China starts new military exercises around Taiwan

By Thomas Maresca

Taiwan Navy's Chi Yang-class frigate Ning Yang (FFG-938) is anchored at a harbor in Keelung city, Taiwan on Friday, China announced Monday it was kicking off a new round of military exercises near the island

. Photo by Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA-EFE


SEOUL, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- China said on Monday that it carried out a new round of military drills around Taiwan, one day after concluding the large-scale live-fire exercises it launched in an angry response to a visit to Taipei by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"The People's Liberation Army continued to conduct practical joint exercises in the sea and airspace around Taiwan island, focusing on organizing joint anti-submarine and sea assault operations," the military's Eastern Theater Command said in a brief statement.

China conducted its largest-ever drills around Taiwan from Thursday through Sunday, firing ballistic missiles over the island and crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait with warplanes and ships in a show of force that disrupted shipping and air traffic in the busy region.

Taiwan's defense ministry called the exercises a "possible simulated attack" and on Sunday announced that it had detected 66 Chinese warplanes and 14 warships deployed in and around the Strait.

Beijing reacted furiously to Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last week after repeated warnings. Her arrival last Tuesday with a congressional delegation marked the first time a U.S. House speaker had traveled to the island since 1997.

China views the self-governing island of 23 million as a wayward province that it has vowed to seize by force, if necessary.

In addition to the military exercises, China responded with "countermeasures" against the United States that include suspending regular military communications channels and climate talks with Washington as well as slapping sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family, Beijing's foreign ministry announced last week.

RELATEDTaiwan says China simulated attack with multiple aircraft, naval vessels

Taiwan's military said Monday during a briefing that China also launched a "cognitive warfare offensive" ahead of and during the military exercises, using disinformation and cyberattacks in an effort to "disturb the morale of the military and civilians," according to Taipei's official Central News Agency.

False online rumors included reports of a missile attack at Taiwan's Taoyuan Airport and the incursion of a Chinese warship just miles from a major power plant, the ministry said.

The military said earlier that it responded "accordingly" to the exercises by deploying naval vessels and aircraft and activating surveillance and missile systems.

Taiwan is also preparing live-fire artillery drills on Tuesday and Thursday in southern Pingtung County, CNA reported. The drills will reportedly include snipers, combat vehicles, armored vehicles, mortars and attack helicopters.

The United States, Japan and Australia on Friday issued a joint statement calling for China to "immediately cease" the military exercises and condemning its launch of ballistic missiles.

Japan's defense ministry said earlier that five of the Chinese missiles launched over and near Taiwan fell within its exclusive economic zone, an area that extends up to 200 nautical miles from the coast.

U.S. President Joe Biden has not commented on China's response to the Pelosi visit, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the drills "fundamentally irresponsible."

"There is no need, and there's no reason for this escalation," she said during a press briefing Friday.

The military provocations by Beijing have also served to further sour Taiwanese public opinion against China, according to Taipei's Mainland Affairs Council, which is responsible for cross-strait policy.

"Taiwan's mainstream public opinion firmly opposes the Chinese Communist Party's threat of force," the agency said in a statement Sunday, pointing to its own polls that show 90% of respondents are against the military drills as well as Beijing's ongoing efforts to isolate Taipei diplomatically.

Chinese nationalists ask Beijing how come Pelosi plane to Taiwan wasn’t shot down


Experts say China had to react to Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit with military exercise because domestic sentiment demanded leaders match words with action.

AADIL BRAR
8 August, 2022 

Representative Image | Chinese social media users 'mock' Beijing's

 response to Pelosi's Taiwan visit

Chinese nationalists outrage over Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Lines of crisis communication between the US and China shut. India and China hold a special round of talks over the PLA’s air violations. A lot of events unfolded in Taiwan Strait this past week, and Chinascope gives you a one-stop dive into everything that changed our world.
China over the week

The nationalist sentiments in China reached a new high as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen. Chinese social media mockingly described Pelosi as an “old lady” and blamed Taipei for allegedly lobbying to invite Pelosi.

Angry Chinese nationalists sought a response from the Beijing government as people commented on social media how Pelosi could land in Taiwan since the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would have just shot down her plane.

As soon as Pelosi departed from Taipei, the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command launched a military exercise around Taiwan, which appeared like a simulated attack. The hashtag “The Eastern Theater has started a series of joint military operations” was viewed 530 million times on Weibo.

Multiple Chinese political bodies and the military issued statements condemning Pelosi’s visit and ‘eroding the consensus of One-China policy’.

Military experts described the PLA exercise as power projection to demonstrate China’s capability to attack Taipei in the future. The PLA Rocket Force launched 11 ballistic missiles, including DF-15B missiles, which fell in areas north, northeast, south, southeast and the eastern flank of the Taiwanese Islands. Taiwanese public wondered why their military didn’t use the Patriot anti-ballistic missile system to shoot down DF-15B. But PLA Rocket Force’s 11 ballistic missiles didn’t travel over Taiwanese airspace to trigger a response by a Patriot battery.

Missiles continued to fly close to Taiwan’s airspace on Saturday. The PLA broadcast the entire military exercise through videos of jets flying close to Taiwanese territory, missiles flying into Taiwan Strait and the PLA Navy crossing the median line. The military propaganda is part of Beijing’s deterrence strategy vis-à-vis Taiwan and neighbouring countries.

Five ballistic missiles landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, raising concerns among Japanese defence officials about the potential impact of PLA’s war gaming on actual Taiwan contingency.

The PLA also demonstrated precision strike capability by launching long-range guided strikes with WS-03A multiple rocket launcher systems (MRLS) and the PHL-16 rocket system. The rockets were launched from Pingtan Island in Fujian and landed in the waters west of Taiwan.

Besides the power projection of sea and land, the air intrusions were ramped up by the PLA.

A total of over 207 PLA aircraft have entered Taiwan’s ADIZ since 2 August, crossing the ‘median line’ between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, considered the artificial defence barrier between the two.

A PLA expert described the purpose of the exercise as the ‘reunification’ of Taiwan with the mainland.

“In the final analysis, the exercise creates conditions for the early realisation of national reunification in the future,” said Meng Xiangqing, professor at the National Defense University, during a widely watched Chinese state television broadcast.

