Profile: Who is Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s next president?


A supporter of Ebrahim Raisi displays his portrait during a celebratory rally for his presidential election victory in Tehran, Iran June 19, 2021. (Reuters)


Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English

THE SAUDI VIEW
Published: 20 June ,2021

Ultraconservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential election with 61.95 percent of the votes in an election that saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic.

The interior ministry announced the result on Saturday, saying voter turnout was at 48.8 percent, the lowest turnout for a presidential election in the history of the Islamic Republic. Raisi garnered close to 18 million votes.

The senior judge will leave his current post as head of the judiciary in early August to replace President Hassan Rouhani.

With all serious rivals barred from running by the Guardian Council – an unelected body that answers to the supreme leader only – his victory came as no surprise.

Ebrahim Raisi looks on at a polling station during presidential elections in Tehran, Iran June 18, 2021. (Reuters)

“For Iranians, the contest was yet another indicator of the irreconcilable chasm that exists between the state and society in their country. The lackluster turnout cannot be divorced from the past three years of nationalist protest in the country,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies,

https://www.fdd.org/  told Al Arabiya English.

Who is Ebrahim Raisi?

Raisi was born in 1960 in the northeastern city of Mashhad into a religious family.

He received a doctorate degree in law and jurisprudence from Mottahari University in Tehran, according to his campaign website.

Raisi has been a key figure in Iran’s judiciary since the early 1980s.

In 1981, when he was 20 years old, Raisi was appointed the prosecutor of the city of Karaj near Tehran. Two years later, he was appointed the prosecutor of Hamedan – a city over 180 miles away from Karaj – while keeping his job as prosecutor of Karaj.

A supporter of Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi walks past a Raisi poster at one of his campaign offices in Tehran on June 19, 2021. (AFP)

He served as the prosecutor of both cities simultaneously for several months until he was promoted to prosecutor of Hamedan province.

In 1985, Raisi moved to the capital Tehran, where he served as deputy prosecutor.

Other senior positions Raisi served in include deputy chief justice from 2004 until 2014, and attorney-general from 2014 until 2016.

1988 mass executions

Raisi’s name is tied to Iran’s mass execution of political prisoners in 1988, when he was allegedly a leading member of what came to be known as the “death committee,” a group of Iranian judiciary and intelligence officials put together by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini to oversee the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners at the time.

Most of the victims were leftist activists and members of the dissident group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Rights groups estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed, while MEK puts the number at 30,000 without offering evidence to support their claim.

Iran has never fully acknowledged the executions, and Raisi himself has never publicly addressed the allegations against him.

MIDDLE EASTIsrael says Iran’s new President Raisi extreme, committed to nuclear program

In 2019, the United States sanctioned Raisi for human rights abuses, including the 1980s executions.

Rights group Amnesty International said on Saturday Raisi must be investigated for crimes against humanity.

“That Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the presidency instead of being investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran,” Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in a statement.
Rise since 2016

While he has been a key figure in Iran’s judiciary for decades, Raisi is a fairly new player in the Islamic Republic’s political arena.

Raisi owes his prominence today to a campaign – seemingly being driven by the highest centers of power in Iran – that has aimed over the past six or so years to portray him as a humble, anti-corruption, and no-nonsense figure.

In 2016, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Raisi as the custodian of Astan-e Qods-e Razavi, a multi-billion dollar religious conglomerate encompassing businesses and endowments that oversees the holy Shia shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, the home city of both Khamenei and Raisi.

MIDDLE EASTIran’s Khamenei hails election win as victory over ‘enemy propaganda’

Raisi then ran for president in 2017, losing to Rouhani. But his rise within Iran’s ruling establishment went on uninterrupted. In 2019, Khamenei appointed him head of the judiciary, one of the most senior positions within the Islamic Republic.

During his tenure, the judiciary “has granted blanket impunity to government officials and security forces responsible for unlawfully killing hundreds of men, women and children and subjecting thousands of protesters to mass arrests and at least hundreds to enforced disappearance, and torture and other ill-treatment during and in the aftermath of the nationwide protests of November 2019,” Callamard said.

Under his watch, Iran executed wrestler Navid Afkari in September 2020, and three months later, journalist Ruhollah Zam – two cases that drew international condemnation.
What to expect

Iran’s foreign policy is set by the supreme leader, not the president, and is therefore unlikely to undergo major change with Raisi as president.

“Abroad, Raisi is poised to implement Khamenei’s vision. Raisi himself is no visionary, nor does the Iranian president have the power to deviate from a pre-ordained path,” Ben Taleblu said.

A handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency on June 19, 2021, shows outgoing President Hassan Rouhani (L) taking in part in a press conference with President-elect Ebrahim Raisi (R) during his visit to congratulate the ultraconservative cleric on winning the presidential election. (Reuters)

The Islamic Republic’s core policies “will largely remain the same” with Raisi in office, Jason Brodsky, a senior Middle East analyst at Iran International TV, told Al Arabiya English.

The United States and Iran have engaged in indirect talks in Vienna for months to revive the 2015 nuclear deal that Washington withdrew from under former President Donald Trump in 2018.

Raisi said during a televised presidential debate earlier this month that he is not opposed to the nuclear deal, and Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said Thursday the presidential election would have no impact on the ongoing negotiations in Vienna.

While Raisi is unlikely to obstruct a revival of the deal, having him as president, given his human rights record, could lessen the benefits from having sanctions lifted for Iran, Brodsky said.

“A Raisi presidency may impact the degree to which any sanctions relief under the nuclear deal will be effective in boosting the Iranian economy. This is because despite the sanctions relief, there will remain severe reputational risks for countries and companies who choose to do business with the Islamic Republic,” he said.

“Ebrahim Raisi's bloodstained record won’t exactly be a selling point.”

