Interview: Imprisoned politician Josep Rull awaits trial for rebellion

THE IRISH TIMES

By GUY HEDGECOE

Decembre 20, 2018

In early November 2017, Josep Rull, the former Catalan minister for territory and sustainability, posted the following on his Twitter account: “If you see this tweet then I’ve been jailed for being loyal to the ballot box.”

More than 13 months later, Rull (50) is still in prison, although he was released on bail for several weeks earlier this year. He and 17 other pro-independence leaders are awaiting trial for their alleged role in Catalonia’s failed bid for independence last year and nine of them are in custody. At the beginning of December, Rull and three others – Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull and Joaquim Forn – began a hunger strike at Lledoners prison where they are being held.

Their protest is driven by the fact that they remain in jail even though their trial has no scheduled date. They also argue that the Spanish judiciary has deliberately blocked appeals they have made in order to prevent their complaints from reaching the European Court of Human Rights.

“I want my case – and those of my colleagues – to reach the European courts,” Rull told The Irish Times, in a written interview carried out via email. “But the Spanish courts put up obstacles because they fear being undermined by a truly impartial and independent judiciary.”

The Catalan government says Rull has lost 7kg since beginning the strike. Yet the quartet who are carrying out the action appear to have embarked on it with caution. Jordi Sànchez told a radio interviewer recently: “I don’t want to be the Catalan Bobby Sands.” He added: “We haven’t gone crazy. We’re not going to immolate ourselves.”

Reoffending

The supreme court says it was keeping Rull and the other prisoners in custody in order to prevent them from reoffending and from fleeing the country, as former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and several others did.

The independence movement has sought to place the nine imprisoned leaders, who also include former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras, at the centre of Spain’s ongoing territorial crisis. It argues they are political prisoners being punished for their views, not their actions.

Rull says that he is “in jail for fulfilling the mandate expressed by Catalan society in democratic elections: calling a referendum and applying its result”, a reference to the outlawed independence vote held in October 2017, during which police attacked many Catalans as they attempted to cast their vote.

As for the upcoming trial, Rull says that the guilt of the defendants is a foregone conclusion. If he is found guilty, he could face a jail sentence of up to 16 years for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds. Junqueras faces a possible 25-year sentence.

“Our trial does not have the objective conditions necessary to make it trustworthy,” Rull says, adding that after the verdict he will appeal to the European judiciary. “I want to take the opportunity to show how this trial is designed [by Spain] to serve as a lesson to those who want independence, with the aim of making them give up their desire for freedom.”

Recent controversies

A string of recent controversies within the Spanish judiciary – including some affecting the supreme court – has helped fuel such criticism, despite the insistence of the central government and others that the trial will be fair.

Yet while the hunger strike seeks to draw international attention to the Catalan issue, it also seems to have underlined divisions within the independence movement. The four prisoners carrying out the protest are all members of the Together for Catalonia (JxCat) parliamentary group, whose relationship with the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), which represents four of the other prisoners, has been deteriorating.

On Wednesday, five former Catalan presidents, including Carles Puigdemont, were among those who appealed to the hunger strikers to call off their action in order to safeguard their health.

Rull, however, denies that the strike could make relationships within the independence movement worse.

“The movement is broad and diverse,” he says. “It’s not necessary for us all to do the same thing because we all respect the peaceful actions of others.”  

Yet the movement’s unity is clearly under pressure and the Catalan president, Quim Torra of JxCat, is struggling to balance the political demands of his post with the need to remain popular among grassroots activists. His recent praise for the Slovenian route to independence, which saw dozens of people killed in 1991, has been seen as a mistake by many, including some allies.

Unimpressed

But Rull insists that blame for the lack of improvement in relations between Madrid and Catalonia lies squarely with Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. His efforts to reduce tensions by taking a series of measures aimed at normalising the relationship with the region have left pro-independence Catalans unimpressed.

“[The] Spanish government should take much bolder steps in order to be able to embark on an effective process of political dialogue, which is the only way of finding solutions to the conflict,” Rull says.

