Anti-war Russians find a new home in Turkey

Turkey remains a transit destination for some.

Written byArzu Geybullayeva

Posted 14 November 2022 6:31 GMT 

Image by  Arzu Geybullayeva.

In a lively neighborhood of Istanbul's Kadikoy district, Grao Cafeteria is nestled in between local shops and restaurants. Grao's owner is 32-year-old Igor, native of St. Petersburg. He arrived in Istanbul in March 2022 after a year of traveling abroad, visiting India, Nepal and Thailand. After a few months in the city, together with a friend, Igor opened Grao in August. “I like it here,” Igor told Global Voices in an interview, “people are friendly.” But Grao is more than just a cafe. There is a sense of community, perhaps a purpose. It has quickly became a popular hang out spot for newly arrived Russians, and those who have lived here for a few months. The cafe also has a second floor where its owner, together with other community members, holds Turkish language classes once a week, discussions for newcomers about how to obtain a residency permit, apply for a tax number, and understand local cultural nuances. The next event is scheduled for November 12 and is organized by a group called “Station Change” or “станция смена” featuring a diverse group of speakers for the newcomers but also those who have lived in the city and is eager to meet new people. According to the Instagram post:

The long-awaited event in Istanbul for those who have recently relocated or have long lived in Turkey and are looking for new friends 🙌 This month we will gather in Istanbul and share not only the important points of moving to a new country, but also simple human warmth , inspiration and motivation for change 💛 In the program: 🐾Co-founder of the project Nikita Kuimov @nikitakuimov will talk about community and how travel and community help him live his dream life; 🐾 Alena Medvedeva @ale_medvedeva shiftmaker, blogger and YouTube producer will share a checklist for moving to a new country (documents) , useful links and lifehacks, how to set up a routine); 🐾 Shifter Masha @promokash and host of tg-channel about Istanbul will tell you about the features of the city and its diverse districts.

This is not Igor's first visit to Turkey. He has been here three times before. But this trip was different. “I arrived here, to gather information and then decided to open a cafe.” Igor managed a few bars in St. Petersburg so had ample experience in venue management. In his time here, things have generally been working out. “Everything went horizontally,” explains Igor. Through friends and acquaintances they found the space for the cafe, and the flat where he currently lives, not far from the cafe. “Turkey is not that much different from Russia in that sense,” Igor told Global Voices.

What is different however are the people. “I like it here. The simple human interaction — I get greeted every day on my way to work by the neighbors. There is sense of neighborhood. There is a lot of energy and I like that. Even our real estate agent, who speaks no English or Russian is helpful.”

And although it has so far worked out for Igor, the journey was not easy. “Sometimes it feels strange. All of your past experiences, your background that you have accumulated up until now no longer is relevant. So you have to start from scratch. But it is interesting experience. At the age of 32 you are building your own persona anew.”

It is not entirely clear how many Russians have arrived thus far in Turkey since Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. According to the governor of Antalya province, a popular sea resort destination for Russians, since Putin's announcement of partial mobilization, the daily number of Russians arriving to Antalya has reached 19,000. The Ministry of Tourism indicates that some 800,000 Russian citizens arrived in Turkey in September. According to the Ministry of the Interior, as of data on November 3, 2022, Russian citizens are the second highest number of foreign residents residing in Turkey on long term (115,365) and short term (95,431) residency permits, after Iraqi nationals. According to reporting by Daily Sabah, investment by Russians in the housing market in Turkey increased by 199 percent in the first two quarters of 2022.

The high number of arrivals vs. the lower number of those who are applying for residency is not surprising. “A lot of people have arrived in Turkey since the invasion and after mobilization. But many see it as a temporary location. Just as many who have no idea what to do next,” explained Igor.

Among those who are currently in Turkey are artists too. Some are passing through like rapper Oxxxymiron and Zemfira; others like Evgeny Grinko, who keeps touring Turkey as well as neighboring countries, and Petr Rodionov are choosing to stay. Rodionov recently performed at Piano House. The concert was accompanied by Ivan Chepura of the Maly Drama Theater reading poetry from famous Russian authors. Each of these artists have voiced their criticism of the war. In March, Oxxxymiron in a video message shared via his Instagram, said, “[The war in Ukraine] is a catastrophe. It is a crime. This is why I am postponing all six concerts for an indefinite time. I cannot entertain you while Ukraine is bombed by Russia. While residents in Kiev are forced to hide in shelters, while people are dying.” In October 2022, the rapper's name was added to the infamous list of “foreign agents” in Russia. During his concert, Rodionov played music by Ukrainian composers, bands and musicians.

Back at Grao, customers keep coming with their laptops and tablets, ordering food (mainly breakfast plates for now, including some of the classic staples like crapes, oladushki — Russian pancakes, sirniki — cheese pancakes) and coffee, and catching up with friends, family, and work. “I still have no clue how people hear of Grao. We have an Instagram page, and have been mentioned on various Telegram channels,” explains Igor as the cafe gets more crowded.