Domestically, Brodsky said, Raisi will likely “seek to implement the supreme leader’s vision of a resistance economy, focusing more on enhancing local production rather than on attracting foreign investment.”

“An Islamic Republic with Raisi at the helm means the mask has come off. Moreover, it means that Iran has less of a compunction about hiding its spots,” Ben Taleblu said.
Next supreme leader?

Raisi is frequently mentioned as a possible successor to Khamenei and winning the election could boost his chances of becoming Iran’s next supreme leader, analysts say.

The Guardian Council’s decision to disqualify all serious rivals to Raisi from running in the election – a decision the council could not have taken without Khamenei’s approval – added to the speculation that Raisi is being groomed to become the next supreme leader.

“It is too early to definitively say whether Raisi will become supreme leader,” said Brodsky. “But it is safe to assume he is a leading contender. At the very least, if Khamenei were to pass away during his tenure as president, Raisi would be playing a critical role during the transition, including the possibility of serving on an interim leadership council.”

Ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi succeeds reformist Rouhani as Iran's president

Issued on: 19/06/2021 - 

Ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raissi was named the winner of the Islamic republic's presidential election on June 18, 2021. © Atta Kenare, AFP

Text by: FRANCE  Video by:Douglas HERBERT

Ultraconservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi has been elected Iran's new president with more than 61.95 percent of the vote, Interior Minister Aboldreza Rahmani Fazli announced on Saturday. Voter turnout was estimated at 48.8%, the lowest ever recorded for a presidential election after reformists called for a boycott.

Ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi unsuccessfully challenged moderate reformist President Hassan Rouhani in the 2017 elections but proved victorious this time, with Rouhani ineligible to run for a third term. Raisi will take over from Rouhani in August.

Raisi is a trusted confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was one of his seminary instructors. Raisa is not an ayatollah but a Hujjat al-Islam, a lower rank of the Shiite clergy, and is also a sayyid – considered a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed in Shiite Islam. This entitles him to wear the black turban, a distinction among the pious.


04:11


Like the supreme leader, Raisi comes from the holy city of Mashhad in northeast Iran. In 2016 Khamenei appointed him to head the powerful religious foundation Astan Quds Razavi, which manages the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad. This major Shiite pilgrimage site attracts billions of euros in donations controlled by Astan Quds Razavi. The foundation, which functions as both a charity and a holding company, owns a multitude of real estate properties, farmland and businesses in fields as diverse as construction, tourism, agriculture and food.

Raisi ran the foundation for three years before Khamenei appointed him to head the Iranian judicial authority in March 2019, tasked with aggressively fighting corruption.

As Khamenei's loyal soldier, Raisi has expanded the number of widely publicised corruption trials, at times targeting state dignitaries and also, on occasion, judges themselves.

These trials have also allowed him to oust political opponents, such as his predecessor at the head of the judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, whose close adviser was embroiled in one of these corruption scandals. Larijani is also the brother of Ali Larijani, whose candidacy for the 2021 presidential election was banned by the Guardian Council.

Raisi fits Khamenei vision of 'young, pious' Iranian govt, says Atlantic Council's Holly Dagres

03:22

Raisi made the fight against corruption one of his central campaign slogans, presenting himself as "the opponent of corruption, inefficiency and aristocracy". He has also promised to fight relentlessly "against poverty".

But Raisi's name causes anxiety among human rights organisations and the Iranian diaspora.

As a member of the judiciary for more than two decades, including as deputy prosecutor of the Tehran revolutionary court in the late 1980s, he served as a judge in a series of political trials in 1988. By the end, hundreds of imprisoned opponents had been executed. Raisa’s critics still reproach him for his role in the executions today, but his past gives him legitimacy in the eyes of Iran’s powerful conservative population.

Successor to the ayatollah?

With Iran still struggling under economic sanctions imposed by the West, Raisi is not expected to advocate opening up the Iranian economy to foreign investors. "Iran under Raisi is most likely to continue to invest in infrastructure, water, electricity and health, with an economy dominated by the foundations he knows well and the Revolutionary Guards (who also own many companies)," said economist and Iran specialist Thierry Coville in an interview earlier this month.

Researchers estimate that these semi-public financial interests currently represent more than 50 percent of the Iranian economy, but the phenomenon remains difficult to quantify because such companies do not have "clear traceability" and operate in a system that protects them.

As for the Iranian nuclear agreement currently being renegotiated, although Raisi strikes a defiant tone towards the West he is not expected to be explicitly opposed to it, according to Coville, who noted that it is the supreme leader "who sets the tone for these negotiations".

Raisi has the support of the hardliners on the morality questions Iran is grappling with. His father-in-law is none other than Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, the supreme leader's representative in the northeastern province of Khorasan. Known for his austerity, Alamolhoda distinguished himself in 2016 by banning concerts in the city of Mashhad even as musical events had been experiencing a resurgence in other major cities of a modernising Iran.

Raisa has even been considered a likely successor to the supreme leader. He was recently elected vice president of the Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for selecting a new supreme leader in the event of Khamenei's death. And Khamenei, now 82, was himself president of Iran when he was asked to serve as supreme leader in 1989 after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Given Khamenei’s advanced age, a presidential victory could serve as Raisi’s springboard to the position of supreme leader.

This article has been translated from the original in French

  

IMF proposes carbon price floor among large emitters to limit global warming

19 June 2021 



The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday proposed to set up an international carbon price floor to help limit global warming and achieve the transition toward low carbon growth over this decade, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

"Gradually increasing price on carbon encourages innovation and transition to renewable energy, clean mobility, and low carbon technologies," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in prepared remarks at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution.

"Limiting global warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees will require emissions to be cut by a quarter to a half by 2030, and this is unlikely to happen without measures equivalent to a global carbon price of around 75 dollars per ton by the end of this decade," she said, noting that the current global average emissions price is only 3 dollars per ton.

Noting that there has been progress, with over 60 national and subnational carbon pricing schemes around the world, Georgieva said "we have long way to go."

