‘Swarm’ of drones spotted flying above UK nuclear plant

Josh Layton - Yesterday - Metro UK

Up to six drones were seen flying over a nuclear plant, it has been revealed.


The drones were seen flying above the Capenhurst facility in Cheshire

 (Picture: Getty Images)

The unidentified aerial vehicles (UAVs) spotted above the Capenhurst facility in Cheshire were reported to the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC).

The sighting – logged as a ‘report of 5 – 6 drones flying over and around the site’ – was one of two in the space of four days in 2019.

A note on the second incident simply states: ‘Report of a drone overflying the site.’ A log previously released by the government suggested that there had been a ‘swarm’ incident – where interlinked drones take part in the same operation or attack – at an unnamed nuclear facility.

Capenhurst enriches toxic uranium, allowing nuclear plants around the world to generate electricity.

The sightings were among 11 reports of ‘unauthorised aerial incursions’ at UK nuclear facilities between May 2019 and last November. The latest was at Springfields, near Preston.

Peter Burt, of the Drone Wars UK website, said: ‘Some of the incidents are probably just cases of careless flying by individual drone operators. But others, if accurate, seem far more malicious in their intent, such as the report of several drones flying over and around the Capenhurst uranium enrichment site in July 2019.’

The reports come at a time of heightened tensions between the West, China and Russia, which have both been linked to physical and cyber spying operations in the UK.

A spokesman for the CNC said: ‘To our knowledge, there has been no confirmed malicious use of a drone in relation to the UK’s civil nuclear sites.’

Trudeau joins Canadian demonstrators in support of Iran protests

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at protest in support of freedom for women in Iran October 29, 2022 in Ottawa, Canada. Iran has been rocked by protests since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death on September 16, three days after she was arrested. (AFP)

AFP
Published: 30 October ,2022: 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marched with protesters in the Canadian capital of Ottawa Saturday in support of demonstrations that have swept Iran for more than 40 days.

“The women in Iran, daughters and the grandmothers and the allies... they are not forgotten,” Trudeau said, standing in front of a white banner covered with dozens of red hand prints.

Iran has been gripped by six weeks of protests that erupted when Mahsa Amini, 22, died in custody after her arrest for an alleged breach of Iran’s strict dress rules for women.

“We will stand with you. I’ll march with you, I will hold hands with you. We will continue to stand with this beautiful community,” Trudeau said, before ending his speech by shouting Persian slogans, his fist raised.

The prime minister’s wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, also joined the protest, saying, “I stand with you because when one woman’s right is being denied, it is a sign of disrespect for all women.”

“And we will leave no sister behind.”

Trudeau highlighted several rounds of sanctions imposed by the Canadian government against senior Iranian officials over the last month, levied due to the regime’s “gross and systematic human rights violations.”

Amini supporters also attended rallies in other Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, where marchers formed human chains.

And thousands also protested Saturday in Paris and throughout France.

US to put United Nations focus on Iran protests

Protesters march in solidarity with protesters in Iran on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on October 22, 2022. (AFP)

Reuters
Published: 28 October ,2022:

The United States will next week put the United Nations spotlight on protests in Iran sparked by the death of a young woman in police custody and look for ways to promote credible, independent investigations into Iranian human rights abuses.

The United States and Albania will hold an informal UN Security Council gathering on Wednesday, according to a note outlining the event, seen by Reuters. Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and Iranian-born actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi are set to brief.

“The meeting will highlight the ongoing repression of women and girls and members of religious and ethnic minority groups in Iran,” the note said. “It will identify opportunities to promote credible, independent investigations into the Iranian government’s human rights violations and abuses.”

Independent UN investigator on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, is also due to address the meeting, which can be attended by other UN member states and rights groups.

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody last month. The unrest has turned into a popular revolt by Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

Iran has blamed its foreign enemies and their agents for the unrest.

