“Reality of Global Warming”: Hurricane Ian’s Power Shows How Climate Change Supercharges Storms

STORY SEPTEMBER 29, 2022


GUESTS

Seán Kinane
news and public affairs director at community radio station WMNF in Tampa, Florida.

Harold Wanless
professor in geography and urban sustainability at the University of Miami.

LINKS Seán Kinane on Twitter

WMNF
Image Credit: TMX / @Chad71777859 / WEATHER TRAKER

Authorities say hundreds may be dead after Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s southwestern coast as a powerful Category 4 storm, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the continental United States. We get an update from Tampa and look at links between the climate crisis, rising sea levels and intensifying storms. “It’s just been devastating, and we don’t know the full extent of the damage yet,” reports Seán Kinane, WMNF news and public affairs director. “We are seeing these storms that aren’t otherwise stressed just exploding in intensity,” says Harold Wanless, professor in geography and urban sustainability at the University of Miami.

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.


AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Florida, where authorities say hundreds may be dead after Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday along the state’s southwestern coast as a powerful Category 4 storm, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the area. Ian was about 500 miles wide when it crashed into Florida with a 30-foot-wide eye wall and hurricane-force winds that extended 40 miles from the center. Satellite images show the storm engulfing the entire state. High winds and storm surges devastated coastal communities. Some storm surges were 12 feet high. Some cities saw more than a foot of rainfall. More than two-and-a-half million have lost power as we broadcast. Many are also without water. Rescue teams are working in the dangerous conditions to find people trapped in their homes.

Earlier this morning, the sheriff of Lee County, Florida, Carmine Marceno, spoke by phone to ABC’s Good Morning America.


SHERIFF CARMINE MARCENO: While I don’t have confirmed numbers, I definitely know the fatalities are in the hundreds. There are thousands of people that are waiting to be rescued. And again, cannot give a true assessment until we’re actually on scene assessing each scene, and we can’t access people. That’s the problem.


GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Fatalities in the hundreds?


SHERIFF CARMINE MARCENO: So far, confirmed in the hundreds, meaning that we are responding to events, drownings. And again, unsure of the exact details, because we are just starting to scratch the surface on this assessment. We’re doing everything that we possibly can. Again, now it’s to protect and preserve lives, and we are in full force doing that.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Lee County, Florida, Sheriff Carmine Marceno being interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Hurricane Ian has now weakened to a tropical storm, is dumping torrential rains as it heads toward Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, after leaving a path of catastrophic damage.

For more, we go to Tampa, Florida, for an update from Seán Kinane, news and public affairs director at community radio station WMNF.

Seán, you are hunkered down there at WMNF. Your building is built to withstand a Category 5 storm. I have visited it repeatedly. It was in the track of Ian originally, but ultimately the storm hit south of you. You’re staying there, because you live on an island where you could not go back. Welcome back to Democracy Now! Give us the latest as you serve the community with information.

SEÁN KINANE: Thank you, Amy.

Yes, in Tampa, I am in a building that can withstand a Category 5 hurricane, but, lucky for the people of the Tampa Bay area, that’s not what struck here. We were — we were spared.

But the most important story right now is what’s happening down in Southwest Florida, as you heard from the sheriff of Lee County, where hundreds of people are confirmed dead from this storm, with the unbelievable storm surge that came through, several feet of water in major cities in Southwest Florida, like Naples and Fort Myers. It’s just been devastating. And we don’t know the full extent of the damage yet, because it’s just now daylight, and it’s just now safe enough, perhaps, to go outside for people and for these emergency crews to go out and assess the damages.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Seán, could you talk a little bit more about where these fatalities — if there’s been any talk of where the most facilities occurred, and also if there’s any word on when power might be restored, two-and-a-half million people now without electricity?

SEÁN KINANE: Yeah, so, I don’t know that much first-hand about the fatalities. All I know is what I’m hearing from the Lee County sheriff. And just to give people a perspective of where that is, that’s — the largest city in Lee County is Fort Myers. And that’s right where the storm came ashore. There’s two barrier islands that it struck, Captiva and Sanibel, on the way in, and also Cayo Costa. So, it struck these barrier islands first and went ashore in Lee County. So, there is, of course, going to be the most casualties there, perhaps, but there’s been very strong rains and storm surges all along the coast, from Naples all the way up to almost to Sarasota, so perhaps there could be some there. I don’t have any knowledge about that. But now we’re also worried about river flooding inland. And, you know, some of these rivers are going to be flooding for days and days from now because of how much rain has been accumulating upstream.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring in Dr. Harold Wanless. And, Seán, I’m going to ask you to stay with us. I hope you don’t have to get off since you’re on the air constantly. But Dr. Harold Wanless is a professor of geography and urban sustainability. Hurricane Ian is the 121st hurricane to hit Florida since 1851, which has faced more hurricanes than any other state, millions of residents living along its coastlines. The storm first hit Cuba as a Category 1 storm, before it intensified to Category 4, near 5, when it made landfall in Florida. So we want to talk more about the rapid intensification of these storms and the sea level rise that’s already occurred along Florida and how that’s affecting the storm’s impact.

We go to Coral Gables, where we’re joined by Dr. Harold Wanless, a professor in geography and urban sustainability at the University of Miami. He is on the board of directors of The CLEO Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to climate crisis education and advocacy.

So, you’re in Coral Gables. If you can talk about everything you’re seeing in Florida now and where the climate or global heating plays such a key role?

HAROLD WANLESS: Well, thank you for having me, Amy.

Yes, one of the things we’ve been seeing, and it certainly was true with Ian, is that when the wind shear is down, the water is warm, and the ocean water is getting much warmer because of climate change, we are seeing these storms that aren’t otherwise stressed just exploding in intensity. And this was forecast by the hurricane folk, and it’s exactly what’s happening again and again. And we watched this one as it left Cuba just explode into this Category 4 storm. And that is in large part because of the warming ocean. And the Caribbean Sea in the southern Gulf of Mexico was extremely warm for this time of year, and that really drove it.

The other thing that we’ve seen with many storms, maybe only a little bit with this one, is that the steering currents tend to be weaker, so they tend to slow down and hang around, where — the one that hit Houston a few years ago was a good example of that. And they end up just maybe not being a windstorm at the end, but dumping huge amounts of rain. And that sort of happened here. We slowed down as we moved on to Florida, and the rain around Orlando and south has been — will be catastrophic.

One thing about this storm is, the places that were really hit were these very low barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva and Cayo Costa. These are extremely low and vulnerable. We haven’t really heard much of anything from them yet, and they got the main onshore surge. We saw pictures yesterday about — of Naples, with the water coming in, and on Marco, which were well south of the main push. And we saw some of Fort Myers Beach. But those outer barrier islands were just right in the path of the big eye wall onshore surge, and that’s going to be a huge problem for those islands. It’s going to be tragic when we see the evidence of what’s happened there.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And could you elaborate? I mean, even though Hurricane Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm, what do you expect to unfold in the next few days in the worst-hit areas in Florida?

HAROLD WANLESS: Well, and it’s not just Florida anymore. There’s a state of emergency on up the coast, all the way to Virginia now, and because it’s exiting Florida now with 65-mile-an-hour winds still. So it’s prime, [inaudible] over the Gulf Stream, which is, again, warm water — it’s prime to just reform as some level of hurricane. And then it will — you know, it’s just drawing in huge amounts of moisture. So, that’s going to be extreme.

