IRELAND

Debate needed on how Covid technologies exclude most vulnerable – charity chief

Dominic McGrath
Mon, December 27, 2021

Dr Fiona O’Reilly warned about the impact of vaccine certificates 

(Brian Lawless/PA) (PA Wire)

Ireland needs to soon “pause” and consider the impact that vaccine certificates and other Covid-19 measures have on marginalised communities, a medical charity has warned.

In an interview with the PA news agency, Safetynet chief executive Dr Fiona O’Reilly also warned that the Government should create a new department to co-ordinate the country’s response to the global migrant crisis.

Safetynet, which provides and organises medical care for homeless and vulnerable people, was one of the many charities that saw its work made significantly more challenging by the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the crisis that has engulfed the world since March 2020 also presents important lessons and new opportunities for governments to rethink how they care for the poorest people in society, said Dr O’Reilly.

“I think in the emergency response, I think we responded pretty well to Covid in these groups,” she said.

If we have too much dissent around vaccines certs it will cost lives, but I 100% think that there needs to be pause, thought and debate

Dr Fiona O'Reilly, Safetynet

“But what it revealed is and was an awful indictment of our society that it revealed people living in situations that are Dickensian and so that the pandemic is almost like the plague in those settings.

“If we learn anything from Covid, it should be that it has identified or uncovered the huge inequalities in our society. And that’s what we need to address.”

One concern raised by Dr O’Reilly is that the rush to introduce Covid-19 vaccination certificates and a whole range of digital technologies to tackle the virus threatens to exclude people already isolated from society.

She spoke herself about struggling to fill in a passenger locator form, required for all travellers entering Ireland from abroad.

“What you’re doing is you’re potentially designing an underclass, because you’re excluding people who are not highly educated with a high amount of income, that have smartphones and laptops. And that speak one language. And this is infiltrating every aspect of what we do.

“This is about what shops you go to, how you travel, whether you go and socialise in pubs. This is everything.”

She said it is “assuming that we have all these things and large segments of our society just don’t”.

Dr O’Reilly said she understood that in the early stage of the crisis there was simply not time for those kinds of debates.

“Discussion of it in the middle of the battlefield or when the fire is raging around you will cost lives,” she acknowledged.

Dr Fiona O’Reilly wants ministers to create a new department with a specific focus on co-ordinating the response to increased migration

(Brian Lawless/PA) (PA Wire)

“The fact that we just kind of roll over and do it has meant that we have amazing vaccination rates and that will save lives. Similarly, if we have too much dissent around vaccines certs it will cost lives, but I 100% think that there needs to be pause, thought and debate,” she told PA.

Dr O’Reilly suggested that the time for discussion was “once you’re out of the crisis phase and things are stable”.

Yet she also believes that the Irish Government needs to prepare for another imminent crisis, building on the urgency the pandemic instilled in officials.

Dr O’Reilly said: “I began to see and I do begin to see that actually homelessness can be solved. It’s doable.”

The next five to 10 years, she thinks, will bring the issue of what she calls the “global homeless” to Ireland’s shores.

“We can see what’s happening globally with borders being challenged and literally being broken down. And this is going to mean more people in difficult situations arriving on our shores, and it will only be a crisis if we don’t plan for it.”

Dr O’Reilly is proposing that the Government creates a new department with a specific focus on co-ordinating the response to increased migration.

“I would have an emergency preparedness department for the changing world that we’re fast becoming that would prevent this becoming a crisis. And it’s possible, because people coming into Ireland, they’re not looking for handouts. There’s a win-win,” she told PA.

“We don’t have enough doctors. We don’t have enough healthcare provision. That’s why we get so busy.

“There’s an increasing number of asylum seekers coming into Ireland and we don’t have the medical care providers to tend to them. But they’re coming in with doctors among them, with healthcare professionals.

“I’d be preparing now for the increases and sustained increases and planning that happening. Not just responding, because that’s what we’re doing at the moment. We’re just firefighting.”

Drastic changes, she believes, are called for in the health system and beyond.

“We should plan, not respond, but we know what’s coming. So therefore design it to what’s coming. The other thing that is important, there is the people who design the systems are coming from a certain sector in society.

“They’re well educated, they vote, they work, they keep appointments, and they’re you and me.

“So those systems end up being for you and me. They assume people are working, they assume people have phones, they assume they get text messages, they assume they speak English So all of those systems are for a certain segment.

“This is changing and it is going to change more. Now we have people that don’t speak English, that don’t have phones, that don’t have work, that can’t get appointments or make appointments.

“But those people aren’t involved in the design. So they need to be brought into being involved in the design.”

How to distinguish a psychopath from a 'shy-chopath'

John Edens, Professor of Psychology, Texas A&M University
Tue, December 28, 2021

Ted Bundy, a day before his execution in January 1989. AP Photo/Mark Foley

What makes a criminal a psychopath?

Their grisly deeds and commanding presence attract our attention – look no further than murderer Ted Bundy and cult leader Charles Manson.

But despite years of theorizing and research, the mental health field continues to hotly debate what are the defining features of this diagnosis. It might come as a surprise that the most widely used psychiatric diagnostic system in the U.S., the DSM-5, doesn’t include psychopathy as a formal disorder.

As a personality researcher and forensic psychologist, I’ve spent the last quarter-century studying psychopaths inside and outside of prisons. I’ve also debated what, exactly, are the defining features of psychopathy.

