New coronavirus variant ‘Mu’ under close scrutiny by WHO


Issued on: 01/09/2021 -

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), delivering a speech on May 24, 2021. 

© Christopher Black, AFP
Text by: NEWS WIRES


The World Health Organization has said it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as "Mu", which was first identified in Colombia in January 2021.

Mu, known scientifically as B.1.621, has been classified as a "variant of interest", the global health body said Tuesday in its weekly pandemic bulletin.

The WHO said the variant has mutations that indicate a risk of resistance to vaccines and stressed that further studies were needed to better understand it.

"The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape," the bulletin said.

There is widespread concern over the emergence of new virus mutations as infection rates are ticking up globally again, with the highly transmissible Delta variant taking hold – especially among the unvaccinated – and in regions where anti-virus measures have been relaxed.

All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19, mutate over time and most mutations have little or no effect on the properties of the virus.

But certain mutations can impact the properties of a virus and influence how easily it spreads, the severity of the disease it causes, and its resistance to vaccines, drugs and other countermeasures.

The WHO currently identifies four Covid-19 variants of concern, including Alpha, which is present in 193 countries, and Delta, present in 170 countries.

Five variants, including Mu, are to be monitored.

After being detected in Colombia, Mu has since been reported in other South American countries and in Europe.

The WHO said its global prevalence has declined to below 0.1 percent among sequenced cases. In Colombia, however, it is at 39 percent.

(AFP)

James Churchward - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Churchward

James Churchward (27 February 1851 – 4 January 1936) was a British occult writer, inventor, engineer, and fisherman. Churchward is most notable for proposing the existence of a lost continent, called "Mu," in the Pacific Ocean. His writings on Mu are considered to be pseudoscience.

• Life
• Claims and hypothesis
• Scientific rebuttal
• Popular culture
• Works
• External links

Churchward was born in Bridestow, Okehampton, Devon at Stone House to Henry and Matilda (née Gould) Churchward. James had four brothers and four sisters. In November 1854, Henry died and the family moved in with Matilda's parents in the hamlet of Kigbear, near Okehampton. Census records indicate the family next moved to London when James was 18 after his grandfather George Gould died. 

Wikipedia · Text under CC-BY-SA license

THE SACRED SYMBOLS OF MU - James Churchward

www.bahaistudies.net/.../Col-James-Churchward-The-Sacred-Symbol… · PDF file

COLONEL JAMES CHURCHWARD AUTHOR OF "THE LOST CONTINENT OF MU" "THE CHILDREN OF MU" ILLUSTRATED IVES WASHBURN; NEW YORK Scanned at sacred-texts.com, December, 2003.

3 Beards Podcast: Is the Lost Continent of Mu Real?

Posted on June 19, 2021 | Comments Offon 3 Beards Podcast: Is the Lost Continent of Mu Real?

Author Jack Churchward joins the show to talk about his books that cover The Lost Continent of Mu, a subject brought to life by the works of his great grandfather Col. James Churchward.

Lifting the Veil on the Lost Continent of Mu: The Motherland of Men
The Stone Tablets of Mu
Crossing the Sands of Time
are books Jack Churchward has penned to cover the works of his great grandfather and bring into focus on what is fact and what is fiction.

The mythical idea of the “Land of Mu” first appeared in the works of the British-American antiquarian Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908), after his investigations of the Maya ruins in Yucatán. He claimed that he had translated the first copies of the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the K’iche’ from the ancient Mayan using Spanish. He claimed the civilization of Yucatán was older than those of Greece and Egypt, and told the story of an even older continent.

Col. James Churchward claimed that the landmass of Mu was located in the Pacific Ocean, and stretched east–west from the Marianas to Easter Island, and north–south from Hawaii to Mangaia. According to Churchward the continent was supposedly 5,000 miles from east to west and over 3,000 miles from north to south, which is larger than South America. The continent was believed to be flat with massive plains, vast rivers, rolling hills, large bays, and estuaries. He claimed that according to the creation myth he read in the Indian tablets, Mu had been lifted above sea level by the expansion of underground volcanic gases. Eventually Mu “was completely obliterated in almost a single night” after a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, “the broken land fell into that great abyss of fire” and was covered by “fifty millions of square miles of water.” Churchward claimed the reasoning for the continent’s destruction in one night was because the main mineral on the island was granite and was honeycombed to create huge shallow chambers and cavities filled with highly explosive gases. Once the chambers were empty after the explosion, they collapsed on themselves, causing the island to crumble and sink.

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Has the wildlife 'Red List' let Africa's big cats down?


Issued on: 01/09/2021 -

Lions have lost more than 90 percent of their range and their numbers over the last 150 years 

Roberto SCHMIDT AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

Lions and cheetahs are closer to extinction than the authoritative Red List of Threatened Species suggests, according to conservation scientists who warn that sharp drops in populations could be going undetected.

Africa's marquee big cats are currently listed as "vulnerable", but with declines in lion numbers close to the threshold for a higher risk category and heated debate over how many cheetahs are actually left in the wild, experts are asking if this is enough.

An "uplisting" does not guarantee protection, they say, but it would more accurately reflect their dire situation and could channel resources to help them survive in the wild, where they are most recently menaced by poaching and the pet trade.

The stone lions guarding Beijing's Forbidden City, the bronze ones at Admiral Nelson's feet on Trafalgar Square, the constellation Leo and the emblems of a score of top European football clubs all attest to the cultural significance of these majestic creatures.

But as apex predators, they are also lynchpins in their ecosystems -- as South African conservationist Paul Funston puts it, the "big daddy holding a lot of things in place."

