Opinion: Nuclear energy too costly for humans — and the planet

Nuclear power will soon be classified as environmentally friendly under the new EU taxonomy. But nothing about it is green or safe, says DW's Jeannette Cwienk.


The 1986 Chernobyl disaster caused hundreds of billions of euros worth of damage and displaced thousands of people

I can still clearly recall that spring afternoon in late April 1986. I had been out playing in the woods and building a fort with some friends, when a rain shower forced us back home. It was a fun, carefree day.

We had no idea that just hours earlier, reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl power plant near the Ukrainian city of Pripyat had exploded.

DW's Jeannette Cwienk

When the news came out days later, the Chernobyl catastrophe and fears of a radiation-filled future quickly came to define my younger years.

Such memories, however, are not the only reason for my concern about the European Commission's proposal to include nuclear energy and natural gas as environmentally-friendly technology in the EU taxonomy.

Doing so would see nuclear energy classified as sustainable, and recommend it as an option for investors — making a mockery of environmental efforts.

Who will pay for nuclear accidents?

The EU Commission is completely ignoring the costs of nuclear energy. Quite apart from the funds required to build new nuclear power plants, even smaller ones, there is the far more important and apparently overlooked question of who would foot the bill in the event of an accident.

In Germany alone, the federal costs attached to the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe have been estimated at around €1 billion ($1.1 billion). Worldwide, the immediate economic ramifications of Chernobyl are estimated to have been more than €200 billion — and that doesn't include the cost of widespread related illness.

Health costs were also not included in the €177-billion bill linked to the consequences of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, as estimated by the Japanese government in 2017.

Most of these costs have since been covered by Japanese taxpayers, because the operating company, TEPCO, was de facto nationalized after the disaster to avoid insolvency.

Even years after the explosion, radiation levels remain high near the Fukushima power plant

Taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill

And this brings us to the heart of the problem: in Europe, the amounts that nuclear operators are required to set aside in case they're found liable for a nuclear accident are laughably small. In the Czech Republic, nuclear power plant operators are required to have €74 million on hand in case of an accident; in Hungary, the figure is €127 million.

Even in France, the driving force for the planned "greening" of European nuclear energy and the largest consumer of nuclear energy worldwide — it makes up around 70% of its energy supply — operators are only required to set aside €700 million in case of an accident. A large nuclear accident in Europe could easily cost between €100 and 430 billion. And should that happen, the affected countries — along with their taxpayers — will be forced to foot the bill.

This situation has been met with criticism by Germany's new finance minister and the leader of the neoliberal Free Democrat Party, Christian Lindner, who recently expressed skepticism about the place of nuclear energy in the new EU taxonomy.

"An energy source that can only be mainstream if the state is prepared to accept liability — that's a sign from the market that it can't be a sustainable energy source," he said.

On Friday, the German government is likely to vote against the EU Commission's plans — and rightly so. Austria and Luxembourg, on the other hand, have gone a courageous step further and have announced plans to take Brussels to court if the disputed sustainability plans go ahead.

Small modular reactors also a risk

In France, meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron likes to describe nuclear power as a "stroke of luck" for climate protection. The fact that 10 of the country's reactors are currently offline — three from the latest generation due to safety concerns — are apparently not an issue for the French government, which has been trying to allay the fears of a nuclear accident with new small modular reactors (SMR). These smaller power stations are only around one 10th of the size of a conventional nuclear site — and therefore are considered less dangerous, in the event of an accident.

But this plan has a whole range of shortcomings, not least because reaching the same capacity as a single large nuclear reactor requires a great deal of these small reactors.

"This high number will increase the risk of a nuclear accident many time over," the German Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) recently warned.

Is it really about climate protection?

BASE has also been critical of a report by the EU's Joint Research Center, which the EU Commission has used to make its assessment about the environmental friendliness of civil nuclear power.

The EU report only partially considers the risks of nuclear energy use for humans and the environment, as well as for future generations, and some of the principles of scientific work are not correctly taken into account. According to BASE, the report cannot be relied on to comprehensively assess the sustainability of nuclear energy use.

This has raised doubts over the claim that Brussels wants to include nuclear power in the new EU taxonomy primarily for climate protection reasons. Instead, the decision seems to be down to political pressure, especially from Paris.

As a global nuclear power, France wants to hold on to its nuclear plants at all costs, as Macron clearly stated in December.

"Without civilian nuclear power, there is no military nuclear power, and without military nuclear power, there is no civilian nuclear power," he said.

This commentary has been translated from German


CHERNOBYL: THE PEOPLE WHO'VE STAYED
The contagious optimism of Baba Gania
Baba Gania (left) is 86 years old. She survived her husband who died a decade ago. For the past 25 years, Gania has taken care of her mentally disabled sister Sonya (right). "I am not afraid of radiation. I boil the mushrooms till all the radiation is gone!" she says proudly. Photographer Alina Rudya visited her several times over the past years: "She is the warmest and kindest person I know."
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Austria, Luxembourg eye legal steps in EU nuclear energy row

The European Commission wants to designate nuclear power as a climate-friendly energy source, but several nations remain opposed. Austria has said it's willing to fight the notion of "green" nuclear power in court.


The Greenpeace slogan reads 'For a Europe free of nuclear power'

The European Union remains deeply divided over the so-called taxonomy plans, which aim to direct investment toward sustainable energy sources. On Friday, Austria and Luxembourg signaled that they are ready to take the dispute over nuclear energy to court.

