UK

Numbers of nurses and midwives leaving NHS highest for four years

More nurses leave NHS than at any time since Covid struck, many reporting stress as their main reason

The NHS in England has almost 40,000 nursing posts 

and more than 8,000 posts for doctors unfilled.

Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA


Denis Campbell 

Health policy editor

THE GUARDIAN

Wed 18 May 2022

More than 27,000 nurses and midwives quit the NHS last year, with many blaming job pressures, the Covid pandemic and poor patient care for their decision.

The rise in staff leaving their posts across the UK – the first in four years – has prompted concern that frontline workers are under too much strain, especially with the NHS-wide shortage of nurses.

New figures show the NHS is also becoming more reliant on nurses and midwives trained overseas as domestic recruitment remains stubbornly low.

In a report on Wednesday, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) discloses that the numbers in both professions across the UK has risen to its highest level – 758,303.
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However, while 48,436 nurses and midwives joined its register, 27,133 stopped working last year – 25,219 nurses, 1,474 midwives and 304 who performed both roles. That was higher than the 23,934 who did so during 2020 after Covid struck, and 25,488 who left in 2019.

“With more than 500 nurses and midwives leaving every week, there’s no room for government complacency [about NHS staffing],” said Sara Gorton, the head of health at the union Unison.

Andrea Sutcliffe, the NMC’s chief executive, said that while the record number of nurses and midwives was good news, “a closer look at our data reveals some worrying signs”. She cited the large number of leavers and the fact that “those who left shared troubling stories about the pressure they’ve had to bear during the pandemic”.

The NMC asked 6,458 of those who quit last year for the three main reasons they had done so. Too much pressure (18.3%), negative workplace culture (13%), Covid (11.8%) and disillusion with the quality of care that patients receive (8.1%) emerged as key factors, although retirement (42.9%) and a change in personal circumstances (21.7%) were the two commonest reasons. “Too much pressure” was defined as staff feeling stressed and having poor mental health.

The NHS in England has almost 40,000 nursing posts and more than 8,000 posts for doctors unfilled. The supply of homegrown nurses has increased only slightly despite the government reinstating financial support worth up to £8,000 a year for trainee nurses.

Of the 48,436 staff who joined the NMC register, just under half – 23,408 (48%) – were from abroad, of whom 66% were trained in India or the Philippines. That is a huge increase on the 2,719 who came in 2017-18. James Buchan, a senior visiting fellow at the Health Foundation thinktank, said: “International recruitment is very much a short-term, quick-fix solution that may come at the expense of long-term workforce planning and domestic supply.”

Pat Cullen, the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, raised concerns about the NHS taking nurses from low-income countries. “The UK’s health and care workforce is proudly diverse, but it [recruitment] must be done ethically,” she said.

Brexit has badly hit the NHS workforce, the NMC figures show. In 2015-16, before the June 2016 referendum on EU membership, 9,389 nurses and midwives came to work in the UK from the EU and European Economic Area. Last year just 663 did so, the lowest number for many years. Fewer than 1,000 have done so each year since 2017-18.

Sajid Javid, the health and social care secretary, welcomed the record numbers on the NMC register. “I’m determined to continue growing the workforce to help us tackle the Covid backlog and reduce waiting lists, and we are on track to deliver 50,000 more nurses by 2024, with over 30,000 more working in the NHS since September 2019,” he said.

NHS; Half of new nurses and midwives come from overseas

Ella Pickover
Wed, May 18, 2022, 

New nursing figures released (PA) (PA Wire)

Concerns have been raised about the UK’s overreliance on overseas nurses and midwives after new figures suggest that a significant number of new workers come from abroad.

Almost half (48 per cent) of the 48,436 people who joined the nursing and midwifery workforce in the last year have come from different countries, with the vast majority (66 per cent) coming from India and the Philippines.

Leading nurses questioned how sustainable it is to “recruit half of all new nurses from around the world”.

It comes as the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) released it annual figures on the numbers of nurses and midwives registered to work in the UK.

While the figures suggest an overall increase in the number of staff – with some 758,300 now registered to work in Britain – concerns have been raised about the rising number of people leaving the register.

A total of 27,133 people left the NMC register in 2021/22 – 13 per cent more than the year before.

Among 6,500 nurses and midwives who responded to a “leavers’ survey” ,the top reasons for leaving were retirement, personal circumstances or “too much pressure”.

The report states that stress and poor mental health are factors in “many people’s decision to stop practising”.

Midwives were the most likely to cite this reason, closely followed by mental health nurses.

The figures also suggest one in five nurses and midwives (21 per cent) working in the UK are “of potential retirement age”.

Andrea Sutcliffe, chief executive and registrar at the NMC, said: “Our register is at the highest level ever. This is good news considering all the pressures of the last two years but a closer look at our data reveals some warning signs.

“The total number of people leaving the register has risen, after a steady and welcome fall over the previous four years.

“Another note of caution is that growth of the workforce has become more reliant on internationally trained professionals joining our register.

“These professionals make a welcome and vital contribution to our nation’s health and wellbeing. But we can’t take them for granted.

“Two years ago, we felt the pandemic’s impact on global travel; the number of international joiners to our register fell sharply. A future pandemic or other global disruption could see history repeat itself, but with an even bigger impact on the overall growth of the register.

“We also need to make sure that we are supporting, valuing and rewarding our internationally trained joiners so their careers can thrive in the UK.”

Commenting on the figures, Pat Cullen, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “The loss of 25,000 registered nurses last year is being felt profoundly by both patients and nurses alike.

“When we have tens of thousands of vacant nurse jobs, a sharp rise in leavers should not be overlooked while we welcome new recruits.

“Ministers should avoid overclaiming today – nursing staff tell us these shortages are biting more than ever.

“We again question how sustainable it is to recruit half of all new nurses from around the world. The UK’s health and care workforce is proudly diverse, but it must be done ethically and come at the same time as increased investment in education and domestic workers.

“In the interests of safe patient care, ministers across the UK must act decisively to retain today’s experienced nurses and inspire tomorrow’s.”

Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, added: “We are already 2,000 midwives short in England, yet the number in the NHS continues to fall while demands on maternity services grow.

“Other UK countries are also facing pressures.

“This is not sustainable and is without doubt having an impact on the safety and quality of care for women, babies and their families.

“It is also putting massive and unreasonable pressures on NHS midwives and maternity support workers – already battered by the pandemic – and many are starting to vote with their feet and leave the NHS.”

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, added: “It is concerning to see a rise in the number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates leaving the register, reversing the trend of recent years.

“Workforce shortages across the NHS, with more than 110,000 vacancies, are a huge risk to patient safety by impacting the quality of care that overstretched staff can provide – ‘too much pressure’ is the third most common reason cited by leavers.”

