Saturday, September 11, 2021

VICTORY!

EPA to restore protections for Alaska's Bristol Bay NO PEBBLE BAY MINE

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said it would reverse a Trump administration decision and restore protection for Alaska's Bristol Bay.

Photo by Stan Shebs/Wikimedia Commons

Sept. 9 (UPI) -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said it would restore protections for waters in Alaska's Bristol Bay and block the construction of a gold mine in the area.

In a court filing, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a request by the EPA to remand and vacate a Trump administration notice in 2019 withdrawing protections for the Bristol Bay Waters under the Clean Water Act.

"The Bristol Bay Watershed is an Alaskan treasure that underscores the critical value of clean water in America," EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said. "Today's announcement reinforces once again EPA's commitment to making science-based decisions to protect our natural environment. What's at stake is preventing pollution that would disproportionately impact Alaska Natives, and protecting a sustainable future for the most productive salmon fishery in North America."

EPA noted the Bristol Bay watershed provides essential habitats that support all five species of Pacific salmon found in North America, which are critical to the health of the ecosystem that is home to more than 20 fish species, 190 bird species and more than 40 terrestrial mammal species.

RELATED EPA bans most uses of pesticide linked to health issues in children

Pebble Limited Partnership proposed to build what would be the largest gold and copper mine in North America in the bay but the Obama administration initially blocked the project in 2014.

Trump administration officials later reversed the decision as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined the operation would have "no measurable effect" on fish populations in the area but would inflict permanent damage on the region.

The USACE in August 2020, however, said the proposed plans for the mine could not be approved for a permit under the Clean Water Act and it would likely result in "significant adverse effects on the aquatic system or human environment."

RELATED EPA to implement tighter limits on wastewater pollution from coal power plants

In November, the USACE denied Pebble Limited's plan to deal with waste from the mine, saying it "does not comply with Clean Water Act guidelines" and that the project as proposed "is contrary to the public interest."

The mining plan prompted a lawsuit and opposition from activists and local fishing operations and prominent Republicans including Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr.

Pebble Limited Partnership spokesman Mike Heatwole told The Washington Post Thursday it was following the administration's decision regarding the project.

RELATED EPA ends Trump-era 'transparency' rule that ignored certain science studies

"We will continue to monitor these developments closely to determine the possible impacts to the project and permitting process," Heatwole said.

BLM CAN SAY FUCK YOU FOX!

WE GOT ROYAL APPROVAL

Queen’s London representative says royals back BLM movement
By DANICA KIRKA

FILE - In this Thursday July 8, 2021 file photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth visits the set of the long running television series Coronation Street, in Manchester, England. Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family back the Black Lives Matter movement, one of her senior representatives has said in a television interview to be broadcast later Friday, Sept. 10. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell, file)

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family back the Black Lives Matter movement, one of her senior representatives said in a television interview to be broadcast Friday.

Philanthropist Kenneth Olisa, the first Black Lord Lieutenant of Greater London, told Channel 4 News that he had discussed the issue with members of the royal family since George Floyd died in police custody in the United States last year, sparking global protests over racial injustice.

Asked if they supported the movement, the philanthropist and businessman who is the monarch’s personal representative in Greater London said: “The answer is easily yes.”

“I have discussed with the Royal Household this whole issue of race, particularly in the last 12 months since the George Floyd incident,” he said in excerpts from the interview released before the broadcast. “It’s a hot conversation topic. The question is what more can we do to bind society to remove these barriers. They (the royals) care passionately about making this one nation bound by the same values.”

The comments come as Buckingham Palace struggles to combat suggestions of racism raised by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, also known as Prince Harry and Meghan, during a March interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Meghan, who is biracial, said an unidentified member of the royal family had raised “concerns” about the color of her baby’s skin before she gave birth to her first child. The couple also alleged that Meghan was the victim of callous treatment during her time as a working royal.

Prince William, Harry’s older brother, was forced to respond after reporters shouted questions at him during a visit to an East London school.

“We’re very much not a racist family,” William said as his wife, Kate, walked by his side.

Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal duties earlier this year and moved to California.

Record sum for first Spider-Man comic

The superhero created by comic author Stan Lee made his debut in 1962. That first Spider-Man comic book has now sold for a record $3.6 million.

The 1962 Marvel comic book, Amazing Fantasy No. 15, which was auctioned off for $3.6 million (€3 million), marks the beginning of the success story of the superhero Spider-Man.