The rising nationalist sentiment over Pelosi’s visit to Taipei sent the social media trends off the charts on the mainland. The hashtag “PLA will launch a series of targeted military operations” was viewed 2.5 billion times on Weibo. Another hashtag, “Only One China” was viewed over 2 billion times in the past few days.

Besides the military exercise, Taiwan’s critical digital networks were hit by cyber attacks attributed to addresses originating in China and Russia.

Beijing took a series of actions to express its distaste over Pelosi’s visit. PRC’s General Administration of Customs suspended the import of 100 Taiwanese goods, including items such as tea leaves, dried fruits, honey, cocoa beans, vegetables and others. Imposing an economic cost on Taiwan is a playbook we have seen before in Beijing’s difficult relations with the US and Australia.

The Chinese foreign ministry has cancelled China-US Theatre Commanders Talk, China-US Defense Policy Coordination Talks and the China-US Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meetings. The ministry has also announced the suspension of US-China cooperation on the repatriation of illegal immigrants, cooperation on legal assistance in criminal matters, cooperation against transnational crimes, counternarcotics cooperation, and talks on climate change.

There is concern about the possibility of further accidental escalation as phone lines between the two countries’ officials have gone cold. High-ranking Chinese military officials didn’t pick up US Secretary of Defence Llyod Austin’s phone calls on Friday.

The current state of strained US-China relations is likely to last months before both sides agree to a new status quo over Taiwan.

The situation looked far from settled on Sunday when the PLA exercises were due to end. Approximately ten warships from PRC and Taiwanese sides sailed in close quarters in the Taiwan Strait with some PRC vessels crossing the median line.

“The recent coercion from PRC’s drills around us aimed to change the status quo of Taiwan Strait, violated our sovereignty, and caused tension in the Indo-Pacific region. ROC Armed Forces seek no escalation, but we succumb to no challenges and respond with reason,” said Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence in a tweet.

President Tsai gave a special address to the Taiwanese people calling Beijing’s live fire drills ‘irresponsible’. “We strive to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, and always keep an open mind for constructive dialogues,” said Tsai.

Even Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang Party, which has sought to establish ties with Beijing, condemned the military exercise surrounding Taiwan.

Despite the flurry of commentary on Chinese social media and the rise in rhetoric on Chinese state television, the newspapers only gave brief coverage of the military exercises around Taiwan.

Experts are of the view that Beijing had to react to the Pelosi visit, with an extensive military exercise, because the domestic sentiment demanded leaders match actions with words. Some have started calling the current wave of tensions the Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis, but others aren’t so convinced.

Also read: Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan with a burden of course-correction — ‘US has lost China’

China in world news

India and China held a special round of talks on 2 August to discuss the recent airspace violations by the PLAAF at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point.

“During the military talks, the Indian side strongly raised objections over the Chinese flying activities near Eastern Ladakh sector for over a month now and asked them to avoid such provocative activities,” sources told news agency ANI.

The talks were held after the media reported a confrontation between the PLA and the Indian Air Force (IAF) on 25 June involving a PLAAF J-11 aircraft flying very close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at 4 am.

If the news of tensions at LAC weren’t enough, India and the US would hold an annual Yudh Abhyas exercise from 14 to 31 October in Auli, Uttarakhand. The 2021 edition of Yudh Abhyas was held in Alaska, US. Though the training programme has existed since 2004 as part of the UN peacekeeping scenario training, the current round of training in context of tensions with China elevates the role of the India-US partnership in the regional security architecture.

On 5 August 2019, the Narendra Modi government announced the abrogation of Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status under Article 370. China’s actions at the LAC since 2020 are often cited by some commentators as being linked to the abrogation move.

This past week, the Chinese foreign ministry commented on the anniversary of the abrogation. “On the issue of Kashmir, China’s position is clear and consistent. The Kashmir issue is an issue left over from history between India and Pakistan. This is also the shared view of the international community. We stated back then that parties concerned need to exercise restraint and prudence. In particular, parties should avoid taking actions that unilaterally change the status quo or escalate tensions. We call on India and Pakistan to peacefully resolve relevant disputes through dialogue and consultation,” said Hua Chunying, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson.

India and China have sparred over multiple issues in South Asia. India had recently objected to China’s research and survey vessel, Yuan Wang 5, from visiting Sri Lanka. The vessel is still on its way. But Sri Lanka seems to have agreed to ask Beijing to defer the ship’s visit.

As tensions were rising in Taiwan Strait, foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries gathered in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Though the Chinese foreign minister participated in the proceedings in Phnom Penh, the event didn’t go smoothly. China cancelled a planned bilateral meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

Must read this week

How Chinese is Taiwan? – Bill Hayton

Xi’s Great Leap Backward – Craig Singleton

Podworld

“In the mid ’90s, the PLA was really kind of a Chihuahua,” said John Culver while comparing the current Taiwan Strait crisis with the 1995-96 Taiwan Strait crisis. Culver is the former national intelligence officer for East Asia and CIA analyst focusing on China. He spoke to Kaiser Kuo of SupChina to discuss the trajectory of current Taiwan Strait tensions. Chinascope recommends listening to the conversation.

The author is a columnist and a freelance journalist, currently pursuing an MSc in international politics with a focus on China from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He was previously a China media journalist at the BBC World Service. He tweets @aadilbrar. Views are personal.

US interests in Af-Pak now just ‘transactional’. People can fight their own battles

US drone attack that killed al-Qaeda chief al-Zawahiri shows America can still challenge the Taliban and remain a player in the Af-Pak security discourse.

AYESHA SIDDIQA
8 August, 2022 

Opinion
US Special Forces and NATO troops in Afghanistan | Representational image | Commons
Text Size: A- A+


The United States just sent a message to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and South Asia—it may not have its boots on the ground, but it is still engaged with the region and keeps an eye out for any threat to its security and interests.

Al-Qaeda supremo Ayman al-Zawahiri’s recent killing in Kabul seems to have changed the scene in the region from how it seemed in August 2021, when Washington completely withdrew its forces. Then, there was a sense that the US would lose all its capacity to engage with Afghanistan, which in turn would add to the value of the Taliban. Not that the anxiety caused by the US’ withdrawal doesn’t remain among segments of the Afghan civil society. However, the recent attack on Zawahiri indicates that the US can still challenge the Taliban and remain a player in the Af-Pak security discourse.

