With Netflix’s Ancient Apocalypse, Graham Hancock has declared war on archaeologists

The Conversation
November 21, 2022

Mysterious: The carved T-shaped megaliths at the prehistoric Gobekli Tepe near Sanliurfa, Turkey Ozan KOSE AFP

Netflix’s enormously popular new show, Ancient Apocalypse, is an all out attack on archaeologists. As an archaeologist committed to public engagement who strongly believes in the relevance of studying ancient people, I feel a full-throated defense is necessary.

Author Graham Hancock is back, defending his well-trodden theory about an advanced global ice age civilisation, which he connects in Ancient Apocalypse to the legend of Atlantis. His argument, as laid out in this show and in several books, is that this advanced civilization was destroyed in a cataclysmic flood.

The survivors of this advanced civilization, according to Hancock, introduced agriculture, architecture, astronomy, arts, maths and the knowledge of “civilization” to “simple” hunter gatherers. The reason little evidence exists, he says, is because it is under the sea or was destroyed by the cataclysm.

“Perhaps,” Hancock posits in the first episode, “the extremely defensive, arrogant, and patronizing attitude of mainstream academia is stopping us from considering that possibility

Trailer for Graham Hancock’s Netflix series, Ancient Apocalypse.

The pseudo fish defense

In the opening dialogue of Ancient Apocalypse, Hancock rejects being identified as an archaeologist or scientist. Instead, he calls himself a journalist who is “investigating human prehistory”. A canny choice, as the label “journalist” helps Hancock rebut being characterized as a “pseudo archaeologist” or “pseudo scientist”, which, as he puts it himself in episode four, would be like calling a dolphin a “pseudo fish”.

From my perspective as an archaeologist, the show is surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) lacking in evidence to support Hancock’s theory of an advanced, global ice age civilization. The only site Hancock visits that actually dates to near the end of the ice age is Göbekli Tepe in modern Turkey.

Instead, Hancock visits several North American mound sites, pyramids in Mexico, and sites stretching from Malta to Indonesia, which Hancock is convinced all help prove his theory. However, all of these sites have been published on in detail by archaeologists, and a plethora of evidence indicates they date thousands of years after the ice age.




The Neolithic archaeological site Göbekli-Tepe in Turkey is one of the locations Hancock visits in Ancient Apocalypse.Teomancimit, CC BY-SA

Hancock argues that viewers should “not rely on the so-called experts”, implying they should rely on his narrative instead. His attacks against “mainstream archaeologists”, the “so-called experts” who “practice censorship” are strident and frequent. After all, as he puts in in episode six, “archaeologists have been wrong before and they could be wrong again”.

Steph Halmhofer, a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta who studies the use of pseudo archaeology and erasure of indigenous heritage by far-right groups, suggests that these attacks on archaeologists function to increase his sense of authority with viewers. As Halmhofer explains:

It’s about conspiracism and the positioning of Hancock as the victim of a conspiracy. The repeated disparaging remarks about archaeologists and other academics in every episode of Ancient Apocalypse is needed to remind the audience that the alternative past being proposed is true, regardless of the lack of conclusive evidence for it. And the vagueness of who this supposed advanced civilisation was, combined with the credence given to it by being in a Netflix-produced series, is going to make Ancient Apocalypse an easily mouldable source for anyone looking to fill in a fantasied mythical past.



The Serpent Mound in Ohio, another site Hancock visits in Ancient Apocalypse

Eric Ewing, CC BY-NC-SA

Dangers of pseudo archaeology

In the last decade we have seen how conspiracy theories and distrust in experts impacts the world around us. And research has shown how pseudo archaeology – especially when couched in anti-intellectual rhetoric – can overlap with more dangerous conspiracy thinking.

Of course, archaeologists frequently admit when we have been wrong. Any academic teaching “Archaeology 101” or applying to fund a new study points out how new evidence updates our picture of the past. Despite the fact that every scientific field updates its thinking with new evidence, according to Hancock, any rewrites to history mean that archaeologists, his “so-called experts,” should not be relied upon.

