German Minister Decries Ecological Catastrophe in Oder River
August 14, 2022 
Associated Press

Dead fishes are removed by a worker of the emergency services of the voluntary water rescue organisation, German Life Saving Association (DLRG) from the Oder river on the German-Polish border, as water contamination is believed to be the cause of a mass fish die-off, in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany August 14, 2022.

WARSAW —

Germany's environment minister said the mass die-off of fish in the Oder River is an ecological catastrophe and it isn't clear yet how long it will take for the river to recover.

Steffi Lemke spoke Sunday at a news conference alongside her Polish counterpart, Anna Moskwa, after a meeting in Szczecin, a Polish city on the Oder River.

The Oder runs from the Czech Republic to the border between Poland and Germany before flowing into the Baltic Sea. Ten tons of dead fish were removed from it last week, but Moskwa said the cause of the mass die-off still has not yet been determined.

"So far, at least 150 samples of water from the Oder River have been tested. None of the studies have confirmed the presence of toxic substances. At the same time, we are testing fish. No mercury or other heavy metals have been found in them," she said.

She said some Oder water samples were being sent to foreign laboratories to be tested for about 300 substances.

Both ministers said they were focused now on doing what they can to limit the damage to the river's ecosystem.

Lemke suggested that German authorities were not alerted quickly enough after dead fish were detected in Poland and said communications between the two countries should be improved.

Poland says Oder tests so far not showing poison as cause of fish die-off

Reuters
August 14, 2022

 REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo

WARSAW, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Poison cannot be ruled out as the cause of a mass die-off of fish in the Oder river but tests so far have not proven toxic substances were to blame, Polish Environment Minister Anna Moskwa said on Sunday.

Tonnes of dead fish have been found since late July in the river Oder, which runs through Germany and Poland. Both countries have said they believe a toxic substance is to blame, but have yet to identify what it is.

"As of today, none of these (water) tests have confirmed the presence of toxic substances," Moskwa said after meeting with her German counterpart and other German and Polish officials.

"At the same time, we are conducting tests on fish. We have completed fish tests for mercury and heavy metals. Neither mercury nor heavy metals were found in the collected samples," she added.

Moskwa said samples are now being tested for the presence of pesticides and around 300 more substances will be checked for in the coming hours.

"We still do not exclude a variant of the toxic substances...so we are interested in the prompt identification of the perpetrator... We are checking entities which run business and industrial activity along the river," Moskwa added.

The German and Polish governments have said the mass die-off is a major environmental catastrophe and the waterway could take years to return to normal.

Reporting by Anna Koper, writing by Jan Lopatka and Anna Koper, editing by Alexander Smith and Hugh Lawson

German government’s “Inflation Compensation Act:” More money for the rich

Peter Schwarz

WSWS.ORG

Record inflation and skyrocketing energy prices are plunging hundreds of thousands of working families in Germany into a desperate struggle to survive. But the response of the German government is to shower the super-rich with more cash gifts.

That is the core message of the so-called “Inflation Compensation Act,” which Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (Free Democratic Party-FDP) presented this week, to be approved by the cabinet in September.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner in the Finance Committee of the Bundestag [Photo by Deutscher Bundestag / Janine Schmitz / photothek] [Photo by Deutscher Bundestag / Janine Schmitz / photothek]

Even economists close to the government admit that Lindner’s proposal accelerates wealth redistribution from the bottom to the top. “A reform in which higher earners nominally gain more simply comes at the wrong time,” Veronika Grimm, a member of the German Council of Economic Experts, told the Rheinische Post.

Jens Südekum, an economics professor in Düsseldorf and advisor to the German government, told Der Spiegel: “This package will provide relief for all income brackets, and there is simply no time for that at the moment. People with high earnings actually benefit the most from the measures in absolute terms. Those who earn very little money are not helped by the tax measures. In view of rising inflation, we would need redistribution from top to bottom, not the other way around.”

There were also isolated critical voices from the ranks of the other “traffic light” government coalition members, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens. But this means nothing. Rather, it shows in an “almost ideal-typical” way “how the traffic light system works,” as the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung cynically commented. “Everyone loudly raises his claim... but the goal of reaching an agreement is kept in sight.”

When individual government advisors and politicians publicly criticize Lindner, it is out of fear of a “hot autumn.” Professor Südekum states this openly in his interview with Der Spiegel. He fears that there will be protests not only against high prices and poverty, but also against the Ukraine war.

In response to Der Spiegel’s question, “Do you expect political radicalization and a hot autumn?” he replies: “Of course, radical parties will cannibalize the situation. But if the price of gas goes through the roof in the winter and the state leaves poorer people to fend for themselves, solidarity with Ukraine will also crumble... So we have to find a social solution so as not to play into the Kremlin’s hands.”

The government will not be swayed from its course by such objections. SPD Chairman Lars Klingbeil told broadcaster ZDF’s morning show that while he had “different ideas in detail,” Lindner had sent the “right signal” with his plans.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), who was himself finance minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel, immediately backed Lindner and expressed his “fundamental goodwill.” Speaking to broadcaster ARD, Scholz said Lindner’s proposal was “very helpful.” Since he himself had compensated for tax bracket creep when he was finance minister, this “could not be an obviously wrong idea,” he said.

Tax bracket creep means that middle-income groups automatically move up to a higher tax rate when their wages are increased, leaving nothing of the increase. Lindner uses this as an excuse to cater to his rich clientele.

He wants to provide a total of €10 billion in relief for 48 million taxpayers by increasing the entry and top tax rates. This corresponds to an average of €192 a year, but it is distributed highly unevenly. Top earners with an annual income of over €62,000 will save just under €500 euros, while high-earning married couples will save up to €2,000. A family with two children and an income of €30,000, on the other hand, will save at most €300 euros. Those earning under €10,350, the threshold for paying income taxes, go away completely empty-handed.

