AmazeLab

This 6,000-Year-Old Leaf Is 

Found in Perfect Condition

Tue, October 26, 2021, 

While doing pre-construction investigations for a new road, Oxford archeologists discovered a treasure trove of preserved ancient items including Stone Age tools, pottery, and seeds. The findings shed light on humans’ early transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers.

VIDEO This 6,000-Year-Old Leaf Is Found in Perfect Condition 

Truckers, port workers vent as supply chain frustration mounts: 'A lot of us are willing to work'

Dani Romero
Tue, October 26, 2021, 3:00 PM

The great global supply chain crisis of 2021 — which has ensnared groceries, holiday shopping and everything in between — has bottlenecked West Coast ports, and drawn the involvement of the White House to address it.

As the disruption reaches a boiling point and adds to rising price pressures, longshoremen, union representatives and truck drivers have pointed fingers over which party is best positioned to alleviate some of the strains.

Cargo ships afloat in the Pacific Ocean demonstrate the convergence of strong consumer demand, and a widespread shortage of bodies to meet it. According to Goldman Sachs, over 30 million tons of cargo await delivery ahead of the Thanksgiving to Christmas rush. Essential workers are still scarce but U.S. consumers are still in a buying mood, meaning the congestion is not expected to wind down until the second half of 2022.

So who exactly is to blame? Some drivers lined up at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that have spoken to Yahoo Finance in recent days have an answer: Not us.

“There's a lot of us that are willing to work,” Carlos Rameriz, a 25-year truck driving veteran, told Yahoo Finance in an interview.

Speaking from a nearby area where trucks have idled and multiple chassis have sat unattended, Rameriz blasted a reported driver shortage as “the biggest excuse,” and simply “not true.”

Where are the drivers?

Outside one of California's backlogged ports, trucks await cargo to transport.

While the pandemic has exacerbated strains in the economy amid an unprecedented demand surge, a 2019 study published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics probed the dearth of truckers. And it arrived at a surprising conclusion: “there is no driver shortage in the trucking industry.”

Driver turnover is indeed a major issue, and there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence of carriers struggling to fill seats. To that point, however, that doesn’t mean there’s an actual shortage of drivers, the authors wrote.

However, the trucker issue has been debated for decades, with the American Trucking Association (ATA) first raising concerns in the 1980s. More recently, Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) told CNN last week that the US has a shortage of around 80,000 truck drivers — a record high, and an increase of roughly 30% from before the pandemic, Spear said.

Separately, a number of executives have sounded the alarm, including the CEO of the U.S. Xpress who told Yahoo Finance in August:“The driver situation is about as bad as I’ve ever seen in my career.” Like other industries facing worker shortages, the trucking sector has gone all-in on big pay raises to attract talent.

The record-breaking number of cargo ships waiting off the coast of California prompted President Biden to intervene. Earlier this month, he directed the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to move to 24/7 operations.

Toward that end, Executive Director of the Port of Long Beach, Mario Cordero, told Yahoo Finance Live that Long Beach implemented a 24/7 pilot program at one of their terminals “weeks ago.”

However, truckers like Rameriz hasn’t seen any changes. “I don’t know anybody that is working 24/7,” he explained to Yahoo Finance. “If there was work, we [would] be working 24/7.”

The Biden administration is also considering calling on the National Guard to help transport some of the cargo. If they’re activated, it would mark the latest in a series of unprecedented deployments for its members.

“Please send the National Guard because that will be a big solution,” Rameriz said.

A big problem is that some truck drivers are independent contractors, or owner- operators that get paid by the load. To actually earn money, drivers have to get their own trucks, acquire the skills and certifications to haul — and they have to cover costs such as fuel, insurance, equipment, repair and maintenance.

However, the supply chain knots are throwing a wrench into Rameriz’s pay.

“It's been the worst month I ever had. There's no work. They're not releasing anything from [the port],” said Rameriz. “That's what pays my bills.”

Regardless of which category a driver falls into, many of them are waiting over 3 hours to get inside the port to pick up a container. Sometimes the wait is even longer, Rameriz explained, with drivers at the mercy of longshoremen who operate on their own schedule.

'Cutting the work'

Cargo ships adrift in the Pacific Ocean as the global supply chain crunch grows more acute.

Busy Los Angeles County ports saw a record backlog last month, with more than 70 cargo ships stuck off the coast waiting to be docked and unloaded— carrying everything from furniture to electronics. There, a few workers suggested that their own union leadership shouldered some of the blame.

According to a longshoreman who only identified himself as Alfred, who works at California's San Pedro Bay Port Complex, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) — which negotiates with the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and oversees the longshore contract on behalf of ILWU member companies — is “cutting the work.”

He added: “They're the ones who are not training: skilled positions. [That] means crane operators, top handler drivers, trans drivers. They're the ones who are keeping the ships out there at sea anchored.”

