/resources

Dutch officials report record catch of more than 23 tonnes of cocaine | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-netherlands-germany-cocaine-idUSKBN2AO1EO

https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20210224&t=2&i=1552752071&r=LYNXMPEH1N0Y3&w=800#.jpg

Customs authorities in Germany and Belgium have seized a record haul of more than 23 tonnes of cocaine destined for the Netherlands in two raids this month, Dutch prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The two shipments together represented a street value of roughly 600 million euros ($730 million), the prosecutors said, making it the biggest seizure of cocaine headed for the Netherlands.

Prosecutors said a 28-year-old Dutchman had been arrested on Wednesday who was registered as the recipient of the containers in which the drugs were found.

In Hamburg, Germany, 16.17 tonnes of cocaine were found in over 1,700 tins of wall filler which had arrived on a container ship from Paraguay.

In the Belgian port of Antwerp around 7.2 tonnes of the drugs was found hidden in a container filled with wood blocks which had been shipped from Panama.

Paraguay’s anti-drugs authority said later on Wednesday it carried out four simultaneous raids on premises allegedly linked to both the cocaine shipments discovered in Europe.

“We are finding evidence such as paint cans that are similar to those that were seized (in Europe),” Francisco Ayala, a spokesman for Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD) told reporters during one of the raids.

Envases Paraguayos, the firm that owns the paint factory that was raided, denied involvement, saying in a statement that the company was a victim of organized crime gangs who had tampered with the shipment.

Paraguay is a popular transit country for cocaine trafficking from Andean countries to Europe, according to the United Nations.

However, its interior minister Arnaldo Giuzzio on Wednesday said “Although the containers depart from our country, the cargo can also be contaminated (with drugs) in other ports.”

Mekong River at ’worrying’ low level amid calls for more Chinese dam data | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mekong-river-idUSKBN2AC0K0?taid=60262e7df3d3490001c43e55
▻https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20210212&t=2&i=1551285548&r=LYNXMPEH1B0CL&w=800

Water levels in the Mekong River have fallen to a “worrying level” in part due to outflow restrictions from Chinese hydropower dams upstream, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Friday, calling on Beijing to share all of its water data.

#eau #barrage #réservoirs #Mékong

Nord Stream 2 says preparations for construction in Danish waters can go ahead | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nordstream-russia-denmark-idUKKBN29K0LG

https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20210115&t=2&i=1547914544&r=LYNXMPEH0E0LK&w=800#.jpg

FILE PHOTO: The Russian pipe-laying ship “Fortuna” is seen in the Mecklenburg Bay ahead of the resumption of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction near Insel Poel, Germany January 14, 2021.
REUTERS/Annegret Hilse_

The Russia-led Nord Stream 2 (NS2) consortium on Friday said preparatory work to complete the subsea gas pipeline to Germany in Danish waters can go ahead, pointing to the latest notifications by the Danish Maritime Authority.

Denmark’s Nautiskinformation notified shippers on Thursday that prohibited areas near Bornholm would be established beginning on Friday for the pipe laying vessel Fortuna, assisted by construction and supply vessels.

Earlier, the German business daily Handelsblatt said the NS2 group, which is led by Russia’s Gazprom, was delaying the completion work, linking this to enhanced sanctions pressure from Washington aimed at halting the project.

A spokesman for the Switzerland-based group, who had referenced the Danish website, said he would not comment any further.

The consortium will probably be able to say at the end of January or in early February when work will resume, the Handelsblatt report had quoted the group as saying.

More than 90% of the project has been completed.

According to Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking data, the Fortuna was anchored near the German port of Rostock on Friday.

Construction of Nord Stream 2 was initially halted in December 2019 following the sanctions threat from the United States, which wants to cut Europe’s dependence on Russian energy and sell its own liquefied natural gas to the region.

Google told its scientists to ’strike a positive tone’ in AI research - documents
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-research-focus-idUSKBN28X1CB

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google this year moved to tighten control over its scientists’ papers by launching a “sensitive topics” review, and in at least three cases requested authors refrain from casting its technology in a negative light, according to internal communications and interviews with researchers involved in the work. Google’s new review procedure asks that researchers consult with legal, policy and public relations teams before pursuing topics such as face and (...)