Of course, we are reminded of the new pattern of American security planning for the region and, to a large extent, the rest of the world – Washington will not deploy its forces on the ground. It expects countries — and people — to fight their own battles. Of course, resources will be provided depending on which territory is more relevant for American security. Afghanistan no longer falls in that category. However, this does not mean that Washington will not invest in operations related to its own security interests.

Also read: Taliban won’t give up al-Qaeda, not after US killing al-Zawahiri. Kabul’s a safe haven
All that’s in store

Af-Pak is not a priority for the US but the region still being a hub of terror will make Washington keep watching over it. It explains why the US never gave up observing Af-Pak after Osama bin Laden was eliminated in a highly covert operation in Pakistan’s Abbottabad in 2011. I am reminded of the echo at that time, when Zawahiri was still missing, that he would not be too far away from OBL. This means that a search for the al-Qaeda number two was going on for all these years until he was found and killed on 31 July. Surely, Pakistan handing over Zawahiri’s wife and children, who were in its custody in 2019, must have been watched.

This raises the other important point regarding rumours of complicity of regional State and non-State players in the operation. Fingers are pointed at both Pakistan and the Taliban despite reports claiming that it was entirely an American operation or that the drone took off from a base in Kyrgyzstan. Despite Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically denying its country’s involvement or use of air space, this conjecturing has not been put to rest. But, of course, the doubt will remain until some definitive and reliable information comes out from Washington, which may not be very soon. The Zawahiri operation reminds one of similar finger-pointing during the OBL operation. American journalist Seymour Hersh had published a story then, suggesting the involvement of top Pakistani army sources.

Many like India’s Lt. General (retired) Ata Hasnain or prominent Pakistani-American journalist Wajid Ali Syed do not buy into the complicity argument. While Hasnain says that the US could not afford to trust Pakistan, Syed seems to go by the American claim of having developed across-the-horizon (ATH) capability, making Pakistan dispensable. But the story of Pakistan’s involvement is not going to go away mainly because it is essential for both civil and military players in the country.

Given the ongoing political turmoil in the country, former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his supporters would definitely like to believe or spread the rumour that the army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, was somehow involved in the operation. The idea is to make Bajwa appear more unpopular among the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters and the General’s army.

However, notwithstanding the negative implications of this story, Bajwa can still benefit from it. US policy may have pivoted towards the Indo-Pacific, but Bajwa can create the impression that he, as Pakistan’s top man, can pull some tricks to engage the Americans.

Indeed, the media’s linking of the Zawahiri attack with General Bajwa’s call to the US State Department, followed by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) statement suggesting the approval of funds for Pakistan, adds to the General’s credit.

Also Read: Hard-nosed, practical—why India has revived relations with Kabul, and why Taliban is welcoming

A transactional relationship

People would certainly like to believe that the phone call to US Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was made to remind their government of a trade-off. This is the story of the continuing transactional relationship between Pakistan and the US. Throughout the war on terror, al-Qaeda terrorists were caught in exchange for resources. Rawalpindi’s biggest problem is that transactions have become very limited, especially after 2011. To reiterate, the rumour benefits Bajwa indirectly in building up his reputation among the echelons.

Indeed, Pakistan’s possible complicity in a small or big way is a better story compared to the idea that Washington went solo in this operation. Nevertheless, the development is full of problems for Pakistan. If the US went totally independent of Pakistan or had no local help in Afghanistan, it means more problems for Pakistan. The US will now be very unhappy with Sirajuddin Haqqani, who seems to have aided and abetted Ayman al-Zawahiri. The al-Qaeda terrorist was living in a property associated with the Haqqani network.

Though the Taliban issued a statement accusing the US of breaking promises of non-intervention in the Doha Agreement, the fact remains that it is the former that broke the promise of denying their territory to al-Qaeda and Islamic State/Daesh terrorists. The links between the Haqqani Network and Pakistan are a known secret, which means that in case the US punishes this Taliban faction, it would complicate things for Pakistan as well. The rumour will not bode well for the ongoing negotiations between the Pakistani State and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that are being conducted with help from the Haqqani Network.

The longer-term lesson of the US drone attack in Kabul is that America still has the capacity to take out terrorist targets in the Af-Pak region. It will eliminate those threatening its peace but maintain a hands-off approach to counter-extremism, which would be a regional problem to solve.

(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)

Trump raged to John Kelly that his generals weren't 'totally loyal' like Hitler's Nazi military leaders: report
Brad Reed
August 08, 2022

Donald Trump and John Kelly. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley)

An explosive new report published in the New Yorker details the difficulties that many American military leaders had with containing former President Donald Trump during his one term in the Oval Office.

One particularly noteworthy story in the report details Trump fuming to former White House chief of staff John Kelly that the American military brass did not give him the kind of unconditional loyalty he believed he deserved.

"You fucking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?” Trump asked Kelly at one point.

“Which generals?” Kelly asked.

READ MORE: New toilet photos back up bombshell claims about Trump flushing documents

“The German generals in World War II,” Trump replied.

At this point, Kelly corrected Trump for badly mangling historical facts about Hitler's generals.

“You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” Kelly said.

Trump, however, was undeterred and continued to tell Kelly that Hitler's generals were "totally loyal" to him.

Kelly then told Trump that American generals were loyal to the Constitution and would never be fully obedient yes men to the president if he gave what they believed to be unlawful orders.

Nonetheless, writes the New Yorker, Trump continued to believe that "the generals of the Third Reich had been completely subservient to Hitler" and "this was the model he wanted for his military."


The full report can be found at this link.

LONG READ

French utility Veolia agrees to sell Suez UK assets to Macquarie for 2.4 bln euros

Reuters

A logo on the windows of the Veolia Environnement headquarters in Paris, France, February 9, 2022. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

PARIS, Aug 8 (Reuters) - French utility company Veolia confirmed it would sell Suez's UK waste business to Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG.AX) for around 2.4 billion euros ($2.4 billion), in a deal aimed at resolving antitrust concerns.

"Following this transaction, Veolia will remain a major player in the waste sector in the United Kingdom and, more broadly, in the environmental services market in the region, which remains strategic for the group," said Veolia chief executive Estelle Brachlianoff.

Veolia had earlier said that it was proposing to sell off its former rival, Suez's UK waste business, after Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) raised objections to the Veolia/Suez combination.

"The disposal of Suez's UK waste business addresses the main concerns of the UK competition authority," Veolia said in its statement.