Despite repeated claims made by Hancock, no archaeologists today see stone age hunter-gatherers or early farmers as “simple” or “primitive”. We see them as complex people. Priming viewers to distrust archaeologists, also allows Hancock to use circular logic to re-date these sites.

The murky origins of Hancock’s theories

Hancock claims in his book Magicians of the Gods that as the “implications” of his theories “have not yet been taken into account at all by historians and archaeologists, we are obliged to contemplate the possibility that everything we have been taught about the origins of civilisation could be wrong”. However, archaeologists have repeatedly addressed his theories in academic publications, on TV and in mainstream media.

Most glaring to scholars investigating the history of Hancock’s pseudo archaeology is that while claiming to “overthrow the paradigm of history,” he doesn’t acknowledge that his overarching theory is not new.

Scholars and journalists have pointed out that Hancock’s ideas recycle the long since discredited conclusions drawn by American congressman Ignatius Donnelly in his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, published in 1882.


Another site Hancock discusses in Ancient Apocalypse, the Cholula Pyramid in Mexico.

Ernest Mettendorf, CC BY-SA

Donnelly also believed in an advanced civilisation – Atlantis – that was wiped out by a flood over 10,000 years ago. He claimed that the survivors taught Indigenous people the secrets of farming and monumental architecture.

Like many forms of pseudo archaeology, these claims act to reinforce white supremacist ideas, stripping Indigenous people of their rich heritage and instead giving credit to aliens or white people.

Hancock even cites Donnelly directly in his 1995 book Fingerprints of the Gods, claiming: “The road system and the sophisticated architecture had been ‘ancient in the time of the Incas,’ but that both ‘were the work of white, auburn-haired men’.” While skin colour is not brought up in Ancient Apocalypse, the repetition of the story of a “bearded” Quetzalcoatl (an ancient Mexican deity) parrots both Donnelly’s and Hancock’s own summary of a white and bearded Quetzalcoatl teaching native people knowledge from this “lost civilisation”.

Hancock’s mirroring of Donnelly’s race-focused “science” is seen more explicitly in his essay, Mysterious Strangers: New Findings About the First Americans. Like Donnelly, Hancock finds depictions of “caucasoids” and “negroids” in Indigenous American art and (often mistranslated) mythology, even drawing attention to some of the exact same sculptures as Donnelly.


A page from Donnelly’s now debunked 1882 book, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World

.via the author

This sort of “race science” is outdated and long since debunked, especially given the strong links between Atlantis and Aryans proposed by several Nazi “archaeologists”.

These are the reasons why archaeologists will continue to respond to Hancock. It isn’t that we “hate him” as he claims, it is simply that we strongly believe he is wrong. His flawed thinking implies that Indigenous people do not deserve credit for their cultural heritage.

Netflix labels Ancient Apocalypse a docuseries. IMDB calls it a documentary. It’s neither. It’s an eight-part conspiracy theory that weaponises dramatic rhetoric against scholars.

Flint Dibble, Marie-Sklowdowska Curie Research Fellow, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ATLANTIS 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for LOST CIVILIZATIONS 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for LEMURIA 

'Headed for oblivion': Noted economist warns of 'collapse of crypto institutions' after FTX debacle

Alex Henderson, AlterNet
November 21, 2022

FTX's billionaire chief says bitcoin has no future as a payments network- FT

Right-wing libertarians and socially conservative MAGA Republicans disagree about many things, but one thing they do have in common is an affection for cryptocurrencies. It isn’t hard to find people on the right who are unapologetically bullish on cryptocurrencies.

But one person who doesn’t share their enthusiasm is liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. In his November 17 column, Krugman lays out some reasons why he believes there is a “strong case” that the cryptocurrency industry is “headed for oblivion.”