Lindner’s tax reform is only the tip of the iceberg. The present inflation rate, officially 7.5 percent, is melting incomes like glaciers facing global warming. The trade unions, which are in cahoots with the government, are doing everything they can to keep wage settlements far below the inflation rate.

Especially with rising gas prices—a direct result of sanctions and the war against Russia—working class households are facing devastating burdens while the big energy companies are raking in billions in profits.

A typical family will have to pay several thousand euros extra for its home gas bill. Energy suppliers have already started to send out higher bills. Cologne energy supplier Rheinenergie will start jacking up prices by 116 percent beginning October 1. An average bill of €2,800 a year for gas will leap to over €6,000, corresponding to a monthly increase of €270.

The government had promised to remedy the situation. But so far it has only decided on a one-off lump sum subsidy of €300, which will be paid out in September and is subject to taxation. It is intended as compensation for high gasoline prices and does not even cover one month’s worth of higher energy prices.

At the same time, the government itself has driven up the price of gas for home heating and cooking even further by passing a gas levy that will be charged to all gas consumers. The levy is being used to offset the losses suffered by municipal utilities and intermediaries such as Uniper, which cannot immediately pass on increased purchase prices to their customers. Thus, the money flows into the coffers of the big energy companies, which are making super profits thanks to high world market prices.

Lindner’s inflation compensation law demonstrates the class character of the “traffic light” coalition, which unreservedly represents the interests of the capitalists against the working class.

In order to defend the profits of German corporations and banks, to make Germany the leading military power in Europe and to intensify the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, it is prepared to walk over corpses and smash all social and democratic gains of the working class.

Fox News Host Floats Possibility Trump Tried to 'Sell' Classified Documents

BY JASON LEMON  

NEWSWEEK

ON 8/14/22 

Fox News anchor Eric Shawn floated the possibility that former President Donald Trump may have tried to "sell" classified documents to Russia or Saudi Arabia.

The FBI executed a search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort residence on Monday in search of top secret and sensitive compartmentalized information, as well as other classified documents. The Washington Post reported Thursday that information regarding nuclear weapons was believed to be among the documents sought by federal agents, and a Russian-state television host said officials in Moscow have already studied the records. Trump described the report regarding nuclear weapons documents as a "hoax."

In a Sunday Fox News broadcast, Shawn interviewed former intelligence officer and Russian expert Rebekah Koffler. At the start of the segment, the Fox News anchor raised questions about what Trump may have done with the classified materials.

Shawn, citing reports, said that intelligence officials reportedly feared "either the material was being mishandled or even possibly illegally transferred...to others."

"And more questions are being raised this morning. Did former President Trump try to sell [or] share the highly classified material to the Russians or to the Saudis, or others? Or were the documents innocently mishandled and stored because he thought he had a legal right to have them?" the Fox News anchor asked.

Koffler weighed in with her perspective, saying that Trump's Florida home as a storage for such documents presents a "counterintelligence nightmare."

"The real question, Eric, is what Russian President Putin has already done?" Koffler said. "The truth is the United States is the top target for KGB operative Putin and his spy services." She added that that Mar-a-Lago "is a counterintelligence nightmare, meaning that spies from all over the world—Russia, China and beyond—are always on the hunt to lay their hands on top secret information, especially something that is related to nuclear warfare doctrine."

"The fact that those boxes were not secure is a really grave concern," she said.

Fox News anchor Eric Shawn interviews former intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler about former President Donald Trump keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago during a Sunday segment.

SCREENSHOT/FOX NEWS

Russia Claims to Have Seen the Documents

Russian media personalities have defended Trump and also said that the classified documents were reviewed by Moscow officials. Last week, during the Russian TV news program 60 Minutes, military expert Igor Korotchenko echoed Trump's assessment of the FBI raid, calling it a "witch hunt." Korotchenko said that "as the most popular politician in the United States" Trump was "chosen as such a witch."

"They won't just be vilifying him, they will be strangling him. These raids, involving dozens of FBI officers and police dogs...This is a symbol of inordinate despotism," the Russian military expert added.

Over the weekend during a segment on a state-owned Russia-1 television channel, a host discussed the raid and said Russians had access to the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.

"Turns out that the investigation against Trump has to do with the disappearance of secret documents from the White House, related to the development of nuclear weapons by the U.S.," host Evgeny Popov said. "The FBI isn't saying what kinds of weapons, or what they found in Trump's estate. Obviously, if there were any important documents, they've been studying them in Moscow for a while."

Trump Defends Himself

Trump has rejected reporting that there was information about nuclear weapons held at his Florida residence.

"Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more. Same sleazy people involved," the former president wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform early Friday morning.

The former president has described the Justice Department probe and the FBI search as a "scam."

"Like all of the other Hoaxes and Scams that they've used to try and silence the voice of a vast majority of the American People, I have TRUTH on my side, and when you have TRUTH, you will ultimately be victorious!" he wrote Saturday on Truth Social.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's press office for comment.

READ MORE

Fox News Host Refutes Trump Claim Obama Kept 33M Classified Documents
Rand Paul Calls for Espionage Act Repeal as Trump Fumes Over FBI Search
Jared Kushner Most Likely Mar-a-Lago Mole Behind FBI Raid: Mary Trump

Mar-a-Lago -- and its owner -- have long caused concerns for US intelligence

By Kevin Liptak, CNN
Sun August 14, 2022

An aerial view of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate
is seen Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida.

Washington (CNN)Revealing an airstrike over "beautiful" chocolate cake. A trespasser from China carrying flash drives and electronics. Cellphone photos of the "nuclear football" briefcase. And now, classified documents recovered during an FBI search.