"After the disposal of the remedies agreed with the European Commission and the signature of the agreement with Macquarie Asset Management, almost all of the antitrust divestitures will have been finalized less than a year after the acquisition of Suez," the company added.

In December last year, Veolia and Suez won EU antitrust approval for their 13 billion euro tie-up, after a months-long dispute including legal action and a move by Suez to ring-fence its French water business from Veolia, though that was later abandoned after the companies reached an agreement. read more

The deal was later closed on Jan. 7, with Veolia controlling 86% of Suez.

A year on, Afghans hide out fearing death by data

Afghan election commission workers transfer data from biometric devices to the main server at a warehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan October 7, 2019. Picture taken October 7, 2019. (Reuters)

Thomson Reuters Foundation
Published: 08 August ,2022: 

Sadaf was at work last year at the attorney general’s office in suburban Kabul when her sister rang with news that the Taliban had entered the Afghan capital, and begged her to race home.

“Cover your face! And don’t tell anyone where you work,” her sister said, her voice shaking with fear.

Sadaf didn’t know it then but this was the start of exile within her own country, a life of lying low to avoid death by data. Like thousands of Afghans, she has spent the past year hiding out in a series of safe houses, hoping to evade her digital trail and prevent the Taliban tracking her family.

When her sister broke news of the takeover, Sadaf grabbed her bag and rushed from the office, pulling her headscarf low over her face and tucking her office ID into her shoe.

Outside was chaos.

Streets were jammed with vehicles and people running in every direction, desperate to flee. After walking part way home, Sadaf hitched a ride and made it to her house two hours later.

She quickly hugged her three children, then shut herself in the bedroom, gathered all her identity papers and any documents related to work, and burnt the lot in the bathroom sink.

“I was very scared,” said Sadaf, who had worked at the government office for more than 25 years - over half her life.

The 48-year-old, who asked that her last name not be used, knew only too well the danger she faced.

The Taliban had previously bombed their vehicles; Sadaf was injured in two of those attacks and had lost several colleagues.

“I didn’t want anything to fall into the hands of the Taliban,” she said by text message from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan.

A week after the Taliban took over, men knocked on Sadaf’s door and spent hours searching her home. They knew where she worked, and left with a warning that they were watching.

The next day, Sadaf packed her belongings and fled, along with her children and husband, a carpenter. They have been in hiding ever since, lodging with relatives and friends, and never staying anywhere for more than two weeks.

“I am in danger because of my job,” said Sadaf.

Digital danger

Sadaf is among the tens of thousands of Afghans - including former government officials, judges, police and human rights activists - who remain in hiding one year on, fearful of being tracked with digital ID and data systems that the militants gained with regime change.

In the past year, human rights groups and the United Nations have documented the killing or enforced disappearance of hundreds of former members of the security forces, as well as journalists, judges, activists and LGBT+ people.

A Taliban spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Like many poor nations, Afghanistan pushed to digitize its data in recent years with funding and expertise from the World Bank, US, European Union, the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR), World Food program and others.

One such program is the digital ID system known as e-Tazkira, which holds a wealth of personal and biometric data including a person’s name, ID number, place and date of birth, gender, marital status, religion, ethnicity, language, profession, iris scans, fingerprints, and a photograph.

The ID is needed to access services, jobs and to vote. But it also exposes vulnerable ethnic groups, and people who worked in government or with foreign agencies, rights groups say.

“Everyone is vulnerable,” said Aziz Rafiee, executive director of the non-profit Afghan Civil Society Forum, who gets hundreds of desperate messages every day from Afghans in hiding.

The systems were “a big mistake right from the beginning”.

“In a country like Afghanistan, there is always the possibility that the information would end up in the hands of terrorists, and you could be killed,” said Rafiee, who did not apply for an e-Tazkira, fearing this very outcome.

Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch confirmed that the Taliban controlled payroll data of the government and the supreme court, and biometric systems of the police and army, and those who worked with foreign governments and aid agencies.

“For those in hiding, there is no way to avoid detection because the Taliban is carrying out identity checks - with photos, fingerprints, iris scans - at checkpoints,” said Belkis Willie, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“So people are not able to leave the houses they are hiding in. In addition, anyone who goes to the passport office to get their passports to try and leave the country - their identity would be very clear to anyone,” she said.

“It really isn’t possible to avoid detection.”

Life and death by data

Advocates for biometric registration say it enables more accurate counts and identification of people in need, ensures more efficient aid delivery, and helps prevent fraud.

But critics say registers can be misused for profiling and surveillance, and many exclude the most vulnerable.

The events in Afghanistan have underscored the risks of ID systems that are built without considering the possible impact on human rights, and without safeguards to prevent abuse, said Raman Jit Singh Chima at Access Now, a digital rights group.

Over the past year, digital rights groups have called on aid agencies, foreign donors, and telecom and tech companies to rethink how they gather biometric data, and to secure their systems to prevent harm.

But this has not happened, said Chima, a policy director.

“Digital ID programs with grave implications for human rights are still being implemented, or encouraged, even in high risk or crisis hit environments,” he said.

And in Afghanistan, Sadaf is still in hiding.

“Lack of employment and poverty on the one hand, and fear on the other hand, has made my life very difficult,” Sadaf said.

“I wish this was a nightmare and that I could wake up.”

Biden Welcomes Gaza Truce, Laments Civilian Casualties

Monday, 8 August, 2022 - 

US President Joe Biden - AP News

Washington - Asharq Al-Awsat

US President Joe Biden on Sunday welcomed a truce between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, urging all parties to implement it fully.

The president said in a statement that Washington had worked with officials from the Jewish state, the Palestinian Authority and various countries in the region to “encourage a swift resolution to the conflict” over the previous three days.

“We also call on all parties to fully implement the ceasefire, and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza as the fighting subsides,” Biden added.

The president also lamented the injury and death of civilians in Gaza, but did not specify who was responsible.

The violence has left at least 44 Palestinians dead, including 15 children.

Biden said reports of civilian casualties in Gaza are a tragedy, "whether by Israeli strikes against Islamic Jihad positions or the dozens of Islamic Jihad rockets that reportedly fell inside Gaza."

“As I made clear during my recent trip to Israel and the West Bank, Israelis and Palestinians both deserve to live safely and securely and to enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and democracy,” stressed Biden, who traveled to the region last month.