It was in that comic where superhero made his debut, wearing the suit with the spider-web pattern that is still legendary today.

According to the US Heritage Auctions auction house, the issue sold is the priciest comic book ever sold at auction.

When Amazing Fantasy No. 15 appeared in 1962, it cost just 12 cents.

The comic introduced readers to the story of Peter Parker and his alter ego, Spider-Man. Peter turns into a hero who learns that "with great power comes great responsibility." The teenager, who as an orphan struggled with the problems of everyday life, becomes a famous fighter for justice.

The story has since been renewed countless times, including with the 2018 film 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'

It is now impossible to imagine the Marvel superhero universe without him.

Stan Lee, a famous comic book writer, and co-writers and illustrators Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby created the Marvel universe, which still today enjoys great success with the Avengers film series.

They wrote Incredible Hulk and Iron Man , too, leading Marvel, which emerged from the Timely Comics publishing house in 1961, to become the world-famous comic empire it is today.

MARVEL'S SUPERSTAR STAN LEE
Marvel's real-life superhero: Stan Lee
Born in 1922 in New York, Stanley Martin Lieber was at the center of the Marvel universe. Although he did not establish the publishing house, he was responsible for many of its superheroes — such as the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man and the X-Men — figures that often challenge heroic archetypes. The 2017 book "The Marvel Age of Comics 1961-1978" is the perfect introduction to Lee and his work. 1 2 3 4 5 6

Comic book boom

Sales of comic books have repeatedly fetched record amounts.

Recently, a Superman comic book was auctioned for about €2.7 million — a record now broken by the Spider-Man comic book.

While the comic book business is currently booming, Marvel actually went bankrupt in the past. In the 1980s and 1990s, Marvel comics were visibly more lavishly produced and were almost only hoarded as collector's items and investments — until financial bubbles burst, leading to the collapse of the company's stock value.

New Spider-Man film out soon

Marvel recovered eventually with the sale of film licenses to major studios, ringing in the second golden era of the comic empire.

Today, film series including X-Men, Avengers and Spider-Man are among the most successful Hollywood productions, and continue to generate record profits. Marvel successfully came up with a new, more contemporary image.

Meanwhile, a sequel to the successful saga is scheduled to hit movie theaters later this year.

Tom Holland stars as Spider-Man, fighting for justice alongside Zendaya Coleman as Peter Parker's girlfriend in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

12 BLACK SUPERHEROES FROM US COMICS
Spider-Man (2011)
In 2011, a young Black superhero took the lead in a top-ranking US mainstream comic: Marvel Comics had Afro-Latino teenager Miles Morales slip into Spider-Man's costume, while the series with Peter Parker as the original superhero continued as well. Morales, seen here in the 2018 film adaptation "Into the Spider-Verse," acquires his abilities, like Parker, through a spider bite. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

This article has been translated from German.

Trumpet star Till Brönner on music and society

He is considered one of the most important jazz musicians in Germany: Trumpet player Till Brönner spoke to DW about life during and after the pandemic.

Till Brönner at the Jazzfest Bonn 2021

Despite the pandemic, Jazzfest Bonn has managed to organize a top-class program for the event that started at the end of August and run through the end of October 2021.

Trumpeter Till Brönner, Germany's most internationally acclaimed jazz musician, gave a concert during the festival, which is when DW met up with him.

DW: Till Brönner, during the coronavirus lockdown, you were very critical of the government, of how it wasn't adequately helping musicians who couldn't perform live concerts. Do you think musicians get enough support in Germany?

Till Brönner: It's very tough to comment this support situation during the COVID pandemic that we all are fighting. I've heard a lot of politicians say: compared to other countries, we've done great. There were a lot of efforts to help the musicians.

But it's also a very revealing aspect to see that culture seems to be the first thing to disappear when catastrophe strikes, making it seem dispensable.

So we have to define and redefine whether culture and music and the arts in general are seen as a contribution to society, not only in Germany, but to a democratic society.

Germany's elections are in a few weeks. Do you feel that there's a party or movement that supports artists better than the current government?

I personally am not so interested in parties in particular. That's why I have never been a member of a party.

But I'm interested [in politics] and I'm looking at what's happening right now. And the thing that I find most alarming in a way is that we haven't talked about many very important issues, like the economy of this country. We've only talked about COVID-19. There's very little content to talk about right now, which I find very dangerous. I think I have never seen a time like this, when people talk less about what to do for the next generations than for the next five months.

