It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, September 19, 2022
Voices: It is time to put the Kohinoor diamond back where it belongs
The Queen’s passing marks an opportune moment to finally draw a line under the scars of the past and to signify truth and reconciliation between the ruler and the ruled.
That Queen Elizabeth comported herself with remarkable grace and admirable conduct while on the throne, devotion to the public and an almost tangible sense of serenity, good humour and compassion, is without question. But within hours of the announcement of her death, tens of thousands of tweets about the crown jewels had the term “Kohinoor” trending in India. There is good reason for that.
No Indian – no person of colour – could ever doubt her sincerity and indefatigability, but much like her reign itself, her actions remained largely ceremonial. She was reserved within her role, when she could have done much more. And now, the imperial crown will be worn once again, this time by the new Queen Consort – Camilla – as King Charles III undergoes his coronation. She shouldn’t.
That the Kohinoor still remains within that crown to my mind impugns the credibility, moral fibre and supposed benevolence of the royal family. And it will do in perpetuity until it rightly leaves British shores.
Keeping the jewel, which has been at the centre of political and legal controversy in India amid disputes over its ownership for years, represents a dehumanisation of the colonised; allowing for prejudice to manifest for generations to come. It acts as an apologia for the racial supremacy of a (thankfully) crumbled empire, allowing a wounded island post-Brexit to cling onto illusory victories and a misbegotten sense of nationalism.
That Queen Elizabeth II was shrewd enough to ensure her reign was always largely ceremonial permitted her to appear unimpeachable as former colonies extirpated themselves from the yolk of imperialism.
As far as the Kohinoor was concerned, the Queen steered clear of interfering with maintaining the optics of empire; and – by association – the reign that plucked it from a Sikh kingdom via the hands of an 11-year-old Maharajah.
If ever one solitary jewel could represent the exploitation, looting and slavery that the British empire participated in during its time in India, it would be the Kohinoor diamond. It represents the spoils of a bygone era. Of what use is it now in the hands or on the head of the Queen Consort?
Some of the most brutal acts of British colonialism occurred after the Queen had already ascended the throne, such as the concentration camps in Kenya where the Mau Mau freedom fighters were tortured. And any expressions of regret concerning the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 were negated by her husband querying the body count and thus too the depths of depravity of the brutality that galvanised the Indian nationalist movement.
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King Charles III, an individual not exactly circumspect in matters of political expediency or geopolitical influence and lobbying, could well be placed to address this elephant in the room (or the jewel in the crown, if you will): the return of the Kohinoor diamond.
This would go some way to addressing the crimes of empire and the systematic callous looting of a nation that was one of the wealthiest in the world at that time.
The royal family historically turned away from the egregious theft that typified the empire’s time in India and can only beg for forgiveness. History cannot be erased, but returning the diamond might erase the darkness that rises from the imperial crown every time it is wheeled out.
It is offensive. It is a rebuke to all people of colour who have been colonised. It is time to put the Kohinoor diamond back where it belongs.
Saurav Dutt is an author, political analyst and a script doctor
In a practice known all across the South as convict leasing, Black men arrested for minor offenses were put to dangerous, deadly work.
More than 150 years ago, a prison complex known as the Lone Rock stockade operated at one of the biggest coal mines in Tennessee.
It was powered largely by African American men who had been arrested for minor offenses — like stealing a hog — if they committed any crime at all. Women and children, some as young as 12, were sent there as well.
The work, dangerous and sometimes deadly, was their punishment.
Men convicted of a crime and leased to harvest timber in Florida, photographed in 1915. (Photo: Library of Congress via AP)
The state was leasing these prisoners out to private companies for a fee, in a practice known all across the South as convict leasing. In states like Texas, Florida, Georgia and Alabama, prisoners were also used to help build railroads, cut timber, make bricks, pick cotton and grow sugar on plantations.
In a joint investigation, reporters from the Associated Press and Reveal at the Center for Investigative Reporting spent months unearthing this history. They focused on Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad, which ran the stockade and coal mine, and the company that later bought it, U.S. Steel.
The team found someone living today whose ancestor was imprisoned in the Lone Rock stockade nearly 140 years ago. They also interviewed the descendent of a man who got rich from his role in pioneering Tennessee’s convict leasing system.
The reporters also heard from U.S. Steel. For the first time, it said it was willing to discuss its past with members of the affected community.
WHAT IS CONVICT LEASING?
Convict leasing was essentially a new form of slavery that started after the Civil War and went on for decades across the South. States — and companies — got rich by arresting mostly Black men and then forcing them to work for major companies.
The 13th Amendment, passed after the Civil War, banned slavery and involuntary servitude. But it made an exception for people convicted of a crime, offering legal cover for convict leasing.