Most agree that psychopaths are remorseless people who lack empathy for others. But in recent years, much of this debate has centered on the relevance of one particular personality trait: boldness.

I’m in the camp that believes boldness is critical to separating out psychopaths from the more mundane law-breakers. It’s the trait that creates the veneer of normalcy, giving those who prey on others the mask to successfully blend in with the rest of society. To lack boldness, on the other hand, is to be what one might call a “shy-chopath.”

The boldness factor

About 10 years ago, psychologist Christopher Patrick and some of his colleagues published an extensive literature review in which they argued that psychopaths were people who expressed elevated levels of three basic traits: meanness, disinhibition and boldness.

Most experts in the mental health field generally agree that the prototypical psychopath is someone who is both mean and, at least to some extent, disinhibited – though there’s even some debate about exactly how impulsive and hot-headed the prototypical psychopath truly is.

In a psychological context, people who are mean tend to lack empathy and have little interest in close emotional relationships. They’re also happy to use and exploit others for their own personal gain.

Highly disinhibited people have very poor impulse control, are prone to boredom and have difficulty managing emotions – particularly negative ones, like frustration and hostility.

In adding boldness to the mix, Patrick and his colleagues argued that genuine psychopaths are not just mean and disinhibited, they’re also individuals who are poised, fearless, emotionally resilient and socially dominant.

Although it had not been the focus of extensive research for the past few decades, the concept of the bold psychopath isn’t actually new. Famed psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley described it in his seminal 1941 book, “The Mask of Sanity,” in which he described numerous case examples of psychopaths who were brazen, fearless and emotionally unflappable.

Ted Bundy is an excellent example of such a person. He was far from unassuming and timid. He never appeared wracked with anxiety or emotional distress. He charmed scores of victims, confidently served as his own attorney and even proposed to his girlfriend while in court.

“It’s probably just being willing to take risk,” Bundy said, in the Netflix documentary, of what motivated his crimes. “Or perhaps not even seeing risk. Just overcome by that boldness and desire to accomplish a particular thing.”

Seeds planted in the DSM

In the current DSM, the closest current diagnosis to psychopathy is antisocial personality disorder. Although the manual suggests that it historically has been referred to as psychopathy, the current seven diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder mostly fall under the umbrella of disinhibition – qualities like “recklessness,” “impulsiveness” and, to a lesser extent, meanness, which are evident in only two criteria: “lack of remorse” and “deceitfulness.”

There’s no mention of boldness. In other words, you don’t have to be bold to have antisocial personality disorder. In fact, because you only need to meet three of the seven criteria to be diagnosed with the disorder, it means you don’t even need to be all that mean, either.

However, the most recent revision to the DSM, the fifth edition, did include a supplemental section for proposed diagnoses in need of further study.

In this supplemental section, a new specifier was offered for those who meet the diagnosis for antisocial personality disorder. If you have a bold and fearless interpersonal style that seems to serve as a mask for your otherwise mean and disinhibited personality, you might also be diagnosable as a psychopath.
Can a psychopath be meek?

Whether this new model, which seems to put boldness center stage in the diagnosis of psychopathy, ultimately will be adopted into subsequent iterations of the DSM system remains to be seen.

Several researchers have criticized the concept. They see meanness and disinhibition as much more important than boldness when deciding whether someone is a psychopath.

Their main issue seems to be that people who are bold – but not mean or disinhibited – actually seem to be well-adjusted and not particularly violent. In fact, compared with being overly introverted or prone to emotional distress, it seems to be an asset in everyday life.

Other researchers, myself included, tend to view those criticisms as not particularly compelling. In our view, someone who is simply disinhibited and mean – but not bold – would not be able to pull off the spectacular level of manipulation that a psychopath is capable of.

To be sure, being mean and disinhibited is a bad combination. But absent boldness, you’re probably not going to show up on the evening news for having schemed scores of investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The chances that you’ll successfully charm unsuspecting victim after unsuspecting victim into coming back to your apartment to sexually assault them seem pretty slim.

That being said, timid but mean people – the “shycho-paths” – almost certainly do exist, and it’s probably best to stay away from them, too.

But you’re unlikely to confuse them with the Ted Bundys and Charles Mansons of the world.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: John Edens, Texas A&M University.

Read more:

This trait could be key to a lasting romance

Not all psychopaths are criminals – some psychopathic traits are actually linked to success

How evolutionary psychology may explain the difference between male and female serial killers

John Edens has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct research on individuals in criminal justice and forensic settings.

Men across America are getting vasectomies 'as an act of love'

A demonstrator holds up a placard reading 'Against Abortion ? Have a vasectomy' during a demonstration against Poland's near-total ban on abortion in Berlin on November 7, 2020. - Mass protests began in Poland in October when Poland's Constitutional Court ruled that an existing law allowing the abortion of damaged foetuses was "incompatible" with the constitution. The government has defended the verdict, saying it will halt "eugenic abortions", but human rights groups have said it would force women to carry non-viable pregnancies. Poland, a traditionally devout Catholic country of 38 million people, already has one of the most stringent abortion laws in Europe. 

(Photo by Tobias Schwarz / AFP)

LOAD READ

Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, (c) 2021, The Washington Post
Sun, December 26, 2021

After Andy and Erin Gress had their fourth child, Andy decided it was time for him to "step up" and help with the family planning. So he did something that the mere thought of makes some men cringe: He got a vasectomy.

It was early one morning last winter - a brief moment of peace, before juggling getting the kids ready for online school and work Zoom calls. He happened to see a local news story about discounts being offered during "World Vasectomy Day." He made an appointment that day.