“Crypto reached its peak of public prominence last year, when Matt Damon’s ‘Fortune favors the brave’ commercial — sponsored by the Singapore-based exchange Crypto.com — first aired,” Krugman explains. “At the time, Bitcoin, the most famous cryptocurrency, was selling for more than $60,000. Bitcoin is now trading below $17,000. So, people who bought after watching the Damon ad have lost more than 70 percent of their investment. In fact, since most people who bought Bitcoin did so when its price was high, most investors in the currency — around three-quarters of them, according to a new analysis by the Bank for International Settlements — have lost money so far.”


READ MORE: Crypto: 46,000 people lost $1 billion to cons in 15 months

Krugman notes that “falling prices” don’t necessarily “mean that cryptocurrencies are doomed,” pointing out that “people who bought stock in” Facebook’s parent company Meta “at its peak last year have lost around as much as investors in Bitcoin have.” But when cryptocurrency exchanges themselves are in trouble, Krugman warns, it is a bad sign.

“More telling than prices has been the collapse of crypto institutions,” Krugman observes. “Most recently, FTX, one of the biggest crypto exchanges, filed for bankruptcy — and it appears that the people running it simply made off with billions of depositors’ money, probably using the funds in a failed effort to prop up Alameda Research, its sister firm. The question we should ask is why institutions like FTX or Terra, the so-called stablecoin issuer that collapsed in May, were created in the first place.”

Krugman adds that after the financial crash of September 2008, cryptocurrencies were hailed as a safe alternative to traditional “financial institutions.”

“After 14 years, however, cryptocurrencies have made almost no inroads into the traditional role of money,” Krugman argues. “They’re too awkward to use for ordinary transactions. Their values are too unstable. In fact, relatively few investors can even be bothered to hold their crypto keys themselves — too much risk of losing them by, say, putting them on a hard drive that ends up in a landfill. Instead, cryptocurrencies are largely purchased through exchanges like Coinbase and, yes, FTX, which take your money and hold crypto tokens in your name. These exchanges are — wait for it — financial institutions, whose ability to attract investors depends on — wait for it again — those investors’ trust. In other words, the crypto ecosystem has basically evolved into exactly what it was supposed to replace: a system of financial intermediaries whose ability to operate depends on their perceived trustworthiness.”

READ MORE: Major crypto hedge fund facing bankruptcy, stinging investors

One person who has been very bullish on Bitcoin is billionaire Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who founded the Bitcoin Academy with hip-hop superstar Jay Z. But following the FTX debacle, Dorsey is, according to The Street, encouraging caution where the cryptocurrency industry is concerned.

On November 16, Dorsey forwarded a tweet by fellow Bitcoin promoter Neil Jacobs — who wrote, “SBF can’t be trusted. Vitalik can’t be trusted. CZ can’t be trusted. No one can be trusted. That’s why we bitcoin.” And Dorsey, in response, posted, “No one.” It was also on November 16 that Dorsey, seemingly referring to FTX, posted, “Nobody knows anything” — and Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk gave a cryptic response, tweeting, “Magic knows all.”

The Street’s Luc Olinga reports, “The FTX debacle has cast suspicion on the entire crypto industry, which is suffering from a lack of transparency. CZ and other figures like Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase (COIN) Get Free Report, billionaire Michael Saylor and others are trying to distance themselves from SBF, but it will probably take a long time to undo the damage done.”

Krugman concludes his November 17 Times column by noting the need for greater government regulation of cryptocurrencies.

“If the government finally moves in to regulate crypto firms, which would, among other things, prevent them from promising impossible-to-deliver returns, it’s hard to see what advantage these firms would have over ordinary banks,” Krugman writes. “Even if the value of Bitcoin doesn’t go to zero, which it still might, there’s a strong case that the crypto industry, which loomed so large just a few months ago, is headed for oblivion.”

READ MORE: Economist Paul Krugman analyzes the 'bizarre alliance between Bitcoin and MAGA'

UK

The Conservatives’ popularity has crashed to its lowest point in 15 years as it battles a major lack of trust over its management of the economy, a new poll reveals.


By David Bond Deputy Political Editor@djbond6873
Nicholas Cecil Political Editor@nicholascecil

Sixty-two per cent of Britons said they didn’t like the Tories while 60 per cent said they no longer trusted the party on the economy, according to findings from Ipsos.