8th sandstorm since April turns everything orange, overwhelms Iraq

Allison Finch
Tue, May 17, 2022

Another sandstorm blanketed Iraq Monday, turning the skies orange and forcing schools and offices to close, as well as suspending flights at Baghdad Airport. This is the eighth dust storm since mid-April to hit the country, which has been plagued by desertification, record-low rainfall and climate change.

On Monday, satellites captured the massive cloud of sand from above as it raced across Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia. As sand blew through Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, buildings turned orange and sand crept into homes.

Schools and universities shut down and postponed end-of-the-year exams to Tuesday. Due to limited visibility, flights were suspended at Baghdad, Najaf and Sulaimaniyah airports Monday. Government offices in seven of Iraq's 28 provinces, including Baghdad, were ordered by authorities to shut down for the day.


People walk on a street during a sandstorm in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 16, 2022. 

(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Amid all the closures, health facilities remained open to assist those most at risk. According to a report from AFP, by Monday afternoon, 2,000 people were admitted to hospitals across Iraq in need of oxygen.

Khaled Jassem, a patient in Baghdad's Sheikh Zayed Hospital, was hooked up to an oxygen tank.

"We've been here since 8 a.m.," Jassem's son, Walid Jassem, told AFP. "My father has a heart ailment, diabetes, hypertension and is suffocating on the dust."

Another patient, Hadi Saada, was hooked up to a respirator in the hospital's intensive care unit. His son said it was the third time his father, who has a heart condition, was in the hospital since the sandstorms started in April.

In early May, an intense sandstorm was blamed for at least one fatality and sent at least 5,000 people to hospitals suffering from breathing problems, according to Al Jazeera.

The seemingly constant barrage of dust storms is weighing on some locals. Ahmed Zaman, a 23-year-old taxi driver told Al Jazeera, "It's every three or four days now," and added that the frequency of the sandstorms is "clearly a result of climate change and lack of rain. Whenever there's wind, it just kicks up dust and sand."

In Syria's eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq, two people were killed in Monday's sandstorm, and hundreds of people were hospitalized, according to The Associated Press.


People with breathing problems are treated at a hospital during a sandstorm in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

According to critics, the Iraqi government has not done enough to deal with the impacts of desertification, the process in which fertile land turns into desert. Essa Fayadh, a senior Environment Ministry official, told the AP that the nation's water reserves are down 50% from last year.

"For this reason, we could only divert water to irrigate 50% of agricultural lands this year," Fayadh said.

Iraq is known in Arabic as the land of two rivers -- a reference to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The water supply from both rivers has been declining for years and the World Bank has warned that Iraq could potentially suffer a 20% drop in water resources by 2050.

While the Iraqi government blames the failed dam projects in Iran and Turkey for limiting the river flows into Iraq, climate activists blame the Iraqi government for its poor water management policies, which have resulted in an increased amount of sandstorms.

Even though the Middle East is prone to seasonal sandstorms, experts and officials warn the frequency of storms in recent years is alarming.

World’s tallest building engulfed as Mideast sandstorms hit UAE

AFP
May 18, 2022


The dust storm obscured the Dubai skyline on Wednesday

Dubai – The world’s tallest building disappeared behind a grey layer of dust on Wednesday as sandstorms that have swept the Middle East hit the United Arab Emirates, prompting weather and traffic warnings.

The 828-metre (2,716 ft, 6ins) Burj Khalifa, which towers over Dubai and is usually visible across the busy financial hub, retreated behind a curtain of airborne dirt that shrouded much of the country.

The UAE is just the latest country in the path of sandstorms that have smothered Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran and others in recent days, closing airports and schools and sending thousands to hospital with breathing problems.

Capital city Abu Dhabi’s air quality index (AQI) soared into the “hazardous” zone overnight, according to waqi.info and the Plume pollution app.

The Middle East’s sandstorms are becoming more frequent and intense, a trend associated with overgrazing and deforestation, overuse of river water and more dams.

Experts say the phenomenon could worsen as climate change warps regional weather patterns and drives desertification.

Emirati authorities issued a nationwide warning urging residents to remain vigilant.

“Abu Dhabi Police urges drivers to be cautious due to low visibility during high winds and dust,” the police force tweeted, as residents took to social media to publish photos and videos.

“Please do not be distracted by taking any videos or using your phone,” it added.

– ‘Hazardous weather’ –

A National Center for Meteorology graphic showed nearly all the country covered by the storm, with the warning: “Be on the alert: hazardous weather events are expected.”

Winds with speeds up to 40 kilometres (25 miles) per hour are blowing the dust, it said, reducing visibility in some areas to less than 2,000 metres (2,200 yards).

However, a Dubai airports spokesman said there was no impact on air traffic. Weather conditions were expected to remain the same for the next few days.

In neighbouring Saudi Arabia, badly hit on Tuesday, conditions eased in the capital Riyadh on Wednesday but continued to restrict visibility in the city centre.

Emergency rooms in Riyadh hospitals received some 1,285 people suffering from respiratory problems over 24 hours from the sandstorm, the state-run Al-Ekhbariya channel reported late on Tuesday.

The Saudi national weather centre reported that dust was also affecting visibility in the west and south, specifically in Assir, Najran, Hael and Medina provinces. Medina is home to Medina city, the second-holiest city in Islam.

The centre predicted another sandstorm would arrive in the kingdom by Sunday.

Tense times ahead for Lebanon after elections

AFP 

Hezbollah's opponents might rejoice at their loss of majority in parliament but Lebanon's packed political calendar now sets the stage for protracted deadlocks at best or violence at worst.

Sunday's polls passed without any major incident, in itself an achievement in a country which has a history of political violence and is suffering its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Iran-backed Hezbollah is a major political and military force, described by its supporters a bulwark against enemy Israel and by its detractors as a state within a state whose continued existence prevents any kind of democratic change in Lebanon.


© ANWAR AMROA

 Lebanese woman shows her ink-stained thumb after casting her vote at Sunday's parliamentary election

Hezbollah and its allies lost the clear majority they had in the outgoing parliament, despite a flurry of televised addresses by the Shiite group's leader Hassan Nasrallah in the week running up to the vote.

The biggest winners were the Christian Lebanese Forces party and new faces born of a 2019 secular protest movement, all of whom have a clear stance against Hezbollah.

"Old guard parties will seek to assert their political dominance in the face of the reformists who have entered parliament for the first time," said analyst Lina Khatib, head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House.


© Mahmoud ZAYYAT

Supporters of Lebanon's Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah hold portraits of the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah

- Speaker election -

As of May 22, after the current assembly's mandate expires, the new lawmakers will have 15 days to pick a speaker, a position Nabih Berri has held since 1992 and is not intent on leaving despite reaching the age of 84.