The problem with all the rain we’ve had in Florida — and I don’t know the final numbers for the middle of the state, but we’re only — most of the state is less than 100 feet in elevation. A little bit is higher inland, though. And so, there’s really no big slope for the water to pour off of, which means you’re not going to have these catastrophic floods coming out of intense floods out of the rivers. But the water is going to stay flooding for days and days and days in many of these intense rainfall areas. So, that’s a second whammy.

And as this water is draining back into the Fort Myers area from the rivers there, it’s going to make it slower for even the storm surge to come back down. This was a fairly — it had an angle where the storm was moving up the coast rather than straight into it, and that meant that the storm surge could move, push in for hours and hours. And we saw that yesterday. When Andrew hit Miami-Dade County in '92, the storm surge probably lasted about 10 or 15 minutes. It was a fast-moving storm, moving straight in. And so it was in and out, and that's it. But this was a huge penetration of a storm surge.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Wanless, at this time, when everyone is paying attention — you know, and you can only imagine what Pakistan is like, when you have a third of the entire country underwater. This is a very close-up look at what this feels like here in the United States. But this time when everyone is paying attention, it seems it’s critical to talk about precisely what you’re talking about: how global heating plays a role in this. And yet you have, like, the director of the National Weather Service saying on CNN, you know, you can never predict if a hurricane is caused by climate change, any one particular hurricane. While that may be true, the bigger point he’s making is: Who knows if it’s the climate crisis? You make a very different point, especially when you’re talking about sea level rise.

HAROLD WANLESS: Well, and because of changing speed of the Gulf Stream, all around South Florida — we’re on the left side of the Gulf Stream in the Florida current — we’ve had, since 1930, about a foot of sea level rise. So, an equivalent storm 90 years ago would have been dealing with a land that was a foot more out of water.

So, it’s not that climate change may be something that will happen. We have warmed the ocean. That is putting more moisture into the atmosphere. We have expanded the ocean because of this warming, and that has raised sea level rise. We are melting ice from Greenland and Antarctica at an accelerating pace. That is going to, in the next few decades, make quite dramatic influence on our present sea level rise, very dramatic change. And all these things are playing a role.

The other thing, when you just want to talk about all the rain, whether it’s a hurricane or just rain storms or even snow storms on land, as the atmosphere warms, it holds more moisture as water vapor, and as it moves on — over the ocean. As it moves on land and cools down, it makes these heavier rains that we’re seeing more and more of, and even heavier snowfalls during the winter. And so, this increase in severe flooding is not just along the coast from hurricanes, but it’s also from storms where the atmosphere has moved from the ocean, water-laden, onto through the land and is creating these intense precipitation events that are causing many of the floods we’ve seen in the last few years. These are increasing.

All these are realities. Everything I’ve said is a reality of global warming, because we have put more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. You were just talking about the importance of methane, too, another powerful greenhouse gas. So, these things are increasing everything, from a warming atmosphere to a warming ocean to a melting of ice to increasing precipitation over land. And —

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And given that, how much has development along these coastal areas changed to make buildings more secure and able to withstand the effects of these increasing number of extreme weather events?

AMY GOODMAN: And should there be so much development?

HAROLD WANLESS: Well, you could ask, “Should there be so many people?” I guess, along with that. But, you know, there are four times the number of people as when I was born in 1942 on Earth? That’s amazing.

And we’re expanding out into places. Most of our new development on barrier islands is places that we felt were too low or too vulnerable or too narrow. And now if people want to live there, that’s what’s left. And there’s so many examples where you look at it, and you say, “That looks very risky.” But we’re doing it. And we do it with houses, and then suddenly they turn into high-rise condominiums that are also extremely vulnerable. And as sea level rises, and the shore wants to retreat landward, those are going to be left out in the ocean. And that will happen soon. You know, within the next few decades, we’re really going to see that.

Orrin Pilkey at Duke says, for every foot of sea level rise on a coast like the Gulf or the Atlantic, we should have 1,000 to 2,000 feet of landward retreat up the coast, as the ocean and available beach sand reequilibrate. And, you know, we’ve just had this rise of sea level, and we’re now trying to equilibrate with that. But we’re having more rise in the future because of accelerating ice melt.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Harold Wanless, we want to thank you for being with us, professor in geography and urban sustainability at the University of Miami. Seán Kinane, this is what you do every day at WMNF in Tampa, bringing out this kind of information. Your final comments as you live and broadcast from the station right now in the midst of the storm?

SEÁN KINANE: Yeah. So, Amy, what I would say to Dr. Wanless’s point about the barrier islands and how dangerous it is for people to be building there and to be living there, just to give an example, the Sanibel Island Causeway, the Sanibel Causeway, was completely wiped away in this storm. We’ve seen pictures of this bridge. This is the only road from the mainland to Sanibel Island and Captiva Island. It’s been wiped away. So, how do you get rescue supplies to these people? How do people evacuate if they didn’t evacuate already? And, you know, this is just a very powerful storm, and we really don’t know what to expect next, as cleanup crews are just now going out to look at things.

And to answer Nermeen’s question from earlier — she was asking when will power be restored to these people. We don’t know, but we did hear from Duke Energy Florida, who said that they have to wait until the wind dies down in order to go out and restore the power to these people. That might be this afternoon in Pinellas County, which is near St. Petersburg, which is what they said. But who knows how long that is in Orlando or in Cocoa Beach or places where the wind is still howling?

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Seán Kinane, we want to thank you for being with us, news and public affairs director at community radio station WMNF in Tampa, Florida.

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Noam Chomsky & Vijay Prashad: A Lula Victory in Brazil Could Help Save the Planet

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

GUESTS

Noam Chomsky
world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author.

Vijay Prashad
author and director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

Noam Chomsky joins us from Brazil with Vijay Prashad, just back from Brazil, to discuss Sunday’s Brazilian election between Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Chomsky and Prashad are co-authors of the new book, “The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power.”

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

In Brazil, voters head to the polls Sunday for an election that could see far-right President Jair Bolsonaro replaced by former President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. Polls show Lula has a strong lead over Bolsonaro, but it remains unclear if he has enough support to win the 11-way race outright. If not, Brazil will hold a runoff election on October 30th.

Lula has been running on a platform to reduce inequality, preserve the Amazon rainforest and protect Brazil’s Indigenous communities. There’s widespread fear in Brazil that Bolsonaro could attempt to stage a coup if he loses the election.

We’re joined right now by two guests, by Vijay Prashad, who’s just back from Brazil. He’s joining us from here in New York. He’s just back from Brazil. And with us from Minas Gerais, Brazil, is Noam Chomsky, world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author, laureate professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, where he taught for more than half a century.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Noam, let’s begin with you in Brazil. Can you talk about the significance of this election that is going to take place on Sunday, and what this means for not only Brazil, but for the world?

NOAM CHOMSKY: It is very significant — not only for Brazil, but for the world — in Brazil, in many respects, but one of them is what you mentioned: the fate of the Amazon. Most of the Amazon region is in Brazil. Of the two candidates, one of them, the current president, Bolsonaro, is basically committed to destroying the Amazon. Under his years in office, there’s been sharp acceleration with his approval of illegal logging, mining, agribusiness, tax on the Indigenous reserves. It’s been known for some time that, sooner or later, if destruction of the forest continues, there won’t be enough moisture produced to reproduce the Amazon. It’ll turn to savanna. Regrettably, that’s beginning to happen. Satellite and other studies have shown that in corners of the Amazon in Brazil, it’s already happening. Tipping points may be coming soon, which would be irreversible It’s a catastrophe for Brazil, but, in fact, for the entire world. The Amazon forests are one of the major carbon sinks, and it will be — soon become a carbon producer. That’s devastating for the world. And those are Bolsonaro’s policies. So, for that reason alone, if he manages somehow to maintain power, perhaps by a military coup, it will be a disaster for the world.