The 27-member bloc is planning to reach net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. To achieve this, the EU will need massive long-term investment into sustainable energy sources. A new draft document proposed by the EU Commission would put nuclear energy into the "green" camp, making it easier for states and the private sector to invest money in it. But Austria and several other EU members are categorically opposed to the label.

"We have always said, when the Commission continues on this road, Austria will take legal steps," Austrian Climate and Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler said on her arrival to a meeting of EU energy ministers in Amiens, France, on Friday.

Gewessler said Vienna had "serious concerns" about nuclear energy being too expensive and too slow to actually help in the fight against climate change. Earlier this week, the minister also pointed to the issue of nuclear waste and that it has not yet been solved.

"It is as if we are giving our children a backpack and saying 'you'll get rid of it one day,'" Gewessler told the AFP news agency.
Luxembourg, Spain, Denmark join the fray

The small, wealthy EU nation of Luxembourg is also considering a lawsuit over the European Commission's proposal. Luxembourg's environment minister, Carole Dieschbourg, urged Germany to join the effort. The minister also noted that labeling nuclear energy as "green" would send a wrong signal.

"If it happens, it would be greenwashing," she said.

Spain and Denmark also joined the appeal against the proposed taxonomy on Thursday.

France, which gets about 70% percent of its electricity from nuclear power plants and is preparing to build new reactors, supports classifying nuclear energy as green. In France and some other EU nations, nuclear power is seen as a low-carbon alternative to burning fossil fuels.
Germany: Against nuclear power, but split on gas?

Germany has also voiced reservations about nuclear power.

As EU members were due to respond to the proposal by midnight on Friday, the German dpa news agency reported that Berlin has submitted its "strong rejection" to the EU Commission.

The country is turning its back on nuclear power and is in the process of shutting down its few remaining nuclear plants. This, however, has increased its reliance on natural gas — which the EU Commission has also declared "green" in the same taxonomy proposal.

The issue also seems to be controversial even inside the German ruling coalition, with Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck, from the Greens, openly slamming the proposed EU taxonomy as "greenwashing" and saying such a stance on gas and nuclear power would "water down" the sustainability label.

Germany rejects nuclear power 'sustainable' label

Government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said earlier that Berlin would voice its "firm conviction" that nuclear power should not be labeled eco-friendly.

"We believe this technology is too dangerous," she said. However, she was notably cautious when speaking about Berlin's stance on gas, describing it as a "bridge technology" aimed to help Germany transition to sustainable energy sources.

dj/sms (AFP, Reuters)

REST IN POWER

Thich Nhat Hanh: Influential Zen Buddhist monk dies at 95

A pioneer of the concept of mindfulness in the West, Thich Nhat Hanh was one of the world's most influential Buddhist monks. He died in Vietnam after years of living in exile.

  

Thich Nhat Hanh (center) spent his final years at the Tu Hieu temple in Vietnam

One of the world's most influential Buddhist monks, Thich Nhat Hanh, died in Vietnam on Saturday. He was 95.

Nhat Hanh "passed away peacefully" at the Tu Hie Temple, the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism said.

"We invite our beloved global spiritual family to take a few moments to be still, to come back to our mindful breathing, as we together hold [Nhat Hanh] in our hearts," the organization said on his Twitter account.

Who was Thich Nhat Hanh?

Nhat Hanh was a pioneer of Buddhism in the West, forming the "Plum Village" monastery in France. He spoke regularly on the practice of mindfulness.

"You learn how to suffer. If you know how to suffer, you suffer much, much less. And then you know how to make good use of suffering to create joy and happiness," he said in a 2013 lecture.

In the early 1960s, he lectured at Princeton and Columbia universities in the United States. Then he returned to Vietnam to join opposition to the US-Vietnam war.

Thich Nhat Hanh was known for spreading the practice of mindfulness

Toward the height of the Vietnam War, he met American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. "I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam," King wrote.

Fellow monk Haenim Sunim said Nhat Hanh was calm, attentive and loving.

"He was like a large pine tree, allowing many people to rest under his branches with his wonderful teaching of mindfulness and compassion," Haemin Sunim told Reuters news agency.

The Plum Village organization Nhat Hanh originally established in France has a number

 of branches around the world, including in Thailand (pictured)

Why was Nhat Hanh in exile?

The South Vietnamese government had banned Nhat Hanh from returning home due to his opposition to the war.

In 2014, Nhat Hanh suffered a stroke, which left him unable to speak. Four years later, he returned to his place of birth, Vietnam's central city of Hue, after having spent much of his adult life in exile.

Nhat Hanh was permitted by Vietnam's authorities to return, but was closely monitored by plainclothes police who kept vigil outside his gated compound.

sdi/fb (AFP, AP, Reuters)

GOD'S ROTWEILLER LED THE INQUISITION
Opinion: Pope Benedict's defense is outrageous and tragic

A report about how the archdiocese of Munich handled cases of sexual abuse by priests makes for devastating reading and tarnishes the image of the retired Pope Benedict XVI, says DW’s Christoph Strack.


Cardinal Reinhard Marx, right, has been the archbishop of Munich since 2007, while retired Pope Benedict XVI was in that position from 1977 until 1982

Before Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in April 2005, critics called him the "Panzerkardinal," or "tank cardinal," in reference to his sharp, dogmatic views: someone who uncompromisingly defended the church's traditional doctrine. Soon after his election to pontiff, there were reports that the reportedly tough ex-cardinal was capable of laughter and was even a softie, to everyone's surprise.