Two women walk in speaking Farsi and greeting Igor. Although cafe's clientele is 70 percent Russian, the rest are a mix, Igor says. There are also offers to expand Grao, which means grain in Portuguese. A neighbor next door is offering his space. There are offers to host art projects and film screenings. But Igor is cautious, explaining that the plan is to take things slow for now.

Exiled Uyghurs mark East Turkestan formation, say will strive for freedom from China

World News

Published on Nov 14, 2022 

Uyghurs are a Turkic Muslim minority predominantly in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, where a recent UN report accused Beijing of committing crimes against humanity.

The meeting attended by 800-900 Uyghurs accused China of carrying out a genocidal policy against the members of the community.

ByHT News Desk | Written by Aryan Prakash

The Uyghur Muslim community living in exile in Turkey celebrated the formation of the two East Turkestan republics, re-affirming their resolve for independence from the People's Republic of China.

The East Turkestan Federation organised a meeting attended by over 2,000 delegates including the NGO representatives and community members. During the event, the Uyghur leaders highlighted ‘hunger genocide’ unleashed in East Turkestan by the Chinese authorities in the garb of implementing the Covid Zero Policy.

The delegates took a vow that East Turkestan is their homeland and that the community will continue to fight for ‘independence’ from China. Another meeting organised by The International Union of East Turkestan NGOs under Hidayetullah Oghuzhan was held in Istanbul, attended by community leaders and Uyghur academics.

The meeting attended by 800-900 Uyghurs accused China of carrying out a genocidal policy against the members of the community. Another meeting was held at Ankara wherein 200 delegates including NGO representatives, academicians and journalists were in attendance.

Uyghurs are a Turkic Muslim minority predominantly in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, where a recent UN report said Beijing may have committed crimes against humanity.

On November 1, at least 50 countries majorly from the West urged China to implement all recommendations in the UN report which accused the Jinping regime of possible crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups. Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, UK and United States are among the countries which signed on the statement.

The human rights groups have accused Beijing of large-scale atrocities against minority groups in mainland China, sweeping a million people from the community into detention camps. The detained prisoners are said to have been tortured, sexually assaulted, and forced to abandon their language and religion.

Palestinian Rights Group Accuses Israel Of 'Mafia Methods' As UN Hearings Open

By Emma Farge

Members of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, Navanethem Pillay, Miloon Kothari and Chris Sidoti attend a press briefing at the United Nations headquarters in New York, U.S., October 27, 2022. 

Reuters / EDUARDO MUNOZ

APalestinian human rights group told a U.N. panel on Monday it had been subject to threats and "mafia methods" during a campaign of harassment organised by Israel to silence groups documenting alleged Israeli rights violations.

Israel dismissed the process overseen by the panel as a sham while it declined comment on the specific allegations.

The independent Commission of Inquiry, established by the Human Rights Council, the U.N. top human rights body, last year, plans five days of hearings which it says will be impartial and examine the allegations of both Israelis and Palestinians.

In the opening session, the commission heard from representatives of Palestinian organisations shuttered by Israel in August and designated as "terrorist" entities.

Shawan Jabarin, General Director of human rights group Al-Haq, denied the terrorism charge and called the closure an "arbitrary decision", saying Israeli security forces had used "mafia methods" against it in a years-long harassment campaign.

"They used all means, I can say. They used financial means; they used a smear campaign; they used threats," he said, saying his office was sealed with a metal door on Aug. 18.

Asked to detail the threats mentioned to the panel, Jabarin told Reuters after the hearing that he had received a phone call from somebody he identified as being from "Shabak", or the Israel Security Agency, two days after the raid. They threatened him with detention, interrogation or "other means" if he continued his work, he added.

A spokesperson for Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment on the specific testimony. A spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry declined to comment.

"This (COI) and the convening of these sham trials shame and undermine the Human Rights Council," it said in an earlier statement, saying the commission had an "anti-Israel" agenda.

A U.N. human rights office has previously dismissed allegations of bias and said Israel had not cooperated with the commission's work.

The first set of hearings will next turn to the killing of the Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in May.

The U.N. rights office has said its findings suggest that she was killed by Israeli forces while an Israeli investigation concluded she was likely unintentionally shot by an Israeli soldier.

Neither the hearings nor the U.N. Human Rights Council have any legal powers. But investigations launched by the council are sometimes used as evidence before national or international courts.

Israel's ally the United States has criticised the U.N. Human Rights Council for what it has described as a "chronic bias" against Israel. It quit the body over this in 2018 and only fully rejoined this year.

The three-member COI was created after the 11-day conflict in May, 2021, during which 250 Gaza Palestinians and 13 people in Israel died. The inquiry mandate includes alleged human rights abuses before and after that and seeks to investigate the root causes of the tensions.

It’s Time to Take the Gloves Off on Myanmar

As the military junta’s atrocities increase, it is high time for the U.S. and like-minded partners to adopt much stronger targeted sanctions.

By Justyna Gudzowska and Yadanar Maung
November 14, 2022

Myanmar military tanks are driven during a parade to commemorate Myanmar’s 77th Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, Sunday, March 27, 2022.