For half a century, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List has classified species along a spectrum from "least concern" and "near threatened" to "vulnerable", "endangered", "critically endangered" and "extinct in the wild".

Broadly, if at least half the population of a species is lost within three generations, it moves to a more threatened category.

Last stop on the slide to oblivion is "extinct".

Threatened status can trigger national protective measures, restrictions in international trade and funding from states or NGOs.

Lions and cheetahs were both reconfirmed as "vulnerable" in 2014 and are unlikely to change category in a Red List update at the IUCN congress in Marseille, from Friday.

But some experts want the IUCN to go further.

"Cheetahs should be classified as 'endangered'," Sarah Durant, an expert on cheetahs and a member of the IUCN's cat specialist group, told AFP via Zoom.

Following the 2014 assessment, to which she contributed, Durant and another 50 conservation experts made that case in a peer-reviewed study.

One-size-fits-all criteria applied by the IUCN, they argued, do not do justice to all species.

- Catastrophic declines -

Overall, the cheetah's global numbers were estimated to have dropped about 30 percent to roughly 7,000 over the space of three generations, or 15 years.

To put that in perspective, the ratio of people to cheetahs on Earth is roughly a million-to-one.

While steep, the decline was still well short of the 50-percent threshold for an uplisting to "endangered".

But that assessment is likely over-optimistic, scientists say, because the data comes overwhelmingly from protected areas, such as national parks and game reserves, even though that is not where most cheetahs are found.

About three-quarters of the big cat's range -- and an estimated two-thirds of its population -- is in unprotected zones where the solitary feline must contend with scarce prey, fragmented habitat and deadly encounters with pastoralists defending their livestock.

"We're measuring population decline in the area where they're actually doing best," Durant said.

More long-term, the picture is even bleaker.

The cheetah once roamed as a top predator across most of Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and India, but today occupies less than 10 percent of its historic range 

JOE KLAMAR AFP/File

The cheetah was once a top predator across most of Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and India, but today it occupies only a sliver -- less than 10 percent -- of its historic range.

And since 1900, their numbers have dropped by more than 90 percent.

"These are catastrophic declines," said Durant, a professor in conservation science at the Zoological Society of London.

Lions have not fared better, even if their population in the wild exceeds 20,000, said Funston, senior director of the lion programme at conservation NGO Panthera.

In the 2014 assessment, to which he contributed, their global population was found to have dropped by 43 percent over three generations -- 21 years -- missing a reclassification threshold by a whisker.

- Hunted -

Unlike cheetahs, lions live in groups, or prides, and almost exclusively within protected areas.

But that doesn't mean they are always easy to locate.

"Every time we go and look in any real detail, we find that there are fewer lions than we thought, typically three, four, even ten-fold fewer," Funston told AFP.

In 2017, Funston led an intensive survey of two large national parks in southeastern Angola where conservation authorities had put the population at about 1,000.

Industrial-scale bush-meat poaching has emptied parts of the African savannah of big cats and their prey TONY KARUMBA AFP/File

"Actual numbers were so low we couldn't derive a proper scientific estimate," he said.

"We concluded that there were 10 to 30 lions left."

The top driver of lion decline is industrial-scale bush-meat poaching, either of the lions themselves or their prey.

Trophy hunting, habitat loss and conflict with humans also menace the animals.

- 'Influencer' effect -

Since 2014, new threats have emerged.

"Particularly in southern Africa, we are suddenly seeing an increase in the poaching of lions for body parts" -- especially teeth, claws and bones -- to supply a booming market in Southeast Asia and China for bogus health and virility elixirs, Funston said.

This illegal traffic has been spurred on by South Africa's decade-old and controversial commercial captive lion-breeding industry, according to a recent report he co-authored.

From 2011 to 2019, poaching for body parts -- evident from the dismembered carcasses left behind -- accounted for more than 60 percent of all lion mortality within Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, with a clear increase from 2014 onwards.

For cheetahs, the new threat comes from the Gulf states, where a demand for pets has fuelled a brisk trade in cubs, especially from the horn of Africa, where a sub-species teeters on the brink of extinction.

Demand in the Gulf States is driving a brisk illegal trade in cheetah and lion cubs 

Delil SOULEIMAN AFP/File

Social networks are driving a demand for live big cats as well.

"Influencers are flying out of Dubai to get photographed with a cheetah or lion to boost Instagram traffic," Durant said, highlighting a recent expose by the website Bellingcat.

One key to protection is investment.

In central and western Africa, spending is only about $50-$100 annually per square kilometre, according to Funston.

Little wonder, he said, that both regions have lost more than 90 percent of their large wildlife.

In southern Africa however, where lion populations have gone up, $500 to $800 is invested annually per square kilometre.

Craig Hilton-Taylor, who heads the IUCN's Red List Unit, defended its classification process as "robust" and said experts looked at a full range of issues.

But he acknowledged that without the efforts of southern African countries, "the lion would have been uplisted from 'vulnerable' to 'endangered'."

"If the experts do the assessment again, and project forward rather than just looking in the past, they might be able to get it over the threshold," he told AFP.

© 2021 AFP

Overlooked but essential: Experts urge protection for seagrass

Issued on: 01/09/2021 -

Neptune grass meadows have long fallen prey to boating activity with some 7,500 hectares damaged along the French coastline alone

 Boris HORVAT AFP/File

Marseille (AFP)

With the world's biggest biodiversity summit set to kick off Friday in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, experts are sounding the alarm over a long-overlooked seagrass increasingly threatened by human activity.

Named posidonia oceanica -- or "Neptune grass" -- for the Greek god of the seas, the plant covers at least one million hectares (3,900 square miles) of the Mediterranean seabed from Cyprus to Spain.

