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Attacks on the Press 2001: Russia
March 26, 2002 12:03 PM EST
A decade after the demise of the Soviet Union, Russia still struggled to define the limits of free expression. Nowhere was the struggle more intense than in the media. President Vladimir Putin's administration was either directly involved in or held responsible for a broad range of abuses, including the selective use of tax audits, prosecutions, and police raids to stifle independent media outlets, as well as the stealthy amassing of control over information. In addition, widespread violence against journalists continued, with official investigations stagnant and perpetrators rarely punished.
In May, CPJ named Putin to its annual list of the Ten Worst Enemies of the Press, the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union that a Russian leader was included. See CPJ's 2001 Enemies list. And while Putin did improve relations with the United States and other Western democracies during 2001, he still faced strong international protests over his media policies.
The year's biggest story was the battle waged for control over NTV–one of the only independent television networks in Russia with national reach. The fight pitted Media-Most, a holding company owned by the exiled media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky, against its main creditor, the state gas monopoly Gazprom. The saga began when armed police and tax officials raided Media-Most's Moscow headquarters in May 2000, and it ended 11 months later after a boardroom coup handed the government-dominated corporation formal control of NTV.
Independent NTV was the jewel in the crown of Media-Most. The network's news and current affairs programs regularly criticized government policies, particularly the war in Chechnya. Gazprom pursued Gusinsky and Media-Most through the courts, charging fraud, tax evasion, and financial mismanagement. The gas company backed up its boardroom takeover with direct action: A new management team forcibly occupied NTV on April 14, 2001.
Gazprom swiftly closed two more Media-Most outlets, targeting publications also known for criticizing the government. On April 16, the staff of the daily Segodnya was ousted and its editor fired. The next day, security guards barred the employees of the weekly newsmagazine Itogi from entering their offices and dismissed the editor. The management of Media-Most's Ekho Moskvy, the country's largest privately held news radio station, remained in place, though the station suffered a spate of police raids and tax inspections.
Officials–including Gazprom-Media's then-general director Alfred Kokh, who visited CPJ's New York City offices on March 6–insisted that the dispute between Media-Most and Gazprom was purely financial. CPJ argued that Gazprom's heavy-handed tactics revealed political motives behind the takeover. In an April 30 letter to President Putin, CPJ emphasized that financial concerns could not account for the dismissal of the editor of Itogi, a magazine that was both profitable and highly respected.
Though media analysts said that NTV retained some of its independent voice under the new management, the station's anti-Kremlin tone softened significantly. After their ouster, many NTV journalists moved to TV-6, the remaining private network with national reach.
Boris Berezovksy, a Yeltsin-era media and oil tycoon and a bitter opponent of Putin, controlled TV-6 until Press Minister Mikhail Lesin ordered the channel off the air at midnight on January 22, 2002. The move came after a legal battle between the network and a minority shareholder, LUKOIL-Garant, resulted in the liquidation of TV-6's parent company. The oil giant LUKOIL has strong links with the Kremlin, and TV-6's fate was seen by many Russian politicians and journalists as part of a state-orchestrated campaign to control Russian citizens' access to information. At press time, TV6 was off the air but planned to bid in March 2002 to regain its old frequency.
Not content with solidifying Kremlin control over national television, Putin signed an August 13 decree re-establishing federal control over the entire national network of broadcasting and relay stations for television and radio signals. The state-owned Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS) now controls the stations and reports to the Ministry of Press and Information, whose chief, Mikhail Lesin, is seen by many as an opponent of independent media. The decree created state subsidies for channels serving areas with a population of less than 200,000. Since state-run channels broadcast nationwide to rural communities, state television will benefit from the subsidies. The new rules also gave Lesin and the Kremlin vital new leverage over all private radio and television stations.
State surveillance of the Internet continued through regulations requiring Russian Internet Service Providers to install a monitoring device that routes all their traffic through servers controlled by local law enforcement agencies. The creation of the Kremlin-backed Media Union to rival the existing Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) also alarmed press freedom advocates. The RUJ reportedly irritated the government with its active support of press freedom. In September, the head of the RUJ said the trade union was fighting an eviction order from the Ministry of State Property.
Moscow also imposed increasingly tight restrictions on journalists reporting on the Chechen war, who already face the risk of violence and kidnapping in the region. One kidnapping victim, French free-lance photographer Brice Fleutiaux, who was held hostage in Chechnya for eight months in 1999 and 2000, committed suicide in France on April 24.
On February 20, Russian security forces in Chechnya detained Novaya Gazeta war correspondent Anna Politkovskaya, who was investigating Russian military abuses against Chechen civilians. Politkovskaya was accused of entering Chechnya without correct accreditation and of not registering her whereabouts with the Russian military. She told CPJ that Russian soldiers threatened to shoot her during her three-day ordeal. In September, Politkovskaya received several death threats in connection with her Chechnya reports, and in early October she fled temporarily to Vienna, Austria. CPJ met her in Vienna to discuss and publicize her plight.
In March, the Media Ministry warned the Moscow daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta that it had violated the law by publishing an interview with Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov. Officials also complained about several other interviews with Maskhadov published on the Web site Grani.ru, in the business daily Kommersant, and in the twice-weekly Novaya Gazeta. Presidential aide Sergei Yasterzhembsky said on August 30 that he was seeking to ban news reporting on the views of Chechen fighters. At the end of the year, the Duma passed a measure forbidding the media from broadcasting "propaganda" from terrorists.
On February 8, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty announced plans to start broadcasts in Chechen and two other languages of the Northern Caucasus. But Russian lawmakers and Media Ministry officials labeled the plans "very inappropriate," and by year's end the broadcasts had not begun.
In a final, year-end blow, a Russian military court sentenced military journalist Grigory Pasko to four years in prison on December 25. Pasko was convicted of "treason in the form of espionage" for the crime of "intending" to give classified documents to Japanese news outlets. He had been reporting on environmental damage caused by the Russian navy for his newspaper, Boyevaya Vakhta (Battle Watch).
In early June, a CPJ delegation traveled to Vladivostok before Pasko's trial to publicize concerns over the charges. The trial was conducted in a secret military court, calling into question the impartiality and independence of the proceedings. The case, which had dragged on for years, was emblematic of the persecution that environmental whistle-blowers have come to expect in Russia.
Officials also used economic pressure to harass the media, including tax raids, police confiscations of print runs or videotapes, and official pressure on businesses to withhold advertising from publications deemed troublesome. During a CPJ visit to Moscow in March, Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov told CPJ staff that his paper, a harsh critic of the government, had endured dozens of lawsuits and several major tax inspections. In addition, said Muratov, advertisers had come under intense pressure to pull their ads from the paper.
Such harassment was even more commonplace in Russia's provinces, where media outlets are more vulnerable to the whims of local leaders. In the Primorsky Region, for example, defamation suits were frequent, and the courts imposed large fines on journalists and media outlets, sometimes pushing them into bankruptcy.
Low advertising revenues and high distribution costs sent other media companies, particularly newspapers, begging to federal or local officials for government subsidies and tax breaks. Meanwhile, broadcasters unable to pay their electricity bills were shut down in the regions of Khabarovsk, Primorye, Kamchatka, and Altai.
During 2001, only one journalist was killed for his work in Russia, compared with three in 2000. Eduard Markevich, editor and publisher of the local newspaper Novy Reft in Sverdlovsk Region, was found dead on September 18. Markevich's paper often criticized local officials, and he had suffered at least one violent attack and many death threats during the last several years.
Journalists were assaulted throughout Russia in 2001, with dozens of cases recorded by CPJ and Moscow watchdog groups such as the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations and the Glasnost Defense Foundation. On February 7, two armed men stormed the offices of the opposition newspaper Vozrozhdeniye Respubliki in Cherkessk, the capital of the southern Karachai-Cherkessia Republic, and severely beat two editors. Editor Rashid Khatuyev linked the attack to critical articles that the newspaper had published about the republic's president.
In the southern city of Belgorod, local authorities used violence against investigative reporter Olga Kitova after she published a series of articles in Belgorodskaya Pravda in May 2000 that questioned the credibility of a local prosecutor's case. Even though police assaulted the journalist, Kitova was charged with using force against officers, as well as with slander. On December 20, she received a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence, a large fine, and was banned from elected office for three years.
Rashid Khatuyev, Vozrozhdeniye
Vladimir Panov, Vozrozhdeniye
Two men armed with guns and rubber truncheons stormed into the offices of the opposition newspaper Vozrozhdeniye in Cherkessk, the capital of the southern republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessiya.
The men beat up the paper's editor, Khatuyev, and his deputy, Panov. The attackers, who wore black balaclavas and special police force uniforms, also destroyed several computers before leaving the premises.
Khatuyev was taken to a local hospital, where he was diagnosed with concussion and a broken rib. Panov refused hospitalization for his injuries.