Credit: AP Photo/Aung Shine 

When G-20 leaders meet on the resort island of Bali this week, Russia’s war in Ukraine will undoubtedly dominate the conversation. But U.S. President Joe Biden should also use the G-20 to address another conflict unfolding much closer to Bali, as the people of Myanmar valiantly resist an illegitimate junta that is unleashing a campaign of violent repression, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. To date, the United States has taken an equivocal approach to the crisis raging in Myanmar. This visit presents a perfect opportunity to make clear that the U.S. and its international allies support the Myanmar peoples’ struggle for democracy by announcing new financial measures aimed at pressuring the corrupt, criminal junta responsible for these atrocities.

Since the military launched its disastrous coup attempt in February 2021, more than 2,400 civilians have been killed by junta forces. Schools and children have not been exempt from the junta’s war on the people of Myanmar, as recently illustrated by the killing of 11 schoolchildren in a helicopter airstrike. More than 15,000 political activists have been arrested, including elected members of parliament, civil society activists, and journalists. One million people have been displaced internally so far, with humanitarian and economic impacts reverberating throughout the Asian region.

The junta’s corruption, violence, and calamitous policies have caused massive human suffering and economic chaos. Engagement by the United Nations and by the most influential regional institution, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has not led to any change in the junta’s behavior. On the contrary, the junta has taunted the international community by executing prominent Myanmar democracy activists, jailing an Australian economist and a former British ambassador to Myanmar, and boasting that increasingly closer ties to Russia and China will help it evade the impact of sanctions.

In the coming months, the junta will seek to cement its power through what are expected to be sham elections in mid-2023 designed to provide the junta with a veneer of legitimacy. As an unprecedented resistance movement has coalesced all across the country, it is time for the U.S. to replace its previously restrained approach with a concerted ratcheting up of targeted sanctions.

For months, there has been a growing chorus of calls by civil society groups, prominent activists, and members of Congress for the U.S. to impose sanctions on the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), known to be the junta’s single largest source of foreign currency earnings. The junta has adopted a coercive approach to securing its hold over the financial sector, including seeking every avenue for access to foreign exchange, which it requires to purchase items such as weapons and jet fuel for planes and helicopters that it needs to wage war on its people. The EU has already sanctioned MOGE, but for the sanctions to have a significant impact, given the dominance of the U.S. dollar, the U.S. needs to act as well.

While Washington might want to avoid targeting the energy company so as not to alienate Thailand, which uses Myanmar gas, this concern is outweighed by the need to demonstrate to the junta and its international supporters – particularly China and Russia – that the international community is serious about confronting the junta’s abuses. Other state-owned enterprises benefiting the junta, such as the Myanma Petrochemical Enterprise, should also be sanctioned.

In addition, the U.S. should use network sanctions to target businesses that financially benefit from the political and economic turmoil engendered by the crisis. Shwe Byain Phyu, a Myanmar conglomerate with longstanding links to the military, epitomizes this new group of beneficiaries. The company’s acquisition of a majority stake in the distressed telecommunications business of Norwegian firm Telenor, which recently beat a retreat from the crisis in Myanmar, was endorsed by the junta.

To increase the effectiveness of financial measures and present a united front, the U.S. needs to work more closely with its partners. Coordinating targeted network sanctions with the EU, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia will shut down more pathways to the international financial system for junta-linked money, further tightening the screws.

Apart from sanctions, the Biden administration should ask its allies to cut all remaining business ties with the junta and linked entities. For example, Japan, a Quad member, the G-7 chair in 2023, and an incoming non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has suspended the Y Complex mixed development project, which was taking place on land leased from the military and with funding from Japanese government entities. Those ties should not merely be suspended but ended.

The moment has come for the U.S. and its allies to take the gloves off, to support the massive popular resistance movement within Myanmar, and to help unravel the corrupt networks sustaining the junta. This will require commitment to hard-hitting actions and a long-term vision, investing in the organizations and individuals – especially those of Myanmar’s people –that will contribute meaningfully to democracy, sustainable peace, inclusive growth, and responsible business when the reign of terror finally comes to an end.

AUTHORS

Justyna Gudzowska is Director of Illicit Fiance Policy at The Sentry.

Yadanar Maung is a spokesperson for the advocacy group Justice For Myanmar.

Mediterranean countries commit to protect unique deep-sea coral from destructive fishing

ON NOVEMBER 14, 2022
By EU Reporter Correspondent


On 11 November, member countries of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) agreed to create, in 2023, a new fisheries closure to protect the Cabliers seamount, which harbours a semi-pristine cold-water coral reef - the only one known to be growing in the Mediterranean Sea - from the impact of destructive fishing. Despite efforts by the EU and Morocco, and expectations that an agreement would be reached at this meeting, GFCM countries postponed this decision to 2023, after an international research campaign takes place.

