#uk infrastructure is failing

[53rdcenturyhero]

Rail travel in England and Wales.

Close ticket offices eliminates 12% (one eighth) of passengers, means losing 12%(one eighth) of ticket revenue. Upswing in fare non-payment has been clocked to be a rapid 25% increase in recent identical implementation.

Which means 88% of passengers have to pay more very quickly to make up that gap. And even slightly more very quickly so 14%...

A 14% fare price rise (slow or fast) would cause unemployment and a rise in working from home, which would irritate the city office landowners... a proven lobby that the Tories pay attention to. So they stopped the closure of over a thousand rail ticket offices. For now.

For now.

Stop forcing disablement onto people. Allow accommodation for different physicalities to remain. Stop the constant upmove of profit and lack of investment in stock line and comms. Allow rail usage to be helpful to the user not a constant money mill.

Other countries manage better. We see this.

[jenovacomplete]

a failed update from billion-dollar cybersecurity firm crowdstrike has crashed windows machines worldwide today (july 19th 2024), leaving everything from airport terminals to checkout machines to delivery apps to banks stuck with a blue screen of death. here's a screenshot from downdetector (au) to illustrate:

the issue appears to be with crowdstrike falcon, a form of antivirus software widely used in the corporate world -- with emphasis on the world. there have been reports from the us, uk, australia, germany, india, france, japan and more. places affected include (but are not limited to) supermarkets, banks, basically every airline, public transport networks, major broadcasters, emergency services, corporate offices, healthcare providers and stock exchanges.

(woolies pic via archiestaines9 on twitter; s3pirion; akothari. yes that is masahiro sakurai of smash bros fame)

emergency service lines are currently experiencing problems within the american states of alaska, arizona, indiana, minnesota, new hampshire and ohio. similar problems likely plague other areas of the world, they just haven't been reported on yet. australian emergency services are operating, and critical infrastructure remains stable. be sure to check in with the local news stations still online for more updates.

welcome to y2k............................. 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[acti-veg]

if Israel stopped attacking, do you think Hamas would commit more attacks like October 7?

I think that it’s very likely that Hamas would attack Israel again yes, or some other militant group would. If you put an entire population under a brutal occupation for fifty years, systematically decimate their population, exploit their resources and illegally steal their land, you are going to face violent resistance from members of the group that you are oppressing.

If Israel just stops ‘attacking’ but doesn't stop occupying, doesn't stop oppressing or dispossessing, then the cycle of violence will continue. The Israeli government and the IOF have stoked up new levels of hatred for their regime among the Palestinian people, if they just get up and leave there will be no jobs, no critical infrastructure, scarce food, resources or opportunities. They have all but guaranteed another century of violence in Gaza if they don't do anything to help repair the damage that has been caused, which they clearly have no intention of doing.

What you have in Palestine is a whole generation of disenfranchised young people who have watched their parents and friends being butchered, who have no say in the political process, no hope for their future, no way to leave, and no way to better their situation at home. All that, while living under an occupying force who wants them dead, what else can they turn to except violence? Israel won't meaningfully engage in diplomacy with Palestinian leadership, not even for the sake of their own hostages. What else can Palestinians do?

For the violence in Gaza to end, Israel must be bought to heel by the international community. They must be made to lift their occupation, return and the land they stole, and recognise Palestine as sovereign state. Until then, Israel must be the subject of stringent trade embargo, they must have their funding withdrawn and their supply of weapons stopped. Israel would crumble eventually, and then the process of reparations could begin.

Palestine needs new critical infrastructure like roads, schools, and hospitals, it needs investment and foreign aid on a vast scale. Israel, and to a lesser extent the nations who failed to stop this genocide, need to foot the bill for it. Only significant pressure from the likes of the EU, the US and the UK will end the violence at this point, and even then, it will take many years of rebuilding, diplomacy and healing.

[weirdowithaquill]

Fish in An Engine's Tank? It's More Likely Than You Think:

So, recently I wrote a story for my 'The World Famous Engine' fic (read here) which focused on the Flying Scotsman getting fish and weeds into his tanks, which clogged up his injector.

While on the surface, this sounds like a rehash of 'Thomas Goes Fishing' from Season 1, it's actually a rehash of a real-life event that happened to 60103 Flying Scotsman in 1958.

The story of the original incident goes as such: back in the late 1950s, the Flying Scotsman worked on the ex-GCR mainline through Leicester. On the way to London, the injectors failed one after the other, leading to pandemonium on the footplate as they were forced to basically drop the fire at speed and try desperately to get the injectors working again before their engine blew up with a full express. You can imagine their relief when the water started flowing again!

And despite all of this, they were only five minutes late to Marylebone!

The reason for this absolutely frantic and tense few minutes? Well, the outlet pipes from the tender to the injector were protected by wire mesh, which was absolutely clogged with algae and weeds! And then they managed to extract roughly three buckets worth of live fish - and not little minnows, I'm talking bream and rudd - from Flying Scotsman's tender!

And the cherry on top? The fireman, Ken Issett, recalls a lady who said to the crew: "Thank you for my safe journey."

Yeah, this actually happened. The world's most famous engine was very nearly destroyed by some weeds and fish.

But how did the fish get into Flying Scotsman's tender? The answer lies in where railways got their water supply from: anywhere and everywhere. Railways needed a lot of water in an era when pump infrastructure and feed-water was treated a lot less carefully. Furthermore, a lot of railways (in the UK at least) also owned canals, which they would simply take the water from and use. The water was moved to water towers via either gravity or pumps, and then stored before being loaded into the engine's tanks. And the pipes were big, to handle the amount of water required by steam railways.