Vozrozhdeniye, which began publishing in January, is closely linked to the Vozrozhdeniye Respubliki political movement, which opposes the republic's president, Vladimir Semyonov.
Panov later told Moscow's Kommersant-Daily that the attack was prompted by a series of articles criticizing Semyonov 's regime. Panov claimed that the government had sanctioned the raid. Local officials dismissed the allegations, blaming the incident on mysterious "destabilizing" forces within the political elite, according to a report by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Anna Politkovskaya, Novaya Gazeta
IMPRISONED, HARASSED
Novaya Gazeta correspondent Politkovskaya was detained by Russian security forces in the village of Khatuni in the Vedeno Region of Chechnya, where she was investigating a so-called filtration camp for Chechen civilians.
Russian military forces had allegedly committed numerous atrocities at the camp, including beatings, rapes, and murders.
Politkovskaya was arrested and accused of entering Chechnya without correct accreditation and of not having registered her whereabouts with the military. She was released on February 23.
Politkovskaya told CPJ that Russian soldiers threatened to shoot her during her ordeal.
HARASSED, CENSORED
Itogi
Segodnya
After a tense 11-day standoff, the state-dominated Gazprom corporation succeeded in occupying the headquarters of NTV, formerly Russia's only independent national television station.
At 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 14, Boris Jordan, a controversial American financier appointed by Gazprom to head NTV, arrived at the station's headquarters with a court order. Security officers hired by Gazprom then took control of the station's offices and control room, which had been occupied by dissident NTV journalists.
The crisis began on April 3, when NTV creditor Gazprom staged a boardroom coup that wrested control of the network from media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky, who was then in Spain fighting a Russian government effort to extradite him on corruption charges. NTV journalists refused to recognize the new Gazprom management team's authority, and a standoff ensued.
Early Saturday morning, Jordan and other Gazprom-appointed officials met with NTV staff and accepted resignations from more than 40 employees, including 10 journalists and five news presenters. By 10 a.m., the Gazprom-controlled NTV was back on the air with a skeleton newscasting crew.
Meanwhile, a group of some 15 former NTV journalists, led by ousted general director Yevgeny Kiselyov, moved swiftly to revive some of their former news programs at the cable station TNT, which was also controlled by Gusinsky. Later, many high-profile NTV journalists joined TV-6, a private nationwide television network. (See TV-6 case on page 452.)
On Monday, April 16, a group of dissident shareholders in Gusinsky's Media-Most holding company, including Gazprom, shut down the influential daily Segodnya, which was considered to be one of Moscow's most liberal newspapers.
That same day, Russian tax police filed tax-evasion charges against TNT's chief accountant. And on Tuesday, April 17, a Media-Most official acting on behalf of the dissident shareholders fired the editor of Media-Most's weekly newsmagazine Itogi, a joint venture with the U.S. magazine Newsweek. Itogi staffers were locked out of their offices and told that they could either resign or be fired.
CPJ published an alert about the case on April 17 and sent a formal protest letter to President Vladimir Putin on April 30.
HARASSED
Police arrested a film crew from the RTR network program "Vesti" in the city of Ivanovo while they were on their way to interview Deputy Mayor Sergei Brazer about interruptions in the municipal power supply.
Despite receiving preliminary permission to conduct the interview, the journalists were not allowed to enter the building where the deputy mayor's office is located. The police rudely demanded that the video camera be turned off and arrested the reporters when they did not comply. The crew was released only after the personal intervention of Gennady Panin, head of the Interior Affairs Department for the Ivanovo Region.
Olga Kitova, Belgorodskaya Pravda
IMPRISONED, ATTACKED,
Police in the southern city of Belgorod assaulted and jailed Kitova, a reporter with the newspaper Belgorodskaya Pravda who also contributes to the Moscow daily Obshchaya Gazeta.
On May 22, police officers arrested Kitova at her apartment in Belgorod and took her to a temporary holding cell, according to local news reports. Although Kitova was suffering from high blood pressure and heart complications as a result of the arrest, the police initially refused to provide her with medical treatment, according to Yuliya Ignatyeva of the Obshchaya Gazeta legal department. Later that day, Kitova was treated at Belgorod Hospital No. 1.
During the first week of her detention, Kitova was not allowed to meet privately with legal counsel. In addition, she was forbidden to receive phone calls or visitors apart from hospital staff and her attorney.
The arrest stemmed from a series of Belgorodskaya Pravda articles by Kitova, published in May 2000, that questioned the credibility of the Belgorod prosecutor's case against four local university students charged with sexually assaulting a male fellow student.
Kitova reported that the charges were largely based on forced confessions and testimony from the victim's mother, a politically well-connected health inspector who had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.
In January 2001, the prosecutor's office began investigating Kitova for allegedly slandering the victim and his mother.
On March 21, ten police officers surrounded Kitova outside her home. One officer twisted her arm behind her back and shoved her into a police car, where she was beaten unconscious. Kitova was later treated for bruises and hypertension at Belgorod Hospital No. 1, her attorney told CPJ.
Local prosecutor Dimitriy Khlebnikov then launched an investigation against Kitova for allegedly insulting and using force against the police officers who had abducted and beaten her.
On May 28, Khlebnikov charged Kitova with five criminal offenses: slander, insulting an individual's honor, obstruction of justice, using force against state officials, and insulting state officials.
On the same day, local sources reported that Kitova had been released from police custody after she signed an agreement not to leave the city of Belgorod.
On June 1, CPJ sent a letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin protesting Kitova's prosecution and imprisonment.
On December 20, the court handed Kitova a 30-month suspended sentence, fined her 20,000 rubles (US$656), and banned her from elected office for three years, the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations reported.
THREATENED, CENSORED
A news crew from the national television network NTV was threatened by Vladivostok mayor Yuri Kopylov, local sources reported. The crew was filming Vladivostok officials greeting former governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko at the airport.
Kopylov became irate when he realized that he was being filmed. "Take the tape away from the bearded one!" he yelled. "Did I give you permission to tape me? Get away from here! Tolya, take him away or punch him in the snout!" Kopylov's bodyguard then forced the crew to stop filming.
CPJ protested the threat in a June 11 letter to President Vladimir Putin.
Dalyokaya Okraina
Vladivostok police officers seized the June 7 edition of the newspaper Dalyokaya Okraina. According to local sources, some 20 police officers raided the Vladivostok post office, preventing the newly printed edition from being loaded into delivery trucks for several hours.
Police then confiscated the entire print run of 380,000 copies, local sources said, and took them to a district police station.
Vladimir Gilgenberg, editor-in-chief of Dalyokaya Okraina, said the police did not present a court order authorizing the confiscation and only referred to supposed verbal orders from Col. Vladimir Krivoshvili, the Vladivostok chief of police. Colonel Krivoshvili apparently acted on a complaint from Sergei Knyazev, chairman of the Regional Election Commission, who alleged that the edition contained material that violated election campaign law.
It appears that Dalyokaya Okraina was targeted for reporting on gubernatorial candidate Sergei Darkin's alleged links with criminal elements in Vladivostok. The newspaper's information came from the regional Internal Affairs Administration. Darkin, who is backed by prominent local politicians, won the first round of elections on May 27.
On June 12, officials again targeted Dalyokaya Okraina, seizing 150,000 out of 600,000 copies of that day's edition. The raid came in advance of the second round of elections, scheduled for June 17. According to Gilgenberg, the police said they were acting on verbal orders from their superiors.
Darkin won the June poll and currently serves as the region's governor.
CPJ protested the harassment of Dalyokaya Okraina in a June 12 letter to President Vladimir Putin.
All journalists in Chechnya
The commandant of the Russian military base of Khankala in Chechnya imposed new restrictions requiring journalists covering the ongoing conflict there to be accompanied at all times by an official from the press service of the Interior Ministry.
The new rules were announced after a television crew traveling with Chechen security forces tried to enter the Chechen capital, Grozny, without permission from Russian authorities.
The media's access to the war-ravaged region is already severely restricted by cumbersome accreditation procedures and rules that make travel within Chechnya dependent on the whims of local officials. Reporters say the new regulations represent another Russian military attempt to control press coverage of the Chechen conflict.
The new escort requirement gives the military significant leverage, since officials can now discriminate between journalists based on their coverage.
Journalists based in Khankala say their reporting will also be limited by the military's lack of resources. The government press centers have only three cars at their disposal, according to the local press, and journalists questioned whether officers would be willing to travel to areas that lack a military presence, or to places where authorities do not want the media covering military activities.
TVK Lipetsk
HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION
Authorities illegally took over TVK, the first private television station in the Lipetsk Region. The station was both a popular source of news and a harsh critic of Governor Oleg Korolyov, who is running for re-election in April 2002. TVK management had openly backed the governor's main electoral rival.