The Mediterranean Network for Posidonia says the real area is probably much larger than that, with data largely unavailable for countries on the sea's eastern and southern shores.

But neptune grass meadows have long fallen prey to boating activity, with official figures estimating some 7,500 hectares in damage along the French coastline alone.

"The biggest culprit is mooring," says Thibault Lavernhe, spokesman for the Maritime Prefecture of the Mediterranean.

"When a boat drops its anchor, it hits the ocean floor and has a devastating effect... that repeats when the anchor is pulled up."

Since seagrass grows slowly -- just few centimetres each year -- the impact can take a long time to repair.

In an open letter published this month in French daily Le Monde, 10 scientists from France, Italy and Spain emphasised the essential services the humble seagrass provides "to all of humanity".

"Seagrass meadows serve as spawning beds and nurseries for species of fish living along our coasts from the most common to the rarest," they wrote.

A wide range of animals depend on them, including tiny invertebrates that are a food source to fish prized by small-scale, artisanal fishing operations.

Arnaud Gauffier, conservation director for the World Wide Fund for Nature's French branch (WWF), says the plant's ability to absorb carbon make it a crucial ally in the fight against global warming.

And he says the plants protect the coastline from erosion -- both when firmly rooted to the seabed and when they wash up on shore.

Dead blades of grass collect along beaches and mix with sand to form large banks that protect the coastline.

But for some, the phenomenon is just an unsightly inconvenience.

"Unfortunately the ecosystem is poorly understood," says Gauffier.

"Often people just think, 'Oh no, it's a dead thing on the beach that's keeping me from swimming.'"

In an effort to fight damage to Mediterranean seagrass, France has made it illegal for larger boats -- measuring longer than 24 metres (79 feet)-- to drop anchor in sensitive zones.

Spain's Balearic islands took similar measures in 2018 and enforces them with regular patrols.

Their conservation efforts, which include awareness campaigns in schools and a seagrass festival, have been highlighted as exemplary by the WWF.

© 2021 AFP


Corsica's 'ecological moorings' protect seagrass and yachts


Issued on: 01/09/2021

Guests aboard the Ocean Sapphire can once again plunge into Corsican waters thanks to anchorages designed specifically to protect seagrass 

Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA AFP/File

Bonifacio (France) (AFP)

Last year when France moved to protect Mediterranean seagrass beds by barring larger boats from dropping anchor near them, Yves-Marie Loudoux found himself adrift.

Captain of the 41-metre (135-foot) Ocean Sapphire, Loudoux remembers suddenly being unable to access his usual spots near fragile beds of so-called Neptune grass off the coast of Corsica.

"We had no solution, we were pushed to very inconvenient moorings too far from the coast," he recalls. "[Instead] we had to go to Sardinia (Italy) nearby so that people could swim."

But today his clients -- who pay some 110,000 euros ($130,000) per week to cruise the Mediterranean in style -- can once again plunge into Corsican waters thanks to anchorages designed specifically to protect seagrass.

A total of 14 ecological moorings are planned for the Sant'Amanza bay to protect some 60 hectares of Neptune grass meadows, said Michel Mallaroni, director of the port of Bonifacio and head of the 2.3 million euro ($2.7 million) project.

"The challenge is to keep the southern tip of Corsica attractive for boaters while protecting the environment," he said.

- Vital role -

Unique to the Mediterranean, Neptune grass is one of 70 species of marine seagrass growing in vast underwater meadows from the Arctic to the tropics.

The plants play a vital role in improving water quality, absorbing CO2 and exuding oxygen, and provide a natural nursery and refuge for hundreds of species of fish.

Earlier this year, it was even discovered that Neptune grass helps remove plastic from Mediterranean waters, trapping it in its leaves and forming balls that wash up on shore.

In 2020 France made it illegal for larger boats to drop anchor within protected Neptune grass zones 

Boris HORVAT AFP/File

But the fragile ecosystems have come under increasing threat from human activity, with boat anchors a major culprit.

An estimated 7,500 hectares of Neptune grass meadows have been damaged along the French coast alone, and in 2020 the country made it illegal for boats measuring longer than 24 metres (79 feet) to drop anchor within designated zones.

"The orders by the maritime prefecture outlawing mooring in certain zones of the Mediterranean for the protection of neptune grass were historic," scientist and environmentalist Charles-Francois Boudouresque told AFP.

And with so many large yachts depending on stops along France's famed Cote d'Azur and in Corsica, the decision had a significant financial risk attached.

- Ecological moorings -

The solution: ecological moorings that "adapt to the sea floor by mimicking it" with a rough surface that "makes it easier for biodiversity to take hold", said Line Babiol of the BRL engineering firm.

She explains that the underwater components have cavities that allow fish inside and "don't impact the movement of the water".

New moorings are meant to adapt to the seafloor by mimicking its surface 

Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA AFP/File

On the surface, floating chests attached to the concrete below allow boats of up to 60 metres to safely moor -- without dropping anchors that could tear up the seagrass below.

For captain Loudoux, the anchorages are a highly-anticipated solution.

"The more moorings like this, the more people will be drawn to the sublime Corsican coasts again," he said.

According to Mallaroni, some 44 percent of leisure boats navigating off Corsica stop in Bonifacio, with the majority of vessels measuring over 24 metres.

The traffic accounted for 60 percent of the port's revenues in 2019, he said.

With additional income generated by their wealthy passengers, boats stopping in Bonifacio are a vital source of income to the town's 3,000 inhabitants.

Mallaroni says some 90 moorings are needed along the island's shores, citing the French Federation of Nautical Industries.