Some firemen from the era recall using homemade rods to go fishing in tenders and water towers and catching fish! Others recalled the fact that they disliked going into the water tanks to clean and inspect unless they were ordered to. One account literally says:

'The bigger tanks were best, not the smaller side tanks. Better than the canal, though.’

Another said:

‘On Friday afternoons they had trouble finding cleaners because we were all up in the water tank with rafts!’

From this, I'm pretty sure we can all agree that Thomas getting a fish in his tank after having to use a bucket is surprising, not because there was a fish in his tank, but because it wasn't pumped in months ago! Apparently steam locomotives were just massive, unwilling fish tanks.

Considering this, it's a real wonder that there weren't more stories about fish causing an absolute menace on the railways!

For those who want to read the article this is based on, here is the hyperlink and the URL:

[adropofhumanity]

At least 16 people were killed and 30 injured on 30 May following intense air raids by US and UK warplanes across several Yemeni provinces that destroyed civilian infrastructure.

According to the Yemeni Health Ministry, the death toll is expected to rise as many of those injured remain in critical condition.

Local media reports say the western jets conducted 13 air raids in total, with six of those hitting the capital Sanaa, including near the country's main airport and in several residential neighborhoods.

The attacks also hit telecommunication infrastructure in Hodeidah and Taiz provinces and the Port of Saif.

Health officials in Sanaa condemned the airstrikes, saying in a statement that "the deliberate and unlawful killings carried out by the American-British-Israeli [alliance] against civilians constitute war crimes [and] a grave violation of the rules of international humanitarian law."

Officials in Sanaa also stressed that the western aggression "confirms the great impact of the heroic operations carried out by the Yemeni armed forces against American, British, and Israeli targets" in the Red Sea and beyond.

US and UK jets launched an illegal war on Yemen in January in a failed attempt to deter the country's military operations in support of Palestine.

The latest round of attacks came after the Yemeni armed forces announced they downed a sixth US MQ9 Reaper drone worth $30 million since November. It also follows near-daily attacks on Israeli-linked vessels and western warships in nearby sea routes.

[mariacallous]

On Monday, United States prosecutors in Sacramento, California, unveiled a 15-count indictment accusing Dallas Erin Humber, 34, and Matthew Robert Allison, 37, of serving as core members of a virulent neo-Nazi propaganda network that solicited attacks on federal officials, power infrastructure, people of color, and material support for acts of terrorism both within the US and overseas.

The group, known as the Terrorgram Collective, has produced four publications to date—a blend of ideological motivation, mass murder worship, neofascist indoctrination, and how-to manuals for chemical weapons attacks, infrastructure sabotage, and ethnic cleansing. The screeds have directly inspired a series of ideologically motivated attacks around the world, including a 2022 mass shooting at an LGBTQ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia; successful attacks on power infrastructure in North Carolina and similar failed plots in Baltimore and New Jersey; and a stabbing spree in the Turkish city of Eskisehir.

Federal prosecutors allege Humber, Allison, and other Terrorgram Collective members were in the process of compiling a fifth, yet-to-be-released publication devoted to a pantheon of “saints”—neofascist mass murderers like Timothy McVeigh and Anders Breivik. The point of this guide, prosecutors claim, was to “inspire Terrorgram users to commit acts of violence.”

Humber and Allison were both federal targets as early as early 2023, but authorities appear to have waited for a year and a half to compile evidence of potential attacks around the world, and for the British government’s decision this April to formally ban the Terrorgram Collective, before filing an indictment that could land the defendants in prison for more than two centuries. To date, American authorities have charged at least four individuals allegedly involved in the Terrorgram Collective with terrorism-related offenses.

While the arrests are not the first targeting the Terrorgram Collective—Slovakian Pavol “SlovakBro” Beňadik and former Atomwaffen Division founder Brandon Russell hold that honor—the charges against Humber and Allison represent a major change from how the FBI and US Department of Justice approach diffuse “accelerationist” terrorism—the nihilist brand of neofascism that seeks to speed up societal collapse and the ascent of a Fourth Reich through mass shootings, bombings, and other acts of terrorism by “lone wolf” actors. Relying on the UK government’s April order declaring the Terrorgram Collective a banned terrorist group and a little-employed section of the “material support for terrorism” section of the US criminal code, federal prosecutors are finally taking an aggressive, whole-of-law approach to violent neofascist extremism.

“What it shows is exactly what I’ve been arguing for years: All the tools they need to do this work, they have,” says Michael German, a former FBI special agent and a liberty and national security fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, an NYU School of Law nonprofit. German points to years of arguments by the FBI and Department of Justice that they are hamstrung by existing laws when it comes to tackling violent extremists within the United States. “It also reveals the false separation that the government makes about international and domestic terrorism—white supremacy has always been transnational.”

In 2018, German coauthored a study of federal domestic terrorism prosecutions that argued existing laws were sufficient to tackle domestic terrorism, pointing to a particular statute used to charge Humber and Allison with material support. “It’s the material support statute the DOJ forgot,” says German.

The UK’s order against the Terrorgram Collective provided American authorities a basis for labeling a diffusive, ostensibly domestic propaganda group as a “transnational terrorist organization” in a detention motion filed on Tuesday, potentially opening Humber and Allison up to deleterious additional charges and sentencing enhancements. In other words, the US is treating Terrorgram in ways similar to how it has treated Islamist terrorist organizations.

“I would think of this case more like an old-school terrorism investigation, where you have a leadership cell that pushed info to followers and radicalized them into action,” says Seamus Hughes, a terrorism researcher at the University of Nebraska Omaha, of the indictment’s allegations against Humber and Allison.