Despite all the logistical challenges and logjam, Alfred insisted “we have the manpower there, [they] just keep cutting the work.” Another problem: there’s “not enough space” to offload cargo and store it anywhere, the worker said, questioning protocols that were adding to the backlog.

“There are truck drivers that come in and are waiting for a chassis and the company does not allow us to give them it,” Alfred said.

“If we don't have the space and we need to get some of this cargo out, why are we holding chassis, and not giving them to the drivers so they could pick up their load to make more space for us,” he added.

In a statement to Yahoo Finance, the PMA defended its processes, arguing that each stage of the supply chain "must operate efficiently and in concert in order to bring relief to the historic congestion slowing goods movement across the country.”

The statement added that it was “committed to robust worker training to keep West Coast marine terminals moving as efficiently as possible,” and that the ranks of longshore workers and trainees for specialized positions “continues to grow.”

Yet Alfred, who also was a truck driver for years, understands the frustration these drivers are going through. “The drivers are there, literally for hours and hours, and sometimes [they] don't even pick up a load.”

Meanwhile, a series of posts on Twitter led to policy change that could help alleviate some of the pressure on West Coast ports. Ryan Petersen, CEO logistics company Flexport, argued that yard space at the terminals is a major culprit behind the bottlenecks.



In response, the city of Long Beach announced over the weekend that they will relax the current set of container-stacking rules for at least 90 days. That should help ships unload more cargo quicker.

The code limited containers stacking to no more than two containers, no more than eight-feet tall. Now they will allow up to four stacked containers, with potential for five if a request is approved by fire officials.

In a related move, Governor Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order that directs state agencies to find state, federal and private land for short-term container storage, while identifying freight routes for trucks so the state can temporarily exempt weight limits on the road.

Still, it’s unclear whether any of those measures will address a problem without easy or quick fixes.

“It’s getting bad,” said Rameriz. “I hope somebody is keeping an eye on what's going on and do something about it because everybody's struggling right now.”

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

In Haiti, the difficult relationship of gangs and business


Tue., October 26, 2021, 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Youri Mevs knew that the call was coming, and she was terrified.

Mevs is a member of one of the richest families in Haiti; she owns Shodecosa, Haiti’s largest industrial park, which warehouses 93 percent of the nation’s imported food. Like everyone else, she has watched with despair as her country descended into chaos since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Her office got the call one early morning in August. It was from Jimmy Cherizier -- aka Barbecue, a former policeman who leads the G9 gang coalition which controls the coastal strip of Port-au-Prince. Most of Haiti’s food and gasoline flows through his domain, and he can stop it with a single word.

Barbecue’s demand: $500,000 a month, a “war chest” he claimed would be used to buy food for the hungry and fight for democracy.

Pay the price, no problems. Refuse, and Shodecosa would be ransacked, and the gangs also would block the roads around the port terminal owned by the Mevs family.

_____

This story is part of a series, “Haiti: Business, Politics and Gangs,” produced with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

____

Mevs knew the threat was credible. Three neighboring warehouses were looted in June. It came down to math: “How much do we make? Can we afford it?” The answer was no.

Should she fight back? Again, no. “We are not going to shoot a gun to defend a bag of rice.”

There was nowhere to turn for help. In Haiti, there is no functioning government. For decades, the country was ruled by political strongmen supported by armed gangs; with Moise’s killing, the state collapsed and the gangs were unbound.

Having lost their meal ticket — the government — the gangs have become independent predators. While some turned to kidnapping, like those who captured 17 missionaries and their relatives, Barbecue’s men took control of the port district, gaining a stranglehold on the country’s economy.

Mevs is far from poor. She is not starving, not struggling for survival -- in so many ways, she is unlike the migrants who are fleeing Haiti’s misery. Like others of her caste, she traces her roots to ancestors who came to Haiti generations ago from Europe and the Middle East and built fortunes.

But like those emigrants, she and others among Haiti’s wealthy elite have few illusions about life in Haiti. She wants her daughters to join those families moving abroad while the future of the country is settled. If life does not improve, she may have to sell what she owns and join them.

In the meantime, she vows to stand up and fight the political battle to rebuild the government and country. She accepts that the gangs are part of the Haitian eco-system, something to be dealt with constantly as she struggles to keep her business going.

But Barbecue and his gang are immensely powerful. Her money, her contacts with rival gangs, her political connections -- all may be to no avail.

___

On a hot October morning, Barbecue -- the name comes from his mother’s occupation, selling food at a street stall -- receives reporters in his stronghold of Bellecour-Cité Soleil, a wretched neighborhood of tin shacks without water, electricity or any basic services.

Barbecue unboxes two new, American-made AK rifles with ammunition. Then surrounded by a dozen young, hooded men armed and dressed in brightly colored T-shirts and sneakers, he walks to the perimeter wall that encloses Terminal Varreux, the port owned by the Mevs family.