In a further blow, nine out of 10 of those who said they no longer trusted the Conservatives on the economy said the party was unlikely to regain it by the time of the next election, due by January 2025.

On reducing the cost of living and improving Britain’s public services, the findings are even more dire for the Conservatives with just under three quarters of voters saying they didn’t trust them to deliver.

The survey was carried out last week, concluding just a day before Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced his Autumn Statement ushering in a series of sweeping tax rises and swingeing spending cuts in a bid to plug a £55billion black hole in the public finances.

While Mr Hunt insisted the measures are necessary to put the UK’s finances back on a sound footing, tackle soaring inflation and to help the most deprived households, living standards are set to fall to their lowest point in living memory.

With Britain set for a year-long recession, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, Mr Hunt is gambling the economy will be showing some signs of improvement in the run-up to the general election.

But the latest Ipsos figures show what a mountain the Conservatives have to climb to overhaul Labour’s current lead in the polls.

On improving Britain’s economy, 42 per cent said they trusted Labour compared to 35 per cent for the Tories, while on cost of living 41 per cent said they trusted Sir Keir Starmer’s party whereas it was 22 per cent for the Conservatives. On improving public services more than half of voters said they trusted Labour compared to 21 per cent for the Tories.

Labour’s popularity is also at a four-year high with 49 per cent of people saying they like the party.

But while the Tories are seeing their trust rating and popularity plunge, there are signs that Rishi Sunak is benefiting from his appointment as Prime Minister.

According to Ipsos, 47 per cent of voters say they like Mr Sunak compared to 26 per cent who said they like the Conservatives. Forty-two per cent think he has what it takes to be a good PM - a seven percentage point increase since July - and comfortably ahead of Sir Keir who polled 35 per cent on the question of whether he would make a good leader of the country.

On the question of whether he would make the most capable Prime Minister, Mr Sunak scored 41 per cent compared to 35 per cent for Sir Keir.

Earlier this year the Labour leader was seen as a more capable PM compared to Liz Truss and Boris Johnson.

Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research at Ipsos said: “Rishi Sunak is personally fairly well-liked, relatively trusted on the economy, and is posing warning signs for Labour in the way he has overtaken Keir Starmer’s lukewarm scores as Prime Ministerial material.

“But so far he has not been able to bring much of a honeymoon to the Conservative party brand, which remains as unpopular under him as at any time over the last 15 years.

“Looking ahead, delivery on substantive issues in the face of a sceptical public will be key, as satisfaction with government performance remains well below the historical average and with Labour and Keir Starmer both much more trusted on the cost of living and improving public services.”

Ipsos interviewed 1,004 adults across Britain between November 9 and 16, before the Autumn Statement. Data are weighted.

NASA says people will be living on the Moon within this decade, as Orion nears fly-by

The Artemis mission run by NASA wants to soon send people to the Moon.(NASA)

Humans could be living on the Moon during this decade, according to a NASA official.

Key points:Humans could stay on Moon for extended periods, NASA says
The NASA spacecraft will fly within 129 kilometres of the Moon tonight
Artemis blasted off last week as part of NASA's larger mission to take astronauts back to the Moon


Howard Hu, who oversees the Orion lunar spacecraft programme for the agency, said humans could be staying there for extended durations, in an interview to the BBC.

"Well, certainly in this decade we're going to have people living there," Mr Hu told BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show.

"They will have habitats and rovers on the ground, that's what we're also working on at NASA."
Humans last walked on the Moon in 1972

Ultimately, when it comes to people being sent to the Moon, the mission is really about science, Mr Hu added.

"That's what we're going to be doing, we're going to be sending people down to the [Moon's] surface and they're going to be living on that surface and doing science."

Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, 

salutes the United States flag in April 1972.(NASA)

NASA's spacecraft Artemis launched towards the Moon on its first uncrewed mission last week.

Orion is currently about 28,864 miles (46,452 kilometres) from the Moon as of Monday morning 11:30 AEDT.

After a series of delayed attempts, NASA's moon megarocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its 25-day mission.