For several years, minority and majority shareholders of the station were locked in a deeply politicized conflict over management of the station. According to local press reports, TVK's ownership dispute began in 1998, when Leonid Trufanov, the founder and former owner of the station, sold a controlling stake to the Moscow-based Zenit Bank.
In 2000, a pro-Korolyov group of TVK shareholders sold their shares to the Moscow-based Energiya Corporation. Energiya's general director, a deputy in the Lipetsk Legislative Assembly, is closely allied with the Korolyov administration.
Energiya then challenged Zenit's 1998 share purchase in court, seeking to gain a controlling stake of TVK and replace its management.
Energiya lost its case. Earlier in 2001, Moscow's Kuntsevsky Court prohibited Energiya from conducting a TVK shareholders' meeting. The Sovetskiy District Court in Lipetsk later upheld that decision. Despite these rulings, Energiya had a shareholders' meeting on August 24 where delegates named pro-Korolyov business executive Dmitry Kolbasko as TVK's new general director.
In the early hours of August 29, police officers from the security service of the local Internal Affairs Administration took control of TVK's offices, according to local and international press reports. Claiming to act on Kolbasko's behalf, the police prevented station staff from entering the building.
In an interview with the Moscow daily Kommersant, TVK's ousted general director, Aleksandr Lykov, claimed that the Energiya-led shareholders' meeting took place in the office of Lieutenant Governor Sergei Dorovsky. Lykov and a local source told CPJ they believe the Korolyov administration backed the takeover in an effort to influence TVK's news programming ahead of the gubernatorial election.
Soon after, TVK's deposed management filed a legal complaint with the local prosecutor's office and also asked the Media Ministry in Moscow to suspend the station's broadcasting license until the courts resolved the dispute. On September 1, Deputy Media Minister Andrei Romanchenko suspended TVK's license for 10 days. When the suspension expired on September 11, Romanchenko extended it until October 11.
On September 17, the Sovetsky District Court reversed all previous rulings and upheld the results of Energiya's August 24 shareholders' meeting. The ruling also affirmed Kolbasko's appointment as the station's new general director and required Lykov to give TVK's seal, keys, and documentation to the new management.
On October 10, however, the Lipetsk Arbitration Court reinstated Aleksandr Lykov as TVK's general director. Though this ruling remains in effect and the station is still broadcasting, the case remained before the courts at year's end.
Eduard Markevich, Novy Reft
Markevich, 29, editor and publisher of Novy Reft, the local newspaper in the town of Reftinsky, Sverdlovsk Region, was found dead on September 18. He had been shot in the back.
Novy Reft often criticized local officials, and Markevich's colleagues told the Itar-Tass news service that he had received threatening telephone phone calls prior to the attack.
This was not the first attack on Markevich, the Region-Inform news agency reported. In 1998, two unknown assailants broke into his apartment and severely beat him in front of his pregnant wife. They were never caught.
In 2000, Markevich was illegally detained for 10 days after the local prosecutor's office charged him with defamation over a Novy Reft article questioning the propriety of a lucrative government contract that gave a former deputy prosecutor the exclusive right to represent the Reftinsky administration in court.
In May 2001, federal prosecutor general Vladimir Ustinov reprimanded the local prosecutor for violating Markevich's constitutional rights.
Police have launched an investigation into Markevich's murder. Almost four months after the journalist's death, authorities have made no progress, the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations has reported. Markevich's wife continues to publish Novy Reft.
The independent national television network TV-6 was sued by a minority shareholder that sought to have the network liquidated on grounds of insolvency.
The suit was filed by the pension fund of LUKoil-Garant, a subsidiary of the giant LUKoil Corporation, which owns 15 percent of TV-6. The Russian industrial magnate Boris Berezovsky, who is a bitter opponent of President Vladimir Putin, owns 75 percent of the network, either outright or through other companies that he controls.
Originally, the Moscow Arbitration Court ruled to close MNVK on the basis of an obscure Russian law that prohibits companies from running a deficit for more than two years. TV-6 appealed, and though a Moscow appellate court upheld the liquidation in November, another appeal from TV-6 led to a ruling in the network's favor on December 29.
As of January 1, 2002, however, the Russian parliament repealed a law that allowed shareholders to liquidate their own companies, thus eliminating the legal basis for proceedings against TV-6.
But on January 4, 2002, the deputy chairman of the Highest Arbitration Court, Eduard Remov, disputed the December decision and filed a protest with the Presidium of the Highest Arbitration Court.
In its January 11 ruling, the Arbitration Court rejected TV-6's argument against liquidation. Instead, Judge Remov argued that since the original ruling came while the shareholder liquidation law was still in force, LUKoil's claim was valid and should be upheld.
Although TV-6 exhausted all appeals with the Russian arbitration court system, the network planned to appeal the case to the Russian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said after the ruling, "We continue to urge Russian officials to ensure that TV-6 gets a full and fair hearing and ensure that press freedom and the rule of law can be best served by keeping TV-6 on the air," according to The Associated Press.
Although TV-6 was given up to six months to complete the liquidation, the Ministry of Information and Press had the authority to take away the network's broadcasting license at any moment. A shareholder meeting to set a time frame for liquidating TV-6's assets was scheduled for January 14. Press Minister Mikhail Lesin ordered TV-6 off the air at mighnight on January 22, 2002. TV-6 remains off the air but plans to bid in March to regain its old frequency.
Politkovskaya, a correspondent with the Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta, fled to Vienna, Austria after receiving threats stemming from her work in Chechnya.
Politkovskaya is known for her investigative reports on human rights abuses committed by the Russian military in Chechnya.
Novaya Gazeta's deputy editor-in-chief, Sergei Sokolov, told CPJ that the threats stemmed from a September 10 article in which Politkovskaya accused a Russian military officer named Sergei Lapin (whose nickname is "Kadet") of committing atrocities against civilians in Chechnya.
In mid-September, Novaya Gazeta received a threat via e-mail saying that Lapin was coming to Moscow to take revenge for the article, Sokolov reported.
Vyacheslav Izmailov, a military correspondent for Novaya Gazeta, told the English-language daily The Moscow Times that the most recent threat, received by Novaya Gazeta on October 10, was signed "Kadet."
Initially, security guards were assigned to protect Politkovskaya, and she was instructed by Novaya Gazeta not to leave her home.
However, Novaya Gazeta's senior staff decided that these safety precautions were insufficient and sent her temporarily to Vienna.
Novaya Gazeta then petitioned local prosecutors to launch an investigation into Politkovskaya's case, Sokolov told CPJ.
Although the e-mails allegedly came from Lapin, Politkovskaya said the threats could also be linked to her coverage of a Russian military helicopter shot down in Chechnya in September. Though the Russian government has claimed that a lone Chechen rebel shot down the helicopter, Politkovskaya suggested in an article and in newspaper interviews that the Russian military was responsible for the accident.
Ten high-ranking military officials, including Lt. Gen. Anatoly Pozdnyakov, were killed when the aircraft was shot down. Pozdnyakov was on his way to Moscow to report to President Putin on the conduct of Russian military forces in Chechnya.
Politkovskaya came to the United States in November on a tour to promote her new book on Chechnya, A Dirty War. In early December, she returned to Moscow.
Ren-TV
Camera crews from the Moscow-based independent stations TV-6 and Ren-TV were attacked while filming a hostile takeover of the Moscow Soap-Making Plant, according to local news reports.
During an unscheduled shareholders' meeting, a group of unknown individuals attacked security guards in an attempt to physically occupy of the plant. During the raid, the attackers also assaulted TV-6 and Ren-TV journalists, breaking a video camera and other technical equipment, and tried to confiscate recorded videotapes.
According to local sources, the attackers fled when police arrived at the scene.
Ildar Zhandaryov, TV-6
In the early hours of November 30, three unknown individuals assaulted and robbed Zhandaryov, a well-known Russian television journalist.
Zhandaryov co-hosted "Bez Protokola" (Without Protocol), a widely watched talk show, and the movie review program "Interesnoye Kino" (Interesting Movie). Both appeared on TV-6, a national network that was liquidated and taken off the air as CPJ went to press (see September 27 case).
Zhandaryov was attacked at approximately 3 a.m. as he returned from his late-night program and entered his apartment building. The masked attackers struck the journalist with a blunt object, taped his mouth and eyes shut, and then handcuffed him, according to local press reports. The attackers stole Zhandaryov's money and apartment keys, as well as valuables from his apartment.
Zhandaryov's assailants said that someone had "ordered" the attack and that he and his program "got on people's nerves," Zhandaryov told the Moscow-based radio station Ekho Moskvy.
He was taken to the Sklifosovsky Institute, where he was treated for head injuries and later released. The police launched an investigation into the attack, but by year's end no suspects had been detained.