#Google #Gmail #YouTube #algorithme #biométrie #géolocalisation #manipulation #religion #COVID-19 #discrimination (...)

##santé
►https://static.reuters.com/resources/r

Apple supplier Wistron puts India plant damage at up to $7 million
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-india-wistron/apple-supplier-wistron-puts-india-plant-damage-at-up-to-7-million-idUSKBN28

TAIPEI (Reuters) - The ransacking of an iPhone manufacturing facility in India caused up to T$200 million ($7.12 million) in damage though production facilities were not as badly hit as reported, its Taiwan-based operator Wistron Corp said on Tuesday. Thousands of contract workers gathered on the grounds of the Wistron site on the outskirts of India’s tech hub of Bengaluru on Saturday demanding unpaid wages and better working hours. As police arrived, the crowd turned violent and video (...)

#Apple #Wistron #iPhone #smartphone #violence #lutte #travail

►https://static.reuters.com/resources/r

Explosives-laden boat hits fuel ship at Saudi port, ministry says | Reuters
▻https://de.reuters.com/article/saudi-ship-blast-bw-group-int-idUSKBN28O0BJ

https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20201214&t=2&i=1544515259&r=LYNXMPEGBD13M&w=800#.jpg

Saudi Arabia said on Monday that a fuel transport ship anchored at a Jeddah terminal was hit by an explosive-laden boat in what it called a terrorist attack, after shipping firm Hafnia said one of its tankers was struck by an “external source”.

A Saudi energy ministry spokesman, in a statement carried on state media, did not mention the name of the vessel or identify who was behind the attack.

Hafnia said there was an explosion and a fire while its oil tanker, the BW Rhine, was discharging at Jeddah port. The ship’s crew put out the fire and no-one was injured, it said, adding that parts of the ship’s hull had been damaged.

Al Arabiya TV cited the captain of the BW Rhine as saying that small boats had been spotted ahead of the explosion, and that one of the vessel’s tanks was damaged in the blast.

“BW Rhine has been hit from an external source whilst discharging at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at approximately 00:40 local time on 14 December 2020, causing an explosion and subsequent fire onboard,” Hafnia said in a statement on its website.

Giant iceberg on course to collide with south Atlantic penguin colony island | Reuters
(150 km de long, portfolio de 5 images, par avion et satellite)

▻https://www.reuters.com/article/climate-change-iceberg-idUSKBN28J1UE

https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20201209&t=2&i=1543964467&r=LYNXMPEGB811E&w=800#.jpg

An enormous iceberg is heading toward South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic, where scientists say a collision could devastate wildlife by threatening the food chain.

Scientists have long been watching this climate-related event unfold, as the iceberg - about the same size as the island itself – has meandered and advanced over two years since breaking off from the Antarctic peninsula in July 2017.

The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, registering a record high temperature of 20.75 degrees Celsius (69.35 degrees Fahrenheit) on Feb. 9. The warming has scientists concerned about ice melt and collapse leading to higher sea levels worldwide.

The gigantic iceberg - dubbed A68a - is on a path to collide with South Georgia Island, a remote British overseas territory off the southern tip of South America. Whether that collision is days or weeks away is unclear, as the iceberg has sped up and slowed down with the ocean currents along the way, said Geraint Tarling, a biological oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey who has been tracking the icy mass.

A collision, while looking increasingly likely, could still be avoided if the currents carry the iceberg past the island, Tarling said.

The currents “still have the power to take this iceberg in one direction or another away from South Georgia,” Tarling said in an interview on Wednesday. “But it is really, really close, less than 50 kilometers away from the south shelf edge. That’s getting so close that it’s almost inevitable.”

Images captured by a British Royal Air Force aircraft and released on Tuesday show the magnitude of the monstrous, 4,200-square-km (1,620-square-mile) iceberg, its surface carved with tunnels, cracks and fissures. A number of smaller ice chunks can be seen floating nearby.

“The sheer size of the A68a iceberg means it is impossible to capture its entirety in one single shot,” British officials said in a statement.

Still, the berg is diminished from its original size of 5,800 square km (2,240 square miles), measured when the mass broke off from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf 2-1/2 years ago.