The role of undercover agents in at least two of the Terrorgram federal prosecutions, the DOJ’s repeated citation of the group’s outlawed status in Great Britain as basis for labeling it a transnational terrorism organization, and the alleged targeting of power infrastructure by participants in the propaganda network, Hughes says, all point to US law enforcement taking a new approach to tackling violent right-wing extremism.

“The vast majority of material support cases are jihadi, but right here, they [allegedly] inspired an individual to plot an attack against a power plant,” he adds. “That’s critical infrastructure and is the lynchpin for the material support of terrorism charge.”

The power infrastructure plot Hughes references is the case of Andrew Takhistov, an 18-year-old New Jersey man charged in July with soliciting another individual to attack energy facilities. Court documents describe Tahkistov as a virulently hateful young man who fantasized about attacking a synagogue and participated in a March 2024 demonstration by an Atlantic City–based “active club” in support of jailed neo-Nazi leader Robert Rundo, was ever-present in the Terrogram Collective’s Telegram channels.

Along with allegedly circulating propaganda from the Terrorgram Collective and urging lone-wolf attacks, the feds claim in court records that Tahkistov bragged about participating in the production of the group’s “Hard Reset” publication, describing it as “the perfect starting guide” for a lone-wolf terrorist. “It has ideology, it has how-to guides, it has ideas for funny things, it goes into how you should plan it, it goes into the thought process,” Takhistov allegedly told an undercover FBI agent with whom he plotted the erstwhile attack on power stations near North Brunswick and New Brunswick, New Jersey.

These details were included in Tahkistov’s indictment, which also outlined his alleged plans to travel to Russia and join the Russian Volunteer Corps, a neo-Nazi combat battalion fighting for the Ukrainian military, which was founded by Denis Kapustin, an Azov Movement–connected extremist who tried to help Rundo flee the US in 2018, in order to gain weapons expertise and military training that would allow him to carry out more effective acts of ideologically motivated terrorism once back in the United States.

Takhistov is in custody and will next appear in court on October 9. He has pleaded not guilty.

Humber and Allison are longtime radicals. Humber’s radicalization appeared to start decades ago, per a report by extremism researchers at Left Coast Right Watch. Research obtained by this reporter shows Humber ran more than two dozen extreme right-wing propaganda channels on Telegram, which circulated the Terrorgram Collective’s material as well as other accelerationist content.

In recent years, aside from narrating audio books of neofascist manifestos and propaganda tracts, Humber also corresponded with convicted domestic terrorist Dylann Roof and with Atomwaffen Division founder Brandon Russell, who ended up joining their collective. “There’s no quitting our worldview. It’s a lifelong commitment,” Humber allegedly told Russell in a recorded jailhouse call following the latter’s arrest in February 2023. Her participation in the network, according to a March 15, 2022, Telegram post included in court filings by prosecutors, was to mold potential terrorists for action. “No military is fighting for us. No govt is protecting our people and defending our interests. The ONLY people fighting for us are lone wolves,” Humber wrote, in reference to a teenager she was trying to indoctrinate. “He’s like 18 yo and seems very impressionable, I’m trying to radicalize him.”

When the FBI raided Humber’s Elk Grove home last week, they recovered reams of Nazi propaganda, 3D-printed firearms—including a homemade AR-15 pattern rifle—a short-barreled rifle, a 3D printer, unregistered handguns, and high-capacity magazines, which remain illegal in California. She remains held without bail.

Allison, who was born in Southern California, lives in a high-end apartment building in downtown Boise, Idaho, and, according to court documents, does not hold a steady job. He doesn’t appear to have a criminal record, aside from a June 2022 misdemeanor. There are very few traces of Allison online, but details cobbled together by researchers indicate he drifted steadily to the right from 2018 onward, starting with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s content and then moving steadily in the direction of Timothy McVeigh, The Order founder Robert Jay Mathews, and finally, the skull-masked, nihilistic neofascism popularized by the Atomwaffen Division at the end of the last decade.

Under the alias “BanThisChannel,” Allison was one of the most prolific disseminators of Terrorgram’s propaganda materials and was prolific in extreme-right-wing Telegram channels, commiserating with other SoCal skinheads about racial attacks in days gone by and connecting other individuals to militant groups like the Atomwaffen Division. Research obtained by this reporter indicates he worked part-time as a video producer and was the editor who compiled a number of “sizzle reels” for the Terrorgram Collective’s propaganda output online, including a set entitled “The BTC Movie Trilogy” that Takhistov sought out for inspiration.

Nineteen-year-old Slovakian teenager Juraj Krajčík, the perpetrator of the 2022 Bratislava massacre, was in extensive contact with Humber and Allison for at least a year prior to the attack, and sent his manifesto to Allison after he carried out his mass murder, which explicitly cited Terrorgram Collective publications and thanked the group for inspiring him to act. Allison then circulated the manifesto through the group’s Telegram channels. The group proceeded to claim Krajčík as “their first saint.”

Allison’s commitment to neofascism and white supremacy appears to have run deep—“I won’t quit til I’m dead. my only goal in life is to fucking destroy the enemy,” Allison declared in a Telegram post cited by federal prosecutors. Both he and Humber, according to a government detention motion, sought to identify the informant in Brandon Russell’s criminal case. Allison advocated adding the suspected snitch to “The List” (a collection of federal officials, journalists, businessmen, and other perceived enemies circulated by the Terrorgram Collective as potential assassination targets), while Humber allegedly told Russell in a recorded jailhouse call in August 2023 that she had photographs of the suspected informant and was running them through facial recognition software.