By convention, Lebanon's prime minister position is reserved for a Sunni Muslim, the presidency goes to a Maronite Christian and the post of speaker to a Shiite Muslim.

Berri is a deeply polarising figure but all Shiite seats in parliament were won by Hezbollah and the veteran speaker's own Amal party, which rules out the emergence of a consensual candidacy.

The election will be a first test of how willing Hezbollah's opponents are to challenge the Shiite tandem.

The leader of the Tehran-backed movement's parliamentary group set the tone as early as Monday when he warned rivals against becoming "shields for the Israelis".

His words were a reply to Samir Geagea, whose Lebanese Forces have championed the case for disarming Hezbollah, and had laid down the gauntlet by vowing never to support Berri's re-election or join a unity government.

The new polarisation of Lebanese politics raises fears of a repeat of deadly violence that broke out in Beirut last year between Hezbollah-aligned fighters and FL supporters.

The L'Orient-Le Jour daily stressed in an analysis that Hezbollah's parliament majority in recent years had enabled it "not to resort to terror to impose its decisions and preserve its red lines".

- Government formation -

"The risk of a total stalemate is real, deadlocks are a Lebanese speciality," said Daniel Meier, a France-based researcher.

In Lebanon's unique and chaotic brand of sectarian consensus politics, forming a government can take months, even when the country faces multiple emergencies.

Between the two latest elections, two out of four years were spent under a caretaker government with limited powers as the country's political barons haggled over cabinet line-ups.

The latest government, led by billionaire Najib Mikati, has only been in place since September 2021 after a 13-month vacuum.

It was billed a mostly technocratic government tasked with guiding Lebanon to recovery, but each minister was endorsed by one of Lebanon's perennial heavyweights.

Whether any of the 13 MPs labelled as representing the interests of the 2019 anti-establishment uprising would consider joining a coalition government with that same establishment is doubtful.

"There is change in the balance of power but this will not translate in a programme for change because despite everything Hezbollah keeps its veto power," analyst Sami Nader said.

A quick fix would be to keep the Mikati government in a caretaker capacity until the presidential election.

- Presidential election -

That is the last but not the least of the major hurdles in the institutional calendar.

Due by the end of the year, the new parliament's pick for a president to succeed Michel Aoun, who will be 89 by then, was further complicated by the latest election.

He groomed his son-in-law Gebran Bassil for years but the electoral surge of the Lebanese Forces, the Christian rivals of Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, is a spanner in the family works.

Army chief Joseph Aoun has already been tipped as an alternative but talks could drag on.

"Probably we will have a long period of stalemate in the parliament," said Joseph Bahout, a professor at the American University of Beirut.

He predicted a tunnel of institutional deadlocks could delay reforms requested by the International Monetary Fund for a critically needed rescue package until the spring of 2023.

bur-jmm/dv

Hezbollah lose ground, reformists surge in Lebanon polls

Hezbollah did not hesitate to display mock-ups of its firepower during the campaign but its military arsenal is the main issue polarising the new parliament (AFP/IBRAHIM AMRO)More

Jean-Marc Mojon
Tue, May 17, 2022, 3:35 AM·4 min read

Shiite group Hezbollah and its allies lost their majority in Lebanon's parliament, official results showed Tuesday, while independents achieved a surprise breakthrough.

Full results announced by the interior ministry two days after the election revealed that no bloc will control the 128-seat assembly, a deadlock observers fear could usher in a tense period of political jostling.

The polls, the first since Lebanon was ravaged by its worst ever economic crisis and a cataclysmic explosion at Beirut port in 2020, were seen as a prerequisite for a crucial IMF bailout.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its main allies had the support of around 70 lawmakers in the outgoing parliament but will now fall just short of the 65 seats needed to retain a majority.


Their strongest opponents in parliament will be led by the Christian Lebanese Forces party of former warlord Samir Geagea, that raked in several new seats on the back of a virulent anti-Hezbollah campaign.

New reformist faces who entered the legislative race on the values of a 2019 anti-establishment uprising made a stronger showing that many had predicted.

At least 13 independents who backed the 2019 protest movement won seats. Twelve of them will sit in parliament for the first time.

Together with other non-aligned MPs who have sometimes supported the now-defunct protest movement's demands, they could find themselves in a kingmaking position but they would need the kind of unity they failed to achieve during the campaign.

- Breakthrough -

Only eight women were voted into parliament.

One of the most notable victories notched up by independents was the election in southern Lebanon of Elias Jradeh and Firas Hamdan for seats that Hezbollah and its allies had not lost in three decades.

"We will cooperate with all the winners who share the same political orientation and we have to put together a common workplan," Hamdan told AFP.

"There's a lot of work to be done and a new type of political performance that should be demonstrated," he said.

Another major satisfaction for those described in Lebanon as the "thawra" (revolution, in Arabic) candidates, was the defeat of several reviled MPs loyal to the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

In what was interpreted by independents as a gesture of spite by Hezbollah, a group of youths on scooters descended on Martyrs Square overnight and burned down the "revolution fist".

The temporary monument had become a visual symbol of the secular protests that swept Lebanon in October 2019 and had raised hopes of democratic change.

The movement lost momentum as Lebanon's ruling cartel of sectarian political barons bided their time and one of the sharpest economic downturns of our time muffled popular discontent.

The parliamentary elections were a first major test for those in the protest camp who chose to enter the political fray.

Hezbollah and its ally Amal retained all 27 parliament seats reserved for Shiite lawmakers but the Christian bloc led by President Michel Aoun and other coalition partners lost a little ground.

- Crisis ahead? -

The main issue that polarises parliament is Hezbollah's right to keep an arsenal that is often described as equivalent to or better than the state's.

Some see it as a historical right and the best defence for the small Mediterranean country while others consider Hezbollah's weapons to be the root of all of Lebanon's ills.

Sami Nader, an analyst with the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, said that Hezbollah had suffered symbolic losses but was sceptical the polls could yield radical changes.

"Hezbollah and the Iranian axis took a blow but will this pave way for change in Lebanon? I have doubts," he told AFP.

The formation of a government, the election of parliament's speaker and the presidential election could all be very contentious and lead to protracted political crises.

Speaker Nabih Berri has held his job since 1992.

President Michel Aoun, the world's third oldest head of state, had long planned for his son-in-law Gebran Bassil to take over but the Lebanese Forces' surge in the polls could disrupt that scenario.

Lebanon shares power among its religious communities, and politics is often treated as a family business. By convention, the president is a Maronite Christian, the premier a Sunni Muslim, and the parliamentary speaker a Shiite.