Grigory Pasko, Boyevaya Vakhta
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Pasko, an investigative reporter with Boyevaya Vakhta (Battle Watch), a newspaper published by the Pacific Fleet, was convicted of treason and sentenced to four years in prison by the Military Court of the Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok. Russian prosecutors had demanded a nine-year sentence.
The ruling also stripped Pasko of his military rank and state decorations, Russian news agency Interfax reported. The journalist was taken into custody in the courtroom and subsequently jailed, Sergei Ivashchenko, a member of the Vladivostok Committee for the Defense of Pasko, told CPJ.
Pasko's attorney, Anatoly Pyshkin, filed an appeal with the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court seeking full acquittal, Ivashchenko told CPJ.
Pasko was first arrested in November 1997 and charged with passing classified documents to Japanese news outlets. The journalist maintains that he revealed no classified material, and that he was prosecuted for publicizing environmental hazards at the Pacific Fleet's facilities. He spent 20 months in prison while awaiting trial.
In July 1999, Pasko was acquitted of treason but found guilty of abusing his authority as an officer. He was immediately amnestied, but four months later the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court canceled the Vladivostok court's verdict and ordered a new trial.
Pasko's second trial began on July 11, after three postponements since March.
During the trial, Pasko's defense demonstrated that the proceedings lacked a basis in Russian law. Article 7 of the Federal Law on State Secrets, which stipulates that information about environmental dangers cannot be classified, protects Pasko's work on issues such as radioactive pollution.
In addition, the prosecution relied on a secret Ministry of Defense decree (No. 055) even though the Russian constitution bars the use of secret legislation in criminal cases.
The defense also challenged the veracity of many witnesses, several of whom acknowledged that the Federal Security Service (FSB) falsified their statements or tried to persuade them to give false testimony.
An FSB investigator was reprimanded for falsifying evidence in the first trial, for example. Also, the signatures of two people who witnessed a search of the reporter's apartment were shown to have been forged.
Throughout the year, CPJ issued numerous statements calling attention to Pasko's ordeal, and in early June, a CPJ delegation traveled to Vladivostok before Pasko's trial to publicize concerns over the charges.
Anna Politkovskaya
Eduard Markevich


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Some people are just born to be teachers. Kim Bouchie is one of those people.
Teaching is something of a family business in Kim Bouchie's family. Her mom was a teacher in a Head Start program; Bouchie began assisting in early childhood classroom in high school. Since then, she's never looked back. Today she is a true role model for early childhood educators at the KinderCare center in Stoneham, Mass., and she gushes about the children she teaches in her prekindergarten class.
"Children inspire me each day to want to come to work so I can teach them to be the best they can be," she said. "The a-ha moment is priceless. It's such a happy feeling inside to know you had a part of that."
Bouchie's dedication to her students and to her profession was apparent even during her interview for a preschool teacher position nearly four years ago. Every leader who meets her is pulled into a conversation about what could be done to advance learning – of children and teachers alike. On Regional Vice President Sonny Russell's first visit to her center she peppered him with questions about how she and her peers around the country could share ideas with each other.
When she was promoted to kindergarten teacher this summer she was a driving force behind the K12 Yammer group. She also leads regional K12 calls, sharing ideas and curriculum examples with other KinderCare kindergarten teachers.
"Every moment is a teaching moment with Kim," Russell said. "She wants to be the best she can be and wants to partner with others to help them reach goals."
Bouchie's a-ha moment this fall may have been when two television news crews came into Stoneham KinderCare outside of Boston to interview her as a winner of the 2015 Knowledge Universe Early Childhood Educator Awards. Teaching isn't often rewarded or recognized on such a scale.
"It's definitely a validation to know what I'm doing counts," she said.
"Her dedication, her knowledge, her general love of children made her a natural choice for this award," said Suzy Rosemond, center director.
See for yourself what makes Bouchie and award-winning teacher in the video below.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The star grape from the Bordeaux region!
No Cabernet Heartland is better than this!
Cabernet Sauvignon had its first success in the Bordeaux region in France. However, since then this late maturing grape variety has triumphed in almost all big wine growing regions all over the world, especially in the overseas New World wine countries. A wine made of Cabernet Sauvignon can be opulent and powerful with lots of class as well as fruitdriven and rather lightweight.
What makes the variety so special is the fact that the wines' bouquet and taste remain unmistakable under different climate conditions and soils.
The most famous grape variety in the world.
The red grape variety Cabernet Sauvignon belongs to the so-called "cépages nobles", the French name for the oldest and noblest grape varieties. Many wine experts consider Cabernet Sauvignon to be the noblest and potentially best red wine grape variety of all. All over the world, Cabernet Sauvignon is cultivated on an area of about 290,000 hectares. However, Cabernet Sauvignon is rather seldomly offered as a single varietal wine but is often used as a versatile and popular blending partner for red cuvées. Cabernet Sauvignon has the ability to present different climate and soil conditions very well: The range of wine characteristics from different regions reaches from rather sparse over middle-bodied to opulent and strong in alcohol.
Describing the distribution of Cabernet Sauvignon it would be easier to mention where this grape variety is not cultivated. Because every self-respecting wine growing country cultivates Cabernet Sauvignon.


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Q: Raw Data Instead of Zonal Statistics in ArcGIS I have 2 layers:
1) Shapefile contains about 15 features.
2) Satellite Imagery.
I would like to get pixel values of satellite imagery (reflectance) in each zone. However unlike 'Zonal Statistics' tool, I do not want statistical summary, rather all the pixel values (So I can further analyze them outside of ArcGIS environment).
Current Approach:
1) Select the feature and create new layer.
2) Clip image using this new layer.
3) Copy from attribute table.
4) Repeat for all features.
This is very time consuming and need to repeat the whole process each time I get new imagery.
Is it possible to automate this process? Specifically, is there a tool, which outputs all the values instead of statical summary?

A: You can string those tools together in ArcMap using model builder. Suggest you look at the help file and read up on modelbuilder as that is how you automate repetitive tasks without any code. Alternatively there are several companies that run modelbuilder training just search the internet for those.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
© Disselhoff
Company Reserves
This action will explore a model where commercial companies owning a piece of land initiate a designation process to protect the land under the most appropriate national protection category (e.g. nature reserve) and then manage the land for conservation purposes.
The CEO of the Berlin-based internet company idealo.de recently purchased a 35 ha property outside Berlin. The reasons for the land purchase were twofold: to invest some savings in a property and to acquire land for conservation purposes. Despite his willingness to designate the site as nature reserve and to manage it accordingly, the owner expects the land to keep some economic value.
In cooperation with the company and the responsible public authorities, NABU will test how a participatory site designation process can be carried out upon the request of a private landowner. We will facilitate meetings of the parties involved, commission an ex-ante inventory of the site and an assessment of its conservation value, and support the authority in the designation process (issuing public notices, drafting the designation ordinance and management plan). The new "company reserve" will help implement the management objectives for the Special Protection Area "Obere Havelniederung", in which the reserve is situated.
The approach of company reserves differs from established conservation practices of land in company ownership:
It does not concern the premises of the company's facilities, but additional land in its ownership and thus goes beyond existing initiatives focussing on greening of company premises.
It is not part of a company's compensation or remediation scheme for environmental damage previously done to this or another site.
The site designation does not follow the normal "top-down" process, as the landowner is put on equal footing with the authorities. Duties and responsibilities for the landowner after designation will be negotiated based on the findings of an ex-ante inventory of the site and an evaluation of its potential conservation value.
The approach goes beyond classic eco-sponsoring where companies give money to a conservation NGO for various activities such as buying land, as the company acts in its capacity as the owner of the site and remains responsible for it in the long-term.
The project will also investigate whether the naming rights for the new reserve can be bestowed in recognition for the company's effort (as it is already common practice with sport facilities or cultural events).
Implementation mechanism and process
Public reserve designation process by the competent authority following the request of the private landowner.
Commercial company "idealo.de", NABU, county of Oberhavel, Ministry for the Environmental of Brandenburg
No, to our knowledge, this is the first time that a private company requests the initiation of a nature reserve designation process in Germany.
The pilot action concerns 35 ha.
NABU website NABU Naturschätze.Retten Blog


text:
I Wish I'd Been There (R): Book Two: European History
Authors: Hollinshead, Byron & Rabb, Theodore K.
"What is the scene or incident in European history that you would like to have witnessed-and why?"
With lively and detailed accounts of some of the most dramatic events in history, some of our finest historical writers now turn their attention to Europe in this companion volume to I Wish I'd Been There: Twenty Historians Bring to Life the Dramatic Events that Changed America.
Guided by peerless scholars such as Paul Kennedy, John Keegan, Ross King, Freeman Dyson, and Katherine Duncan-Jones, readers will be transported to the signing of Magna Carta, the Versailles Conference, the German surrender in WWII on Luneburg Heath, and other key turning points in the drama of European history. These essays encompass two millenia and an entire continent, addressing issues of politics, law, religion, peace and war, science and the arts, and social change, all telescoped into finely observed narratives. The result is an historical pageant of characters and episodes that will attract and delight all readers of history.