Helena Álvarez, senior marine scientist at Oceana in Europe, said: “We regret the GFCM decision to delay the protection of the Cabliers seamount to next year, despite the strong body of scientific evidence about this exceptional deep-sea biodiversity hotspot. The GFCM has missed an opportunity to act in accordance with the precautionary principle, particularly as some bottom trawlers are fishing in the area, which risks irreversibly damaging the seamount. We call on all Mediterranean countries to adopt, next year, an ambitious first fisheries closure to protect its unique cold-water corals and associated marine life.”

Oceana first investigated the Cabliers seamount via an at-sea expedition in 2010, and research by the Marine Science Institute – Spanish National Research Council (ICM-CSIC) in 2015 further confirmed the uniqueness of the reef. Oceana and the ICM-CSIC officially proposed to create a fisheries restricted area (FRA) around the Cabliers seamount at the GFCM meeting in April 2022.

During its annual meeting, the GFCM also required countries to disclose crucial enforcement information regarding the vessels that would be allowed to fish in FRAs, namely target species, fishing period and area. Further, it agreed to make public the list of vessels that are authorised to fish deep-sea shrimp and hake in the Strait of Sicily. Álvarez added: “this decision is a step forward to improve transparency in the fishing sector, which is especially useful for effective controls, as hake and deep-sea shrimp continue to be overexploited in the Strait of Sicily. Having complete and accurate information on who is authorized to fish what, where and when is essential to tackle illegal fishing in the Mediterranean.”

Background

The GFCM gathers 22 Mediterranean and Black Sea countries and the European Union. The adoption of the Fisheries Restricted Area around the Cabliers seamount would help deliver commitments from the 2017 MedFish4Ever Declaration, as well as the new GFCM 2030 Strategy, adopted by Mediterranean fisheries ministers in 2021.

The Cabliers seamount is home to commercial species, such as blackspot seabream or Norway lobster, and to others that are uncommon in the Mediterranean as a whole but highly abundant in Cabliers, as is the case with the black coral Phanopathes rigida, originally from the Atlantic.

Learn more

Factsheet Protecting Cabliers: Exceptional Mediterranean coral reefs

Video: Protecting the coral reef at Cabliers Bank

Policy Brief: Call for the GFCM to increase transparency and tackle IUU fishing

 

Fisheries: EU and neighbouring countries agree first-ever joint multiannual management plans in the Mediterranean

Yesterday, for the first time, the EU and neighbouring countries in the Mediterranean agreed on the establishment of five fully-fledged multiannual management plans (MAPs) based on the principles of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). It is a key step in improving the environmental and economic sustainability of fishing in the Mediterranean. It is the outcome of the 45th annual meeting of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM). Thanks to the joint efforts of the Commission, Member States and more than 20 other coastal countries, the GFCM unanimously adopted a total of 21 ambitious measures, 19 tabled by the European Union, for the management and control of fisheries, aquaculture and the protection of sensitive habitats. The EU is also supporting the implementation of all the measures and the new GFCM 2030 Strategy with an annual grant of €8 million.

New multiannual management plans for sustainable fisheries management

The five new MAPs will cover key Mediterranean sub-regions: Alboran Sea in the Western Mediterranean, the Strait of Sicily, the Ionian and the Levant Sea. The new MAPs will help strengthen efforts to curb overfishing and improve the state of some of the most valuable fish stocks in the sea basin, such as deep-water shrimps, hake and blackspot seabream. In addition, they will consolidate the legal framework for the sustainable exploitation of the stocks, in order to ensure the profitability of the fishing sector, and a level playing field for the Mediterranean fleets.

Furthermore, the EU, Morocco and Algeria agreed on a roadmap for the establishment of the first shared fisheries restricted area (FRA). The future FRA will cover the waters of Spain, Morocco and Algeria in the Cablier Mound area of the Alboran Sea. It will complement the new Alboran MAP measures for the protection of the blackspot seabream stock, which is in a critical state.

Stronger measures against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

To ensure the proper implementation of the management measures under the MAPs and the monitoring of fishing activities, the GFCM adopted, as permanent, the international joint inspection scheme in the Strait of Sicily and, based on its successful implementation, adopted a new joint inspection scheme in the Ionian Sea.

In addition, a general ban on transhipment at sea was also agreed for the first time ever - an essential tool in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) activities in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

Protection of sensitive habitats and species

Based on an EU proposal, the GFCM has decided to launch an assessment of the potential impact of changing the depth limits of the existing fishing restrictions established by the GFCM in depths of below 1000 m, with a view to possibly introducing restrictions also in shallower waters. This assessment will require advancing the knowledge on the distribution of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs), the determination of the bottom trawling fishing footprint and potential gear-related management measures. There is also an agreement to establish an observatory on non-indigenous species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. As a first step, it will conduct a pilot study on the invasive species threatening marine ecosystems and local fishing communities.

The GFCM also decided to strengthen transitional management measures for the European eel and red coral, as well as the development of measures for small-scale fisheries, essential for the livelihoods of local communities.

Finally, the GCFM took a decision for the management of recreational fisheries, a first for such a decision at a regional level. Managing recreational fisheries is essential for sustainable fisheries management, given their increasing impact on the stocks.