When Allison was arrested last week, authorities say, he had a backpack loaded with what appeared to be a “bug-out kit” comprised of zip ties, a gun, duct tape, ammunition, a knife, lockpicking tools, two phones, and a thumb drive. When law enforcement searched his apartment, they turned up an assault rifle, two laptops, an external hard drive, and another “go bag” containing $1,500 in cash, clothes, a passport, ziplock bags full of pills, ammunition, a skull mask balaclava, sim cards, and a birth certificate.

In a videotaped interview following his arrest, Allison allegedly confessed to his participation in the Terrorgram Collective and “engaging in acts alleged in the General Allegations of the Indictment.”

Law enforcement consider Humber and Allison threats to their community, and to authorities as well: Humber allegedly worked with Russell to try to identify a suspected government witness in the Atomwaffen Division founder’s current criminal case in Baltimore, according to recorded jailhouse phone calls. Witnesses in Russell’s upcoming trial this November will testify in a closed courtroom to avoid being identified, a highly unusual precaution. In a sealing motion, prosecutors state that not only are additional arrests of Terrogram Collective members likely, but the group’s membership poses a severe danger to law enforcement and cooperating witnesses alike: “Defendants' many associates, both in the United States and internationally, may seek to harm perceived law enforcement or law enforcement cooperators in retribution for their role in this investigation.”

Allison is currently detained without bail and is set to appear in federal court in Boise on September 18 for a detention hearing.

The volume of evidence laid out against Humber and Allison in both the indictment and detention motion, says Hughes, shows the feds have significantly altered their approach to both far-right terrorism and particularly "lone wolf" accelerationists who have perpetrated massacres ranging from Christchurch in 2019 to Buffalo in 2022.

“When they go further than they have in the past to lay out the transnational connections and overlay a material support charge, it shows that either the feds are trying to make a point, or they were very concerned about these particular actors,” Hughes says.

Senior attorneys from the DOJ’s Civil Rights and National Security divisions are listed on the court filings in this matter, another indication that the top ranks of the Biden administration’s Justice Department called the shots on the Terrorgram Collective investigation.

“To build a case in this fashion is a decision that gets made at Main Justice,” Hughes says. “Someone high up decided to sign off on this.”

[mightdeletelater]

I spent 15 hours, across three days, watching and taking notes on the legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel. 

South Africa's case was a temporal snapshot that lay the weight of decades of historical context. Although the specifics of the case pertained to Israel's actions in Gaza, its overarching objective reached beyond these particulars. At its core, the case sought to address the substantial disparity between the lived reality of Palestinians and the narrative propagated by dominant political forces.

Across the globe, public anger regarding the events in Gaza has manifested on the streets. However, political leaders consistently chose to overlook, dismiss, ban, or vilify this collective sentiment. Maybe it is recency bias, but in my lifetime, there has never been such a disconnect between politicians and their people than when it comes to Gaza. 

The significance of South Africa's case before the International Court of Justice is that it publically challenges the portrayal of the Palestinian cause as a fringe issue.

Beyond merely outlining the severity of events – 23,000+ killed in Gaza, the 1.9 million displaced, the 7,000+ missing under the rubble, and the thousands of bombs dropped, making this the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century – the case links these claims to the Geneva Conventions and human rights law. 

But where are we as a society, as a human race even, that we are at a point where the case was brought forth in the first place? Such an initiative questions the legitimacy of the international response and underscores the diminishing persuasive power of Western logic in an increasingly multipolar world. 

The case represents a broader confrontation within international institutions, raising doubts about the actual existence of the human rights infrastructure. The conflict has placed Western allies in the precarious position of undermining or neglecting their own established systems, eroding their credibility on the global stage. When you're against the United Nations and hundreds of human rights organisations and objecting to a submission in a global court (in the case of the US and UK, a court that they themselves established), you are simply pulling apart your house with the very tools that built it.

Western powers, having previously failed to support a Gaza ceasefire, will from now on be viewed in the global south as fighting on Israel's side. More so than they were already. And why wouldn't they be? These politicians have made it clear that they want to supply arms and military support to a regime, and their intervention, it seems, is contingent upon the safeguarding of goods shipment. These politicians assert that financial resources are lacking for reconstructing their nations, yet readily allocate funds for military endeavours. Why? How is any of this normal? 

After the legal proceedings, Netanyahu said, "We will continue the war in the Gaza Strip until we achieve all our objectives. The Hague and the axis of evil will not stop us." Without compelling a policy change from Israel, what hope is there that South Africa's case will avail? It was obvious that Israel would use support from the US and the UK to prosecute the real agenda that Netanyahu and hundreds of Israeli politicians have hidden in plain sight (i.e. admitted on camera constantly): the destruction of Palestine and its people.

The recurring pattern is evident. Gaza transforms from an open-air prison to an open-air slaughterhouse under Israeli actions. Iraq faces invasion and fragmentation fueled by falsehoods and lies. Libya, once somewhat stable, descends into a state of civil war. Afghanistan witnesses invasion followed by prolonged failure and abandonment. Yemen endures relentless bombing, culminating in one of the most severe humanitarian crises in recorded human history. Syria? Also bombed, resulting in the displacement of thousands of refugees.

All of this, and more, is the legacy of Western "intervention", war, and policy in the Middle East.

Strangely, I find myself distanced from all this turmoil, yet the impact remains surprisingly profound. So many people I love have been impacted, yet I still experience a sense of detachment.