How did the pandemic change the experience of a live concert?

Going to a concert is something you have to afford. You can live without music, but it's a terrible thing to imagine.

So [before the pandemic] people had fun, it was a natural thing for them, you know, to select a day in the calendar, reserve the evening and meet hours before, maybe have dinner together or afterwards, and then really enjoy music as a sort of common language.

And that completely disappeared. Going to a concert is a challenge right now. But I hope it's coming back — a certain lightness surrounding the event of going to a concert.

Meanwhile you are also renowned as a photographer. What did you do more during the lockdown: rehearse with other musicians or take pictures?

I was very lucky to have my camera ready all the time during the pandemic. And my personal project for the moment is Europe. Because the question of whether Europe will turn out to be useful and important for the entire planet is a theme you could follow forever with your camera, even though very few people talk about Europe because everybody's busy with themselves. With the camera, it's a perfect thing to do.

A photo by Till Brönner that was part of the 'Melting Pott' exhibition

And I can't wait to travel again. Because I was born in Italy, I was raised in Bonn. And I moved to Berlin. So I'm a European in my heart, and that is a very, very good subject for my camera.

You are one of the few German jazz musicians to be internationally recognized. Do you think that the German jazz community is underrated abroad?

I think the world doesn't necessarily think about Germany as a jazz country in the first place. We were well known for great cars, you know, maybe for soccer or for engineering. But it's never too late to break the cliché.

And luckily, some of the German musicians like Albert Mangelsdorf or Peter Brözmann found their own way to build and create a signature, which I think can be easily called a German jazz approach.

You are playing at the Jazzfest Bonn. What is the role of festivals today?

Jazz in general has a role that has not been defined enough in recent years, and that is the reason why the question "Do we still need this music?" is one that keeps getting asked again and again. And perhaps, when you look at the kind of audience it attracts, the question might sometimes feel justified.

However, we also need to ask: Where else is this music presented? Sometimes it's not only an issue concerning the artists, but also public broadcasters, who decide that this music should be played at nighttime and not when younger people might have the chance to understand it or even simply hear it.

Parents are not the only ones introducing their children to jazz. We are always trying renew and offer the most diverse forms of jazz, especially the ones that are more popular and accessible to younger people.

Jazz lives from encounters: Till Brönner and his band at the Jazzfest Bonn

You grew up in Bonn, Beethoven's home town, where even young children are inevitably put in contact with the composer's name. What does Beethoven mean to you today? How much Beethoven is in your music?

Beethoven was a pioneer in his field. Beethoven's typical combination of lightness and seriousness is something that I recognize very well in many of my colleagues' music — and in mine too, of course.

Flush toilets use too much water.

Can we invent a better one?

DW Planet A

Flush toilets are an ecological nightmare. They take at least six liters of water to flush poop! Our sewer systems haven't changed much for centuries and are unfit for a world of climate change and booming populations. Is there a less wasteful way to dispose of our waste? We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

#PlanetA #Toilets #Water

World Toilet – The Global Sanitation Movement

https://www.worldtoilet.org

World Toilet Organization was founded on 19 November 2001 and the inaugural World Toilet Summit was held on the same day, the first global summit of its kind.

CLIMATE CHANGE, WE ARE ALL FOR IT

Exxon Mobil discloses another oil discovery offshore Guyana
CONTRIBUTORS
Luc Cohen Reuters
Arunima Kumar Reuters
PUBLISHEDSEP 9, 2021

CREDIT: REUTERS/LUC COHEN
U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday it had made a discovery at Pinktail in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, as it develops a major new oil and gas find.

Sept 9 (Reuters) - U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N said on Thursday it had made a discovery at Pinktail in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, as it develops a major new oil and gas find.

Exxon operates the 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block as part of a consortium that includes Hess Corp HES.N and China's CNOOC Ltd 0883.HK. It has made at least 20 discoveries there.

The company said the find would add to the previous recoverable resource estimate of more than 9 billion barrels of oil and gas, without specifying the size of reserves in its latest discovery.

The company's second offshore production facility, the Liza Unity, set sail from Singapore to Guyana in early September. The floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel is crossing the East Indian Ocean, with an estimated arrival in Guyana on Nov. 15, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel tracking data.