“The meeting will underscore ongoing unlawful use of force against protesters and the Iranian regime’s pursuit of human rights defenders and dissidents abroad to abduct or assassinate them in contravention of international law,” read the note about the planned meeting.

Rights groups have said at least 250 protesters have been killed and thousands arrested across the country. Women have played a prominent part in the protests, removing and burning veils. The deaths of several teenage girls reportedly killed during protests have fueled more anger.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Iranian security forces to refrain from unnecessary or disproportionate force against protesters and appealed to all to exercise restraint and avoid further escalation.

Guterres has also called for a investigation of Amini’s death by an “independent competent authority.”

Iran on Fire: Women Forcing Change


After the news of Amini's death emerged on social media of her lying in a Tehran hospital in a coma, people throughout the country became enraged.

October 21, 2022 by Broad Agenda 


By Vrinda Narain and Fatemeh Sadeghi

On Sept. 16, 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died in Tehran, Iran, while in police custody. Amini was arrested by the Guidance Patrol, the morality squad of the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran that oversees public implementation of hijab regulations, for not wearing a hijab properly.

Soon after the news of her death was broadcast and a photograph emerged on social media of her lying in a Tehran hospital in a coma, people throughout the country became enraged.

Amini’s death starkly illustrated the systematic violence of police and highlighted particularly the brutality of the regime towards women and minorities. She was Kurdish, a member of one of the most oppressed minority ethnic groups in Iran.

All Iranian women who are routinely humiliated because of their gender can empathize with her. But Kurds and Kurdish women in particular understood the political message of her death at the hands of police and the state’s subsequent violent response to the protests.

The huge wave of protests in Iran following Amini’s death represents a historic moment in Iran. People have taken to the streets shouting slogans against the compulsory hijab and denouncing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

Protests have raged in 31 provinces, including Kurdistan and Tehran as well as cities such as Rasht, Isfahan and Qom, among Iran’s most conservative communities. Dozens of people have been killed by security forces and hundreds more have been arrested.

The Girls of Revolution Street

Although the current uprising may seem unprecedented, it is in fact part of a deep-rooted and longstanding resistance movement by women in Iran.

In what is widely seen as a punishment to the hundreds of women who participated in the anti-regime protests leading to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the hijab became compulsory two years later in 1981.

Consequently, publicly removing hijabs became a challenge to the regime in Iran.

Decades later, in 2017, Vida Movahed climbed onto a platform on Enghelab (Revolution) Street in the centre of Tehran, took off her headscarf and waved it in the air as a sign of opposition to compulsory hijab.

She was followed by other women and the movement quickly became known as The Girls of Revolution Street or Dokhtaran-e Khiaban-e Enghelab.

The Girls of Revolution Street represented a fundamental challenge by younger women to Iran’s compulsory veiling laws. Their actions resulted in an increase in the number of women who braved the streets without hijab in defiance of the state.

Unsurprisingly, when religious hardliner Ebrahim Raisi became president in the contested 2020 election, the message was clear: Women would be further oppressed.
Zan, Zendegi, Azadi: Woman, life, freedom

This recent uprising is a link in a chain of protests that together have the potential to bring about fundamental change in Iran.

It began with the pro-democracy Green Movement in 2009 followed by popular uprisings in 2018 and 2019. The Green Movement was largely peaceful, but the uprisings grew increasingly more confrontational with each wave of repression.

Women have been in the lead in all these protests, posing a real challenge to the regime. They’re the leaders of transformative change, the vanguard of a potential revolution, challenging the legitimacy of the current government..

The current protests are focused on two main demands: dignity and freedom. Both have been absent from political life in Iran, and both have a prominent presence in almost all slogans during this uprising, particularly “Woman, Life, Freedom.”

The recent uprising makes it clear that the demand for radical change in Iran today is strong and significant.

With every wave of protest, the desire for freedom gets stronger, the voices get louder and success is within reach. Once again, Iranian women are at the forefront of demanding transformative change.