At least 41 people reportedly killed in operation conducted by IDF in the Gaza Strip

15 children and four women were among 41 killed, while 311 people were injured in the attacks (illustrative photo / AA).

The Jerusalem Post reports that Operation Breaking Dawn so far seems to have more in common with Operation Black Belt in which Al-Ata was killed and Hamas chose not to get openly involved.

Operation Breaking Dawn, which started on Friday, was reportedly a long time in the making.

Israel’s southern communities had been in a lockdown since last Tuesday after Israeli security forces arrested Palestinian Islamic Jihad senior member Bassam al-Saadi in Jenin.

According to The Jerusalem Post, residents of the South, who were held virtual hostages afterwards, now know why: Such intelligence and preparation also enabled the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday to kill Islamic Jihad’s top commander in Gaza, Tayseer al-Jabari, in a precise operation and thwart a ticking time bomb: He was reportedly involved in planning imminent major attacks on Israel, including the use of lethal anti-tank missiles close to the border.

Jabari replaced Baha Abu Al-Ata, who was killed in a similar airstrike in November 2019. Other senior Islamic Jihad figures were killed in well-conducted strikes over the weekend, including Islamic Jihad’s southern division commander Khaled Mansour.

The BBC says at least 10 people have been killed by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, including a top commander of a Palestinian militant group. Local health officials said a young girl was among the dead with dozens of others wounded.

According to the BBC, Israel's PM said the operation followed "an immediate threat" by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) after the arrest of one of its members early last week.

The PIJ reportedly fired more than 100 rockets into Israel "in an initial response".

Most were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense shield.

Meanwhile, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported yesterday that the Palestinian death toll from Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip rose to 41.

A statement released by the Palestinian Health Ministry said 15 children and four women were among the victims, while 311 people were injured in the attacks.

Reuters reports that Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group declared a truce late on Sunday, raising hopes of an end to the most serious flare-up on the Gaza frontier in more than a year.

It was announced in separate statements by Islamic Jihad and then Israel, who both thanked Egypt for mediating the ceasefire.

Israeli forces pounded Palestinian targets through the weekend, triggering rocket attacks against its cities, which largely tapered off by the time the truce came into effect at 23:30 (20:30 GMT).

Palestinians sift through rubble at Gaza camp hit in Israeli strike
Reuters
August 07, 2022


By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - When Israeli rockets slammed into her neighbourhood in a crowded refugee camp in the Gaza strip on Saturday night, 9-year-old Leen Matar said she was so scared that she began to recite Islam's final prayers.

"We were at my grandfather’s house when suddenly the rubble started to fall on us," she told Reuters from a hospital bed, her father beside her as she was treated for a broken leg. "We started to cry until the neighbours arrived and rescued us."

"I was saying the last prayers, I didn’t expect I would live until the moment they rescued me," she said. "We sat like this for 10 minutes until they broke down the door."

Matar was wounded in an Israeli strike that killed a senior commander with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group late on Saturday evening, the second day of a major flare-up in violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

The Gaza authorities said five civilians were killed in the attack in the Rafah refugee camp, along with the commander - Khaled Mansour - and two of his associates.

A senior Israeli military officer said Israel had hit Mansour and a few commanders with him. He said the army did not know exactly how many civilians were killed but he denied it was five.

On Sunday morning, residents sifted through the rubble at the camp, a warren of alleys that is home to Palestinians whose families fled or were expelled from towns and villages in 1948 during the war of Israel's creation.

Some carried away a small bike and some books. Another dragged pieces of furniture away. Others looked for family documents and photo albums.

The casualties add to the toll of the most serious escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in more than a year.

The sides have agreed to observe an Egyptian-proposed truce from Sunday evening, sources said.

Israel began mounting air strikes on Friday against what it described as Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza. Around 30 Palestinians have been killed, at least a third of them civilians. Israel says it does not target civilians.

Islamic Jihad has fired hundreds of missiles into Israel, where antimissile defences have prevented casualties but people have still been driven into shelters.

'A HORRIFYING SCENE'

Palestinian residents said six homes had been destroyed in Rafah. The senior Israeli officer said Israel had destroyed the house Mansour was in and not the surrounding houses, and the strike was timed to minimise "collateral damage".

Ahmed Temraz, whose house was damaged, said six missiles had hit the area and there had been no forewarning of the attack.

"It was a horrifying scene, words can’t explain; injustice, terror and the fear of children and women,” Temraz, 46, told Reuters. "It was very scary. People were dismembered."

Residents had joined emergency workers and medics in rescue operations that continued until dawn, witnesses said.

Ashraf Al-Qaissi, whose house was about 50 metres from the targeted area, described chaotic scenes as residents sought to flee while aiding casualties.

"They hit the area without forewarning, I ran with my children, and my daughter got wounded in her hand," said Qaissi, 46.

He spoke sitting atop the ruins of his home, saying he had allowed rescue workers to knock it down so they could access the targeted area with a bulldozer to help search for victims under rubble.

"The trapped people are more precious," Qaissi told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Gustavo Petro takes oath as Colombian president in historic shift

Gustavo Petro, a former member of Colombia’s M-19 guerrilla group, won the presidential election in June by beating conservative parties.

Associated Press

Bogota

August 8, 2022

President Gustavo Petro raises his fist at the end of his inauguration speech in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. (AP Photo)


HIGHLIGHTS

Gustavo Petro won the presidential election in June

He is Colombia’s first leftist president

Petro won the election by just 2 percentage points

Colombia’s first leftist president was sworn into office Sunday, promising to fight inequality and bring peace to a country long haunted by bloody feuds between the government, drug traffickers and rebel groups.

Gustavo Petro, a former member of Colombia’s M-19 guerrilla group, won the presidential election in June by beating conservative parties that offered moderate changes to the market-friendly economy, but failed to connect with voters frustrated by rising poverty and violence against human rights leaders and environmental groups in rural areas.

On Sunday, he said Colombia was getting a “second chance” to tackle violence and poverty and promised that his government would implement economic policies that seek to end longstanding inequalities and ensure “solidarity” with the nation’s most vulnerable.