How to activate (change license key) windows Server 2012?
How to find the Windows version of Network Adapter (NIC) drivers on SUPERMICRO server?
How to protect your Windows server from SYN flood?
How to protect your network from IP spoofing?
How to сonfigure IPv6 in Linux?


Software is permeating the world, yet the number of "good guys" who can verify and validate software security hasn't scaled in tandem.
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Mayhem has been deemed a winner in the 2016 DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge, and MIT Technology Review named ForAllSecure in the 50 Smartest Companies 2017 list.
Imagine going to work each day knowing your efforts are making the world a safer place. This is our mission.
ForAllSecure is uniquely positioned to deliver behavior testing at machine speed and scale. Fortune 1000 companies in aerospace, defense, automotive, and IoT rely on ForAllSecure to efficiently and effectively secure their most mission critical software.
Our commitment to high standards and integrity is reflected by the people. We love transforming challenges into opportunities that push us to reach our full potential.
At ForAllSecure, we're growing a team of individuals with a deep sense of curiosity, respect for others, and desire to grow in a collaborative environment.
Whether it's enlisting our resident office staff bartenders to teach the team a new cocktail or concocting crazy bubble tea combinations to perk up a busy afternoon, the ForAllSecure team is always up for engaging in new experiences together.
Each year, we bring the entire ForAllSecure team together to celebrate our accomplishments. Past trips include seeing the Mayhem Exhibit at Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian and glamping in Airstreams at California's Russian River wine region.
Every Friday, we take our lunch outside of the office to stretch our legs, catch up with each other, and bond as a team.


Aquacai is a U.S.-based business and brand of artesian water, derived, bottled and shipped from Panama. Their water comes from an aquifer underneath 1400 acres in the Acai rainforest.
The Royal King Palace and Convention Center is one of the leading Banquet Hall in Metro Vancouver area and is catering to cities of Surrey, Delta, Richmond."
Dhaliwal Banquet Hall & Restaurant arrangements for Marriages, Anniversaries, Receptions, Birthday Parties, Christmas Parties, Live Shows, Beauty Pageants, Conferences, Seminars, Corporate Meetings Surrey, Vancouver, BC .
We are looking for the best things ever. On the other part it is also real that we are becoming sluggish day by day. For that we are based upon so much on online connection. Further more, the individuals are looking for the Best Restaurants in Delhi and Khaugalideals allows its guests in his issue.
"We pride our success on great customers service blast freezer India,Batch Freezer Ice Cream, delicious, quality products, Gelato Machine in india,and top-notch resources that enable us to best serve our customers.
Bondi Chai is Australia most awarded and loved chai latte. Healthy Drink now in Singapore.Connect with is for any queries related to retail sale, partnership, wholesale purchase, Recipes and other Bondi Chai and Tea related information.
FloridaTobaccoShop.com has the best selection of Wood Tip Cigarillos, Plastic Tip Cigarillos, Flavor Cigarillos. We have brands like Swisher Sweets Cigars, Black & Mild Cigars, White Owl Cigars, and many more at the best prices. We ship nationwide.
Cabana9 is an indoor/terrace pool bar at Saadiyat Beach Club Abu Dhabi. Watch the Arabian Sea roll in and out at Saadiyat Island and forget the cares of the world.
Operating in Puerto Vallarta, this sports bar and restaurant offers a range of menu choices and televisions for the sporting enjoyment of the guests.


"LWJGL" redirects here. For LWJGL key codes, see Key codes.
This tutorial contains content that is no longer applicable to current versions of the game.
The launcher is capable of automatically updating LWJGL, and the most recent version is currently used.
LWJGL is the LightWeight Java Game Library. Essentially, it is what Minecraft uses for graphics, sound, and input. The latest version of LWJGL is 3.2.1.
Prior to release 1.6, Minecraft used LWJGL 2.4.2. Minecraft 1.8.1 currently uses LWJGL 2.9.2, and the launcher is able to automatically update it to newer versions, making the steps in this guide unnecessary. Updating to LWJGL 3.2 requires non-negligible code changes and is outside of the scope of this tutorial (these changes are made in 1.13).
Updating will fix some input bugs where keys seem to get stuck if you click at the same time. It also removes the "ghost" mouse pointer clicking.
Some users report a performance increase upon updating.
This can also potentially fix some issues regarding sound not working/cutting out.
It has been reported to fix intermittent crashes on Windows.
It has also been known to resolve the "cannot get JAWT interface" error for Mac users using Java 7.
Some Linux distributions, such as openSUSE, require LWJGL to be updated before Minecraft can even run. Trying to run Minecraft without updating LWJGL may create a black screen upon loading. If you cannot play Minecraft on your Linux distribution, chances are that this is the problem.
Select the latest stable release and download the lwjgl-X.X.X.zip. You should also backup your .minecraft folder before following the steps below. As a last resort, you can use the Minecraft Launcher's Force Update option to reset the files.
With 2.8.1, on most 64 bit computers, the lwjgl64.dll update will cause a black screen crash. You can revert to the backup version you have saved if needed.
Again on several 64 bit computers, the OpenAL64.dll update can cause a sound glitch that makes bursting sounds. Keep a backup in case you need to rollback.
Version 2.8.5 generally breaks shift-clicking; 2.8.4 and 2.9.0 do not. You can change the url in your browser to access 2.8.4 or 2.9.0 rather than 2.8.5.
LWJGL 2.8.5 has a bug which sends a false signal that the user released all currently pressed keyboard keys when a mouse button is pressed. That means that your building will be significantly slower. Do not update to this version if this bothers you.
This bug seems to be fixed when playing in fullscreen mode (Default F11), or updating to LWJGL 2.9.0.
In the lwjgl-X.X.X.zip, there should be two folders, named jar and natives. You should replace the files in .minecraft/bin and .minecraft/bin/natives with the versions from the .zip.
The .minecraft folder's location varies by operating system.
*This needs updating. The current version of LWJGL (3.2 and higher) doesn't use the same natives set.
This page was last edited on 19 February 2019, at 22:42.


text:
Sentire Cum Ecclesia
To think with the Church….
First time Commentators click here before posting!
Who is Schütz?
MacKillop-Woods Way Pilgrimage 2016-2019
My Aussie Camino – The Inaugural MacKillop-Woods Way Pilgrimage (April 2014)
The Aussie Camino
Catholic Theological College Bible Lands Study Tour 2012
"How to live best alongside Muslims in Australia"
"The Very Heart of the Gospel" – Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium
Evangelisation and Proselytisation
Passover meets Easter
Response to a further enquiry on "How Jesus the Faithful Jew became the Christ of Christian Faith"
Response to Paul Forgasz on "How Jesus the Faithful Jew became the Christ of Christian Faith"
The Christian Hope and Christian Dialogue with Jews (2013)
The New Evangelisation – Presentation to the National Conference of the Catholic Women's League of Australia
The Schütz Model for a Elective Australian Constitutional Monarchy
What is the Gospel? Some analytic thoughts
Council of Christians and Jews: "Same-Sex Marriage" Panel – Presentation by David Schütz
Ecumenism, Interfaith Dialogue and the New Evangelisation
My Interview with Bishop Julian Porteous
My interview with Fr Mitch Pacwa of EWTN
Book Review: Charles Fivaz, "Heartland: a parable"
Book Review: Peter Kreeft "Between Allah & Jesus"
Book Review: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Film Review: Les Miserables
My Essays On Liturgical Music and Song
Liturgical Music in the Catholic Churches of Australia: Crisis and Response – Reflections and Suggestions
Liturgical Music and song: An examination of conscience
My Anima Education course notes
Last Things
Notes on Purgatory
Extracts from the Manual on Indulgences (2006)
NORMS ON INDULGENCES
7. Indulgences associated with Eucharistic Adoration and Procession
8. Indulgences for Eucharistic and Spiritual Communion
13. Indulgences associated with the Passion and Death of our Lord
28. Indulgences associated with Profession of Faith and Acts of the Theological Virtues
29 For the Faithful Departed
Prayers for the Burial of a Pet
Catholic priesthood crisis
To the Holy Door: A Pilgrimage of Mercy (December 13)
I wrote this book review for our Kairos magazine, Volume 21, No. 21 (14-27 Nov, 2010).
Peter Kreeft, Between Allah & Jesus: What Christians can learn from Muslims (IVP Books, 2010)
Book Review by David Schütz, Executive Officer of the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission
Peter Kreeft's book represents an entirely new approach to writing about the dialogue between Christianity and Islam, and one which I believe is entirely in line with the Catholic insistence that dialogue with those of other faiths is necessary in order to reach understanding of both the positive agreements and the real differences.