With the strong support this time of men, political and ethnic minorities and other disenfranchised groups, they may be leading their country closer to a freer and more just society.

—

This post was previously published on Broad Agenda.

PERSONAL ESSAY
I was born in Iran, and misogyny pushed me away from my culture. Now I have hope for Iranian girls

Protests led by brave women and girls in Iran raised feelings in me I thought I had buried deep

By REBECCA MORRISON
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 22, 2022

Rebecca Morrison as a child (Phot courtesy of author)

As a woman from Iran who carried shame about her country of birth for four decades, watching the widespread protests turn into a feminist revolution in Iran has raised feelings I thought were deeply buried. The protests, sparked by the death of Jîna Amini, also known as Mahsa, an Iranian Kurdish woman who was reportedly beaten by the "morality police" for improperly wearing her hijab, have transformed into a nationwide revolution led by women and school-aged girls. Some in the Iranian diaspora, including my family, have stayed silent. Not because they don't support the people fighting and dying every day, but because they are numb as a result of the decades of suffering the regime has caused.

My mother always says I was American before I knew what America was. She tells the story of when I was seven and stormed into our living room where my relatives were having a meeting to divide my grandfather's substantial estate and declared, "Why is everyone saying my mom and my aunts get less than my uncle? Why should they get less than the one man? It's not fair!"
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Horrified by my outburst, my mom apologized to everyone, then grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room.

Once it became clear my homeland would be controlled by a new theocratic authoritarian regime, my secular family decided not to go back.

She tells this story with frustration and a hint of pride. "You were a difficult child," she insists, "not listening to anybody, always too opinionated and ready to fight."

A year after my outburst, in 1979, we fled Iran because of the protests, strikes and demonstrations throughout the country and the resulting violent government crackdowns. Once it became clear my homeland would be controlled by a new theocratic authoritarian regime, my secular family decided not to go back. We moved from country to country trying to find a new home before settling in Vancouver two years later.

My home life in Canada was strained by conflict. My parents struggled to figure out their place in this new world. My mother with her broken English tried to make a home for me and my two brothers. My father, his business and home both taken by the new government, had to find a career in order to support his family.

There was another problem. My mother was angry about my weight gain during this time. In Iran, every example around her showed that a woman's power was her beauty and being thin was the key to achieving it. The most beautiful women found the best husbands. She was a striking woman who'd married a successful businessman. So, the formula worked.

Mom and my community made it clear that an ideal Iranian woman should be slender, modest, and measured. Instead, I was big, opinionated, bold, and ready to tell them what I thought was wrong with their way of life. But when my parents sent me away to boarding school in California, these qualities proved to be strengths. I was praised for expressing myself and fighting for my ideas. I embraced everything Americana, from baseball – I played shortstop on our forever-losing softball team — to apple pie — baked it, ate it, loved it. My friends often told me I was more American than anyone they knew. Before long, I was excelling in school and getting affirmation from my teachers.

One summer, in my early teens, while visiting my grandparents, my imposing grandfather with a round belly and stern face hired a doctor to figure out why I was so fat, maybe a size 10. In my grandparent's dark antique-cramped living room, I sat across from a wrinkly-faced doctor, his spectacles sliding down his pronounced nose. "Tell me about your periods, girl?" he said. I looked down at the elaborate pattern on the Persian carpet, disconnecting.

Not getting a response, the doctor and my grandfather, with his deep gruff voice, took turns asking why I couldn't lose weight. Was it because I was lazy? Undisciplined? The meeting ended when my heaving sobs made it impossible for the interrogation to continue.

Because I didn't have the body my family thought I needed to attract a suitable husband, to survive I told myself my worth was my intelligence, my will, my ideas. Whenever they shamed me or made me feel inadequate, I reminded myself I had these secret weapons no one could take away.

I believed I was working towards a virtuous goal, to be everything American and nothing Iranian.