- Example for other countries -

On the mainland, a first ecological mooring off Pampelonne beach near Saint Tropez on France's famed Cote d'Azur should be available by 2022.

Two other sites are in development, including one in the Calanques national park between Marseille and Cassis that should be operational by 2024.

In the meantime, the seagrass zones remain off-limits to boaters -- although the authority responsible for enforcing rules has so far only issued warnings.

"Most of the boaters pull up their anchors and move to authorised zones," says Thibault Lavernhe of the Maritime Prefecture of the Mediterranean.

"But there have been several repeat offenders and eventually sanctions will have to be applied," he says, with a maximum penalty of 150,000 euros and a year in prison at stake.

Environmentalist Boudouresque meanwhile hopes that other countries with Neptune grass ecosystems will adopt similar rules -- and solutions.

"The environment has no borders," says Boudouresque.

"Other Mediterranean countries should get inspired by these protective measures."

© 2021 AFP

Here's a look at the U.S. weaponry and military equipment left in the hands of the Taliban

Devika Desai 

Celebratory gunfire resounded across the Afghan capital on Tuesday as the Taliban took control of the airport following the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops, marking the end of a 20-year war that left the Islamist group stronger than it was in 2001.

© Provided by National Post Taliban fighters with captured M117 vehicles at Kabul airport.

Shaky video footage distributed by the Taliban showed fighters entering the airport after the last U.S. troops flew out on a C-17 aircraft a minute before midnight, ending a hasty exit for Washington and its NATO allies.

“It is a historical day and a historical moment,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference at the airport after the departure. “We are proud of these moments, that we liberated our country from a great power.”

The Taliban’s shockingly quick seizure of the country coupled with the West’s hurried departure has resulted in the terrorist group acquiring a hefty arsenal of weaponry and equipment, left behind by fleeing Afghan forces.

U.S. officials have estimated that $83 billion worth of weaponry and equipment had been invested in the Afghan force, but have not been able to say how much of that has fallen into the hands of Taliban fighters, post-takeover.

Video posted to social media shows the insurgents inspecting long lines of vehicles and opening crates of new firearms, communications gear and even military drones.

The Taliban took control of the tank park at Kandahar Airport, Large number of tanks and other heavy weapons seized by Taliban.

Follow me ➡ @TalibTimes pic.twitter.com/4XiKEB16kT— Talib Times (@TalibTimes) August 30, 2021

“Everything that hasn’t been destroyed is the Taliban ‘s now,” one U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

While officials haven’t yet tallied definitive numbers, it is estimated that the Taliban own over 2,000 armoured vehicles, including U.S. Humvees, as well as up to 40 aircraft, potentially including UH-60 Black Hawks, scout attack helicopters, and ScanEagle military drones.

L.A Times foreign correspondent Nabih Bulos has reported that the Taliban have also acquired some Afghan air force planes, including A29 Super Tucanos and MD 530s helicopters, some of which appear to be disabled.

In another video posted to Twitter, Bulos records several Taliban fighters fully donned in U.S military gear, including ballistic vests and helmets, entering a once Washington-controlled hangar to examine chinook helicopter abandoned by the U.S..

It’s unclear whether the Taliban have anyone trained to fly the aircraft, officials have said, but concerns have risen over what they could do with the rest of the equipment with fears that they may be used to kill civilians, be seized by Islamic State militants or be potentially handed over to political adversaries such as China or Russia.

Video: Taliban celebrate as last U.S. army flight leaves Afghanistan (cbc.ca)

A recent video posted last week by Joseph Dempsey, research associate for Defence & Military Analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, shows a Blackhawk helicopter taxiing around a tarmac at an Afghan airport, allegedly by a Taliban official.

Several days later, a video posted by the Talib Times, deemed the official news source for the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan, shows a Blackhawk plane in the sky, patrolling the city of Kandahar, with a man hanging off the helicopter.

The video was captioned: “The first flight of black hawk.”

The first flight of black hawk. pic.twitter.com/7NTWlrFJ0y— Talib Times (@TalibTimes) August 30, 2021

The account also confirmed that a large number of army tanks, including M117s have been captured by Taliban fighters.

#Taliban captured some heavy amount of M1117 armoured vehicles at #Kabul airport

Follow me ➡ @TalibTimes pic.twitter.com/vso8DHSw7Y— Talib Times (@TalibTimes) August 30, 2021

Several of the aircraft left behind have been rendered inoperable, tweeted Dempsey.

Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, confirmed to reporters Monday afternoon that more than 150 military vehicles and aircraft had been disabled before leaving Kabul.

US forces shut down or damaged some helicopters and other vehicles before leaving Kabul airport: pic.twitter.com/Ujit4zrP3T— Talib Times (@TalibTimes) August 31, 2021

“We demilitarized those systems so that they’ll never be used again,” McKenzie said. “We felt it more important to protect our forces than to bring those systems back.”

With additional files from Reuters

Leaving Afghanistan, U.S. general's ghostly image books place in history

2021/9/1 
©Reuters


(Removes reference of image being taken from window of C-17 plane in para 2. The picture was taken out of the aircraft ramp)

(Reuters) -Carrying his rifle down by his side, Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the storied 82nd Airborne Division, became the last U.S. soldier to board the final C-17 transport plane flight out of Afghanistan a minute before midnight on Monday.

Taken with a night vision device, the ghostly green and black image of the general striding toward the aircraft waiting on the tarmac at Kabul's Hamid Karzai Airport was released by the Pentagon hours after the United States ended its 20-year military presence https://www.reuters.com/world/india/rockets-fired-kabul-airport-us-troops-race-complete-evacuation-2021-08-30 in Afghanistan.