Yet it is the political right that appears to have been emboldened, demanding that Sánchez reintroduce direct rule in Catalonia. Meanwhile, the leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), Pablo Casado, has dismissed the hunger strike as a “high-protein diet”.

Reckless response

There is speculation in many quarters that if Spain’s political turmoil continues, resulting in a reckless response to the Catalan crisis by Madrid, it could benefit the independence movement, which already casts itself as the victim of an undemocratic state.

“There are, without a doubt, pro-independence Catalans who think like that, but I’m not one of them,” says Rull.

“Anyway, the ones who benefit most from the tensions between Catalonia and Madrid are not the Catalan [pro-independence] parties but rather the Spanish parties which share the vision of Spain that the Franco regime had.”

© 2018 irishtimes.com

Washington — The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has “continued to fulfill its mission” during the COVID-19 pandemic by performing safety and environmental inspections for offshore oil and gas operations, the Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General concludes in a report issued Sept. 21.

Just as there are so many ingredients combined in a good sauce, there are many factors that combine to impact new product development in sauces, dressings and spreads. And this is true—seemingly for better and for worse.

Made by slow-cooking fresh milk with traditional ingredients such as saffron, rosewater and pistachio, kulfi is dense, creamy, slow-melting, and tastes like home to South Asians around the world.

Mohawk Builder + Multifamily is building a more sustainable world with a diverse portfolio of carpet, laminated wood and resilient flooring all made in the USA to help customers create greener communities.

I’d first driven by this land en route to elsewhere. When I saw the bunkers—over a thousand set upon the desert—I was so stunned by the terrain’s alien disfigurement that I stopped at an overpass to absorb the view. To my eye, the concrete bunkers were dystopian in their sum and structure and sprawl—scarring nine […]

The post A Golden Land? Questioning Frontiers, Fantasies and Fulfillment in the Pacific Northwest was curated by information for practice.

The Top Supply Chain Projects 2024 (formerly known as SDCE 100) profiles innovative application success projects designed to automate, optimise, streamline and improve the supply chain.

CIRRO Fulfillment, the e-commerce fulfilment service provider, has been honoured with the Best New Member Award by the UK Warehousing Association (UKWA).

Starting from (p-tolyl­sulfin­yl)fer­ro­cene (1), a mixture of the complete series [CpFe{C5H5–n(SOTol-p)n}] (n = 2–4) (2–4) in all regioisomers was obtained. After chromatographic separation, crystals of 1,2-bis­[(4-methyl­benzene)­sulfin­yl]fer­ro­cene, 2a, and 1,3-bis­[(4-methyl­benzene)­sulfin­yl]fer­ro­cene, 2b, both [Fe(C5H5)(C19H17O2S2)], as well as of 1,2,3-tris­[(4-methyl­benzene)­sulfin­yl]fer­ro­cene, [Fe(C5H5)(C26H23O3S3)], 3a, and 1,2,3,4-tetra­kis­[(4-methyl­benzene)­sul­fin­yl]fer­ro­cene ethyl acetate 0.75-solvate, [Fe(C5H5)(C33H29O4S4)]·0.75C4H8O2, 4, could be isolated. Their mol­ecular and crystal structures are compared with each other and also with the so far un­reported structures of related 1,2-bis­(phenyl­sulfan­yl)fer­ro­cene, [Fe(C5H5)(C17H13S2)], 5, and 1,2,3,4-tetra­kis­(phenyl­sulfan­yl)fer­ro­cene, [Fe(C5H5)(C29H21S4)], 6. In all the sulfinyl structures, the O atoms of the S=O groups are in equatorial positions, except for that in tetrasubstituted 4. All the arene rings of these com­pounds (except for one ring in 4) are in axial positions directed away from the Fe atom, mostly in a near perpendicular orientation with respect to the plane of the cyclo­penta­di­en­yl ring. The main inter­molecular inter­actions in the crystals are C—H⋯H—C, C—H⋯π and C—H⋯O, while C—H⋯S inter­actions are much less important, except for tetra­sul­fan­yl com­pound 6. π–π inter­actions (intra­molecular) are only important in com­pound 3a. Hirshfeld analysis shows that dispersion terms are dominant for the inter­action energies of all six com­pounds. In general, the calculated total inter­action energies increase with increasing number of substituents and are higher for the sulfinyl than for the sul­fan­yl groups.