Kreeft, a Catholic apologist and teacher of philosophy who has written more than 60 books, takes Muslims and Islam seriously precisely because he takes his Catholic faith seriously. "Between Allah & Jesus" has something positive to say about Islam, and also something to say about how authentic Christianity should engage Muslims. He is clear that there is a war being fought by both Christianity and Islam, but he is equally clear that the common enemy in this war is Western secularism not primarily one another.
Kreeft achieves this new perspective by the old and (today) little used genre of "literary dialogue". By putting different points of view into the amounts of different characters, the author is able to present several points of view at once while remaining at arms length from the point he himself is making. The reader overhears the conversation and draws the conclusions.
"Between Allah & Jesus" is set in the context of Boston College, an American Jesuit institution at which Kreeft himself was once a teacher of philosophy. It has four main characters: three students ('Isa Ben Adam, an orthodox Arab Muslim; Libby, a black feminist Christian; Evan, a conservative evangelical Christian) and a Jesuit priest, Fr Heerema, who is a professor at the College. The dialogues alternate between the characters, but all of them are with the Muslim student, 'Isa. Kreeft's characters broach a wide range of issues in morality and theology that are relevant to the dialogue between Christians and Muslims, including war and pacifism, abortion and feminism, prayer, and the identity and nature of God.
By using three different Christian characters, Kreeft shows that our dialogue with Islam does not take place on a single level, but is determined by how Christians themselves interpret and live their own Christian faith. I believe that Kreeft is accurate in his portrayal of 'Isa's beliefs, although I would like to test this by giving the book to a Muslim friend for his judgment. What emerges above all is that Muslims can teach Christians the need for the virtue of courage and strength of conviction.
Kreeft has achieved something special with this book. Readers will learn accurate information about Islam, and at the same time learn how to critique some popular myths about Islam and about what Christianity's proper response to Islam should be.
One Response to Book Review: Peter Kreeft "Between Allah & Jesus"
Schütz says:
For further discussion on the Blog, see here.
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David Schütz Melbourne, Australia Peccator apud peccatores, et insanus apud insanos
Tweets by @scecclesia
All opinions on this page expressed by the blog owner are those of the blog owner alone, and are in no way to be taken as the opinions of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne or its agencies.
Any opinion on this page expressed by a visiting commentator is the opinion of that commentator alone and is in no way to be taken as the opinion of the blog owner.
I hope that is clear enough for everyone?
Sentire Cum Ecclesia began years ago back when blogs were the latest thing. They are a bit passe now, and I spend most of my time on twitter (@scecclesia) but from time to time, I do add new things on this 'ere website. Mostly I use it as a place for journaling about my Pilgrimage experiences.
The motto of the blog is:
"Maior autem his est spes"
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I propose that
1) We replace the absentee monarch of Australia (who is also the Monarch of Great Britain) with an elected Australian monarchy.
2) The elected monarch exactly replaces the current monarch in the current constition.
3) The elected monarch has exactly the same powers, duties and responsibilities as those of the current absentee monarch. All the monarch's functions are carried out by his/her personal representatives (as is currently the case): federally by the Governor General, and in the states by the State Governors.
4) The Governor General and the Governors continue to be selected and appointed as they currently are, that is, by the premier with the approval of the monarch.
5) The monarch is elected to sovereignty over Australia for life, but his/her sovereignty is strictly non-hereditary.
6) The elective body is the "college of electors" comprised of the state governors and federal governor general.
7) The election of the monarch must be a unanimous decision on the part of the college of electors.
"The fervant Romanists have always this point in their favour: that they are ready to believe. And they have a desire for the conversion of men which is honest in exactly inverse ration to the dishonesty of the means which they employ to produce it."
-- Anthony Trollope, "The Way We Live Now"
J.G. Schütz Family Arms
"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head."
-- Terry Pratchet, Hogfather, page 242
"I really don't think I'm arrogant, but I do get impatient with people who don't share with me the same humility in front of the facts."
--Richard Dawkins


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text:
Xiaomi 11T Pro vs iPhone 13 mini
This story is sponsored
If you're going to compete with Apple and Samsung in the cellphone market, your product is gonna have to be damn good. The Xiaomi 11T Pro holds its own against the big boys, who must be — if they are doing their homework — getting pretty worried about this relatively new kid on the block.
One indication that the 11T Pro is hitting the consumer sweet spot is that when I checked to see what this model is going for on Takealot, it was unavailable; it was sold out … out of stock. My initial guess was that this is because, as usual, Xiaomi has created another top of the range smartphone that doesn't set you back an arm and a leg. But then I learned that the company only produces limited quantities of each product during its initial launch. This helps the company control inventory, and gradually ramp up production when component costs fall over time.
A pleasant surprise was finding a protective cover in the box the phone arrived in. You'd think that for anything over a few thousand rand that manufacturers would always include little perks like this as bonus incentives, but it's the first phone I've found with this welcome addition (Apple phones arrive without even a charger).
With a length of 164mm and a width of almost 80mm, it's a big phone, larger than the Samsung Galaxy A31 I was using, and far bigger than the iPhone 13 mini that my wife recently acquired, though the Apple feels thicker when it's in a cover, and it's cameras protrude more. If you go with the 11T Pro, you'll have the advantage of seeing your photos, videos and documents on a larger screen, but will have to live with an uncomfortable, protruding lump in your pocket. You can't have everything in this life!
Another cool treat was to discover that the phone was already charged when I turned it on. The charger is about five times the size of most, but that's because Xiaomi is hoping to get the edge on fast charging — it claims that the 11T Pro will be fully charged in just 17 minutes. Charging really is a whizz: you can see the phone charge up by the second. On a short business trip, you could feasibly leave the large charger at home, and there's all sorts of impressive new cooling technologies that prevent the phone's twin 2 500mAh batteries from overheating.
At one point I left the phone on for a week, though I didn't use it much in that time, but Xiaomi claims that even with regular usage, the battery lasts for more than four days; enough to fly to New Zealand and back without plugging in. You can watch videos continuously for almost an entire day (23 hours) or chat to even your most verbose relatives until they pass out (30 hours). Generally, you get a feeling that this phone is pretty much always charged, and it helps that the phone provides ample warning when it gets below 20%.
The battery itself has about the same lifespan as the iPhone 13's (about two years before it goes down to 80%) but the cable connecting the phone to the charger is considerably more robust. At a stretch, you could describe it as "chunky" … it looks as if it will last decades, though doubtless most owners will feel the need to upgrade by then. Overall, just opening the box, sorting through the components and activating the device conveys the impression that this phone has quality and endurance. The AMOLED screen manufactured from Gorilla Glass Victus also has a six-month warranty, adding extra peace of mind.
The first thing I wanted to test was the camera. The main camera module has a 108MP sensor in the primary module, which is accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide camera and a tele-macro. The colours take a bit of getting used to, as it seems the manufacturers have pushed the saturation up, so they are not quite as "real" as the iPhone 13's. I prefer to have a more plain image that I can then ramp the colours up on, rather than starting out with bright hues, but then again, many phone users never put their images onto a computer, and there's always the filters on the 11T Pro if you want to alter the ambience you want on your photos.
I was amazed by how far you can zoom into an image — on a computer or on the phone itself — before any pixelation becomes apparent. Smartphones of this calibre are literally making SLRs redundant: they shoot really high quality images and are a fraction of a camera's size. The macro is quite handy, but I struggled to get the focus point where I wanted it. The "night" feature ensures that you can shoot pictures even when the sun has set. In fact, if you can't see what's going on in a dark place, and you don't feel like using the phone's powerful torch or flash, you can quietly take a photo and then look at the image to see the details that your eye can't. The "portrait" feature works okay on the 11T Pro, but the blur on the background is more pronounced on the iPhone 13.
The storage (256GB) and RAM (8GB) are impressive, which means even the most demanding games run smoothly, and you can shoot videos till the cows come home without worrying about getting that dreaded warning that your phone's storage capacity is reaching its limit. The video images are, like the still images, in brightly contrasting colours, and the stereo sound (with Dolby) is a great bonus. There's plenty of bass in the sound, so you don't have to link up to a speaker if you want to play tunes while you wash the dishes, but the iPhone 13 does have slightly louder playback.
It's quite easy to find your way around the phone, as the interface is somewhere between Android and Apple, according to my wife. I struggled to transfer my private information from my Samsung to the 11T Pro, as the app that I've used for this before (Smart Switch) didn't work, and my wife said she had the same problem going from Samsung to Apple. I'm a bit of a techno-peasant, but a cursory search on Google revealed that there are indeed many other ways to move your data, such as Mi Mover.
A review by Andrew Williams on trustedreviews.com sums up the 11T Pro pretty well by stating: "The most compelling Xiaomi phones offer a taste of the flagship phone experience for much less money. The Xiaomi 11T Pro is more like a OnePlus phone, in that it tries to offer 90% of what the most expensive phones include, at perhaps 60% of the cost. A Snapdragon 888 CPU is the most important change over the cheaper Xiaomi models, but the 120W charging also deserves a mention."