His wife had taken birth control pills, but she struggled with the side effects. She had worked as a night nurse through four pregnancies, and the couple had children ranging in age from 2 to 11.

"The procedure was a total relief, almost like the covid shot - like I'm safe now," said Gress, who works in higher education. "I wanted to man up."

But Gress's action wasn't just about his family. He also believed he should do more to support his wife and other women who don't think the government should decide what they do with their bodies. "I've seen the miracle of life," he said. "But I've also seen kids who are born into poverty and misery and don't have a fair shot."

With the Supreme Court set to decide the fate of Roe v. Wade next year and with more than 20 states poised to ban or impose restrictions on abortion depending on what the court decides, some reproductive rights advocates say it is time for men to take a more active role in both family planning and the fight for reproductive rights.

In their own form of protest, state lawmakers in Alabama, Illinois and Pennsylvania introduced legislation that highlights the gendered double standards with regards to reproductive rights.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, a Democrat, introduced "parody" legislation this fall in response to the Texas law that amounts to a near-total ban on abortion. Rabb's proposal would require men to get vasectomies after the birth of their third child or when they turn 40, whichever comes first. It would be enforced by allowing Pennsylvanians to report men who failed to comply, for a $10,000 reward.

"As long as state legislatures continue to restrict the reproductive rights of cis women, trans men and nonbinary people, there should be laws that address the responsibility of men who impregnate them. Thus, my bill will also codify 'wrongful conception' to include when a person has demonstrated negligence toward preventing conception during intercourse," Rabb wrote in a memo about his proposal, as reported by the Keystone.

Rabb, a father of two who had a vasectomy in 2008, noted that he only had to discuss his choice with his wife and his urologist. The point of his proposal, he said, was to highlight the sexism, double standard and hypocrisy inherent in the antiabortion debate. But it blew up in a way he didn't expect.

"I underestimated the vitriol this proposal brought," Rabb said in an interview, adding that he received thousands of hate-filled emails, Facebook posts and even death threats. "The notion a man would have to endure or even think about losing bodily autonomy was met with outrage, when every single day women face this and it's somehow OK for the government to invade the uteruses of women and girls, but it should be off limits if you propose vasectomies or limit the reproductive rights of men."

Since Dec. 1, when the Supreme Court heard a case that is expected to decide the future of Roe v. Wade, social media has been filled with tweets, memes and quips using tongue-in-cheek humor to point out how men's role in reproduction is almost never talked about. "Against abortion? Have a Vasectomy," says one bumper sticker.

Koushik Shaw, a doctor at the Austin Urology Institute in Texas, said his practice saw about a 15% increase in scheduled vasectomies after the Sept. 1 Texas abortion ban went into effect.

Patients are saying "'Hey, I'm actually here because some of these changes that [Gov. Greg] Abbott and our legislature have passed that are really impacting our decision-making in terms of family planning,' so that was a new one for me as a reason - the first time, patients are citing a state law as their motivating factor," Shaw said.

Advocates say they want to be clear: They are not pushing vasectomies as a replacement for the right to obtain an abortion, nor do they believe men should have a say in the decision to have an abortion. In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled in Planned Parenthood v. Danforth that the father's consent to an abortion was no longer required, largely because of a risk of violence or coercion in a relationship.

Doctors who perform vasectomies say they want men to be open and comfortable talking about the procedure instead of recoiling in horror at the idea, said Doug Stein, a urologist known as the "Vasectomy King" for his billboards, bar coasters and ads at child support offices around Florida.

"An act of Love," for their partners, "the ultimate way to be a good man," is how he and others market the procedure.

"It's a remarkable trend in the family planning community of recognizing and promoting vasectomy and birth control for men, where this was once considered more fringe," said Sarah Miller, a family medicine doctor who has a private practice in Boston and joined Stein's movement.

Advances in the needle- and scalpel-free 10-minute procedure need a cultural push and maybe some fun to make men less bashful around doctors coming near their "junk," Stein said.

He has a full-time vasectomy and vasectomy-reversal practice in Tampa and has traveled the world performing the procedure. He was inspired by his concern about population growth, but he also wanted to empower men to be responsible.

Stein, a father of two, had his own vasectomy more than 20 years ago.

Reliable statistics on the number of men who have sought vasectomies since the Texas ban and the U.S. Supreme Court hearing aren't available, doctors say. But, Miller said, she has seen an increase in patients at the small clinic she opened in Boston less than three years ago because she couldn't believe "the paucity of options for men and people with men parts."

At one point, she was told that vasectomy was not considered part of family planning, and she had to make her own arrangements to get the necessary training.

"It warms my heart to hear men say, 'I am so nervous, but I know this is NOTHING compared to what my wife has gone through,'" she said in an email.

"It's outrageous that we don't have more contraceptive options for people with man parts," Miller said. "There's even a misguided sense that birth control is not a man's job. That men can't be trusted, or that they would never be interested, and that has led to lack of funding and development," she said.

Engaging men in the abortion debate is tricky, experts say, because on the abortion rights side, men don't want to be viewed as questioning a woman's right to choose. And on the antiabortion side, the procedure is viewed as murder. But some abortion rights advocates contend that men have a huge stake in legal and safe abortions, and "the fact we're not out there fighting every bit as hard as women is shameful," said Jonathan Stack, a co-founder with Stein of World Vasectomy Day.