Next steps

The EU will now transpose the fishing opportunities-related measures from all adopted decisions through the 2023 Fishing opportunities regulation for the Mediterranean and the Black Sea to be adopted by EU Fisheries Ministers in December. It will continue working with all the GFCM riparian countries for the implementation of the newly adopted measures in the subregional setting of the MedSea4Fish and BlackSea4Fish projects.

Background

The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) is a regional fisheries management organisation established under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. It plays a critical role in fisheries governance, and has the authority to make binding recommendations for fisheries conservation and management and for aquaculture development. Its membership comprises the EU, 19 Mediterranean states and three Black Sea states.

The meeting, which took place 7-11 in Tirana, coincided with the 70th Anniversary of the GFCM. With the political commitment and close cooperation of all parties and stakeholders, and with the EU taking a lead role, the organisation is actively working to strengthen the new fisheries governance, reverse overfishing, ensure the protection of marine ecosystems and the resilience and profitability of the fishing and aquaculture sector.

Quote(s)

The agreements reached by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean after a week of negotiations are a breakthrough for the Mediterranean region - its biodiversity and fishermen alike. They will help recover a sea basin that has been suffering from unsustainable practices for many years. I look forward to a good cooperation with our neighbours in the implementation of these decisions.

Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius - 10/11/2022

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What Was Humanity’s First Cultural Revolution?

BY DEBORAH BARSKY

NOVEMBER 14, 2022
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Stone tool (Oldowan style) from Dmanisi paleontological site (right, 1.8 mya, replica), to be compared with the more “modern” Acheulean style (left) – Photograph Source: Gerbil – CC BY-SA 3.0

We live in a fast-moving, technology-dominated era. Happiness is fleeting, and everything is replaceable or disposable. It is understandable that people are drawn to a utopian vision. Many find refuge in the concept of a “return” to an idealized past—one in which humans were not so numerous, and animals abounded; when the Earth was still clean and pure, and when our ties to nature were unviolated.

But this raises the question: Is this nothing more than a utopian vision? Can we pinpoint a time in our evolutionary trajectory when we wandered from the path of empathy, of compassion and respect for one another and for all forms of life? Or are we nihilistically the victims of our own natural tendencies, and must we continue to live reckless lifestyles, no matter the outcome?

Studying human prehistory enables people to see the world through a long-term lens—across which we can discern tendencies and patterns that can only be identified over time. By adopting an evolutionary outlook, it becomes possible to explain when, how, and why specific human traits and behaviors emerged.

The particularity of human prehistory is that there are no written records, and so we must try to answer our questions using the scant information provided for us by the archeological record.

The Oldowan era that began in East Africa can be seen as the start of a process that would eventually lead to the massive technosocial database that humanity now embraces and that continues to expand ever further in each successive generation, in a spiral of exponential technological and social creativity. The first recognizable Oldowan tool kits start appearing 2.6 million years ago; they contain large pounding implements, alongside small sharp-edged flakes that were certainly useful for, among other things, obtaining viscera and meat resources from animals that were scavenged as hominins (humans and their close extinct ancestors) competed with other large carnivores present in their environments. As hominins began to expand their technological know-how, successful resourcing of such protein-rich food was ideal for feeding the developing and energy-expensive brain.

Stone tool production—and its associated behaviors—grew ever more complex, eventually requiring relatively heavy investments into teaching these technologies to successfully pass them onward into each successive generation. This, in turn, established the foundations for the highly beneficial process of cumulative learning that became coupled with symbolic thought processes such as language, ultimately favoring our capacity for exponential development.

This had huge implications, for example, in terms of the first inklings of what we call “tradition”—ways to make and do things—that are indeed the very building blocks of culture. Underpinning this process, neuroscientific experiments carried out to study the brain synapses and areas involved during toolmaking processes show that at least some basic forms of language were likely needed in order to communicate the technologies required to manufacture the more complex tools of the Acheulian age that commenced in Africa about 1.75 million years ago. Researchers have demonstrated that the areas of the brain activated during toolmaking are the same as those employed for abstract thought processes, including language and volumetric planning.

When we talk about the Acheulian, we are referring to a hugely dense cultural phenomenon occurring in Africa and Eurasia that lasted some 1.4 million years. While it cannot be considered a homogenous occurrence, it does entail a number of behavioral and technosocial elements that prehistorians agree tie it together as a sort of unit.

Globally, the Acheulian technocomplex coincides generally with the appearance of the relatively large-brained hominins attributed to Homo erectus and the African Homo ergaster, as well as Homo heidelbergensis, a wide-ranging hominin identified in Eurasia and known to have successfully adapted to relatively colder climatic conditions. Indeed, it was during the Acheulian that hominins developed fire-making technologies and that the first hearths appear in some sites (especially caves) that also show indications of seasonal or cyclical patterns of use.