No, he insists. He did not ask for money from the Mevs in exchange for not looting their properties. “If I did that, they would have killed me by now,” he says.

Barbecue fancies himself a man of the people and an enemy of the elite. He speaks blithely of a possible civil war of the poor against the rich and powerful “foreign” families who own Haiti.

This, he says, is what he believes: “Water, housing, school, university, security for all and not only for the 5% who have lighter skin” -- the rich families like the Mevs.

“I have hatred for those people, every time we look at them we can say that there are two Haitis. We have to put an end to the system of dispossession.”

He mingles with the people of Bellecour-Cité Soleil, trying to present himself as not a gangster but as a revolutionary leader fighting for social change. He is not very successful.

Carrying a gun, he enters shacks without permission and does not say hello to the people living there before launching into diatribes about their living conditions. Generally, the occupants look down in silence, extras in a movie they played no part in producing.

Barbecue gestures to a teenager who walks behind him. The youth pulls a wad of bills from his back pocket and gives some to Barbecue; he, in turn, hands the money to the woman of the house.

“Their position is that of mental slaves, they have not always understood the struggle,” he says.

He says he can do little more for slum dwellers. And despite all appearances, he says he is not positioning himself for a political career. He claims not to have any political affiliation or party and says he does not see himself “as a candidate in a system that I see as corrupt.”

Mevs and others dismiss nearly everything Barbecue says as posturing -- especially his claims that he is not corrupt but an enemy of corruption.

He has been accused -- by the United Nations and other international organizations -- of participation in three massacres between 2018 and 2020.

The bloodbaths, said to have been sponsored by high-ranking officials in the Moïse administration, left more than 200 people dead. Women were gang-raped, and entire neighborhoods were burned, displacing thousands.

Barbecue’s extortion is brazen. And sometimes, a payoff is not enough to guarantee protection.

For 20 years, Giovanni Saleh, 44, rented a warehouse from the Mevs. It was located halfway between Cité Soleil and Shodecosa, the Mevs’ industrial park.

Saleh can offer no explanation for of what happened starting on the morning of June 6. He had complied with the rules. He had, he says, a “stable and correct” relationship with the gang.

“The last day I went to the warehouse I was preparing the food I used to leave for the gang every two weeks” -- cans of tomatoes, cartons of spaghetti, oil, beans, 20 sacks of rice. “I collaborated with them with food and some money on a regular basis.”

Saleh says he received a call from Merci Dieu, a member of Barbecue´s gang coalition: “We are going to block the area for a couple of days to ask for money from the government and trucks leaving the port, so come now and take whatever you need and then stay away for some days.”

Two days later, a friend called Saleh to tell him that there were rumors of an attack against his warehouse. He called security, no answer. He checked the cameras online and they were off. He called police, called everyone he knew. Nobody would do anything.

Saleh lost $3.5 million in goods over three days, as thousands of people directed by Barbecue and a colleague disassembled his warehouse box by box, bag by bag, shelf by shelf. Drone footage he took shows a constant and orderly flow of looters entering the warehouse from two directions.

Guards told him later that armed men fronting a mob had come to the door and knocked.

“Who would shoot? No one would shoot,” Saleh said. “They opened the doors and left.”

Saleh has sent his wife and two kids to Santo Domingo, and wants to join them. But for now he is rebuilding his business. He has taken out loans to reopen in the Mevs’ industrial park.

Youri Mevs “may be making the same mistake I made. I thought that by dealing with them, they would protect me, but they didn’t,” he said. “They charge you, one way or the other, for protection, but instead of protecting you against other gangs or even the police, they turn against you.”

___

Magalie Dresse lives in an elegant home in the heart of Port-au-Prince, with a well-tended garden where she does yoga in the morning. “I need the strength to go out there and handle what I’m going to find, which is not going to be positive.”

Since 2004, her car has been attacked; she has survived two kidnapping attempts; the government expropriated some of her properties; and her factory was damaged by arson in riots, costing her $400,000 in a single day.

And then there are the gangs. “At one point,” she says, “we´ve had cash at home during the weekends in case a friend needed it for a ransom and banks were closed.”

Dresse’s business sends about 50 containers of art to the United States each year. But before they arrive at the port, they must pass through gang-controlled areas.

“They can open them, check if there is something they want or even set them on fire,” she says. So “we pay the police, then sometimes we have to pay a gang because they can barricade the route.”

Later, she acknowledges that “some businesses” -- not hers -- “decide to have their own gangs on payroll. And that choice is the story of many companies in Haiti.”

At the end of the day, she holds a cocktail party for friends and associates, and they swap stories about the impossibility of business life in a gangster nation.

“If you have $5 million worth of merchandise to unload and deliver, $50,000 (in bribes) is something you can deal with,” says Geoffrey Handal, entrepreneur in the shipping industry and former president of the Franco-Haitian Chamber of Commerce.

But the uncertainty -- the possibility that Barbecue might close the port for three days, or block trucks -- is impossible to live with.