I go about my life. I have family and friends. I have hobbies and a job. But multiple times a day, it will hit me. I'll remember the videos I've seen of a mother crying over her son's body. Or the father carrying the remains of his children in plastic bags. Or the doctors performing amputations in overcrowded hospitals with nothing more than a dull butter knife. A wave of deep sorrow washes over me, settling in my chest like a persistent ache, lingering until I find a sufficiently absorbing distraction. And then, the cycle restarts.

But I don't want to be distracted. And I don't want to forget. I feel like I don't deserve to forget. It feels like the least I can do. Because I, unfortunately, do not have a megaphone loud enough to shout to those in positions of authority and tell them they are cowardly individuals sitting on chairs fashioned from the bones of Gaza's children.

In 2024, you would think that we would only be quoting Martin Luther King to learn about history and not to still use his message for current happenings, but he honestly said it best: "No one is free when we are all free." 

[transmutationisms]

I only lurk the Succession fandom but I wanted to say I wasn't expecting critique of psychiatry here. Really great to see, makes me feel less lonely. Thank you. I hope it's a more increasingly accepted position, or at least not totally ostracised, because people literally call me a Scientologist. I'm a leftist lol

yeah unfortunately that's a rhetorical move i'm also familiar with lol. in the us and uk at least, the leftist antipsychiatry of the 60s and 70s basically failed to offer the sort of sustained community support necessary for an actual alternative to institutionalisation and psychiatrisation, and the medical establishment has consequently been able to continue presenting psychiatry as being the best or only 'solution' to the 'problem' of madness. meanwhile scientology has aggressively positioned itself as though it is the heir to the leftist critiques of psychiatry and a liberator of patients, which serves both its own recruitment aims and, frankly, the medico-legal establishment, by making antipsych appear to be a fringe position exclusively espoused by those with a financial motive to do so. it's very deeply infuriating.

anyway yeah this is something i feel strongly about, even on my tumblr blog in relation to hbo succession lmao. i won't pretend to know where we go from here or how to create the kind of community infrastructure necessary for mad liberation. i will say that you're not the only person invested in these critiques, and that i have observed growing grassroots movements, particularly of patients and psych survivors, along with a notable rise in the last two or so decades of scholarship in the history and sociology of science engaging in the sort of epistemological and philosophical criticism of psychiatry that the political mainstream in the last half-century has tried to suppress. leftists absolutely need to be synced in with disability activism, including mad liberation; these are not optional add-ons to our politics but critical challenges to the capitalist valuation of human bodies and minds on the basis of economic prductivity. if we're not dismantling these structures of control and suppression, and we're not committed to the liberation of those subjected to all forms of state and medical violence, then like, what the fuck are we even doing this for, lmao.

[agentfascinateur]

Support for Palestinians from 1300 artists, stars and entertainers:

To the Arts and Culture Sector,

We write to you as artists and cultural workers united in our commitment to justice, dignity, freedom, and equality for all people in Israel / Palestine. We hold every life to be precious, and we grieve every death.

The scale of violence unfolding in Gaza demands our collective attention and action.

Members of Israel’s far-right government are openly calling for ethnic cleansing.

The use of starvation as a weapon of war, along with denial of water and electricity, is cruel beyond words.

The wholesale destruction of civilian infrastructure, the bombing of hospitals, schools, churches and mosques, the killing of 14,500  people in a matter of weeks, amount to a policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. The United Nations and hundreds of legal scolars have called on the international community to prevent genocide.

As artists, we cannot remain silent in the face of such egregious violations of international humanitarian law.

While catastrophe unfolds, we have observed a glaring absence of statements of solidarity with Palestinian people from most UK arts organisations.

We find it deeply troubling and, frankly, indicative of a disturbing double standard that expressions of solidarity, which have been readily offered to other peoples facing brutal oppression, have not been extended to Palestinians.

Such a discrepancy raises serious questions about bias in the response to grave human rights violations.

Far from supporting our calls for an end to the violence, many cultural institutions in Western countries are systematically repressing, silencing and stigmatising Palestinian voices and perspectives. This includes targeting and threatening the livelihoods of artists and arts workers who express solidarity with Palestinians, as well as cancelling performances, screenings, talks, exhibitions and book launches.

Despite this pressure, artists in their thousands are following their conscience and continuing to speak out. Freedom of expression, as enshrined in the Human Rights Act and the European Convention of Human Rights is the backbone of our creative lives, and fundamental to democracy. We remind cultural organisations and their funders of their obligation to uphold the right to freedom of expression and to uphold their commitment to anti-discrimination.

As artists and cultural workers, we stand in solidarity with those facing threats and intimidation in the workplace. The arts sector must urgently align its actions with its stated values of justice and inclusivity, and to refuse the dehumanisation of Palestinian people.

We call upon the arts and culture sector to:

– Publicly demand a permanent ceasefire.

– Promote and amplify the voices of Palestinian artists, writers, and thinkers.

– Stand up for artists and workers who voice their support for Palestinian rights.

– Refuse collaborations with institutions or bodies that are complicit in severe human rights violations.

To stay silent in the face of mass injustice and worsening humanitarian crisis would be an abrogation of moral duty. To actively silence the principled artists and workers who do fulfil this responsibility is a failure to meet legal obligations on freedom of expression and anti-discrimination. Many artists are refusing to work with institutions that fail to meet these basic obligations.

The struggle for freedom from racism for Palestinians and Jews is one of collective liberation. We refuse to pit one community against the other, and stand firmly against all forms of racism including Islamophobia and antisemitism.

In the spirit of justice, equality, and the shared values of the arts, we urge you to take a principled stance. 