As a moment in history, the image of Donahue's departure could be cast alongside that of a Soviet general, who led an armoured column across the Friendship Bridge to Uzbekistan, when the Red Army made its final exit from Afghanistan in 1989.

Completing a military operation that with the help of allies succeeded in evacuating 123,000 civilians from Afghanistan, the last plane load of U.S. troops left under cover of the night.

Though it is a still image, Donahue appears to be moving briskly, his face expressionless. He is wearing full combat gear, with night vision goggles atop his helmet, and rifle by his side. He had yet to leave Afghanistan behind, and reach safety.

In contrast, the images of General Boris Gromov, commander of Soviet Union's 40th Army in Afghanistan, show him walking arm-in-arm with his son on the bridge across the Amu Darya river carrying a bouquet of red and white flowers.

The U.S. and Soviet withdrawals from a country that has become known as a graveyard for empires were conducted in very different ways, but at least they avoided the calamitous defeat suffered by Britain in the First Anglo-Afghan war in 1842.

The abiding image from that conflict is Elizabeth Thompson's oil painting "Remnants of an Army" depicting a solitary exhausted rider, military assistant surgeon William Brydon, swaying back in the saddle of an even more exhausted horse in the retreat from Kabul.

When Russia's Red Army left, a pro-Moscow communist government was still in power and its army would fight on for three more years, whereas U.S.-backed Afghan government had already capitulated and Kabul had fallen to the Taliban a little over two weeks before the Aug. 31 deadline for U.S. troops to depart.

Making an orderly exit, the last of Gromov's 50,000 troops still suffered isolated attacks as they drove northwards to the Uzbek border, though they had paid mujahideen groups to secure safe passage along the way.

Gromov's column crossed the Friendship Bridge on Feb. 15, 1989, ending the Soviet Union's 10-year war in Afghanistan, during which more than 14,450 Soviet military personnel were killed.

Asked how he felt about returning to Soviet soil, Gromov is reported to have answered: "Joy, that we carried out our duty and came home. I did not look back."

The final U.S. evacuation of Kabul will be judged by how many people were brought out, and how many were left behind.

But Donahue and his comrades will carry harrowing images from their chaotic last days in Kabul; parents passing babies to them across the razor wire, two young Afghans falling from a plane climbing high in the sky, and worst of all, the aftermath of an Islamic State suicide bomb attack outside the airport on Aug. 26 that killed scores of Afghans and 13 of their own.

(Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

As Afghanistan adjusts to Taliban rule, music goes silent

2021/8/31 
©Reuters


(Reuters) - Even before the last U.S. flight left Kabul at midnight on Monday, many of the bright and garish sights and sounds of city life in Afghanistan were changing as those left behind tried to fit in with the austere tone of their new Taliban rulers.

The Taliban have so far been at pains to show a more conciliatory face to the world, with none of the harsh public punishments and outright bans on public entertainments that characterized their previous time in power before 2001.

Cultural activities are allowed, they say, so long as they do not go against Sharia law and Afghanistan's Islamic culture.

Taliban authorities in Kandahar, the birthplace of the movement issued a formal order against radio stations playing music and female announcers last week but for many, no formal order was necessary.

Already, colourful signs outside beauty parlours have been painted over, jeans have been replaced by traditional dress and radio stations have replaced their normal menu of Hindi and Persian pop and call-in shows with sombre patriotic music.

"It's not that the Taliban ordered us to change anything, we have altered the programming for now as we don't want Taliban to force us to close down," said Khalid Sediqqi, a producer at a private radio station in the central city of Ghazni.

"Also no one in this country is in the mood for entertainment, we are all in a state of shock," he said. "I am not even sure if anyone is tuning to radio anymore."

During the 20 years of Western-backed government, a lively popular culture grew up in Kabul and other cities with a mashup of body building, energy drinks, extravagant sculpted hairstyles and jangly pop songs. Turkish soap operas, call-in programmes and television talent shows like 'Afghan Star' became major hits.

'TOXIC'

For senior Taliban, many raised in religious madrassas and with the experience of years of fighting and hardship, the change is overdue.

"Our culture has become toxic, we see Russian and American influence everywhere even in the food we eat, that is something people should realise and make necessary changes," a Taliban commander said. "This will take time but it will happen."

Across the country, the change has been noticeable.

While senior Taliban officials have said repeatedly their forces should treat the population respectfully and not hand out arbitrary punishments, many mistrust them or don't believe they can control the footsoldiers on the streets.

"There is no music in all Jalalalad city, people are scared and afraid because Taliban are beating people," Naseem, a former official in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

Zarifullah Sahel, a local journalist in Laghman province near Kabul said the head of the Taliban's local cultural commission told the state-run public radio and six other private stations to adjust their programming to ensure it was in line with Sharia law.

Since then music programmes and political, cultural and news programming not related to religious issues had dried up.

But even where formal orders have not been issued, the message that the freewheeling era has come to an end and that it is safer not to stand out has been clear.

"I fear the Taliban may target me if was seen wearing jeans or western shirts or a suit," said Mustafa Ali Rahman, a former tax official in Lagman province. "One just doesn't know what they can do to punish us."

A former civil activist in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif said shops and restaurants appeared to have decided for themselves and turned off their radios.

"There is no warning about music, but people themselves have stopped," he said.

(Reporting by Islamabad newsroom; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

 

No future for women like me, says exiled Afghan soccer player

2021/8/31 
©Reuters


By Stephane Mahe

PIRIAC-SUR-MER, France (Reuters) - As a former player in the Afghanistan women's national soccer team, Fanoos Basir saw no future for herself under Taliban rule.