Now, Joseph Ratzinger is being described in a new way. One of the lawyers, whose office spent many months investigating abuse in Ratzinger's former diocese of Munich, said he had a "very rocklike way of dealing with things" — in reference to the accusation that he covered up abuse in the church.

A 'catalog of horrors'

The approximately 1,900 pages that a Munich law firm has compiled on the archdiocese of Munich-Freising's handling of sexual abuse cases are a "catalog of horrors."

One of the lawyers says so literally, several times. The thick volumes are also a document of church history — they represent a new dimension, a new stage in the investigation of sexual abuse.

DW's Christoph Strack

Since 1952, six archbishops headed the archdiocese in Munich. All of them had been cardinals before or were elevated to cardinals while in office. All six, without exception, were guilty, to varying degrees, of clear misconduct in dealing with sexual abuse cases. Three of the six are still alive.

And from 1977 to 1982, that same Joseph Ratzinger was archbishop of Munich, who then continued his career in Rome and ascended to the top of the Catholic Church as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. That's why the global Catholic community watched with bated breath the events in Munich on Thursday this week.

With regard to the five years that Ratzinger spent in Munich, the experts speak of four cases of misconduct in which the archbishop should have acted against abusive priests but did not. For example in the case of priests, whose acts of abuse were known, but who nevertheless continued with pastoral work.

Ratzinger himself reacted to the allegations in an 82-page written statement. In it, he rejects "allegations," claims ignorance of certain events or even says he does not remember them at all. He also firmly denies having attended a committee meeting at which a particularly nasty case of a cover-up was discussed. The experts from the law firm, however, prove with credible details that Ratzinger was there after all.
Church can't deal with the past on its own

Ratzinger's letter is an outrageous, and at the same time, tragic document. It's hard to read when this great theologian explains that for a canonical judicial procedure to be opened would have required "an offense directed at the arousal of sexual desire.” Let's not forget, we're talking here about minors!

In light of the report by the Munich law firm, there are four points worth holding on to:

1) It's important that the lawyers repeatedly and explicitly addressed the importance of the victims and the survivors of sexual violence and thanked them, appreciated their courage and their openness. That's something they didn't attribute to any clergyman. And they are right to demand that an ombudsman's office be set up to represent their interests. This is about dealing appropriately with victims, which the church can hardly do itself.

2) It is important to look at the parishes where abusive priests worked and which the church should be monitoring more closely. Entire communities, friendships and families have already been divided over allegations, assumptions and disappointments. Here, too, the church is sinning against its base.

3) The church obviously cannot deal with the past by itself — the state judiciary must intervene more decisively. That is evident, and not just because of Joseph Ratzinger's coldly worded statement. Two days before the publication of the Munich report, an archbishop stood trial for the first time in Cologne ⁠— another hotspot of church cover-ups and appeasement ⁠— as a witness in the proceedings against a priest and alleged sexual offender. The dignitary, Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg, suddenly stood before the judge and had to answer concisely, precisely and — ⁠ according to those present ⁠— meekly. This demonstrates that state prosecutors or judges should be pushing the legal process forward. The state, if it wants to at all, should take over prosecuting the crimes. This would also mean that victims would no longer have to face the perpetrators or their organizations.

4) And finally, the fourth point is that this clerical and episcopal-driven church that elevates itself and tries to cover up its filth is no longer the church of the present. If one can at all sense a line in Pope Francis' occasionally strange-sounding statements, it is the effort to keep alive the longing for God. And the church? Comes up somehow, too. But the exaltation of the past is over. The question is whether the Catholic Church will be able to cope with this.

Benedict XVI: ‘Rottweiler’ who resigned scandal-dogged papacy

By AFP
Published January 20, 2022

THE FACE OF EVIL

Benedict XVI resigned nearly eight years into a papacy beset by toxic infighting within the Church - Copyright POOL/AFP ANDY BUCHANAN

Ella IDE

Benedict XVI, accused of failing to act in German sex abuse cases, was the first pope to resign since the Middle Ages after presiding over a papacy beset by Church infighting and outcry over paedophilia.

The 94-year-old German, known for his conservative views, has lived a quiet life within the Vatican since his shock resignation in February 2013, and is said to be in shaky health.

But the issue of clerical sex abuse has cast long shadows over his retirement and on Thursday he was thrust back into the limelight when a report commissioned by the German church said he failed to stop four clerics accused of abuse.

A German law firm said Benedict failed to take action to stop the priests accused of child sex abuse when he was the archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982.

The former pope has “strictly” denied any responsibility, said lawyer Martin Pusch of Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, which carried out the probe.

Benedict had a troubled term in St Peter’s, when he often appeared overwhelmed by the challenges facing a Church that was losing influence and followers.

He came under fire for a string of PR blunders, a perceived lack of charisma and most importantly, his failure to act decisively to end Church cover-ups of clerical sex abuse.

In recent years, an ever-growing number of victims has come forward with testimonies of their suffering, mostly as children, at the hands of priests.

In 2010, he admitted that the Church “did not act quickly or firmly enough to take the necessary action” on an issue that severely tarnished its image.

– Two popes –

The Vatican turmoil took its toll on Benedict’s mental and physical state and culminated in his shock resignation announcement, delivered to cardinals in Latin.

“The strength of mind and body… has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry,” said Benedict, then 85.

Becoming Pope Emeritus, the soft-spoken Joseph Ratzinger still wears papal white but is rarely seen or heard in public.