Tennessee and many other states adopted similar language in their constitutions that still exists today.
WHAT WAS THE THE LONE ROCK STOCKADE?
The Lone Rock stockade operated in Tracy City, Tennessee for more than 25 years. The prisoners lived in cramped, unsanitary conditions. Built to hold 200 people at a time, the prison sometimes held 600.
The men risked their lives every day above ground too, manning fiery, dome-shaped coke ovens used in the iron-making process.
They were helping Tennessee, Coal, Iron and Railroad get rich. The company was an economic powerhouse, later bought by the world’s biggest company at the time: U.S. Steel Corporation.
HOW DID THE PRISON POPULATION CHANGE AFTER EMANCIPATION?
The racial makeup of prison populations changed almost overnight after the Civil War. In Tennessee, during slavery less than 5 percent of the prisoners were Black. In 1866, after emancipation, that number jumped to 52 percent. And by 1891 it had skyrocketed to 75 percent.
WHAT ARE BLACK CODES?
Black codes are laws passed by states that targeted African Americans for minor crimes such as vagrancy, jumping a ride on a train car or not having proof of employment.
In Tennessee, people were sentenced up to five years of hard labor in the coal mine for having interracial relationships.
WHAT DOES U.S. STEEL SAY NOW ABOUT THEIR USE OF CONVICT LEASING?
The United States Steel Corporation, also known as U.S. Steel, was founded by American business giants, which included J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. It has operations in the U.S. and Central Europe, and remains a leading steel producer.
The company used convict labor for at least five years in Alabama in the early 1900s, but has never spoken openly about this dark chapter of its history. It has misrepresented its use of prison labor and has not acknowledged the men who died in its mines.
After being contacted by the AP and Reveal reporters, the company agreed for the first time to sit down and talk with members of the affected community. U.S. Steel also confirmed it owns a cemetery located at the site of its former coal mine: “U. S. Steel does not condone the practices of a century ago,” it said in a statement. “Given the amount of time that has lapsed, we, unfortunately, do not have comprehensive records relative to this situation.”
“We would be pleased to consider a memorial plaque should members of the affected community express an interest. We would also be happy to meet with them and discuss these topics.”
DON'T TRUST HOLTEC Radioactive water release from Oyster Creek nuclear plant concerns environmentalists Amanda Oglesby, Asbury Park Press Sun, September 18, 2022
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly said the plant and its trust fund were sold to two companies in 2019. The plant and trust fund were sold exclusively to Holtec International.
LACEY - Water with "low-level" amounts of radiation recently was discharged from the defunct Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees radiation-related activity at the plant.
Holtec International released about 24,000 gallons of water from the facility as part of its ongoing decommissioning activities, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said in an email. The water was slowly released starting Sept. 7 and took two days to complete, he said.
The water contains low levels of radiation and comes from the plant's nuclear fuel rod cooling pool, the reactor cavity and an equipment pit, Sheehan said.
The water releases are regulated by both the NRC and the federal Environmental Protection Agency in order to protect the public, he said. The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating station in Lacey Township in shown Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Staff at the power plant have performed such releases of low-level radioactive water throughout the facility's operating life, said Sheehan and Holtec spokesman Joseph Delmar. The action is part of routine operations, not just at Oyster Creek, but at nuclear plants across the nation, Delmar said in an email to the Asbury Park Press.
Water was integral to the functioning and safety at Oyster Creek throughout the plant's nearly 50 years of generating electricity. Steam heated by nuclear energy was used to drive the plant's turbine, converting that energy into electricity. Water also was used to cool spent fuel rods inside a large pool.
Oyster Creek produced its last electricity in 2018. The facility's age coupled with competition from inexpensive natural gas made the nuclear plant too costly to operate. In 2019, its then-owner Exelon sold the plant and its nearly $1 billion decommissioning trust fund to Holtec International.
In May, Holtec announced that the last of the spent fuel rods from decades of power generation were removed from the cooling pool and transferred to dry cask storage. Now the company is draining water from the pool, the reactor and an equipment storage pit, Sheehan said.
"Our process for water use falls in step with our commitment to environmental stewardship," Delmar said.
The radioactive water is collected in 30,000-gallon batches and run through a series of filters and demineralizers, he said. Afterward, the water is thoroughly tested, and then reused inside the plant or diluted and discharged into canals, he said.
"Our sample results show that the canals around Oyster Creek have been, and remain, safe to swim, fish and boat in," he said.
Since decommissioning began three years ago, the plant has discharged, on average, about 64,000 gallons of treated, diluted water a month into the canals, Delmar said.
A spent fuel pool at the Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan, N.Y. shows uranium rods submerged in 23 feet of water. The stored rods came out of the nuclear reactor.