Mar-a-Lago, the stone-walled oceanfront estate Donald Trump labeled the "Winter White House," has long been a source of headaches for national security and intelligence professionals. Its clubby atmosphere, sprawling guest-list and talkative proprietor combined into a "nightmare" for keeping the government's most closely held secrets, one former intelligence official said.

Now, the 114-room mansion and its various outbuildings are at the center of a Justice Department investigation into Trump's handling of presidential material. After an hours-long search of the property last week, FBI agents seized 11 sets of documents, some marked as "sensitive compartmented information" — among the highest levels of government secrets. CNN reported Saturday that one of Trump's attorneys claimed in June that no classified material remained at the club -- raising fresh questions about the number of people who have legal exposure in the ongoing investigation.

In many ways, Trump's 20-acre compound in Palm Beach, Florida, amounts to the physical embodiment of what some former aides describe as a haphazard-at-best approach by the former President to classified documents and information.

"Mar-a-Lago has been a porous place ever since Trump declared his candidacy and started winning primaries several years ago," said Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism analyst. "If you were any intelligence service, friendly or unfriendly, worth their salt, they would be concentrating their efforts on this incredibly porous place."

Timeline: The Justice Department criminal inquiry into Trump taking classified documents to Mar-a-Lago

When Trump departed office in January 2021, it was Mar-a-Lago where he decamped, sore from a loss he refused to acknowledge. The club, with its paying members and large oil paintings of Trump as a younger man, was a welcome refuge.

It was also the destination for dozens of cardboard boxes, packed in haste in the final days of his administration and shipped in white trucks to Florida. People familiar with Trump's exit from Washington said the process of packing was rushed, in part because the outgoing President refused to engage in activities that would signal he'd lost the election. When it became clear he would need to leave the White House, items were quickly stowed away in boxes and shipped south without a clearly organized system.

"Trump kept a lot of things in his files that were not in the regular system or that had been given to him in the course of intelligence briefings," said John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser. "I can easily imagine in the last chaotic days at the White House, since he didn't think he was going to leave until the last minute, they were just throwing things in boxes, and it included a lot of things he had accumulated over the four years."

Some boxes, including some containing classified documents, had ended up at the club after Trump's presidency concluded. When federal investigators -- including the chief of counterintelligence and export control at the Justice Department -- traveled to Mar-a-Lago in June to discuss the classified documents with Trump and his lawyers, they voiced concern the room wasn't properly secured.

Trump's team added a new lock onto the door. But FBI agents returned to Mar-a-Lago last week to execute a search warrant on the property that identified three possible crimes: violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records.

The items taken away after Monday's search included a leather box of documents, binders of photos, "miscellaneous top secret documents" and "Info re. President of France," according to the search warrant. Trump and his allies have claimed he used his presidential prerogative to declassify the documents before leaving office, though haven't provided any evidence of a formal process taking place.

"My only surprise was that there wasn't even more taken to Mar-a-Lago," Bolton said.

A habit of defying norms

Last week was not the first time federal intelligence officials worried about how Trump was keeping the government's secrets. Nearly as soon as he took office, Trump demonstrated a willingness to flout protocols for guarding sensitive information.

In 2017, he spontaneously revealed highly classified information about an Islamic State plot to a group of Russian visitors, including the foreign minister, that the US had received from Israel. It caused deep anger in both countries' intelligence services.

When he was briefed by intelligence officials in 2019 about an explosion in Iran, he later tweeted out a highly classified satellite photo of the facility -- despite having heard officials' concerns beforehand that doing so could reveal American capabilities.

Trump preferred to receive intelligence updates electronically, according to his third chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, though he sometimes asked to keep physical documents from classified briefings.

"From time to time the President would say, 'Can I keep this?' But we had entire teams of people to make sure those documents didn't get left behind, didn't get taken up to the residence. He would use them. That was his right as the President of the United States," Mulvaney said.

Still, the tracking of records was not a priority for Trump, according to several former officials. When he asked to keep sensitive documents, officials sometimes became concerned at what would happen to the material. When he traveled, aides often followed close behind toting cardboard boxes where they'd collected stacks of papers Trump had left behind.

Mixing business with pleasure

At Mar-a-Lago, worries about Trump revealing top government secrets — accidentally or otherwise — were amplified. The facility acts as a pool club, spa, restaurant and clubhouse for its members and their guests; the gold-trimmed Donald J. Trump ballroom can be rented for weddings and other events.

While the Secret Service screens visitors for weapons and checks their names against a list, they are not responsible for protecting secret documents or guarding against potential interference.

Members flocked to Trump's club when he was in town as President, and rules enacted early in his tenure against taking photos in the dining room were not always strictly followed.
That became evident in February 2017, when Trump hosted the late then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan for dinner on the patio. After a North Korean missile launch interrupted the meal, Trump and Abe huddled with their national security aides in full view of other diners, who picked away at wedge salads with blue cheese while snapping photos of the leaders' impromptu crisis talks.

Later, Trump's aides insisted he had ducked into a secure room -- known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) -- to receive updates on the launch, and that he and Abe were simply discussing the logistics for their press statements.

Yet the flood of photos posted to social media by Mar-a-Lago members showed the two leaders poring over documents at their dinner table, along with aides working on laptops and Trump speaking on his cellphone. At one point, staffers used the flashlights on their cellphones to illuminate documents the leaders were reading.

Soon after, some new rules went in effect to limit who could be at the club when Trump was there. Reservations were required two weeks in advance, and new limits were placed on the number of guests that members were permitted to bring.

Trump returned to the Mar-a-Lago SCIF in spring 2017 to discuss launching an airstrike on Syria; at the time, he was hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping for dinner. Later, he said he returned to the table to inform Xi of his decision as they ate the "most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen."