Now, you might point out that there’s a counterpart coming in the United States. The Republican Party, of course, is a 100% denialist party committed to maximizing the use of fossil fuels, eliminating the regulations that somehow mitigate their effects. If they come back into power again, hurtling towards disaster. So, for those reasons alone, the next couple of months are of extreme significance.

There are many other factors. The business community in Brazil doesn’t like Bolsonaro. He’s too vulgar and corrupt. But they like Lula even less, because of his social democratic policies. So where they’ll stand is not so clear. Also unclear is the nature of the military, the police, the various branches of the police. They tend to be quite supportive of Bolsonaro. The military is split. There’s been a heavy military component in his government — unprecedented, in fact — but other elements of the top military command have been ambiguous about their status. So, that’s naturally a reason for concern.

Bolsonaro has said openly and clearly that — basically following Trump’s line, probably with Trump’s advisers at his elbow, saying that either he will win the election, or the election was fraudulent, that he won’t accept it. In fact, he called all of the ambassadors to a special meeting to tell them that, which shocked the diplomatic community and did lead to negative responses. Whether he’ll keep to that or not, nobody really knows. So, there is a kind of background tension in the atmosphere.

But I should say that from the little that we can see on the streets, in the community, it looks pretty normal. So, if there are concerns, they’re not very openly expressed. There are — last night, there was a major debate, went on for hours. There’s demonstrations and so on. So, the whole matter is very much in people’s minds, clearly. But if the polls are anywhere near accurate, Lula might win on the first round, but almost certainly would on the second. But then there’s the open question of how Bolsonaro and the forces behind him would react to this. That’s pretty much the current situation.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Noam Chomsky, following up on that, the significance politically for Latin America and the world of a Lula victory, given the fact that we’ve seen now Latin America go from the early pink tide of the early 2000s, then there was a resurgence of right-wing government and lawfare actions throughout the region, and now we’re seeing almost every major country in Latin America voting in left-wing governments — Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru? And Brazil, of course, is the largest country. This is a region with no nuclear weapons, with no major armed conflicts in the region right now. What would Lula coming to victory mean for the consolidation of this left-wing trend in Latin America?

NOAM CHOMSKY: Yes, you can add Chile to the list. Brazil is, of course, the largest, most important country in South and Latin America. And the direction in which Brazil goes is sure to have a major impact on these tendencies that you describe. Of course, they’re bitterly opposed by most of the business world, by the international investment community. What happens in Brazil could be certain to have a large-scale effect on whether this mildly left social democratic tendency will continue to develop and evolve.

That’s very important on the international scene, as well. It will, for example, affect the character of BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, now Indonesia — developing independent, possibly independent, force in global affairs. During the early years of the century, when Lula was in power, he managed to give the BRICS alignment a significant role in world affairs. In fact, Brazil became perhaps the most respected country internationally under Lula and his foreign minister, Celso Amorim. And if he returns to office, that could give an impetus to the development — the further development of BRICS as a quite significant element in international affairs.

That’s connected with much broader tendencies, much broader issues about multipolarity and unipolarity in international affairs. The United States, of course, is working hard to maintain what’s called a unilateral world order. Other elements in the world, other components in the world are not going along with that. Ukraine is a central part of that issue. About 90% of the countries of the world are not going along with the U.S.-U.K. position on Ukraine, which is basically to continue the war to weaken Russia and no negotiations. Even in Europe, like in Germany, that’s not accepted. About over three-quarters of the German population wants to move to negotiations now. All of these things are taking place in the background, and what’s happening in Brazil will have a significant impact on the direction in which they go.

So there are many large issues at stake, also just domestically in Brazil. Brazil has extraordinary inequality, kind of like the United States in that respect. An enormous amount — it’s potentially a very rich country. A century ago, it was called the “Colossus of the South.” It’s never been realized, partly because of the avarice of the wealthy sector, which has basically no commitment to the country. And that will move in one or the other direction, depending on the outcome of this election. So there is quite a lot at stake, locally in Brazil, in Latin America altogether, as you mentioned, and even globally, because of the role of the Latin American countries traditionally in the lead in setting the stage for the next phase of global order.

AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, on the issue of Bolsonaro perhaps not accepting election results — and he is in charge of the elections now as president — earlier in the campaign, he said, “Only God will remove me [from power]. … The army is on our side. It’s an army that doesn’t accept corruption, doesn’t accept fraud.” Are you concerned that he will not accept the election? And also, how much has Trump and his rejection of the elections and spreading the big lie influenced Bolsonaro, empowered him?

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, Trump is his ideal. And there’s good reason to suppose that Trump’s circle of advisers is playing a role in Bolsonaro’s current decision making, as they pretty clearly did in the 2018 election, which he managed to win, but on reasons we don’t have time to go through. So, he might try to follow the Trump model.

His statement about “only God can remove him” is a Trump-like appeal to a large sector of his voting base. A large sector of his voting base is evangelicals, right-wing Christian groups, much as in the United States and Trump. So, references to God are obligatory. And charges that the PT, Lula’s party, will undermine the church, all of these charges which we’re familiar with in the United States, are part of the Bolsonaro campaigning.

What he’ll do, we don’t know. Now, a large majority of the population in Brazil, according to the polls, is concerned, seriously concerned, that there might be violence at the time of the elections or in the aftermath. To this concern, there’s reason for it. The alliance with the Republican Party, the Trump-owned Republican Party, is pretty clear. It’s not hidden. So there are similarities in the United States and Brazil that are certainly worth — merit attention.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Vijay Prashad, I’d like to bring you into the discussion here on Brazil. You were there recently. Your assessment of the importance of this election? And also, to what degree is the electorate voting for Lula and the Workers’ Party, or predominantly for Lula? There have been some reports that his popularity is much greater than that of the Workers’ Party because of all of the years of corruption scandals that occurred while the party was in power. I’m wondering your views on those two things.

VIJAY PRASHAD: It’s great to be with you. And it’s great to have Noam from São Paulo — from Minas Gerais.

The first thing I’d like to say is Lulu is an extraordinary person, an extraordinary campaigner, an extraordinary politician. You know, these things matter. I covered Lula’s first election campaign when he first won in the 2000s, was in Brazil during his second presidency, and covered this year some of his rallies and public appearances, and also had the opportunity to briefly speak with him. He is an extraordinary person. He’s extraordinarily charismatic, touches the hearts of people. This is what I suppose in the United States is called retail politics.

Also, Lula is this time running to the left of Lula the president. He’s made it very clear that questions of social justice will be at the forefront of his presidency. He’s made it clear that he once again wants to have Brazil be an important player in the process of South American integration and in the revival of the BRICS.

Now, it’s really important that we concentrate on the attempts to undermine Lula. It’s the military, of course, but got to pay attention to the fact, as Juan said earlier, this issue of lawfare is on the table. One of the things I learned in talking to Fernando Haddad, who ran for president in 2018 and is now running to be the governor of São Paulo state — what Haddad told me is that the key issue in this election is, yes, to elect Lula, but also to get an impeachment-proof majority in the legislature, because what happened to President Dilma Rousseff is on the minds of everybody. You can win an election, you can push an agenda, but you will get removed by a legislature which is committed to a very right-wing politics. And to somehow drive a impeachment-proof legislature is important. And that’s where the assessment about the Workers’ Party comes in. Is the party going to be strong enough to elect its candidates across the country? Or will it again rely merely on winning the presidency? So, that first issue of winning in the legislature is key.

