Trump approves provisions for Taiwan Assurance Act

28 December, 2020
Shirley Lin

US President Donald Trump (Photo courtesy of The White House FB)

US President Donald Trump has approved the Taiwan Assurance Act, a bill included as part of a spending package for fiscal year 2021.

The Taiwan Assurance Act is meant to support Taiwan’s defenses. It calls for normalizing arms sales to Taiwan to help strengthen the country’s self-defense capabilities.

The act also gives US backing to Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, such as the UN, the World Health Assembly, and other similar bodies that do not require statehood for participation.

In addition to including the Taiwan Assurance Act, the spending package also allocates US$3 million to supporting the activities of the Taiwan-US Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF). The GCTF is a platform designed to promote public health, law enforcement, disaster relief, energy cooperation, women’s empowerment, network security, media literacy, and good governance in both the US and Taiwan.

Trump signs Taiwan act into law, angering rival China
Beijing describes US move as ‘interference in China's internal affairs’

Ovunc Kutlu and Riyaz ul Khaliq |28.12.2020

ANKARA 

US President Donald Trump on Sunday signed the Taiwan Assurance Act into law, which was part of the wider $1.4 trillion federal government spending bill for the fiscal year of 2021.

After days of stalling, the bill was jointly signed with COVID-19 stimulus package that includes $900 billion aid

The US House of Representatives had unanimously passed the Taiwan Assurance Act in May 2019 when it was added to that fiscal year's spending bill for the Senate to consider.

The act aims to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries and encourages Taiwan to increase its defense spending.

Criticizing the law, China termed the US move an “interference in China's internal affairs”.

“China firmly opposes US' Taiwan Assurance Act, and the US should stop interfering in China's internal affairs by using the Taiwan question,” China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news conference in Beijing, according to daily Global Times.

Since the act passed the House, the Trump administration has approved eight arms sales to Taiwan, which include anti-ship cruise missiles and drones.

The act also includes Washington's support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the UN and other organizations, and provides $3 million for activities of US-Taiwan Global Cooperation and Training Framework. 

China considers Taiwan – officially known as the Republic of China – a breakaway province, while Taipei insists on its independence since 1949 and has diplomatic relations with 16 countries and regions. With the US expressing open support to Taiwan and selling high-tech weaponry to Taipei, China has increased its military operations in the region.

TRUMP SIGNS TIBET POLICY TO PREEMPT CHINA'S MOVE ON DALAI LAMA'S SUCCESSION


File photo of Donald Trump speaking at the White House. (AP)

 UPDATED:DECEMBER 28, 2020

US President Donald Trump has signed into law a bill which calls for establishing a US consulate in Tibet and building an international coalition to ensure that the next Dalai Lama is appointed solely by the Tibetan Buddhist community without China's interference. The Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 modifies and re-authorises various programmes and provisions related to Tibet.

Trump signed the act on Sunday as part of the massive USD 2.3 trillion package for the year-end bill to provide long-delayed coronavirus relief and fund the federal government. The US Senate last week unanimously passed the bill despite China's protest.

It authorises assistance to non-governmental organisations in support of Tibetan communities in Tibet; places restrictions on new Chinese consulates in the United States until a US consulate has been established in Lhasa, Tibet. The law now authorises the Office of the US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and expands the office's duties to include additional tasks, such as pursuing international coalitions to ensure that the next Dalai Lama is appointed solely by the Tibetan Buddhist faith community.

It also directs the Secretary of State not to open a new Chinese consulate in the US unless China allows the opening of an American consulate in Lhasa. It is the policy of the US to take all appropriate measures to hold accountable senior officials of the Chinese Government or the Chinese Communist Party who directly interfere with the identification and installation of the future 15th Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, the successor to the 14th Dalai Lama.

Beijing views the 14th Dalai Lama as a "separatist" working to split Tibet from China. Some of the prominent measures approved by the US Congress include imposing sanctions on Chinese officials, including travel restrictions. Noting that the 14th Dalai Lama advocates the Middle Way Approach, which seeks genuine autonomy for the six million Tibetans in Tibet, the new law says that the Dalai Lama has overseen a process of democratisation within the Tibetan polity and devolved his political responsibilities to the elected 23 representatives of the Tibetan people in exile in 2011.

The Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 approves USD 1 million per annum for the Special US Coordinator on Tibet, USD 675,000 towards scholarship provisions, USD 575,000 for scholar exchange initiatives, USD8 million for the Tibetan Autonomous Regio and Communities in China, USD 6 million for Tibetans living in India, USD3 million for Tibetan governance. Expressing concern over the exploitation of natural resources of Tibet, in particular water, the new law seeks to pursue collaborative efforts with Chinese and international scientific institutions, to monitor the environment on the Tibetan Plateau, including glacial retreat, temperature rise, and carbon levels, to promote a greater understanding of the effects on permafrost, the river flows, grasslands and desertification and the monsoon cycle.

Beijing blasts US for Taiwan, Tibet support

2020-12-28 

'The determination of the Chinese government to safeguard its national sovereignty, security and development interests is unwavering, says the Foreign Ministry's Zhao Lijian. File photo: AFP

Beijing expressed anger on Monday after US President Donald Trump signed into law measures to further bolster support for Taiwan and Tibet, which had been included in a US$2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package.

China has watched with growing alarm as the United States has stepped up its backing for Taiwan and its criticism of Beijing's rule in remote Tibet, further straining a relationship under intense pressure over trade, human rights and other issues.

The Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 and Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 both contain language objectionable to China, including US support for Taiwan's meaningful participation in United Nations bodies and regular arms sales.

On Tibet, which China has ruled with an iron fist since 1950, the act says sanctions should be put on Chinese officials who interfere in the selection of the exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama's successor.

Speaking in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China was "resolutely opposed" to both acts.

"The determination of the Chinese government to safeguard its national sovereignty, security and development interests is unwavering," he told reporters.

The US should not put the parts of the acts which "target China" into effect in order to avoid harming Sino-US relations, he said, adding they were an interference in China's internal affairs.

In Taiwan, the government welcomed the US move.

"The United States is an important ally of Taiwan's internationally, and a solid partner for sharing the values ​​of freedom and democracy," Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang said.

Trump, who is due to leave office on January 20 after losing November's election to President-elect Joe Biden, backed down from his earlier threat to block the spending bill, which was approved by Congress last week, after he came under intense pressure from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.

He signed it on Sunday evening. (Reuters)

A Sudan in transition presents first-ever film for Oscars

CAIRO — Nearly two years after the overthrow of autocrat Omar al-Bashir, Sudan is taking steps to rejoin the international community from which it was long shunned. That includes its film industry.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

For the first time in its history, Sudan has a submission for the Academy Awards. Produced by a consortium of European and Egyptian companies but with a Sudanese director and cast, "You Will Die at Twenty" will compete in the Best International Feature Film category.

The story follows a young man whose death at the age of 20 is prophesied not long after his birth, casting a shadow over his formative years, and parallels the burdens placed on a generation of Sudan’s young people.

Based on a short story by Sudanese novelist Hammour Ziyada, critics say it demonstrates that the country’s cultural scene is reawakening after decades of oppression.

The film was produced amid mass demonstrations against al-Bashir, who was toppled by the military in April 2019 after ruling the country for nearly 30 years.

“It was an adventure,” filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala told The Associated Press. “There were protests in the streets that had grown to a revolution by the beginning of filming.”

Sudan’s uprising erupted in late 2018, and as the number of people in the streets swelled, many of them young, the military stepped in and toppled the Islamist president. Since then, the country has embarked on a fragile transition to democracy, ending years of theocratic rule that limited artists’ freedoms.

The film’s submission was announced in November by the country’s ministry of culture, a month before the second anniversary of the start of the uprising.

It follows a narrative written by Ziyada in the early 2000s that chronicles the life of a child in 1960s in a remote village, located between the Blue and White Nile rivers. The inhabitants are largely guided by ancient Sufi beliefs and traditions, a mystical strain of Islam.