Holtec found discharging the water to be the best way to handle the material compared to the company's alternatives, he said.
"Evaporation releases higher levels of radioactive materials due to the concentration and lack of dilution when the water becomes a gas," Delmar said. "Shipping to another site for disposal creates a larger carbon footprint with hundreds of truck trips."
Local environmentalists say they are not reassured because plant officials did not share information about the release prior to taking action.
Janet Tauro, New Jersey chair of the environmental organization Clean Water Action, said the water release signaled a lack of transparency on the part of Holtec.
"The public was not alerted to when the releases would occur," said Tauro, who learned about the release while researching Holtec's decommissioning work at the defunct Pilgrim Power Station in Massachusetts. "They (Ocean County residents) weren’t given the opportunity to ask questions."
Britta Forsberg, executive director of the environmental group Save Barnegat Bay, said she was watching volunteers build oyster reefs near the mouth of the Forked River just days after the plant's radioactive water release. Oyster reefs help prevent shoreline erosion, filter the bay's water and provide crucial habitat for marine animals, but Forsberg said the effects of low-level radiation on the growing oysters remain unknown.
"If I was putting myself in the water, doing all this work (building oyster reefs), I might want to ask some questions and know what's in there (the bay water)."
Edwin Lyman, director of the nuclear power safety program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the radioactive water release raises questions about regulatory oversite of nuclear facilities.
Too little research is done on the impacts of the discharges, to know whether radiation from the releases accumulates in certain animals or concentrates into particular areas of the ecosystem over time, Lyman said.
"It's a difference between what's allowable and what's right," he said.
Delmar, of Holtec, said the company remained committed to environmental stewardship and was operating within the law and Nuclear Regulatory Commission's limits on radiation releases.
But Lyman questioned the science behind those limits.
He said, "The larger question is are the limits that the nuclear industry is allowed to adhere to, with regard to routine radioactive discharges, are those the right numbers?"
Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers Brick, Barnegat and Lacey townships as well as the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.
Video shows a Russian missile striking less than 1,000 feet from a large Ukrainian nuclear plant, Ukraine's military says
A missile landed near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant on Sept. 19, 2022.Ukraine's Ministry of Defense Jake Epstei
Ukraine said a Russian missile strike landed less than 1,000 feet from a nuclear power plant on Monday.
The facility was the country's second-largest plant, the defense ministry said.
Ukrainian nuclear facilities have not been immune from fighting during the seven-month-long war.
A Russian missile landed less than 1,000 feet from Ukraine's second-largest nuclear power plant, the country's military and state energy operator said on Monday.
Ukraine's defense ministry shared a video of security footage near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, in the country's southern Mykolaiv region, with a timestamp of 12:19 a.m. local time.
The black-and-white video appeared to show the moment the Russian missile struck, illuminating a dark scene with a fireball that was immediately followed by larger second fireball.
"A missile fell 300 meters from the plant," Ukraine's defense ministry said, adding that the Kremlin's "nuclear terrorism continues" and arguing that Russia "is the threat to the whole world."
Energoatom, Ukraine's state nuclear operator, blamed the attack on "Russian terrorists" and said the strike landed close to the plant's reactors.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a top nuclear watchdog, did not immediately publish a statement or assessment of any potential damage. The New York Times, however, quoted Energoatom saying there was damage to a hydroelectric power station near the nuclear plant but not to any of the plant's essential safety equipment.
Ukraine's nuclear facilities have not been immune to fighting throughout the nearly seven-month-long war. Fighting near the country's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — which is the largest in Europe and has been occupied by Russian forces since March — has raised the alarms at watchdog agencies like the IAEA.
International inspectors have said that reckless shelling could trigger a nuclear disaster and have urged hostilities to cease.
Monday's strike near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant comes after Western intelligence warned that Russian forces are increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure as President Vladimir Putin's forces continue suffer major battlefield defeats in the face of successful Ukrainian counteroffensive moves.
Last week, for example, Russian forces fired a volley of missiles at a local hydraulic structure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown — in what officials said was "revenge" for Ukraine's punishing military advances.
In areas from which Russian forces recently retreated, Ukrainian troops have discovered mass graves and other evidence of wartime atrocities reminiscent of scenes from the Kyiv suburbs that were liberated from Russian occupation during the spring.
Kyiv accuses Russia of strike on southern nuclear plant
Kyiv accused Russia on Monday of attacking Ukraine's second-largest nuclear plant in the south of the war-scarred country, the latest burst of fighting around atomic facilities that has raised fears of a radiation emergency.
The Kremlin meanwhile dismissed outright claims that their forces had been responsible for mass killings in recently captured areas of east Ukraine and said Ukraine's claims it had discovered mass graves were made up.