She fled, and is now in a reception centre for refugees in France, mourning the life she left behind.

"We had lots of dreams for our country, for our future, for the future of women in Afghanistan," she said outside the reception centre, where she arrived after being evacuated from Kabul on a French-organised flight.

"This was our nightmare, that the Taliban would come and capture all of Afghanistan," she said. "There is no future for women... for now."

The last time the Taliban ran Afghanistan, women were barred from taking part in sport, or from working outside the home, and had to cover themselves from head to toe when in public.

The Islamist movement was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, but 20 years later has taken power again and forced out a foreign military mission, leading to the evacuation of tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans. The last flights left on Monday.

In 2010, Basir had joined a fledgling national soccer team that trained in a dilapidated stadium and started to take part in tournaments abroad.

Pictures of her in her playing days show Basir, in football gear, her head frequently uncovered, smiling and with her arms draped around her teammates.

Now the Taliban is back, the national soccer team is shut down. A large contingent of current players and staff were evacuated on board an Australian military aircraft.

A former captain of the team urged players still in Afghanistan to burn their sports gear and delete their social media accounts to avoid Taliban reprisals.

Basir, who is 25, stopped playing for the national team several years ago, and has since run a club side for women. She also worked as a civil engineer.

She said that when the Taliban took control of the capital, Kabul on Aug. 15, she did not go outside for days. When she did venture out, she wore a burqa covering her face and body.

Besides women's soccer being now out of the question, Basir said she faced having to give up her job.

Some Taliban officials have attempted to portray the group as willing to allow more freedoms for women than previously now that they are back in power. But many Afghans fear this is a facade.

The Taliban has in some places told women they can only go out with a male guardian, which Basir said would mean bringing her father or brother with her every time she went to work.

She decided to try to leave, along with her frail parents.

She spent three consecutive days without success trying to get through the crowds of people massing outside Kabul's airport. She described seeing Taliban fighters firing their guns and beating people with sticks.

When she spoke to Taliban representatives, she said they told her: "You are a woman, we do not want to talk with you."

Basir said she and her family had given up hope of making it, when they heard the French embassy had organised buses to pick up people eligible for evacuation, and bring them to the airport. She and her parents were able to get to the airport, and fly out.

They are now undergoing COVID-19 quarantine at the reception centre, about 450 km (280 miles) west of Paris.

Eventually, she said, she hoped she could work as a civil engineer in her new home. But for now, she felt she was in limbo.

"Leaving our country, our dreams, everything, is so hard for everyone," she said. "Now we will start from zero."

(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Afghanistan pullout chills US-German relations

The US pullout from Afghanistan after 20 years has made the erratic Trump years look like more than a blip of American unilateralism. But German-American relations have a long history of highs and lows. 





After 20 years of Afghanistan deployments, the last German troops came home on August 27


After the Taliban took Kabul and desperate Afghans flooded the airport trying to escape the country, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her dismay: "The developments are bitter, dramatic and terrible," she said at a press conference on August 16. "It seems right now like it was all in vain."

For Germany, whose military has spent nearly 20 years in Afghanistan, the human and financial cost has been significant. The Bundeswehr, Germany’s army, entered Afghanistan to support the US after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 — in what would become its largest and longest military deployment abroad. Along the way, Germany committed to the nation-building project. Now those hopes have been dashed. 

The chancellor candidate for Merkel's Christian Democrats, Armin Laschet, spoke of a major blow to the trans-Atlantic relationship and dismay at US President Joe Biden's actions: "I was disappointed by his announcement on April 14 that he would implement Donald Trump's Afghanistan withdrawal order one-to-one without fully involving the allies in this momentous decision," Laschet told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in mid-August.

"It is a big loss of confidence. In particular in America's competency as a military power," says political analyst Stephan Bierling of Regensburg University. "After four catastrophic years under Trump, we had a very positive view of Joe Biden. Now that mood is changing."

Watch video 02:17 Germany's evacuation from Afghanistan faces scrutiny

An unequal relationship 

After World War II the US played the lead role in establishing West Germany as a liberal democracy, setting up democratic institutions and a free press. The US then provided the security throughout the Cold War that ensured West Germany continued to exist alongside communist East Germany.

"The US defeated Germany in World War II and then as an occupying power was part of restructuring German society," explains Ruth Hatlapa, a historian specializing in how Germany views the US.

There was pro-Americanism in West German society that supported deeper connections, she says, but also resentment — particularly concerning West Germany's security dependence on the US, creating a "contradictory relationship," according to Hatlapa.


After WWII, the US took an active role to reshape West German society and its democratic institutions

Vietnam was different for Germany

The relationship has seen its low points. The Vietnam War was such a case. 12,000 anti-war protesters took to the streets of West Berlin in 1968. One of them was the author Friedrich Christian Delius.

"This disappointment that the Americans, whom we admired, were going into a war that was, so to speak, completely contrary to their own principles, that stirred us up and upset us, just as it upset hundreds of thousands of American students at the time," he told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, looking back 50 years after the events unfolded.

Germany had rejected US calls to participate militarily in Vietnam. Instead, it embarked on a humanitarian relief mission, sending a hospital ship to the war zone in 1966, coordinated by and equipped with personnel from the German Red Cross (DRK).

Watch video 02:55 Looking back on Germany's involvement in Afghanistan

German-US divide over Iraq

Another blow to the US image in Germany came in 2003. Although the US, under President George W. Bush, urged the German government to participate in the war against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, then-foreign minister Joschka Fischer from the Green Party stood by his legendary phrase: "I am not convinced."