Low-molecular-weight (LMW) thiols are involved in many processes in all organisms, playing a protective role against reactive species, heavy metals, toxins and antibiotics. Actinobacteria, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, use the LMW thiol mycothiol (MSH) to buffer the intracellular redox environment. The NADPH-dependent FAD-containing oxidoreductase mycothiol disulfide reductase (Mtr) is known to reduce oxidized mycothiol disulfide (MSSM) to MSH, which is crucial to maintain the cellular redox balance. In this work, the first crystal structures of Mtr are presented, expanding the structural knowledge and understanding of LMW thiol reductases. The structural analyses and docking calculations provide insight into the nature of Mtrs, with regard to the binding and reduction of the MSSM substrate, in the context of related oxidoreductases. The putative binding site for MSSM suggests a similar binding to that described for the homologous glutathione reductase and its respective substrate glutathione disulfide, but with distinct structural differences shaped to fit the bulkier MSSM substrate, assigning Mtrs as uniquely functioning reductases. As MSH has been acknowledged as an attractive antitubercular target, the structural findings presented in this work may contribute towards future antituberculosis drug development.

Several proteins from plant pathogenesis-related family 10 (PR10) are highly abundant in the latex of opium poppy and have recently been shown to play diverse and important roles in the biosynthesis of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs). The recent determination of the first crystal structures of PR10-10 showed how large conformational changes in a surface loop and adjacent β-strand are coupled to the binding of BIA compounds to the central hydrophobic binding pocket. A more detailed analysis of these conformational changes is now reported to further clarify how ligand binding is coupled to the formation and cleavage of an intermolecular disulfide bond that is only sterically allowed when the BIA binding pocket is empty. To decouple ligand binding from disulfide-bond formation, each of the two highly conserved cysteine residues (Cys59 and Cys155) in PR10-10 was replaced with serine using site-directed mutagenesis. Crystal structures of the Cys59Ser mutant were determined in the presence of papaverine and in the absence of exogenous BIA compounds. A crystal structure of the Cys155Ser mutant was also determined in the absence of exogenous BIA compounds. All three of these crystal structures reveal conformations similar to that of wild-type PR10-10 with bound BIA compounds. In the absence of exogenous BIA compounds, the Cys59Ser and Cys155Ser mutants appear to bind an unidentified ligand or mixture of ligands that was presumably introduced during expression of the proteins in Escherichia coli. The analysis of conformational changes triggered by the binding of BIA compounds suggests a molecular mechanism coupling ligand binding to the disruption of an intermolecular disulfide bond. This mechanism may be involved in the regulation of biosynthetic reactions in plants and possibly other organisms.

The title compound, [Mo3(C9H18NS2)3(S2)3S]2S, crystallizes on a general position in the monoclinic space group P21/n (No. 14). The cationic [Mo3S7(S2CNiBu2)3]+ fragments are joined by a mono­sulfide dianion that forms close S⋯S contacts to each of the di­sulfide ligands on the side of the Mo3 plane opposite the μ32− ligand. The two Mo3 planes are inclined at an angle of 40.637 (15)°, which gives the assembly an open clamshell-like appearance. One μ6-S2−⋯S22− contact, at 2.4849 (14) Å, is appreciably shorter than the remaining five, which are in the range 2.7252 (13)–2.8077 (14) Å.

The title compound, C8H11PS, which melts below room temperature, was crystallized at low temperature. The P—S bond length is 1.9623 (5) Å and the major contributors to the Hirshfeld surface are H⋯H (58.1%), S⋯H/H⋯S (13.4%) and C⋯H/H⋯C contacts (11.7%).