Georgieva said IMF staff is publishing a proposal on Friday that sets out how an international carbon price floor can help achieve the goal of accelerating the transition to low carbon growth over the course of this decade.

She highlighted three crucial elements of such a price floor: it would focus on a small number of large emitters, such as some or all Group of Twenty (G20) countries; the agreement would be anchored on a minimum carbon price - a single, efficient parameter - that would allow "simultaneous action" across different countries; a carbon price floor agreement would be "flexible, pragmatic, and equitable" and account for different responsibilities across countries with different pricing based on different development levels and historical emissions.

The IMF chief noted that a carbon price floor arrangement does not mean carbon taxes per se. "While taxes are an efficient mechanism, a price floor can work through other policy measures - such as regulation or emissions trading - that achieve equivalent outcomes," s

Eyewitness
COVID-19: Bolsonaro doesn't believe in social distancing, masks or vaccines. That wasn't lost on those protesting

Tens of thousands of marchers from all walks of life have taken to the streets and they all want the same thing - "Bolsonaro Out!"

Play Video - 'Bolsonaro out!' - Protesters descend on Sao Paulo

Stuart Ramsay
Chief correspondent @ramsaysky

SKY NEWS
Sunday 20 June 2021 

The thud of drums and chanting filled streets across Brazil. A day of protest on the day official figures recorded over 500,000 deaths from COVID-19.

The infection rates are officially between 80,000 and 100,000 people every day. But that is the recorded cases, experts say the real figure could be two, three or even four times higher.

At current rates, Brazil will surpass the US for the greatest death totals; epidemiologists are warning Brazil could lose 800,000 people.

They've been demonstrating on Brazil's streets for over two years now, but COVID has upped the ante - the protests are getting bigger and bigger.

Brazilian protesters are holding their president responsible for the huge number of COVID deaths in the country

This one took in at least 457 events in over 400 cities here in Brazil and abroad. The organisers say more than 750,000 people took part - with 100,000 in Sao Paulo alone.

The centre of the city heaved with people consumed with their hatred of their president Jair Bolsonaro, who is into his third year of a four-year presidency.

He faces an election next year, with polls showing his popularity is plummeting in the midst of the COVID-19 surge.

More on Brazil

COVID-19: Protesters call for Brazil's president to resign as experts fear up to 800,000 will die from coronavirus

COVID-19: Pregnant women and their unborn babies dying in Brazil as deaths set to pass 500k mark

Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro fined for not wearing mask at Sao Paulo bikers' rally

COVID-19: Thousands protest across Brazil over President Bolsonaro's handling of coronavirus crisis

The protesters, unlike their president, believe masks can help slow the spread of the virus

For many people we met, the fact that half a million people have died and the country still isn't in lockdown or increasing its vaccination program is too much to take. They want Mr Bolsonaro out and a rethink on how to deal with the pandemic.

Tens of thousands of people marched in Sao Paulo in well-organised groups watched on by police, many in riot gear.

They started gathering before the official time from all walks of life, rich and poor, young and old.

We didn't meet a single person that hadn't lost friends or family to COVID.

I met Rita Guimaraes on the street between giant banners being unfurled before the march began.

"We have to fight because it's ridiculous, and our families are dying, people that we love are dying, I can die tomorrow and nothing's being done, so, unfortunately I have to be here," she said.

Marchers on the streets have been fighting to save their loved ones

Everywhere around us we saw people carrying posters and waving flags with slogans criticising the president, the main theme was "Fora Bolsonaro!" - it means "Bolsonaro Out!"

Much of the organisation of the events was done by opposition political parties, trade unions, and student unions, but ordinary people turned out in huge numbers as well.

Crucially, they all want the same thing - Bolsonaro out - and they all agree he isn't listening.

Lucas Ferreira is a civil servant. The 27-year-old told me that they just can't stand by anymore and not do anything - he has lost four close friends to COVID.

"Now people are starting to get angry and start to mobilise to show everyone that we don't want this, we don't want to live under the Bolsonaro government."

Lucas Ferreira said he can't just stand by and do nothing

I asked if he thought Mr Bolsonaro was listening. "No, no, Bolsonaro, he's now very authoritarian and he doesn't listen to people," he said, stifling a laugh.

At the heart of all this is a president who doesn't believe in vaccines, or wearing masks, or social distancing, or lockdowns, or, it seems, anything that might slow the death rate down.

And that's not lost on people here. One woman with her two young children passed me in the crowd.

She told me: "Our government decided that there is no virus and that we don't have to wear masks, that we can use that medicine (hydroxychloroquine) that's not good for the people, and he said it's no matter, it's just the flu."

Cambridge scientists discover extinct elephant shrank by 85% in 'intriguing' evolution



Sunday 20 June 2021, 11:37am

The 'Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis' became extinct around 19,000 years ago.

Credit: PA

A new study by a team of researchers, including scientists from Cambridge, has found that a now-extinct species of dwarf elephant halved in height and shrank by nearly 85 percent on the island of Sicily.

The evolution, which researchers have described as "truly striking" took place over a period of 350 thousand years.

Scientists analysed molecular and fossil evidence to make the discovery and say it's comparable to modern humans dwarfing to the size of a Rhesus monkey.

The research team included scientists from Cambridge University, Nottingham Trent, the University of York, and the Natural History Museum.Credit: ITV News

The 'Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis' became extinct around 19,000 years ago. The species lost more than 8,000kg in weight and almost 2m in height after diverging from the much larger straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus, which was almost 4m tall and weighed 10,000kg.

The magnitude of dwarfing resulting from this rapid evolutionary process is truly striking, resulting in a loss of body mass of almost 85% in one of the largest ever terrestrial mammals.< "As the descendants of giants, the extinct dwarf elephants are among the most intriguing examples of evolution on islands.Dr Axel Barlow, an expert in palaeogenomics and molecular bioscience

For their study, the team analysed the remains of a dwarf elephant unearthed from Sicily's Puntali Cave, thought to be between 175,000 and 50,000 years old.