I think Williams is right on the money. While the iPhone 13 retails at around R20 000 in South Africa, the 11T Pro goes for R14 000, and they pretty much match up on performance. Go figure. — Derek Davey
Xiaomi? Who and what
In just three decades, the percentage of the population that owns mobile phones has gone from almost zero to 83%. About 6.4-billion people are now in constant contact with their loved ones, and about 1.5-billion cell phones are sold each year. Samsung, which dominates the market, shipped 315-million units last year, with Apple about a million units behind that. Xiaomi is one of the largest smartphone makers in the world, with considerable market share of worldwide smartphone shipments.
Pronounced "Shahmi", Xiaomi, which means "little rice" is now one of the largest smartphone companies out there. It began in 2010 in Beijing, China as a software company, creating a new custom ROM based on Google's Android. With its additional functionality and easy-to-use user interface, MIUI became a huge success and by the end of 2013 there were over 30 million MIUI users across the globe. In 2011 Xiaomi brought out the Mi One phone, which had top specs and a great price; selling its products at only slightly more than it costs to make them has been the company's philosophy from the beginning. Its affordable Redmi range soon made it China's top selling smartphone.
Xiaomi founder Lei Jun. (Photo: Pandaily)
Xiaomi's dynamic founder Lei Jun has often been compared to Steve Jobs, and the company has often been called "China's Apple", as they both have an extremely strong fan base. Lei did read a book on Jobs while studying and he does have a similar stage presence, but he prefers his company to be compared to Amazon rather than Apple. It is growing so fast that it may soon overtake both. He seems to have the Midas touch: before creating Xiaomi Lei worked his way up to CEO in software company Kingsoft, founded ecommerce company Joyo.com (since acquired by Amazon, it is now Amazon China) and invested in social network YY.com; like Xiaomi, they are all now mega companies.
Today Xiaomi also makes more than 2 000 smart home products such as TVs, laptops, fitness bands, e-scooters and water purifiers. While the iPhone 13's 178 components are manufactured in a number of different countries, including the US, Japan and Germany (it's assembled in China), and the Samsung S20 is mostly made in Vietnam, (the company also has plants in Korea, India and Brazil), Xiaomi now makes many of its products in India, although most components are still made in China. The colourful Manu Jain, Indian head of Xiaomi, was the company's first employee in that country; he's now a renowned influencer, who has stamped himself and the brand indelibly on the Indian map (it's the top selling phone in India since 2019).
Jain's first tactic was to sell Xiaomi online at a time when online sales were still tiny in the country; next he employed clever sales tactics such as "hunger marketing"; then he pushed deep into rural areas, setting a world record by opening 500 stores a day. He also tailored the Android-based system to the local market. In a 2017 TEDx Talk, he outlined that it's not advertising that the most successful companies in the world rely upon; rather, it's a great product, influencers — especially your relatives — and a deep understanding of what the customer wants. These are tactics that Xiaomi has always relied upon; it cleverly draws on its fan base when creating new products, asking its loyal fans what it is they want next.
Xiaomi entered the prepaid South African market six years ago and is now also targeting the lucrative postpaid smartphone market; it signed a distribution agreement with Vodacom in November 2020 and plans to open its Mi Stores soon. As always, the company aims to sell its quality phones at accessible prices, and as its products often have higher specs at better prices than the competition's, it stands a good chance of grabbing a large chunk of the lucrative local market. You can now buy Xiaomi products from official partners in South Africa like HiFiCorp, Takealot.com, and Incredible Connection. — Derek Davey
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POLICE have released footage of a dramatic high-speed chase through Woodley in which a 'reckless' 21-year-old in a van reached speeds of up to 70mph.
Luke Joseph, of Raleigh Close, Woodley, was jailed for almost two years for a string of motoring offences at Reading Crown Court on March 25.
This video shows the moment he was stopped after leading police on a chase through residential streets.
The charges were: dangerous driving; driving while over the prescribed limit; driving while disqualified; driving without insurance and possession of a class B drug – cannabis.
Police posted a video of the chase as Joseph led officers in a frantic dash while driving a blue van.
Officers said: "You might find this footage interesting."
He was eventually stopped and arrested.
He was jailed for a total of one year and 10 months, further disqualified from driving for three years and 11 months and ordered to take an extended driving test when his disqualification expires.
At around 8.30pm on Saturday December 8, police officers pursued Joseph through residential areas in Woodley for travelling above the speed limit.
He was subsequently arrested and provided positive tests for the use of cannabis.
Joseph was already disqualified from driving and had no insurance, and was found in possession of six bags of the drug.


text:
COVID-19, Zoom and Bedroom Lewdness Make for Sly (S)extortion Tactic
Cybercriminals are getting creative during the Covid-19 social-distancing measures, taking advantage of popular video-conference tools such as Zoom to strengthen their pitch in a fresh sextortion scam.
Bitdefender Antispam Lab spotted a new cyber-extortion campaign that has seemingly spread across the globe over the past week. The campaign targeted a quarter-million recipients, mostly in the United States, starting October 20.
The subject line ostensibly reads "Regarding Zoom Conference call," to make sure you do not disregard the message.
"You have used Zoom recently, like most of us during these bad COVID times," the scammers said. "And I have very unfortunate news for you."
Indeed, many remote workers, students, teachers and families have used Zoom during the past year to connect, work or do business, creating a large pool of potential victims for the hoax.
"There was a zero day security vulnerability on Zoom app, that allowed me a full time access to your camera and some other metadata on your account," the message continues. "I found a few interesting targets through random lookups. You were just unlucky to be on the list."
The extortionist has clearly done his homework. Multiple zero-day vulnerabilities have been reported this year, including some that even allow a full takeover of devices. Moreover, the company which announced over "300 million daily Zoom meeting participants," has been in the spotlight for quite some time, making headlines with topics ranging from Zoom-bombing in online classrooms to phishing campaigns to steal login credentials from users.
Moving forward, the extortionist reveals his actions, hinting at the keynote of the entire message.
"After that, I did some creepy stuff and a few recordings, just for fun and to test a few things," the scammer adds. "And as you can imagine in your worst dreams, this happened. I have made a recording, where you work on yourself."
There is nothing unique in this extortionist's methodology, except for his need to make up excuses for his deeds by blaming the "stupid virus." He even apologizes and attempts to exploit your empathetic side by claiming he lost his job and is about to be evicted.
"Please dont blame me or yourself for this, I didn't have any bad intentions," he said. "I got very sick, lost my job, about to be evicted and have no money to survive. All of this because of the stupid virus. I'm sorry. I have no other choice."
This extortionist gests additional creativity points by also mentioning the Jeffrey Toobin Zoom scandal, in which the top legal analyst from CNN unknowingly exposed himself in front of co-workers during a Zoom conference.
"I do not want you to be the next Jeffrey Toobin," he adds. "I'm sure you don't want to be embarrassed. And I dont want to make this video public so your friends and colleagues can see it."
The deal is you have three days to pay $2,000 in bitcoin unless you want the "video" revealed to your close family and workplace. He says the amount is non-negotiable and promises to delete the sensitive file once payment is received in his bitcoin wallet.
You are advised not to contact police or reply to the message. "If you do something stupid, I will distribute the video," he threatens.
Individuals are likely to respond to blackmail messages that threaten to expose sensitive information about them publicly, be they true or not. As such, cyber-extortion has gained more and more traction in recent years, harnessing millions of dollars from victims' pockets.
However, it's important not to panic as there is little chance the blackmailer could have spied or recorded you in reality. Cyber-extortionists usually send out threats at random, using large batches of email addresses from data breaches and leaks in the hopes of duping users.
If you are one of the unfortunate recipients, immediately delete the email, and report the extortion attempt to local authorities and email service providers.
World's Largest Office Furniture Maker Hit with Ryuk Ransomware
FBI Warns Healthcare Sector of Increased Ransomware Activity Commanded by Ryuk Gang


text:
The United Kingdom between Mars and Venus: bridge or Bermuda triangle?
William E. Paterson
Aston Centre for Europe (ACE)
The concept of the United Kingdom acting as a bridge between Europe and the United States has been a key element in British foreign policy for six decades. Under the second Blair Premiership it reached both its apogee and its nadir. This paper analyses these developments focusing both on the transatlantic and European ends. Particular attention is paid to the failure of the Blair government either to establish a secure place for Britain as a co-leader or to make the British people more comfortable in their European skins. This failure occurred at a period when the EU is characterised by leadership transition and confusion. New leaderships will emerge in the EU over the next two years but it seems unlikely that Britain, characterised by a continuing disconnect between a Euro-sceptic public discourse and deep involvement at a governmental level will develop a European policy narrative that is regarded as convincing at either the EU or domestic level. This weakness is compounded by a failure to develop new thinking about the rise of new powers such as China and India.