Over the course of the mission, it will travel 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometres) from Earth and 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometres) beyond the far side of the Moon.

NASA says this first Artemis mission will demonstrate the performance of both Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and pave the way for future missions, including landing the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon's surface.

Orion is the vehicle that will take astronauts on Artemis missions. NASA says it's the only spacecraft capable of human deep space missions and high-speed return to Earth.

Orion will fly-by the Moon tonight

The Orion spacecraft will do a fly-by of the moon on Monday, November 21.

NASA expects the rocket's closest approach of approximately 80 miles (129 kilometres) from the Moon's surface at 7:57 a.m EST, around midnight Australian Eastern Daylight Time (11:57pm AEDT).

So far, Orion had travelled 233,613 miles (375,963 kilometres) from Earth by Monday morning at 11.30am AEDT, cruising at 249 miles per hour.

Named after the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt — and Apollo's twin sister — Artemis aims to return astronauts to the Moon as early as 2025.
Stepping stone to Mars

NASA's long-term plan is to establish a "sustainable presence" on the Moon in preparation for missions to Mars.

"Moving forward is really to Mars. That is a bigger stepping stone, a two-year journey depending on the orbit you take," Mr Hu told the BBC.

"These are the stepping stones that hopefully will allow this future capability … and give those opportunities and option for our kids and their grandkids and their kids."

NASA hopes to send four astronauts around the Moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025.

UK
CBI: Reform immigration to solve labour shortages
by Jo Faragher 21 Nov 2022

T

ony Danker, director-general of the CBI

    

Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Politicians need to be more ‘practical’ about immigration and support employers to attract foreign workers to solve worker shortages, according to business body the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

Speaking at its annual conference in Birmingham today, CBI boss Tony Danker will say the current immigration system is one of four political barriers to growth in the UK economy.

“Let’s be honest with people,” he will say. “Our labour shortages are vast. First, we have lost hundreds of thousands of people to economic inactivity post Covid. And anyone who thinks they’ll all be back any day now – with the NHS under the pressure it is – is kidding themselves.

“Secondly, we don’t have enough Brits to go round for the vacancies that exist, and there’s a skills mismatch in any case. And third, believing automation can step in to do the job in most cases is unrealistic.”

The CBI will argue for “economic migration in areas where we aren’t going to get the people and skills at home any time soon”, issuing fixed-term visas in areas of skills shortage.

However, in his keynote speech to the conference, prime minister Rishi Sunak ruled out future agreements that would mean more alignment with EU laws.

Reports emerged at the weekend that Sunak was considering a Swiss-style deal with the EU, which would mean more freedom of movement as Switzerland is part of the Schengen area.

He said: “Let me be unequivocal about this: under my leadership, the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws.”

He reiterated the government’s commitment to a Lifetime Skills Guarantee, abolishing the idea that education ends at the age of 18.

The CBI has urged the government to “double down” on incentives for technology and automation, with a skills policy that works to fill roles in these industries.

Immigration

Autumn statement: CBI calls for immigration and apprenticeship reform

UK immigration shake-up on the cards as labour crisis bites – what will change? 

Immigration rules and right to work

To bring these factors together, Danker will suggest the shortage occupation list is not just the remit of the Home Office but should also be influenced by the Secretary of State for Education. He will also urge businesses to “take on the mantle” alongside the government in their training investments.

Alongside immigration reform, the CBI will today call for changes to the regulatory regime so it is more proportionate, better planning systems for infrastructure and major projects, and more fruitful trade partnerships with other countries.

Last week’s autumn statement was criticised for lack of detail around skills reform, with HR body the CIPD calling for a “stronger focus” on vocational education and training.

The Institute of Directors, meanwhile, called for the creation of an independent Shortage Occupations Agency to advise on immigration needs and skills.

Responding to the prime minister’s speech, Danker said: “The prime minister started to lay out a vision for a new approach.

“But what we didn’t get today are the details of the measures to achieve it. Businesses are making investment decisions now and need to hear more on this agenda as soon as possible.”