The Unity FPSO will be utilized for the Liza Phase 2 development and is expected to begin production in early 2022, with an output capacity of about 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil.

The consortium began producing crude in late 2019. Hess Chief Executive Officer John Hess said in remarks to the Barclays CEO Energy-Power Conference on Thursday the Liza 1 project was producing at its nameplate capacity of 120,000 bpd.

He said the company expected the Stabroek block to produce at least 1 million bpd through six FPSOs by 2027.

The Payara project, the consortium's third in the Stabroek block, is expected to start up in 2024, Hess told an investor conference hosted by Barclays.

Exxon expects to submit a development plan for its fourth Guyana project, Yellowtail, later this year, said Hess.

Hess Chief Operating Officer Greg Hill said he expected Guyana's government to approve the consortium's development plan for Yellowtail, its fourth project, by the end of this year.

(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi, Edmund Blair and David Gregorio)

((Arunima.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aru_Kumar94 ;))

Guyana | Language, People, & Oil Discovery | Britannica

9/11 CHILE 1973

9/11, the 'war on terror' and the consequences for the world

Twenty years ago terrorists challenged the world's only remaining superpower. In response, the United States declared a "war on terror." The world continues to struggle with the consequences.

The 9/11 attacks had an impact on the world that can still be felt

Twenty years have passed since the September 11 attacks. At Ground Zero in New York, the towers of a new World Trade Center rise above the skyline, and there is a memorial to the nearly 3,000 victims of the attacks. The city has bounced back and now has more residents than in 2001. Until the pandemic, the economy was booming. 

But nothing is how it was in the US, large parts of the Middle East, and Afghanistan. The Taliban may be back, but when a terrorist attack recently killed some 170 Afghans and more than a dozen US soldiers during an evacuation operation at Kabul airport, it was the so-called "Islamic State" that claimed responsibility. That organization did not even exist 20 years ago when the "war on terror" began. Its emergence is closely linked to how the "war on terror" has been carried out.

"We know very well that the rise of IS was a direct result of the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003," Bernd Greiner says. In an interview with DW, the Hamburg historian explains that a large part of the initial IS fighters came from Saddam Hussein's old army. "It was disbanded by the United States from one moment to the next. That left hundreds of thousands of young men on the street with no prospects of employment. That kind of thing is humus for radicalization."

VIDEO 26:06 20 years after 9/11: Is the war on terror a lost cause?

Beginning a war with box cutters

In 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists brought down the World Trade Center, a symbol of economic power, and attacked the Pentagon, the center of US military power. Those attacks traumatized the US. Using nothing more than box cutters, men directed by Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden turned passenger planes into weapons. It was an unprecedented humiliation for a country that seemed at the zenith of its power.  A dozen years after winning the Cold War following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US seemed invincible.

After the attacks, the US was engulfed by national sorrow and had the solidarity of the entire world. Then came anger and retribution which found understanding. For the first time in NATO's history, its mutual defense clause was invoked. In a military operation legitimized by the UN Security Council as an act of self-defense, NATO allies overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan in a matter of months. 

When then-President George W. Bush attacked Iraq in 2003, there was no longer any such legitimacy. There were false claims alone about Saddam Hussein's links to the September. 11 bombers and equally false claims that the Iraqi dictator was producing weapons of mass destruction. 

Secretary of State Colin Powell presented false claims on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to the UN

The 'Indispensable Nation' demonstrates its power

Many American politicians saw an opportunity after September 11 to demonstrate that the US was the world's "indispensable nation," says US historian Stephen Wertheim in an interview with DW. "They demonstrated this 'indispensability' by trying to remake an entire country and an entire region of the world."

Bernd Greiner sees another motive: "In its powerlessness and impotence in the face of this type of asymmetric attack, the US wanted to demonstrate to the world, and especially to the Arab world that whoever messes with us in the future has forfeited his right to exist." The historian sees both wars as also being highly symbolic acts. 

Supporting Greiner's thesis is the fact that just a few weeks after September 11, the White House instructed the Pentagon to draft scenarios for a war against Iraq. When Henry Kissinger was asked by George W. Bush's speechwriter Michael Gerson why he supported the Iraq war, he said, "Because Afghanistan wasn't enough." America's radical opponents in the Muslim world wanted to humiliate the United States, "so we must humiliate them." 