When shellfish farmers are deciding where to grow clams and oysters, they’re often acting on outdated water quality data — which can interrupt harvesting and cost them income. Gulf Research Program Fellow Natalie Nelson is working to predict water quality trends, so shellfish farmers can make better informed decisions.

The tortilla category largely flatlined during the past year, with some variation by type or brand of shell, as the world began to reopen after the worst of the pandemic and fewer consumers worked at home. 

Serving a substantial portion of the Southeast, including the Five Guys hamburger restaurant chain, Masada Bakery has a deep commitment to customer service, quality standards and an ability to flex with a major growth curve in a tough economy. It’s for these and other reasons that we named it our 2012 Wholesale Baker of the Year.

Attendees are invited to visit booth 101 to for hands-on experience with Nilfisk's industrial vacuums.

BiCupid.com Introduces Innovative Selfie Video Feature for Bisexual Dating, Enhancing User Authenticity and Safety

Insight Works' Order Fulfillment Worksheet is refining the art of order management within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, showcasing unparalleled efficiency and precision.

MS Detection's sensors, products and solutions will increase the level of security and passenger throughput in aviation security, air cargo, border control and critical infrastructure sites.

Insight Works announces the continued success of its Order Fulfillment Worksheet app, enhancing Business Central's supply chain operations by automating warehouse tasks and streamlining backorder management to optimize order fulfillment efficiency.

PghLFilms: Revolutionizing Animation Reviews with Humor and Insight

Luggage repair and claims specialist selects Rootstock Manufacturing Cloud ERP to transform global operations and support future growth??

Control fulfillment costs by using 3PL services, rethinking packaging materials, using scalable warehouse space, and automating processes.

Open Source MANO Release NINE fulfils ETSI's zero-touch automation vision, ready for MEC and O-RAN use cases

Sophia Antipolis, 18 December 2020

ETSI is pleased to announce the launch of OSM Release NINE today. With an array of new features, this Release completes the alignment process with ETSI NFV specifications, culminating in native adoption of ETSI GS NFV-SOL006 for network functions and service modelling. Standardizing the onboarding process for VNFs into OSM fosters interoperability and boosts the growth of OSM’s VNF ecosystem. Release NINE coincides with the announcement of a new production deployment, confirming OSM as the most comprehensive open-source NFV orchestrator and a key enabler for zero-touch end-to-end network and service automation.

Read More...

Amalfi Terrace Serigraph on Paper by Kerry Hallam is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to pcs

A Promise Fulfilled Giclee on Canvas Deluxe by Harrison Ellenshaw is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Edition of 95 pcs

A Promise Fulfilled H/E Giclee on Canvas Premiere by Harrison Ellenshaw is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Edition of 10 pcs

A Promise Fulfilled H/E Giclee on Canvas Petite by Harrison Ellenshaw is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Edition of 195 pcs

As a sustainable solution for grocery’s end-to-end cold chain fulfillment needs, Phononic's ACT 2000 features a proprietary thermoelectric-based cooling platform that eliminates refrigerants and HFCs while meeting demanding refrigerated and frozen cold chain needs.

CHISINAU, 24 June 2016 – The Special Representative of the German OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian Settlement Process, Cord Meier-Klodt, concluded today his fourth visit to the region in 2016 to meet with political representatives in Chisinau and Tiraspol.

During the visit, Ambassador Meier-Klodt followed up on progress by the sides in implementing the protocol signed as a result of talks in the 5+2 format in Berlin on 2 and 3 June 2016.

“During the 5+2 talks in Berlin, the sides committed to achieve specific outcomes on key issues before the Bavaria conference in July,” said Ambassador Meier-Klodt. “Since then, the sides have finalized agreements in the field of ecology, an achievement that demonstrates their ability to follow through on commitments reached at the negotiating table.”

The Special Representative highlighted the spirit of co-operation that characterized the recent 5+2 talks, as reflected in the unanimous support for the Berlin protocol expressed by the international partners.  