Political use of gangs in Haiti dates back to the 1960s, when Francois Duvalier created the Tonton Macute, a civil force that spread terror in the population for decades. When deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide ruled early in this century, he also created his own armed gang, the “chimères,” based in Cité Soleil.

Moise and his predecessor, Michel Martelly, used gangs for hire to control the coastal areas where a large number of votes were concentrated.

When Moise was assassinated, the gangs decided there was no need to serve as middlemen for politicians anymore. “Why would they accept being used if they could manage the business?” Handal asks.

Barbecue’s revolutionary rhetoric is empty, he says. “If someone offers Barbecue 5% more than what he is making right now, he will change allegiances immediately.”

For Handal, the issue is simple: How low must businesspeople stoop to succeed in a gangster nation? “Do you want to become one of them? Are you willing to have blood on your hands?”

Instead, Dresse says the solution is citizenship.

“We need people like us involved in politics with a long-term approach,” she says. “We need to create a new political party.”

___

Youri Mevs does not pay the $500,000 extortion. She orders one of her managers to supply some of Barbecue’s rivals: “Get them corn flakes, milk, pasta, tomato and soap.” How much? “$5,000.”

She describes it as “looking for ways of compensating for the non-aggression.” She does not believe in cash donations because “they will use them to buy ammunition,” so she donates goods that cannot be used “to hunt me or people like me.”

She has staked her future on the political system, one with overtones of the failed past.

When Moise’s government began to fall apart, she decided she could no longer talk about “they” and “them” when she referred to her own country: “Because I belong to the caste, I know what the caste has done to this country and what the country is doing to my caste.”

In 2016 she met Youri Latortue, a veteran politician who was then president of the Senate. Latortue asked her to help with a report about a corruption scheme during Martelly’s administration.

In 2018 she became secretary general of Latortue´s party, AAA, which has led the opposition against Martelly and Moise since the 2016 elections. Now Latortue is “waiting for the party nomination” and Mevs is running his campaign.

Latortue has been accused of a lot in the past, from corruption to running gangs. He denies it all, and has never been formally accused. He says he wants to break with the Haitian tradition of strongmen and militias; that can only happen, he says, “with a strong state, a strong public force, and institutions that guarantee the functioning of the state.”

Latortue and Mevs have proposed a special police unit, trained by international experts, to fight the gangs. And they want to put Barbecue behind bars.

But in the meantime, Mevs has to deal with him.

At the AAA headquarters, a truck awaits to be loaded with the food she ordered that morning. This is how she rationalizes the payoff: “It is a donation from the political party to a neighborhood. ... It is populism, but people are hungry. There is nothing wrong in giving them food.”

Even if so, Latortue cannot be tied publicly to the shipment. “Some people could accuse me of giving them weapons because the place is at war,” he explains.

The two delivery men are tied to their phones, discussing the route. There are reports of gunfights, it is going to be a long route of discussions and shouts and detours along the way to the “backdoor entrance” of a barricaded front line.

The truck stops three times, on three parallel streets. Every corner is guarded by a dozen young men. They unload the truck into a house, a school, a party office.

Behind them, on empty streets, gunshots ring out and armed young men stand guard at a barricade. They call themselves a self-defense group. They are simply one of Port-Au-Prince's gangs.

Alberto Arce, The Associated Press

Dutch court says gold, art collection must be returned to Ukraine

A Crimean art collection is seen at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Tuesday, a Dutch court ruled that the collection belongs to Ukraine. 

File Photo by Bart Maat/EPA-EFE

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A Dutch appeals court ruled on Tuesday that valuable golden artifacts and an art collection must be returned to Ukraine instead of Crimea, which is now controlled by Russia.

Attorneys for both Crimea and Russia went to court to demand the return of the Scythian Gold collection, which contains more than 2,000 items.

The collection has been at a museum in the Netherlands since Russian annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that was nearly universally condemned by the international community as an overreach and an act of aggression.

The items had come from multiple museums, which at the time were part of Ukraine.

"Although the museum pieces come from Crimea and to that extent can also be regarded as Crimean heritage, they are part of the cultural heritage of Ukraine as the latter has existed as an independent state since 1991," the court said in its ruling Tuesday, according to Dutch News.

"The museum pieces belong to the public part of the Museum Fund of the State of Ukraine."

The appeals court ruling upheld a lower court decision in 2016 that reached the same conclusion, that the Netherlands does not recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the ruling is a "long-awaited victory" for Ukraine.

"Grateful to the court for a fair decision," he wrote in a tweet.

Artifacts from one of the museums are undoubtedly Ukrainian property, but ownership of the items from the other three museums has not been decided. Neither Dutch court has made a ruling on ownership.