Ukraine's nuclear energy agency, Energoatom, said the Russian army "carried out a missile attack" on the industrial site of the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, with a "powerful explosion" just 300 metres (985 feet) from its reactors.
The strike damaged more than 100 windows of the power station's building, but the reactors were operating normally, according to the agency, which published photos of glass shattered around blown-out frames.
It also released images of what it said was a two-metre-deep crater from where the missile landed.
"Fortunately, no one among the power plant's staff was hurt," Energoatom said.
Attacks around nuclear facilities in Ukraine have spurred calls from Ukraine and its Western allies to de-militarise areas around the facilities.
Europe's largest atomic facility -- the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Russian-held territory in Ukraine -- has become a hot spot for concerns after tit-for-tat claims of attacks there.
- 'We have to stop' Russia -
Early in Russia's invasion in of Ukraine -- launched in late February -- there was fighting around Chernobyl in the the north, where an explosion in 1986 left swathes of the surrounding territory contaminated.
President Volodymyr blamed Russia for the attack in the southern Mykolaiv region on Monday, which he said resulted in a short power outage at the facility.
"Russia endangers the whole world. We have to stop it before it's too late," Zelensky said on Telegram.
The Zaporizhzhia plant was seized by Russian troops in March and shelling around the facility has spurred interventions from Western leaders. A monitoring team of the UN's atomic agency deployed there in early September.
French President Emmanuel Macron this month urged Vladimir Putin to withdraw Russian heavy weapons from the region, while the Russian president cautioned against potential "catastrophic" consequences of fighting there.
The Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, where the Pivdennoukrainsk plant is located, is the near frontline of a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south against Russian forces.
Kyiv's forces have slowly but steadily been clawing back territory in the southern Kherson region, next to Mykolaiv, with the aim of capturing the strategically important hub, also called Kherson.
Ukraine's progress has been faster in the north, where a lightning grab this month has seen Kyiv's forces reconquer nearly the entire Kharkiv region.
Those gains have delt a serious blow to Moscow's ambitions of capturing and holding Donbas, a industrial region of eastern Ukraine that has been partially controlled by Kremlin-backed rebels since 2014.
"It may seem to some of you that after a series of victories we have a certain lull," Zelensky said in an address to the nation on Sunday evening.
"But this is not a lull. This is preparation ... the whole Ukraine must be free," he said.
- Mass grave 'lies' -
The recapture of cities like Kupiansk and Izyum, which were key hub on Russian resupply routes mean Moscow will have greater difficulty supplying frontline positions elsewhere in east Ukraine.
They have also brought fresh claims of atrocities committed by Russian troops during their months-long hold of Kharkiv-region towns and settlements, particularly after the discovery of mass burial sites.
The Kremlin on Monday denied Russian forces were responsible for mass killings, dismissing the claims as fabricated.
"These are lies," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday. Moscow "will stand up for the truth in this story."
Civilians in towns and cities recaptured by Ukraine, however, have recounted Russia's brutal occupation.
In Kupiansk, a town in Kharkiv, Mykhailo Chindey, said he had been tortured by Russian troops who suspected him of supplying coordinates to Ukrainian forces.
"One person was holding my hand and another one was beating my arm with a metal stick. They were beating me up two hours almost every day," he told AFP.
"I lost consciousness at some point. I lost a lot of blood. They hit my heels, back, legs and kidneys," he said.
Russian forces have meanwhile continued shelling Ukrainian-held towns near the frontlines.
The Ukraine presidency said that Russian forces remaining in the Kharkiv region had fired on a civilian car on Sunday, killing two women.
In the Donetsk region, Russia shelling killed five civilians and injured another 18 people, Kyiv said.
burs-jbr/lth/jm
500 Russian soldiers stationed at occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP, says Zelenskyy
Sun, September 18, 2022 The Russian occupier at Zaporizhzhya NPP
The President also expressed gratitude to the International Atomic Energy Agency employees who, despite pressure, were able to publish an objective report after visiting the occupied nuclear power plant.
"By the way, I am very grateful to the IAEA for making fair conclusions despite everything,” Zelenskyy said.
“Despite the fact that Russia put pressure (on them). They called for complete demilitarization only. This is what we constantly reiterated and raised the issue — only complete demilitarization of the nuclear power plant will ensure safety. And even then, we understand that it is not a fact that everything will be safe. Because now it is completely out of operation. The nuclear power plant has six reactors.”
The ZNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and has been illegally occupied by Russian forces since March 4. The station’s Ukrainian employees are currently being held captive by invading Russian forces.