“In my meetings in Chisinau and Tiraspol, I underscored the need for fresh vision and thinking on these issues that focuses on the gains for both sides,” the Special Representative said. “In that context, I urge the sides to redouble their efforts to implement the remaining issues contained in the Berlin protocol.”

Talks in the 5+2 format include the participation of representatives of the sides, Mediators and Observers – Moldova, Transdniestria, the OSCE, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union.

Related Stories

• OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Steinmeier, in Moldova, calls for swift and full implementation of confidence-building measures
• OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Frank-Walter Steinmeier to visit Moldova on Tuesday
• Urgent steps needed towards full respect for ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, says OSCE Chairmanship Special Representative and Chief Monitor

SnapFulfil has secured another distinguished supply chain and logistics award. The Top Supply Chain Projects 2024 (formerly known as SDCE 100) profiles innovative application success projects designed to automate, optimize, streamline and improve the supply chain. 

Wincanton has deployed VersaTile, a new modular automation solution, at its Northampton shared user facility to further enhance its high-volume e-Fulfilment offering for customers.

Manufacturing & Logistics IT spoke with leading representatives from the analyst and vendor communities to discuss some of the most important key talking points and areas of innovation taking place within demand forecasting and planning technology.

With a more fragmented and volatile playing field becoming the norm, companies need to be able to make better more accurate decisions to manage anticipated and actual demand as well as execute and fulfil orders.

Whistl  has announced that Fliss O’Hara has been appointed Managing Director of Whistl Fulfillment, after joining the business last year from GXO Logistics as Commercial Director, Fulfilment.

For as long as I can remember, winter has been my favorite season…

Treetop Adventure Golf ready to roll in the Bullring this May.

The way dogs are portrayed in literature reflects the problems in our real-world relationships to canines, says PhD student Molly Labenski, who says people want animals in their lives as “accessories” that can be easily discarded.

New thinking in online fulfilment order picking that combines long established warehouse ‘wave’ picking techniques with state-of-the-art sorting robots is delivering eye-catching improvements in picking rates, says Frazer Watson, Global Vice President of Rainbow Dynamics.

AS a boy, David Shteinman watched the Apollo mission with wonder. Now the industrial engineer is the only Aussie taking part in a race to land a robotic craft on the moon.

Marlin Magazine has released a video highlighting the 2023 Bermuda Billfish Blast, which is part of the 2023 Bermuda Triple Crown event. The video’s description says, “A total of 37 boats fished the 2023 Bermuda Billfish Blast, which offered a total cash purse of $506,850 plus an additional $360,000 as part of the Bermuda Triple […]

The 2024 Bermuda Billfish Blast — part of the Bermuda Triple Crown — was held this past week.The event website notes, “For decades, the blue-purple waters off the island nation of Bermuda have attracted anglers from around the world to pursue giant Atlantic blue marlin as well as a host of other species. It’s home […]

The arm was created by Enabling the Future, which has a chapter at Sienna College in Albany, New York. For its first project the Siena e-NABLE group made an Iron Man-themed hand for 5-year-old Jack Carder in Ohio.



In this case, nine-year-old Karissa Mitchell's (who was born without a right hand and most of her wrist) mother reached out to the group on campus, Siena College's director of marketing and communications said.

"She's watched the movie at least 100 times. We sing the songs all the time. We even have a karaoke machine that's 'Frozen'-themed," said Karissa's mother. The prosthetic was built using a 3-D printer and is comprised of 30 parts (it took near 30 hours to make).

To help Karissa achieve her dream of becoming a Disney princess, the team used "a pretty transparent ice blue color filament and added snowflakes to the forearm and her name with an Elsa crown on the cuff," said Alyx Gleason, the project lead and president of Siera e-NABLE. The arm also came with an Olaf LED light source.

Anyone who is in need of an arm or hand is encouraged to reach out to Siena e-NABLE.

Have you ever felt like you’re drifting through life, unsure of where you’re headed or what you’re working towards? If so, you’re not alone. Many of us find ourselves caught up in the day-to-day hustle, losing sight of our bigger aspirations and dreams. But what if there was a way to change that? What if ... Read more

The post Setting Life Goals: The Path to Fulfillment and Success appeared first on LifeHack.