In terms of stone tool technologies, Acheulian hominins moved from the nonstandardized tool kits of the Oldowan to innovate new ways to shape stone tools that involved comparatively complex volumetric concepts. This allowed them to produce a wide variety of preconceived flake formats that they proceeded to modify into a range of standardized tool types. Conceptually, this is very significant because it implies that for the first time, stone was being modeled to fit with a predetermined mental image. The bifacial and bilateral symmetry of the emblematic Acheulian tear-shaped handaxes is especially exemplary of this particular hallmark.

The Acheulian archeological record also bears witness to a whole new range of artifacts that were manufactured according to a fixed set of technological notions and newly acquired abilities. To endure, this toolmaking know-how needed to be shared by way of ever more composite and communicative modes of teaching.

We also know that Acheulian hominins were highly mobile since we often find rocks in their tool kits that were imported from considerable distances away. Importantly, as we move through time and space, we observe that some of the tool making techniques actually show special features that can be linked to specific regional contexts. Furthermore, population densities increased significantly throughout the period associated with the later Acheulian phenomenon—roughly from around 1 million to 350,000 years ago—likely as a result of these technological achievements.

Beyond toolmaking, other social and behavioral revolutions are attributed to Acheulian hominins. Fire-making, whose significance as a transformative technosocial tool cannot be overstated, as well as other accomplishments, signal the attainment of new thresholds that were to hugely transform the lives of Acheulian peoples and their descendants. For example, Acheulian sites with evidence of species-specific hunting expeditions and systematized butchery indicate sophisticated organizational capacities and certainly also suggest that these hominins mastered at least some form of gestural—and probably also linguistic—communication.

All of these abilities acquired over thousands of years by Acheulian peoples enabled them not only to settle into new lands situated, for example, in higher latitudes, but also to overcome seasonal climatic stresses and so to thrive within a relatively restricted geographical range. While they were certainly nomadic, they established home-base type living areas to which they returned on a cyclical basis. Thus, the combined phenomena of more standardized and complex culture and regional lifeways led these ancient populations to carve out identities even as they developed idiosyncratic technosocial behaviors that gave them a sense of “belonging” to a particular social unit—living within a definable geographical area. This was the land in which they ranged and into which they deposited their dead (intentional human burials are presently only recognized to have occurred onward from the Middle Paleolithic). To me, the Acheulian represents the first major cultural revolution known to humankind.

So I suggest that it was during the Acheulian era that increased cultural complexity led the peoples of the world to see each other as somehow different, based on variances in their material culture. In the later Acheulian especially, as nomadic groups began to return cyclically to the same dwelling areas, land-linked identities formed that I propose were foundational to the first culturally based geographical borders. Through time, humanity gave more and more credence to such constructs, deepening their significance. This would eventually lead to the founding of modern nationalistic sentiments that presently consolidate identity-based disparity, finally contributing to justifying geographic inequality of wealth and power.

Many of the tough questions about human nature are more easily understood through the prism of prehistory, even as we make new discoveries. Take, for instance, the question of where the modern practice of organized violence emerged from.

Human prehistory, as backed by science, has now clearly demonstrated that there is no basis for dividing peoples based on biological or anatomical aspects and that warlike behaviors involving large numbers of peoples, today having virtually global effects on all human lives, are based on constructed imaginary ideologies. Geographical boundaries, identity-based beliefs, and religion are some of the conceptual constructs commonly used in our world to justify such behaviors. In addition, competition buttressed by concepts of identity is now being accentuated due to the potential and real scarcity of resources resulting from population density, consumptive lifestyles, and now also accelerated climate change.

On the question of whether or not the emergence of warlike behavior was an inevitable outcome, we must observe such tendencies from an evolutionary standpoint. Like other genetic and even technological traits, the human capacity for massive violence exists as a potential response that remains latent within our species until triggered by particular exterior factors. Of course, this species-specific response mode also corresponds with our degree of technological readiness that has enabled us to create the tools of massive destruction that we so aptly manipulate today.

Hierarchized societies formed and evolved throughout the Middle and Late Pleistocene when a range of hominins coevolved with anatomically modern humans that we now know appeared in Africa as early as 300,000 years ago. During the Holocene Epoch, human links to specific regional areas were strengthened even further by the sedentary lifestyles that developed into the Neolithic period, as did the inclination to protect the resources amassed in this context. We can conjecture the emergence of a wide range of sociocultural situations that would have arisen once increasing numbers of individuals were arranged into the larger social units permitted by the capacity to produce, store, and save sizable quantities of foodstuffs and other kinds of goods.

Even among other animals, including primates, increased population densities result in competitive behaviors. In this scenario, that disposition would have been intensified by the idea of accumulated goods belonging, as it were, to the social unit that produced them.

Bringing technology into play, we can clearly see how humans began to transform their know-how into ingenious tools for performing different acts of warfare. In the oldest tool kits known to humankind going back millions of years, we cannot clearly identify any artifacts that appear adequate to be used for large-scale violence. We don’t have evidence of organized violence until millions of years after we started developing tools and intensively modifying the environments around us. As we amplified the land-linked identity-based facet of our social lives, so did we continue to develop ever more efficient technological and social solutions that would increase our capacity for large-scale warfare.