One of the concerns Trump's aides had at Mar-a-Lago was their relative inability to discern who exactly he was speaking with while he was there. Compared to the White House, with its strict access lists, it was sometimes unclear even to Trump's senior-most advisers who he'd come into contact with at the club.

Trump's second chief of staff, John Kelly, worked to limit who had access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago, though there was little expectation he or any other aide would be able to fully restrict the President's conversations with friends and paying Mar-a-Lago members. Kelly told associates at the time he was more interested in knowing who Trump was speaking with than preventing the conversations from happening.

Kelly also worked to implement a more structured system for the handling of classified material, though Trump's cooperation in the system was not always guaranteed.

Managing a variety of risks

While at Mar-a-Lago, Trump did not always use his SCIF when viewing classified documents, according to one person familiar with the matter. And his penchant for sharing what he knew with his interlocutors was a source of constant frustration.

"He was a difficult president to support in terms of trying to give him the information he needed while still protecting the way we collected it so that he wouldn't accidentally or otherwise speak off-the-cuff and mention something that an adversary could use to track down where we had an agent," said Douglas London, a former CIA counterterrorism official who served during the Trump administration.

London said it was ironic Trump kept classified documents since the former President "wasn't much of a reader."

Keeping classified information from Mar-a-Lago's members was one thing; keeping out potential security threats proved to be its own challenge.

In 2019, a 33-year-old businesswoman from Shanghai was arrested for trespassing on the grounds of Trump's club. At the time of her arrest, Yujing Zhang had in her possession four cellphones, a laptop, an external hard drive and a thumb drive. Prosecutors said they also found a trove of additional electronics -- including a signal detector to detect hidden cameras -- and thousands of dollars in cash in her hotel room.

Another Chinese national, Lu Jing, was also accused of trespassing at Mar-a-Lago later that year. Officials said during the incident, Lu was asked to leave by security before returning to the premises and taking photos.

It was never determined what either woman's motives were in trying to access the club. Lu was found not guilty; Zhang was eventually sentenced to eight months in prison.

An Iran Nuclear Deal May Be Within Reach

MOHAMMAD AL-KASSIM
08/14/2022

Tehran has achieved many of its demands in the Vienna talks, Islamic Republic negotiating team adviser says

Iran said Sunday it was still finalizing its response to a “final text” submitted by the European Union at the negotiations in Vienna last week as part of efforts intended at restoring the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers.

“We are not far from a breakthrough. We’re pretty close but things depend on whether the Europeans can put to rest the remaining concerns that the Iranians have,” said Mohammad Marandi, an adviser to the Iranian negotiating team in Vienna.

Marandi told The Media Line that reviving the accord officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was within reach because Tehran had achieved many of its demands in the Vienna talks.

“Iran has gained major concessions in the different fields including verification, guarantees, inherent guarantees, sanctions, and the issues linked to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] board of governors,” he said.

The text has been under negotiation for 15 months. However, EU officials now publicly say they expect a final decision from the parties within “very, very few weeks.”

“What can be negotiated has been negotiated, and it’s now in a final text. However, behind every technical issue and every paragraph lies a political decision that needs to be taken in the capitals,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted.

But Marandi insists that “Iran doesn’t take deadlines seriously just as it hasn’t taken deadlines in the past seriously,” adding that despite this most recent offer being the best so far, Tehran remains skeptical.

“The current text that is being discussed is much better than what the Europeans and Americans have put on the table seven, eight months ago. But since we have a very dark past with Western countries and there are violations of the nuclear deal, Iranians have to be very cautious about every sentence, every word in the text,” says Marandi.

The talks in Vienna are being conducted between Iran, and Britain, France, Russia, China, and the European Union. Iran refuses to negotiate directly with the US as long as Washington remains outside the JCPOA, and during the Vienna talks, the Islamic Republic has repeatedly demanded guarantees to ensure that the US doesn’t repeat what then-President Donald Trump did when he unilaterally withdrew from the pact in 2018.

EU officials said a delay in reaching a deal had been partly due to the Islamic Republic’s demand that Washington remove the Revolutionary Guards Corps from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Nader Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, told The Media Line that a deal seemed closer than before but that several old and new obstacles may stand in the way.

“Old sticking points, related to Iran’s opposition to having the IRGC designated as a terrorist organization and Tehran’s desire for guarantees that the USA will not again pull out of the agreement (should Trump become president again),” Hashemi says.

Another obstacle that could hinder inking an agreement is an International Atomic Energy Agency inquiry into Iranian nuclear activity.

“Iran demands that the IAEA drop its investigation into traces of uranium particles found at several [undeclared] nuclear sites in Iran. Recall that in early June Iran was officially censured by this UN nuclear agency. A non-resolution of this issue could kill an agreement, especially if Iran is seeking to hide any clandestine experimentation with building nuclear weapons. If Iran has been doing this, it does not want to be exposed for lying to the international community,” says Hashemi.

US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said last week that Washington was waiting for Tehran’s response to the draft nuclear deal.

“We and the Europeans have made quite clear that we are prepared to immediately conclude and implement the deal we negotiated in Vienna for a mutual return to the full implementation of the JCPOA,” he told reporters. “For that to happen, Iran needs to decide to drop their additional demands that go beyond the JCPOA. Ultimately, the choice is theirs.”

Hashemi points to elements within Iran’s hard-line ruling circles who argue that waiting until after the US midterm elections may yield them a better accord.

Hashemi calls this “totally erroneous.”

“Some hard-liners in Iran naively believe that Iran can get a better deal after the November congressional elections in the United States,” he says. They believe that if the Democrats lose, Iran will get the deal that it wants.

They think “Biden will offer more concessions if he is weakened by a Republican Party electoral victory in Congress. This suggests dragging out the negotiating process until after November,” Hashemi notes.

The Biden Administration has sought to return to the agreement, saying that would be the best way forward with the Islamic Republic.