They examined a piece of petrous bone - part of the skull that holds the inner ear - which is known to preserve DNA better than other parts of the skeleton.

Flaxseed

Voraorn Ratankorn/Shutterstock

Chris Woolston
June 19, 2021

You may think of flax as a source of fine linens, but the plant's greatest value may well lie in its small, dark seeds. As far back as the 700s, King Charlemagne ordered every loyal Roman to eat flaxseed for health, and today many alternative medicine gurus echo that decree to all who will listen. Flaxseed is more than just nutritious -- health experts believe the seed can actually help prevent heart disease and many types of cancer.

Why is flaxseed healthy?

The humble-looking flaxseed packs an amazing arsenal of nutrients. First of all, it's rich in soluble fiber, which gives it power to lower cholesterol. Several human studies have found flaxseed to be effective at lowering total cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins (LDLS, the bad cholesterol). It does not appear to have any effect on high-density lipoproteins (HDLs, or good cholesterol) or triglycerides, however. In one study, people with high cholesterol who ate a muffin baked with 50 grams of flaxseed meal every day enjoyed a 7 to 8 percent drop in their LDL cholesterol in just three weeks. Some studies have suggested that flaxseed has little impact on cholesterol in post-menopausal women. However, a 2008 study among post-menopausal Native American women found that daily flaxseed supplementation reduced total cholesterol and LDLs by 7 percent and 10 percent, respectively. These cuts in cholesterol are more than enough to significantly lower a person's risk of heart attack or stroke.

Providing fiber isn't the only way flaxseed might benefit the heart. The seed also contains more omega-3 fatty acids than any other plant source. These fatty acids, which prevent blood clots that could lead to a heart attack or stroke, have recently come to attention as the key ingredient that makes fish so good for the heart. But if omega-3s are what you're after, you may want flax instead of salmon. A gram of flaxseed has twice as much omega-3 as a gram of fish oil.

Another potential use of flaxseed is to treat mild menopausal symptoms in women. One study found that 40 grams of flaxseed was as effective as oral estrogen-progesterone in improving mild symptoms of menopause.

On top of all this, flaxseed is an unbeatable source of multipurpose nutrients called lignans. In fact, the seed offers 75 to 800 times more lignans than other grains and vegetables. Lignans spur powerful antioxidant activity, which means they may help prevent many types of cancer as well as hardening of the arteries. And, like the isoflavones in soy, lignans may be able to prevent breast and other cancers by muting the effects of estrogen in the body. Laboratory studies in rats have found that flaxseed effectively lowers the risk of breast cancer and colon cancer. A 2008 study of 161 men with prostate cancer found that a diet supplemented with flaxseed helped to slow the progression of the disease. More research is needed before flaxseed can be recommended for this purpose, however.

How can I use flaxseed?

Health food stores sell flaxseed in bulk as well as flaxseed meal and oils. The oils make good salad dressings, but they don't contain any lignans or fiber. To get the full benefits of flax, choose the seed or meal, both of which have a mild wheatlike taste. You can sprinkle whole seeds on cereal or casserole or mix ground-up seed with orange juice. (Use a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder to grind the seeds.) You can also use freshly ground flaxseed or meal in place of wheat or oat bran when making muffins, pancakes, waffles, and bread. Ground flaxseed will stay fresh for a day or two in the refrigerator and for a month in the freezer. But don't eat more than two tablespoons in a day; any more, and all of that fiber may make you feel bloated.

References

Jenkins DJ, et al. Health aspects of partially defatted flaxseed, including effects on serum lipids, oxidative measures, and ex vivo androgen and progestin activity: a controlled crossover trial. Am J Clin Nutr ; r;69(3):395-402.

Cunnane SC, et al. High alpha-linolenic acid flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum): some nutritional properties in humans. Br J N; 69(2):443-53.

Greg Annussek. Flaxseed. The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. Gale Group.

American Cancer Society. Flaxseed.

Mayo Clinic. Flaxseed and Flaxseed Oil (Linum usitatissimum).

Hallund J, et al. A lignan complex isolated from flaxseed does not affect plasma lipid concentrations or antioxidant capacity in healthy postmenopausal women. Journal of Nutrition; 136(1): 112-116.

Zhang W, Wang X, Liu Y, Tian H, Flickinger B, Empie MW, Sun SZ. Dietary flaxseed lignan extract lowers plasma cholesterol and glucose concentrations in hypercholesterolaemic subjects. British Journal of Nutrition;; 1-9.

Patade A, et al. Flaxseed reduced total and LDL cholesterol concentrations in Native American postmenopausal women. Journal of Womens Health;; 17(3): 355-66.

Demark-Wahnefried, W, et al. Flaxseed supplementation (not dietary fat restriction) reduces prostate cancer proliferation rates in men presurgery. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention; 17(12): 3577-87.

Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. Flaxseed.

Lemay, D, et al. Flaxseed dietary supplement versus hormone replacement therapy in hypercholesterolemic menopausal women. Obstetrics and Gynecology;100(3):495-504.

Plague Victims Weren't Always Dumped Into Mass Graves, DNA Evidence Reveals

CLARE WATSON
19 JUNE 2021


When the Black Death ravaged Europe midway through the 14th century, it wiped out around half of the population with deaths so swift, people had to bury countless victims in mass graves. At least that's the story archaeological remains have told us until now.


Researchers have just unearthed new evidence suggesting mass burials are only one side of the devastating story wrought by the plague because, as it turns out, some victims were laid to rest in their own graves with great care.

The University of Cambridge team behind this new study sampled nearly 200 graves and detected ancient DNA of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the plague, in the teeth of some people who died from the disease and were buried alone.