If we can understand how these behaviors emerged, then we can also use our technological skills to get to the root of these problems and employ all we have learned to finally take a better hold of the reins of our future.

This article was produced by Local Peace Economy, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Gen. John Kelly confirms Trump wanted IRS to audit his foes or have the DOJ investigate them

Sarah K. Burris

RAW STORY
November 13, 2022


The New York Times is confirming that Gen. John Kelly confirmed that former President Donald Trump wanted the IRS to audit his foes.

"While in office, President Donald J. Trump repeatedly told John F. Kelly, his second White House chief of staff, that he wanted a number of his perceived political enemies to be investigated by the Internal Revenue Service," the Times said, citing the former general.

Kelly was the chief of staff from July 2017 to the end of 2018, when he and most of his loyalists were shoved out. Trump's children Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump didn't like that Kelly refused to allow them "walk-in privileges," where they could simply walk into the Oval Office. They've denied any issues they had with Kelly. Reports claimed, however, Ivanka Trump took the lead in firing Kelly.

In a July report, The New York Times revealed that at least two of President Donald Trump's foes were suspiciously targeted by the IRS for extensive and "invasive" audits.

"Trump’s demands were part of a broader pattern of him trying to use the Justice Department and his authority as president against people who had been critical of him, including seeking to revoke the security clearances of former top intelligence officials," the report said.

Trump had frequently complained about people like John Brennan, who he said shouldn't have any kind of security clearance while giving interviews on cable. Trump also wanted to go after Andrew McCabe, who Trump decided he hated because McCabe's wife was running for a local office in Virginia and was a Hillary Clinton supporter. Trump also tried to go after former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump raged about frequently on Twitter. Both McCabe and Comey experienced incredibly invasive audits in 2019, after Kelly was gone.

“The U.S. government, whether it’s the I.R.S. or the Justice Department, should never be weaponized or used to retaliate, and certainly not because someone criticizes you in the press or is your political opponent,” Kelly said when asked about it by the Times. “The average federal employee or F.B.I. agent or I.R.S. agent goes to work and executes the laws and regulations and shouldn’t be put in this position.”

Trump specifically suggested using the IRS and the Justice Department to "investigate the former CIA director John O. Brennan; Hillary Clinton; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post." Trump hated his coverage in the Post. He also wanted to go after "Peter Strzok, the lead F.B.I. agent on the Russia investigation; and Lisa Page, an F.B.I. official who exchanged text messages with Mr. Strzok that were critical of Mr. Trump."

Trump's spokesperson denies the claims calling the four-star, marine, general a "psycho."

One of the people who did end up in prison with claims of "tax fraud" was Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer. Cohen maintains that he's never not paid his taxes, even when it was in the millions of dollars. He also said that each time his lawyer asks questions about it or asked for information ahead of his charges, they were rebuffed. Instead, he was handed a slate of charges and told he had a weekend to decide whether he was pleading guilty or they told him they would indict his wife.

Read the full report at the New York Times.

Trump sought to have political opponents investigated by IRS: report

By Allie Griffin
November 14, 2022 

John Kelly tells the New York Times about Trump attempting to use the IRS against former FBI director James Comey.

Former President Donald Trump attempted to weaponize the Internal Revenue Service and repeatedly asked his former chief of staff to have the agency investigate his political opponents, a new report found.

Trump’s White House chief of staff, John Kelly, told the New York Times that his one-time boss demanded him to “get the IRS on” former FBI director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe after the men criticized him.

The revelation comes after Comey and McCabe were selected for a rare and intense audit by the IRS in the years following Kelly’s departure, the newspaper reported.

Kelly, who was chief of staff from July 2017 through January 2019, said the requests were in addition to Trump’s more widely-reported attempts to use the Justice Department against his critics.

He said Trump thought he would blindly fulfill the president’s requests and be loyal to him 

.

Kelly tried to explain the morality of the request he was making to the former president.

Getty Images

“I told him we were loyal to our oath to the Constitution,” Kelly told the Times.

Kelly said Trump ignored that belief and continued to push others to take revenge on his critics through their governmental authorities and powers.

“If he told you to slit someone’s throat, he thought you would go out and do it,” Kelly said.

The former chief of staff said he would explain to the president that his requests were morally and legally wrong, but Trump often remained steadfast in his desires to investigate those he believed to have wronged him.

“I would say, ‘It’s inappropriate, it’s illegal, it’s against their integrity and the I.R.S. knows what it’s doing and it’s not a good idea,’” Kelly said he told Trump in the interview.

“Yeah, but they’re writing bad things about me,” Trump reportedly replied.

Trump has been vocal about Kelly’s accusations as being false.Getty Images

After Kelly left the White House and a Trump political appointee was leading the IRS, both Comey and McCabe were informed they were being audited. Comey was informed his 2017 returns were being audited in 2019 and McCabe was informed his 2019 returns were being audited in 2021, according to the Times.