Google et Amazon sanctionnés pour non respect de la législation sur les cookies​
▻https://fr.reuters.com/article/france-cnil-google-amazon-idFRKBN28K0NE

PARIS (Reuters) - La Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) a infligé des amendes de 100 millions d’euros à Google et de 35 millions d’euros à Amazon pour des infractions à la législation française sur les cookies, annonce-t-elle jeudi dans un communiqué. “La formation restreinte, organe de la CNIL chargé de prononcer les sanctions, a constaté, à la suite de contrôles, que lorsqu’un internaute se rendait sur les sites web google.fr et amazon.fr, des cookies publicitaires étaient (...)

#Google #Facebook #cookies #consentement #profiling #CNIL

►https://static.reuters.com/resources/r

U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye discloses breach, theft of hacking tools
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fireeye-cyber/u-s-cybersecurity-firm-fireeye-discloses-breach-theft-of-hacking-tools-idUS

FireEye, one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the United States, said on Tuesday that it had been hacked, likely by a government, and that an arsenal of hacking tools used to test the defenses of its clients had been stolen. The hack of FireEye, a company with an array of contracts across the national security space both in the United States and its allies, is among the most significant breaches in recent memory. The company’s shares dropped 8% in after-hours trading. The FireEye (...)

#spyware #hacking

►https://static.reuters.com/resources/r

Google violated U.S. labor laws in clampdown on worker organizing, regulator says
▻https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-labor/google-violated-u-s-labor-laws-in-clampdown-on-worker-organizing-regulat

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint on Wednesday accusing Alphabet Inc’s Google of unlawfully monitoring and questioning several workers who were then fired for protesting against company policies and trying to organize a union. The U.S. labor regulator found Google unlawfully placed employees on administrative leave and terminated them for accessing documents related to how the company polices internal forums, according to the complaint. The (...)

#Alphabet #Google #licenciement #surveillance #syndicat #travail

►https://static.reuters.com/resources/r

Amazon, Apple stay away from new French initiative to set principles for Big Tech
▻https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-france-tech/amazon-apple-stay-away-from-new-french-initiative-to-set-principles-for-

PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. tech giants Amazon and Apple have not signed up to a new French initiative to get global tech companies to publicly commit to principles including paying their fair share of taxes, government officials said on Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron has sought for the past three years to cajole tech giants into collaborating with governments on a series of global challenges such as fighting hate speech online, preserving privacy or contributing to state coffers. (...)

#Apple #Microsoft #Google #Amazon #Facebook #anti-terrorisme #écologie #pédophilie #pornographie #fiscalité #violence #GAFAM (...)

##fiscalité ##modération
►https://static.reuters.com/resources/r

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma pleads guilty to criminal charges | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-purdue-pharma-opioids-plea/oxycontin-maker-purdue-pharma-pleads-guilty-to-criminal-charges-idUSKBN2842
▻https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20201124&t=2&i=1542326960&r=LYNXMPEGAN1JN&w=800

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Purdue Pharma LP pleaded guilty to criminal charges over the handling of its addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin, capping a deal with federal prosecutors to resolve an investigation into the drugmaker’s role in the U.S. opioid crisis.

Members of the billionaire Sackler family who own Purdue and previously sat on the company’s board were not part of Tuesday’s court proceedings and have not been criminally charged. They agreed in October to pay a separate $225 million civil penalty for allegedly causing false claims for OxyContin to be made to government healthcare programs such as Medicare. They have denied the allegations.

Purdue’s plea deal carries more than $5.5 billion in penalties, most of which will go unpaid. A $3.54 billion criminal fine is set to be considered alongside trillions of dollars in unsecured claims as part of Purdue’s bankruptcy proceedings.

Purdue earlier settled separate Justice Department civil claims, agreeing to a $2.8 billion penalty also expected to receive little financial recovery in the drugmaker’s bankruptcy case.

The plea deal and other related settlements have come under fire from Democrats on Capitol Hill calling for Purdue and its owners to face more severe consequences for their alleged roles in the opioid crisis.

The company reaped more than $30 billion from sales of OxyContin over the years, enriching Sackler family members, according to U.S. and state officials. Since 1999, roughly 450,000 people have died in the United States from opioid-related overdoses, according to U.S. data.