Watch video 42:31 The children of 9/11 - Growing up in the shadow of terror

Almost 1 million war victims

The "war on terror" proclaimed by Bush became a liminal war. A war "that is not precisely defined, neither temporally nor geographically. It is being waged globally," as Johannes Thimm, a US expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs defines it. The "Cost of War" project of Brown University says the US government is carrying out anti-terror measures in a total of 85 countries. Their team, consisting of more than 50 academics, legal experts, and human rights activists, calculated that in the "war on terror" a total of nearly 930,000 people have been killed directly as a result of combat operations, almost 400,000 of them civilians. 

World public opinion reacted with shock in 2010 when WikiLeaks revealed the true face of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And to the publication of the "Collateral Murder" video which documented the murder of civilians in Baghdad. 

George W. Bush declared major fighting over in Iraq on May 1, 2003

Damaged reputation

The reputation of the US was also damaged because it ignored the law of war. In an interview with DW, Thimm cites the official reintroduction of torture under a different name. "There is also a reason why this is not called torture, but rather 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' because torture is simply and unequivocally prohibited by international law."

Those violations include the detention of suspects for decades in completely lawless spaces, such as the US naval base at Guantanamo. And above all, the killing of terror suspects in drone attacks. 

In an interview with DW, political scientist Julian Junk of the Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research states with regard to terrorist networks in Europe and Germany "we can see that the extralegal methods in the 'War on Terror' have had a mobilizing effect on Salafist and jihadist groups." 
An eight-trillion-dollar mistake?

According to the Cost of War, the 20-year "war on terror" has cost the US the unimaginable sum of $8 trillion. This could easily pay for current US President Joe Biden's infrastructure program several times over. That is why US expert Bernd Greiner believes that "the US has massively damaged itself through these insane expenditures for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." 

"There are so many other worthy ventures to which the United States could have directed its vast people and resources," says Wertheim, "instead of responding destructively to the September 11 attack."

This article has been translated from German.

9/11 through African eyes

Across Africa, it was hard to miss the tragedy unfolding in the US as terrorists struck on September 11, 2001. DW journalists who were in Africa during the 9/11 attacks look back on that day.

A billow of smoke rises over New York during the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center

Kenya

Zainab Aziz

Zainab Azis, DW Kiswahili

I knew about the attack immediately because I was a journalist, working for the national broadcaster in the capital, Nairobi. In my heart and mind, I was thinking of the people inside those buildings. I was shocked, even before I knew the details.

The attack gave me flashbacks to the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. I had been hurt by falling glass when I found myself, by coincidence, outside the US Embassy in Nairobi.

The 9/11 attacks were really confirmation that terrorist activity was happening around the world. That attack in the US left us wondering what can happen to our countries. Immediately after the bombings in the US, police in Kenya took steps such as checking on people in hotels and stopping to search people on the streets.

On August 7 1998, more than 200 people were killed in bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Niger

Abdoulaye Mamane

Abdoulaye Mamane, DW Hausa

I was a secondary school pupil in Niamey on 9/11. I remember being with my father around a radio and he explained the attack in which he said some people had died. We youth didn't pay much attention. But my father, who was a businessman, kept his ear on the radio.

At the time, the government of President Mamadou Tandja was still fresh. So there wasn't a big official reaction.

The public reaction came after people heard the name Osama bin Laden on the television and in the mosques. That's when people started giving the name to their new babies "Osama."

Young people later started calling their radio listening clubs names such as "Pentagon" or "Tora Bora" [after the US battle of Tora Bora in December 2001 in Afghanistan]. These are names you still hear today.

The World Trade Center towers in New York on September 11 2001

Mozambique

Amos Zacarias

Amos Zacarias, DW Portuguese for Africa

Despite being a kid at college in Sofala Province, I remember hearing that something happened, somewhere else. Nobody had clear information because we had no TV and no visuals [of the event]. We just imagined it was a game and people are just making it up.

My history teacher told us he had heard about something happening in the US. At that moment we thought it was someone far away playing a game. It was too far away.

The image that stays with me is of the adults and their concern for whether it would affect us. They knew how bad war could be so they didn't want to scare us. Mozambique was just recovering from civil war.

South Africa

Benita van Eyssen

Benita van Eyssen, DW Africa

I was packing for a flight back home to Johannesburg and the TV screen started flashing jolting images from the US of buildings, smoke, planes and frazzled reporters. I had just wrapped up work at the first-ever UN conference against racism and discrimination in Durban.