In this episode I'm joined by Arsenal fan Alfie Steiner, to talk a little bit about the Gunners, but more about food and his incredibly popular 'Alfie Cooks' channels on social media. We chat about how posting food pictures to Instagram developed into something else, and he now has nearly 4,000,000 followers for his inventive recipes. We also discuss the fact his food is plant based, how that can lead to more creativity in the kitchen, where he sees his newly-found career going, as well as some Arsenal chat as the title race intensifies.

Follow Alfie on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/alfiecooks_/ and find his other channels here: https://linktr.ee/alfiecooks_

Get extra bonus content and help support Arseblog by becoming an Arseblog Member on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arseblog

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Video is beginning to fulfill its promise as a transformational technology. Beyond merely cutting communications costs, video is starting to change the way companies do business, and is rapidly being accepted as a "need to have" rather than a "nice to have."

Cisco CEO John Chambers predicts video traffic on the internet will increase six fold by 2012. Here is a link to Cisco's August 5 earnings call where he makes that prediction.

A classic example of the power of video is that of electronics manufacturer NEC. They have a network of nearly 500 dealers across the United States that sell their products. They saved more than $250,000 annually in training costs by delivering product training with video webcasting rather than sending trainers to the dealers or bringing the dealers to the trainers.

They also dramatically reduced the time it takes to train the entire network on new products. Click here to watch a video case study.

A newer example shows how video can literally transform the way a company does business. A major sneaker company manufacturers its products in China. Each time they re-tooled to manufacture a new sneaker, executives would have to fly to China to ensure the tooling was correct and the sneakers were meeting specifications before they began mass production.

They began to use high definition cameras at the plant in China to webcast video of the sneakers to allow executives to make their inspection virtually. Sure, they save money on travel to China. But more importantly, there was a practical limit to the amount of people who could go to China to see the actual design come off the assembly line. The video process allows them to solicit input from a much broader segment of the company, and even get input from retailers while there is still time to respond to suggestions.

The end result is that they can bring their products to market faster than their competition, which creates a significant competitive advantage. Click here to see the video discussion.

I am particularly pleased to see clear evidence of unmistakable, game-changing ROI.

Diana Samodova
Dec 1, 2020; 19:2139-2156
Technological Innovation and Resources

Trypsin is the protease of choice in bottom-up proteomics. However, its application can be limited by the amino acid composition of target proteins and the pH of the digestion solution. In this study we characterize ProAlanase, a protease from the fungus Aspergillus niger that cleaves primarily on the C-terminal side of proline and alanine residues. ProAlanase achieves high proteolytic activity and specificity when digestion is carried out at acidic pH (1.5) for relatively short (2 h) time periods. To elucidate the potential of ProAlanase in proteomics applications, we conducted a series of investigations comprising comparative multi-enzymatic profiling of a human cell line proteome, histone PTM analysis, ancient bone protein identification, phosphosite mapping and de novo sequencing of a proline-rich protein and disulfide bond mapping in mAb. The results demonstrate that ProAlanase is highly suitable for proteomics analysis of the arginine- and lysine-rich histones, enabling high sequence coverage of multiple histone family members. It also facilitates an efficient digestion of bone collagen thanks to the cleavage at the C terminus of hydroxyproline which is highly prevalent in collagen. This allows to identify complementary proteins in ProAlanase- and trypsin-digested ancient bone samples, as well as to increase sequence coverage of noncollagenous proteins. Moreover, digestion with ProAlanase improves protein sequence coverage and phosphosite localization for the proline-rich protein Notch3 intracellular domain (N3ICD). Furthermore, we achieve a nearly complete coverage of N3ICD protein by de novo sequencing using the combination of ProAlanase and tryptic peptides. Finally, we demonstrate that ProAlanase is efficient in disulfide bond mapping, showing high coverage of disulfide-containing regions in a nonreduced mAb.