You know, when Lula comes to office this time, he has already pledged to start a conversation about, for instance, a Latin American currency called the sur. This was tried previously under Hugo Chávez, called the sucre. But the sur, if Brazil puts its considerable resources behind it, it’s going to be a really important development for Latin America.

And, you know, we need to understand that, as Noam said, the mood in the world is contrary to being pushed around by the United States or its allies. People are looking for some other kind of leadership. And the respect that Lula has, which the other leaders, let’s say, in the BRICS countries don’t have, that respect that Lula has — Lula is the first Brazilian president whose name is known in other countries in the Global South. He’s going to leverage that respect to drive a multilateral agenda in world affairs. I think that’s going to be of great significance and importance. Again, when he came to power in the 2000s, the mood was not like that around the world. Now we see the mood, in South Africa, even in India, governed by a right-wing government. The government has said, “Look, we are not going to involve ourself in Europe’s wars. We have our own problems. We have our own conflicts.” And I believe that a presidency from Lula, a revival of the BRICS will allow some of that mood to be captured by somebody who comes to world affairs with a great deal of legitimacy and love and, in a sense, respect.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Vijay, following up on that, the issue of a greater, more multilateral world, that you mentioned, one of the things that’s happened in Latin America in the recent decades is the increasing visibility and investment of China throughout Latin America, allowing many of these governments, whether of the right or the left, to be more independent of financing and loans and investment from the U.S. and Europe. I’m wondering your sense of, again, if a Lula victory, what would happen in terms of this trend of China getting more involved in Latin America’s economies.

VIJAY PRASHAD: Well, it’s important to say that even during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, China continued to be a major trading partner with Brazil. And Mr. Bolsonaro was very careful not to come out with any kind of frontal attack on China. Let’s be quite clear that the arrival of Chinese commercial, economic ties with most countries in Latin America is inevitable. It’s clear. You know, there’s a reason why a country like Argentina joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative. That’s because the Chinese have investment capital available. The Chinese have a large market for the commodities produced in Latin America. In a way, China is offering much more to these countries in terms of trade, development, investment and so on than the United States. That’s just a fact.

The question is that in the last period, from Trump onward, the United States has attempted to tell countries in Latin America that they should stop trading with China. This is what happened with El Salvador, for instance, over a deal for a Pacific port. The United States tried to impose on the government of El Salvador — and, in fact, succeeded — to break a deal with the Chinese. Interesting thing is, China is not telling anybody to break deals with the United States. In fact, Argentina, a Belt and Road partner, went back to the IMF this year — a very poor deal, by the way, and it’s a deal that requires far more scrutiny, once more austerity on the Argentinian people.

But Lula has made it clear they’re going to continue, in that sense, Bolsonaro’s policy of trading with China, but there’ll be a kind of friendlier attitude to China. And I’m very much hopeful that if there’s a revitalization of the BRICS, this attempt to demonize countries in Eurasia, particularly China, will find less of an audience than it finds even now. It’s quite unfortunate that the United States has ramped up a kind of demonization policy, suggesting that, you know, the Chinese are out there to steal people’s privacy and so on. This is not a credible line of argument in countries where the Chinese have come, put money on the table through the People’s Bank of China, done currency swaps and so on, and said, “You don’t need to do austerity. Here’s investment money.” It’s not credible when the United States comes there and says, you know, “China is here to steal your house.” That’s not a credible argument. But it does create a lot of instability. It creates a lot of tension for countries.

And I think if Lula comes to power — or, not just Lula. We see this already with Gustavo Petro in Colombia. You know, when people come to power of that ilk, who want an independent foreign policy for their country, they understand that next year, 2023, is the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine. They want to go beyond the Monroe Doctrine. You’ll remember, Joe Biden said that Latin America is not the United States’ backyard; it’s the United States’ front yard. For God’s sake, President Biden, Latin America is nobody’s yard. These are sovereign countries that must be permitted to produce their own relations, whether it’s for trade or political relations. The United States cannot continue to essentially, as Noam says, be the godfather and tell countries what to do.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Vijay Prashad and Noam Chomsky. They have written a book together. It’s called The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power.

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“Women! Life! Freedom!” Iranian Women Lead Nationwide Protests After Death of Mahsa Amini

STORY  SEPTEMBER 27, 2022



GUEST

 Hoda Katebi
Iranian American writer and community organizer living in Chicago and the Bay Area.

LINKS"Iranian women are rising up to demand freedom. Are we listening?"
Hoda Katebi on Twitter


Dozens of people in Iran have been killed in a series of escalating women-led protests demanding justice for Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in the custody of the so-called morality police. Amini was detained on September 13 for allegedly leaving some of her hair visible in violation of Iran’s hijab law. Iranian American writer Hoda Katebi calls the protests “exciting and beautiful,” bringing together women from across economic and ethnic backgrounds and opening up conversations about the policing of women’s bodies. She says the government is using the protests to “advance nationalist ideas,” crack down on Kurdish communities and propel a false narrative of an uprising against Islam. Katebi’s recent piece for the Los Angeles Times is titled “Iranian women are rising up to demand freedom. Are we listening?”

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.


AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Iran, where dozens of people have been killed in a series of escalating women-led protests demanding justice for a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini, who died in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police. Amini was detained on September 13th for allegedly leaving some of her hair visible in violation of an Iranian law requiring women to cover their head. Witnesses said Amini was severely beaten in a police van. She died after falling into a coma.

Her death has sparked the largest protests Iran has seen since at least 2019. The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights estimates 76 people have been killed over the past two weeks. At least 1,200 have been arrested. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 20 journalists have been arrested covering the protests. Communication remains limited to parts of Iran due to internet and social media shutdowns. Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard attacked areas in northern Iraq Monday populated by Iranian Kurdish separatists.

To talk more about the protests, we’re joined in Chicago by Hoda Katebi. She’s an Iranian American writer, community organizer, living in Chicago and the Bay Area. Her new op-ed in the Los Angeles Times is headlined “Iranian women are rising up to demand freedom. Are we listening?”

Welcome, Hoda, to Democracy Now!

HODA KATEBI: Thank you so much for having me.

AMY GOODMAN: Describe the extent — can you describe the extent of these women-led protests and how radical it is that it is women, and particularly young women, who are not only the spark for these protests but also the ones in the streets?

HODA KATEBI: Absolutely. Absolutely. What we’re seeing in Iran right now is really exciting and beautiful. It’s terrifying, but I think that’s just the nature of people’s movements, as we see around the world.

I do want to say that these movements right now are absolutely led by women, but as have all of the previous movements in Iran. Women have always sort of played a central role within movement spaces in Iran, both before and after the revolution. And so what we’re seeing now is actually the natural culmination not only of women continuously taking up leadership within systems change in Iran, but also decades of state repression against women, and particularly focused on women’s bodies in public spaces.

But what is especially unique about this moment right now is that not only are young women — and we’re seeing this for the first time — their bravery is really, really energizing and exciting and inspiring — really on the frontlines, just being faced with all types of different government repression, from internet censorship to live ammunition to plastic bullets, and also these sets of protests have a bit of a more intersectional approach to them.