Days before there had been much controversy at the conference when the US and Israeli governments withdrew from the event that otherwise saw the participation of many world leaders of the time, including Olusegun Obasanjo, Fidel Castro, Yoweri Museveni and Yasser Arafat.

At first, I thought the US bombings had something to do with the refusal of the US to talk on a global level about racism and discrimination, or maybe with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I don't remember any immediate reaction from South Africa's leaders. At the time, President Thabo Mbeki was caught up in an awful AIDS denialist scandal and Nelson Mandela had been giving his attention to the UN meeting on racism.

Nigeria

Zainab Mohammed

Zainab Mohammed, DW Hausa

I shall remember 9/11 for the rest of my life. I came to learn of the attacks in the US 24 hours after they happened.

I had been married for only a few months and was traveling with my husband in Nigeria on September 11, 2001, when armed robbers attacked us along the Kaduna-Niger highway. I escaped through the hills and fell over before passing out, while my husband was seriously injured.

It was at the start of my journalism career and so it was easy to hear about what was happening in the US — although I was trying to recover from the shock of being attacked.

To Nigerians, 9/11 brought a fear of the unknown. If the Pentagon and the World Trade Center could be attacked, then what more? The word "terrorism” became the talk of the day. The names al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, et cetera became common among people. The media updated people almost every second on what was a big tragedy for the entire world.

A fire officer barks orders to rescue teams at the World Trade Center

Ethiopia

Mantegaftot Silesh

Mantegaftot Silesh, DW Amharic

I had just graduated from Addis Ababa University and heard of that great tragedy on the night of September 11, which is the Ethiopian New Year. It wasn't as easy to access international media in Addis then as it is now. So we first heard the terrible news on the radio then we rushed to a nearby bar to watch the news on TV.

The images have stayed with me until now. I went home early that day and in our quarter, my friends and I were asking each other why and how could this happened. No one had the answer on that night. We had no idea about al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group at that time. We only heard the name Osama bin Laden again and again.

Ghana

Michael Oti

Michael Oti, DW Africa

I was in high school at the time in the capital Accra and I had very little interest in international politics. There was a lot of shuffling in and out of the teaching staff's common room.

The teachers told us about the attack but I recall just shrugging. Ghana is geographically so far from America — so I didn't feel any emotional connection.

I didn't really understand the magnitude of what had happened. All day that day the scenes of the airplanes flying into the Twin Towers were shown over and over on TV. From that point on, I knew the Americans were going to retaliate.

CHINA DOES TOO
Turkish government sees K-pop as a threat

Turkey's K-pop fan community is very active. But for religious conservatives, the South Korean music has a bad influence on youth. Is it about to be censored?

BTS: Turkish critics denounce the K-pop band's androgynous style
GOSH SO DOES XI

BTS, Blackpink, EXO, TXT and TWICE have become idols for an entire generation across the globe.

The digital strategy of the music labels behind the carefully cast androgynous girl and boy groups has given the K-pop hype a boost during the coronavirus pandemic. Some of their videos have more than a billion views, and their online community is one of the most active in the world. Twitter just celebrated its 10-year #kpop hashtag anniversary.
New hashtag: 'K-pop should not be banned'

Young people in Turkey are part of the global fan community, where they rank 12th in terms of the number of K-pop tweets posted.

One hashtag in particular is trending: #kpopyasaklanmasın — #KPopshouldnotbebanned.

Dismayed fans claim to have heard from a reliable source that K-pop will be banned in Turkey as of mid-September. Is that true, just scaremongering or perhaps an attempt to get people riled up against the government?

The origins of the rumor are vague, including an article about three girls who, inspired by a Korean movie, allegedly wanted to run away to South Korea. Later, the father of one of the girls said his daughter liked to watch Korean videos, but she never wanted to go there.

Another article said Turkey's Family Affairs Ministry was investigating the extent to which K-pop was removing young people from their families and encouraging them to live a gender-free lifestyle.

Debate shows split Turkish society under Erdogan

Dismissing the rumors as "agitation," Family Minister Derya Yanik told Turkish NTV broadcaster the government is investigating everything that is produced in the field of popular culture that "might interest children and that might influence them negatively."

She said the government can't ban anything but could at most check content and, if necessary, set certain legal mechanisms in motion, such as banning individual images.