Eclipsed by the dynamism and popularity of his successor Francis, Benedict was quoted a year after his resignation as saying that the decision was the result of a mystical experience.

He added that Francis’s strengths had helped him understand that it was God’s will for him to step aside.

In an interview in March 2021, he said “fanatical” Catholics have repeatedly voiced doubts about whether he stepped down willingly, with some even refusing to accept he’s no longer the head of the church.

But he insisted: “There is only one pope”.

– ‘God’s Rottweiler’ –

Ratzinger was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria. In 1941, he became a member of the Hitler Youth, as was compulsory for all 14-year-olds under the Nazis.

The future pope was ordained a priest in 1951 and was made a cardinal by 1977.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II asked him to head the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation — once known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition — a post which gave him ultimate responsibility to investigate abuse cases.

He went on to serve as the Church’s chief doctrinal enforcer, earning the nickname “God’s Rottweiler” and a reputation as a generally conservative thinker on theological issues.

Benedict was 78 when he succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005 — and almost eight years later, became the first pope since 1415 to resign.

He fought to stem growing secularism in the West and staunchly defended traditional Catholic teaching on abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage.

He angered the Muslim world with a speech in 2006 in which he appeared to endorse the view that Islam is inherently violent, sparking deadly protests in several countries as well as attacks on Christians.

His papacy was also marred by a money-laundering scandal at the Vatican bank, which exposed infighting among Benedict’s closest allies.

The pontiff also appeared to have lost control of his household: in 2012, his butler Paolo Gabriele leaked secret papers to the media, an act of betrayal which profoundly saddened the then pontiff.

Benedict as pope “was not really a dogmatic man, but rather a man who was disconnected from the real world,” said Jeffrey Klaiber, a religion professor at Lima’s Universidad Catolica.

Pope Francis vows 'justice' for church abuse victims after damning report

More needs to be done to enforce rules against perpetrators of sexual abuse, Pope Francis has said. Public prosecutors in Munich have also said they will investigate dozens of cases outlined in a scathing report.

  

The Pope has called for a stricter enforcement of the Church's canonical law against abusers

Pope Francis on Friday pledged to apply justice for the victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church a day after a report revealed that former Pope Benedict XVI had failed to act in four cases of abuse prior to becoming pope.

Thursday's report looked into sexual abuse cases by members of the clergy in the Munich archdiocese between 1945 and 2019. Ex-Pope Benedict XVI — known as Joseph Ratzinger at the time — was archbishop there between 1977 and 1985.

Pope Francis did not explicitly mention the report in his address. 

"The church, with God's help, is carrying out the commitment with firm determination to do justice to the victims of abuse by its members, applying with particular attention and rigor to the canonical legislation envisaged," the Pope said in his speech on Friday.

What did Pope Francis say?

Pope Francis was speaking from the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City to representatives from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is the Vatican authority charged with dealing with abuse allegations.

Ratzinger — who has resided in Vatican City since stepping down as pope — headed up the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for over 20 years before being elected as pope in 2005.

Francis highlighted the recent reforms to the canon law that aim to enable the Church to hold abusers to account better. He called for its strict application.

"This alone cannot be enough to curb the phenomenon, but it is an important step towards restoring justice, making amends for the scandal and changing a perpetrator," the 85-year-old pontiff said.

Two of the cases mentioned in the report pointed to perpetrators who had been punished by the German judicial system, but we're allegedly allowed to continue their work for the Church, thus avoiding consequences under canonical law.

Police open investigations into abuse

Public prosecutors in Munich also responded to the allegations in Thursday's report, announcing on Friday that they were opening investigations in 42 cases of alleged misconduct by leading members of the Catholic Church in Germany.

Ex-Pope Benedict XVI (L) and the current Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx (R)

 were both mentioned in the report

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government spokeswoman, Christiane Hoffmann, said on Friday it was "urgent that these matters be fully investigated and a comprehensive reappraisal be carried out."

The report makes "the extent of the abuse and breach of duty by church dignitaries shockingly clear," she said, adding that: "It is crucial that confidence in the process of coming to terms with the past is strengthened in the Catholic Church and by individual dignitaries."

Ratzinger and his successor as archbishop in the diocese of Munich and Freising, Friedrich Wetter, are both accused of direct and personal misconduct in the report.

While four cases relate to the time when Ratzinger held the role, another 21 have been connected to Wetter while yet another two have been connected to the current Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

ab/wmr (dpa, AP, AFP)

Farmers could forgo harmful fertilisers by growing black-eyed peas, scientists say

Lamiat Sabin
Thu, January 20, 2022

Joel Sachs, UCR professor of evolution and ecology, with black-eyed peas crops (Joel Sachs/UCR)

Growing black-eyed peas could eradicate the need for expensive and environmentally-damaging fertilisers for gardening, research from a US university has confirmed.

Legumes such as black-eyed peas, also known as cowpeas, are a unique category of crops in that they attract “substantial amounts” of nitrogen that is essential for also growing other plants.

They do this by forming a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria called rhizobia.

Rhizobia is attracted to the plant through chemicals the legumes crop emits through the roots. Then the roots form tumour-like nodules that protect the bacteria and supply them with carbon, for which the plant receives nitrogen to turn into ammonia.

The most prominent black scientist of the early 20th century – agriculturalist and inventor George Washington Carver – had popularised, researched, and taught on the growing of black-eyed peas, peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes to improve soil conditions.