After high school, I moved across the country for college and law school in Washington, D.C. I stood as an equal to my male friends in learning, debating, and leading. My views about this country became more refined but my adoration didn't wane.
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Most importantly, my adopted homeland allowed me the opportunity to have a legal career. That translated into financial independence, an understanding of my rights, and the thing I wanted most — not to have to depend on anyone, especially a man.

When I was 29 — in the spring of 2001 — I stood in front of a silver-haired judge, next to men and women from all over the world wearing suits, saris, headscarves and dresses. With my hand over my heart, I recited the pledge of allegiance in unison with my fellow immigrants. My kind mild-mannered boyfriend from Kansas looked on as I got the one thing I wanted most, to be an American. Two years later, I married him and took his last name, becoming Rebecca Morrison. With the release of my ethnic maiden name, Khamneipur, I took another step towards assimilation and shedding my past.

I believed I was working towards a virtuous goal, to be everything American and nothing Iranian. I was ashamed of what I thought were the cornerstones of my culture and country of birth — misogyny, inequality, control. Iranian men in my community set the rules, handled the money and diminished women, including me. I was independent with a successful career, but continuously reminded that my worth was measured by my body, its purpose to get a man for marriage.

My ideas of the greatness of my new home and the horridness of my old one were simplistic and limited. As an Iranian exile, my view of the Persian culture that went back thousands of years was shaped by several dozen people. And my understanding of the values in the U.S. was propped up by my self-selected bubbles in big coastal cities where I saw the fairytale cliché that echoed my idealistic views.

Weeks after 9/11, I heard stories from family and in media reports of acts of hate against Middle Eastern immigrants. Nervous about being targeted, on a pre-planned road trip through several Midwestern states, at every gas station I bought an American hat, flag or red-white-and-blue T-shirt along with my Pringles and Kit Kats. My beat-up black Honda Accord looked like a diplomatic car with little flags in every corner

My ideas of the greatness of my new home and the horridness of my old one were simplistic and limited.

On my first night of the trip, self-conscious, I walked into an Indiana Holiday Inn looking around for clues of hate. Afraid of being identified as one of them, I used what I thought was a small-town accent to talk to the young woman at the counter.

"How y'all doin? Lovely night we're havin! I'm checkin' in for the night!" I said way too loud. A young couple sitting in the lounge looked up when they heard me. I smiled at them and raised my hand to wave as if to say I'm a good one, don't worry. They gave me an awkward half-smile and went back to what they were talking about. I turned to the receptionist and grabbed my room key.

This clownish behavior was my misguided attempt at patriotism. In the months that followed, my guarded behavior continued as I saw cruelty towards others because of how they looked or where they came from.

While the attacks on innocent people were heartbreaking and enraging, my behavior during that time was also disappointing. Desperate and terrified of losing the story of my adopted home, which I had nurtured for decades, I demeaned myself, betraying who I was in order to belong. These experiences pushed me to grow up and see the U.S. for what it is: a flawed and imperfect country.
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* * *

A few years later when I became a mother, my ideas about the two disparate parts of myself fundamentally shifted. Seeing my own mother through different eyes, I understood that she did what she believed was best for her daughter. I opened up to her about my pain. She shared her regrets. We found a way to accept and love each other.

This opened the door for me to look at my culture through a different lens.

I tried to come to terms with its shortcomings and develop a deeper understanding and connection with my Persian heritage. This helped me let go of the anger and shame about how I'd been treated as a young woman, and the misogyny I'd seen. I made Nowruz, a pre-Islamic Zoroastrian tradition where Iranians gather with family and friends to celebrate the first day of spring, a part of our family traditions. I taught my children the beautiful writings of Rumi, the Persian scholar and theologian and one of the world's most-read poets. Also, on the Fourth of July, I made sure my children celebrated our country's independence with an appreciation for the opportunities it had given me as an immigrant.

Today, I celebrate my Iranian and American identities without fear or shame. These countries, no matter their governments, are made up of the same people, women and men yearning for freedom, equality and prosperity. I watch as the astoundingly brave people of Iran fight for their most basic human rights. And mourn from afar as they are slaughtered, beaten or jailed.