Since then, a fierce verbal battle has raged between the camps, sparked by vague statements and rumors.

It shows two sides of a society that have drifted further apart than ever before in the 20 years of President Erdogan's rule. There is no sign of a social consensus.

'Gender-free lifestyle'

Yeni Safak (New Dawn), an Islamist, pro-government daily known for its hate speech against the opposition and minorities posted a video warning of the dangers of K-pop. "Muslim children are exposed to a bombardment of music and series called K-pop. Especially children who are neglected by their parents listen to this music to avoid feeling lonely," the paper wrote. The video quotes experts who see the main problem with K-pop bands is that they portray gender neutrality.

Role models who cannot be clearly identified as men or women are not good for the development of young people, says Hatice Kübra Tongar, a Turkish woman who runs a YouTube channel with almost 300,000 subscribers and describes herself as an education expert.

Then she goes one step further: "The soul, human nature, is bothered by something like that. If human nature had wanted that, God almighty would not have given us the people of Lot as an example of a corrupt people. It is not normal, and therefore we cannot consider it normal."

Turkish fans unimpressed

K-pop fans are not impressed by such rhetoric. They know websites can be blocked, and they know how to get around the blocks, too. "If they ban it, I'll change my settings and keep watching," a user writes under a K-pop music video. "As if Turkey doesn't have other problems, now you're targeting K-pop," says another user.

Critical of conservative gender views: Young demonstrators gathered for a Pride Parade that was banned in Istanbul in 2021

"I think Korean society is similarly conservative as ours," argues Gunes, a 23-year-old Turkish student and huge K-pop fan, adding that she can't understand the current fuss. It's absurd to claim that the stars are calling for gender neutrality or homosexuality, she says.

The fact that the male singers use makeup, paint their nails, dye their hair and wear colored contact lenses for their performances is part of their musical culture and not unusual these days, Gunes says, adding, "It's part of the process of setting oneself apart and making an impression."

Gunes doesn't think K-pop can be silenced in Turkey. "In Korea, being an idol is a huge thing. People work very hard for it. And the fan culture is also very big. It's now established in Turkey as well. Maybe we're even one of the biggest fan bases. You can't get rid of these bands."

Generation Z wants freedom, equality and justice

The Korean stars sing about the pressure to perform and the desire for self-determination — issues young people in Turkey share.

In parliamentary and presidential elections in 2023, more than 11% of the vote will be in the hands of Turkey's Gen Z, a generation President Erdogan would have preferred to see become a "religious youth."

A hashtag currently trending in Turkey, however, is #oymoyyok — #NoVoteForYou.

In a survey, young people indicated the values most important to them: Freedom, equality and justice — none of which are not compatible with censorship.

Afghanistan: LGBTQ people fear for their lives under Taliban rule

Less than a month after they returned to power, the Taliban have begun going after LGBTQ people in Afghanistan. Members of this group reflect on their fears and the brief moments of freedom they used to have.

The LGBTQ community in Afghanistan has always lived a secret life because homosexuality is considered immoral and un-Islamic in the country

On the afternoon of August 26, 20-year-old college student Rabia Balhki (name changed to protect her identity) was pushing her way through the crowd outside the Kabul airport. Nearby, Taliban fighters occasionally fired warning shots into the air while beating people with sticks.

In panic, people fled in all directions, making it even more difficult for Rabia to access the airport. But she remained undeterred. Rabia told DW that she was desperate to flee Afghanistan as she was a woman and also a lesbian.

For the Islamic fundamentalist group, the LGBTQ community's presence is not acceptable.

After overcoming all the difficulties, Rabia finally reached the airport entrance, but the Taliban officer who was guarding the gate refused to let her through. She had no choice but to turn back and leave. An hour later, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive in the crowd and one of Rabia's relatives died on the spot.

Rabia is glad to have escaped the attack, but she doesn't know if she will survive the Taliban's hunt for LGBTQ people. "The Taliban think we are like the waste in society," she said. "They want to eliminate us."

No space for the LGBTQ community

The LGBTQ community in Afghanistan has always lived a secret life, since homosexuality is considered immoral and un-Islamic in the country.

YES BUT BOY BRIDES ARE NOT

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

If convicted of engaging in gay or lesbian sex, a person can be imprisoned for life under the nation's 2017 penal code, and under Sharia — Islamic law — even the death penalty is technically allowed.