The film starts when a mother, Sakina, takes her newborn boy to a Sufi ceremony at a nearby shrine as a blessing. As a sheikh gives his blessing, a man in traditional clothing performs a meditative dance, suddenly stopping after 20 turns, falling to the ground — a bad omen.

The frightened mother appeals to the Sheikh to give an explanation. But he says, “God’s command is inevitable.” At this point, the crowd understands this is a prophecy predicting the child will die at 20.

Stunned and frustrated, the father leaves his wife and son, named Muzamil, to face their fate alone.

Muzamil grows up under the watchful eye of his overprotective mother, who wears black in anticipation of his early demise. He is haunted by the prophecy — even other children name him “the son of death.”

Despite that, Muzamil proves to be an inquisitive boy full of life. His mother allows him to go to study the Qur’an. He receives praise for his memorization and recitation of verses. Then comes a turning point.

A cinematographer, Suliman, returns to the village after years working abroad. Muzamil, who is by now working as an assistant to the village shopkeeper, gets to know him through delivering him alcohol, a social taboo.

Suliman, who lives with a prostitute, opens Muzamil’s eyes to the outside world. Through their discussions, he starts to doubt the prophecy that has governed his life so far and torn his family apart.

As he turns 19, Muzamil takes it upon himself to decide what it means to be alive, even as death beckons.

The film has received positive reviews from international critics. It premiered at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival’s parallel section, Venice Days. It won the Lion of the Future for Best First Feature — the first Sudanese film to do so. Since then, it has won at least two dozen awards at film festivals worldwide.

Abu Alala says his team tackled obstacles in making the film, thrown up by the same conservative milieu that it depicts. He blames the environment created by al-Bashir, who came to power in an Islamist-backed military coup in 1989. Under his rule, limited personal freedoms meant art was viewed with suspicion by many.

One major challenge, he said, was that local residents at the initial filming location objected to their presence. The crew was forced to move, but they persevered.

“We believed that it should be done under any circumstances,” Abu Alala said. He says that it was lucky that the film’s production period coincided with the cultural watershed moment of the uprising. The previous government wouldn't have been a proponent of his work.

The movie has also been met with commendations from inside the region.

“It is a very real and local film that makes the audience feel all of its details whenever and whoever they are," wrote Egyptian film critic Tarik el-Shenawy.

The film is only the eighth to be made inside Sudan. Abu Alala says that its selection shows Sudan has countless stories that remain untold.

“There wasn’t a film industry existing in Sudan — only individual attempts ... Sudan’s rulers — communists or Islamists — were not interested in cinema. They just were interested in having artists on their sides,” he said.

Now, he hopes that he and other filmmakers will have the freedom to share Sudan’s stories with the world.

Samy Magdy, The Associated Press

Gingerbread monolith delights 

San Francisco on Christmas Day

SAN FRANCISCO — In true pop-up art fashion, a nearly 7-foot-tall monolith made of gingerbread mysteriously appeared on a San Francisco hilltop on Christmas Day and collapsed the next day.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The three-sided tower, held together by icing and decorated with a few gumdrops, delighted the city on Friday when word spread about its existence.

During his morning run, Ananda Sharma told KQED-FM he climbed to Corona Heights Park to see the sunrise when he spotted what he thought was a big post. He said he smelled the scent of gingerbread before realizing what it was.

“It made me smile. I wonder who did it, and when they put it there,” he said.

People trekked to the park throughout the day, even as light rain fell on the ephemeral, edible art object. In one video posted online, someone took a bite of the gingerbread.

Phil Ginsburg, head of city's Recreation and Parks Department, told KQED the site “looks like a great spot to get baked” and confirmed his staff will not remove the monument “until the cookie crumbles.”

It did by Saturday morning, a fitting end to what was surely an homage to the discovery and swift disappearance of a shining metal monolith in Utah's red-rock desert last month. It became a subject of fascination around the world as it evoked the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” and drew speculation about its otherworldly origins.