Despite a turnout of 41 percent on Sunday, the UN envoy to Lebanon said "the elections were a vital expression of Lebanon's citizen engagement, which should serve to strengthen the country's institutions."

bur-jmm/

Hezbollah and allies lose majority in Lebanese parliament, final results show



Tue, May 17, 2022, 3:19 AM·4 min read
By Laila Bassam and Timour Azhari

(Reuters) -Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies have lost their majority in Lebanon's parliament in a general election, a Reuters tally of final results showed on Tuesday, a major blow to the heavily armed group that reflects anger with Lebanon's ruling elite.

The Shi'ite Muslim movement and factions that support its possession of arms won around 62 of parliament's 128 seats in Sunday's election, a reversal of the 2018 result when they secured a majority of 71.

In the first election since Lebanon's economic collapse and the Beirut port explosion of 2020, reform-minded political newcomers won about a dozen seats, making an unexpectedly strong breakthrough into a system long dominated by the same groups.

Hezbollah opponents including the Saudi-aligned Lebanese Forces - a Christian faction - gained ground. It won around 19 seats, up from 15 in 2018, while the Hezbollah-allied Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) kept 18 seats, according to officials from both parties.

The results leave parliament split into several camps, none of which have a majority, raising the prospect of political paralysis and tensions that could delay reforms needed to steer the country out of its devastating economic crisis.

"Fragmentation has increased in the parliament, and this makes the process of legislation and forming majorities difficult," FPM leader Gebran Bassil said in a Tuesday news conference, calling on newcomers to work together with his party.

While the 2018 election pulled Lebanon closer into the orbit of Shi'ite Muslim-led Iran, these results could open the way for Saudi Arabia to reassert influence in a country that has long been an arena for its regional rivalry with Tehran.

The Saudi ambassador to Lebanon took an apparent swipe at Hezbollah on Tuesday without naming them, tweeting that the result "proves the inevitability that the logic of the state will win against the absurd excesses of the statelet disrupting political life and stability in Lebanon."

The final results on Tuesday included a record of eight women lawmakers, nearly half of them newcomers.

Unexpected upsets included the dislodging by two new MPs of Hezbollah allies Talal Arslan, heir to one of Lebanon's oldest Druze political dynasties, and deputy speaker of parliament Elie Ferzli.

Sunni Muslim politician Faisal Karami, scion of another Lebanese political dynasty, also lost his seat in the country's second city Tripoli.

'CRACK IN THE WALL'

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called in a statement late on Monday for the swift formation of an inclusive government to stabilize the economy.

Sami Atallah, director of The Policy Initiative, a Beirut-based think tank, said that was unlikely.

He said groups within the "polarised parliament" would lock horns when electing a parliamentary speaker, naming the next prime minister and voting on a president later this year.

And while Hezbollah and the allied Amal Movement maintained their control of the 27 Shi'ite-allocated seats, they lost two seats in their traditional stronghold of south Lebanon.

Atallah said that could push them to take a hardline stance: "They don't want to have a crack in the wall."

Overnight, large crowds carrying Hezbollah flags gathered in downtown Beirut, chanting in support of the group, according to footage posted on social media. Reuters could not independently verify the videos.

By the morning, a giant cardboard fist in downtown Beirut that was first erected when protests against the ruling establishment erupted three years ago appeared to have been torn down and burned, according to a Reuters witness.

The 2019 demonstrations reflected anger at a political class seen as corrupt and inefficient. Since then, Lebanon has plunged into an economic crisis that the World Bank has described as one of the worst since the Industrial Revolution.

The local currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value, reaching 30,000 pounds to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, roughly a 10% loss since Sunday's election.

But Lebanon's central bank said on Tuesday it would continue to allow commercial banks to purchase dollars on its Sayrafa platform rate "without amendment," an operation that has helped stabilize the exchange rate since it began in January.

The economic decline has pushed nearly three-quarters of Lebanon's population under the poverty line, which election observers had warned could open the door to more vote-buying.

In a preliminary statement on Tuesday, the European Union Election Observation Mission said the poll had been "overshadowed by widespread practices of vote-buying, clientelism and corruption".

(Reporting by Laila Bassam, Timour Azhari and Lina Najem; Writing by Tom Perry and Maya Gebeily; Editing by Catherine Evans and Grant McCool)

The 'Dark MAGA' movement dreams of a vengeful Trump destroying his enemies, and is using 'meme warfare' to amplify its threatening vision, say experts




Alia Shoaib
Sun, May 15, 2022, 


Dark MAGA is a fringe online movement demanding Donald Trump take revenge on his enemies.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has posted images with the 'Dark MAGA' aesthetic.

Experts warn about the online far-right laundering extremism into the mainstream using meme warfare.

A burgeoning online movement known as Dark MAGA is calling for former President Donald Trump to return to power and take revenge against his enemies.

What began as a fringe campaign posting threatening Terminator-style memes on social media is gaining traction among prominent Trump supporters such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.


Experts warn that the movement, which often features white nationalist and neo-Nazi imagery, could be the latest example of the far-right online laundering extremism into the mainstream using meme warfare.

What is Dark MAGA?

Dark MAGA is a "post-alt-right online aesthetic movement" rooted in the radical pro-Trump online space, according to the Global Network on Extremism & Technology (GNET).

Memes with the Dark MAGA aesthetic frequently depict Trump in dramatic black and red-tinted images, often with laser beams shooting out of his eyes.

"A big part of the aesthetic involves memes of a God-like, authoritarian Trump getting revenge on perceived opponents," Dr. Caroline Orr Bueno, a behavioral scientist researching far-right extremism, told Insider.

"It's an aggrieved movement centered around the idea of a vengeful return to power. They're embracing the role of the villain and stripping away any facade of decency or political correctness."

Although not explicitly endorsed by Donald Trump, the movement appears to be gaining more mainstream support – including from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who on May 7 posted an image with the Dark MAGA aesthetic.

Prominent far-right activists, including Jack Posobiec and Amanda Milius, have also shared similar images of themselves, helping to bring a previously fringe movement into the mainstream.

The first documented use of the #DarkMAGA hashtag on Twitter was on January 21, according to GNET, but it started to spread across social media platforms in March.

Some of the content attached to the hashtag on Twitter depicts Trump carrying weapons, calling for the death penalty, or picturing the Trump Tower in a dramatic dystopian scene.

Meme warfare as propaganda

The movement is deeply entrenched in "meme warfare" and internet trolling techniques common among online far-right communities, according to Tim Squirrell, head of communications and editorial at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

"You have to imagine meme warfare as a propaganda war that many people believe they are waging on a day-to-day basis," Squirrell told Insider.