Purdue, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year here under an onslaught of litigation, has proposed settling thousands of lawsuits in a deal it values at more than $10 billion. That is contingent on donations of opioid reversal and addiction treatment medications it has under development and a $3 billion cash contribution from the Sacklers, who would cede control of Purdue.

#Opioides #Sackler #A_gerber

Russia says coronavirus mutations appearing in Siberia as deaths hit record daily high | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-russia-cases/russia-says-coronavirus-mutations-appearing-in-siberia-as-deaths-hit-record
▻https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20201117&t=2&i=1541476971&r=LYNXMPEGAG0LJ&w=800

“We see certain changes...in Siberia which allow us to assume that in this region it is forming its own version with specific mutations,” Anna Popova, head of Rospotrebnadzor, was quoted as saying by news agencies.

Popova did not give details on how contagious or deadly the mutation was considered to be but said it would not make the virus more dangerous.

Post-registration trials of Russia’s second COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Siberia’s Vector Institute, were now underway, Popova confirmed. Authorities said last week they were due to begin last Sunday.

Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - sources
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive/exclusive-apple-dropped-plan-for-encrypting-backups-after-fbi-complained-so

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc AAPL.O dropped plans to let iPhone users fully encrypt backups of their devices in the company’s iCloud service after the FBI complained that the move would harm investigations, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The tech giant’s reversal, about two years ago, has not previously been reported. It shows how much Apple has been willing to help U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, despite taking a harder line in high-profile legal (...)

#Apple #cryptage #iPhone # #CloudComputing #écoutes #surveillance

##_
►https://static.reuters.com/resources/r

Iran reports record high COVID death toll as travel bans go into force | Reuters

The government has shut schools, mosques, shops and restaurants in most of the country since early October and on Monday imposed a four-day ban on travel in and out of 25 cities, including Tehran, state TV reported.

Iranian state media said that the government will make a decision on a complete, two-week lockdown in the capital. It did not elaborate.

Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that 8,289 COVID-19 cases had been registered in the previous 24 hours, taking the national tally to 628,780.

#Covid-19#Iran#Seconde_vague#décès#frontière_intérieure#Pandémie#Chiffre#migrant#migration

▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-iran-idUSKBN27I1CN
▻https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20201102&t=2&i=1539663564&r=LYNXMPEGA10QV&w=800

Spy agency ducks questions about ’back doors’ in tech products
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-congress-insight-idUSKBN27D1CS

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency is rebuffing efforts by a leading Congressional critic to determine whether it is continuing to place so-called back doors into commercial technology products, in a controversial practice that critics say damages both U.S. industry and national security. The NSA has long sought agreements with technology companies under which they would build special access for the spy agency into their products, according to disclosures by former (...)

#Juniper #algorithme #backdoor #surveillance #NSA #VPN

►https://static.reuters.com/resources/r

Arctic headache for ship insurers as routes open up | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/climate-change-arctic-shipping-insurance-idUSKBN27C1VZ

https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20201027&t=2&i=1538982515&r=LYNXMPEG9Q18J&w=800#.jpg

Double the manpower is needed to navigate. Lookout shifts are kept to just one hour, so sailors don’t lose concentration and miss a mass of floating ice. Big icebergs show up on radar, but smaller, truck-sized “bergy bits” - even more dangerous - can be missed, the captain says.

The cold can freeze equipment and the earth’s magnetic field disrupts compasses. If anything goes wrong, “you are so far away from help,” said Whatley, 31, who sails through Arctic and Antarctic waters for the British Antarctic Survey.

As climate change opens new sea routes, experienced polar captains like Whatley are coveted for Arctic voyages that can save money on the run between Europe and Asia. But as activity in the Arctic’s waters picks up, insurance companies are grappling with a fundamental question: If something goes wrong, who pays?

So far, it’s unclear that the cost of a major accident would be completely covered by insurance. Damages from a ship spilling oil, hitting an iceberg or becoming marooned can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“It’s all very much new territory,” said Helle Hammer, chair of the policy forum with the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI), the leading association for the global marine insurance market. Without years worth of data on the number of casualties, accidents, collisions or oil spills, she said, “it’s impossible to do the risk modelling.”

More than 10 insurance companies or brokers interviewed by Reuters said they still had too little knowledge of the region to resolve all questions about liability.