Russian troops are known to have set up firing positions at the ZNPP and have regularly shelled Ukrainian cities from them. Energoatom has reported that the Russian military placed more than a dozen pieces of military equipment, including ammunition, weapons, and explosives in the turbine hall of the first reactor of the plant.
On Aug. 25, Russian troops provoked the first temporary disconnection from the power grid in the history of the ZNPP. The ZNPP was against disconnected on Sept. 11, due to further Russian shelling that all power lines connecting the plant to the Ukrainian power grid.
The allegations centre on Julio Herrera Velutini, an international banker and former Conservative Party donor, and his involvement in Puerto Rican politics.
Mr Velutini has been accused of promising to help a governor in the US territory called Wanda Vázquez Garced get re-elected if a regulator investigating his bank was sacked.
Mr Velutini has pleaded not guilty to charges including bribery. Ms Vázquez Garced has been arrested and has declared her innocence. The case is on-going. Mark Fullbrook’s links
The case and Mr Fullbrook’s links, which first emerged via the Sarawak Report website and Channel Four, were reported by The Sunday Times this weekend.
According to The Sunday Times, the FBI was interested in allegations that Mr Velutini offered to contribute $300,000 to Ms Vázquez Garced’s 2020 re-election campaign.
In return, it is alleged, Mr Velutini demanded that the head of the island’s financial regulator was sacked. The individual is later alleged to have resigned,
Mr Fullbrook was paid for opinion research on the Puerto Rico elections by Mr Velutini. However, the work was only for Mr Velutini, according to Mr Fullbrook’s spokesperson.
Mr Fullbook is understood to have bidded for work with Ms Vázquez Garced’s re-election effort. However, he was unsuccessful in this bid and this meant Mr Fullbook did not end up working directly with the candidate.
It is unusual for a UK political figure to be interviewed by the FBI in relation to a high-profile US investigation. Only treated as a witness
Mr Fullbrook has only ever been treated as a witness in the matter by US investigators, according to his spokesperson, and has cooperated fully with inquiries.
The allegations, which surfaced during the Tory leadership campaign, have gained more media prominence in the UK since Ms Truss became Prime Minister.
Mr Fullbrook was deputy director of Conservative Campaign Headquarters during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and helped run Sir John Major’s 1992 election campaign.
Mr Fullbrook was more recently a senior figure in CT Group, founded by Sir Lynton and Mark Textor in Australia in 2002, but earlier this year he founded his own lobbying company. Central role in Liz Truss’s campaign
There is no suggestion that Mr Fullbrook was aware of the alleged bribe or committed any wrongdoing.
A spokesperson for Mark Fullbrook said: “As has been made repeatedly clear, Mr Fullbrook is committed to and complies with all laws and regulations in any jurisdiction in which he works and is confident that he has done so in this matter.
“Indeed, Mark Fullbrook is a witness in this matter and has fully, completely and voluntarily engaged with the US authorities in this matter, as he would always do in any circumstance in which his assistance is sought by authorities.
“The work was engaged only by Mr Herrera [Julio Herrera Velutini] and only to conduct opinion research for him and no one else. Mr Fullbrook never did any work for, nor presented any research findings to, the governor or her campaign. There has been no engagement since.
“Mr Fullbrook understands that there are active legal proceedings against other individuals and entities. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment further.”
A Downing Street spokesperson declined to comment.
Witnesses: Myanmar air attack kills 13, including 7 children A burnt vehicle stands within a monastery that houses a middle school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, the day after an air strike hit the school. The attack killed a number of adults and children, according to a school administrator and volunteers assisting displaced people.(AP Photo) GRANT PECK Mon, September 19, 2022
BANGKOK (AP) — Government helicopters have attacked a school and village in north-central Myanmar, killing at least 13 people including seven children, a school administrator and an aid worker said Monday.
Civilian casualties often occur in attacks by the military government on pro-democracy insurgents and their allies. However, the number of children killed in the air attack last Friday in Tabayin township in Sagaing region appeared to be the highest since the army seized power in February last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The army’s takeover triggered mass nonviolent protests nationwide. The military and police responded with deadly force, resulting in the spread of armed resistance in the cities and countryside. Fighting has been especially fierce in Sagaing, where the military has launched several offensives, in some cases burning villages, which displaced more than half a million people, according to a report issued by UNICEF this month.
Friday’s attack occurred in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin, also known as Depayin, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Mandalay, the country’s second largest city.
School administrator Mar Mar said she was trying to get students to safe hiding places in ground floor classrooms when two of four Mi-35 helicopters hovering north of the village began attacking, firing machine guns and heavier weapons at the school, which is located in the compound of the village’s Buddhist monastery.