One of the movement's goals appears to be to "unite disparate factions of right-wing extremism," which largely fractured following the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, 2017, where white supremacists were observed chanting "You will not replace us" and "Jews will not replace us, says Squirrell.

At the same rally, James Alex Fields Jr., an avowed white supremacist, drove his car into a group of anti-racism protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017.Steve Helber/Associated Press

Its other goal is to "expose more mainstream Trump-supporting conservatives to the most extreme narratives, icons, imagery, and people," Squirrell said.

The Global Network on Extremism & Technology said many images feature far-right symbols, including Nazi sun wheels, swastikas, and wolfsangels, which threaten violence or revenge.

GNET analyzed about 4,000 memes associated with Dark MAGA, and within a subset of 100 memes found, 38 portrayals of Donald Trump, 12 overt Nazi symbols, 9 US flags, and four references to QAnon.

According to Orr, the Dark MAGA aesthetic is inspired by accelerationist/neo-Nazi movements and iconography, including fashwave, terrorwave, and the so-called "skull mask network."

With Marjorie Taylor Greene, an elected congresswoman, and other prominent Trump supporters engaging with and amplifying Dark MAGA, it is bringing a previously fringe movement into the mainstream.

"Marjorie Taylor Greene has a history of – I guess the technical term for it is shitposting – saying really provocative stuff as a mechanism for gaining attention for riling up the 'libs,' for dividing opinion amongst the MAGA caucus," Squirrell said.

When asked by Insider why Greene shared the image and whether she endorsed the Dark MAGA movement, her spokesperson Nick Dyer responded: "You are a Blue Anon conspiracy theorist."

A Trump supporter sells merchandise during the 'Save America' rally at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds on January 29, 2022 in Conroe, Texas

Squirrell noted that this type of movement is typically "cloaked in about five layers of irony."

"So if you point it out, you always run the risk of people saying, "well, that's not what I'm doing, you shouldn't take this so seriously, what's wrong with you?" he said. "But it's a serious movement. It has serious people behind it. It has serious money behind it."

Greene's image has gained over 50,000 likes and nearly 20,000 replies and quote retweets– some of them supportive, some critical.

"Outrage generation" is a common tactic in the online far-right playbook, Squirrell explained, who often use over-the-top memes rhetoric designed to provoke a backlash, which generates high engagement and amplifies their content.

Some noted on social media that Anthony Scarramucci, Trump's former White House director of communications, also had an image of himself with lasers coming out of his eyes as his Twitter profile picture.

In a phone call with Insider, Scaramucci said that he had uploaded the photo a year ago as part of an unrelated inside joke with people in the crypto-currency community.

He said he removed the image on May 7th after "lunatics from the right-wing fascist community" posted similar photos.
Dark MAGA could further radicalize an already radical movement

Whether or not Dark MAGA is a cause for concern will depend on how successful it is at gaining mainstream support, according to Squirrell.

"The worry is that it further radicalizes an already fairly radical movement," he said.

"Anything which attempts to legitimize political violence, which attempts to say that Trump should take no prisoners and that he should be engaging in quite Machiavellian action is dangerous."

Supporters of President Donald Trump take over balconies and inauguration scaffolding at the United States Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty

The movement capitalizes on Trump supporters' "deep resentment" over various perceived injustices, ranging from the myth that the 2020 election was stolen to fears about the shifting demographics of the US population, according to Orr.

She said that the Dark MAGA revenge narrative underscores the dangers of the continued propagation of the stolen election myth by Trump and much of the Republican Party.

"I also think the movement indicates that they have no intentions to play by the rules, so we should expect more events like January 6," Orr said.

Researchers Think They've Found the Cause of Gulf War Illness



Patricia Kime
Tue, May 17, 2022

After nearly 30 years of trying to prove a theory -- that an environmental toxin was responsible for sickening roughly 250,000 U.S. troops who served in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War -- Dr. Robert Haley says new research confirms that sarin nerve gas caused Gulf War Illness.

Following the Gulf War, nearly one-third of all who deployed reported unexplained chronic symptoms such as rashes, fatigue, gastrointestinal and digestive issues, brain "fog," neuropathy, and muscle and joint pain. Federal agencies spent years broadly dismissing the idea that troops may have been suffering from exposure to chemical agents, with many veterans experiencing symptoms sent to mental health providers.

But a study published last week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives used genetic research and survey data to determine that U.S. service members exposed to sarin were more likely to develop Gulf War Illness, and those who were exposed and had a weaker variant of a gene that helps digest pesticides were nine times more likely to have symptoms.

"Quite simply, our findings prove that Gulf War illness was caused by sarin, which was released when we bombed Iraqi chemical weapons storage and production facilities," said Haley, director of the Division of Epidemiology in the Internal Medicine Department at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

"There are still more than 100,000 Gulf War veterans who are not getting help for this illness and our hope is that these findings will accelerate the search for better treatment," Haley said.

Originally developed as a pesticide, the chemical weapon sarin was known to have been stockpiled by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein prior to and after the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War. The synthetic nerve agent attacks the central nervous system and brain, killing victims by triggering an overreaction of neurotransmitters that causes convulsions and asphyxiation.

Thousands of coalition troops likely were exposed to sarin and cyclosarin, an organic phosphate also used as a chemical weapon, when the U.S. destroyed a bunker housing chemical weapons at the Khamisiyah Ammunition Storage Depot in southern Iraq, sending a plume of contaminants that spread across a 25-mile radius. Others may have been subjected to low levels of contaminants, as troops frequently reported that chemical weapons alarms went off in the absence of any apparent attack.

In the years following the war, veterans who sought medical help at the Department of Veterans Affairs were greeted with skepticism and sent to psychiatrists for mental health treatment. Health surveys conducted by the VA in the early 2010s of Gulf War veterans focused mainly on questions about psychological and psychiatric symptoms.

And in 2013, veterans' suspicions of the lack of concern at the VA were confirmed when VA whistleblower and epidemiologist Steven Coughlin came forward to say that the department buried or obscured research findings that would link physical ailments to military service -- a concerted effort to deny veterans health care and benefits.

Coughlin's charges were later confirmed by an email sent to staff from former Undersecretary for Benefits Allison Hickey expressing concern that changing what the VA still calls "chronic multisymptom illness" to "Gulf War illness" might "imply a causal link between service in the Gulf and poor health which could necessitate legislation for disability compensation for veterans who served in the Gulf."
Research Confirms Earlier, Smaller Studies

For the new study into sarin, Haley and colleagues randomly selected 1,116 veterans who completed a U.S. Military Health Survey, including 508 who deployed and developed Gulf War Illness and 508 veterans who went but never developed symptoms. They collected blood and DNA samples from each participant and asked the veterans whether they heard nerve gas alarms during their deployment, and if so, how often.