Doubts that the invasion of Iraq was justified were based on the findings of Germany's foreign intelligence service. "According to our information at the time, the reasons Colin Powell had given before the United Nations Security Council were not substantiated, contrary to his account, and proved to be false," August Hanning, then president of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), told Die Welt newspaper.

"The mistakes made by the US are still having an effect today: the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, the rise of the terrorist organizations al-Qaida and IS, the political instability," terrorism and security analyst Rolf Tophoven of the Institute for Crisis Prevention Iftus told German broadcaster ntv, looking back after 15 years. "We would also not have the refugee problem if there were peace in the region. Then people wouldn't have to flee to Europe."

However, the current situation is unprecedented. "The main difference is obvious: In Afghanistan we have had soldiers as long as America has had soldiers there," says historian Klaus Schwabe, a professor at RWTH Aachen University.


Germany took a very positive view of Biden after four years of strained relations with Trump

Blow to the trans-Atlantic relationship

"Afghanistan is a reality check for those who had big plans for a revived trans-Atlantic relationship," says Bastian Giegerich of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"Germany's direct involvement has made recent events much more painful. It mixes a sense of failure, disappointment and humiliation," he says. "The fall of Kabul shows crystal clear that Germany and other European powers don't have the means to pursue an independent strategy."

In the wake of events in Afghanistan, calls for greater German and European military independence are getting louder. "The EU must be able to act without its American partner. We must be able to secure an airport like the one in Kabul on our own," said Laschet in his interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

When the Biden administration entered office, it called on Germany and other European partners to take tougher lines on China and Russia, hoping to mobilize the EU into taking a stronger stance on protecting liberal democracies. 

Recent events in Afghanistan may have been counterproductive, says political analyst Giegerich. "Afghanistan was a mission that from a German and European point of view was undertaken out of solidarity with the US. Many here will feel, 'we did this for the US and look how it ended.'"

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society, with an eye toward understanding this year's elections and beyond. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era.

Taliban Warn Against Future Invasions of Afghanistan, Seek Global Legitimacy

By Ayaz Gul
Updated August 31, 2021 

Taliban fighters stand guard inside Hamid Karzai International Airport after the U.S. withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 31, 2021. The Taliban were in control of the airport Tuesday, after the last U.S. planes left its runway.


The Taliban hailed Tuesday the departure of international forces from Afghanistan and their return to power as a “big lesson for other invaders,” urging the United States and the rest of the world to recognize Taliban rule.

Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid made the remarks, hours after the last American military plane left the international airport in the capital, Kabul.

Mujahid, while speaking to reporters at the tarmac, congratulated Afghans and declared the foreign military exit a victory “that belongs to us all.”

The U.S. and its Western allies invaded the war-torn South Asian country nearly 20 years ago and removed the Taliban from power for allowing the al-Qaida terror network to organize the September 2001 attacks on America.

After Nearly 20 Years, Last US Troops Leave Kabul

US commander admits ‘we did not get everybody out’ despite largest US airlift in American military history

The Taliban have repeatedly promised a more tolerant and broad-based governance system compared with their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, when the fundamentalist group imposed a brutal justice system, barred Afghan women from working outside the home and girls from receiving an education.

Mujahid attempted to ally concerns while speaking to a unit of the Taliban’s elite Badri force on the tarmac Tuesday and admonished them to not treat Afghans harshly.

“Treat the Afghan population kindly and nicely,” he told them. “The public deserves this.” He also reminded them that they were the “servants” of the population and should not be heavy handed with their fellow countrymen.

“We want to have good relations with the U.S. and the world. We welcome good diplomatic relations with them all," Mujahid insisted, saying Afghanistan needs international assistance to overcome many crises after four decades of war.

Later, speaking to a seminar in Kabul organized in connection with the foreign troop withdrawal, Mujahid called on the international community to recognize the Taliban rule and to help them address multiple crises facing the country.

Taliban officials also reported that consultations on the formation of an “inclusive Islamic government” in Kabul have concluded and said an announcement will soon be made.

International stakeholders remained skeptical about whether the Islamist movement would deliver on its pledges and prevent Afghanistan from being diplomatically isolated again.

“The Taliban now face a test. Can they lead their country to a safe & prosperous future where all their citizens, men & women, have the chance to reach their potential? Can Afghanistan present the beauty & power of its diverse cultures, histories, & traditions to the world?,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special Afghan peace envoy, wrote on Twitter Tuesday

He noted the foreign military withdrawal had offered “a moment of decision and opportunity” for all Afghans.

“Their country's future is in their hands. They will choose their path in full sovereignty," Khalilzad wrote. "This is the chance to bring their war to an end as well.”

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Tuesday the international response to Taliban’s bid for legitimacy would depend on the nature of the government they introduce in Afghanistan. He spoke in neighboring Pakistan.

“Soon the Taliban are going to present a new government. It remains to be seen that this government is as inclusive a government as we demanded it to be. It is important for us that Afghans who do not support the Taliban feel represented by this government,” Maas emphasized when asked whether Germany was ready to give legitimacy to the Taliban-held Kabul.

Maas said that “the important lesson I draw out of the failure in Afghanistan” is that military interventions are suited only to combat terrorist attacks, wars, human rights violations, but not to export any form of political governance system to another country.

“In the West in the international community at large, we have to ask ourselves if military interventions are suitable to export a form of government which we prefer. This was not successful in Afghanistan,” said the chief German diplomat.

“This is why we have to draw the necessary lessons that … military interventions are not suited to export a specific form of government. We need to think about the purposes and also the duration of military interventions.”

