China says business ties with Iran no harm to any other country

China’s business and energy ties with Iran do not harm the interests of any other country, the country’s Foreign Ministry said, after U.S. President Donald Trump said companies doing business with Iran would be barred from the United States.

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In Israel, American Jews can kiss their privilege goodbye | +972 Magazine

The latest harassment and deportation of Jewish American activists is significant for one reason: it sends a message to liberal and left-wing Jews around the world that they are unwelcome here, and that they should be ready to face the consequences if they try to enter. The irony of Israel recently crowning itself as the “Jewish Nation-State” at the same time as it is turning away increasing numbers of Jews due to their political views should not be lost on anyone. Yet despite all the fear mongering, harassment and intimidation, Jews will remain a central part of the struggle against the occupation and for justice in Israel-Palestine. That will likely mean more interrogations, more deportations, more blacklists, and more silencing of dissent. That means that for American Jews, like it has always meant for Palestinians in the diaspora, the fight for justice in Israel-Palestine may soon only be possible from afar.

Source: In Israel, American Jews can kiss their privilege goodbye | +972 Magazine

Early start of the West Nile fever transmission season 2018 in Europe

In Europe, surveillance indicates that the 2018 West Nile fever transmission season started earlier than in previous years and with a steeper increase of locally-acquired human infections. Between 2014 and 2017, European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and EU enlargement countries notified five to 25 cases in weeks 25 to 31 compared with 168 cases in 2018. Clinicians and public health authorities should be alerted to ensure timely implementation of prevention measures including blood safety measures.

Court to EPA: Chlorpyrifos ban is on!

Happy kids



As of Thursday morning, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has 60 days to finalize its ban of the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos.

This was the ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on August 9. The judges determined that EPA broke the law by allowing continued use of the pesticide despite scientific evidence linking it to harmful impacts on children’s developing brains.

“Children, farmworkers, rural families and science are all huge winners today,” said PAN’s executive director Kristin Schafer in a press statement responding to the court ruling. “Sadly, under this administration it takes judges to force our public agencies to stand up to corporate interests and do their jobs.”

The decision was in response to years-long litigation brought by PAN, NRDC, Earthjustice and other farmworker and environmental health organizations.

Bad for children, farmworkers & families

Chlorpyrifos is a widely used and highly-volatile neurotoxic chemical that study after study has shown is harming the development of children’s brains. When mothers are exposed during pregnancy, their children are at higher risk of having lower IQs, developmental delays and autism.

In fall 2016, EPA’s own scientists published a follow-up assessment of health risks that found that, through their diet, infants were being exposed to the pesticide at levels 140 times what could be considered safe.

In the same assessment, the scientists also found that farmworkers were exposed at unsafe levels in the field — the chemical routinely sickens workers and sends them to the hospital.

A long time coming

EPA scientists put forward a proposal in late 2015 to withdraw all uses of chlorpyrifos on food crops. But in a controversial about-face in March 2017, former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt called the science on chlorpyrifos “unresolved,” and said agency experts will continue thinking about it until at least 2022. This announcement came just weeks after meeting with executives from Dow Agrochemical (now Corteva Agriscience), which makes the pesticide.

This win highlights the importance of the courts under an administration that is consistently prioritizing corporate interests over public health. In the months since Pruitt’s reversal of the decision to ban chlorpyrifos, policy momentum at the state-level in the absence of national action has also been encouraging — Hawai’i recently banned the pesticide in the state, and California scientists recently listed it as an air contaminant and developmental toxicant.

EPA, the court has ruled. You have 60 days.

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Pussy Riot protester defies travel ban to flee Russia for Edinburgh

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Punk activist Maria Alyokhina drives 1,000 km to reach UK after being stopped at border

A member of the protest band Pussy Riot has smuggled herself out of Russia after being barred by the government from travelling to perform at the Edinburgh festival fringe.

Maria Alyokhina, one of three members of Pussy Riot who stood trial in 2012 for a “punk prayer” at a Moscow church, was stopped by Russian border guards and told she could not leave the country. The reason given was that she had refused to serve a community service sentence for a separate protest held against Russia’s powerful Federal Security Service.

Continue reading…

They Left China to Chase the American Dream. Now They’re Fighting Affirmative Action.

400 Years + of slavery and another 100 years of incomplete civil rights – period! That has not and cannot be wiped out in 50 years. Daily, we still read and hear about racism against Black-Americans – Period! An increasingly vocal group of Chinese-Americans who were once politically dormant have been galvanized by the fight over race-based school admissions.

Who Attacked the Hodeidah Hospital? Examining Allegations the Saudi Coalition Bombed a Hospital in Yemen

With thanks to the Bellingcat Investigation Team.

Summary

  • The 2nd August attack on Hodeidah was likely a mortar strike
  • The direction of origin of the attack was from the south
  • Munition fragments appear to share characteristics with munitions manufactured by Rheinmetall Denel Munition

Introduction

On Thursday, 2nd August several explosions rocked the Houthi-held city of Hodeidah. The locations of these explosions were reported to be the harbour used for fishing boats and within the vicinity of the al-Thawra Hospital. Since the incident near the hospital happened immediately after the incident at the harbour, it appeared that casualties and first responders were being deliberately targeted. Scores of people were killed and wounded in the attack.

Initial blame was placed on an airstrike by the Saudi-led Coalition, which has been advancing on the strategically important Hodeidah from the south, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Despite Coalition denials, these claims were certainly credible, as the Coalition has previously carried out strikes described by Amnesty International as “indiscriminate, disproportionate or directed against civilians and civilian objects”. In June it became evident that an MSF medical centre set up to treat Cholera patients had been bombed, despite its co-ordinates being shared 12 times with the Coalition and the markings of the Red Crescent being clearly visible on its roof.