Mar Mar works at the school with 20 volunteers who teach 240 students from kindergarten to Grade 8. She has been hiding in the village with her three children since fleeing for safety to avoid the government crackdown after participating last year in a civil disobedience movement against the military takeover. She uses the pseudonym Mar Mar to protect herself and relatives from the military.
She said she had not expected trouble since the aircraft had been over the village before without any incident.
“Since the students had done nothing wrong, I never thought that they would be brutally shot by machine guns,” Mar Mar told The Associated Press by phone on Monday.
By the time she and the students and teachers were able to take shelter in the classrooms, one teacher and a 7-year-old student had already been shot in the neck and head and Mar Mar had to use pieces of clothing to try to stanch the bleeding.
“They kept shooting into the compound from the air for an hour,” Mar Mar said. ”They didn’t stop even for one minute. All we could do at that time was chant Buddhist mantras.”
When the air attack stopped, about 80 soldiers entered the monastery compound, firing their guns at the buildings.
The soldiers then ordered everyone in the compound to come out of the buildings. Mar Mar said she saw about 30 students with wounds on their backs, thighs, faces and other parts of the bodies. Some students had lost limbs.
“The children told me that their friends were dying,” she said. “I also heard a student yelling, ’It hurts so much. I can’t take it anymore. Kill me, please.' This voice still echoes in my ears,” Mar Mar said.
She said at least six students were killed in the school and a 13-year-old boy working at a fishery in a nearby village was also fatally shot. At least six adults were also killed in the air attack in other parts of the village, she said. The bodies of the dead children were taken away by the soldiers.
More than 20 people, including nine wounded children and three teachers, were also taken by the soldiers, she said. Two of those captured were accused of being members of the anti-government People's Defense Force, the armed wing of the resistance to the military.
Security forces also burned down a house in the village, causing residents to flee.
A volunteer in Tabayin assisting displaced people who asked not to be identified because of fear of government reprisals said the bodies of the dead children were cremated by the soldiers in nearby Ye U township.
“I am now telling the international community about this because I want redress for our children,” Mar Mar said. “Instead of humanitarian aid, what we really need is genuine democracy and human rights.”
Myanmar Now, an online news service, and other independent Myanmar media also reported the attack and the students’ deaths.
A day after the attack, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported that security forces had gone to check the village after receiving information that the members of the People's Defense Force were hiding there.
The report said members of the People's Defense Force and their allies from the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic rebel group, were hiding inside houses and the monastery and started shooting at the security forces, causing deaths and injuries among village residents. It said the injured were taken to hospitals, but did not mention the situation of the students.
According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors human rights in Myanmar, at least 2,298 civilians have been killed by the security forces since the army seized power last year.
The U.N. has documented 260 attacks on schools and education personnel since the coup, the U.N. Child Rights Committee said in June.
Sealed cave of artifacts from era of King Rameses II found by accident in Israel park
The discovery was made Sept. 14, when digging equipment created a hole that offered a view inside a mysterious room, officials said. Palmachim Beach National Park is south of Tel Aviv, on the Mediterranean coast.
“Archaeologists ... descended a ladder into the astonishing space that appeared to have frozen in time,” the authority reported in a Facebook post.
“The hewn cave was square in form with a central supporting pillar. Several dozens of intact pottery and bronze artifacts were lain out in the cave, exactly as they were arranged in the burial ceremony, about 3,300 years ago. These vessels were burial offerings that accompanied the deceased in the belief that they would serve the dead in the afterlife.”
Officials did not report if any bones or other human remains were among the artifacts, which included pottery and bronze items.
The cave has been dated to the era of King Rameses II, “the Pharaoh associated with the Biblical Exodus from Egypt,” officials said.
“The fact that the cave was sealed ... will allow us the employ the modern scientific methods available today, to retrieve much information from the artifacts ... not visible to the naked eye,” according to Eli Yannai, a Bronze Age expert with the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“The cave may furnish a complete picture of the Late Bronze Age funerary customs.”
Much of the pottery found was intact, including storage jars and footed chalices, officials said. Some of the containers had been brought from as far as Lebanon and Cyprus and may have held “expensive commodities,” officials said.
Guards were posted at the site immediately after the discovery, but “a few items were looted from the cave before it was sealed up,” officials said. An investigation of the theft is underway.
“Within a few days, we will formulate a plan to carry out the research and the protection of this unique site, which is a feast for the archaeological world and for the ancient history of the land of Israel,” the authority reports.
Palmahim National Park includes “the remains of the ancient port city of Yavne-Yam from the Middle Canaanite period,” according to the park’s web site. Past excavations in the park have uncovered “ancient waterworks and agricultural apparatus,” officials said.