The central demand that women are chanting is for “Women! Life! Freedom!” which originally is a Kurdish slogan, actually, and has now been translated into Farsi and popularized across the country. And we see in the streets workers are coming out alongside students, Kurdish women, non-Kurdish women. And we see a lot of sort of a greater — a greater amount of Iranians from across class background coming together to demand both justice for Mahsa Amin, the abolition of the Gasht-e-Ershad, or the so-called morality police, and all of the systems that uphold it, and the state, as well.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Hoda, could you talk about how the Iranian government has exerted pressure and repression on the Kurdish community over the years?

HODA KATEBI: Absolutely. The Iranian government has been extremely repressive in these protests, as have they been in previous protests, as well, too. Right now, for example, we’re seeing live ammunition used. Dozens of Iranians have been killed. A 10-year-old girl was killed in Karaj, which is a suburb of Tehran, only days ago.

And there has been a particular emphasis on the Kurdish area where Mahsa, or Zhina, Amini was originally from. This area has been sort of the heart and the initial sparking outlet of these protests nationwide. And now we’re seeing sort of an immense pressure that the government is posing on the Kurdish community and sort of using this as an opportunity to really advance a lot of the sort of nationalist ideals of the Iranian project onto the Kurdish communities.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And there’s been a particular role by the Basij volunteers in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Can you talk about their role and who they are?

HODA KATEBI: Right. So, the Basij are part of the Iranian government’s sort of apparatus of shutting down protesters. What’s also significant is that these sort of paramilitary guards are also being stationed in places like ambulances or other places that — as we also see, I think, very parallels the United States’s approach in repressing protesters here, is that they’ll use everyday sort of like civil society objects. So, we’re seeing a lot of images, for example, of ambulances on fire or other sorts of things that seem like very related to civil society, but we also are seeing a very particular tactic of using these items in order to have sort of images of ambulances on fire being the videos that are circulating and sort of shaping the narratives, when in fact there’s so much more to that story.

There’s also a lot of plainclothes Basijis within sort of the protesters who are trying to push specific narratives that allow the state to sort of advance its violence against the protesters. So, for example, there’s a lot of narratives right now that the Iranian government is trying to push, is that this is a uprising or a protest against Islam; it’s against hijab; it’s not about the right to choose, but it’s about Islam at large. And these are extremely, extremely terrifying to see this sometimes also picked up by people outside of Iran, because as Iranian woman on the ground are fighting for is the right to choice and the right to freedom across the board. This is beyond just women’s rights, and it’s about state violence. And I think that would — kind of making this about Islam and making this about Muslims would actually isolate the millions of Iranian women in Iran and around the world who are Muslim, who wear the hijab, who don’t wear the hijab, who are also in solidarity or on the frontlines of these protests.

AMY GOODMAN: I was wondering if you can talk about, well, I mean, the actual — what the women are doing, ripping off their headscarves, even burning them, men cheering them on. Can you talk about this kind of brazen defiance and what this means for the so-called morality police, and the fact that these protests are extending to religious cities, for example, like Qom?

HODA KATEBI: Absolutely. I think that there are so many powerful, beautiful images coming out of Iran right now. And as someone who does wear the hijab and has chose to wear the hijab for most of my life, I think, as an Iranian American, seeing images of Iranians in Iran who have been forced to wear the hijab, like, burning their headscarves, I think, actually, is such a beautiful and powerful symbol, because the Iranian government has chosen to adopt this headscarf as its national symbol to enforce on women’s bodies in Iran. And so, what we’re seeing is actually women rising up and burning symbols of the state that have been historically enforced on their bodies. And so, I think that this is a really, really powerful example that I think people around the world can really learn from in terms of taking up items that the state has decided is a symbol of itself. Of course, these are very contextualized. And I also want to underscore that several times, because an Iranian in Iran who has been forced to wear the hijab by the state burning a headscarf is very different than, say, Pompeo in the United States burning a hijab in his house on Twitter. So, I also think that the context around this is very, very important.

And I think that this also speaks to why this protest in this moment has been so beautifully spread and we’ve seen so much international solidarity, is because women are really on the frontlines and demanding that this moment open up a greater conversation, not just about, like, morality police and mandatory dress codes, but actually the intersections of socioeconomic class on women’s bodies, labor justice, economic justice, and really talking about progress and moving forward on a systemic level and that there should be no gender delay in that conversation.

AMY GOODMAN: Also amazing to see them cutting their hair. World-renowned Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi released a video calling on artists around the world to declare their solidarity with the protesters in Iran.


ASGHAR FARHADI: This society, especially these women, has traveled a harsh and painful path at this point. And now they have clearly reached a landmark. … I deeply respect their struggle for freedom and the right to choose their own destiny, despite all the brutality they are subjected to. … Through this video, I invite all artists, filmmakers, intellectuals, civil rights activists from all over the world and all countries, everyone who believes human dignity and freedom, to stand in solidarity with the powerful and brave women and men of Iran by recording video or writing or any other way.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Hoda, your response to this support from other sectors of society? And also, the issue of the level of surveillance by the morality police? You wrote in the L.A. Times that, quote, “Earlier this month the government announced it will start using facial recognition technology in public spaces to enforce dress codes against women”?

HODA KATEBI: Absolutely, yes. And I definitely uplift those words by Asghar Farhadi, that I think that was a very beautiful call to stand in solidarity with Iranian women and also recognize that these struggles are connected globally.

And I think, especially when it comes to things like surveillance, you know, so we see an increased level of state surveillance of women’s bodies in particular in Iran in order to enforce dress code. And this is something that we’ve actually been seeing increase specifically these past several years under the Raisi administration, that have also sort of imposed a new fining system for ticketing women for different dress code violations. And so, this has definitely been part of a larger trajectory that has, especially in these past few years, really worsened the cracking down on women’s bodies in public spaces in Iran.

AMY GOODMAN: This is the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, responding to the protests.


PRESIDENT EBRAHIM RAISI: [translated] They want to ride a wave and create riots and disturbances. They think, with such moves, they can stop the nation. We have announced many times that if anyone has a fair comment, we will listen to it. But anarchy, disturbing national security, the security of people, no one will succumb to this.

AMY GOODMAN: I was wondering if you can respond, if you’re talking really here about a civil war, the protests escalating. Also, Christiane Amanpour expected to interview him in New York. He just addressed the U.N. General Assembly. She refused to wear a headscarf, said she would in Iran — she is Iranian — but not here. And he canceled the interview.

HODA KATEBI: I think it’s hard to feel anything other than just absolutely outraged when you see — when you hear his words. And I think what is particularly, I think, especially important, I think, for someone like myself, who is very used to hearing that being said by U.S. presidents whenever there are massive protests across the country, for example, after the death of George Floyd, and I think that this is just a common state tactic to focus on sort of things that are happening in the fringes or the marginalized parts of a movement, and not actually centering the voices.

I think that there have been women, there have been people talking about these issues, civil society organizations that have been bringing these issues forward for decades. For decades, since the revolution, people have been talking about this. So I think it would be absolutely ludicrous to say that this is the first time that hijab has been a conversation in Iran, when this has actually been at the forefront of conversations, along with how it’s connected to class and the economic situation in Iran, the treatment of ethnic minorities in Iran. And we actually saw a lot of that increase when there was a surge of Afghan refugees to Iran after the U.S. botched withdrawal in Afghanistan. So, I think these conversations have always happened.