"This [research] greatly improves our understanding of the plague and shows that even in incredibly traumatic times during past pandemics people tried very hard to bury the deceased with as much care as possible," says University of Cambridge archaeologist and lead author Craig Cessford.

The discovery adds a new dimension to the plague's long and horrible history, which stretched on for years after the Black Death of 1346 to 1353 in what became known as the second plague pandemic (after the first, a few centuries earlier).

Even to this day, outbreaks of the plague still emerge, in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and Peru. China and California have also recorded cases in recent years, though the disease can now be treated with modern antibiotics, if available.


But people in the Middle Ages had a couple more centuries ahead of them before the cause of this deadly disease, Y. pestis, was described by Swiss-French bacteriologist Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin in 1894.

Fearing the contagious disease that killed people within days, victims were buried in mass graves, or 'plague pits', such as the one unearthed at a 14th-century monastery in northwest England. It contained 48 skeletons, and over half were children.

The archaeologists behind that dig had thought that some of these people – even though they were laid to rest in mass graves – had been buried with care, possibly wrapped in shrouds, based on the compression of the skeleton's shoulders. But it was a hunch that needed more evidence to stick.

Armed with DNA sequencing techniques, the University of Cambridge team set to work sampling over 190 skeletons from five burial grounds in and around Cambridge, including a friary, urban hospital cemetery, and a church, hoping to find ancient DNA preserved in the teeth of people who succumbed to the plague.

The remains, mostly unearthed in singular burial plots and one mass grave, were dated to between 1349 and 1561, so these people likely died during the second plague pandemic. This was confirmed in 10 of the 197 skeletons analyzed, which tested positive for Y. pestis.

"These skeletons have previously been almost impossible to recognize and attention has thus focused on the exceptional mass burials" because the fatally fast disease "leaves no visible traces on the skeleton," writes Cessford and his colleagues.

Individuals buried in the friary chapter house who died of the plague.

 (Cambridge Archaeological Unit)

With DNA evidence confirming the remains are those of plague victims, "these individual burials show that even during plague outbreaks individual people were being buried with considerable care and attention," explains Cessford.

"Particularly at the friary where at least three such individuals were buried within the chapter house," and a fourth person was also carefully buried at a nearby church, says Cessford.


The most striking aspect of the way these plague victims were buried, as Cessford and his colleagues explain in their paper, is the effort people must have invested in burying their kin within the chapter house walls.

"The chapter house had a mortared tile floor; dozens of the tiles would have to be carefully lifted before a burial was inserted and either reinstated or replaced with a grave slab afterwards," they write.

"This [also] contrasts with the apocalyptic language used to describe the abandonment of this church in 1365 when it was reported that the church was partly ruinous and 'the bones of dead bodies are exposed to beasts'," Cessford adds.

The team did find some people who had received mass burials and tested positive for Y. pestis, which is a good comparison, but in finding the first evidence of medieval plague victims buried alone thanks to ancient DNA, the study opens a new chapter for archaeologists.

Cessford and his colleagues say it could be the start of a big shift in our archaeological understanding of societies facing severe epidemic outbreaks, writing that the discovery draws a "more comprehensive picture of frailty and resilience in past societies."

"If emergency cemeteries and mass burials are atypical, with most plague victims instead receiving individual burial in normal cemeteries, this calls into question how representative these exceptional sites are," the team concludes.

It also makes you wonder what story will remain of the coronavirus pandemic that scourged 2020 and is not done yet.

The study was published in the European Journal of Archaeology.

Why Ethiopia’s 'alphabet generation' feel betrayed by Abiy
Lucy Fleming - BBC News
Sun, June 20, 2021


Oromo protests in 2017 - Ethiopia

When Abiy Ahmed became prime minister of Ethiopia three years ago, the Oromo community felt their shackles had finally been broken.

He was one of them - he understood the anger of the country's largest ethnic group who had led mass demonstrations leading to his predecessor's resignation.

He knew what their crossed arms - the shackle symbol made famous at the Rio Olympics when marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa raised his arms at the finish line - really meant.

Feyisa Lilesa made crossed hand shackle sign famous at the Olympics in 2016

"Many people saw [Abiy] as a new Messiah," says Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC).

For Oromos have felt like second-class citizens in their own country - once referred to even in official circles by a derogatory slur known as the G-word, the equivalent of the N-word, and made to feel ashamed of their cultural identity.

Most Oromos live in the Oromia region, as the country is divided into ethnically based states. Yet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, which is completely surrounded by Oromia, some Oromos say it was frowned upon for them to speak Afaan Oromoo in public, even on a bus.

This frustration found a voice in the "qubee" generation, which means "alphabet" in Afaan Oromoo - a reference to those who were taught in their mother tongue for the first time, a policy introduced to schools nationwide in the early 1990s after the fall of the Marxist regime.

"Qubee" also makes a political statement, pointing to a decision for the Afaan Oromoo language to adopt the Latin alphabet, distancing itself from the Ge'ez script used in Amharic - the working language of the country.

And with more education, came a political awakening.

"As more educated Oromos started comparing their history with other histories like that of South Africa, they realised that the inferior position assigned to them by the system was unbearable," says Faisal Roble from the US-based Institute for Horn of Africa Studies and Affairs.

'Brutality exaggerated'

They learnt how modern-day Ethiopia was formed under Emperor Menelik II through conquest - and how their land was lost.

But not all Ethiopians see it the same way.

Menychle Meseret, an academic at Ethiopia's University of Gondar, says many of the claims about Menelik's brutality are baseless and exaggerated for political gain.

Emperor Menelik II fought off Italian invaders, but has a mixed legacy in Ethiopia

"Much of Ethiopia's history is not written by trained historians, it's written by politicians - the allegation that five million Oromos were killed by Menelik for example," he says.

"When you check such numbers there wouldn't even have been five million people in the whole of Ethiopia at that time."