The still-anonymous creator of the Utah monument did not secure permission to plant the hollow, stainless steel object on public land.

A similar metal structure was found and quickly disappeared on a hill in northern Romania. Days later, another monolith was discovered at the pinnacle of a trail in Atascadero, California, but it was later dismantled by a group of young men, city officials said.

Associated Press, The Associated Press

Mountain of construction debris at Laval recycling plant has been on fire since Saturday

Laval firefighters are still fighting a blaze on Sunday afternoon at a recycling plant in Vimont, after a mountain of construction debris caught fire Saturday morning.

© Laval Firefighters Association / Twitter Debris at a Laval recycling plant catches fire on Saturday Dec. 26, 2020.

At Multi-Recyclage, an outdoor dumping ground for material waste, fire started after wood meant to be composted overheated, according to the Laval fire department.

Smoke from the centre, located on Saulnier Street, could be seen from highways 440, 19 and 335.

The debris that caught fire contains dry materials such as wood. Firefighters managed to contain the blaze from spreading to other parts of the dump where plastics are stored.

According to the fire department, it'll be several days before the blaze will be fully extinguished.

Read more: 6 families displaced after 4-alarm fire in Laval

"In 10 days everything will be done. The fire will be extinguished in about five days (about)," said Laval Fire Department Division Chief Daniel Beaupré. "Five to 10 days."

The time estimate includes the time needed to remove the burnt material. Beaupré said the fire doesn't pose any danger to the public.

According to the Laval Firefighters Association, the fire gained intensity overnight on Saturday.

Firefighters spent the night from Saturday to Sunday trying to extinguish the fire from the mountain of debris and continued all day Sunday.

— With files from Global's Phil Carpenter

Howling into the void? 

US wolf recovery endangered by Trump

Issued on: 28/12/2020 - 

A wolf howls at a Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York 

Kena Betancur AFP


South Salem (United States) (AFP)

They thrive at teamwork, fight for their homes, and cherish their families above all else.

It is sometimes said there is no animal on Earth more like humans in their social behavior than wolves.

But the iconic species -- long a symbol of the free spirit of the American wilderness -- could soon be imperiled because of a decision by President Donald Trump's government to end protections that brought them back from the brink of extinction.

"Wolves right now have only recovered in about 10 percent of their historic range," Maggie Howell, executive director of the Wolf Conservation Center in upstate New York told AFP.

Historically, when states have fought to loosen safeguards, hunting and trapping has quickly followed, she says.

Now conservationists fear for the roughly 6,000 gray wolves in the lower-48 states when the new rule takes effect in January.

A quarter of a million wolves once roamed from coast to coast before European settlers embarked on campaigns of eradication that endured into the 20th Century.

Howell cups her hands around her mouth and lets out an "Ahwooo!"

Three adult wolves -- Alawa, Zephyr and Nikai -- answer in unison, their spine-tingling howls seeming to multiply in the air, creating the impression of a much larger pack.

The trio are the center's "ambassadors," vital to educating visitors.

Brown and gray Alawa, meaning "sweetpea" in the native Algonquin language, has a temperament that matches her name and seeks out human attention like a family dog.

Their goings-on can be followed 24/7 on webcams and on social media, where they have hundreds of thousands of fans.

The 32-acre (13-hectare) center also houses around 40 of their critically endangered cousin species: the Mexican gray wolf, which numbers just shy of 200 in the wild, and the smaller red wolf, of which only eight tagged animals remain outside captivity.

- Elimination campaigns -

In October, the US removed gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act, where they were first listed in the 1970s when their numbers fell to around 1,000.

Normally, a delisting decision is a welcome sign of a robust recovery.

But in this case, government commissioned independent experts questioned the scientific rationale and conservationists slammed the move as a devastating giveaway to hunters and ranchers.

Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin could all quickly resume hunting, which they were blocked from doing by a 2014 court order -- and wildlife groups estimate hundreds of wolves could be killed a year.

Rick McIntyre, a veteran national park ranger and author of "The Rise of Wolf 8," told AFP that vilification of the apex predator started with the arrival of Europeans in the 1600s.

