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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Apple facing lawsuit in South Korea from over 60,000 iPhone users for slowing down older models

iphone
© Jo Yong-Hak / Reuters
Authorities in South Korea announced that 63,767 iPhone users in the country have lodged a mass lawsuit against US tech giant Apple for slowing down older models.

It is South Korea's biggest-ever class action lawsuit, and demands that Apple pay millions of dollars in damages.

According to Xinhua news agency, the users are represented by local law firm Hannuri. It has filed the class action lawsuit with the Seoul Central District Court against Apple and Apple Korea, the local unit of the iPhone manufacturer.

The iPhone customers are demanding damages worth 200,000 won ($188) per plaintiff, or 12.75 billion won ($12 million) in total.

Health

Roadside bomb in Syria kills US and UK soldier and injures 5 more

us soldier
© Rodi Said / Reuters
US army soldier seen in the town of Tabqa, Syria, June 29, 2017
A roadside bomb in the Syrian town of Manbij has killed two members of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition and injured five more. One of the killed was American and the other British, according to multiple reports.

Although the Coalition has yet to officially identify the casualties, a number of news outlets have already reported them as American and British. Fox News and Reuters cited a US military official, while Sky News cited the UK Ministry of Defence.

This was the first casualty the US military sustained in Syria, according to Fox. Five other troops were injured in the explosion on March 29. Their identities have not been made available.

A spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) - the official name of the US-led military operation against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria - confirmed in a brief statement on Thursday that "two Coalition personnel were killed and five were wounded by an improvised explosive device in Syria."

Comment: Manbij, known locally as 'Little London' because of the huge numbers of British fighters stationed there with ISIS.

How many of them simply folded into the 'SDF'?


Eye 2

Footage shows IDF drones drop tear gas grenades on Palestinian protesters

tear gas drone
© Mohammed Salem / Reuters
An Israeli drone drops tear gas grenades during clashes with Palestinians, during a tent city protest along the Israel border with Gaza, demanding the right to return to their homeland, east of Gaza City March 30, 2018.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has used tear gas-deploying drones to disperse huge crowds of Palestinian protesters along the Israel-Gaza border area Friday.

So far, at least 12 Palestinians have been killed and up to 500 injured in the clashes, Reuters reports. One Palestinian farmer was killed following an IDF tank volley in the early hours of Friday morning.The IDF then used a combination of live rounds and rubber-coated steel pellets to disperse the crowds demonstrating at the #GreatReturn before using its airborne tear gas system.

Comment: See Also:





Cell Phone

CA whistleblower Christopher Wylie: Facebook is listening to you through your smartphone's microphone

facebook spying
Facebook could be listening to its users conversations through smartphone microphones, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie says.

He appeared in front of a committee of British parliamentarians on Tuesday, and in his nearly four hours of testimony, he used words like "fraud" and "cheat" to describe the use of Facebook data to affect the outcomes of Brexit. He also addressed the longstanding internet theory that Facebook spies on its users to shape their advertising.

Last year, a YouTube video of a man claiming Facebook gave him cat food ads because of a conversation with his girlfriend went viral. And the eavesdropping claims are regularly discussed on social media.

Conservative MP Damian Collins, who chaired the committee, asked Wylie if the rumours are true.

"There's been various speculation about the fact that Facebook can, through the Facebook app on your smartphone, listen in to what people are talking about and discussing and using that to prioritize the advertising as well," Collins said. "Other people would say, no, they don't think it's possible. It's just that the Facebook system is just so good at predicting what you're interested in that it can guess."

Megaphone

Moscow urges restraint amid growing death toll in Gaza border clashes

Protests in Gaza Strip
© Reuters/Mohammed Salem
The Palestinian protests along the Gaza border have turned violent, with clashes erupting between the demonstrators and Israeli forces; at least 14 protesters have been killed, while more than a thousand others have been hurt.

Moscow has called on Palestinians and Israelis to exercise restraint in wake of reports that the number of those killed in the Gaza clashes is continuously rising, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in on its website. The statement was made following a meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and senior member of Hamas, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook.

"A deep concern was expressed on the part of the Russian side amid the reports of the growing death toll in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli army's measures to curb Palestinian protests that began on March 30 as part of the 'March of Return' campaign," the ministry stated, commenting on the meeting.

Comment: See also: Israeli army uses live fire, rubber bullets, tear gas against Palestinian protesters; 12 dead, 1,000 hurt


Airplane

Rogue state: British authorities illegally 'inspect' Russian passenger plane after it lands in London

Russian plane
© Reuters
Russia's Foreign Ministry has condemned the search of a Russian airliner in a London airport, calling it another provocation by the British authorities against Moscow.

The British police went aboard a Russian A-321, which arrived from Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow to the British capital on Thursday. The officers said they needed to inspect the plane without explaining the reasons for the action and demanded the crew to leave the plane, Interfax reported. They would not let the captain get out of the cabin.