[probablyasocialecologist]

“There is a merry-go-round between the core regulators and the regulated utilities,” said Sir Dieter Helm, a former government adviser and professor of economic policy at Oxford University. “Regulators are not paid very well, and if there is the potential of future jobs in the firms they regulate, it creates potential conflicts of interest.”

[...]

A report published last week by Richard Murphy, professor of accounting practice at Sheffield University, has calculated that the nine water and sewerage companies in England and Wales benefited from a 35% profit margin before financing costs between 2002 to 2022, paying out £24.8bn of profits in dividends. Murphy said: “Ofwat allowed water companies to take on an extraordinary amount of debt, which was always going to explode. They were apparently unable to appraise the scale of risks inside the industry. “It’s exceptional that over 20 years, every single penny of profit that has been earned after tax has been taken out by way of dividends. The mindset was they were managing a cash cow and would keep getting dividends for ever.” The water companies have been criticised by campaigners for failing to adequately invest in infrastructure to reduce leaks and prevent sewage spills in rivers and along the coastline.

[starlightshadowsworld]

The UN Security Council held a vote today (18.10.2023) for a resolution.

All the information here comes from this UN Security website page, this site for more info.

And the Israel/Gaza-Humanitarian aid and situation briefing video on the United Nations YouTube page.

Slightly unrelated, they live streamed this... Which is just insane to think about.

Anyway.

Prior to this vote they had been 2 amendedments of a draft resolution proposed by Russia.

It called for an end to indiscriminate attacks on civilians and infrastructure.

And a condemnation of the blockades and calling for a ceasefire.

Neither were passed by the UN Security Council.

Because despite it saying it would condemn "all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism."

Say it with me now, it didn't condemn Hamas.

Hell it didn't even mention Hamas.

... Do you guys know how to read? Like, genuinely?

But yeah it didn't pass, Russia was pissed and said:

"The council once again has found itself a hostage to the selfish intentions of the Western bloc of countries."

And has failed as a collective.

Which, yeah.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Russia.

Huh...

The current draft resolution they voted on today was lead by Brazil.

This draft condemned "all acts of terrorism, violence and hostilities."

And emphasised that it "rejects and condemns the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas."

... We get it okay.

It also called for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in Gaza to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza.

Glad we're on the same page for that.

Their are 15 members that make up the UN Security Council.

Currently they are: Albania, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Gahbon, Russia, Ghana, Japan, the UK, Malta, Switzerland, the US, France, Mozambique and the UAE.

12 voted in favour for this resolution.

2 abstained from voting.

These being the UK and Russia.

The UK, because "the text needed to be clearer on Israel's inherit right to self defence."

... One moment.

Screams into my pillow

... Fucking hate this country...

I'm just glad you guys decided not to vote, keep your mouth shut.

Russia... For obvious reasons, see above.

And 1 voted no.

And you'd think that means the draft would pass.

I mean it's 12 to 1.

... But it won't because the one who said no was the US.

The UN has 5 permanent members on its council, China, France, Russia, the UK and the US.

And if one of these members votes no than no action is taken.

It's called Veto.

And because the US said no.

The resolution can't be passed.

Why did they say no?

Because it didn't mention Israel's right to self defence.

... People are being bombed and shot, being killed by the thousands.

By weapons you supplied them with mind you.

And you're priority isn't giving them humanitarian aid, isn't calling for a ceasefire.

Its whether or not the people oppressing them, who've oppressed them for 75 years.

Who have dropped 6000 bombs on them in one week.

You're bothered about whether or not they have the right to self defence.

Their blood is on your hands.

... Get your fucking priorities in order.

[thoughtlessarse]

Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company, is teetering on the brink of financial collapse, raising the prospect of a taxpayer-funded bailout. The company, which serves 16 million customers, is struggling to secure crucial investment to repair its ageing infrastructure and deal with its mounting debt. There have now been reports that the Government is considering bailing out Thames Water as a last resort, which could see water bills rise by hundreds of pounds a year.

continue reading

So, they now expect taxpayers around the country to bail out a water company that only serves one part of the country, the richest part. The rest of the country, which has still not recovered economically from the pandemic, is essentially paying money to the only region on mainland UK that recovered and then some. (Northern Ireland also recovered, thanks in large part to continuing trade with the EU.)

What's the difference between Sunak taking “Levelling Up” meant for poorer regions to benefit his south-east constituency and Starmer taking cash from poorer regions to prop up a failing water company, again in the south-east? Both widen inequality. It's more austerity which opens the door for the far-right.

[the-light-of-stars]

Netanyahu: Israel will continue to fight "until victory"

In the midst of growing international criticism on the conduct in the Gaza strip, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his country will continue to fight "until victory" over Hamas. "Nothing will stop us", said Netanyahu in his video message. He said this also in light of "international pressure", he added : "We will continue until the end, until victory, nothing less than that."

as for what the israeli government plans to happen after "victory" (same link) :

"The israeli ambassador in the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, rules out a two state solution following the war against Hamas. In an interview with british news channel Sky News she said, on repeated enquiry, that a two state solution is "absolutely out of the question" for the time after the war in near east.

"It is time that the world understands that the Oslo-paradigm has failed on October 7." said the ultra-right wing politician who has already held multiple political offices in her home. [...] "

"The israeli Minister for Social Equality, Amichai Chikli from the government party Likud, did not rule out the creation of israeli settlements in the Gaza strip. This said the right-wing politician when asked about the future of the besieged coastal strip in an interview with the israeli news site ynet. The palestinian autonomy monitoring authority should not be part of the administration in Gaza after the war."