"Extremely rare" ancient burial cave found on beach in Israel
CBSNews
Israeli archaeologists on Sunday announced the "once-in-a-lifetime" discovery of a burial cave from the time of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II, filled with dozens of pottery pieces and bronze artifacts.
The cave was uncovered on a beach Tuesday, when a mechanical digger working at the Palmahim national park hit its roof, with archaeologists using a ladder to descend into the spacious, man-made square cave.
In a video released by the Israel Antiquities Authority, amazed archaeologists shine flashlights on dozens of pottery vessels in a variety of forms and sizes, dating back to the reign of the ancient Egyptian king who died in 1213 B.C.
In a Facebook post, the authority said the burial cave "looks like an 'Indiana Jones' film set."
"The Israel Antiquity Authority archaeologists mobilized to the site, descended a ladder into the astonishing space that appeared to have frozen in time," the authority said in a statement.
Bowls — some of them painted red, some containing bones — chalices, cooking pots, storage jars, lamps and bronze arrowheads or spearheads could be seen in the cave.
The objects were burial offerings to accompany the deceased on their last journey to the afterlife, found untouched since being placed there about 3,300 years ago.
At least one relatively intact skeleton was also found in two rectangular plots in the corner of the cave.
"The cave may furnish a complete picture of the Late Bronze Age funerary customs," said Eli Yannai, an IAA Bronze Age expert.
It is an "extremely rare ... once-in-a-lifetime discovery," Yannai said, pointing to the extra fortune of the cave having remained sealed until its recent uncovering.
The findings date to the reign of Rameses II, who controlled Canaan, a territory that roughly encompassed modern day Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The provenance of the pottery vessels — Cyprus, Lebanon, northern Syria, Gaza and Jaffa — is testimony to the "lively trading activity that took place along the coast", Yannai said in an IAA statement.
Another IAA archaeologist, David Gelman, theorized as to the identity of the skeletons in the cave, located in what is today a popular beach in central Israel.
"The fact that these people were buried along with weapons, including entire arrows, shows that these people might have been warriors, perhaps they were guards on ships -- which may have been the reason they were able to obtain vessels from all around the area," he said.
Regardless of who the inhabitants of the cave were, the find was "incredible," said Gelman.
"Burial caves are rare as it is, and finding one that hasn't been touched since it was first used 3,300 years ago is something you rarely ever find," he said.
"It feels like something out of an Indiana Jones movie: just going into the ground and everything is just laying there as it was initially — intact pottery vessels, weapons, vessels made out of bronze, burials just as they were."
The cave has been resealed and is under guard while a plan for its excavation is being formulated, the IAA said.
It noted that "a few items" had been looted from it in the short period of time between its discovery and closure.
The discovery marks the latest in a string of recent archaeological finds in Israel.
Also in August, archaeologists announced they recently unearthed the titanic tusk of a prehistoric pachyderm near a kibbutz in southern Israel.
Meanwhile, the recent discovery of an ornate Byzantine-era mosaic in Gaza — uncovered just a half mile from the Israeli border — has set off excitement among archaeologists. But it is also drawing calls for better protection of Gaza's antiquities, a fragile collection of sites threatened by a lack of awareness and resources as well as the constant risk of conflict between Israel and local Palestinian militants.
Pandemic’s end ‘in sight,’ but COVID isn’t going away. What’s that mean for the future?
Debbie Cockrell Mon, September 19, 2022
A recent news conference with global health officials on the world’s outlook for COVID-19 seemed like the news we’ve all been waiting for — that the end is “in sight” for the pandemic.
The Sept. 14 briefing from the World Health Organization offered optimism over signs the pandemic is winding down globally. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced a milestone reached in the pandemic’s global numbers.
“Last week, the number of weekly reported deaths from COVID-19 was the lowest since March 2020,” he said. “We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic. We are not there yet, but the end is in sight.”
Comparing the progress to running a marathon, he added, “We can see the finish line.”
The United States had the highest number of weekly deaths for any country reported worldwide with 2,306, according to WHO’s Sept. 14 report, but that was down 21 percent from the previous week. New U.S. cases also were down 26 percent.
“The end,” though, won’t be a definitive cessation of cases and health care problems tied to the pandemic. Indications point to ongoing illness and vaccination boosters as a matter of course for a long time to come.
The CDC shows low numbers of cases now requiring hospitalization, but it also shows infections still very much active nationwide.
Welcome to a new era where COVID is not completely over but is not as life threatening as it once was, at least for now. PIERCE COUNTY
In Pierce County, weekly reported COVID-19 numbers have been steadily declining since a small spike in May. At the start of the year, weekly cases fueled by the Omicron variant peaked at 21,665 on Jan. 2.
The latest report from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department listed 533 cases and six deaths for Sept. 4-10.