Trump told the outlet that he knows nothing about the audits of Comey’s and McCabe’s taxes. Officials said the two men were chosen randomly, though the IRS has asked its inspector general to investigate.

Comey’s tax return was one of 5,000 tax returns selected for the invasive audit out of 153 million returns filed in 2017. McCabe was one of 8,000 people selected for the audit of 154 million, the Times reported.

Trump retains that Kelly’s allegations are false.

“It’s total fiction created by a psycho, John Kelly, who never said this before, and made it up just because he’s become so irrelevant,” Trump spokeswoman, Liz Harrington, told the Times.

Kelly also revealed the other investigations the former president tried opening up against some of his outspoken critics.

AFP via Getty Images

The former president publicly slammed Comey and McCabe on a regular basis during his term.

Kelly said Trump also sought to have the IRS and Justice Department investigate Hillary Clinton, former CIA director John Brennan, Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, lead FBI agent of the Russia investigation Peter Strzok and FBI official Lisa Page.

Executive branch employees, including the president, are breaking federal law if they “request, directly or indirectly” that the IRS conduct an investigation or audit of any taxpayer, according to the Times.

“The U.S. government, whether it’s the I.R.S. or the Justice Department, should never be weaponized or used to retaliate, and certainly not because someone criticizes you in the press or is your political opponent,” Kelly said.

UK

Number of asylum seekers 'in limbo' waiting for Home Office decision almost quadrupled in five years


Monday 14 November 2022 

Departure of migrants from Pointe de la Croix in Boulogne on Sunday, November 13.

Credit: Johan BEN AZZOUZ/Maxppp/PA Images


Tens of thousands of migrants are waiting more than a year for a decision on their asylum claim, with hundreds waiting over five years, figures show.

The number of people waiting for an initial decision on their asylum application to the UK almost quadrupled in the last five years from 29,522 in December 2017 to 122,206 in June 2022, according to Home Office data obtained by the Refugee Council under freedom of information laws.

The figure was 64,891 in December 2020, meaning it nearly doubled in 18 months.

A third of the applicants (40,913) have been waiting between one and three years while 725 people, including 155 children, have been "living in limbo waiting for a decision" for more than five years, the charity said.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been under increasing pressure to fix the UK's asylum system, which she and her predecessor Priti Patel described as "broken".

The Government is spending £6.8 million a day housing migrants in hotels and Home Office figures published in August showed the cost of the UK's asylum system topped £2 billion a year for the first time, with the highest number of claims for two decades and record delays for people awaiting a decision.

At the time the Home Office announced it was setting up an action group to look at how to speed up the processing of asylum claims in a bid to increase the number of decisions made on cases on a weekly basis.

Enver Solomon, the charity's chief executive, said: "Immediate action should be taken to address the huge backlog of men, women and children stuck in limbo while waiting years for a decision on their asylum claim, costing millions of pounds a day accommodating them in often poor quality hotels.

"These people came to the UK in search of safety, but they are being condemned to years of worry and uncertainty, with a grave toll on their mental health, instead of being able to put down roots in their new community and rebuild their lives."

More than 40,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK so far this year

.Credit: Johan BEN AZZOUZ/Maxppp/PA Images

The Refugee Council called on ministers to introduce a range of measures to tackle the problem, including:

Establishing a taskforce dedicated to clearing the backlog and setting a target date for when the backlog will be cleared

Providing enough staff to make decisions

Prioritising vulnerable people in the system and those who have waiting for more than two years.

One asylum seeker, known by the pseudonym Abu to protect his identity, who has been in a hotel in Yorkshire for nearly a year said he feels like he is "useless" while awaiting a decision on his asylum claim.

He fled Sudan in October 2021, leaving his family behind, after being arrested when he took part in demonstrations during the military coup to overthrow the Government, the charity said.

Abu said: "I started even questioning, if I am useful person?

"When you... see how they are treating Ukrainian people, compare that, people say that it's because they are European, and we are not European, it make you feel like we are not a priority...

"Should I escape or should I face death back home in Sudan? It's kind of making you question yourself."

Mr Solomon said there are "clear steps this government could take immediately to address this situation - we are keen to work constructively to help it do so", adding that the "untold human misery this situation causes is simply unsustainable" as well as being a huge cost to the public purse.

He warned that without action, next year there is "likely to be another appalling episode" like the overcrowding at the Manston migrant processing centre in Kent, and said: "We urgently need to move to a fair, orderly and compassionate asylum system that always sees the face behind the case and deals with claims in a timely and effective manner."

A Home Office spokesman said: "The number of people arriving in the UK who seek asylum has reached record levels and continues to put our asylum system under incredible pressure.

"We are doing everything we can to address this issue, we have increased the number of caseworkers by 80% to more than 1,000, and a successful pilot scheme has seen the average number of asylum claims processed by caseworkers double, which we are now is being rolling this out across the country.

"We are also working to prioritise applications from children and young people where possible, whilst we increase overall decision maker numbers, improve training and career progression opportunities to aid retention of staff and capacity."