The researchers also tested for variants of a gene that helps the body metabolize pesticides, called PON1. Some people have variants of this gene that are more effective in breaking down sarin while others have a variant that helps process chemicals like pesticides but is less efficient against sarin.

The study found that those who reported hearing nerve agent alarms and who also had the least robust form of the gene had a nine-fold chance of having Gulf War Illness. Those with a genotype that is a mix of the two variants had more than four times the chance of having Gulf War Illness, while those who just heard nerve agent alarms, which the researchers used as a proxy for exposure, raised the chance of developing the condition by nearly four times, although to a lesser degree of those who have a mix of genes.

According to the researchers, the data "leads to a high degree of confidence that sarin is a causative agent for Gulf War Illness."

"Our hypothesis was, if you have the strong form of the gene, then when you're exposed to low-level sarin, that gene makes a strong isoenzyme that destroys sarin in your blood. If you have the weak form of the gene, the enzyme that it makes is not very strong, so it goes through your blood into your brain and you get sick," Haley said in an interview with Military.com. "You've heard the expression 'correlation does not equal causation,' right? That's true, unless you are dealing with a gene-environment interaction."
A Mysterious Malady

The mysterious symptoms experienced by thousands of service members, which came to be known as Gulf War Syndrome and, later, Gulf War Illness, generated hypotheses of the possible cause, including an additive in anthrax vaccines, preventive medicines given to troops such as the anti-nerve agent pyridostigmine bromide, ciprofloxacin, depleted uranium, and exposure to nerve gas, pesticides or smoke from oil well fires.

A congressional investigation in 1997 concluded that the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs had very little interest in finding a cause and blamed the symptoms as related to stress or other mental health disorders.

In its report, the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight found that the DoD and VA were "plagued by arrogant incuriosity and a pervasive myopia that sees a lack of evidence as proof" that the illness didn't exist.

"Sadly, when it comes to diagnosis, treatment and research for Gulf War veterans, we find the Federal Government too often has a tin ear, a cold heart and a closed mind," the report noted.

As Congress investigated the issue, Haley was studying possible causes, funded by Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire and Navy veteran known for donating to veterans' charities and resources, including efforts to help U.S. prisoners of war in Vietnam.

Haley's early work pointed to sarin as a possible cause, but other scientists, including the medical body of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, found his studies to be insufficient in size and suffering from selection or "recall bias," meaning that vets may or may not remember whether they heard nerve gas alarms and how often.

Haley said the new research links veterans with Gulf War Illness with their genotype and "cannot be explained away by errors in recalling the environmental exposure or other biases in the data."

Others now concur. In an editorial accompanying the study, Marc Weisskopf, a professor of environmental epidemiology and psychology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Kimberly Sullivan, a research associate professor with Boston University School of Public Health, said the study makes a strong case for a causal link and explains, to some extent, why some troops got sick and some did not.

"The authors' exploration of a gene-environment interaction between presumed nerve agent exposure and the PON1 gene offers some strong arguments that there is a true causal effect at work," they wrote in their opinion piece.

The VA has established service connection for Gulf War veterans with certain chronic, unexplained symptoms, which the department calls "chronic multisymptom illness" or "undiagnosed illness."

Those who have certain symptoms, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and some gastrointestinal disorders, and served in the 1990-1991 conflict do not have to prove service connection and are eligible for benefits including a health exam, health care and disability compensation.

Historically, however, the VA has been strict in determining service connection. A 2017 Government Accountability Office report found the VA denied 83% of 102,000 claims filed for Gulf War Illness between 1994 and 2015.
New Hope

Haley said the research could pave the way for more veterans to access health care and benefits and open up research into possible treatments. He said that the symptoms are caused by brain inflammation, which may be treatable once scientists figure out exactly how sarin works.

"Once we know, we could come up with treatments to reverse it," Haley said. "I really believe this is optimistic and that it means this is not brain damage. This is not loss of neurons and like a stroke or something that you're never going to recover from."

Among the veterans excited about the new study is Paul Sullivan, a Persian Gulf War veteran who works as director of veteran outreach at the law firm Bergmann & Moore and deployed to Iraq as an Army cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division in 1991.

He said the results provide evidence that affected veterans need to access care from the VA.

"This landmark study provides a clear path for VA to presume sarin exposure for all 1991 Gulf War veterans," Sullivan said Thursday. "The study provides a compelling missing scientific link for treatment research for my fellow Gulf War Veterans disabled since our exposures during Desert Storm."

Haley said he has received letters from veterans asking if they could get tested for the different types of the PON1 gene and whether it would be helpful. Routine genetic testing does not include PON1, but further research may lead to a diagnostic test that would provide peace of mind to veterans, he said.

The research was conducted in collaboration with a survey research team from North Carolina-based RTI International and funded by the DoD and VA, both of which have funded thousands of studies on Gulf War Illness despite long-standing skepticism.

"This is the scientific process. Nobody's bad. Nobody's good. People have their theories. Skepticism is the name of the game. That is what makes it fun," Haley said.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: 30 Years After the Gulf War: Veterans and the Legacy of Toxic Wounds

Kotek wins Democratic nod in Oregon governor's race



Election 2022 Oregon Governor Kotek

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek, left, and her wife Aimee Kotek Wilson smile while speaking to supporters before the results of Oregon's primary election are announced in Portland, Ore., Tuesday May 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer)
SARA CLINE
Mon, May 16, 2022, 10:37 PM·3 min read

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Former Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek on Tuesday won the Democratic gubernatorial primary, beating state Treasurer Tobias Read in a victory for the party’s progressive wing.

With current Gov. Kate Brown, a progressive Democrat, term limited the state's highest seat is up for grabs in the fall. Kotek, and the Republican who wins the gubernatorial primary, will be in a three-way race in November with Betsy Johnson, a former longtime Democratic state senator who is running as an independent. As a nonaffiliated candidate, Johnson does not need to run a primary race to make the fall ballot.

“I think it’s important to remember that all the Democrats in this race share a similar vision for what we want the state to be,” Kotek said in her victory speech, addressing a crowd of supporters in Portland on Tuesday night. “We’re all going to work together to make sure we win. That a Democrat — that I win in November, because frankly there is just too much at stake.”

The Portland-based Kotek, who led by a comfortable margin Tuesday, has collected endorsements from a third of Oregon lawmakers, nationally elected leaders, unions and organizations. But as someone who held power during a tumultuous time in Oregon, Kotek must convince voters she can improve the state while avoiding blame for its problems.

Kotek’s biggest challenger was Read, who was a state representative in Oregon for 10 years before being elected as treasurer. He had hoped to capitalize on voter unrest.