In the months since the January peak, health officials have noted that home testing and unreported positive cases have contributed to lower case numbers. Many cases that are circulating are milder, thanks to vaccines and boosters.
The level of deaths and hospitalizations, two factors that have consistently demonstrated the pandemic’s peaks and valleys, are both low and staying there for now.
TPCHD said in its Sept. 13 update that the seven-day hospitalization rate per 100,000 was 2.1 for Aug. 26-Sept. 1. That’s 19.2 percent lower than the previous week. The rate of deaths per 100,000 per week could not be calculated, it noted on its COVID-19 data dashboard, because fewer than 10 deaths had been reported.
Wastewater monitoring, another way to track COVID community levels, is something the health department is still working to add context to as part of local reporting, according to Kenny Via, department media representative. TPCHD first announced that program in May.
For now, COVID-19 has retreated from the spotlight at the health department’s twice-a-month meetings.
“We are no longer doing regular COVID-19 updates at every BOH meeting,” Via told The News Tribune in response to questions. “But we’ve gone to doing Communicable Disease updates once a month at the study sessions that include info on our response to both COVID and monkeypox.”
Those updates, he added, are expected to continue once a month “for a while.”
“Occasionally we will also include updates about monkeypox or COVID in the director comments at regular meetings as well, if needed,” he noted.
The paradox of COVID tracking can be seen in the two national maps the CDC provides and the data behind them. Its community level map, based on hospital admissions and percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, showed low levels for most Washington counties as well as more than half of counties nationwide as of Sept. 15.
COVID-19 community levels of transmission reported as of Sept. 15.
Its community transmission level map, which measures of the presence and spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, still showed high levels in 83 percent of counties nationwide, including most of Washington.
“High” is defined as more than 100 new cases per 100,000 persons in the past seven days, along with more than 10 percent of positive NAATs (nucleic acid amplification tests) during the past 7 days. If the two indicators reflect different transmission levels, the higher level is chosen, according to CDC.
Community transmission levels reported this week by the CDC.
For example, Pierce County was at a substantial level with its cases, one level below high. That contrasts with its low level reading at the community level.
So while the WHO might see a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, most parts of the United States still see cases circulating, they just aren’t rising to hospital-level serious, thanks to vaccinations and previous illness.
That gets us to what could be the next era: endemic.
That moment, envisioned by the WHO’s anticipated finish line, seems close, given the data.
“If we get to the point where the virus continues to spread and infect us, but it rarely causes severe disease because most of us have some immunity against it, we would say that SARS-CoV-2 has become endemic,” he said.
He compared the difference between the coming fall and last fall, when the world saw the Delta variant fade and Omicron kick in with an explosion of new cases and deaths.
“It’s possible that this coming fall is going to be the first relatively normal period for us since the beginning of the pandemic,” he said. “It may be the beginning of the real endemic phase for us, where most people who get infection have a common cold. But we don’t know that with any certainty, and with SARS-CoV-2 we have to be prepared for the worst.”
BOOSTERS
Going forward, COVID-19 boosters are expected to be offered much like the flu shot each year, updated depending on the variant. Recently, the new “bivalent” booster was introduced, targeting both the original COVID-19 strain and the now-circulating BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants.
In Pierce County, 53 percent of eligible residents have received at least one booster, according to state Department of Health dashboard.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department noted in a Sept. 8 update that 25.8 percent of residents are up to date with all COVID-19 vaccines, meaning the two shots in the primary series and all recommended boosters, including the new version.
Nigel Turner is division director of communicable disease with TPCHD. Turner noted in an online update about the new boosters earlier this month, “During the peak six months of the Omicron wave, compared to those who completed their initial vaccine series, unvaccinated people in Pierce County were six times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and seven times more likely to die from COVID-19.”
LONG COVID
For those who’ve been infected, the threat of long COVID looms, with an estimated 1 in 13 adults in the U.S. currently experiencing illness long after COVID-19 has passed.
“The way I think of COVID-19 is that it’s like gasoline, it sets everything on fire,” Friedly said. “If you had underlying conditions and you get COVID-19, the disease will light everything on fire and make things worse.”
Friedly noted that “A lot of people who have chronic medical conditions or are older may not necessarily associate the worsening of their symptoms or their condition with their COVID-19 infection, when in fact it may actually be related to long COVID.
“Then there are people who were considered healthy before their infection and now are experiencing debilitating symptoms. We’re not quite sure if it’s that it’s more prevalent in those populations, or that they’re recognizing it as long COVID and seeking out care more,” Friedly said.
She speaks from experience and offers optimism for those still struggling.
“We see many, many patients who recover completely. I consider myself in that category. I had symptoms for about nine months after my initial COVID-19 infection and feel fully recovered now.”