Russia and Crimea can appeal Tuesday's ruling to the Dutch Supreme Court

Hong Kong 'Captain America' activist 2nd to be convicted under nat'l security law

Activist Ma Chun-man, pictured here during an arrest in 2014, was convicted under China's national security law and faces as many as seven years in prison. He was known as "Captain America" to some due to the superhero's shield he carried with him at demonstrations. File Photo by Alex Hofford/EPA

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- An activist in Hong Kong known as "Captain America," for holding the superhero's shield during protests, has become the second person to be convicted under China's controversial national security law.

Ma Chun-man was convicted on Monday of inciting secession, for demonstrating, chanting slogans and making speeches in support of Hong Kong independence on nearly two dozen occasions last year.

Ma's conviction was handed down by District Court Judge Stanley Chan, who said his speech demonstrated an intention to incite secession. He will be sentenced Nov. 11 and faces as many as seven years in prison.

Ma is the second person to be convicted under the national security law, which was enacted more than a year ago to restrict activities viewed by Beijing as subversive, terrorist or secessionist in nature.

Ma's attorney said that his activities were intended to prove that free speech in Hong Kong was still alive.

Activist Tong Ying-kit was the first person convicted under the national security law. He was sentenced to nine years in prison in July.

Earlier Monday, Amnesty International announced that it will close its Hong Kong offices by the end of 2021 because the national security law has made it "impossible for human rights organizations in Hong Kong to work freely and without fear of serious reprisals from the government."

Amnesty International has operated its Hong Kong offices for 40 years.

KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA

Cricket: Kashmir students who cheered for Pakistan face India terror law

Several students are being investigated for celebrating Pakistan's victory over India at the T20 World Cup. An anti-terror law was amended in 2019 so that a person can be held for six months without any evidence.



Police have registered cases under a 2019 anti-terror law against people in Kashmir


Students in India-administered Kashmir are being investigated for celebrating Pakistan's T20 World Cup victory over India, officials said Tuesday.

The students and staff at two medical colleges are being probed for violating an anti-terror law.

The law was amended in 2019 to allow the government to designate an individual as a terrorist.

Police have the powers to detain someone for six months without producing any evidence and the accused can be sent to prison, with a sentence of up to seven years.

Human rights organizations have described the legislation as draconian.

How did the students celebrate?

Police said some students and staff at the government-run colleges cheered and shouted pro-Pakistan chants during Sunday night's encounter, which took place in Dubai between the two cricketing rivals.

Police described their behavior as "anti-national," The Associated Press news agency reported.

Pakistan thrashed their archrivals by 10 wickets, earning their first-ever victory over India at a World Cup across all disciplines of cricket.


Pakistan team members celebrated their landmark victory at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday

Minutes after the match ended, hundreds of people in Kashmir danced in the streets, lit firecrackers and shouted "Long live Pakistan."

The celebrations came as India's home minister, Amit Shah, visited the disputed region for the first time since New Delhi stripped Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status in 2019.

In doing so, it also dispensed with Kashmir's statehood and took away inherited protections on land and jobs.

Kashmir disputed since partition

The dispute over Kashmir began in 1947, after the British relinquished colonial rule of India and left behind two states: the secular Indian Union and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

A long history of animosity between India and Pakistan has fueled three wars since the subcontinent's partition, including two over control of Kashmir, which is divided between the two countries.

India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full, but rule it in part.

It wasn't the only legacy of Britain's long colonial rule — cricket competition has also gripped the two nations, and is arguably more popular in the two South Asian countries than in the UK.

In Syria frontline town, residents 'stuck' between rivals

Its a life of limbo for many, especially those cut off from their home

Syrian Khalil Ibrahim looks over a defacto border separating regime and rebel-held territory that cuts him off from his home (AFP/Bakr ALKASEM)

Bakr Alkassem
Tue, 26 October 2021

Khalil Ibrahim lives a few blocks away from his north Syria home, but a border separating regime and rebel-held territory makes it impossible for him to reach his front door.

"I currently live in a friend's house, only 300-350 metres (985-1150 feet) away from my own home," he told AFP from the town of Tadif, where rebel and regime fighters split control.

"It was a four-room home with a beautiful view, and I fixed it all up myself," the 46-year-old said of the dwelling, now located in a government-held area.


Tadif, located about 32 kilometres (20 miles) east of Aleppo city, is a quiet front line between regime forces and Ankara-backed rebels in a part of Syria controlled by a patchwork of rival forces.

Ibrahim escaped the town in 2015, months after it fell to the Islamic State jihadist group, but he returned four years later.

Residents of the government-held pocket have not yet returned to their homes. Ibrahim said he refuses to go back to regime rule.

A taxi driver, he now lives on the front line because he cannot afford expensive rent elsewhere in Syria.

"I live in a house without doors or windows," he said.

"I can't even set up utilities or spend much on it... because I don't know if I'm going to stay or leave."

- 'Better than a tent' -

In 2017, Russian-backed regime forces seized control of a part of Tadif following battles with IS.