Jessica LaVigne, a spokesperson for Read's campaign, said the treasurer called Kotek to concede Tuesday night.

Kotek said in her speech that while Tuesday's victory is a night of celebration, Democrats will “have to roll up our sleeve and work really really hard” to win in November.

Oregon hasn’t seen a GOP governor in 35 years. But political experts say Republicans have an opening for victory amid widespread discontent in the state and a possible split in votes among the majority parties as the unaffiliated Johnson makes a gubernatorial run in the fall.

“This will be a three-way race for the highest office in our state. And this will be an election unlike any of us have ever seen," Kotek said Tuesday night.

Kotek, who wielded the House speaker’s gavel for a record nine years as the Democratic Party increased its power and pushed ambitious progressive agendas, described the Republican gubernatorial nominee and unaffiliated candidate Johnson as “conservatives."

Following the primary results, Johnson took to social media describing Kotek as “more Kate Brown than Kate Brown," a common comparison by opponents of the Democrat in hopes of tainting her with the current governor’s historically low approval ratings. As a nonaffiliated candidate, Johnson does not need to run a primary race to make the fall ballot.

“The biggest change Oregon can make this year is putting the people back in charge with an independent governor loyal only to Oregonians, not the political extremes,” Johnson tweeted.

The third candidate — the Republican nominee — in November's gubernatorial race has yet to be determined. The GOP primary remained close Tuesday night with former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan holding onto a lead over former Oregon Republican Party Chair Bob Tiernan.

Christopher McKnight Nichols, an associate professor of history at Oregon State University, described the GOP's chances of winning in the fall as “the best shot” the party has had in a long time.

Determining the results in close races could be delayed due to a new Oregon law, which allows mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to count if county elections offices receive them within a week of the election.

The change was made during Oregon’s 2021 Legislative Session. Under previous law, ballots were only counted if they were received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

___

Egypt: Mubarak son says family clear of corruption charges

Transparency International condemned the move, saying it would show corrupt leaders around the world that they can act with impunity.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, seated center left, and his two sons, Gamal Mubarak, left, and Alaa Mubarak attend a hearing in a courtroom in Cairo, Egypt on Sept. 14, 2013. Gamal Mubarak said Tuesday, May 17, 2022, that he and family members were innocent of corruption charges made in international courts after the country’s 2011 popular uprising. His statements came after years of attempts by the deposed president's family to rehabilitate its image as it faced litigation in Egypt and abroad. (AP Photo/Mohammed al-Law, File)

Tue, May 17, 2022, 


CAIRO (AP) — The son of Egypt's former president said Tuesday that he and family members were innocent of corruption charges made in international courts after the country’s 2011 popular uprising.

His statements came after years of attempts by the deposed president's family to rehabilitate its image as it faced litigation in Egypt and abroad.

In a video statement released online, Gamal Mubarak, the son of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, said that recent court decisions in the European Union and elsewhere demonstrate their innocence, but did not explain how the family had amassed its significant wealth.

In February, a massive leak of Credit Suisse clients' information showed Gamal Mubarak and his brother, Alaa, to have held at least $197.5 million in the bank at one point in time.

“The facts have now been established, and the false allegations have been unequivocally rebutted. The historical record has thus been independently and judicially corrected,” he said in a video statement released on YouTube. He blamed Egyptian judicial authorities for taking the issue to international courts.

The 2011 protests were built on calls for an end to deep-rooted embezzlement and government corruption in Egypt, and growing concerns that Gamal Mubarak would be set up to succeed his father, who was in power for nearly 30 years. The international anti-corruption group Transparency International has estimated that as president, Mubarak stole some $70 billion in public funds. The former president died in 2020, aged 91.

In April, Swiss prosecutors decided not to file charges after concluding a decade-long investigation into alleged money laundering and organized crime linked to linked to Mubarak’s circles in Egypt. They also said they would release some 400 million Swiss francs - $430 million - frozen in Swiss banks.

The same month, the General Court of the European Union ruled that the rights of Mubarak's wife, two sons and their wives had not been respected during an local Egyptian investigation of his assets, on which the prosecution was depending. The ruling meant EU sanctions on the Mubaraks' accounts were deemed unlawful, and lifted. Gamal Mubarak said his family was being reimbursed for their legal costs related to the case.

Transparency International condemned the move, saying it would show corrupt leaders around the world that they can act with impunity.

The EU and Swiss investigations were part of a series of court proceedings against the Mubaraks in the wake of the mass protests. The father and the two sons were first detained in April 2011, two months after the uprising forced Mubarak to step down as part of the Arab Spring protest movement. A leading military council was established in his place, which then gave way to the divisive Islamist president Mohamed Morsy after elections in 2012. Morsy was later deposed by the military amid more popular protests.

Following a lengthy trial, Hosni Mubarak was acquitted of killing protesters during the 18-day uprising against his autocratic rule.

The two sons and their father were sentenced to three years in prison following their conviction of embezzling funds set aside for the restoration and maintenance of presidential palaces, using the money to upgrade their private residences. The sons were released in 2015 for time served, while Mubarak walked free in 2017. The trio paid back to the state the money they embezzled.

The sons were briefly detained in Sep. 2018 pending their trial on charges of stock market manipulation. But they were released a bail of 100,000 pounds ($5,600) each after an appeals court accepted a motion moved by their defense lawyers to remove the judge who ordered their detention, and in 2020 they were acquitted.

Watchdog: US troop pullout was key factor in Afghan collapse





Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint near the U..S embassy that was previously manned by American troops, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021. A new report says decisions by Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan were the key factors in the collapse of that nation's military, leading to the Taliban takeover last year.

LOLITA C. BALDOR
Tue, May 17, 2022, 9

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government watchdog says decisions by Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan were the key factors in the collapse of that nation's military.

The new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, mirrors assertions made by senior Pentagon and military leaders in the aftermath of the U.S. troop withdrawal that ended last August in the chaotic evacuation of Americans and other civilians from the embattled country. Military leaders have made it clear that their recommendation was to leave about 2,500 U.S. troops in the country, but that plan was not approved.

In February 2020, the Trump administration signed an agreement with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, in which the U.S. promised to fully withdraw its troops by May 2021. The Taliban committed to several conditions, including stopping attacks on American and coalition forces. The stated objective was to promote a peace negotiation between the Taliban and the Afghan government, but that diplomatic effort never gained traction before Biden took office in January 2022.

Just a few months later, Biden announced he would complete the U.S. military withdrawal. The announcement fueled the Taliban's campaign to retake the country, aided by the Afghans' widespread distrust of their government and entrenched corruption that led to low pay, lack of food and poor living conditions among the Afghan troops.