George Washington Carver in 1910 (WikiCommons)

Now, scientists led by plant pathologist Gabriel Ortiz, of University of California Riverside (UCR), have said that modern-day farmers could forgo the use of costly and environmentally-damaging fertilisers by planting legumes.

Dr Ortiz said: “When the plant senses it is going to die, it releases the bacteria into the soil, replenishing it.

“Growers could alternate seasons of legumes with other crops, leaving the soil full of nitrogen-fixing bacteria that reduce the need for fertiliser.”

A black-eyed peas plant’s ability to attract the beneficial bacteria isn’t diminished by modern farming practices, the UCR research shows.

Joel Sachs, UCR professor of evolution and ecology, said: “In fact, some of the strains in the experiment appear to have gained more benefit from bacteria than their wild ancestors.”

He added: “To make agriculture more sustainable, one of the things we need to do is focus on the plant’s ability to get services from microbes already in the soil, rather than trying to get those services by dumping chemicals.”

When already-madenitrogen fertiliser is applied to plants at a rate faster than it can be used, the excess can end up in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas or washed out into lakes, rivers and seas.

In the aquatic system, nitrogen feeds “harmful algal blooms” – rapid accumulations of algae that typically turn the water green – that use up all the oxygen and end up killing fish.

The UCR experiments involved 20 different types of black-eyed peas, and “point toward a genetic basis for their symbiotic abilities” – the researchers said.

The research results have been published in the biology journal Evolution.

KURGAN CIVILIZATION

Ancient 'scepters' were actually straws for communal boozing, researchers say

Tom Metcalfe
Tue, January 18, 2022

Silver and gold tubes unearthed in an ancient tomb in southern Russia and long thought to be ceremonial staffs were, in fact, the earliest-known drinking straws, used by people 5,000 years ago to sip beer from a communal jar, according to research published Tuesday.

The practice mirrors a ceremonial method of drinking beer used by the Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia, a thousand miles to the south from where they were found, and it suggests that trade in the early Bronze Age included ideas as well as commodities, archaeologists say. The discovery also underlines the importance of beer to ancient peoples.

The objects were discovered more than 100 years ago during excavations of a burial mound near the Russian city of Maikop, just north of the Caucasus Mountains, but no one had advanced the idea that they were ancient drinking tubes before now.


“It never occurred to anyone,” said Viktor Trifonov, an archaeologist at the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, based in St. Petersburg, who is the lead author of a study of the objects published Tuesday in the journal Antiquity.

Schematic drawing of the set of

The ornate tubes, four of them decorated with bull figurines, were unearthed in 1897 from a large “kurgan” — a type of burial mound — beside the remains of a man thought to have been a king. The kurgan was filled with riches, including what was left of a garment decorated with semiprecious stones and gold, precious metal cups, weapons and tools. The remains of two women were also found in chambers of the tomb.

The objects now revealed to be drinking tubes were found lying beside the man’s body; the other items were lined up against the walls of the burial chamber.

The archaeologist who led the 19th century excavation described the mysterious objects as “scepters” — ceremonial staffs wielded by rulers — and they were put on display at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg with other finds from the Maikop kurgan.

Later, archaeologists theorized that they might be poles for a canopy held by servants during a funeral procession; another speculated that they might symbolize arrows that had killed a mythical bull, which was represented by the figurines.

But none of the explanations sounded right to Trifonov, who knew about the Sumerian practice of drinking beer through long tubes and had a hunch that these might have been used for the same purpose.

“The idea of reinterpreting the ‘scepters’ first came to me about a decade ago,” he said in an email. His initial suggestions, however, found no support, so he started the latest study a few years ago to see whether he could find more evidence.

His team focused its attention on what looked like a “strainer” of narrow slits in the ends of each of the tubes. Some Sumerian drinking tubes unearthed at archaeological sites had similar strainers made of small perforations at the end to filter out chaff and other impurities.

So when analysis of a residue found in the slits of one of the Maikop tubes revealed ancient barley starch, as well as pollen grains and phytoliths — microscopic deposits of silica from plant cells — Trifonov and his colleagues knew for sure that the “scepters” were, in fact, tubes for drinking beer.

“Everything else fell into place,” he said.

Trifonov and his team suggest that the Maikop people who built the kurgan used the tubes to drink beer from a communal vessel. A pottery jar was also found in the kurgan, large enough to provide each of eight drinkers — there are eight tubes — with about seven pints of beer.

Trifonov said it seems likely that this way of drinking beer was part of aristocratic ceremonies the Maikop people had adopted from Mesopotamia. Although the Maikop tubes are the earliest to have been found, the practice is shown on Sumerian seals that are at least 1,000 years older.

Archaeologist Mara Horowitz, an assistant professor at Purchase College in New York who was not involved in the latest study, broadly agreed with the interpretation by Trifonov and his colleagues.

“Having a whole set of metal straws placed in the Maikop kurgan is an extraordinary find,” she said.

The discovery shows how such practices could spread between ancient people who were great distances apart, she said.

“It’s very exciting to see the degree of connectivity across the Caucasus at this early date,” she said. “It is in the 3rd millennium B.C. that we have movements of culture and people across the Caucusus in both directions, with major effect on regional cultures.”

Horowitz also said the bull figurines on four of the drinking tubes could have been positioned so that the drinkers saw each figurine from the side.

“With four bulls on straws in the jar at once ... it would look like a procession of little bulls going around in a circle,” she said. “That’s really kind of adorable.”