Last week, the US Justice Department indicted a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards over allegations he had offered to pay an individual in the United States $300,000 to kill former White House national security adviser John Bolton. The accused, Shahram Poursafi, is believed to be in Iran.

Iran dismissed the allegations as “fiction.”

“No one in Iran takes the accusation seriously. US intelligence, the FBI, and the judiciary are highly politicized regardless of what American officials say. Even inside the United States, there’s a deep divide over the role of that FBI and the judiciary over the raid on Trump’s home in Florida.”

Marandi says the timing of the report on the alleged assassination plot poses a real question regarding the presence of a group of persons within the US government “who don’t want the deal to [go through] or that the US government is already planning to wreck or undermine the deal.”

The 2015 nuclear pact-imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, but the US pulled out of the deal and subsequently imposed additional sanctions on an already struggling Iranian economy. That led the Islamic Republic to suspend some of its commitments, especially after other signatories to the agreement failed to counter the effects of the reimposed sanctions.

Trump reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic, including cutting off its banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication – SWIFT, the global financial payment system. Trump followed the US withdrawal from the accord with a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at pressuring Tehran to return to the negotiating table to forge a stronger agreement.

U$ IMPERIALIST HUBRIS

Trump letter gave go-ahead to annex Judea and Samaria

In a newly obtained letter to Netanyahu, the former president authorized the annexation if Israel accepts Palestinian state

Israel National News
Aug 15, 2022,

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu meet in White HouseReuters

In a three-page letter from then-US President Donald Trump, obtained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly received a green light to annex parts of Judea and Samaria.

The letter was dated January 26, 2020, two days before Trump presented his Vision for Peace in the White House. In the letter, the president summed up some of the plan's details. These included that Israel would be able to extend sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, as outlined in the map included in the plan.

The land was to be annexed if Netanyahu agreed to a Palestinian state in the remaining territory on that map.

In the letter, the former US President asked Netanyahu to adopt the policies outlined in the plan regarding those territories of Judea and Samaria identified as becoming part of a future Palestinian state.

In exchange for Israel implementing these policies and formally the territorial plans not inconsistent with the Conceptual Map attached to the plan "The United States will recognize Israeli sovereignty in those areas of the West Bank that my vision contemplates as being part of Israel.” the letter stated

Though the letter did not mention a timeline for the recognition of sovereignty, according to his spokesman, the former prime minister responded that Israel would move forward with the annexation "in the coming days".

Nearly half of Canadians pay more attention to the weather than payday

By Andrew Benson Global News
Posted August 14, 2022 

In an online study conducted by Ketchum on behalf of Payments Canada, from June 30 to July 6 2022, 1,503 full-time and part-time employed Canadians were questioned about their payments. 

For many Canadians, the best day of the week is when that paycheque hits the bank account, but according to a recent study, people aren’t bothering to check their cheques.


In an online study conducted by Ketchum on behalf of Payments Canada, from June 30 to July 6, 2022, 1,503 full-time and part-time employed Canadians were questioned about their pay statements.

READ MORE: Saskatchewan leads the country in construction numbers

The results included:46% of working Canadians pay more attention to the weather than their pay statements

38% are unlikely to spot an employer’s pay discrepancy

35% find reviewing their pay information daunting

34% only focus on pay details when it’s time to file their taxes

23% would feel uncomfortable asking their employer to explain income deduction details on their pay statement

“With around $971 billion paid in annual wages and benefits to Canadians and a complex and evolving array of deductions, it’s inevitable that on occasion mistakes and discrepancies happen,” a press release from Payments Canada states.

According to new research commissioned by Payments Canada, many working Canadians do not feel well-equipped in understanding their pay statements with 38% who think it’s “unlikely they would catch any discrepancies.”

According to Kristina Logue, the CFO of Payments Canada, the survey was really about understanding how Canadians handle their paycheque.

“The intention behind the study was really to explore working-Canadians’ sentiments and their level of understanding about their paycheque and how the modernization of payments can improve that understanding and experience,” Logue said.

Loque said the move to digital has made it easier to see if you’ve been paid, rather than checking the fine details of your payment.

“Our bank accounts now a direct deposit, which really safe, really fast, really efficient,” she explained. “There’s no need to go and check your pay stub because you just look at your bank account and see it’s there.”

Moving forward, she said research and information on pay statements is the best way for people to make sure their payments are done correctly.

“Working Canadians (often) don’t know what they’re supposed to be looking for on their pay stub. So that lack of understanding is really driving, in my opinion, why we’re not taking the time to review these paystubs.”

Logue argues it is up to the employer to be transparent and help Canadians understand what goes into their paycheque.

“I think there’s a really huge opportunity here as our payment systems modernize and evolve to offer solutions to help employees and employers work together so that the data travels more seamlessly with the payment,” Logue said.

Do the Taliban Face Potent Armed Resistance in Afghanistan?

August 14, 2022 
Khalid Mafton

Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban forces take a break as they patrol on a hilltop in the Darband area of Anaba district, in Afghanistan's Panjshir province, Sept. 1, 2021.

WASHINGTON —

A year into their rule, armed political opposition to the Taliban remains persistent but sporadic, concentrated mostly in northern Afghanistan, and possibly fueled by the Taliban refusal to form an inclusive government and give other entities a share in power.

"The Taliban continue to hold power almost exclusively. The emergence and persistence of an armed opposition is in large part due to political exclusion,” Ramiz Alakbarov, the United Nations’ deputy special representative for Afghanistan told the Security Council in June.

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, the main group opposing Taliban militarily, tried to carve out a stronghold in its historic base Panjshir valley last year when the Taliban took the country over in a near Blitzkrieg but could not hold out for long.

“The opposition group is very weak. It only survived two or three weeks in Panjshir valley. So, I think, the Taliban is unfortunately in a stronger position,” said Peter Bergen, vice president for global studies and a fellow at New America, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.