“Many Afghans thought the U.S.-Taliban agreement was an act of bad faith and a signal that the U.S. was handing over Afghanistan to the enemy as it rushed to exit the country,” the interim report said. “Its immediate effect was a dramatic loss in (Afghan troops’) morale.”

U.S. officials have said they were surprised by the quick collapse of the military and the government, prompting sharp congressional criticism of the intelligence community for failing to foresee it.

At a congressional hearing last week, senators questioned whether there is a need to reform how intelligence agencies assess a foreign military's will to fight. Lawmakers pointed to two key examples: U.S. intelligence believed that the Kabul government would hold on for months against the Taliban, and more recently believed that Ukraine's forces would quickly fall to Russia's invasion. Both were wrong.

Military and defense leaders have said that the Afghanistan collapse was built on years of missteps, as the U.S. struggled to find a successful way to train and equip Afghan forces.

In a blunt assessment of the war, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress last fall that the result was years in the making.

“Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure — the enemy is in charge in Kabul, there’s no way else to describe that — that is a cumulative effect of 20 years,” Milley said, adding that lessons need to be learned, including whether the U.S. military made the Afghans overly dependent on American technology in a mistaken effort to make the Afghan army look like the American army.

Indeed, in the end, the new report said that the Afghans were still heavily dependent on U.S. air support for strikes and emergency evacuations, and also on U.S. contractors to maintain and repair aircraft and other systems.

But all agree that the Doha agreement was a lynchpin in the collapse.

“The signing of the Doha agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military — psychological more than anything else, but we set a date-certain for when we were going to leave and when they could expect all assistance to end,” Gen. Frank McKenzie told Congress last year.

McKenzie, who was then the top U.S. general in the Middle East and has since retired, argued to keep 2,500 U.S. troops there, as did Milley.

The Doha agreement, said the SIGAR report, led the Afghan population and its military to feel abandoned. And the Trump administration's decision to limit U.S. airstrikes against the Taliban stopped any progress the Afghans were making, and left them unable and eventually unwilling to hold territory, it said.

According to the report, a former U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the U.S. built the Afghan army to rely on contractor support. “Without it, it can’t function. Game over,” the commander told SIGAR. "When the contractors pulled out, it was like we pulled all the sticks out of the Jenga pile and expected it to stay up.”

More broadly, the SIGAR report said that both the U.S. and Afghan governments “lacked the political will to dedicate the time and resources necessary to reconstruct an entire security sector in a war-torn and impoverished country.”

Neither side, it said, “appeared to have the political commitment to doing what it would take to address the challenges.” As a result, it said, the Afghan military couldn't operate independently and never really became a cohesive force.

Buffalo shooting leaves neighborhood without a grocery store

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People walk and drive by Twin City Market, four blocks east of Tops Friendly Market, on Tuesday, May 17, 2022, in Buffalo, N.Y.

 (AP Photo/Joshua Bessex)


PIA SARKAR and NOREEN NASIR
Tue, May 17, 2022, 10:35 PM·4 min read


BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Tops Friendly Market was more than a place to buy groceries. As the only supermarket for miles, it became a sort of community hub on Buffalo's East Side — where you chatted with neighbors and caught up on people's lives.

“It’s where we go to buy bread and stay for 15, 20 minutes because ... you’re going to find four or five people you know and have a couple conversations before you leave," said Buffalo City Councilman Ulysees O. Wingo, who represents the struggling Black neighborhood, where he grew up. “You just feel good because this is your store."

Now residents are grieving the deaths of 10 Black people at the hands of an 18-year-old white man who drove three hours to carry out a racist, livestreamed shooting rampage in the crowded supermarket on Saturday.

They're also grappling with being targeted in a place that has been so vital to the community. Before Tops opened on the East Side in 2003, residents had to travel to other communities to buy nutritious food or settle for snacks and higher-priced staples like milk and eggs from corner stores and gas stations.

The fact that there are no other options lays bare the racial and economic divide that existed in Buffalo long before the shooting, residents say.

“It’s unconscionable to think that Tops is the only supermarket in that neighborhood, in my neighborhood,” said retired Buffalo educator Theresa Harris-Tigg, who knew two of those killed.

While Tops is temporarily closed during the investigation, the community is working to make sure residents don’t go without.

A makeshift food bank was set up not far from the supermarket. The Buffalo Community Fridge received enough monetary donations that it will distribute some funds to other local organizations. Tops also arranged for a bus to shuttle East Side residents to and from another of its Buffalo locations.

After decades of neglect and decline, only a handful of stores are along Jefferson Avenue, the East Side’s once-thriving main drag, among them a Family Dollar, a deli, a liquor store and a couple of convenience stores, as well as a library and Black-run businesses like Golden Cup Coffee, Zawadi Books and The Challenger News.

Jillian Hanesworth, 29, who was born and raised there, said construction of an expressway contributed to cutting off the neighborhood, with drivers passing underground without ever having to see it. At a recent rally, Hanesworth said she asked the crowd how many needed GPS to get there, and many of the white people raised their hands.

“A lot of people who talk about Buffalo don’t live here,” said Hanesworth, the city’s poet laureate and director of leadership development at Open Buffalo, a nonprofit focused on social justice and community development.

Like many residents, she pauses to think when asked where the next-closest major grocery is located: None is within walking distance, and it takes three different buses to get to the Price Rite.

Before Tops opened on the East Side, residents, lawmakers and other advocates pushed for years for a grocery store in what had become a “food desert” after groceries and other stores closed in the neighborhood's Central Park Plaza, Wingo said.

Yvette Mack, 62, remembers when the streets weren’t so empty. But when she was around 15 or 16, she noticed places going out of business.

“Everything started fading away as I got older,” she said.

Eventually she moved downtown but came back to the East Side in 2020, happy that a supermarket had returned. Mack says she shopped at Tops daily, sometimes three or four times, to buy pop, meat and to play her numbers. She was there Saturday before the shooting.

Now, she's not sure she can go back once the store reopens, but hopes community conversations lead to more businesses on the East Side. Harris-Tigg, the retired educator, also hopes the shooting brings the city together to talk about disparities.

“It’s time to do more. It’s time for white folk to talk to white folk and really have honest conversations,” she said.

Pastor James Giles, coordinator of the anti-violence group Buffalo Peacemakers, thinks that is happening. He juggled calls offering help from area churches and businesses, the Buffalo Bills, competing grocery stores and even the utility company after the shooting.

“I want us to be the City of Good Neighbors. And I do hope that we aspire to live up to that nickname,” Giles said. “But I feel like we can’t get there until and unless we tell the truth about the white supremacy and racism that is already present in our town.”

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Sarkar and Nasir are members of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. AP writers John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed to this story.