"Nothing will change, the government will kill and jail them, until they stop," my mother told me on our daily call a few days ago. She said my relatives in Iran are scared and heartbroken about the killing of Iran's youth but they don't think anything will change. I hope they are wrong.

I remember scattered scenes of the day we left Iran. Driving down Pahlavi Street, the main road stretching through downtown Tehran, I watched the city fly by with the majestic snow-topped Alborz mountains in the distance. The wind carried a hint of the freshly roasted chestnuts and charcoal-cooked corn on the cob street vendors were selling. I couldn't have imagined on that day, 43 years ago, I would not see Iran again. After four decades, even with the enormous obstacles in their way, I have hope for the first time about the possibility of Iran's women having a free society with gender equality — the very thing I came here to find, and what every human being deserves.

My mother was right — I was meant to be American. But I'm also of Iran, my place of birth and where my ancestors, heritage and history are grounded. I will not diminish my pride, admiration and support of these countries in order to be accepted by the other. That's what makes America great — the fact that I don't have to. As immigrants, we have the right and privilege to celebrate and take pride in our heritage and still be fully Americans.

By REBECCA MORRISON
Rebecca Morrison is a lawyer, writer and painter. She lives with her husband and two sons in the Washington, D.C., area. She’s writing a memoir about leaving Iran and pursuing her American dream. You can follow her on Twitter @contactrebecca and read her work on www.rebeccakmorrison.com.MORE FROM REBECCA MORRISON

HAPPY HALLOWEEN/SAMHAIN

Explainer: What is the Palestinian militant group ‘Den of Lions’?


Palestinian militants attend the funeral of those killed in an overnight Israeli raid, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on October 25, 2022. (AFP)

THEY APPEAR TO HAVE DARKSEID ON THEIR SIDE

Reuters
Published: 25 October ,2022

Israeli forces killed a leader of the so-called “Den of Lions,” a fast-rising Palestinian militant group from the city of Nablus on Tuesday in a targeted operation that set off one of the biggest gunfights seen in the West Bank in weeks.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli military said its forces had raided an apartment in the market area of the Old City that was used as an explosives manufacturing site, killing 31-year-old Wadi al-Houh, who it said was responsible for making pipe bombs and obtaining weapons.

The Den of Lions emerged around a year ago in Nablus, where posters of its dead fighters, almost all young men posing with their automatic weapons and combat gear, are now plastered all over the narrow streets of the Old City and its covered market.

While members of the group have great prestige in the Old City, none of its leaders has established a wide profile outside their hometown.

Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinians killed in an overnight Israeli raid, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on October 25, 2022. (AFP)

The group gained greater prominence across the West Bank following the killing in August of a 19-year-old militant called Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, whose death has been used a rallying cause for disaffected youths in the Old City and refugee camps.

According to local Palestinian officials, the original core group of four young militants was mainly motivated by anger at the encroachments of Israeli settlers and confrontations with the Israeli military.

The group is not linked to the mainstream Palestinian factions or the deeply unpopular Palestinian Authority and does not appear to have any fully articulated political goals beyond fighting the Israeli occupation. But it may receive financial or logistical support from other groups, Palestinian officials say.

Clashes with settlers at Jacob’s Tomb, a well-known monument and pilgrimage site in Nablus, were taken by members of the group as a particular challenge.

There is little reliable information on its numbers but one Palestinian official with good connections in the Old City of Nablus said there were perhaps 25 active gunmen, with a larger number of supporters outside the core group.

The Palestinian Authority, which has struggled to come up with a response to the group’s wide popular support in Nablus, has tried to buy their weapons from them or integrate them into their security forces, according to Nablus governor Ibrahim Ramadan, but with little success.