Yet Oromos did feel economically and culturally subjugated, which Mr Faisal puts down to the royal elite regarding them as "uncivilised", a view which continued during Emperor Haile Selaisse's four-decade rule, until his overthrow in 1974.

"One of the tenets of the era of Haile Selaisse was to Amharise the Oromos... so that's why you will see a huge urbanised Oromo lost to their traditional names and culture and who assumed the Amharic language and Amharic names," he says.

It is the alphabet generation who have bucked against this and embraced their cultural identity - they want their language to be recognised as one of the country's working languages, they want to feel at ease in Addis Ababa, which they call Finfinnee, and have more of a say in its administration and growth, they want more autonomy over Oromia and they want jobs.

This new-found confidence was encapsulated by Hachalu Hundessa, a former political prisoner turned music star whose lyrics fuelled the Oromo protests.

Oromo cultural pride is now being expressed in fashion

Amid the euphoria that greeted Mr Abiy as Ethiopia's first Oromo prime minister, things did change.

Oromo fashion shows were held in Addis Ababa, the Oromo's Irreecha thanksgiving festival took place in the capital for the first time in a century, investment came to the region, political prisoners were released, and opposition figures, including the hugely popular Oromo media mogul Jawar Mohammed, were welcomed back from exile.
Hero killed

There was a little unease about some of Mr Abiy's other political reforms, but last year things deteriorated fast when Hachalu, who had said he was getting death threats, was killed - the motive is still unclear.

For the alphabet generation, their hero was dead - it led to a wave of ethnic unrest, leaving more than 160 people dead and the arrest of opposition figures like Mr Jawar, who now faces charges of terrorism and incitement to violence.

Hachalu Hundessa, seen here in traditional Oromo costume, had become increasingly politicised whilst in prison

Any democratic government would be left with no choice but to enforce the law when confronted with such scenes, says Mr Menychle.

Yet the repercussions have led Mr Jawar's OFC and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) to boycott next week's general election.

"The political space has been shrinking. For example last year we had 206 offices across Oromia and now we have only just three offices," says the OFC's Prof Merera.

Mr Abiy's Prosperity Party (PP) will have no real competition in Oromia. This is the party he formed after dissolving the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of four ethnically based parties formed in 1988 to fight the Marxist regime.

It had been dominated for more than two decades by Tigrayans, who make up around 7% of the population - another factor in the Oromo protests that brought him to power.
'Togetherness'

Mr Abiy's idea was to have a more ethnically diverse party - the country has more than 80 ethnic groups - but with a unity of purpose to resolve ethnic differences which often boil over to violence.

This vision is in his book Medemer, published at the time of the PP's launch, an Amharic language term that can be translated as "coming together".

Chart showing the ethnic make-up of Ethiopia

Oromos number around 40 million out of Ethiopia's population of 115 million.

How Ethiopia has changed over the last 50 years

The city cutting long hair and the internet

"Calling for unity and togetherness is a good thing," says Mr Menychle, "because if you see Ethiopia today, ethnicity is stretched to the maximum, where people are dying, saying: 'You're not for one of us.'"

However, Mr Abiy has been Machiavellian in his determination to set up the PP, says Mr Faisal, ditching Oromo allies who disagreed with him like Lemma Megersa. Mr Lemma had nominated him for prime minister, but was sacked last year as defence minister for criticising the PP's creation.

Mr Faisal agrees that the PP has opened its doors to more groups, but says it could be a way to impose "autocratic rule" - something Oromo politicians who favour a more decentralised federal system fear.

"Clever city boys took him over," says Prof Merera, alluding to how he feels Mr Abiy turned his back on the promises to Oromia's youth and has been swept along by ethnic Amhara sympathies.

Mr Faisal puts it more bluntly: "Abiy realised that Amharas control the intellectual power, the media, the plutocracy… he came to realise that the only way he could control Ethiopia was by aligning to the Amhara ideology."

The same month as Medemer was launched, Menelik's renovated Imperial Palace in Addis Ababa was opened to the public for the first time, along with 15 acres of grounds called Unity Park. It had been lovingly renovated and inside was a life-size waxwork of Haile Selassie.

A waxwork of Haile Selassie on his throne can now be seen at the Imperial Palace

Mr Abiy took care to say it was all funded by donations - but Mr Menychle says it all fed into the rhetoric of opposition Oromo politicians wishing to make political gain.

The academic argues the prime minister has in no way let Oromos down when it comes to the PP or language.

"The government is also working on this language issue - if this is the demand for Afaan Oromoo to be a working language, it will not be a problem."

More on Ethiopia's election:

Ethiopia election: A sham or democratic rebirth?

A quick guide to Ethiopia's election

The Nobel Peace Prize winner who went to war

Fact-checking Abiy Ahmed

In fact he says Mr Abiy has been at pains to strengthen institutions, with the appointment of Birtukan Mideksa to head the electoral board and Daniel Bekele, once head of Human Rights Watch's Africa division, to lead reforms at the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) - both of whom had been jailed in the wake of the disputed 2005 parliamentary election.

The state-linked EHRC has been outspoken in its criticism of atrocities being carried in the Tigray region, where war erupted in November, and of abuses in Oromia - recently condemning the public execution of a teenager suspected of being a rebel, an allegation his family deny.

'Double-edged sword'

And it is the rebel insurgency in western and southern Oromia and subsequent crackdown where Mr Abiy comes in for criticism from everyone. These are no-go areas which suffer internet blackouts and where elections will not be held on 21 June.

Map of Ethiopia, showing Oromia

"We are killed by double-edged swords," a resident in western Oromia told BBC Afaan Oromoo, meaning civilians were being killed by both the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and the security forces.

For Mr Menychle the prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, was too hasty in 2018 in inviting groups like the exiled OLA back without first agreeing the terms of their return, especially for those who were armed.