The israeli government repeatedly and openly states that the reason for their attacks is "victory" over Gaza and to get full political control of the area afterwards.

It's not being ambiguous about the purpose of their attacks being ethnic cleansing and a complete occupation and annexation of Gaza as well as the building of colonial settlements, with or without international support. That is their goal, they are not being subtle about it, they keep saying it again and again, directly.

And yet governments like Germany or the US still keep calling Israel's attacks "only self defense" or even "resistance" and keep acting like the death, starvation and displacement of civilians as well as the targetted destruction of cultural , medical and civilian infrastructure is merely unfortunate collateral damage that isn't intended by the israeli government and simply can't be helped.

They keep treating the israeli government like the victims and the good guys that must be supported unquestioningly, and treat anyone that questions or citicises them even in the slightest as a bigot or "terrorist sympathiser" even though even their government funded media keeps referring to israel's government not just as "right wing" , not even as "far right" but as "ultra extreme far right". But no, questioning a government like that is a bad thing to do and completely unreasonable, according to the self proclaimed progressive or liberal governments of Germany , the US and other nations.

To go even further , german federal state Saxony-Anhalt has now made a pledge to Israel requirement for naturalisation. and calls Israel's right to existence "Germany's reason for existence" again, like the german government keeps reiterating on since Oct. 7.

[uboat53]

There are two truths I've noticed recently, one about the left and one about the right. SHORT RANT (TM) time?

THE LEFT IS TERRIFIED OF SUCCESS

How many times have you heard that Joe Biden is a feckless centrist? If you run in left-leaning circles, I'm betting you've heard it a lot. And you haven't heard it from conservatives; according them, Biden is a dues paying, raving revolutionary, communist standing on the shoulders of Mao, Stalin, and Castro. No, you're hearing about Biden's pathological centrism from the left.

Think about that, the guy who appointed more women and minorities to the US courts than any previous president (including the black one!), has the most diverse cabinet in history, passed the largest public investment in infrastructure since the Eisenhower Interstate, the first gun control bill in most young people's entire lifetime, and the first major climate change investment ever is being cast as a bland centrist. Why is that?

Well, part of it is almost certainly right-wing trolls trying to drive down youth turnout, but they're not coming up with the idea on their own, they're latching on to something that's already there. You see, young people on the left have never actually seeing left-leaning government in action. I was born in 1985 and my entire life has been defined by Reaganism (and worse) on the right and the Clinton-era Third Way politics on the left. To me, truly leftist governance like the kind that FDR and LBJ practiced exists pretty much only in the history books.

And that's the thing, talking about that as a way to criticize the current governance is all well and good, but having to actually put it into practice and take responsibility for it is a scary thing. You find this a lot with utopian idealists; you can be perfect in the land of ideas, but doing things in the real world means you will make mistakes and run the risk of failing. And truly left-leaning governance hasn't been practiced in so long that we're going to have a reasonable amount of flailing about as we figure out which parts of it still work with the modern economy, which parts will have be re-worked, and which parts of it we've forgotten how to do altogether and will have to rebuild from scratch. Faced with that possibility, a lot of the American left has decided that it's easier not to take responsibility. So, instead of being known for his impressive liberal accomplishments, the most progressive president of my lifetime somehow morphs into a bland centrist barely to the left of Reagan.

And you can see the difference between leftists who want to enact their agenda and ones that don't. Why do you think that AOC and others like her have been some of the president's staunchest supporters over the last few weeks? Unlike a lot of people on the left, she actually wants to enact the agenda she supports. She wants to do the hard work of putting it into action and addressing the mistakes rather than criticizing from afar.

It turns out, though, that there's a large swath of the American left that would much rather complain about the way things are than do the hard work of making change.

THE RIGHT IS FINE WITH RACISM, ACTUALLY

Recently France had an interesting election. You see, France does two rounds, a first round where anyone who gets 50%+ automatically wins and a second round where anyone who didn't get 50%+ in the first round has to go again. The far right National Rally Party did quite well in the first round and seemed as if they were on track to win big in the second round, but the far left Popular Front made a tactical decision to not contest seats where they weren't likely to win and voted strategically instead, leading to a divided government where they held the most seats.

Overall that's been cast as a win for France, having held off the essentially fascist National Rally Party, but there's something interesting you notice when you read establishment conservative outlets like The Telegraph in the UK or The Wall Street Journal in the US. You see, in their eyes, a government in which the far left has power is just as bad as a government in which the far right has power.

Think about that for a second, the far left being as bad as the far right. The far left certainly wants to nationalize banks and industries, they want to lower retirement ages and increase taxes, but they don't want to round up whole segments of society and they don't want to kill anyone. I realize that sounds a little extreme, but let's not forget that there are people still alive today who remember the last time a far right government seized power in a major western country and actually DID THAT!

The only way you get to a point of view where the people who want to redistribute wealth, possibly to the point where overall prosperity declines, are as bad as the people who want to round up certain groups of people is if you're willing to be paid to allow racism.

People talk about how the policies of the far left will result in reduced prosperity as if the policies of the far right don't also do that. The only difference is whose prosperity is reduced. As a moral matter, it's fairly clear that the person who targets others based on the color of their skin, their religion, their culture, or their language is worse than the person who has misguided ideas about money, but people are often willing to massage their morality if it might cost them money.

And, just so we're clear, it's not as if fascism is any more economically friendly than communism. To white people, fascism only seems like it brings prosperity because fascists take from non-white people and give their stuff to white people in exactly the same fashion as conservatives like to say that socialists give away other people's stuff. And, when they run out of other people's stuff in their own countries, they tend to gin up excuses to go to war so they can go abroad and take stuff from other people over there because they have no ability to create real prosperity.