"The quality of life for millions of men will be adversely affected if this right is taken from women," said Stack, a documentary filmmaker who made a film about Stein called "The Vasectomist."

Stack said that while filming the documentary, he would ask men: "Why are you choosing to do this?"

"They expressed something rarely heard in films about men - love or kindness or care," he said.

"I had already come to believe that there was a story about masculinity that was not being told - not of power and control or rage, but of alienation, of insecurities, of uncertainty and of fear," he said.

"We already know that men don't always want to wear condoms, or they don't work, or well, they take them off," Esgar Guarín said with a sigh and chuckle. He is a family medicine doctor who runs SimpleVas in Iowa and performed Gress's vasectomy.

Guarín trained under Stein and joined his movement. "We have to invest in helping men understand how easy and safe vasectomies are," he said. After having two children, Guarín performed a vasectomy on himself.

The doctors also started "Responsible Men's Clubs," chat groups where men can share information such as how sexual performance is just fine after the procedure, and that it "doesn't take away their manhood, but in fact makes them a better man," Guarín said.

One man asked for a sort of "vasectomy passport," a letter from Guarín to show his wife that sex would now be free of worry.

Brad Younts, 45, said his wife, Lizz Gardner, wants him to become a "vasectomy evangelist," after he had the "simple procedure" without any problems.

"Men are big babies. Considering everything women go through - menstruation, Pap smears, OB/GYN visits," said Younts, who lives in Chicago. "I'm proud I did it. And I went on to tell two friends who are also looking into it, too."

Hidden poverty on Cape Cod is no surprise to service providers


Cynthia McCormick, Cape Cod Times
Mon, December 27, 2021

Some people were surprised when the town of Orleans was included among 102 Massachusetts communities that recently qualified for free COVID-19 at-home testing kits due to the local poverty rate.

Not Larry Marsland, CEO of the Lower Cape Outreach Council, which serves eight towns including Orleans.

Marsland said there is a high demand for council programs, including emergency financial assistance, fuel assistance, tuition aid and free clothing from residents of Orleans and neighboring Harwich.

“I certainly wasn’t surprised,” he said, when state officials last week included Orleans among four Cape towns earmarked for free test kits based on the highest number of families living below the federal poverty level.

Larry Marsland, CEO of the Lower Cape Outreach Council, says: “On Cape Cod, our poor are well disguised. We’re just not aware of how many people are struggling here."

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, the 2021 poverty guidelines (the government does not refer to "poverty level") are based on the number of people in a household and household income: one person, $12,880 annually; two, $17,420; three, $21,960; and four, $26,500, for example.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows "percent of persons in poverty" by town. In Orleans, the rate is estimated at 7.6% for 2021; with a total population of 6,307, the data indicates 479 people living below the federal poverty guideline.

The other Cape towns that qualified for the free test kits were Barnstable, Dennis and Eastham. Ninety-eight other Massachusetts cities and towns also qualified.

Poverty on this side of the bridge can look different, as in nearly invisible, Marsland said.

“On Cape Cod, our poor are well disguised. We’re just not aware of how many people are struggling here. I live in Chatham. It’s all McMansions here now and yet Chatham Elementary School” has a food pantry for families, Marsland said.

“It’s very difficult.”

The high cost of housing, the difficulty of finding affordable — or any — rentals, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the already struggling seasonal and service-based economy and the rising cost of nearly everything are taking a financial toll on families across the peninsula.

People think of Falmouth as having more of a year-round economy.

But even there the trends are toward rising levels of need, said Elyse DeGroot, deputy director of the Falmouth Service Center.

The amount of assistance given out for mortgage payments, rent, utilities and other expenses from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 more than doubled over the past two years, DeGroot said.

During the two-month period in 2019, the service center served 41 families with 70 household members by providing $27,336 worth of support, she said.

In that same period in 2020, when people were still receiving unemployment and government pandemic checks, 33 families with 73 members received $31,531.

From Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 this year, the service center helped 49 households with 101 members and gave out $73,413, a jump of 132% in aid, DeGroot said.

“A lot of times they are behind in their rent. The moratorium was lifted. They were behind in their bills. These are Falmouth families," DeGroot said.

In some cases, individuals had to decide between paying for medical expenses or tuition, so the Falmouth Service Center helped out with rent or utilities, she said.

People receiving aid included restaurant and hair salon workers whose hours were cut during the pandemic and independent tradespeople who were physically injured and required surgery.

“They weren’t earning the same income” as in the past, DeGroot said.

“It’s the small businesses that seem to be hit pretty hard.”

“The vast majority of our clients who are struggling are working people," Marsland said.

"It’s a convenient mythology that those who are looking for aid are unemployed or underemployed. They are under paid."

Orleans also has one of the highest percentages of older people in Massachusetts — another population that can be prone to financial fragility.

“People who are on fixed incomes are very vulnerable. We do everything we can to keep seniors in their housing and (make sure they) have their medications and groceries," Marsland said.

"This past year has been a year of inflation.”

One of the beauties of the Cape, in addition to its natural seaside splendor, is that it houses caring communities who band together to help those in need, Marsland said.

Even so, the hidden poverty on the Cape is becoming increasingly visible.

"I'm starting to see panhandlers at the grocery store,” Marsland said.

He said he has seen two people collecting money outside the store, including a woman with a “big smile” and a sign asking for help.

Marsland said he got used to seeing panhandlers when he lived in Manhattan, but “when you see it in East Harwich, you go, 'Wait a minute.' I grew up on Cape Cod and have never seen this in my life. You don’t think it’s possible. Not here.