"We're speaking of another provocation by the British authorities," Maria Zakharova, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said, commenting on a search performed aboard an Aeroflot carrier plane in the British capital.

2 + 2 = 4

The approaching trans medical backlash

transgender backlash
© Niyazz/Shutterstock
A reader sends this horrifying story from the Sydney Morning Herald about people who had sex-change surgery earlier in life, who now regret it. Excerpts:
He will never forget the noise. Lying on the hospital trolley being pushed towards the operating theatre, he heard nothing but a primal wail. He looked back to see his younger sister sobbing, traumatised by the enormity of what he was about to do.

Andrew*, born male, was minutes away from an operation that would make him a woman. Psychiatrists said he had a female brain in a male body. Gender reassignment surgery was the only way to ease the mental torment he'd endured since adolescence.

But as the wheels squeaked towards the operating table he was struck by an unshakeable thought: "It's not right." He remembers telling the surgeon: "I think I'm doing the wrong thing, it's not right, I think we've got to stop it."

The surgeon stroked Andrew's face, telling him it was natural to feel frightened before an operation. He protested again, insisting it felt wrong. Then it went black. When he woke up he was sure the surgery had been cancelled. The romantic tales he'd read of transsexuals who awoke post-surgery feeling "reborn" convinced Andrew the operation had been halted, because he felt no different.

"Then I remember lifting up the sheets and putting my hand down and feeling it all bandaged and packed. I just started bawling my eyes out and screaming … I remember saying to myself, you f-king idiot, Andrew, how could you be so bloody stupid?"

Twenty years after surgery that left him feeling like a "desexed dog", the grief can still overwhelm him. Now 42, Andrew tells The Sunday Age the operation he had as a confused 21-year-old has shattered him.

Comment: I'm a pediatrician. How transgender ideology has infiltrated my field and produced large-scale child abuse


Star of David

Meet Yifat Doron: Activist who slapped the prosecutor at Tamimi military trial but was given only 2 days in jail

Yifat Doron

Yifat Doron in detention
Although it is officially subject to the open court principle, the public is rarely allowed a glimpse into the Israeli military tribunal at Ofer (near Ramallah), one of the pillars of the occupation in the West Bank, which denies the basic human rights of the Palestinian population. At a time of general despair and loss of way for the Palestinian resistance, the trial of Ahed Tamimi is repositioning the Palestinian struggle in its original context: a confrontation between a mighty oppressive apparatus and a people aspiring to basic freedoms. The trial has also momentarily shed light on the military court at Ofer.

Much has been said regarding the court's decision to hold Ahed's trial in camera, denying her request for an open trial. The judges claimed to be protecting her interests as a minor. But they certainly were not protecting her from public disgrace, as her actions have been lauded by both Palestinian and international public opinion. Obviously the judges were trying to protect themselves from disgrace and farther public outrage.

But even the trial of Nariman Tamimi, Ahed's mother, was not really held in an open court. The military court allows the presence of only two family members for every Palestinian defendant at best. It offers a certain advantage to supporters in possession of an Israeli ID who wish to enter the compound: they may be allowed to attend trials, subject to special authorization issued by the military, after sending a formal request by fax.

Brick Wall

Survey finds 78 percent of Europeans want tighter immigration controls

migrant entering EU
© Agence France-Presse/ Getty
A massive poll covering all 28 European Union (EU) states has revealed an overwhelming concern over illegal immigration with more than three-quarters of EU citizens saying that Europe's external borders should be better protected.

The sweeping February survey conducted by the Századvég Foundation's Project 28 sampled one thousand adult citizens from each of the 28 EU countries, and found a remarkable consistency of thought regarding the dangers of unchecked immigration.

What is "most striking" about the survey, wrote the Spectator's Douglas Murray on March 24, is that "there is such extraordinary unanimity around the question of immigration."

"While numerous political divides exist within each of the 28 member states, and considerable differences exist between them, only on the matters of migration, borders and security can this not be said," he observed.

Sheriff

NJ cops angrily confront Domino's manager over failed pizza delivery

cops in scuffle
Two New Jersey police officers have been suspended without pay after multiple videos showed them attacking a Domino's manager while on Duty. Surprisingly, both of them have also been charged with multiple crimes.

Rodney Clark and Courtney Solomon are both charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and making terroristic threats after they stormed into a Domino's pizza restaurant and began shaking down the manager.

Marina Elsamina, an employee at the Communipaw Avenue pizza shop, told The Jersey Journal in an interview that workers there received an online complaint on Tuesday evening by one of the police officers, apparently over a delivery issue, according to NJ.com.

Shortly after receiving the complaint, the officers showed up at the store and began attacking the manager, Mena Kirolos. The initial confrontation was captured on employee cellphones as well as surveillance video.

After the officers threw the innocent man up against the wall, they then demanded he go outside. According to the video, Kirolos, and multiple witnesses, cops made several threats toward him while physically assaulting him and saying they were going to lock him up-over pizza.