ZIONIST ETHNIC CLEANSING WHERE IS THE OUTCRY

Two Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank: Palestinian health ministry

Young Palestinian protesters run from tear gas fired by Israeli security forces during confrontations at the northern entrance to the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, on October 12, 2022. (AFP)
Israel Palestine

AFP, Nablus, Palestinian Territories
Published: 28 October ,2022: 

Two Palestinians were killed Friday by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The ministry announced the death of Imad Abu Rashid, 47, who “was killed by the Israeli occupation, after being shot in the abdomen, chest and head”.

In a later statement, it announced the death of Ramzi Sami Zabara, 35, “from a critical wound by the occupation (Israeli) bullets in the heart, in Nablus”.

The Israeli army said in a statement it had received information “regarding a shooting attack from a moving vehicle” on a military target near Nablus.

“Soldiers conducting routine activity in the area identified two suspicious vehicles and responded with live fire towards them, hits were identified,” it added, without specifying whether any fatalities had occurred.

Local sources told AFP that the two men, who hailed from Askar camp near Nablus, were members of the Palestinian Security Forces and were killed during an armed clash with the Israeli army at Huwara, south of Nablus.

The incident is the latest in a deadly week in Nablus, where Israeli forces have conducted regular raids and imposed tight restrictions on movement.

On Tuesday, five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli operation in the city targeting a nascent militant group called “The Lions’ Den”.

The group is a loose coalition of fighters that emerged in recent months, in parallel with a sharp rise in Israeli raids on the northern West Bank.

This week, an army spokesperson told AFP the group had carried out “approximately 20 terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces over the past month”.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M HIGHER EDUCATION
Sacked director of Saudi university admits to embezzling over $133 million



The logo of Saudi Arabia’s Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority. 

Amani Hamad, Al Arabiya English
Published: 29 October ,2022: 

The president of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz University, who was relieved of his duties on Thursday, admitted to embezzling over $133 million (SAR 500 million) from the university funds, the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority said.

The authority added that it had seized the funds embezzled by Abdulrahman Obaid al-Youbi and will return the money to the state treasury.

Meanwhile, the authority’s spokesperson, Ahmad al-Hussein, told Al Arabiya that the authority began investigating al-Youbi after learning he committed several financial violations, including exploiting his authority which gave him access to several of the university’s bank accounts.

After gathering evidence showing al-Youbi had exploited his position for personal gain, the authority interrogated him, al-Hussein said, adding that he confessed to the crimes he was accused of and of embezzling more than SAR 500 million.

Al-Hussein said that other people were also involved in the case, adding that the authority was still interrogating these suspects and will take all legal measures against them.

Ransomware hackers hit Australian defense communications platform


Illustration depicting a hacker. (Reuters)

Reuters
Published: 31 October ,2022:

Hackers have targeted a communications platform used by Australian military personnel and defense staff with a ransomware attack, authorities said on Monday, as the country battles a recent spike in cyberattacks across businesses.

The ForceNet service, one of the external providers that the defense department contracts to run one of its websites, has come under attack but so far no data have been compromised, Assistant Minister For defense Matt Thistlethwaite said.

“I want to stress that this isn’t an attack or a breach on defense (technology) systems and entities,” Thistlethwaite told ABC Radio. “At this stage, there is no evidence that the data set has been breached, that’s the data that this company holds on behalf of defense.”

But some private information such as dates of birth and enlistment details of military personnel may have been stolen, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported, citing an unidentified source with knowledge of the investigation.

Thistlethwaite said the government will view the incident “very seriously” and all defense personnel have been notified, with suggestions to consider changing their passwords.

A defense department spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement the department was examining the contents of the impacted data set and what personal information it contained.

Ransom software works by encrypting victims’ data and hackers typically will offer the victim a key in return for cryptocurrency payments that can run into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

Some of Australia’s biggest companies, including No. 2 telecoms company Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, and the country’s biggest health insurer, Medibank Private Ltd, have had data hacked recently, likely exposing the details of millions of customers.