During that period, Turkey and its Syrian rebel proxies launched a months-long operation in northern Syria targeting jihadists as well as Kurdish fighters labelled by Ankara as "terrorists".

Turkey's Syrian proxies have since taken control of several areas in the country's north, including a pocket in northern Tadif, where they command several neighbourhoods.

Regime forces control the rest of Tadif -- the only town in Syria where regime and Ankara-backed rebels coexist in relative peace.

"My children ask me: Our house is so close, will we never return to it?" Ibrahim lamented.

The streets of Tadif still bear evidence to the battles and bombardment that destroyed swaths of the town before IS was expelled from the area.

At its northern entrance, bullet-riddled IS billboards loom over devastated streets and bombed-out buildings.

At the front line, sandbags and large stones are stacked into a make-shift border.

The regime-run side is inhabited exclusively by Syrian soldiers and allied militia fighters.

The rebel-run pocket is home to many Tadif natives as well as rebel fighters and their families.

Public services there are non-existent, leaving many without power.

There is only one vegetable store in the area, pushing most to travel to the neighbouring town of Al-Bab, less than four kilometres away, to source the rest of their basic needs.

"People return here because of extreme poverty and high rent in other areas," said local official Rami al-Mohammed Najjar.

"Some of them used to live in camps and they returned to their home or the house of their relatives because living under a roof is better than living in a tent."

- 'Stuck' -

In northern Tadif, children have made a playground of bombed-out homes.

Some sit on the remains of a destroyed roof, others run and jump over the rubble of a nearby building.

There are no schools, so they take lessons in maths, reading, writing and religion at a local mosque under the tutelage of a religious imam.

Boys and girls are given separate lessons to avoid intermixing.

Like Ibrahim, Fatima al-Radwan, 49, lives in a skeleton of a house in northern Tadif, a stone's throw away from her home on the regime-controlled side.

"We were happy, we lived together as a family" in a three-room home with a big kitchen, the mother of five said.

Radwan's current house has no power, and she burns plastic in order to heat her large cooking pot.

She can't return to regime-held areas because her son is a former rebel fighter.

Other parts of Syria's north have become too expensive for her family, who make a living collecting and selling scraps of plastic.

"The rents are expensive and I don't have enough to feed my children... but here we make do despite fearing shelling."

Regime and rebel fighters have yet to engage in a serious confrontation in Tadif, barring sporadic and limited skirmishes.

"They are fighting each other and we are stuck between them," Radwan said.

str/rh/ho/jmm/lg

Syrian boys look through a hole on the dividing line between regime and rebel-held territory 

(AFP/Bakr ALKASEM)

Ibrahim does not want to go back into regime-held territory so lives in a house without windows or doors on the rebel side of the line 

(AFP/Bakr ALKASEM)

Public services are non-existent, leaving many without power 

(AFP/Bakr ALKASEM)

Its a life of limbo for many, especially those cut off from their home 

(AFP/Bakr ALKASEM)

EAT THE RICH OPPS DIFFERENT PARASITE

Lampreys: eel-like parasites beloved by Latvians

Lamprey prepared for roasting at Latvia's Salacgriva festival (AFP/Gints Ivuskans)

Imants LIEPINSH
Tue, October 26, 2021

At a cauldron bubbling away on a riverbank near Latvia's Baltic coast, a queue forms of visitors eager to taste the local delicacy -- a parasitic eel-like creature, the lamprey.

The animals, which feed by attaching themselves to herring and salmon and sucking their blood, were once a popular food in the Middle Ages but have gone out of fashion across much of Europe.

But in Latvia, they are still prized and celebrated at local festivals.

"When smoked or boiled in a soup, lampreys have a unique taste," said Laura Berzina, attending one autumn festival in the town of Salacgriva.

Berzina said she had travelled some 100 kilometres (60 miles) with her family for a taste of lamprey.

As for Nataliya Alexandrova, a retired accountant from Riga: "I was born in Russia but living in Latvia has made me appreciate this fantastic food."

A kilo of lamprey in a typical Latvian supermarket costs up to 30 euros ($35) -- nearly four times more than an average kilo of beef.

According to BIOR, a food safety and animal health institute in Riga, around 50 tonnes of lamprey are caught every year in Latvia.

Despite being parasites that prey on saltwater fish, lampreys have found their way into the official symbols of coastal towns in the EU member state of 1.9 million people.

The European Commission has even included them on its list of food and drink products with "protective designation of origins", alongside the likes of French champagne and Greek feta cheese.

In Britain, lampreys have a strong association with the royal family.

A lamprey binge is said to have been the reason for the death of King Henry I of England in 1135.

Lamprey pies are served up to this day for crowned heads in the kingdom.

- 'Like it has been for centuries' -

Lampreys hatch in the rivers that flow into the Baltic Sea, then migrate to feed on fish and are generally caught when they return to the rivers after seven or eight years to mate.

Fishermen use nets attached to temporary wooden constructions called "tacis" -- footbridges made of wooden booms and planks that stretch across rivers.