In fact, on the contrary, we have seen a sort of reduction of spaces to be able to have these conversations. Civil society organizations have come out in full fledge against the Gasht-e-Ershad and the systems that uphold it, and they have — and many that have been working on these issues before have either been forced to close, the leaders of nonprofits, of organizations in Iran have been banned from working. And so, I think that this is sort of a tipping point of escalated sort of both these sorts of state — specifically state restrictions that have — the crackdown has worsened, as well as an increase of closure of spaces to be able to talk about this, outside of protesting on the streets.

AMY GOODMAN: We just have 30 seconds, Hoda.

HODA KATEBI: And also — oh, go ahead.

AMY GOODMAN: And that is, your thoughts on calls for increased sanctions against Iran?

HODA KATEBI: It is the most ironic, for lack of a better word, term, because sanctions kill people. Sanctions have killed Iranian women. And we can just look to the history of our neighbor of Iraq to understand how devastating sanctions are. Iranian women’s call for women, life and freedom, as I’ve mentioned, reached to the economic sector, and United States sanctions have played a major role on crippling the Iranian economy. Right now Iran is also at a moment of some of its worst economic situations since the revolution, and this is directly tied to U.S. sanctions, as well, too.

And so, if anything, Iranian women just want — and Iranians at large — the United States to have no interference in this, and that includes removal of all sanctions on Iran, that have historically been there. We’ve seen a little bit about this, when Biden has removed some of the sanctions around telecommunications, that have enabled the Iranian government to have a monopoly on the censorship of Iranian voices. And so, we urge sort of Biden to continue to remove sanctions off of Iran, so that America has no interference and that Iranians on the ground become the agents of their own futures on their own terms.

AMY GOODMAN: Hoda Katebi, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Iranian American writer, community organizer, living in Chicago and the Bay Area. We’ll link to your piece in the Los Angeles Times, “Iranian women are rising up to demand freedom. Are we listening?”

Next up, we go to Baltimore. The Kushner company agrees to pay at least $3 million to settle claims of shoddy apartments and rent abuses. Then we’ll go to Philadelphia. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “Bella Ciao,” the classic Italian ANTI-FASCIST protest song, being sung in Persian by an Iranian woman in a video that’s gone viral online as part of nationwide protests.

 

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The Cultural War against the Kurdish Nation. Cultural War, Cultural Boycott and resistance

Posted on October 1, 2022 by Editorial Staff in 1 Top News, Exclusive



Kurdish women dancing in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat). Photo: tehrantimes.com
Scherco R. Baban | Exclusive to Ekurd.net

Cultural War

On May 11 [2014], The Iranian Consulate in Silêmanî, South [Iraqi] Kurdistan released a statement about Iran’s perspective regarding its relationship with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This statement about The Kurds was full of misrecognition, distortion and disrespect.

The statement started with demonizing The Kurdish Republic of 1946 in Mehabad that lasted for a year and labeled it as “the few day lasting communist state of Mahabad” which had pushed some Kurdish political parties to be involved in “construction of nation, culture, language and history”.

It went on describing “Kurdish dialect is not an autonomous language but belongs to the Iranian languages and is a mixture of Arabic, Turkish and Persian languages”. It is not clear which Iranian languages the Consulate intended but Persian is the normative point of comparison.

Furthermore, the statement reiterated the classical mantra of the Regime of Tehran accusing The West of being the major source of division in the Islamic and Middle Eastern countries in search of natural resources. It also underlined that there are no divisions among the people of the region since they have been living together in harmony for thousands of years.


Photo: Provided by Scherco R. Baban. Click to enlarge.

The Kurdish Nation in this statement was reduced to a “minority” living in Iraq, Syria and Turkey and their so-called great homeland, Iran. The statement also warned the Kurdistan Region to preserve the territorial unity of Iraq otherwise it would be facing hardships.

This recent event is just one of many that occurred in recent months that shows Iran’s nervosity of the emergence of an independent, but also secular and democratic South Kurdistan, The ascendance of the Kurdish liberation movement in both Turkey and the moribund states of Iraq and Syria didn´t go unnoticed by the Iranians both in exile and the Regime.

Even in Stockholm and about the same period (June 2014) there were a petite demonstration among exile Iranians calling for the unity of Iran against the “The Separatists” There were few persons with ill fitted “Kurdish clothes” trying to dance a Kurdish dance while waving the old flag of the Shah. The whole scene was a total comedy. Of course there was a counter demonstration by real Kurds denouncing the fake ones who were protected by The Swedish police. The scene ended in turmoil and the fake “Kurds’ ‘ took off the “Kurdish” clothes that they wore over the normal ones and disappeared.

The former mentioned statement of the Iranian consulate about Kurds and the Kurdish language, stird hard reactions among The Kurdish diaspora but The response from the Kurdistan Regional Government and because of internal weakness and geopolitical reason was far from our aspirations. This disrespectful statement ignored intentionally all scientific and historical evidence of the notion and existence of Kurds as ancient people prior to the notion of any existence of Persians or Pars.

It’s not a secret that Kurdish is a more homogeneous language than Farsi even according to many Iranian linguists. Just show a Farsi newspaper to any Arabic speaker and he or she will tell that this language is composed of a huge amount of Arabic loanwords, beside the loanwords of other languages. This is not the case of Kurdish. Everyone knows that!



The statue of Kawa Asinger, (the Kurdish ironworker) holding the head of Zuhak (Zehak), in Slêmanî, Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Ekurd.net/A.B.

The Cultural War, Newroz, Saladin, Kawa The Smith and The Babans

So what is happening? There is a planned Cultural War against the Kurdish Nation on behalf of the occupying forces of Kurdistan. It is not just the Kurdish language, the very spirit of the Kurdish Nation. They are attacking everything. They are attacking Newroz appropriating the very Kurdish way of Congrating during the festivity in its language. They used to say “Norooz Moobarek” and now they are using The Kurdish Newroz Piroz. Blaming Saladin for atrocities as if it was required from The Kurdish Sultan to be a modern day pacifist. Before that they tried to dekurdify him and claim another origin. Then some come blaming him for not building a nation state in an age where there was no existence of a nation state in any part of the world except in some cases. but there was not one in a modern meaning.


Yezidis usher in New Year at Lalish with candles, gather at their holy Temple of Lalish in Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan, April 16, 2019. Photo: AFP

Then came the turn to Kawa The Blacksmith, claiming he was a traitor. There is no historical evidence of this man’s existence as a historical person. and the turn would come to the Baban´s for sure for one or another reason. Then there is the effort to separate the Feyli [Faili] Kurds, the Zazas and the followers of the Yarsanin and Ezidi [Yazidi] faiths from the Kurdish Nation. Last time I heard about the Hawramis. The list goes on and on and it will be not strange that same day they would attack some typical Kurdish food such as the famous Kurdish Dolma. It begins typically by a social media page that says that then there would be discussion about it and it explodes.

This is definitely a Cultural war against everything Kurdish. Everything! From our Language to our dresses to our music. From our mythical persons to our historical onse. From our heros to our traitors. From our poets to our beggars. It is a Cultural War! In the face of this Cultural War we can’t wage a real war against it, nor we have the capacity. What shall we do? What did they do in India? or another part of the world? Did they sing the Peaceful coexistence or the brotherhood of the nations? No we cant wage peace against your rapist!

Cultural Boycott

You can’t love your enemy! Leave that to Jesus. Jesus tried to save the souls of his people not saving them from an eminant Cultural Genocide

In Psychology there is a term called “breaking rapport” which means that two person are on emotional crossroads and that’s why they would collid for the simplest reason. It’s not a secret that South Kurdistan has great influence from neighboring countries unfortunately. Start with a cultural boycott.