“It’s certainly a sign that there’s a great deal of undercurrent of poverty and worry out there,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Based on poverty level, 4 Cape Cod towns get free at-home COVID tests

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Dubai Can’t Shake Off the Stain of Smuggled African Gold



Simon Marks, Michael Kavanagh and Verity Ratcliffe
Mon, December 27, 2021

LONG READ

(Bloomberg) -- In the moon-like landscape of northern Sudan, informal gold miners toil with spades and pickaxes to extract their prize from shallow pits that pockmark the terrain.

Mining ore in the sweltering heat of the Nubian desert is the first stage of an illicit network that has exploded in the past 18 months following a pandemic-induced spike in the gold price. African governments desperate to recoup lost revenue are looking to Dubai to help stop the trade.

Interviews with government officials across Africa reveal smuggling operations that span at least nine countries and involve tons of gold spirited over borders. That’s a cause for international concern because the funds from contraband minerals dealing in Africa fuel conflict, finance criminal and terrorist networks, undermine democracy and facilitate money laundering, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

While it’s impossible to say precisely how much is lost to smugglers each year, United Nations trade data for 2020 show a discrepancy of at least $4 billion between the United Arab Emirates’ declared gold imports from Africa and what African countries say they exported to the UAE.

The UN and NGOs have long questioned the apparent role of one of the Emirates — Dubai — in facilitating the trade by closing its eyes to imports from dubious sources. The UAE strenuously denies any involvement in illegal practices. But as global scrutiny over corporate governance intensifies, the extent of the smuggling now under way poses increasingly uncomfortable questions for Dubai and its reputation as a gold trading hub.

Allegations that it’s not doing enough to stamp out questionable flows of the precious metal have led to public slanging matches with London, home to the world’s largest gold market, and with Switzerland, the top refiner. Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo discussed concerns about gold smuggling with Emirati officials during a visit to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in mid-November, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they’re not permitted to speak publicly about it.

That same week, the head of Dubai’s commodities exchange, Ahmed bin Sulayem, answered the accusations head on.

“I want to address the elephant in the room: namely, the consistent and unsubstantiated attacks launched on Dubai by other trading centers and institutions,” he said at a conference in the Emirates. They are, he said, “lies.”

African governments are adding to the pressure. Besides Sudan, authorities in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic and Niger complain that tons of gold leaks across their borders each year, and they allege most of it heads to Dubai.

“It’s a huge loss,” Nigerian Mines Minister Olamilekan Adegbite said in an interview in his office in Abuja, the capital, where glass cabinets display rock samples that illustrate the nation’s mining potential, so far largely untapped.

The bulk of Africa’s illegally mined gold is channeled to Dubai through refineries in countries like Uganda and Rwanda, or is flown there directly in hand luggage, often with false papers, according to government and industry officials, UN experts and civil rights groups. Once there, it can be further melted down to obscure the source before being turned into jewelry, electronics or gold bars, they say.

“Most European countries will ask you for your certificates of export from the country of origin,” said Adegbite. “If you do not have that, the gold is confiscated and returned back to source.”

On paper, the UAE requires the same. “But, you see,” Adegbite added, “in Dubai they look the other way.”

The UAE’s foreign trade ministry declined to answer questions on gold from Africa. Bin Sulayem said in an interview that a global ban on gold hand-carried on airlines — a traditional means of smuggling — would fix the problem. “We have a better track record than any of the major cities,” he said. “The main complaint we’re getting is ‘you’re too tough.’”

Gold smuggling is an age-old practice, but it became all the more rewarding as the price of bullion soared to a record $2,075 an ounce in August 2020. The illicit trade has since taken off like never before in Africa and authorities there have made scant headway in reining it in, an analysis of publicly available data from governments and other sources show.

Sudan’s Finance Ministry, for example, estimates that 80% of gold production goes unregistered. Rwanda is set to ship $732 million worth of the metal this year, more than two-and-a-half times the value of its 2019 exports, according to International Monetary Fund figures. That’s despite Rwanda barely mining any gold of its own, prompting accusations from the government in neighboring Congo that the precious metal originates from its territory.

Rwanda is working to become a regional mineral processing hub, which accounts for its increased exports, Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board said in a statement. It has invested in new facilities which “source raw materials from local and regional operators in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements,” the board said.

Reports from the UN and other sources point to 95% of production from east and central Africa ending up in Dubai. That’s a potential problem because much of the region is designated by the OECD as a conflict or high-risk area, meaning companies are required to show that imported gold is responsibly sourced. The European Union brought in legislation this year aligning it with U.S. efforts to stem the trade. However, enforcement is notoriously difficult.

Uganda, one of Africa’s main refiners of informal, or artisanal gold, more than doubled its exports this financial year to some $2.25 billion, central bank statistics show. Again, the UAE was by far the top destination, according to UN trade data. The UN has accused Uganda and Rwanda of trading in gold smuggled from neighboring eastern Congo, a region mired in conflict.

In an unprecedented move, the London Bullion Market Association, which regulates the world’s biggest gold market, last year threatened to bar its accredited refineries from sourcing metal from countries that didn’t meet its responsible sourcing standards. While it didn’t name any state, Bin Sulayem issued a rebuke on behalf of Dubai, accusing the association of trying to undermine the UAE’s gold market.