Image: alamy.com

KURGAN PEOPLE CULTURE The Kurgan people culture existed during the fifth, fourth, and third millennia BC, they lived in northern Europe, from N.Pontic across Central Europe. The word “kurgan” means a mound or a barrow in Türkic. Kurgan culture is characterized by pit-graves or barrows, a particular method of burial.

KURGAN PEOPLE CULTURE | DENEMELER

esvat.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/kurgan-people-culture/

US-backed fighters chase IS gunmen near prison in Syria



SyriaThis photo provided by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces shows some Islamic State group fighters, who were arrested by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces after they attacked Gweiran Prison, in Hassakeh, northeast Syria, Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. IS attacks have been on the rise in recent months in both Iraq and neighboring Syria, where the group once set up a self-styled Islamic caliphate before being defeated by an international coalition. 

(Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, via AP)More

BASSEM MROUE
Sat, January 22, 2022

BEIRUT (AP) — Kurdish-led fighters advanced slowly Saturday under the cover of U.S.-led coalition air power in Syria's northeast. Intense clashes with Islamic State group militants took place around a prison where thousands of extremists were held, officials said.

Fighting broke out Thursday night when IS unleashed its biggest attack in Syria since the fall of its “caliphate” three years ago. More than 100 militants assaulted the main prison holding suspected extremists in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, sparking a battle with U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters that has so far left dozens dead.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces lost 17 fighters killed and 23 wounded since the fighting began, spokesman Farhad Shami tweeted Saturday. Dozens of IS gunmen were also killed.


Despite their defeat in Syria nearly three years ago, IS sleeper cells have carried out deadly attacks against SDF as well as government forces on the west bank of the Tigris River in eastern Syria.

The group’s territorial control in Syria and Iraq, where they once declared their “caliphate” was crushed by a years-long U.S.-backed campaign. But its fighters continued with sleeper cells that have increasingly killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians in past months.

The U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces brought more reinforcements into Hassakeh in an attempt to regain control of areas taken by IS, residents said. More civilians fled the areas of fighting as sounds of explosions echoed in the city and black smoke billowed from the Gweiran Prison area on the southern edge of Hassakeh.

Hassakeh Gov. Ghassan Khalil told Syrian state media that some 4,000 civilians have fled to areas controlled by Syrian government forces in the city and its suburbs. He told state TV that authorities set up three shelters for the displaced and mosques were also asked to open their doors for those who were forced to leave their homes.

Hassakeh-based journalist Adnan Hassan said in the early afternoon, a large SDF force consisting of scores of fighters, Humvees and vehicles carrying heavy machineguns arrived in the areas to boost the anti-IS operations.

SDF fighters “succeeded in thwarting the attempt to free the prisoners but it is not clear when they will have the situation under full control,” Hassan said.

Gweiran Prison is the largest of around a dozen facilities run by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces holding suspected IS fighters. Gweiran holds more than 3,000 inmates, including IS commanders and figures considered among the most dangerous.

“The battles are taking place on the edge of the prison,” SDF spokesman Siamand Ali told The Associated Press, adding that most of the prison is under their control apart from a small part that is held by rioting prisoners. He added that fighting is also ongoing in the nearby Zuhour neighborhood, where IS fighters were holed up.

Ali said SDF fighters and U.S.-led coalition aircraft targeted a technical academy building where dozens of "Daesh terrorists took positions.” Ali, who used an Arabic acronym to refer to IS, said SDF fighters are advancing slowly in order to protect the lives of civilians as IS gunmen are holed up in alleys and in residential homes.

He said the SDF's elite anti-terrorism unit and commandos are leading the operations that intensified Saturday night in neighborhoods east of the prison, where scores of IS fighters are holed up. He said SDF officials are at the same time trying to convince rioting detainees to surrender, because a confrontation inside the prison "could have grave consequences” due to the large numbers of detainees.

Ali said some 45 IS gunmen were killed in the fighting and dozens of prisoners who fled were recaptured.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said that since Thursday night, 89 people have been killed, including 56 IS gunmen, 28 Kurdish fighters and five civilians. The Observatory added that SDF fighters were using loud speakers to call on IS fighters to surrender but the extremists refused.

On Friday, the SDF’s top military commander, Mazloum Abadi, said IS mobilized “most of its sleeper cells” to organize the prison break.

The militants, armed with heavy machine guns and vehicles rigged with explosives, attacked Thursday evening, aiming to free their comrades.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday the U.S. used airstrikes to support the SDF.

On Friday an SDF spokesman said they recaptured 104 militants who escaped from the prison. But he said the total number who had broken out was not determined.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the prison break on its Aamaq news service Friday, describing it as ongoing. Freeing convicts and imprisoned comrades has been a main tactic of the group. During their 2014 surge that overwhelmed territory in Iraq and Syria, IS carried out multiple prison breaks.

At its height, the Islamic State group’s self-styled caliphate covered a third of both of Iraq and Syria. The ensuing war against them lasted several years, killed thousands, and left large parts of the two neighboring countries in ruins. It also left U.S.-allied Kurdish authorities in control of eastern and northeastern Syria, with a small presence of several hundred American forces still deployed.

Afghanistan: UN pressures Taliban over missing women's activists

One of the two women who went missing in Afghanistan had posted a video of herself as men, allegedly from the Taliban's intelligence department, are heard pounding on her door. But the Taliban say the video is fake.