Militiamen loyal to Ahmad Massoud, son of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, take part in a training exercise, in Panjshir province, northeastern Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021.

The NRFA is led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of famed anti-Taliban military commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, who followers called the Lion of Panjshir. The older Massoud commanded the Northern Alliance and, according to Bergen, received support from several countries including Tajikistan, Iran, Russia, and the United States.

His son, however, has received nothing from these countries, or any other country for that matter, so far.

"The Taliban are in a stronger position than they were before 9/11,” Bergen, who has written seven books on terrorism and extremism, told VOA.

Al-Qaida assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud just two days before the attacks on the United States in September of 2001 that led to the invasion of Afghanistan.

US weapons

The weapons and equipment left behind in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from Afghanistan last year and the collapse of the Western-backed republic in the country has also put Taliban in a stronger position and allowed them to use these weapons to further strengthen their grasp on power in the country.

According to the U.S. authorities, the Taliban now have access to weapons worth tens of billions of dollars.

An Afghan security analyst who, for security reasons, asked not to be named, told VOA, the Taliban are already using these weapons to suppress the armed opposition in the north.

"The Taliban have the upper hand in terms of military equipment, because according to U.S. officials, modern weapons worth $85 billion have fallen into the hands of this group," the analyst said.

Bergen said armed opposition to the Taliban is difficult without support from other countries and organizations.

"I do not see any evidence that outside countries are really supporting the opposition movements,” he said.

Western diplomats in the region told VOA there is no appetite for supporting an armed resistance against the Taliban.

Potential failure

Rand Corporation analyst Idrees Rahmani, who closely follows developments in Afghanistan, seconds Bergen’s assessment and warns that the anti-Taliban opposition will fail if it does not receive foreign support.

"Every war is won by its logistics and financial support,” Rahmani said.

“Neither Russia nor Iran or Tajikistan are willing to match the support that Taliban are receiving. India alone might not have the interest to invest in their [armed opposition] cause,” Rahmani added.

Symbolism

Gianni Koskinas, a senior fellow with the International Security Program at New America, a Washington-based think tank, said he believes the NRFA’s initial fight against the Taliban was more symbolic than real. He said it all boils down to the NRFA’s long-term strategy.

"With ISIS [the Islamic State group] as a bigger threat, the Taliban will concentrate on countering this group over the NRFA,” Koskinas said.

“Rather than rushing to failure, the NRFA must take the time to rebuild and establish defensive safe zones, not try to expand territory prematurely,” he added.

Koskinas, who worked in Afghanistan for years, said he believes that with safe zones and a sanctuary for persecuted former Afghan national security and defense forces, who were disenfranchised after the departure of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani from the country, the NRFA can really change the military situation its advantage.

‌"NRFA must create zones outside of Panjshir. This will take time, patience, intelligence, strategy, nuance, and sacrifices,” he added.

Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces stand guard on a hilltop in the Astana area of Bazarak in Panjshir province on Aug.27, 2021, as among the pockets of resistance against the Taliban following their takeover of Afghanistan.

Taliban Recognition

While the armed opposition has not been able to secure outside support, the Taliban, too, have been unable to gain recognition almost a year into their return to power following a bloody two-decade war that changed them from an insurgent force into a de facto state actor. Even Pakistan, deemed by some as Taliban's close ally, has not yet hinted at formally recognizing the group as a state actor in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have said in recent months that they told the Taliban government that Islamabad will extend diplomatic recognition only after other nations do.

In early July, the United States also said no foreign government is contemplating legitimacy for Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Donald Lu, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia said that there is a global consensus when it comes to Taliban recognition.

“I think there’s actually a global consensus to include Moscow and Beijing and Iran, that it’s too early to look at recognition,” Lu told VOA in a recent interview.

“Yes, some countries are beginning a very slow process of normalization of relations [with the Taliban]. No one is talking about formal recognition,” he added.

Pockets of resistance

The NRFA’s armed groups are militarily active in northern Panjshir province, the neighboring Baghlan province’s Andarab and Khost wa Fereng districts and in the Warsaj district of northern Takhar province.

There have been reported clashes between the Taliban and NRFA in pockets of the north, with both sides claiming that they caused heavy causalities to the opposing side.

The NRFA’s media wing has been very active and regularly claims that they have killed, injured, and captured Taliban members, but Taliban officials deny these claims as "baseless."

For this story VOA has reached out to Taliban officials for comment. They declined to talk about this issue.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, however, has denied clashes between the Taliban and NRFA fighters in Panjshir Province and Andarab area in the past, alleging that “the issues reported by some rebel circles on social media are baseless."

"No one should worry. Thousands of forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan are present in Panjshir, Takhar and other areas. The enemy will not be allowed to make any move," Mujahid tweeted in Dari, one of the main languages of Afghanistan, in early May of this year.

NRFA’s side

Despite skepticism of some western experts and analysts, and the denial from Taliban about NRFA’s activities and potential, the group has projected confidence and optimism about its struggle.

"The Taliban remain a terrorist group. Afghans definitely cooperate with the NRF. We have the support of the people of the country,” Sibghatullah Ahmadi, NRFA’s spokesperson told VOA.

“The resources the Taliban have at their disposal are not more than the resources of the communist government [Soviet Union backed government in the 80s], but the people of Afghanistan were determined and overthrew the communist government,” Ahmadi added.

Front line accounts

Major Gen. Jalaluddin Yaftaly, Former Commanding General of the 203 Corp of the former Afghan security forces, told VOA that he is actively leading fighters in north of Afghanistan.

"Our overall goal is to continue our struggle until our people and nation are rescued from oppression and tyranny,” Yaftaly told VOA.