The UAE signed up to LBMA’s recommendations and “has long been cooperative with all international regulations and best practices including anti-money laundering efforts and unethical sourcing of gold,” minister of state for foreign trade, Thani Al Zeyoudi, said in a statement to Bloomberg News. “The UAE is committed to embedding the very highest international gold standards.”

More than 12 months later, the LBMA has yet to follow through on its threat. Sakhila Mirza, its general counsel, said the association is still assessing what the UAE has done to combat smuggling. The LMBA does see the need for urgency, but has to act within the rules, and “disengaging is the last step,” Mirza said in an interview.

Dubai’s long association with the gold trade is evident in its main market in the oldest part of the city, where scores of shops with elaborate window displays of glittering necklaces, bodices and sunglasses line a pedestrian walkway. Trading operations are conducted in an adjacent rabbit-warren of a building, where men run between small offices, some with reinforced security doors.

“We welcome the world, we welcome anyone who wants to do trade”

Several traders who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions said they risked having their supply cut off by Emirati refineries if they asked too many questions about where it came from. Still, controls have been tightened to tackle money laundering, with customers who spend more than $15,000 required to submit their identity documents and source of funds.

During his visit last month, the U.S. Treasury’s Adeyemo noted that stronger enforcement efforts targeting illicit finance could give the UAE a competitive advantage in the region, according to the two people with knowledge of the talks. The Treasury Department declined to comment through a spokesperson for the Office of Foreign Assets Control, who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of sanctions policy.

Thani Al Zeyoudi told reporters last month that Dubai will introduce a publicly accessible system for monitoring imports and exports of gold, and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre’s “Good Delivery Standard,” will be rolled out nationwide — if only on a voluntary basis. All gold refineries in the UAE will be required to conduct audits that prove bullion deliveries are responsibly sourced, starting in February, the Economy Ministry said in a statement in December.

“We’re trying to be a real hub when it comes to gold trading,” Thani Al Zeyoudi said. “So we welcome the world, we welcome anyone who wants to do trade and we want to make sure that we adhere to the international standards through the delivery standards.”

In October, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs instructed Swiss refineries to take steps to identify the true country of origin for all gold emanating from the UAE, saying that was necessary to ensure they weren’t being sent illicit supplies. Bin Sulayem again took to LinkedIn to say the Emirates enforced the OECD’s guidelines on sourcing minerals and accused the Swiss authorities of hypocrisy.

Michael Bartlett-Vanderpuye, the chairman of M&C Group Global, which mines and sources gold from Ghana that’s mainly sold to clients in the UAE, described the clashes with London and Switzerland as “an international gold power play” with each center protecting its turf.

“I always found it very difficult to believe that people are actually able to bring gold to the UAE without the documentation,” he said. “When I look at the system at the airport, I find it near to impossible.”

Swiss refiner Metalor Technologies SA remains skeptical.

“We don’t think everything coming from Dubai is illegal, but we have doubts about the legitimacy of some of the integrity of the supply chain,” Jose Camino, Metalor’s group general counsel, said in an interview. “We are happy to pass it by.”

Dubai’s supporters claim African customs data aren’t reliable and even the UN can’t accurately measure illicit trade flows. Behind closed doors, UAE officials point the finger at their counterparts in Africa and forgers who obscure the gold’s origins by issuing documents that are impossible to distinguish from the real thing.

That’s little comfort to the authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a vast central African country that’s struggling to rebuild after more than two decades of conflict. It has some of the world’s richest reserves, including Kibali in the northeast of the country — Africa’s biggest gold mine — yet, perversely, the DRC is one of the biggest losers of the illicit gold trade.

An army of small-scale miners operate below the government’s radar, but data show the informal industry generated just $2.4 million in official gold exports last year. Statistics from the UN and IMF suggest the fruits of their labor slipped across the border instead: Uganda and Rwanda shipped bullion worth $1.8 billion and $648 million respectively in 2020, despite having little gold of their own.

“It’s ours,” Congolese Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi said in an interview at his office in the capital, Kinshasa. “It’s gold from Congo.”

Under U.S. law, gold from Congo and its neighbors is considered a “conflict mineral,” meaning companies publicly traded in the U.S. are required to report to the Securities Exchange Commission if they might be using gold mined in conflict areas — but there’s no sanction for doing so. A June report by UN experts found that much of the illegal gold trade in Congo is overseen by armed groups or soldiers, who traffic it across the borders or fly it directly to Dubai using forged documents to obscure its origin.

Related Story: From Minerals to Beer, Congo Finance Minister Hunts for Cash

Sasha Lezhnev, policy consultant for Washington-based anti-corruption group The Sentry, said that refiners trading in conflict gold aren’t being held publicly accountable by the UAE. “Dubai is the linchpin for change in the gold trade in east and central Africa,” he said.

Smuggling is also troubling the government in Nigeria, where most minerals are extracted by at least 100,000 informal miners whose operations are difficult to regulate and tax. Formal gold production totaled just 1,288 kilograms last year, almost all of which went to Dubai, according to Nigerian government data.

Efforts are being made to formalize the industry. Fatima Shinkafi is head of the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative, which has registered 10,000 informal miners and is developing a supply chain whereby their output will be sent to LBMA-certified refineries in Europe, processed and transferred to the central bank to boost Nigeria’s foreign reserves.

Adegbite, the mines minister, wants to work with the UAE to combat smuggling, and says he even proposed to his government that it split the proceeds “50-50” with the Emirati authorities of any undeclared Nigerian gold recovered. The UAE Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment on the minister’s proposal.