"Each spring, when the ice on the river melts away, we rebuild our tacis," Aleksandrs Rozenshteins, owner of a small specialised lamprey fishing company, told AFP.

The catch usually arrives when autumn storms push the lampreys from the sea back into the rivers.

Since lampreys move only at night, fishermen check their nets in the morning.

"It may vary from nothing or just a few kilos to several hundred kilos," Rozenshteins said.

The "tacis" are then taken down for the winter.

By law, nets may cover only two-thirds of the river's width to allow other life forms in the stream to move freely.

The only difference now from the fishing traditions of the past is the use of factory-produced nets rather than traps made of fir branches.

"Regardless of whether the lampreys are smoked, grilled or boiled in a cauldron, we keep all the fishing and cooking process just like it has been for centuries," Rozenshteins said.

il/dt/gd

FREE PALESTINE END ISRAEL COLONIALISM

Critics seek proof after Israel designates Palestinian rights groups as terrorists

Israel's designation of six Palestinian civil society groups as terrorist organizations has stirred controversy — and poses a challenge for European donors. Calls for providing evidence backing the claims are growing.

Six Palestinian civil society organizations, including Addameer, have been outlawed by Israel

The Israeli Defense Ministry's unexpected decision to designate six Palestinian human rights and civil society establishments as terror organizations has resulted in swift criticism from Palestinians and several international organizations.

Palestinian civil rights activists, international human rights organizations and some United States lawmakers have denounced the move, which was first announced Friday. They have accused Israel of trying to silence criticism and of subduing the documentation of alleged human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

Some in Israel welcomed the measure as one that counters "terrorist entities," while others, mainly Israeli rights organizations, criticized it.

Israel has accused the groups of concealing their true aims and promoting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The small secular party, which has a militant wing, is part of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

According to Friday's statement by the Defense Ministry, "Those organizations were active under the cover of civic society organizations, but in practice belong and constitute an arm of the [PFLP] leadership, the main activity of which is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel."

The PFLP is listed as a terrorist group by Israel, the US and the European Union.

The Defense Ministry also accused the groups of raising funds for the PFLP, particularly through aid via European donor countries, United Nations organizations and other entities.

However, it didn't publicly provide evidence to support the claims.

Shawan Jabarin, director of the al-Haq human rights group, has rejected the Israeli Ministry of Defense's accusations

Prominent rights groups targeted

The institutions named include some of the most prominent Palestinian human rights organizations such as Al-Haq, which has long documented alleged human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian Territories by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Another organization targeted is Addameer, which advocates for the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. The other four organizations are Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees.

Al-Haq on Saturday hosted a joint press conference with other civil society organizations in Ramallah, denying the charges and calling on the international community to publicly condemn Israel's decision.

Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq's general director, said: "This is a political decision [by Israel] and not a security one."

"This decision comes in a series of institutionalized practices aiming at smearing Palestinian human rights NGOs and human rights defenders, silencing them on the international level, targeting their work, and draining their resources," he added.
Severe consequences at play

Israel's counter-terror legislation allows the government to outlaw the organizations. It can close their offices, seize their financial assets, arrest staff members and prosecute those funding them.

This not only puts their employees at potential risk of prosecution, but it also carries the possibility of criminalizing the work of civil society groups in general, observers say.

Israel's decision could also pose a challenge for international donors — among them European and German institutions — that aid Palestinian nongovernmental organizations.

"It creates a lot of uncertainty and raises serious questions," said an international development worker in Ramallah who works on projects with Palestinian society groups, and who spoke with DW on the condition of anonymity.

European governments could find themselves accused of funding terrorism if they continue to provide financial support to any of those organizations.

Groups such as Addameer, which provides legal advice to political prisoners, called the move "appalling and unjust."

The Defense Ministry's decision came as some EU member states have been trying to rekindle relations with Israel since the new coalition government came into office.

"We take this very seriously, are looking into allegations, and are in touch with Israeli partners to seek clarification," EU spokesperson Peter Stano said Monday in Brussels.

"EU funding to Palestinian civil society organizations is an important element of our support for the two-state solution," he said, adding that the bloc would continue to "stand by international law and support civil society."

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh is due in Brussels this week for a scheduled meeting with European officials.

The UN's Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Lynn Hastings also expressed concern on Monday, saying, "These designations add to increasing pressures on civil society organizations across the occupied Palestinian Territory more broadly."

She further stated an intent to "engage with the Israeli authorities to learn more about the allegations."
Calls for evidence grow

Israel has previously claimed that the PFLP obtained funds through civil society organizations affiliated with its members, or that employees with alleged ties to the group have been involved in terror attacks against Israeli citizens.

An EU statement on Monday said, "Past allegations of the misuse of EU funds in relation to certain number of our Palestinian civil society organizations' partners have not been substantiated," adding that the "EU remains engaged with the Israeli authorities on this issue."