Afghan women's rights activists continued to fight for their rights under the Taliban regime

The United Nations said it was concerned about the disappearance of two Afghan women's rights activists. Taman Zaryabi Paryani and Parawana Ibrahimkhel were reportedly abducted from their homes by the Taliban on Wednesday night.

"We urge Taliban to provide information on their whereabouts & to protect rights of all Afghans," the UN's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement on Twitter.

Activist films distressing video

One of the activists managed to film a harrowing video apparently from her home in Kabul.

The video shows a visibly scared Paryani, as men claiming to be from the Taliban's intelligence department, pound on the front door.

According to local broadcaster Aamaj News, Paryani was disconnected shortly after sharing the video with the network.

Ibrahimkhel apparently went missing on the same night.

Paryani was among a group of women who had protested the forced wearing of the hijab.

A witness told the AP news agency that ten armed men had carried out the nighttime raid. The witness said that four people were taken, including Paryani.

The Taliban have dismissed Paryani 's video as a fake, with a spokesman for police in Kabul, Mobin Khan, saying it was a "manufactured drama."

UN experts say women are being 'erased'

On Monday, a panel of UN human rights experts said the Taliban's leadership was "institutionalizing large-scale and systemic gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls."

According to the panel, there have been a series of restrictive measures that target women since the militant group's takeover of Afghanistan.

"Today, we are witnessing the attempt to steadily erase women and girls from public life in Afghanistan, including in institutions and mechanisms that had been previously set up to assist and protect those women and girls who are most at risk," the panel of experts said in a statement.

On Friday, two local employees of NGOs operating in rural Afghanistan told the AFP news agency that the Taliban threatened to shoot them if they did not wear burqas.

The Taliban had given its assurances they would uphold women's rights shortly after seizing power. The Islamist group has continued trying to garner recognition from the global community. To date, no country has recognized its government.

Taliban storm Kabul apartment, arrest activist, her sisters

KATHY GANNON
Thu, January 20, 2022

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban stormed an apartment in Kabul, smashing the door in rresting a woman rights activist and her three sisters, an eyewitness said Thursday. A Taliban statement appeared to blame the incident on a recent women's protest, saying insulting Afghan values will no longer be tolerated.

The activist, Tamana Zaryabi Paryani, was among about 25 women who took part in an anti-Taliban protest on Sunday against the compulsory Islamic headscarf, or hijab, for women. A person from the neighborhood who witnessed the arrest said about 10 armed men, claiming to be from the Taliban intelligence department, carried out the raid on Wednesday night.

Shortly before she and her sisters were taken away, footage of Paryani was posted on social media, showing her frightened and breathless and screaming for help, saying the Taliban were banging on her door.

“Help please, the Taliban have come to our home . . . only my sisters are home,” she is heard saying in the footage. There are other female voices in the background, crying. “I can’t open the door. Please . . . help!”

Associated Press footage from the scene on Thursday showed the apartment's front door, made of metal and painted reddish brown, dented and left slightly ajar. The occupants of a neighboring apartment ran inside their home, not wanting to talk to reporters. An outer security door of steel slats was shut and padlocked, making it impossible to enter Paryani’s apartment.

The witness said the raid took place around 8 p.m. The armed men went up to the third floor of the Kabul apartment complex where Paryani lives and began pounding on the front door ordering her to open the door.

When she refused, they kicked the door repeatedly until it opened, the witness said. “They took four females away, all of them were sisters,” the witness said, adding that one of the four was Paryani, the activist.

The witness spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing Taliban reprisal.

The spokesman for the Taliban-appointed police in Kabul, Gen. Mobin Khan, tweeted that Paryani's social video post was a manufactured drama. A spokesman for the Taliban intelligence, Khalid Hamraz, would neither confirm nor deny the arrest.

However, he tweeted that “insulting the religious and national values of the Afghan people is not tolerated anymore” — a reference to Sunday's protest during which the protesters appeared to burn a white burqa, the all-encompassing traditional head-to-toe female garment that only leaves a mesh opening for the eyes.

Hamraz accused rights activists of maligning Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers and their security forces to gain asylum in the West.

Since sweeping to power in mid-August, the Taliban have imposed widespread restrictions, many of them directed at women. Women have been banned from many jobs, outside the health and education field, their access to education has been restricted beyond sixth grade and they have been ordered to wear the hijab. The Taliban have, however, stopped short of imposing the burqa, which was compulsory when they previously ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s.

At Sunday's demonstration in Kabul, women carried placards demanding equal rights and shouted: “Justice!” They burned a white burqa and said they cannot be forced to wear the hijab. Organizers of the demonstration said Paryani attended the protest, which was dispersed after the Taliban fired tear gas into the crowd of women.

Paryani belongs to a rights group known as “Seekers of Justice," which organized several demonstrations in Kabul, including Sunday's. The group's members have not spoken publicly of her arrest but have been sharing the video of Paryani.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch criticized the crackdown, saying that since taking over Afghanistan five months ago, the Taliban “have rolled back the rights of women and girls, including blocking access to education and employment for many."

“Women’s rights activists have staged a series of protests; the Taliban has responded by banning unauthorized protests,” the watchdog said in a statement after Sunday's protest.

The Taliban have increasingly targeted Afghanistan's beleaguered rights groups, as well as journalists, with local and international television crews covering demonstration often detained and sometimes beaten.