The fact that conservatives, and not just the far-right, MAGA crowd, but the staid, "sensible", button-down conservative who considers themselves colorblind, can be convinced that money is more important than basic democratic principles like equality and justice tells you everything you need to know about how they can "well, yes, but…" every bit of the violence and bigotry of the far right.

It's not that they're necessarily racist themselves (though many are), it's that they are willing to accept racism if it can bring them personal comfort. Take from that what you will.

[weecherylita]

Sources for UK citizens to contact their MPs/ministers about the situation in Palestine

Template letter to MP calling for ceasefire

Oxfam petition calling for ceasefire

Amnesty International guide to writing to your representatives

Oxfam is also running an emergency appeal for Gaza.

I'm just sort of reeling in horror at the moment at the way my government, large parts of the UK press and most of the political establishment is reacting to events in Gaza.

They have no problem recognising and condemning the atrocities committed by Hamas, but largely shy away from calling out the atrocities committed by Israel. Even though those atrocities are causing a humanitarian crisis. Even though 800 scholars in international law and genocide studies are saying that the Israeli forces are in danger of committing genocide.

UK politicians keep saying that the Israeli response should be in line with international law, and then fail to point out all the ways in which it isn't.

They frequently fail to highlight the wider context of the fighting or call Israel out on any of their human rights abuses, recent or historical.

It is sometimes difficult to know which media outlets or individuals to trust. I do tend to trust the humanitarian and human rights groups though.

So, two reports on the illegal system of apartheid which sets the wider context for this situation:

One from Amnesty International

One from Human Rights Watch

A recent investigation by Amnesty International found "evidence of suspected war crimes" committed by Israel, because of their indiscriminate bombing.

Collective punishment is also illegal, such as the current blockade on Gaza.

The continued historical pattern of kicking Palestinians out of their homes and building on their land is illegal.

And then there's this frankly harrowing report on the current situation from Oxfam:

"Oxfam has been providing humanitarian relief for people caught up in war for decades. We do this in Somalia, Yemen and Syria, and we have been doing this in Palestine for decades. But what is happening in Gaza today is unprecedented.

Elsewhere, my brave colleagues would be running relief services; in Gaza today they are running for their lives. Elsewhere, we would be in constant touch with them; in Gaza today their phones are running out of battery because electricity has been cut off. Elsewhere, we would share our location data with combatants to keep staff and civilians safe; in Gaza today, no one is safe.

The humanitarian rulebook has been thrown out, and polite pleas from politicians to “minimise civilian fatalities” are naive at best, and at worst seem blind to the unimaginable horrors already taking place in Gaza.

...

"The situation when it comes to water is potentially even more deadly. More than 2 million people, half of them children, are being denied one of life’s essentials; they are forced to drink dirty water or go without. Without working toilets and with waste accumulating in the streets, Gaza risks becoming a breeding ground for cholera and other deadly diseases.

According to the UN, at least six of Gaza’s water wells, three water pumping stations and one water reservoir have been damaged so far. All three of its desalination plants have stopped providing water due to a lack of fuel and electricity; all six of its wastewater treatment plants are now non-operational. There is no water for 3,500 inpatients in 35 hospitals, and around 400,000 internally displaced people sheltering in 160 schools are at immediate risk. The UN estimates that people in Gaza now have access to an average of just 3 litres of water a day when a person needs 50-100 for basic health needs.

Attacking, destroying or rendering civilian infrastructure useless is a breach of international humanitarian law. That Hamas is holding hostages is truly appalling; the atrocities committed by them against Israeli civilians heartbreaking. Neither fact, however, justifies the collective punishment of 2 million people or negates the responsibility of Israel to meet these basic needs for civilians. Palestinians in Gaza have literally nowhere to go, and no one seems willing or able to help as families face death by dehydration and disease."

And yet Rishi Sunak dares to say that he trusts Israel not to endanger innocent civilians - unlike Hamas.

I'm reeling from the ignorance/hypocrisy.

I'm just finding it very difficult to stomach that my country is turning a blind eye to genocide and somehow claiming the moral high ground whilst doing so. It's distressing enough that this is happening at all, but when my country has the power to act and fails to do so, I feel that I have a moral responsibility to say something.

So if you can, please do speak up. Tell your elected representatives to do better. Condemn the Israeli response, let aid in, ask for a ceasefire and and end to the illegal occupation and system of apartheid.

[argumate]

Russia’s missile campaign to degrade Ukraine’s unified energy infrastructure has failed definitively, and Russia appears to have abandoned the effort. Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko announced on April 8 that Ukraine is resuming energy exports for the first time since October 11, 2022. Russian authorities began efforts in October to degrade Ukrainian energy infrastructure to a significant extent by the end of winter, which Russians consider March 1; however, the series of large-scale Russian missile strikes on energy infrastructure failed to achieve the assessed Russian aims of causing a humanitarian disaster, weakening Ukrainian military capabilities, and forcing Ukraine to negotiate. State-run Russian media acknowledged this failure on March 1. Russia likely abandoned the effort soon after. The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (UK MoD) noted on April 8 that the frequency of Russian large-scale, long-range attacks on energy infrastructure has decreased since March 2023. The UK MoD assessed that Russia continues small-scale strikes (strikes using fewer than 25 munitions) with predictably less effect. Russia maintains the capability to renew such strikes though, if it so desired. Halushchenko stated that Ukraine has the flexibility to adjust Ukrainian energy exports if the situation changes.