Last month, a survey by the CBI, found that almost three-quarters of UK companies had suffered from labour shortages in the past year and nearly half surveyed wanted the government to grant temporary visas for obvious shortage roles.

The body has also called for the Chancellor to reform the apprenticeship levy into a more flexible, “skills challenge” fund.

FTX implosion shows urgent need for crypto rules, says Bank of England

BY:CHARLIE CONCHIE

The crypto sector requires regulation before it threatens the stability of the wider financial system

The implosion of FTX has underlined the need to rapidly bring crypto within the remit of financial watchdogs before it threatens the stability of the wider financial system, the deputy governor of the Bank of England has warned today.

The collapse of FTX, founded by disgraced former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, has sent shockwaves through the crypto world and revealed major corporate failings at the top of the firm.

Speaking today at a policy event, the deputy governor of the Bank Jon Cunliffe said there was now a pressing need to tighten oversight of firms before they grew large enough to threaten the stability of the wider global economy.

“While the crypto world, as was demonstrated during last year’s crypto winter and last week’s FTX implosion is not at present large enough or interconnected enough with mainstream finance to threaten the stability of the financial system, its links with mainstream finance have been developing rapidly,” Cunliffe said.

“We should not wait until it is large and connected to develop the regulatory frameworks necessary to prevent a crypto shock that could have a much greater destabilising impact.”

The failed crypto bourse is now being wound-up under the leadership of insolvency veteran John Ray III, who last week described the corporate failings at FTX as worse than Enron.

Britain’s financial regulators have been edging into the space but currently only have oversight of crypto firms on anti-money laundering grounds.

Lawmakers have been pushing for more of the space to be brought under the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, however. City minister Andrew Griffith tabled an amendment to the Financial Services and Markets Bill that will allow regulators to roll out a full framework for crypto currencies.

Cunliffe said the Treasury intends to consult in the near future on “extending the investor protection, market integrity and other regulatory frameworks” that cover the the crypto sector.

“Our aim is to ensure that innovation can take place but within a framework in which risks are properly managed and which safeguards the sustainability of such innovation,” he added.

“The events of last week provide a compelling demonstration of why that matters.”

Bankman-Fried has already fallen into the sights of a host of global regulators including the SEC in the US, and investigations into the lack of corporate controls and misuse of client funds are expected to follow.

The firm’s new chief John Ray III, who was parachuted into the firm to oversee its winding up, said last week that the failures of the firm were the worst he had seen.

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” he wrote in a filing with the Delaware bankruptcy court last week.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian teenager in Jenin amidst escalating Israeli settler violence

Qassam Muaddi
West Bank
21 November, 2022

Israeli raids on Monday arrive after a wave of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians on Saturday, when dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in Hebron’s old city in the southern west Bank.


Israeli raids in Jenin have claimed the lives of more than 50 Palestinians in the city since the beginning of 2022. [Qassam Muaddi/TNA]


Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded five other Palestinians on Monday during a morning raid in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank.

The Palestinian health ministry announced that the victim was Mahmoud Saadi, an 18-year-old high school student from Jenin city.

According to the ministry's statement, Saadi was hit by a live bullet in the stomach and was taken to the Jenin public hospital, where shortly after, he was pronounced dead.

"The occupation forces entered Jenin around 7:30 in the morning and headed to the refugee camp," Atta Abu Rmeileh, local secretary of Fatah in Jenin, told The New Arab.

"Occupation soldiers surrounded a house in the refugee camp, and exchanged fire with resistance fighters as they arrested a young man, Rateb Bali," he said Abu.

The refugee camp of Jenin has been subject to repeated Israeli military raids since last year.

 [Qassam Muaddi/TNA]

"Meanwhile in the city, occupation soldiers opened fire while taking over some buildings overlooking the camp, at the same time that Mahmoud Saadi was walking to school," Abu Rmeileh detailed.

"He was shot in a place where there was no fighting," he added while speaking to TNA, amidst gunshots fired into the air by Palestinians at the funeral for Mahmoud Saadi in Jenin. A general strike was also declared in the city as a sign of mourning for the rest of the day.