The announcement also stirred controversy within Israel's coalition government, which is comprised of parties from the right, center, and left, as well as an Arab party. On Sunday, the left-wing Meretz Party questioned the move by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who signed the order.

Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz of the Meretz Party said he had asked Gantz to present the government with the findings that led to the decision.

Israeli media had reported an unnamed security official as saying there was "clear-cut" evidence against the organizations.

A similar request was made by the US administration. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Friday told reporters that the US had not been "given advanced warning" of the decision, and that it expected "more information" from Israel.

This was refuted by reports in the Israeli media, which quoted an unnamed Israeli official claiming that Israel had informed some US officials of the impending decision.

An Israeli delegation — among them officials from the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service — are expected to travel to the US this week to present classified evidence supporting Israel's decision.

Turkey's hazelnut farmers fume at Nutella 'monopoly'

Fulya OZERKAN
Tue, October 26, 2021, 9:13 PM·4 min read

Kneeling from dawn till dusk, the Turkish farmers picking most of the hazelnuts going into Nutella spreads complain of exploitation and meagre pay, setting up a clash over labour rights.

The little heart-shaped nut making Nutella such a guilty pleasure is a cherished commodity in Turkey, which accounts for 82 percent of global exports.

But this love is not shared by Mehmet Sirin, a 25-year-old from Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast who travels to lush northern valleys filled with hazelnut trees to make a living during harvest season.

"We work 12 hours a day. This is a demanding job," said Sirin, a hood protecting him from a cold drizzle covering the leafy ground where the hazelnuts hide after ripening and falling from the trees.

"The hazelnuts we pick go abroad and come back in the shape of Nutella. They make more profits than us. This is exploitation," he said in the Black Sea town of Akyazi.

The world-famous spread is made by Italy's Ferrero confectionary, Turkey's top hazelnut purchaser. The global giant's other sweets include Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Kinder chocolate eggs.

But the Italian company is developing ill will in Turkey, where farmers get paid roughly 12 euros ($14) a day collecting nuts off the ground and stuffing them into huge sacks they then lug on their backs.

"They have a monopoly, they have a free hand," said Aydin Simsek, 43, a local producer watching his dozen or so workers pick nuts out of the corner of his eye.

"You see our conditions, how hard we work," he said, explaining that the price he gets for a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of hazelnuts has dropped to 22.5 liras ($2.30).

"This year, I will not sell my hazelnuts to Ferrero," he said.

- 'Market dynamics' -

Ferrero has six facilities and employs more than 1,000 people in Turkey, where it has been sourcing hazelnuts across the agriculture-rich country's northern Black Sea regions for the past 35 years.

In 2014, it acquired Turkey's Oltan Group -- a local market leader that procures, processes and sells nuts.

A Ferrero spokesman told AFP that the Italian company does not directly "own or manage farms in Turkey and does not source hazelnuts directly from farmers".

It "procures the hazelnuts it needs for its products respecting free market regulations and based on market dynamics," the Ferrero spokesman said.

This argument leaves the Turkish farmers unimpressed.

"For God's sake, they buy hazelnuts for 22 to 23 liras a kilo and sell them for 23 dollars," the Turkish Chambers of Agriculture's Istanbul branch president Omer Demir fumed.

"Turkey exports about 300,000 tonnes of hazelnut to the world. How strange that only foreign companies earn profits from this business," he said with bitter irony.

Demir said Ferrero and other global companies sourcing Turkey's hazelnuts provide tools and fertilisers for the farmers, paying for their harvests in advance.

They "are running their own show", Demir said, calling on Turkey's competition authority to intervene.

"Otherwise, they will control everything everywhere and we will come to a point where we cannot sell our product to anyone else but them," Demir said.

- 'I needed the cash'-

Producer Cabbar Saka already feels like he has no choice, selling his entire month's harvest to traders working on behalf of the Italian company.

"I needed the cash because my daughter was getting married," Saka said.

"Producers are scared of speaking out against Ferrero," said Sener Bayraktar, who heads Akyazi's chamber of agriculture.

"They fear that if they speak out, they will no longer be able sell their hazelnuts."

For a solution, Bayraktar wants the Turkish Grain Board -- a state regulator that oversees pricing, storage and payments -- to raise its quotas so that producers can sell more nuts, diversifying their client base.

The Turkish government has said it is ready to help, raising local hopes.

In Akyazi, where farmers dry their harvest on tarpaulins spread across their front yards, producer Simsek said he wants to break his dependence on the Italians as soon as he can.

"Had Nutella been buying our hazelnuts on fair terms, if it didn't oppress us, we would be proud and eat it ourselves," he said.

"But the way they operate, we can't stomach Nutella anymore."

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Turkey's hazelnut farmers fume at Nutella 'monopoly'Turkish hazelnut producer Aydin Simsek says Nutella has "a monopoly, they have a free hand" (AFP/Ozan KOSE)