By contrast, Native Americans lived alongside wolves in harmony for thousands of years, revering them in their mythology.

They also recognized their wider ecological importance, as shown in the Keewatin proverb: "The caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf who keeps the caribou strong."

Research has confirmed the wolf's importance in thinning over-browsing herds of elk, which in turn prevents destruction of habitat.

Wolves even manage wetland creation by keeping beavers in check, a study showed last month.

McIntyre has spent decades documenting wolf behavior, particularly at the Yellowstone National Park, where they were eliminated in the 1920s before being reintroduced in 1995.

He found that wolf packs begin when a male disperses from his birth-family to strike out on his own.

Litters are typically four or five pups, and when these grow to be "yearlings," they begin an apprenticeship, honing their hunting skills by watching their elders while learning how to take care of the pups -- much like human teenagers babysitting.

Wolves start their days with warm displays of affection with their pack members, bond through extended bouts of play, and have highly-individualized personality types.

Some are merciful towards rival packs while others are ruthless; some have wandering spirits while others are homebodies; some are serious and others never lose the goofiness of their puphood.

Cooperation is key to survival as their prey, from pronghorns to bison, are often many times larger than wolves, who typically weigh around 80-90 pounds in adulthood.

During their studies at Yellowstone, McIntyre and colleagues found that, contrary to previous beliefs about male leadership, it's the alpha female who decides where the pack dens, where it travels and what it hunts.

"I jokingly sometimes say that's a pretty good indication of their intelligence," he said.

- Breeding programs -

While the gray wolves have regained some ground, the Mexican grays and reds, which both went extinct outside captivity before being reintroduced, are in a far more tenuous position.

The Wolf Conservation Center participates in a federal program which aims to recover lost genetic diversity through managed breeding, and eventually allow some to resume their rightful place in the wild.

The staff have ways to feed these wolves their roadkill diet without allowing them to know humans were involved -- because habituating to people could prove deadly in the real world.

"It's always sad for us to say goodbye to them," she said.

"But knowing that they're going to breed, that's got to be exciting for them. Growing up, leaving mom and dad, they can be the boss. So we wish them well."

© 2020 AFP

Poles losing faith in once mighty Catholic Church

Some Poles are even beginning to question the legacy of the late Polish pope John Paul II JANEK SKARZYNSKI AFP/File


Warsaw (AFP)

Once all powerful in Poland, the Catholic Church has been under severe pressure this year -- from a series of abuse scandals and a perceived association with the country's right-wing government.

Negative media reports and documentaries have hurt its image, as has criticism from the Vatican itself.

Some Poles are even beginning to question the legacy of the late Polish pope John Paul II.

A poll published earlier this month found that only 41 percent of Poles have a positive view of the Church, a decline of 16 percentage points since March.

The opinion poll found that nearly half of Poles (47 percent) have a negative view of the Church.

The change "is considerable in such a short space of time," Katarzyna Zalewska, a sociologist at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, told AFP.

The trend of growing secularisation seen in Poland in recent years "has visibly accelerated", she said.

- Losing faith -

A Constitutional Court ruling in October aimed at imposing a near-total ban on abortions was particularly damaging for the Church, prompting a public outcry and unprecedented demonstrations across the country.

Some of the criticism was aimed at the religious hierarchy and the reaction has been so strong that the government has held off on enacting the ruling.

Official figures show Poles are also taking their children out of religion classes in schools in ever greater numbers, and some are even formally renouncing their Catholic faith -- a process known as apostasy.

Two out of three Poles now want religious education to be the responsibility of parishes, not schools, according to an opinion poll published last week.

A website for people applying to give up their faith -- licznikapostazji.pl -- tallied up more than 1,000 application in the space of just two weeks.

Another site, apostazja.eu, said more than 30,000 people had filled out apostasy forms online -- ready to be printed and submitted to their parishes.

"It has pretty much exploded" since the abortion court ruling, said the site's creator, Krzysztof Gwizdala.