After the OLA's homecoming, negotiations over disarmament and integration into the security forces broke down, fuelled by distrust over Mr Abiy's vision for Oromia.

And Prof Merera fears these elections will not deliver durable peace and stability - to the detriment of the alphabet generation.

"A country at peace gets good governance and in turn meaningful economic development. Our youths are flocking to Yemen, flocking to South Africa, flocking to Europe and then losing their lives.

"The young people especially want real change."

CLIMATE DENIAL AS PUBLIC POLICY
Anti-Alberta energy inquiry seeks responses from 40 groups, two years after UCP launch
Lisa Johnson 

EDMONTON JOURNAL

Alberta’s $3.5-million public inquiry into alleged foreign-funded anti-energy campaigns is asking 40 organizations to respond to its work, two years after its 2019 launch.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal

 Steve Allan, commissioner of the UCP's anti-Alberta energy inquiry.

The inquiry is reaching out to about 40 unnamed organizations to respond to its evidence and potential findings. The subjects of the inquiry are expected to keep the materials that pertain to each of them confidential until they become part of the public record.

The organizations have until July 16 to submit responses to the inquiry, headed by commissioner Steve Allan.

The inquiry, struck by the UCP government in July 2019, has been granted extensions four times , with the latest deadline now set for July 30. It’s final price tag is expected to be $3.5 million — $1 million more than initially budgeted.

Allan intends to rely on public sources of information such as websites, primarily published by the organizations, public statements by organization officials and public filings with regulatory authorities for his potential findings.

Formal “notices” sent to individual organizations grants them standing as a “participant for response,” which is the second phase of the “inquiry engagement process,” said a news release issued by the inquiry Friday evening.

“I will not make any finding in respect of you until I have had an opportunity to consider and analyze any submissions you make in this process,” Allan said in the notice of letters.

The United Conservative government has long contended that foreign influences were funding groups opposed to Alberta’s oil and gas industry in an attempt to “landlock” the province by curtailing oilsands development to the benefit of American competitors.

Critics have said the inquiry could amount to a “witch hunt” and attempt to bully environmental groups concerned about the pace and scope of oilsands development.

In May, an Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench judge dismissed an attempt to stop the inquiry, ruling that the environmental law firm Ecojustice failed to prove the inquiry was called to intimidate charities that have raised concerns about the industry’s environmental impact. JUDGE HORNER HERSELF IS RELATED TO AT LEAST ONE UCP CABINET MEMBER AND FORMER PC CABINET MINISTER

Energy Minister Sonya Savage has blamed the legal challenge for wasting time and leading to the latest extension.

The specific direction of the inquiry has also been changed multiple times , with tweaks that broaden who and what the commissioner should look into. It first outlined procedural rules for how organizations could respond to the inquiry in September 2020.

NDP energy critic Kathleen Ganley has called the inquiry “bumbling” and “a farce” that has driven investment out of the province.

In January, the inquiry was criticized for spending nearly $100,000 on reports critics called “textbook examples of climate change denialism,” including one which argues that the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will create a dystopia ruled by restrictions akin to COVID-19 lockdowns.

lijohnson@postmedia.com

#NOTOKYOOLYMPICS
RPT-Olympics-Venue medical officers want no spectators amid COVID-19 fears

Ju-min Park and Kiyoshi Takenaka
Sun, June 20, 2021, 

TOKYO, June 20 (Reuters) - Facing the daunting task of keeping the world's largest sporting event safe, some emergency medicine officers overseeing Tokyo Olympic venues are calling on the organisers to bar spectators over risks of a jump in COVID-19 cases.

Organisers are to decide as soon as Monday whether to allow domestic spectators into the stadiums for the Games, which were delayed by a year due to the pandemic and now set to start in about a month. Foreign spectators have already been banned.

The Tokyo 2020 president is eyeing a cap of 10,000 people per venue, even as government health experts warn against in-person audiences.

Overwhelming public opposition to the Games has eased somewhat, but a Friday poll from Jiji news found 41% still want the Games cancelled. If the Games go ahead, 64% of the public want them without spectators, the poll found.

Each of the 42 venues has a dedicated official in charge of medical services. Dozens of veteran medics are assigned to handle a problems from heatstrokes to injuries to natural disasters, such as earthquakes and typhoons.

With the opening ceremony set for July 23, Shoji Yokobori, the medical officer for the weightlifting venue, said he fears not knowing how many people will attend.

"The 'no spectator' scenario is better than other options. We may still have a severe pandemic this summer," said Yokobori, the chair of the Nippon Medical School Hospital's department of emergency and critical care medicine in Tokyo.

"I'm the commander of the venue. The number of people in the audience is my biggest concern. I'm hoping there won't be so many spectators," he said.

Yokobori and two other medical officers told Reuters the pandemic adds further strain to what already is an extremely busy job, requiring quick decision-making and on-the-spot assessment of risks.

Olympic organisers have held conference calls with the doctors once or twice a month but have provided only "rough" information so far, Yokobori said.

"We don't have much information on how many spectators and how many athletes will be there. That's why we can't imagine what it will look like," he said.

'ALL-OUT BATTLE MODE'

The medical officers work closely with personnel at medical stations for athletes and spectators coordinating the overall medical service, including transfer to hospitals and clinics.

A number of venue medical officers have quit in recent months, saying they are too busy, public broadcaster NHK reported this month.

Organisers are scrambling to fill these gaps. The Japanese Association for Acute Medicine recently received a request to refer about seven candidates for venue officers, an official at the association told Reuters.

The association rebuffed the request, saying it was an academic institution and did not offer work placement services, the official said.

The organisers did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto recently told reporters he expected to fill the gap in venue medical officers by the end of the month, without elaborating.

Those who have stayed on as venue medics, battling the coronavirus in their own emergency wards since last year, are bracing for a busy summer.