In Sudan, more than 2 million small-scale miners produce some 80% of the nation’s gold. They are paid about a quarter less for what they extract than it would fetch on international markets and are charged a $64 tax on each ounce of output, which encourages some to bypass official trading channels.

Some of Sudan’s internal trade happens in a dank six-story building in downtown Khartoum, the capital, where men melt rough nuggets into bars and dealers can be seen exiting the premises carrying piles of cash wrapped in cling film. Illicitly traded gold is flown to Dubai through the porous international airport or trafficked into neighboring Egypt, Ethiopia and Chad, according to industry experts.

Political upheaval has frustrated efforts to ensure Sudan’s people benefit from its mineral endowment. Dictator Omar al-Bashir was toppled in a popular uprising in 2019, then a transitional government was overthrown in an Oct. 25 coup as the military reasserted itself.

The security forces have set up road blocks between mining areas and Khartoum to combat smuggling. But controls remain woefully inadequate, according to Dafalla Idriss, the deputy chair of a panel in River Nile state set up to freeze assets plundered by the al-Bashir regime.

“There is corruption inside all government institutions,” he said. “The gold that leaves the country is getting past everyone.”

Russia extends prison term for researcher of Stalin purges

Mon, December 27, 2021

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Monday extended the prison term handed to an activist who investigated Stalin-era repression to 15 years on what he says are trumped-up charges.

Yuri Dmitriyev, 65, rose to prominence after uncovering mass graves of victims of Stalinist repressions. He was arrested on charges of sexually abusing his adopted daughter, which rights activists have dismissed as fabricated and politically motivated.

Dmitriyev was accused of making child pornography, indecent acts and illegal possession of a part of a weapon. He was acquitted in 2018, only to have the case reopened a few months later.

In July 2020, he was found guilty of sexual assault against his daughter and sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, which several months later was extended to 13 years. He has already spent five years in prison.

On Monday, the sentence was extended yet again, to 15 years, by the Petrozavodsk city court in the Russian region of Karelia, on the border with Finland. Dmitriyev’s defense lawyers plan to appeal the ruling.

According to the investigators, Dmitriyev was accused of making pornographic materials by taking naked photos of his daughter. Experts during the first trial found the photographs were not pornographic.

Dmitriyev used to head the Karelian branch of the human rights centre Memorial, which recognizes him as a political prisoner. The European Union and several prominent Russian cultural figures have called on Russian authorities to drop the charges.

Memorial’s Human Rights Center, a prominent group that studies and documents political repression in the Soviet Union, is facing closure in Russia for alleged failures to use the “foreign agent” label on all its publications, and for justifying terrorism. The court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Russia extends prison sentence for Gulag historian who researched Stalin's purges to 15 years

John Haltiwanger
Mon, December 27, 2021

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks at a flag with portraits of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin while visiting Ivanovo, Russia, on March 6, 2020.Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

A Russian Gulag historian had his prison sentence extended to 15 years.

The historian, Yuri Dmitriev, has uncovered mass graves from Stalin's purges.

Critics say the charges against Dmitriev are politically motivated due to his work.

A Russian court extended the prison sentence of a prominent historian and activist, Yuri Dmitriev, as part of a sex abuse case that critics have condemned as politically motivated, Reuters reported on Monday.

Dmitriev had two more years added to his 13-year sentence, and is now set to spend 15 years behind bars. Last July, Dmitriev was found guilty of sexually abusing his adopted daughter. He's vehemently denied the allegations against him.

Dmitriev was first arrested in late 2016 on child pornography charges but was acquitted in 2018. But a second criminal case was opened against him several months later and he was eventually sentenced to three and a half years in prison. His sentence was abruptly extended to 13 years last year, not long before Dmitriev was set to be released.

Supporters and critics say the charges against Dmitriev are fabricated and punishment for uncovering mass graves from the Stalin-era containing the bodies of people held in Soviet prison camps known as Gulags. During the Great Purge (1936-38), also known as the "Great Terror," Joseph Stalin engaged in a brutal campaign to neutralize anyone perceived as disloyal or a threat to his rule. It's estimated at least 750,000 were killed during this period.

When Dmitriev's sentence was extended last year, a spokesperson for the US embassy in Moscow decried the move as "another step backwards for human rights and historical truths in Russia."

Experts with the UN have also condemned Russia over the treatment of Dmitriev, who's been lauded by human rights groups for his work.

"In response to Mr. Dmitriev's relentless search for the truth, the Russian authorities have sought to silence him by attacking his personal integrity, and thus the legitimacy of his historical work," a group of UN human rights experts said in February. "By so doing, they are preventing millions of family members whose relatives were imprisoned or perished in the Gulags from finding answers on what happened to their loved ones."

"Not only are the Russian authorities failing to uphold the right to truth owed to the victims, their families and to the larger society, they are attempting to prevent legitimate research and to re-write the history books to play down the true extent of the crimes committed during the Great Purge," the experts added.

Dmitriev is the chief of the Karelia branch of Memorial human rights group, a Moscow-based group that has spearheaded efforts to document crimes against humanity in the Soviet Union. The Russian government is threatening to shutter the group, founded in the late 1980s — over allegations it's violated Russia's "foreign agents" act. Memorial has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

Experts say that Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB operative, is vying to whitewash Stalin's crimes against humanity and downplay Soviet-era repression.