Perspectives on European Politics and Society
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-34547308183&partnerID=40&md5=2d6f0e89ed4ef1c544e6fe274e74ff64
Dive into the research topics of 'The United Kingdom between Mars and Venus: bridge or Bermuda triangle?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Bermuda Social Sciences 100%
EU Social Sciences 45%
leadership Social Sciences 27%
European Policy Social Sciences 25%
foreign policy Social Sciences 18%
India Social Sciences 14%
leader Social Sciences 13%
Paterson, W. E. (2007). The United Kingdom between Mars and Venus: bridge or Bermuda triangle? Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 8(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/15705850701204053
Paterson, William E. / The United Kingdom between Mars and Venus : bridge or Bermuda triangle?. In: Perspectives on European Politics and Society. 2007 ; Vol. 8, No. 1. pp. 1-12.
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text:
CCP Influence
WEEKLY PLUS ARCHIVES
Elite Politics
SINO-U.S. Relations
Geopolitics & North Korea
2022 TRACK RECORD
China 2022 Outlook: Xi and the CCP on the Precipice in a Party Congress Year
Special Report: Virus Pushes Factional Struggle to Inflection Point
A Brief Guide to CCP Factional Politics
RESEARCH ELSEWHERE
Media elsewhere
WHAT'S ELITE POLITICS
Geopolitics Watch: Trump Ramps up Pressure on China with Trade and Religious Freedom
Geopolitics, RISK vs OPP
China, Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un, Liu He, Mike Pompeo, North Korea, Sam Brownback, Sino-US trade talks, United States, Wang Qishan, Xi Jinping
◎ The Trump administration appears to be maneuvering the CCP into a position where it has to liberalize China to ensure regime survivability.
On May 29, the White House released a statement on the continuation of United States trade action against China. According to the statement:
The U.S. would impose 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods imported from China. Goods that contain industrially significant technology, including those related to the "Made in China 2025" program, would be targeted. The final list would be issued by June 15.
The U.S. would continue to pursue litigation against China at the World Trade Organization for China's intellectual property practices.
By the end of June, the U.S. would announce "investment restrictions and enhanced export controls for Chinese persons and entities related to the acquisition of industrially significant technology."
The U.S. also requests that China "remove all of its many trade barriers, including non-monetary trade barriers, which make it both difficult and unfair to do business there," and that "tariffs and taxes between the two countries be reciprocal in nature and value."
China's Commerce Ministry responded with a terse statement which described the White House statement as "unexpected" but "within expectations," and suggested that it went against the consensus forged between both countries at the recent Sino-U.S. trade talks.
On the same day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the inaugural Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom at the Department of State from July 25-26. Foreign ministers from other "like-minded governments," international organizations, religious communities, and civil society are invited. Pompeo added that the Ministerial would "not just be a discussion group" but is about exploring "concrete ways to push back against persecution and ensure greater respect for religious freedom for all." The State Department also released the 2017 International Religious Freedom Report.
The big picture:
After the latest round of Sino-U.S. trade talks in Washington from May 15 to May 19, both sides noted that a consensus had been reached on trade, and that tariffs would be suspended. Chinese state media had declared a "win-win" victory for both countries, but Chinese netizens and overseas Chinese-language media felt that China was the losing party in the negotiations. Also, Trump said after the Sino-U.S. trade talks in Washington that he is "not satisfied" with the negotiations and that America still has "a long way to go."
Since the conclusion of the first Sino-U.S. talks in Beijing from May 3 to May 4, we have been analyzing that the U.S. has made good progress in trade negotiations with China, and that China likely pledged to make tangible concessions.
Our take:
1. The White House statement on trade, the announcement of the upcoming Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, and the release of the 2017 International Religious Freedom Report appear to be part of Trump's strategy to maneuver the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) into a position where it must liberalize China to ensure regime survivability, and to secure a good outcome at the North Korean summit should it be back on.
2. Trump linked trade in China with what China is "doing to help us with peace with North Korea" at a recent press conference with South Korean president Moon Jae-in. The threat of coming tariffs in mid-June and other trade action later in the month would ensure that Beijing does its utmost to get Kim Jong Un to attend the Singapore summit and agree to U.S. terms for denuclearization and peace in exchange for a delaying of U.S. sanctions.
It should be noted that the White House statement doesn't give a timeline for the implementation of tariffs. This gives the Trump administration ample room to negotiate with Beijing.
3. The Trump administration is looking to cut America's trap gap with China by $200 billion by 2020. We previously analyzed that this deficit cannot be reduced under China's current trade restrictions and by the U.S. exporting more agricultural and energy products, and that "Trump may demand that China purchase U.S. cloud computing, internet, and financial services (with verifiable guarantees of IP protection) to hit the $200 billion figure." The mention of "non-monetary trade barriers" in the White House statement hints at the outcome we earlier identified.
4. We wrote on May 8 that the U.S. could "spotlight the CCP's human rights violations to consolidate the results of the trade talks" after observing U.S. action in this regard after the trade discussions in Beijing. The timing of the announcement of the State Department's Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, the release of the 2017 International Religious Freedom Report, and the White House statement on trade further validates our theory.
5. The CCP is most afraid of its human rights violations being exposed, and the West has largely failed to take the Chinese regime to task over human rights issues a few short years after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in favor of greater trade with China. However, the CCP never opened up China's economy as per its WTO commitments, and human rights violations in China grew worse and worse. Now the Trump administration appears to be obliquely linking the two issues in a bid to get the CCP to open up the Chinese economy fully.
The Trump administration could push the CCP on religious freedom in a number of areas. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said at the May 29 press conference that the Trump administration's goal is to "protect the freedom of conscience for all people. That means protecting a Muslim, Buddhist, Falun Gong practitioner or Christian in China and their ability to pray and live out their life." In April, the State Department expressed concern at the mass detention and persecution of Muslim Uyghurs in re-education facilities in Xinjiang. And in June 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed H.Res 343, which condemns China for harvesting the organs of live prisoners of conscience, the bulk of whom are Falun Gong practitioners.
What's next:
1. The CCP's propaganda apparatus should struggle to repackage or denounce the White House statement on trade. The terse response from China's Commerce Ministry ("unexpected" but "within expectations") is a prelude to awkward, face-saving state commentaries on trade with the U.S.
2. Liu He has already received a lot flak for his performance in trade discussions with America. He could be subjected to further attacks from Xi Jinping's political foes. Intense backlash from factional rivals could be a reason why Xi hasn't yet turned to Wang Qishan to be China's frontman in the trade talks.
3. The reference to "non-monetary trade barriers" in the White House statement suggest that the Trump administration is asking for more than just trade reciprocity and economic openness from China. In the process of removing barriers that are making it "both difficult and unfair" for America to do business in China, the CCP would almost certainly have to allow free transfer of information and uncensored internet access. It might not be a fluke that Chinese netizens reported the unblocking of English-language news sites on Chinese internet following the conclusion of the Washington trade talks. The Trump administration could also push for reciprocity in cultural exchanges.
4. Between opening up the economy further and being confronted by the U.S. on human rights violations, the CCP would opt for economic liberalization. The CCP would view opening up as the lesser of two evils because it has at least some control over the process and the public narrative. However, the CCP's gross human rights abuses would undoubtedly return to haunt it when more uncensored information exposing its falsehoods and propaganda trickles into China.
5. The Trump administration should continue to press China on human rights since the protection and promotion of religious freedoms is part of Trump's National Security Strategy. Human rights would increasingly become an important benchmark to watch when gauging political risk in China.
In response to U.S. pressure, the CCP could find ways to subtly stir anti-American sentiment among the Chinese people, such as by blaming China's economic woes on U.S. trade actions. The Trump administration would need solutions to avoid a "clash of civilizations" as it pushes China on economic liberalization and advances religious freedom.
Political Censorship and the Communist-style Erosion of America
The 2020 US Presidential Election and the Communist Threat
Analyzing the Purge of Wang Qishan Aide Dong Hong
What the 'Xi-Li Split' Says About the State of the CCP Regime
Culture Strategy: Inoculating America and the World Against China's 'Virulent Strain of Communism'
The Trump Administration Is Tough and Strategic on China
Politics Watch: Hong Kong's NatSec Set Up Signals 'Supra-authority' Status of the CCP's NatSec Commission
Politics Watch: Ramifications of the Hong Kong Security Law for CCP Factional Politics
Politics Watch: Fourth Plenum Timing and Agenda Confirm Political Crisis in China
Influence Watch: Why the CCP Fears an Ideological Battle and a 'Clash of Civilizations'
Politics Watch: Xi Faces Pushback from the Intelligence Apparatus
Why Xi Jinping Removed China's Presidential Term Limit
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