Supporters of Colombia's new President Gustavo Petro watch on a giant TV screen his swearing-in ceremony in San Antonio, on the Venezuelan border with Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. (AP Photo)

The incoming president said he was willing to start peace talks with armed groups across the country and also called on the United States and other developed nations to change drug policies that have focused on the prohibition of substances like cocaine, and fed violent conflicts across Colombia and other Latin American nations.

“It’s time for a new international convention that accepts that the war on drugs has failed,” he said. “Of course peace is possible. But it depends on current drug policies being substituted with strong measures that prevent consumption in developed societies.”

Petro is part of a growing group of leftist politicians and political outsiders who have been winning elections in Latin America since the pandemic broke out and hurt incumbents who struggled with its economic aftershocks.

The ex-rebel’s victory was also exceptional for Colombia, where voters had been historically reluctant to back leftist politicians who were often accused of being soft on crime or allied with guerrillas.

A 2016 peace deal between Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia turned the focus of voters away from the violent conflicts playing out in rural areas and gave prominence to problems like poverty and corruption, fueling the popularity of leftist parties in national elections. However, smaller rebel groups like the National Liberation Army and the Gulf Clan continue to fight over drug trafficking routes, illegal gold mines and other resources abandoned by the FARC.

Petro, 62, has described US-led antinarcotics policies as a failure but has also said he would like to work with Washington “as equals,” building schemes to combat climate change or bring infrastructure to rural areas where many farmers say coca leaves are the only viable crop.


Supporters of new President Gustavo Petro display a painting of him with new Vice-President Francia Marquez as they wait for their swearing-in ceremony at the Bolivar square in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. (AP Photo)

Petro also formed alliances with environmentalists during his presidential campaign and has promised to turn Colombia into a “global powerhouse for life” by slowing deforestation and reducing the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.

He has said Colombia will stop granting new licenses for oil exploration and will ban fracking projects, even though the oil industry makes up almost 50% of the nation’s legal exports. He plans to finance social spending with a $10 billion a year tax reform that would boost taxes on the rich and do away with corporate tax breaks.

“He’s got a very ambitious agenda,” said Yan Basset, a political scientist at Bogota’s Rosario University. “But he will have to prioritize. The risk Petro faces is that he goes after too many reforms at once and gets nothing” through Colombia’s congress.

Analysts expect Petro’s foreign policy to be markedly different from that of his predecessor Iván Duque, a conservative who backed Washington’s drug policies and worked with the US government to isolate the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an attempt to force the authoritarian leader into holding free elections.

Petro has instead said he will recognize Maduro’s government and try to work with the Venezuelan president on several issues, including fighting rebel groups along the porous border between the countries. Some border residents are hoping that improved relations will generate more commerce and job opportunities.

Hours before Petro took office, at the most important border crossing bridge with Venezuela, a group of people carried a Colombian flag as they walked toward Venezuela chanting “Viva Colombia, Viva Venezuela!” Supporters of Maduro held a concert on the Venezuelan side of the border.

In Cúcuta, a city just a few miles from the Venezuelan border, trade school student Daniela Cárdenas is hoping Petro will carry out an educational reform that includes free tuition for college students.

“He has promised so many things,” Cardenas, 19, said after traveling 90 minutes from her rural community to the city. “We must work to be able to pay our student fees, which are quite expensive and, well, that makes many things difficult for us.”


Supporters of new President Gustavo Petro chants slogans prior to his swearing-in ceremony at the Bolivar square in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022.(AP Photo)

Eight heads of state attended Petro’s inauguration, which was held at a large colonial-era square in front of Colombia’s Congress. Stages with live music and big screens were also placed in parks across Bogota’s city center so that tens of thousands of citizens without invitations to the main event could join the festivities. That marked a big change for Colombia where previous presidential inaugurations were more somber events limited to a few hundred VIP guests.

“It’s the first time that people from the base can come here to be part of a presidential inauguration,” said Luis Alberto Tombe, a member of the Guambiano tribe wearing a traditional blue poncho. “We feel honored to be here.”

But not everyone is feeling so hopeful about Petro’s victory. In Medellin Stefan Bravo, a conservative activist, organized an anti-Petro march on Saturday that was joined by around 500 people. He’s worried Colombia’s new president will erode the separation of powers in the South American country, and follow the policies of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.

“Petro does not represent us,” Bravo said. “This government will be a threat to family values, private property and foreign investment.”

Petro won the election by just 2 percentage points, and is still a polarizing figure in Colombia, where many have been wary of having former guerrillas participate in politics.

His Cabinet appointments have also been highly scrutinized: The new president picked an internationally renown economics professor as his finance minister, while also choosing an academic who researches the negative impacts of extractive industries as his minister for mining, and giving the labor ministry to the head of Colombia’s communist party.

“I think he’s trying to forge a balance,” said Sergio Guzmán, a political risk analyst in Bogota. “He has included the activists who he promised to make an integral part of his government, the centrist technocrats who give the markets confidence, and the different political parties with whom he has to govern to pass anything in congress.”

Emaciated but alert: Beluga whale stranded in Seine given vitamin dart

By Vivian Song
Updated August 8, 2022 — 

Paris: Experts in France have launched a last-ditch attempt to save a stranded beluga whale by injecting it with a vitamin-infused dart to entice it to eat.

Time is running out for the emaciated whale, which appeared in the River Seine around a week ago. First seen on August 2, the animal is about 70 kilometres from Paris, far from its natural habitat of arctic waters.

A drone image of the beluga whale in the Seine river in Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne region, west of Paris, on Friday.

CREDIT:SEA SHEPHERD/AP

The vitamin dart was used after efforts to strengthen the starving animal with frozen herring and live trout failed as it showed no interest. The injection also contained antibiotics and an appetite stimulant.

“He has to be moved in the coming 24 to 48 hours; these conditions are not good for him,” Lamya Essemlali, head of the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd France, told AFP on Sunday.

Experts have also considered the possibility of opening up the locks and leading the animal 160km back out into the open sea.

The locks were closed at the request of Sea Shepherd France, which has been tracking the whale, to prevent it from swimming further inland. But the longer it stays in stagnant freshwater, the less likely the whale will be able to make the long and exhausting journey.

“We are doubtful about its ability to return to the sea,” she said. “Even if we drove it with a boat, that would be extremely dangerous, if not impossible.”

On Sunday, Sea Shepherd France issued a new update on Twitter, saying that while the severely underweight animal continues to reject food, it is alert and dynamic, and that euthanasia would be premature.