The Taliban have promised to get the airport up and running for commercial flights as soon as possible. However, some of the airport infrastructure was damaged during the first few days of the Taliban takeover of Kabul, when thousands of Afghans, in a panic over the arrival of the militant group, massed around it and many managed to get inside and onto the tarmac.

Several Afghans died as they tried to hang onto the outside of an American C-17 military cargo plane or climb into the wheel wells.

The last U.S. troops left Afghanistan moments before the expiration of an August 31 deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden.

The head of U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, said Monday the last U.S. aircraft took off from Kabul just before midnight local time, a minute ahead of the deadline.

The United States and its coalition partners helped more than 123,000 civilians flee Afghanistan, though countless more were left behind.

"The Taliban has made commitments on safe passage and the world will hold them to their commitments,” McKenzie said.

VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeen, Jeff Seldin and Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.

The Story Of The Mysterious White 727

That Appeared In Kabul After The Bombing Of Abbey Gate

The old 727 showing up among the military transports at Kabul International drew a lot of interest among flight trackers and open-source intel gurus.

BY TYLER ROGOWAY 

AUGUST 31, 2021
THE WAR ZONE

SAFE AIR


TYLER ROGOWAY

  View Tyler Rogoway's Articles
Aviation_Intel


The evacuation of Kabul is like none other in history. With open-source intelligence tools abound, including daily satellite images, flight tracking, and even a live camera feed overwatching Hamid Karzai International Airport, the average person can keep tabs on this historic event and unprecedented multi-national military operation in their own homes. In the panopticon that is today's internet age, peculiarities stand out. One such surprise was seeing a gleaming-white, but quite geriatric 727-200 appear on Kabul's ragged skyline, landing at the under siege airport amongst the constant flow of C-17s, A400Ms, C-130s, a few modern airliners, and other usual suspects.

While all-white airframes aren't supposed to attract much attention, that paint scheme is also synonymous with clandestine operations, including "whitewashed" aircraft often used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) for low-profile operations abroad. With that reality in mind, keen observers keeping an eye on traffic at Hamid Karzai International rightfully started thinking this may be some CIA asset that was slipping in on a unique mission. It turns out, that wasn't necessarily the case. Thanks to a wonderful story by Erika Gibson of South Africa's Mail and Guardian, we learned the backstory on this most interesting of participants in the tumultuous aerial evacuation of Afghanistan.


TWITTER VIDEO SCRENCAP/REUTERS


The 727, which belongs to a firm called Safe Air Company, takes off from Kabul.

It turns out that Niel Steyl, the Captain of a four-decade-old 727-200 that flies for Safe Air Company, an airline and charter outfit based in Kenya, answered an emergency call from the U.S. State Department for immediate airlift assistance after a complex terrorist attack, which started with a suicide bombing, killed 13 U.S. troops, as well as at least 170 Afghans, on August 26th.

At the time, Steyl, his crew, and their 727, which carries the Kenyan registration number 5Y-IRE and is aptly nicknamed Irene, were forward based out of neighboring Kulob, Tajikistan. In the past, they had supported what was a relatively steady drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan before the final dangerous push out of Kabul, which fell to the Taliban on August 15th.

Steyl told the Mail and Guardian:

“We received a desperate call from the US state department’s officials in Kabul after the suicide bombing attack on Thursday night asking whether we would be willing to assist with mercy flights... The urgency became critical to evacuate a group of Afghan special forces and their families. They have been assisting the US forces in the country for many years. As such, they would certainly have been killed by the Taliban as they are seen as traitors".

Their cargo for the dangerous sortie would be hundreds of ex-Afghan special operations forces that were being lodged in a warehouse within the confines of the airport. These troops had worked with the Americans for years and they would be top Taliban targets, but finding room on military airlifters leaving the country became a huge challenge. Hence the mercy flights by Irene.

It only took just 40 minutes to load up 308 people onto the cargo-configured 727, which would normally carry between a half and a third of that load during the type's career as an airliner.

Steyl recounted the following about the flight to the Mail and Guardian:

“We expected a haggard group but were pleasantly surprised by the well-spoken and neatly dressed group – despite them being holed up in a warehouse under trying conditions for a week. It was humbling to experience the sheer relief and appreciation from their side that we came in time to save them.”

Here's a video of Irene in action, albeit on a far less volatile mission:

Because the soldiers and their families could not fit on a single 727 flight, another trip would be needed.

On the second trip, they had to stop all movement on the ground at Kabul and could not load and depart quickly because U.S. forces were executing a departure ceremony for the 13 Americans who died during the bombing at Abbey Gate. Once cleared to load and leave, the second flight saw 329 souls packed aboard the old 727. All of the refugees were taken back to Tajikistan where they would wait in a tent community until a further airlift arranged by the U.S. government could move them on to other locations once the evacuation of Kabul was complete. The passengers didn't even know where they were when they landed, they were just happy to be out of Afghanistan and away from the Taliban.

While Safe Air and Irene's crew are no strangers to flying into dangerous areas in Africa, basically saving hundreds of people, entire families, from the clutches of the Taliban certainly must have been very rewarding. Still, an old 727 loaded with over three hundred people, while not having the millions of dollars worth of defensive capabilities that their military airlifter counterparts have, and flying into what is basically a war zone under extreme terrorist threat in the middle of the day, takes guts.

Irene and her crew are one of many groups of heroes that risked life and limb for others during this tragic endcap to the two-decades-long war in Afghanistan. Once the last American boots leave Kabul and the dust settles, we know that there will be many other incredible stories to tell. But this one, about the little old 727 that could, is definitely worth spreading.

You can check out Erika Gibson's Mail and Guardian piece on Irene's missions into Kabul, which includes more details and some great photos, here.

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com