,000 of them foreign nationals.

Relations of suspected IS militants were additionally being held at comparatively about a camps for displaced of us - the excellent of which, al-Hol, housed nearly 70,000 of us.

Bbc news Why is Turkey deporting of us?

Turkey has long accused Western countries of refusing to perceive responsibility for voters who joined Islamic Speak.

Germany, Denmark and the UK win many instances stripped of us of citizenship for allegedly joining jihadist groups in a foreign nation, in a divulge to block their return.

The UK is claimed to win withdrawn citizenship from bigger than 100 of us - amongst them the IS recruit Shamima Begum, who left London as a teen.

Media playback is unsupported for your utility

Media captionShamima Begum told the BBC she never sought to be an IS "poster girl"

On 6 October,the White Home released a press launch following its withdrawal from Syriapronouncing it had suggested "France, Germany, and diversified European countries, from which many captured ISIS combatants came, to perceive them inspire, however they did no longer resolve on them and refused".

The White Home said Turkey would now be to blame for all ISIS combatants captured within the house.

On Tuesday UN chief Antonio Guterres called for global co-operation to build as much as the bottom of concerns round foreign jihadists, pronouncing it modified into decrease than Syria and Iraq "to resolve the discipline for all people".

Bbc news How will the repatriations work?

A French foreign ministry source told AFP files agency final week that suspected jihadists were customarily returned to France from Turkey below a 2014 settlement.

"Jihadists and their households are many times sent inspire to France and arrested as they fade away the plane. As a rule it's miles finished secretly. The records is no longer printed, or released powerful later," the source said.

Image copyright AFP/Getty pictures

Image caption A security patrol escorts girls, reportedly wives of Islamic Speak team combatants, at a camp in Syria

Germany's interior ministry said this week that "it did no longer love to oppose the return of German voters".

A German foreign ministry legit confirmed that good complaints intriguing on the least three men, five girls and two formative years were below draw in Turkey.

On Monday a court within the Netherlands ruled that the nation may perhaps also merely still clutch inspire the formative years of Dutch girls who joined IS - however no longer necessarily their mothers.

Some 23 Dutch girls and their 56 formative years are within the meanwhile being held in detention camps in Syria, AFP reports.

It is unclear whether Turkey will likely be in a neighborhood to repatriate IS suspects who win had their dwelling citizenships revoked.

function gtElInit() var lib=new google.translate.TranslateService(); lib.setCheckVisibility(false); lib.translatePage('en', 'es', function (progress, done, error) );

[hourlyjobupdates-blog]

Planned Works Administrator, Middlesex Braxfield Recruitment are a leading recruitment agency working within the social housing sector. We have been appointed by a housing provider based in North West London who are looking to recruit a Planned Works Administrator on a permanent basis.

[verypostchaos-blog]

Choose the best nanny for your beloved child with Nutkin Nanny.

For more information visit our site: https://www.nutkinnannies.co.uk/

[darlinginspirationalwomen]

Darling Inspirational Woman #109 - Sue George

I would like to celebrate the life of my husband’s auntie, Sue George, who sadly passed away in September of 2016. I first met Sue in 1999 at a family gathering. I was instantly taken with her warmth, enthusiasm, and genuine interest in people. She rarely spoke of herself, always taking the time to ask you so many questions about yourself, your family and your work. Sue always remembered the detail of past conversations which were often followed up with thoughtful notes, postcards or small gifts in between meetings.

Sue was born in Chelsea in London in September 1948. Her mother came from Trieste and father’s family originally came from Dinas in Pembrokeshire. Her parents met at the UNRWA (United Nations Refugee and Works Agency) refugee camp in Rome at the end of the 1939-45 war where her father was camp director and mother a nurse.

She studied languages at university spending time in Italy and France, and spending time with her you soon picked up on her love of things Italian and French. She was fluent in both languages and had an understated spirit of continental elegance. After graduation she went to work as a UN volunteer teaching in Senegal and teaching English in Venice.

After several years teaching in a comprehensive school in Waltham Forest in London, she went to work for VSO, recruiting and training volunteer teachers. Always one to support the disadvantaged, she moved to be the coordinator of a community project in Clapham (CAVE), providing literacy and other skills to young people. Whilst working at VSO, she met Peter, my husband’s uncle (another extraordinary person, but no room for him here), they moved in with each other and soon found themselves expecting their son, Davy.

Sue was a formidable fundraiser, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds to expand provision in a new building, only leaving when Davy was born and the family moved north to Wilmslow.

After moving to the North West she started working in a PRU (Pupil Referral Unit) in Stockport, where she worked for over 20 years, providing for students, many of whom had been excluded from mainstream education. Having personally been into many PRUs in relation to my work life, I had not met someone like Sue working in a PRU before. Sue was a woman without graces but somehow managed to combine this whilst being the consummate lady – commanding respect through her actions and calm authority. PRUs are notoriously difficult places to work in. Sue approached her job with passion and enthusiasm. At this time we were both teaching and had many conversations relating to our shared experiences in the profession, Sue was so passionate about her students and their potential. She was always on a quest to find the most interesting materials and assignments that would suit their interests. I admired her endless positivity and commitment to her students, her compassion and dedication would have been difficult to match. She never gave up on her students, always encouraging them to believe in themselves, building their confidence and doing her very best by them. She was tenacious in getting students to do their assessments so they could get qualifications, getting some amazing results, given the attendance.

In addition to supporting the disadvantaged, her other passion was books. She combined these two as a volunteer for Oxfam. She became something of an expert on valuing second hand books, spotting the rare such as a small architectural magazine which sold for well over £500. She blogged about them as well as pricing them for the shop and selling them on ebay and Amazon. She loved working at Oxfam and always shared her passion for books with all of us, always choosing the most beautiful books for my children. Even when she was too ill to make it to the shop she had her neighbour bring books home to her to value them and continue to support her colleagues at Oxfam.

I’m so glad that I was able to get to know Sue and have her as an inspiration in my life, her warmth, kindness, enthusiasm, energy, and positivity – always looking for the best in everyone – she was always so comfortable in her own skin and instantly made you feel relaxed. A wonderful, inspirational woman, to whom I’ll be eternally grateful to knowing in my life.

(Debbie V)