The four-metre mammal was seen swimming “calmly” back and forth in the basin between two locks in the Seine. Along with being worryingly lean, spots on its skin also suggest illness.

“He is fairly emaciated and seems to have feeding difficulties,” said Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, secretary general of the Eure prefecture in north-west France at a press conference on Saturday.


A French fire brigade tracks the whale in the Seine by boat. CREDIT:AP

She ruled out direct intervention and extracting the whale from the river, saying it was too weak to survive such an aggressive rescue mission. She also added that any decisions would be made in the best interest of the animal.

The beluga is the latest cetacean to find itself stranded in the Seine. In May, a sick orca became separated from its pod and was spotted swimming in the river between the ports of Le Havre and the town of Honfleur.

Attempts to guide the young female back to sea failed and the animal eventually died. The results of an autopsy concluded that the immediate cause of death was starvation.

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Veterinarians also discovered a bullet lodged at the base of its skull, but said there were no other signs of trauma.

Essemlali said one explanation for the phenomenon of whales straying far from home and into the Seine could be the rise of human noise pollution.

“Cetaceans are extremely sensitive to sound. Sonar is their primary sense; it’s the way they travel, the way they hunt and the way they communicate,” she said. “We humans have a tendency to underestimate the impact of noise pollution, notably marine noise pollution.”

The Telegraph, London

Climate Reality Is Hitting Us Like a Breakaway Glacier

We have moved past the stage of observing the effects of climate change and are living amid its consequences.

AYO WALKER / TRUTHOUT

JP Sottile, 

Truthout

August 7, 2022

It was an “instant classic” viral video. A hiker enjoying a guided trip in the Tian Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan pulled out his cellphone and captured the sectional collapse of, and ensuing avalanche from, an enormous glacier. Much like a horror movie, the suspense builds as the massive, billowing wall of ice, rocks and debris moves ever closer to the hiker, Harry Shimmin of the U.K., whose steady hand maintains the crystal-clear picture on his phone.

Ultimately, the avalanche bears down on Shimmin, who acted like a voyeur watching a dangerous drama in which he actually had a starring role. At the last minute, and after a couple of “Oh, dear Gods,” he hastily dropped behind a rock as the barrage unleashed by the climate-afflicted glacier began pelting him and the group of hikers travelling with him. Luckily, they all survived.

Simultaneously exciting and terrifying, Shimmin’s video affords us all a rare glimpse of the unstoppable power of a collapsing glacier. At least, it used to be rare. Just about a week earlier in the Dolomite Mountains of northeastern Italy, 11 hikers were killed when a breakaway chunk of the Marmolada Glacier unleashed a similar onslaught. Not coincidentally, this occurred during a “record-breaking heat wave during the country’s worst drought in 70 years,” which has deprived the mountains of winter snow. The drought is also depriving the Po River Valley of the water it needs to produce the olive oil and world-renowned risotto rice that makes it among the world’s most storied agricultural regions.

In years past, the Po River Valley could depend on the run-off from countless tons of snow in the Cottian Alps, where the mountainous borders of Italy and France meet. However, now it’s gotten so dire in the Alps that the Swiss are now covering up their iconic ice with expensive UV-resistant “geotextile” blankets. It’s a desperate bid to slow what is increasingly inevitable. One prediction is that all of the mountainous nations’ glaciers could be gone by the turn of the next century. In 2021, a Swiss ski resort essentially put a band aid on this broken leg by throwing 1 million square feet of “giant fleece blankets” over a titanic glacier on Mount Titlis. Meanwhile, in the French Alps, the Tignes ski resort closed its summer glacier skiing season “a month earlier than scheduled,” truncating what used to be a summer continuation of skiing to just 14 days, the shortest in the history of the resort.

Across the English Channel, an epic heat wave sent parts of the U.K. over the 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) mark for the first time in recorded history. The “heat apocalypse” stoked destructive flames along a wildfire-scarred swath of southern Europe stretching from Portugal to Greece. According to The Independent, those fires produced an estimated “11 million tonnes of planet-heating emissions.” The recent trend of European heat waves is also stoking fears of more glacial disasters. The continent’s glaciers are melting “faster than ever,” and, as AP News reported, a satellite assessment in 2021 (that’s before this year’s historic heat wave) found that glaciers are “losing 31% more snow and ice per year than they did 15 years earlier.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

On February 7, 2021, a wedge of glacier-covered rock more than 500 meters wide and 180 meters thick just “suddenly let go” in the Himalayas and, as BBC News reported in June of that year, a mixture of rock, ice and water hit the valley floor below “like 15 atomic bombs.” Over 200 people living and working in the Chamoli district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand were killed and hydroelectric infrastructure worth hundreds of millions of dollars was lost in the deluge. Although scientists are careful to not overplay climate change as the direct cause, researchers did write that “glacier shrinkage uncovers and destabilises mountain flanks and strongly alters the hydrological and thermal regimes of the underlying rock.” Sadly, the mountainous state was hit again on April 23, 2021, when a glacier “burst” sparked an avalanche in Sumna, this time killing 16 near the Indo-China border.

Just a month later, on May 20, a chunk of Antarctic ice reportedly “three times the size of New Delhi” broke free and set sail on the sweltering seas. Dubbed “A-76” by scientists, the “world’s largest iceberg” is destined to methodically melt like another viral sensation, an earlier breakaway iceberg known as “A-68.” Then it happened again. In November, a huge hunk of the Perito Moreno Glacier fell into the waters abutting Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina’s “fast melting” Patagonia region. It was much to the amazement of “stunned” onlookers who, like Harry Shimmin, found themselves bearing witness to the fallout of anthropogenic climate change while on holiday.We’ve basically doubled-down on carbon emissions after the over-hyped carbon interregnum during the pandemic.

But it doesn’t end there.

On March 5, 2022, another group of tourists in Argentina “oohed and ahhed” when a glacier broke off of a 60-meter-high cliff, plunged and then re-emerged from the sea. Twenty-one days later, an “ice shelf bigger than New York City” broke off in an area in eastern Antarctica that scientists have, according to The Washington Post, thought to be “relatively stable and far less vulnerable to global warming compared to ice in western Antarctica.” Ominously, a trio of scientists observed that “there is enough ice in the West Antarctic ice sheet to raise sea levels by several meters, and if East Antarctica starts losing significant amounts of ice, the impact on sea levels could be measured in tens of meters.”