While the numbers are small in what is still a predominantly Catholic country of 38 million, there are signs the Church is beginning to take notice.

After a 10-year break, the Church's statistics office has decided to once again keep track of the number of apostasy declarations it receives.

In 2010, there were just 459 cases.

- 'Operating in a different system' -

Marcin Kaczmarek, a sociologist at the University of Poznan, said the decline in influence of the Church in Poland was not so much the result of sexual abuse scandals, but "above all its reaction to them".

"It seems torn between its corporate interest... and respect of its own teachings," he said.

Zalewska said the Church appears to "not hear the signals" and is acting "as if it was operating in a different system" in which it feels it does not have to react and is convinced of its unshakeable position.

Zalewska said the abuse scandals could accelerate secularisation -- as happened in Ireland in the 1990s.

But she said it was also possible that the difficult times brought on by the coronavirus pandemic could help restore Poles' faith in the Catholic Church.

© 2020 AFP

China jails journalist over Wuhan COVID outbreak reporting

Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan has received a prison sentence for her reporting from Wuhan during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, according to her lawyer.


Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan began a hunger strike in June

China sentenced citizen journalist Zhang Zhan to four years in prison after a brief hearing in Shanghai on Monday, her lawyer told reporters. Zhang, 37, covered the coronavirus outbreak from its initial epicenter in Wuhan in February.

Her widely shared video livestreams and essays detailed overcrowded crematoriums and hospitals as Chinese authorities struggled to contain the virus.

Zhang, a former lawyer based in Shanghai, was convicted of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," a common charge used against government critics in China.

"Zhang Zhan looked devastated when the sentence was announced," her lawyer Ren Quanniu told reporters outside the Shanghai Pudong New District People's Court.
Reframing the pandemic

Zhang is the first journalist put on trial for her coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. However, three other citizen journalists who reported from Wuhan — Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua — have all been missing since February. Eight whistleblowers have already been punished for criticizing the government's response to the pandemic.

Zhang was critical of the Chinese government's initial handling of the outbreak in Wuhan, writing that authorities "didn't give people enough information, then simply locked down the city."


WUHAN: A YEAR AFTER THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
Shoulder to shoulder in crowded markets
Wuhan was locked down for about 11 weeks after becoming the first global coronavirus hot spot. Until mid-May, 50,000 of the 80,000 official cases in China were in Wuhan. But now life is almost back to normal on the city's crowded street markets.
PHOTOS 1234567

China has come under fire for its secretive approach to combating the COVID-19. Beijing has of late sought to present its handling of the pandemic as an "extraordinary" success. After the virus first emerged in Wuhan late last year, and the city of 11 million went into lockdown in February, China's society and economy are rebounding while much of the rest of the world struggles through painful winter surges in infections.

Zhang's trial comes weeks before a team of experts from the World Health Organization is due to arrive in Wuhan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus outbreak.
Worries over Zhang's health

Concerns have been growing over Zhang's health after she began a hunger strike in June.

"She said when I visited her [last week]: 'If they give me a heavy sentence then I will refuse food until the very end.' ... She thinks she will die in prison," Ren said before the trial. "It's an extreme method of protesting against this society and this environment."

Another lawyer, Zhang Keke, who visited her on Christmas Day, wrote in a note circulated on social media that she was "restrained 24 hours a day" and her health was in decline: "She feels psychologically tormented, like every day is a torment."

dr/rt (AFP, dpa)

PAKISTAN
Benazir Bhutto: Supporters remember 1st Muslim woman PM
Thousands gather in her home town Larkana on 13th death anniversary

News Service09:14 December 28, 2020

13th death anniversary of the Benazir Bhutto
Photograph: Muhammad Reza

Thousands gathered in southern Pakistan on Sunday to remember Benazir Bhutto, the first woman prime minister of the Muslim world, on her 13th death anniversary.

She was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Dec. 27, 2007, weeks after she arrived from years-long self-exile in Dubai and London.

Ignoring a government ban on public gatherings due to the coronavirus, supporters of the center-left Pakistan People's Party (PPP) gathered in Larkana, home town of the Bhutto political dynasty.