The killing in Jenin arrived hours after Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian house and a farm in the village of Duma, south of Nablus.

Israeli raids on Monday arrive after a wave of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians on Saturday when dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in Hebron’s old city in the south of the occupied West Bank.

"Around 10:00 am, the occupation forces began to force shops in the old city to close, then shortly after settlers began to throw stones and garbage from the upper floors of the old city's houses down on the market," Gandhi Awewei, a resident of the old city, told TNA.

"At the neighbourhood of Bab Al-Zawiyeh, settlers attack shops and houses and clashed with Palestinian young men for hours," said Awewei.

"It looked like a battleground," he added.

"Settlers threw stones and garbage from the upper houses of the old city, down to the market," said Ghandi Awewei, a resident of Hebron's old city [Qassam Muaddi/TNA]

"Around 10:30 in the morning, I saw dozens of occupation soldiers along the main street in our neighbourhood, while behind them stood Israeli settlers, some of them bearing firearms," Nisreen Azzeh, resident of the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood in Hebron's old city, told TNA.

"Shortly after, settlers were everywhere, attacking every shop and house in the neighbourhood," she said. "A group of them rounded a 14-year-old boy and beat him so violently that he was taken to the hospital. Another group of settlers attacked my 6-year-old nephew and shot pepper spray at his face."

"My nephew then went to the occupation soldiers and told them that if they didn't make the settlers stop, he was going to explode a kitchen-gas jar between the settlers, and then the soldiers began to make the settlers retreat," she added.

Palestinian media reported that the mob was led by the Israeli far-right lawmaker and leader of the ultra-nationalist 'Jewish Force' party, Itamar Ben Gvir, who was recently re-elected into office in a coalition with Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

A human rights activist in Hebron, who asked not to be named, told TNA that dozens of Palestinians were injured by the mob that also attacked two mosques and broke their windows.

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In-depth
Qassam Muaddi

The UN envoy for the Middle East process, Tor Wennesland, condemned on Saturday the settlers' mob in Hebron, saying that "such acts may aggravate an already tense environment."

The escalation in the occupied West Bank has been ongoing since the beginning of the year, in which some 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers.

U$A

Despite dangerous pregnancy complications, abortions denied


 Kristina Tocce sits for a portrait in the Planned Parenthood offices in east Denver on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. Tocce, medical director for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said she’s seen patients with life-threatening diagnoses forced to drive 10 hours or more, or fly out of state, to get abortions so they can begin chemotherapy or radiation treatment. 

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)More

LAURA UNGAR and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

Sun, November 20, 2022 

Weeks after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Dr. Grace Ferguson treated a woman whose water had broken halfway through pregnancy. The baby would never survive, and the patient’s chance of developing a potentially life-threatening infection grew with every hour.

By the time she made it to Pittsburgh to see Ferguson, the woman had spent two days in a West Virginia hospital, unable to have an abortion because of a state ban. The law makes an exception for medical emergencies, but the patient’s life wasn’t in danger at that moment.

“She was just kind of standing on the edge of the cliff,” Ferguson said, “waiting for an emergency to happen or for the baby to pass away.”

In Pennsylvania, at the hospital a four-hour drive away, Ferguson was able to induce labor to end the pregnancy.

A growing number of physicians and families tell similar stories as a post-Roe fear comes to pass: Pregnant women with dangerous medical conditions are showing up in hospitals and doctors’ offices only to be denied the abortions that could help treat them. Some doctors in states with restrictive abortion laws say they've referred or suggested more patients go elsewhere than ever. Some women are facing harmful, potentially deadly delays.

Doctors say they’re forced to balance medical judgment with potential punishments, including prison time. Although even the strictest laws allow abortion to save a mother’s life, a weighty question lingers: How close to death must the patient be?

“You don’t automatically go from living to dead,” Ferguson said. “You slowly get sicker and sicker.”