According to the LGBTQ advocacy group ILGA-World, successive Afghan governments have not enforced the death penalty for gay sex since 2001, but the Taliban might deal with the issue differently.

In the new Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, there is little to no space left for LGBTQ people.

In an interview with the German newspaper Bild in July, Gul Rahim, a Taliban judge in a province in central Afghanistan, said: "For homosexuals, there can only be two punishments: either stoning, or he must stand behind a wall that will fall down on him. The wall must be 2.5 to 3 meters (8 to 10 feet) high."

LGBTQ people face life threats

A few days after the Taliban entered Kabul, a 25-year-old gay man, Faraz (name changed to protect the identity), learned about the death of a gay friend. He isn't sure which penalty his friend received. All he knows is that the Taliban are serious about going after gay people and he might face the same fate.

"He was caught by the Taliban through complaints filed by others. The Taliban took him somewhere, killed him, and then brought his body back to his family," Faraz told DW.

"There is a specific group within the Taliban that searches for gay people," Faraz said. "They go from street to street, and when they find out who is gay, they don't hesitate to kill them."

Afghan-American LGBTQ activist Nemat Sadat told DW that in the first two weeks after the Taliban takeover, he received 357 messages from members of the Afghan LGBTQ community, but only one of them had managed to leave the country. She was able to leave for Spain.

Sadat compiled a list of LGBTQ individuals and submitted it to the US State Department, but since the US had ended its evacuation mission on August 31, the plan to evacuate LGBTQ people has become more difficult to execute. "It's going to be a long fight," Sadat said. "It's going to be a multi-year project."

But Sadat is not sure how much time his fellow Afghan LGBTQ brothers and sisters still have.

"The Taliban said they can grant amnesty to journalists and people who have helped Western governments and allow women to continue their education. People are still suspicious of them, but at least they gave a promise," Sadat said. "But for the LGBTQ community, the Taliban didn't even bother to pretend to give a promise."
Raising awareness about homosexuality

Born in Afghanistan in 1979, Sadat moved overseas with his family when he was 8 months old and eventually settled in the US. In 2012, he returned to Afghanistan to teach at an American school as an assistant professor and began raising awareness about LGBTQ issues.

"There was hardly any LGBTQ-related discussion at the time. I arranged debates in class, asking students to speak for and against the LGBTQ community," Sadat said.

Sometimes he would work with international organizations and do presentations on LGBTQ topics.

"We were careful not to leave any document," Sadat said. But even so, he still received a backlash from the then-Afghan government, leading to his dismissal from the job and his return to the US in the summer of 2013.

At the time, he was forced to come out publicly, making him one of Afghanistan's first openly gay activists.

After that, Sadat began to receive letters from LGBTQ people in Afghanistan. This way he discovered that even though the local LGBTQ community was repressed, it still played a key role in driving social progress on various fronts.

Low-key LGBTQ scene in Kabul

Over the past two decades, Afghanistan made some progress in accepting LGBTQ people, say rights activists. They managed to enter professions in mass media, helped produce talk shows and arranged youth education programs dedicated to sensitive topics, among other things.

"People say Afghanistan didn't change, but I disagree with that," Sadat said. "These LGBTQ people have put efforts into changing Afghan society."

For Faraz, the previous Afghan government was oppressive toward the LGBTQ community, but if they were caught by the police, they were at best jailed or fined. This resulted in creating some space for a low-key LGBTQ scene in Kabul.

"There are still some places for gay men to meet in the city, and I also use dating apps to meet people," Faraz told DW.

But he says he is wary of using those apps now, because he's afraid that the Taliban will use different tricks to lure gay men in. He pointed to instances when the Taliban had approached gay people through social media by posing as journalists.

Isolated and depressed at home

Faraz also said that many gay people have now turned off their cell phone location, fearing that the Taliban could track them through their mobile phones. LGBTQ people have also stopped meeting others who know about their sexual identity.

"I don't have much connection with others. I don't have people to complain with," Faraz said.

Rabia, the lesbian woman, has left her house only twice in the past three weeks: one time to the airport and the other time to the bank to withdraw money.

She's afraid of running into members of the Taliban on the street. She's also scared that if they learn about her sexual identity, they'll come after her.

"It's so boring at home. I tried to read some books so that I don't feel depressed," Rabia said.

AFGHANI LGBTQ DREAM