Technology experts said the country has become a target for cyber attacks just as a skills shortage leaves an understaffed, overworked cybersecurity workforce ill-equipped to stop it.

Experts work on rare manuscripts in Greek monastery

A view of the Marouda Cell at the all-male Orthodox monastic community of Mount Athos, Greece, November 17, 2021. Picture taken November 17, 2021. (File photo: Reuters)

The Associated Press
Published: 21 October ,2022:

A church bell sounds, the staccato thudding of mallet on plank summons monks to afternoon prayers, deep voices are raised in communal chant.

And high in the great tower of Pantokrator Monastery, a metal library door swings open.

There, deep inside the medieval fortified monastery in the Mount Athos monastic community, researchers are for the first time tapping a virtually unknown treasure — thousands of Ottoman-era manuscripts that include the oldest of their kind in the world.

The libraries of the self-governed community, established more than 1,000 years ago on northern Greece’s Athos peninsula, are a repository of rare, centuries-old works in several languages including Greek, Russian and Romanian.

Many have been extensively studied, but not the Ottoman Turkish documents, products of an occupying bureaucracy that ruled northern Greece from the late 14th century — well before the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, fell to the Ottomans in 1453 — until the early 20th when the area became Greek again.

Byzantine scholar Yiannis Niehoff-Panagiotidis says it’s impossible to understand Mount Athos’ economy and society under Ottoman rule without consulting these documents, which regulated the monks’ dealings with secular authorities.

Niehoff-Panagiotidis, a professor at the Free University of Berlin, said the oldest of the roughly 25,000 Ottoman works found in the monastic libraries dates to 1374, or 1371.

That’s older than any known in the world, he said, adding that in Istanbul, as the Ottomans renamed Constantinople when they made the city their own capital, the oldest archives only go back to 1480 or 1490.

Father Theophilos, a monk who is helping with the research, carefully takes out some of the more rare documents that are stored in large wooden drawers in the library of the Pantokrator Monastery, one of 20 on the heavily wooded peninsula.

These include ornate Sultans’ firmans — or decrees — deeds of ownership and court decisions.

Anastasios Nikopoulos, a jurist and scientific collaborator of the Free University of Berlin, who has been working with Niehoff-Panagiotidis on the project for the past few months said the overwhelming majority are legal documents.

And the manuscripts tell a story at odds with the traditional understanding in Greece of Ottoman depredations in the newly-conquered areas, through the confiscation of the Mount Athos monasteries’ rich real estate holdings.

Instead, the new rulers took the community under their wing, preserved its autonomy and protected it from external interference.

“The Sultans’ firmans we saw in the tower...and the Ottoman state’s court decisions show that the monks’ small democracy was able to gain the respect of all conquering powers,” Nikopoulos said.

“And that is because Mount Athos was seen as a cradle of peace, culture...where peoples and civilizations coexisted peacefully.”

Nikopoulos said that one of the first actions of Murad II, the Ottoman ruler who conquered Thessaloniki — the closest city to Mount Athos — was to draw up a legal document in 1430 protecting the community.

“This says a lot. The Ottoman sultan himself ensured that the administrative system of Mount Athos was preserved and safeguarded,” he said.

Even before that, Niehoff-Panagiotidis added, a sultan issued a mandate laying down strict punishment for intruders after a band of marauding soldiers engaged in minor thieving from one of the monasteries.

“It’s strange that the sultans kept Mount Athos, the last remnant of Byzantium, semi-independent and didn’t touch it,” he said.

“They didn’t even keep troops here. At the very most they would have a local representative who probably stayed at (the community’s administrative center) Karyes and sipped tea.”

Another unexpected revelation, Niehoff-Panagiotidis said, was that for roughly the first two centuries of Ottoman rule no effort was made to impose Islamic law on Mount Athos or nearby parts of northern Greece.

“What is strange is that the sultans kept Mount Athos as the last remnant of Byzantium,” he said.