However, images and video purporting to be from the scene of the attack on the hospital appear to indicate that this was not an airstrike, but rather a mortar attack. This article will verify and analyse the open source information associated with this attack and identify lines of enquiry which may aid attribution.

Videos from the harbour

There are several video clips which have been aired by a number of outlets which show casualties and ambulances by some kind of harbour. It is possible to geolocate these videos to the vicinity of the harbour in Hodeidah.

Image 1 – Ambulance moving from south west to north east through the harbour (Courtesy of Aljazeera)

Image 2 – View looking to the south west immediately after the attack – note the casualty to the right hand side (Courtesy of Almasirah)

Image 3 – View Looking west immediately after the attack – note the direction of the sun (Courtesy of Almasirah)

There is a short portion of one of these videos which also shows what appears to be damaged caused by some kind of explosion, immediately next to the casualty visible in Image 2.

Image 4 – Damage to roof of a warehouse (Courtesy of Almasirah)

Videos and Images from the Hospital

There are several images and videos showing the scene outside the hospital where the second incident took place. It is evident that multiple casualties happened at this location, with body-parts and blood strewn around the scene. It is clear from geolocating these images and videos that the event happened immediately outside an entrance to the hospital, while the same damaged vehicles can be seen in many of these videos and images, indicating they are from the same incident.

Image 5 – Still from a video looking south towards the entrance to the hospital (Courtesy of Almasirah)

Image 6 – Still from a video looking north, away from the entrance to the hospital, marked in the satellite image in blue (Courtesy of Almasirah)

Craters near the Hospital

A potentially vital piece of evidence is included in some of the videos and images from outside the hospital: fragmentation craters, almost certainly created by the munitions which caused so many casualties. Within these craters there appear to be remnants of those munitions.

Image 7 – Crater 1, note the tail fin visible on the right of the crater (Source)

Image 8 – Close-up of Crater 1 (Source)

Image 9 – Crater 2 (Source)

These two craters, and their locations, can be tied together by the video below, which shows a militiaman moving from Crater 2 to Crater 1.

Other images purport to show damage caused to the al-Thawra Hospital Archives and another hospital nearby called al-Rasheed.

Munitions Used

The nature of these craters, the damage seen at the harbour and the remnants of munitions found at the scene strongly indicate mortars were used, not an airstrike. Tail fins recovered from the location of the strike next to al-Thawra Hospital indicate that these munitions appear to be relatively distinct in their design. Their size strongly suggests they were of a large calibre, likely 120 mm, and the fins do not appear to be of Soviet Bloc origin. It should be noted that although Houthis do apparently field 120 mm mortars, they generally use weapons designed in the Soviet Bloc.

Image 10 – Various views of one of two tail fins seen in footage related to this attack. The image on the left (source) matches the two tail fins pulled out of Crater 1 (bottom right) and Crater 2 (top right).

Despite an extensive search of open sources depicting 120mm mortar bombs no exact match was found. The angles of the fin, and the vent holes arranged in a 4, 5, 4, 5 manner make this munition very distinctive.

Mortar bombs produced by Rheinmetall Denel Munition appear to have fins with a very similar shape, and display vent holes in the distinctive 4, 5, 4, 5 pattern. However, it was not possible to positively ID a 120 mm HE round with this configuration due to augmentation charges obscuring the vent holes. It should be noted that Rheinmetall supply both Saudi Arabia and the UAE with weapon systems, including 120 mm mortar systems. Rheinmetall was contacted for comment, and asked to provide images of examples of their 120 mm mortar ammunition, but did not respond.

Image 10.1 – Comparison of Hodeidah tail fin with Rheinmetall mortar rounds. Note the similarity of the tail fins, marked in red, and the same 4, 5, 4, 5 vent pattern marked in blue and yellow.

In Image 10.1 above, on the left we can see an example of a munition displayed at a Rheinmetall Denel Munition stand from different angles (Sources: Front [archived], Back [archived]).

On the right we can see an example of a munition at a school career event. (Source available on request, as it appears to have been posted by a person under the age of 18).

Direction of origin

We can establish the rough direction of origin of these mortars by examining the shape of one of the craters and applying an effective and proven technique. (This analysis was independently verified by Chris Cobb-Smith, an investigator with extensive experience analysing artillery impacts).

Image 11 – Method for establishing direction of mortar fire (Source: 1992 US Army Crater Analysis and Shell Reports)

Image 12 – Method applied to the crater outside in the vicinity of al-Thawra Hospital. The direction of origin, marked in yellow, clearly points south.

The southerly direction of origin is potentially significant in this case, due to the Saudi-led Coalition advancing from that direction. Media reports that the frontline appears to be in the vicinity of Hodeidah Airport would put Coalition mortars within range of this strike.

Analysis and Conclusion

From the open sources available it is clear that most current narratives of the events of 2nd August do not tell the whole story. The damage, munition fragments and craters all indicate that this was not an airstrike. Instead, open source information points strongly towards a mortar strike.

The shape of the craters caused by this attack clearly indicate that these mortars were fired towards the city from the south, the direction from which the Coalition forces were advancing. The tail fins of munitions allegedly found within these craters indicate these mortars were likely 120 mm in calibre. Both the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition employ 120 mm mortars, making positive attribution difficult.

The closest match to the distinctive tail fins of these mortar bombs, including the 4, 5, 4, 5 vent pattern, appear to be munitions manufactured by Rheinmetall. Rheinmetall are known to have supplied 120 mm mortars to the UAE, who are part of the Coalition, and known to be active around Hodeidah.

 

The post Who Attacked the Hodeidah Hospital? Examining Allegations the Saudi Coalition Bombed a Hospital in Yemen appeared first on bellingcat.

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