A Kurdish soldier who consumes the enemy´s music, movies and culture will definitely feel more affection towards his oppressor. Its easier to create traitors! Then what to do? Well start with culture! Kurdistan has a huge hunger for culture.

Don’t let The neighbours fill this need. Promote and the establishment of Western and Asian culture institutes in the city. This by far is much more beneficial for Kurdistan than our neighbour´s Cultural Trash there which after all are just tools for their irredentist nationalism. Nations who were colonized by advanced nations, they became advanced too. Just check the case of UK-India or UK-USA.

Cultural Resistance

The establishment of the American Universities was a step in the right direction. Let’s promote Spanish Instituto de Cervantes, German Schools, Name new streets if not after Kurdish heroes and poets after known western scientists like Einstein or Edisson.

These Languages by learning them and understanding their cultures of origin are by far much more beneficial for our society than the backward and chauvinist ones.

A Kurdish teacher with a child student in Iraqi Kurdistan, 1970s Photo: Ekurd’s archive

But more important is Kurdish Unity and strengthening the cultural characteristics of our nation. In my article about The introduction of Standard Kurdish. Strengthen the Kurdish culture, impose the language in all aspects of life. Movies, series products, everything!

Unify our script and harmonize our dialects! Establishing a High Academy Of Kurdish Language, Unify terminology and the Foreign words that came to Kurdish via neighbouring countries should also vanish and should be taken from the origin or other language that is more proper to our language! Translations of all litterature should only be from the original languages and by an official institution, not like today, from our neighbours languages. This praxis should have vanished by now!

Countries on the shores of The Persian Gulf have been anxious of the Persian dominance in the region. A stronger Kurdistan is in the benefit of the Arab region. A dialogue with Arab Nations is possible by trading independence for Water. All the water that comes to Iraq and Syria comes from the occupied Kurdistan! Why should we call the Gulf, Persian and not Arabic or something else if they call our Old Kurdish Language a dialect of Farsi?

Scherco R. Baban, A nuerolinguist (NLP) and a hispansit (specialising in Hispanic studies, that is Spanish language, literature, linguistics, history. Sweden.

Copyright © 2022 Ekurd.net. All rights reserved

Lebanon receives written US-brokered proposal for maritime border deal with Israel

State news agency says Lebanese president spoke with senior officials ‘to provide a Lebanese response as soon as possible’ on draft accord to demarcate sea border

By TOI STAFF

Today,

Lebanese President Michel Aoun (L) receives a proposal from US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea to resolve a maritime border dispute with Israel, October 1, 2022 (Lebanese Presidency)

The United States handed over a long-negotiated written proposal to Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Saturday to potentially resolve a maritime border dispute between Israel and Lebanon.

According to a tweet from the Lebanese presidency’s account, Aoun met with US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea and received the written proposal from US mediator Amos Hochstein for the demarcation of the maritime border with Israel.

The Lebanese state news agency said Aoun then contacted Speaker of Lebanon’s Parliament Nabih Berri and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati for a consultation on the US proposal.

The report said Aoun discussed with the two “how to move forward to provide a Lebanese response as soon as possible.”

No details were provided about the proposal.

The maritime dispute relates to some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea that include lucrative offshore gas fields.

US Senior Advisor for Energy Security Amos Hochstein arrives at at meeting in Beirut on July 31, 2022. (Anwar AMRO / AFP)

The US-brokered talks on rights to the area, the subject of long-running negotiations between Jerusalem and Beirut and repeated threats from the Hezbollah terror group, have appeared to make progress in recent weeks.

On Sunday, Israel’s Channel 13 news said security officials believe a deal will be reached in the next two weeks.

The television report followed talks Prime Minister Yair Lapid held on preparations to produce gas from the Karish field, amid Hezbollah threats to attack Israel if it begins drilling there before a maritime border deal is reached.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said last week that his Iran-backed terror organization’s missiles were “locked on” Karish.

Lebanon claims that the Karish gas field is in disputed territory, while Israel says it lies within its internationally recognized economic waters.

Energean’s floating production system (FPSO) at the Karish gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. (Energean)

Earlier this month, Lapid’s office vowed Israel would go ahead and extract gas from Karish with or without a deal on the maritime border with Lebanon. Those comments came hours after Aoun said that indirect talks with Israel to end a maritime border dispute are in their “final stages.”

A spokesperson for Lapid issued a statement later that day saying: “Israel believes that it is both possible and necessary to reach an agreement on a maritime line between Lebanon and Israel, in a manner that will serve the interests of the citizens of both countries.”

UGANDA PREZ CLAIMS MAGIC CURE

Tanzanian doctor becomes second health worker to die of Ebola in Uganda


SATURDAY OCTOBER 01 2022


This photo tweeted by Association of Surgeons of Uganda on October 1, 2022 shows Dr Mohammed Ali, a 37-year-old Tanzania national who has been pursuing a Master of Medicine in Surgery at Kampala International University. He succumbed to Ebola. 

By DAILY MONITOR
More by this Author


A 37-year-old Tanzanian doctor who has been pursuing a Master of Medicine in Surgery course at Kampala International University has succumbed to Ebola, the Association of Surgeons of Uganda has announced.

“Dr [Mohammed] Ali lost the battle to the Ebola Virus Disease,” Association of Surgeons of Uganda tweeted on Saturday.

It’s not clear how he got infected but his death comes hours after the Ministry of Health on Friday announced that the death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the country had risen to seven.

Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said Dr Ali tested positive for Ebola on September 26, 2022 and died at 3am on Saturday while receiving treatment at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital isolation facility.

“Dr Ali is the first doctor and second health worker to have succumbed to Ebola. The first was a midwife from St Florence Clinic, a probable case, because she died before testing,” Dr Aceng tweeted on Saturday.

So far, at least eight health workers have tested positive for EHVF, including intern doctors and senior house officer (all trainees) who were stationed at the centre of the outbreak at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital, according to Uganda Medical Association (UMA).

In a September 29 letter to the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary Diana Atwine, association president Dr Samuel Oledo and secretary-general Dr Herbert Luswata said more needs to be done to manage the epidemic and the safety of health workers.

“The UMA NEC held a meeting on September 28, 2022 and resolved to request the Ministry of Health that the infected and hospitalised doctors and health workers at Mubende and other facilities be provided medically appropriate feeding and supportive care at all times. The government and Ministry of Health need to provide: the appropriate medical care, nursing care, nutritious foods, and other fluids that are appropriate in the management of the Ebola infected patients in care, according to the stage of illness and need.

“Persons who are experiencing emesis and diarrhoea cannot feed on solids and are sometimes even too weak to do so and need to be supported. Health workers working in the Ebola Treatment Units (ETU) should sign for and receive the risk allowances,” reads part of the letter.

This follows information that one of the six health workers who have Ebola and were on Wednesday evacuated from Mubende hospital to Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, is still fighting for their life on oxygen.

The hospital director, Dr Alex Adaku, confirmed that five of the health workers “are much more stable … while another is still on oxygen.”

Since the initial Ebola outbreak was discovered in Mubende, infections have been found in three other districts -- Kassanda, Kyegegwa and Kagadi -- but Museveni vowed not to cordon off the affected regions.

Ebola is an often fatal viral haemorrhagic fever named after a river in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where it was discovered in 1976.
Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.

People who are infected do not become contagious until symptoms appear, which is after an incubation period of between two and 21 days.