The community was first granted self-governance through a decree by Byzantine Emperor Basil II, in 883 AD.

Throughout its history, women have been forbidden from entering, a ban that still stands.

This rule is called “avaton” and the researchers believe that it concerns every form of disturbance that could affect Mount Athos.

Congress needs to do its job and protect Dreamers

BY DIANA PLIEGO, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 10/31/22 
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

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As a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, recipient, I felt immense relief in June 2020 when the Supreme Court ruled that DACA could stay in place. Several months before, as lawyers argued the case, thousands of immigrant youth leaders and allies rallied in front of the Court, chanting “home is here!” Uncertain about our futures, and with our livelihoods on the line, we came together to show the world that our community is united, powerful, and undeterred, even when the odds are stacked against us. 

I wish I could say that uncertainty has faded since we won at the Supreme Court. I wish I could say Congress realized that the stakes were too high to leave our fate to the whims of another court decision or more empty promises. But now — a decade after DACA was created as a temporary fix — it is urgent for Members of Congress to do their jobs and pass a permanent solution to provide the stability we need to chart our futures in the U.S., the only home many of us have ever known. 

I work for the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the same organization that was involved in drafting the original Dream Act more than 20 years ago. Year after year, and in court case after court case, my colleagues and I advocate for the future of thousands of DACA recipients and millions more who, like me, live in constant uncertainty. 

I was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. with my mom and brothers to reunite with my dad when I was three years old. Eventually we settled in South Carolina, where I ultimately went to college. Before DACA, I lived in fear of being deported to a country I didn’t know. At 17, my life changed when President Obama announced DACA. With DACA, I could continue my education, build a career, and help support my family.

Most importantly, getting DACA reaffirmed what I knew: My home is here. 

The U.S. is home to hundreds of thousands of immigrant youth who grew up and have built a life here, but currently have no pathway to become U.S. citizens. Every two years, we submit our renewal applications and hope the policy will last long enough to renew again.

We are not the only ones who stand to lose if DACA goes away. Around 300,000 children born in the U.S. have at least one DACA recipient parent; 76 percent of us DACA recipients have an immediate family member who is a U.S. citizen. Beyond our loved ones, our communities count on 343,000 essential workers with DACA, and the government collects $6.2 billion from us in federal taxes. 

Yet, despite our contributions, despite the lives we’ve built for ourselves and our loved ones, politically motivated court cases put our future in this country in question. Pundits play political games with our lives and livelihoods. Politicians save face with promises they have yet to keep. And Congress kicks the can down the road on passing the solution we’ve been demanding since before DACA’s inception. Once again, the fate of thousands hangs in the balance. 

In early October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that deemed DACA unlawful. The ruling allows DACA renewals to continue temporarily and sent the case back to the lower court to consider the Biden administration’s recent DACA regulation, which is set to go into effect on Oct. 31 — for now.

We call on Congress to think for a moment about what it must feel like to walk in our shoes. Imagine the fear of having your future in the hands of strangers, politicians, judges and politically motivated lawsuits. Imagine the fear of one day losing your home, your country, your community. Imagine living your life in two-year increments. 

Our lives remain in limbo because of Congress’s inaction and indifference. Why must we fight so hard for lawmakers to see our humanity? 

Their constituents see it: A Pew Research Center survey shows that 74 percent of Americans support a law that provides permanent legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. 

We need a permanent legislative solution for immigrant youth. We need a pathway to citizenship. Even from the very beginning, over 10 years ago, DACA was always a temporary measure. For true stability and security, Congress must act. Congress must do its job and pass permanent protections that put us on a pathway to citizenship because our home is here, and we are here to stay.

Diana Pliego is a policy associate at the National Immigration Law Center, where she works on a range of issues, including protection for DACA recipients and fighting immigration enforcement. She conducts policy research, analyzes and tracks legislation, and develops materials for movement and field partners as well as for congressional advocacy. She is a DACA recipient.