“If God makes us victorious and enables us to retake Afghanistan, our government will be a federal and decentralized system,” he added.

Jamal Andarabi, who uses this pseudonym for security reasons, is a local commander of 15 to 20 armed men in Andarab district of northern Baghlan province spoke with VOA from Andarab area where men under his command actively engage the Taliban.

"We fight against terrorists to defend our language, ethnicity, geography and ethnic values,” he said.

“The Taliban, with all the equipment they have, have been defeated in the last few days’ armed clashes [in Andarab district]. We are victorious in the battlefield,” he added.

Bergen, of Global Strategies, said that the odds favor the Taliban now as they exercise monopoly over the use of force and control almost the entire country. But things could change if the Taliban make the wrong move and Western security is threatened by terror groups emanating from Afghanistan.

VOA Afghan Service contributed to this story.

Afghanistan: One year of neglect causes humanitarian needs to soar by a third, IRC warns the current crisis could kill more Afghans than 20 years of war


IRC Global Communications
communications@rescue.org

Kabul, Afghanistan, August 14, 2022 — One year on since the shift in power in Afghanistan, economic collapse has sent the population spiraling towards a hunger crisis rooted in policies that have brutally punished everyday citizens. IRC warns that if Afghanistan continues on this trajectory, the current crisis could kill far more Afghans than the past 20 years of war.

For two decades, Afghanistan has heavily relied on foreign aid, much of which has been suspended or frozen over the last year - significantly impacting the welfare of Afghans across the country. The reduction in development aid, combined with the freezing of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves and the grounding of the banking sector have produced a perfect storm of economic collapse. At the same time, restrictions on women’s access to work have contributed to Afghanistan’s failing economy, producing an economic loss of up to $1bn - about 5% of Afghanistan’s GDP.

The impact for Afghans has been devastating, bringing skyrocketing levels of unemployment, rising hunger, and the disintegration of civil society. Worryingly, a recent IRC report found that 77% of women-led civil society organizations have lost their funding over the last twelve months with most having closed down activities. These local organizations are critical to delivering services to the most vulnerable communities, especially women and children living in rural areas.

Vicki Aken, IRC Afghanistan Director, said,

“One year since the shift in power, Afghan civilians are bearing the brunt of a decimated economy and spiraling humanitarian crisis. Since 15th August of last year, the critical non-emergency donor funding that sustained basic services in Afghanistan has been largely suspended. Twelve months of sweeping economic disaster has seen the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance jump by one third since the start of 2021. Today a staggering 55% of Afghanistan’s population rely on humanitarian aid.

“People are unemployed and the nation is hungry; one farmer who receives support through the IRC’s cash for work programme in Nangarhar province has more than doubled his yield of okra and rice over the last six months, yet he must sell almost all of it just to make ends meet. Meanwhile, the worsening economic crisis coupled with restrictions that limit women’s access to work,

“As global leaders sought to economically isolate the Taliban, their policy approaches have crippled the economy, destroyed the banking sector and plunged the country into a humanitarian catastrophe that has left more than 24 million without enough food to eat each day. And when a family goes hungry in Afghanistan, women are the last to eat.

“The humanitarian response in Afghanistan is drastically under-funded, standing at 44% of the required amount to reach those in need. Humanitarian donor pledges must be translated to funding for the frontline response - but humanitarian aid cannot be a replacement for a functioning economy and state. Afghan families continue to pay the price for political impasse, and leaders must do more to urgently scale up the humanitarian response while also ensuring Afghans can access livelihoods and basic services, such as healthcare. Afghans need more than a humanitarian lifeline, they need a functioning economy. We urge international institutions to provide technical support to the banking sector to help it get back on its feet.

“The Afghan people cannot be made to pay for the actions of the de facto authorities. Without meaningful support, Afghanistan will continue on this trajectory - and the current crisis will kill far more Afghans than the past 20 years of war.”

In the last twelve months, the IRC has doubled-down on its commitments to the Afghan people. Our teams are now operating across 12 provinces and provide vital health services, education and support for women and girls in communities where we have developed deep relationships with community leaders. At the same time, our teams have tirelessly advocated for the inclusion of women in the humanitarian response and the IRC has maintained a staff body comprising 40% Afghan women.

As the security situation improved, our teams were able to reach remote districts of the country that had been unreachable to humanitarian actors for decades. In Helmand, for example, the IRC is able to deliver essential healthcare, community-based education programmes and cash for work to areas previously cut off by fighting. Meanwhile, improved access meant that the IRC could deliver emergency healthcare assistance to some of the most isolated villages in Afghanistan affected by the earthquake in rural Paktika and Khost.

For case studies, photography and video footage of the IRC’s programmes in Khost, Logar, Laghman and Nangarhar provinces, please click here.

The IRC began work in Afghanistan in 1988, and now works with thousands of villages across twelve provinces, with Afghans making up more than 99% of IRC staff in the country. As Afghanistan struggles to recover from ongoing conflict and natural disasters, the IRC: works with local communities to identify, plan and manage their own development projects, provides safe learning spaces in rural areas, community-based education, cash distribution provides uprooted families with tents, clean water, sanitation and other basic necessities, and helps people find livelihood opportunities as well as extensive resilience programming.
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ABOUT THE IRC

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC works in more than 40 countries and in 28 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future, and strengthen their communities. Learn more at www.rescue.org and follow the IRC on Twitter & Facebook.

The disappearing daughters of Afghanistan

By Anelise Borges with AP • Updated: 15/08/2022 - 


For the past 20 years, women had played a crucial role in building a new Afghanistan. They were members of the judiciary, public sector workers and artists who believed there was no limit in what they could achieve.

Many say that all changed when the Taliban returned to power last August.

For most teenage girls in Afghanistan, it has been one year since they set foot in a classroom. And there's no sign of when or if they will be allowed back.