At present there is no licensed medication to prevent or treat Ebola, although a range of experimental drugs are in development.

Uganda, which shares a porous border with the DRC, has experienced several Ebola outbreaks, most recently in 2019 when at least five people died.

ELECTION DAY

Opinions

His 2018 win had supposedly put ‘socialism’ on trial. On Sunday, Brazil’s leader faces his own indictment from voters.

• 
  
  Belén Fernández

  Contributing editor at Jacobin Magazine.

Published On 1 Oct 20221 Oct 2022

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, seen here at a campaign event on Saturday, September 24, 2022, is trailing in polls to former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of the election on October 2 [AP Photo/Marcelo Chello]

In the aftermath of Brazil’s last general election in 2018, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page celebrated the victory of Jair Bolsonaro – a former low-ranking army officer, far-right fringe politician, and fan of Brazil’s sadistic military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.

According to one bizarre article by the right-wing writer Mary Anastasia O’Grady, there was a simple explanation for the electoral triumph of the man that many analysts had compared with the then-president of the United States, Donald Trump. Despite the fact that Bolsonaro had been “labeled a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, a fascist, an advocate of torture and an aspiring dictator”, he had prevailed, the piece argued, because Brazilians were “in the midst of a national awakening in which socialism – the alternative to a Bolsonaro presidency – has been put on trial”.end of list

While a socialist presidency certainly beats fascist torture any day, “socialism” was in truth not even in the running in 2018. The Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) – whose candidate Bolsonaro defeated – is not socialist but rather centre-left, and has furthermore done its fair share to advance neoliberal capitalist interests over the years. Granted, the PT has also committed such flagrantly leftist crimes as helping to extricate millions of Brazilians from poverty and hunger, as transpired during the first decade of this century under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Now, it’s election time again in South America’s largest country – and folks may be in for another “awakening”. As Brazil votes tomorrow, Lula is back in the race, and is leading Bolsonaro in the polls (although, as Bloomberg reports, Goldman Sachs and concerned hedge funds have assured clients the election will be “tighter” than surveys suggest).

Of course, Bolsonaro’s disdain for democracy means that he won’t necessarily accept a Lula win on October 2 – or, in an October 30 run-off, which would be required if no candidate secures half of the votes cast. Nor must one underestimate the power of social media disinformation – a veritable scourge in Brazil – in rallying Bolsonaro voters.

It bears recalling that, in 2018, the election of Bolsonaro – who would go on to suggest that coronavirus vaccines could turn people into crocodiles and make women grow beards – was significantly facilitated by an obsessive right-wing campaign to demonise and criminalise the PT under the guise of “anti-corruption”. Before Lula himself was imprisoned in April 2018 – on trumped-up charges produced by that same campaign – he had been the favourite to win that year’s presidential race.

Benjamin Fogel, an historian who researches Brazilian anti-corruption politics, recently explained to me some of the additional factors driving the “general right-wing shift in Brazilian society” that enabled Bolsonaro’s emergence as head of state. They include a growing middle class with a “meritocratic” societal view that essentially blames poor people for their poverty. Social welfare programmes and other government efforts to address structural inequality have thus been frequently seen as unmerited – or as a form of corruption in themselves.

Also tied up in the right-wing shift are, of course, ever-charitable financial machinations by big business, as well as the normalisation of once-taboo topics such as those pertaining to the military dictatorship. The swift spread of Christian evangelicalism, too, has proved politically compatible with Bolsonaro’s brand of conservative zealotry.

However, as Fogel emphasised, Bolsonaro’s approach to the presidency “didn’t really translate into any sort of practical terms for governance beyond dismantling the basic institutions of government”. Public health, public education and other concepts that are anathema to the right wing came under fire. Bolsonaro packed the cabinet and public administration with more military officers than even during the dictatorship.

Thanks to Bolsonaro’s stewardship of the pandemic – during which he wrote off the coronavirus as a “little flu” – Brazil has racked up nearly 700,000 official deaths, putting the country in second place after the United States for most COVID-19 fatalities. When a female Brazilian journalist questioned the president about the domestic vaccination rate, Bolsonaro responded with typical maturity: “You think about me in your sleep, you must have a crush on me or something.”

He has also been a plague on the environment, enthusiastically championing the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. After all, it’s not like the Amazon is crucial to life on Earth.

Add to this severe economic mismanagement, soaring inflation, rising poverty rates and a surge in membership of neo-Nazi groups in Brazil, and it starts to seem like the old “awakening” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Still, hey, at least Bolsonaro rescued Brazil’s presidential palace from the “demons” that had formerly “overtaken” it, according to his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro. The president has also strived to inculcate his citizenry with a deep and God-fearing piety, and in August encouraged supporters: “Buy your guns! It’s in the Bible!”

Meanwhile, Lula, whose corruption convictions have been annulled, has rightly disillusioned many leftists by being overly accommodating in his efforts to court elite voters unhappy with Bolsonaro. He has chosen a right-wing running mate with a history of antagonising the PT. Yet, as things currently stand, Lula is the only ticket out of the Bolsonarist nightmare.

As the historian Fogel remarked to me, “what Lula stands for in this election, rather than radicalism, is a memory of a better time where you could provide for you and your family”. He stressed the importance of questioning whether the Brazilian right “has any actual interest in governing” or if the aim is simply to “remove all protections” in the pursuit of a sort of “war against all”.

Perhaps nothing better encapsulates the apocalyptic nature of that war than the fires that have been raging in the Brazilian Amazon ahead of Bolsonaro’s expected defeat in the election, as deforesters race to deforest while the deforesting is still good.

As Brazilians head to voting booths, here’s hoping the country is about to awaken from a bad dream.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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  Belén Fernández

  Contributing editor at Jacobin Magazine.

  Belén Fernández is the author of Checkpoint Zipolite: Quarantine in a Small Place (OR Books, 2021), Exile: Rejecting America and Finding the World (OR Books, 2019), Martyrs Never Die: Travels through South Lebanon (Warscapes, 2016), and The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work (Verso, 2011). She is a contributing editor at Jacobin Magazine, and has written for the New York Times, the London Review of Books blog, Current Affairs, and Middle East Eye, among numerous other publications.
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One dead, dozens wounded after earthquake strikes Indonesia’s Sumatra

This handout from regional disaster management agency Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD) taken and released on October 1, 2022 shows medical workers treating a survivor, injured from falling debris from buildings after an earthquake, in North Tapanuli in northern Sumatra. (AFP)

AFP, Jakarta
Published: 01 October ,2022

A 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s Sumatra island early Saturday, according to the US Geological Survey, killing at least one person and injuring dozens as locals rushed out of buildings seeking safety.

The quake hit at a relatively shallow depth of 13 kilometers (eight miles) just before 2:30 am (1930 GMT), about 40 kilometers from the town of Sibolga in North Sumatra province, according to the USGS.

A man in his 50s died from a heart attack triggered by the quake and at least 25 other people were injured, regional disaster mitigation agency official Febrina Tampubolon told AFP.

Authorities are still gathering reports on damage, but electricity poles and telecommunication towers have been hit, knocking out services, said Tampubolon.

More than 50 aftershocks were recorded by the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

BMKG head Dwikorita Karnawati advised residents to watch for further tremors and urged people to seek shelter on safe ground.

“For those whose houses were damaged, it is advised to not stay inside as possible aftershocks could worsen the damage,” Karnawati said in a virtual press conference.

Aftershocks could also trigger landslides, she added.

Indonesia experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide.

In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island killed more than 2,200 people.

In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.