As the great science journalist Robert Krulwich recently explained in a superb animated video for CBS “Sunday Morning,” the last time atmospheric CO2 concentrations were this high was 2.5 million years ago. Known as the Pliocene Era, the Earth was “about 3 or 4 degrees” (Celsius) warmer and global sea levels were 55 feet higher than they are today. That’s right … 55!

Is that what’s in store for us over the next century should we continue to burn hydrocarbons like there’s no tomorrow? We certainly seem hell-bent on finding out, because we’ve basically doubled-down on carbon emissions after the over-hyped carbon interregnum during the pandemic. And if our Anthropocene Era sees only half of the Pliocene sea level rise, there will, in fact, be no tomorrow for millions, if not billions of humans crowded along the Earth’s coasts or living downstream from the world’s melting glaciers. It promises to be the greatest disaster humans have ever produced. But just like Shimmin, we can’t say we didn’t see it coming.

Hell, we can even see it from space.

Satellite images from the European Union’s Earth observation program show how drastically the aforementioned Po River has changed over the last two years. They named the satellite “Copernicus” in honor of the Renaissance genius who challenged centuries of church canon by proving the Earth, and by extension humankind, was not at the center of the universe, but rather it (and humans) revolved around the Sun.

Now Copernicus revolves around the Earth, revealing, as Euronews reported, the stark impact we’re having on this staggeringly rare harbor for life in, as far as we’ve found, an otherwise life-averse solar system. In the Po Valley, it shows exposed sand where water once ran and, in turn, helped sustain 125 municipalities and numerous farms that are now forced into rationing.

Satellite data collected by NASA in early July of this year showed similarly parched areas of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, which is increasingly bereft of its famously briny waters. In fact, it now sits at its “lowest level in 175 years of record keeping,” according to Discover Magazine, which paired the satellite images with photos illustrating how a dire, regional drought is currently damaging the lake.

The once-greater lake’s salty sister in California is suffering a similar retreat. Mono Lake was famously brought back from the brink by an incredibly effective citizen-led campaign in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s. But now, its once-ubiquitous “Save Mono Lake” bumper stickers have long-since faded and the lake is again endangered. This time, it’s not the excessive redirection of its tributary waters to quench the thirst of millions of Southern Californians. Water is still pulled, but now Mono Lake, like all the examples in this sad litany, is also battling a drought made more disastrous by a “two-decade run of extreme warming and drying.”

Approximately 350 miles southwest of Mono Lake, we find Lake Mead, which stands at its lowest level since the human-made reservoir was first filled in 1937. It is nearing the nadir of a “22-year downward trend.” That’s per scientists at NASA’s Earth Observatory, which recently released a shocking set of satellite photos showing the lake literally drying-up in three stages since the year 2000. You may have seen ‘em, because the photos had a viral moment as they made the rounds on social media, like the media of avalanches and floods and cattle dropping dead before it. Lake Mead had already made the news repeatedly, particularly as the receding waters exposed possible murder victims. What’s not a mystery is what’s killing the “largest reservoir in the United States,” which, as NASA notes, supplies water to “millions of people across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico,” but is currently “filled to just 27 percent of capacity.”There’s little doubt that the commonality of pools and second cars in sun-baked desert metropolises like Las Vegas and Phoenix [stokes] the climate feedback loop driving the drought.

The irony is that its closest customer, Las Vegas, the home of unbridled excess, has a surprisingly low draw from Mead and an efficient system that captures, treats and returns water to the lake. Still, Southern Nevada gets 90 percent of its water from the drought-ravaged Colorado River via Lake Mead, and, as AP News reported, it’s still home to 200,000 swimming pools, with 1,300 more pools added annually. It’s also home to an estimated 3,000 “commercial” pools that serve 40 million tourists who fly and drive to Las Vegas every year. Unsurprisingly, those commercial pools are not affected by new water restrictions. One critic of the restrictions, who happens to own a custom pool design business, said without irony, “When you’re in the desert and it’s 100 degrees outside on a regular basis, it’s part of life to have a pool,” and “having a pool in Las Vegas is like having a second car … it’s that common.”

Alas, pools and second cars in sun-baked desert metropolises like Las Vegas and Phoenix (with the most pools per capita) are local cogs in a globe-spanning, fossil-fueled economic machine that’s driving the climate feedback loop now threatening the river that helps to fill those ubiquitous pools. The same goes for using air conditioning to survive a superheating world, which pumps out CO2 and further heats the world, thus making air conditioning even more necessary and, in turn, accelerating the heating that melts glaciers and dries up lakes and ignites wildfires in rapidly escalating doom-loop.

This escalating feedback loop is also responsible for the suffering of more than 2 billion people currently sweltering in India, Pakistan and China, for impoverished climate refugees fleeing from Central America, and for millions of low-carbon-producing, sea-level Bangladeshis inauspiciously stuck between collapsing glaciers in the Himalayas and melting breakaway ice shelves now bobbing in the warming oceans.

But the time when we can sit back and marvel at these climate catastrophes is as long gone as Iceberg A-68. Now the viral moments are much closer to home … from Kansas to Kentucky, from Nebraska to Texas and Maine, and we are all more and more like Harry Shimmin with each passing day as the reality of climate change becomes as relentless as a collapsing glacier. Earth’s climate is breaking through the fourth wall to show us that we cannot afford the luxury of voyeurism.

In essence, Mother Nature’s “invisible hand” is imposing punishment on an economic system that pretends we can sustain unlimited growth on a planet of limited resources and, astonishingly, somehow remain free of the feedback loop’s environmental consequences. In fact, that’s what Mother Nature is telling us in these viral moments. Her invisible hand is enforcing a brutal type of ecological discipline on an economic system that is divorced from reality.

Breaking the feedback loop is really the only option we have left.



JP Sottile is a freelance journalist, published historian, radio co-host and documentary filmmaker (The Warning, 2008). His credits include a stint on the “NewsHour” news desk, C-SPAN and as newsmagazine producer for ABC affiliate WJLA in Washington. His weekly show, “Inside the Headlines With The Newsvandal,” co-hosted by James Moore, airs every Friday on KRUU-FM in Fairfield, Iowa. He blogs under the pseudonym “The Newsvandal.”
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