Also Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement asking the Taliban to investigate a recent attack on a documentary film maker Zaki Qais who said two armed men, who identified themselves as Kabul police officials, entered his home and beat him. One tried to stab him, according to Steven Butler, the CPJ's Asia program coordinator.

"Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers must immediately launch an investigation to identify and bring to justice those who attacked journalist Zaki Qais,” said Butler. “The Taliban’s continued silence on these repeated attacks on journalists undermines any remaining credibility of pledges to allow independent media to continue operating.”

Last week the CPJ sought information on an attack on another Kabul-based journalist, Noor Mohammad Hashemi, deputy director for the non profit Salam Afghanistan Media Organization, who was beaten up by three unidentified men.

This Year Marks the 75th Anniversary Since Former Scientists Created the Doomsday Clock

David Grossman, Courtney Linder
Fri, January 21, 2022

Photo credit: Tony Craddock - Getty Images

For the third year in a row, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has decided to keep its Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight.

The Doomsday Clock isn't updated on a set time frame, but rather, as events dictate. You can thank the pandemic, climate change, the rise of misinformation, and the threat of nuclear war for this update.

This year marks the 75th anniversary since former Manhattan Project scientists created the Doomsday Clock in 1947.

Life as we know it is still on the brink of disaster.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit organization made up of scientists and global security experts, has published a new statement deriding the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and expressing concern about nuclear weapons, misinformation, and climate change.

☢️ You like nuclear. So do we. Let's nerd out over it together.

The organization announced for the third year in a row that it is keeping its figurative Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight—the closest we've come to a symbolic apocalypse since the first tests of the hydrogen bomb in 1953. This year also marks 75 years since the organization began tracking our inevitable demise.

"Steady is not good news," Sharon Squassoni, a research professor at George Washington University's Institute for International Science and Technology Policy and a co-chair on the Bulletin's Science and Security Board, said during a press briefing on Thursday. "In fact, it reflects the judgment of the board that we are stuck in a perilous moment, one that brings neither stability nor security."

The experts cited a lack of progress and coordination in the fight against climate change, the ongoing pandemic and evolution of troubling new variants, and North Korea's continued efforts to develop nuclear weapons. They also blamed use of technology in misinformation and disinformation campaigns; the development of hypersonic weapons by the United States, Russia, and China; recent space junk-generating ASAT tests; and deteriorating talks between the world's superpowers.

Photo credit: EVA HAMBACH - Getty Images

Still, the 2022 statement from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists did offer up a few positive developments, citing a return to the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran Nuclear Deal, and the extension of New START arms control agreement. "A more moderate and predictable approach to leadership and the control of one of the two largest nuclear arsenals of the world marked a welcome change from the previous four years," they wrote.

But it was not enough to move the dial backward. While the reason for the Doomsday Clock's slow march toward societal ruin is, frankly, pretty obvious, there's another question you may have. What is this metaphorical clock all about, anyway?
Enter the Atomic Era

The year was 1945, and the atomic bomb had just changed the boundaries of science forever. Like the advent of the machine gun, tank and airplane, the atomic bomb changed the shape of warfare. Unlike previous weapons, however, the bomb threatened to destroy the whole human race.

There was no concrete way to measure or or explain the atomic bomb in comparison to more traditional arms, so a group of scientists—among them, Albert Einstein, Hy Goldsmith and Manhattan Project alums J. Robert Oppenheimer and Eugene Rabinowitch—determined the public needed a nontechnical magazine to become fully aware of such dangers. Enter the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. "To say the Bulletin was founded on a shoestring would be to describe it as overdressed at birth," declared a 1949 issue of the magazine.

The transition from government scientists working with a wartime budget to struggling magazine editors was not an easy one. The magazine started as a six-page black-and-white newsletter, and by 1947, its publishers had come up with enough funds—by taking on debt and taking donations—to print a full issue.

To actually put the magazine out, Goldsmith turned to Martyl Langsdorf, the wife of fellow Manhattan Project veteran Alexander Langsdorf. Speaking to the History Channel for an episode of Modern Marvels, Langsdorf recalled that "he gave no instructions, except that it can't cost much ... All the scientists felt an urgency to explain what had happened with the bomb, and because of the extreme urgency, I remember, a clock seemed to be important."

Photo credit: Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

"The hands of the clock of doom have moved again," wrote Rabinowitch in 1953. "Only a few more swings of the pendulum, and, from Moscow to Chicago, atomic explosions will strike midnight for Western civilization." Rabinowitch's writing has a style of tension and doom fitting the atomic era, and the name stuck.

The Doomsday Clock isn't updated on a set time frame, but rather, as events dictate. In fact, the most recent move is only the 23rd in the clock's 70-year history. When Rabinowitch wrote those fateful words in 1953, he placed the clock at 2 minutes to midnight, the closest it had ever been.

The Doomsday Clock went backwards when the SALT and ABM treaties were signed in 1972, and then forward again in 1998, when both India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons. The clock moved as far back as 17 minutes in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, almost enough time to squeeze a TV show before the end of the world.

This focus on nuclear came about because, current publisher Rachel Bronson notes, in "1947 there was one technology with the potential to destroy the planet, and that was nuclear power." The ways humanity has invented to destroy itself have multiplied since then, and in 2007, the Doomsday Clock began to consider climate change as "a dire challenge to humanity."

The Doomsday Clock is one of the rarest things available to scientists: an easily recognizable icon that can grab a passerby with no scientific background. In short, it's exactly what Rabinowitch and Goldsmith wanted.