Carrying tri-color party flags, and portraits of their slain leader, who served as premier from 1988-1990, and from 1993-1996, charged PPP supporters were also joined by other opposition leaders.

The key figure among those was Maryam Nawaz, the daughter and political heir of the three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, once the main political rival to Benazir.

An 11-party opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement, of which the PPP is a part, used the gathering to accelerate its ongoing campaign to oust the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan. They accuse him of coming into power through a rigged election two years ago.

Leaders including Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the PPP chairman and the son of Benazir, and Maryam lambasted Khan's government and his policies, which they accuse have led to inflation and energy shortages in the country of 220 million people.

The joint platform has announced resignations en masse, and to hold a long march toward the capital Islamabad if the prime minister does not step down before Jan. 31, 2021. The next general elections, held once in five years, are scheduled for 2023

THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL  PARTY BUT A FEUDALISTIC FAMILY BUSINESS BASED ON THEIR LAND HOLDINGS AND THEIR IDEOLOGICAL HOLD OVER THE PEASANTS AND WORKERS WHOM THEY OWN

Class Consciousness by Georg Lukacs 1920

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/lukacs3.htm

Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat by ...

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/hcc05.htm

The divorce of the phenomena of reification from their economic bases and from the vantage point from which alone they can be understood, is facilitated by the fact that the [capitalist] process of transformation must embrace every manifestation of the life of society if the preconditions for the complete self-realisation of capitalist production are to be fulfilled

SEE 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Pakistan: Feudalism Not Democracy (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Benazir Bhutto (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

'Extreme weather threatens displaced Iraqi children'

People in camps lack access to heating, says Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights member

News Service December 28, 2020

File photo
Photograph: Yunus Keleş


The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) said on Sunday that extreme weather is threatening the lives of displaced children in camps.

"The lives of thousands of displaced people, especially women and children, are under threat," Fadel al-Gharrawi, a member of the IHCHR, said.

He added that most of the displaced Iraqis are living in camps with no access to heating, which is causing illnesses.

The Middle East country is experiencing below zero degree temapartures, mainly during the nights.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are unable to return to their homes, which were destroyed during the war against Daesh/ISIS that began in 2014.

The terror group captured large swathes of territories including Mosul, Salahuddin and Anbar provinces, and parts of Diyala and Kirkuk provinces. Government forces took back control of the areas in 2017

Was This Arctic Expedition the Last Great One of Its Kind?

The harrowing journey of Børge Ousland and Mike Horn

SCIENCE | DECEMBER 27, 2020 1:46 PM

The Arctic can be an imposing landscape.
Arctichistorian01/Creative Commons

BY TOBIAS CARROLL

When a pair of experienced explorers, both of whom have made previous treks through the Arctic, joined forces in 2019 on an ambitious voyage across the ice, it had the potential to be another thrilling expedition for both men. Instead, the journey that unfolded proved unpredictable due to the effects of climate change — and very nearly had a tragic ending.

A new article by Aaron Teasdale in National Geographic chronicles the voyage made by Børge Ousland and Mike Horn. As is the case with David Grann’s The White Darkness, this article gives a sense of the extraordinary physical toll crossing polar regions can have, and the omnipresent dangers — from hungry polar bears to ice that can give way without warning.

Further complicating matters? For as well as both Ousland and Horn prepared for their journey — again, both are experienced explorers who were familiar with the risk of the terrain — there were certain things they hadn’t planned for. For one thing, thinner ice than in years past, due to climate change. For another, a change in the ocean’s currents — also due to climate change — which impeded their forward motion at a crucial time.

The article is both a gripping adventure narrative in its own right and a testament to the changing environment at the top of the world. One of the running questions is whether or not such a journey will even be possible in the future, giving the shifts in the landscape.

It also offers a glimpse of how two incredibly resourceful people contend with life-threatening emergencies in a hostile environment. One tip? If you’re crossing the Arctic, you might want to bring a nail. (Yes, just one.) As it turns out, it might save your life.

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