“My goal was to become Afghanistan’s President one day, or Vice-President," one woman told Euronews international correspondent Anelise Borges.

Save the Children interviewed nearly 1,700 boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 17 in seven provinces to assess the impact of the education restrictions.

The survey, conducted in May and June, found that more than 45 percent of girls are not going to school, compared with 20 percent of boys. It also found that 26 percent of girls are showing signs of depression, compared with 16percent of boys.

Nearly the entire population of Afghanistan was thrown into poverty and millions were left unable to feed their families when the world cut off financing in response to the Taliban takeover.

Teachers, parents and experts all warn that the country's multiple crises are proving especially damaging to girls. The Taliban has restricted women’s work, encouraged them to stay at home and issued dresscodes.

Hundreds of female members of the Afghan judiciary say they are now targets. They're hunted by those they once helped convict - many were members of the Taliban and have now been freed by the group.

“It was my duty," one woman, who worked in the industry, told Borges.

"According to Afghanistan law, they are criminals, according to Afghanistan law, I process their cases. But today the government fell and there’s nothing left. And we are the accused, and we are facing treats.

"I sold a part of my home utensils and donated the other part. And now I am moving from one place to another, I am even going to my relatives’ homes, but they are not happy to host me. Not even my dear friends, they don’t like it because I am under treat. They don’t want their families to get in trouble because of me.”

The international community is demanding that the Taliban open schools for all girls, and the US and EU have created plans to pay salaries directly to Afghanistan’s teachers, keeping the sector going without putting the funds through the Taliban.

During their first time ruling Afghanistan in the 1990s, women had virtually no rights – they couldn’t work or study, or leave the house without a male relative.

The Taliban reassured Afghans when they seized control again last year that they would not return to the heavy hand of the past.

In March, just before the school year begun, the Taliban Education Ministry announced everyone would be allowed back. But on the day of the reopening, 23 March, that decision was suddenly reversed.

Many women in Afghanistan now fear those times in the 1990s could return.

Need to fix the concept of food subsidies to tackle world hunger crisis

Subsidizing food is largely not an activity that involves the world's poorest people who are most at risk of hunger, but its richest and most amply-fed

David Fickling | Bloomberg 

 August 15, 2022

Photo: Bloomberg


If you want an image of subsidized food in the world, you might think of Egypt, where the price of flatbread is fixed and more than half the population lives on loaves costing just 0.05 Egyptian pounds (0.25 cents) thanks to heavy government support.

Alms for the needy are one of the oldest forms of charity. The tradition persists to this day, in the form of food stamps in the US, food banks in the UK, free school meals in Japan, direct subsidy programs like Egypt’s, and India’s price controls on farm produce. On top of that are exemptions from sales taxes for essential ingredients in many countries. With nearly 800 million people — about a 10th of the world’s population — unable to feed themselves adequately last year, you might expect this form of welfare to be growing in size and significance.

In fact, it’s close to the opposite. Subsidizing food is largely not an activity that involves the world’s poorest people who are most at risk of hunger, but its richest and most amply-fed. The spending that does go out overwhelmingly goes to farmers rather than the hungry — and while much of that helps to increase supply of edible goods, hundreds of billions of dollars are doing the opposite, reducing the amount of nutrition available to feed the world.

A recent report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization breaks it down. While subsidies direct to consumers — especially if targeted at those most in need — are one of the most effective ways of tackling hunger, they’re a small part of total global support at just $72 billion out of $630 billion dedicated to the food and farming sector worldwide. What’s more, they’re skewed toward people in high-income countries who are least at risk of going short. In the richest nations, 4.6 per cent of the value of agricultural output comprises consumer subsidies. In the poorest ones, the figure is 0.6 per cent.

Far more important is what’s given to farmers. Some $92 billion goes to subsidizing inputs such as seed and fertilizer. A further $152 billion is spent on more broad-based support calculated on the acreage of farms, general output levels or environmental factors. Again, this money is largely going to rich countries, which provide producers with incentives equivalent to 24 per cent of output, falling to 16 per cent in upper-middle income countries such as China and Brazil. In less affluent nations, export bans, tariffs and other market interventions intended to reduce costs to local consumers often have the opposite effect, acting as a tax on output and discouraging farmers from growing sufficient produce. Those measures increase the cost of production by 4 per cent in lower-middle income countries such as India, rising to 9 per cent in low income countries like those in sub-Saharan Africa.

Unpicking this mess will be challenging. As anyone who has watched the politics of the US Farm Bills and the EU Common Agricultural Policy knows, once support for agriculture is established it can be hard to dismantle. Changes to such a heavily-subsidized sector inevitably involve wrenching losses of income in rural areas, which are often over-represented in legislatures. Path dependency is hard to break.

In many developing countries, it’s not even clear that cheaper food is always the main objective. When the poorest people in your country are farm workers, any drive to reduce the cost of nutrition risks lowering incomes at the bottom of the heap. The political risks of hurting the rural lower-middle class are even greater, given their propensity for political action. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempt to unpick his country’s mandi system — whereby the government would buy produce at fixed prices through its own marketing yards — resulted in more than a year of protests before it was abandoned. Farmers feared that the benefits of a free market in food would accrue mostly to traders, and preferred to stick with the status quo.

The world is facing multiple challenges in feeding itself as its population grows toward 11.2 billion in 2100 and climate change degrades and reduces the area available to harvest. Alongside the rising burden of hunger is a tide of obesity that’s stalking poor countries. That’s due in part to the fact that calories from fats and sugar are cheaper to produce than those from cereals or healthy vegetables, a situation that itself is related to the way food subsidies favor some crops over others.

Something has to change. If governments facing fiscal strain from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic want to do something about the food crisis that’s come in its wake, they could do worse than look at the way their own spending is exacerbating the problem.