"My number one mission is to get through the Olympic period in an all-out battle mode," said Youichi Yanagawa, an emergency medicine doctor set to work as a venue officer at two cycling venues in Shizuoka prefecture southwest of Tokyo.

Yanagawa, who runs an emergency medical centre in the area, said he was worried that the volunteers at his venue lack training related to infectious diseases.

Given such constraints, an Olympics without spectators would ease the burden on already limited resources in his town, he said.

"But the ball is in the organisers' court," Yanagawa said.

"The Games without spectators would be easy to control, but we don't make the decisions. All I can say is we have to prepare based on what the organisers decide." (Reporting by Ju-min Park and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by William Mallard)

China, Russia playing 'greater-than-expected' roles in global pandemic response

Anjalee Khemlani
·Senior Reporter

Experts' fears that people in wealthier countries will be vaccinated before those in poorer nations are coming to fruition. And the inequity could further pressure the global economy, according to a recent study supported by the International Chamber of Commerce.

"Should countries continue to pursue an uncoordinated approach to vaccine distribution, the world risks global GDP losses in 2021 alone of as much as US $9.2 trillion," the study said.

Health officials around the world have criticized the nationalist strategies of the U.S. and Europe, including, most recently, Italy blocking doses of AstraZeneca (AZN) bound for Australia.

Geopolitical forces are compounding experts' economic worries — with Russia and China stepping up to fill the void where vaccines remain scarce. India, too, is vying for global influence by distributing vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, but its outsized role was somewhat expected. The country is home to one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturers, the Serum Institute of India, as well as other vaccine companies producing candidates.

"India is partnering in a very productive way with the multinationals and working [with the] WHO and stringent regulatory authorities. So there's a level of scientific rigor and commitment to excellence that we're not necessarily seeing with China and Russia," said Dr. Peter Hotez, a top vaccine expert at Baylor College of Medicine.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is already addressing those concerns with teams on the ground, according to Bruce Aylward, senior advisor to WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Aylward told Yahoo Finance the WHO is working with China's Sinopham and Sinovac, and the makers of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, to refine their processes to match stringent global regulatory standards and eventually send their vaccines through the COVAX facility.

But that wasn't always the plan.

"I think we had not expected ... to see such a massive reliance on these countries to manage that combination of political and public health imperative," Aylward said. "Not that China and Russia and India [would] play a role, but at this scale. I think that's a little bit of an interesting development."

Hotez said it could mean a shift in geopolitical tectonic plates.

"The reality is Russia and China are here, they are big producers, and if we could get them into the fold and get them to cooperate ... and improve their regulatory structure, that could be game-changing," Hotez said.
How we got here

President Donald Trump's policies are to blame, Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security, told Yahoo Finance.

"President Trump, in his zeal to disassociate with the World Health Organization, didn't seem to realize that that would also leave a vacuum for some of our rivals to step in and fill [the void]. In particular, China has done just that," Rasmussen said, calling it a "missed opportunity" for the United States to lead fight against the pandemic on the global stage.

But bioethicist and NYU Langone professor Dr. Arthur Caplan notes that the "America First" policy is popular, and President Joe Biden needs to find a balance. Caplan told Yahoo Finance that he supports the U.S. vaccinating its population first.

Oxfam's Nicholas Lusiani, however, said it could negatively impact global supply chains — which was evident last spring when China and parts of Asia were in lockdown.

"It's not just travel agencies that are getting hit by the crisis. Look at retail, at the food and agriculture industries, and even some of the mining sector has been hit really hard," he said.

Meanwhile, researchers have been analyzing vaccine purchase commitments. In December, Johns Hopkins University published a study of pre-market commitments, concluding that 51% of vaccine dose commitments were for high-income countries, or about 14% of the world's population.

The study found that China and Russia, as well as AstraZeneca (AZN) and Oxford (through the Serum Institute of India), and Novavax (NVAX) were going to be the largest distributors. Meanwhile, Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) have also secured several global commitments.

"It just tells you how we're in a very different operating environment that we would have thought," Aylward said.

Last month, McKinsey analyzed the vaccine commitments, and determined the U.S., China, India and the European Union would be the largest exporters of vaccines, while Asia and Africa would the be largest importers.

And while countries like France have committed to donating a small percentage of existing vaccines to African countries, the amount is "not even a drop in the bucket," said Lusiani.

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A call for all G20 countries

The U.S. recently rejoined the World Health Organization, but White House officials have not commented on when the U.S. will begin donating excess doses.

Meanwhile, some of the same struggles plaguing U.S. companies, including a squeeze on necessary raw materials and equipment, are hampering global production as well.

"In recent months we have become particularly concerned that the existing capacity could be constrained by shortages in the supply chain— either the supply of critical consumables or raw materials required for the manufacturing of vaccine or shortages of finishing and filling capacity, shortages of medical glass products ... to actually put the vaccine into," said Richard Hatchett, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) CEO at a recent WHO virtual briefing.

So waiting for more Western-based companies to get regulatory authorization or ramp up supplies is not an option. The European Medicines Agency said it was reviewing Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for potential use in its 27 countries instead. European and Latin American countries have already committed to purchasing doses of the vaccine or have authorized its use. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca is launching a combined trial to test both its and Russia's vaccine together.

The vaccine proved 92% effective, according to a study published in The Lancet journal last month. But it is unclear if Russia will produce enough to meet dose commitments soon.

Hotez, who recently penned a book on the topic, "Preventing the next Pandemic," is working on a vaccine with Indian company Biological E, says the solution is for greater "vaccine diplomacy."

"We're overly reliant on the U.S. and the U.K. It's not working for us. We need to bring in all the G20 countries," Hotez said.

Until then, the vaccine battle is morphing into a longer-term problem.

"This is going to be something that continues to affect the global economy, to affect travel, to affect, probably, all geopolitics globally for some time to come," Rasmussen said.

"I don't think that a lot of people in the public in the U.S. appreciate that," she said.