"Memorial employees are now regularly questioned and investigated by police," Anne Applebaum, a fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, wrote in The Atlantic earlier this month. "Dictators distort the past because they want to use it. Putin certainly wants to use the past to stay in power. If Russians are nostalgic for their old dictatorship, then they have less reason to push back against the new one. He may also want to use the past to give legitimacy to violence."

In a June 2017 interview, Putin lamented that "excessively demonizing Stalin is a means to attack Soviet Union and Russia." Referring to Stalin as a "complex figure," Putin added that he was against forgetting the horrors of Stalinism. Putin also said he thought "the overwhelming majority of the citizens of the former Soviet Union admired Stalin."

IT WAS ALL BERIA'S FAULT

Lavrentiy Beria

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In this Eastern Slavic naming convention, the patronymic is Pavlovich and the family name is Beria.

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (/ˈbɛriə/; Russian: Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, IPA: [ˈbʲerʲiə]; Georgian: ლავრენტი ბერია, romanized: lavrent'i beria, IPA: [bɛriɑ]; 29 March [O.S. 17 March] 1899 – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik and Soviet politician, Marshal of the Soviet Union and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security, and chief of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and promoted to deputy premier under Stalin from 1941. He later officially joined the Politburo in 1946.

Lavrentiy Beria
Лавре́нтий Бе́рия  (Russian) ლავრენტი ბერია  (Georgian)
First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers
In office 5 March – 26 June 1953
Premier	Georgy Malenkov
Preceded by	Vyacheslav Molotov
Succeeded by	Lazar Kaganovich
Minister of Internal Affairs
In office 5 March – 26 June 1953
Preceded by	Semyon Ignatyev
Succeeded by	Sergei Kruglov
In office 25 November 1938 – 26 June 1953
Preceded by	Nikolai Yezhov
Succeeded by	Sergei Kruglov
show Additional positions
Personal details
Born	Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria 29 March 1899 Merkheuli, Sukhum Okrug, Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	23 December 1953 (aged 54) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Cause of death	Execution by shooting
Citizenship	Soviet
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1917–1953)
Spouse(s)	Nina Gegechkori
Parents	Pavel Beria (father) Marta Jaqeli (mother)
Awards	Hero of Socialist Labour
Signature
Military service
Rank	Marshal of the Soviet Union
Wars	World War II

Beria was the longest-lived and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after World War II. Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, he was responsible for organizing purges such as the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and officials.^[1] Beria would later also orchestrate the forced upheaval of minorities from the Caucasus as head of NKVD, an act that was declared as genocidal by various scholars and in 2004 as concerning Chechens by the European parliament.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} He simultaneously administered vast sections of the Soviet state, and acted as the de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of NKVD field units responsible for barrier troops and Soviet partisan intelligence and sabotage operations on the Eastern Front during World War II. Beria administered the expansion of the Gulag labour camps, and was primarily responsible for overseeing the secret detention facilities for scientists and engineers known as sharashkas.

After the war, he organised the communist takeover of the state institutions in central and eastern Europe. Beria's ruthlessness in his duties and skill at producing results culminated in his success in overseeing the Soviet atomic bomb project. Stalin gave it absolute priority, and the project was completed in under five years.^[7]

After Stalin's death in March 1953, Beria became First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In this dual capacity, he formed a troika with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov that briefly led the country in Stalin's place. A coup d'état by Nikita Khrushchev, with help from Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov, in June 1953 removed Beria from power. After being arrested, he was tried for treason and other offenses, sentenced to death, and executed on 23 December 1953. During his trial, and after his death, numerous allegations arose of Beria being a serial sexual predator and serial killer.

Turkey probes Istanbul municipality staff over alleged militant ties

Mon, December 27, 2021
By Can Sezer

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey has launched an investigation into hundreds of staff at the opposition-run Istanbul municipality accused of links to militant groups, drawing fierce criticism from the city's mayor on Monday over the handling of the probe.

Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu is from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and is seen as a potential challenger to President Tayyip Erdogan.

ERDOGAN'S REICHSTAG FIRE 2016
Since a failed 2016 coup, Turkey has investigated and tried tens of thousands of people accused of militant links in a crackdown which rights groups say has been used as pretext to quash dissent. The government has said its actions are necessary given the gravity of the threats faced by Turkey.

The Interior Ministry said on Twitter on Sunday it had begun a probe of 455 people working at the municipality and related companies accused of connections to Kurdish militants, along with more than 100 allegedly linked to leftist and other groups.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the investigation was not directed at the city council itself.

"Our business is not with anyone's municipality. Our business is with the fight against terror and we have to keep Turkey on alert," Soylu told reporters.

He said those targeted are "not just those who clean and sweep the streets" but could also include some in senior posts.

Imamoglu criticised the ministry statement, made via Twitter, saying it suggested those set to be investigated had already been judged.

"You give a number (of suspects) and make a judgement and then launch an investigation," Imamoglu said in comments to reporters. "What sort of an investigation is it? If you have reached a decision then take them by the ear to prison."

He said the ministry had not provided information regarding those being probed, two weeks after Soylu had first referred to them, adding that municipality procedures for employing staff included checking whether applicants have criminal records.

Opinion polls show Erdogan's approval rating has hit a six-year low and that he may lose to potential presidential rivals in elections scheduled for 2023.

Imamoglu took office in 2019 after defeating the candidate of Erdogan's ruling AK Party. While he has been touted as a potential challenger, he told Reuters this month his only focus is on doing his job as mayor.

(Additional reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Ece Toksabay and Peter Graff)