In the past few years, marine insurers in general have been paying out more for ship damage than they collected in premiums, according to IUMI data. Brokers say some are pulling out of the market completely. So the appetite to underwrite risks in the Arctic market is not high.

It’s “not like the rest of the world, with tried and tested shipping routes and known risks,” said Michael Kingston, an Arctic marine consultant and adviser to the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum on Arctic affairs.

For insurers that do contemplate new ice routes, there is a dramatic precedent: The Titanic, which hit an iceberg and went down in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic in April 1912. The loss was as devastating then as more recent catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina have been since, leading global insurance market Lloyd’s of London says.

Classical piano soothes old elephants at Thai sanctuary | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-elephant-music/classical-piano-soothes-old-elephants-at-thai-sanctuary-idUSKBN1OD035

https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20181214&t=2&i=1335012089&r=LYNXMPEEBD01E&w=800#.jpg

Un peu de douceur dans ce monde de brutes…

Un pianiste anglais, installé en Thailande, joue de la musique dans un sanctuaire pour vieux éléphants abimés par une vie de dur labeur au service des humains.

For eight years, pachyderms like Lam Duan - old, overworked and sometimes disabled - have been rehabilitated with music at Elephants World, a retirement sanctuary for the animals in the western Thai province of Kanchanaburi.

Paul Barton tient un blog vidéo sur son youtube, avec encore des choses cette année.

Beethoven “Moonlight Sonata” for Old Elephant

Mongkol is a 61-year-old former logging elephant. His captive-held life was spent hauling trees in the Thai forest. His body shape is deformed through hard labor, he lost his right eye and tusk in this brutal logging practice. Mongkol was rescued and brought to Elephants World to spend the rest of his days relaxing peacefully in freedom by the River Kwai. I discovered Mongkol is an extremely gentle, sensitive elephant who enjoys music, especially this slow movement by Beethoven which I play to him occasionally in the day and night.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4AcjvsVn5k

Calm Piano Music Relaxes Restless Bull Elephant

Chaichana is a powerful male elephant that lives at Elephants World in Thailand. I’ve become very close to this elephant over the past few years and seen a gentle, sensitive side to his character. From time to time, mainly late afternoon, Chaichana will stop by the piano of his own accord. Sometimes when he’s restless (as at the start of this video) he quickly relaxes to several of his preferred pieces by Greig.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmoMe2_53I

Un documentaire de 20min avec un peu plus de background
A Day with Chaichana the Elephant - Piano for Elephants Behind-the-Scenes
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPjQ3G7KQOE

Paul Barton avec sa fille, de bébé à 5 ans
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwduHKyjdEE

Et plein d’autres vidéos sur sa chaine.

#vidéo #musique #piano #Bach #Beethoven #Paul_Barton #éléphant #beau

Waymo opens driverless robo-taxi service to the public in Phoenix
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-waymo-autonomous-phoenix/waymo-opens-driverless-robo-taxi-service-to-the-public-in-phoenix-idUSKBN26

Waymo on Thursday will relaunch and expand its fully automated, robo-taxi ride hailing service in Phoenix, rebooting its effort to transform years of autonomous vehicle research into a revenue-producing business. Waymo, the self-driving vehicle technology unit of Google parent Alphabet, Inc GOOGL.O, said it will start offering rides in minivans with no human attendant on board to current members of its Waymo One service in Phoenix. Within a few weeks, Waymo plans to open access to anyone (...)

#Alphabet #Google #Waymo #voiture #bénéfices #technologisme

►https://static.reuters.com/resources/r

Nord Stream 2 pipe-laying vessel nears project hub | Reuters
▻https://fr.reuters.com/article/us-nordstream-russia-idUSKBN27B1KG

https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20201026&t=2&i=1538845943&r=LYNXMPEG9P11O&w=800#.jpg

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian pipe-laying vessel Akademik Cherskiy, expected to be used to finish the Moscow-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, is heading towards the German project hub of Mukran, Refinitiv Eikon data showed on Monday.

According to the ship tracking data, the vessel is due to arrive at Mukran port - where pipes for the Nord Stream 2 are stored - on Tuesday Oct. 27, having been near the Russian port of Kaliningrad since early October.