It’s impossible to say when that line is crossed, said Dr. Alison Haddock, who’s on the board of the American College of Emergency Physicians. “There’s just no moment where I’m standing in front of a critically ill patient where I know: OK, before their health was just in danger. But now, their life is in danger,” she said.

Experts say it’s hard to pinpoint data on abortion denials when serious complications arise. Employers often discourage health care workers from speaking about them, though The Associated Press reached more than a dozen doctors and patients who shared stories of such denials.

And many doctors and researchers agree that evidence, even if largely anecdotal, shows a widespread problem. In Texas, for example, a doctors’ association sent a letter to the state’s medical board saying some hospitals refused to treat patients with major complications because of the state’s abortion ban.

And at the University of California, San Francisco, researchers who invited health care workers nationwide to anonymously send examples of poor-quality care caused by abortion restrictions say they were surprised by the initial volume of responses. Twenty-five submissions came in the first six weeks. Among them were descriptions of patients sent home after their water broke in the second trimester who later returned with serious infections. One told of an ectopic pregnancy that was allowed to grow on a scar left by a previous cesarean section – which can cause uterine rupture, hemorrhage and death.

“The legislators are playing with fire,” said Dr. Dan Grossman, the project’s leader.

Dr. Cara Heuser, a maternal-fetal specialist in Utah, recalled one patient denied an abortion in Idaho despite developing a serious heart condition midway through pregnancy. The woman had to be transported to Utah for the procedure.

Dr. Lauren Miller, a maternal-fetal specialist in Boise, said she regularly sees patients whose water breaks at 15 through 19 weeks’ gestation, and all doctors can do is help them make the tough decision: “Do they stay here for their care and just wait until something bad happens, or do we facilitate them finding care out of state?”

Dr. David Eisenberg, an associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said Missouri doctors and hospitals are regularly “punting that responsibility for care” when people show up with serious complications. They wind up at the university-affiliated medical center where he works — one of the few in Missouri that performs abortions in such cases.

He said patients in crisis are told: “I’ve got to call the lawyer for the hospital before I can figure out what I can do.

“That’s just totally insane and totally inappropriate and really unfortunate.”

The stories are similar when pregnancy is complicated by cancer — diagnosed in about 1 in 1,000 pregnant women each year.

Dr. Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society, said some oncologists are confused about treating pregnant cancer patients, particularly when therapies may induce miscarriage. Dr. Kristina Tocce, medical director for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said she’s seen patients with life-threatening diagnoses forced to drive 10 hours or more, or fly out of state, to get abortions so they can begin chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

Tocce said she recently treated a Texas woman whose cancer had gone into remission but came back aggressively after she became pregnant with her second child. She sought an abortion to resume the cancer treatment that promised to keep her alive for her toddler. During the visit, she thanked Tocce repeatedly.

“I finally told the patient: ‘You can’t thank us anymore. We are doing our jobs,’” Tocce said. “I said, ‘I am so disturbed that you had to travel so far with your family and the hurdles you have had to overcome.’”

Some abortion opponents say doctors may be unnecessarily denying abortions in life-threatening situations out of fear. Dr. Patti Giebink, a former abortion doctor who described changing her views in her book “Unexpected Choice: An Abortion Doctor’s Journey to Pro-Life,” said it comes down to intent. If you intend to save the mother and not end the life of the fetus, she said, “you’re doing good medicine.”

“We’re sort of in a period of time where all these questions come up,” she said. “The legislatures are going to be working to solve some of these problems.”

Dr. Paul LaRose, a member of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said he thinks the issue is overstated and those raising concerns are exaggerating.

“Or they may be they misinformed,” he said. “Most pro-life physicians would take care of the mother and do what’s necessary without purposely taking the life of the unborn baby.”

But some women say restrictive abortion laws have put them in danger.

Kristina Cruickshank of Rosenberg, Texas, thought her life was in jeopardy after a diagnosis of a nonviable “partial molar pregnancy,” in which the fetus has too many chromosomes and develops incompletely. Cruickshank, 35, had thyroid problems and massive cysts around both ovaries. She was vomiting, bleeding and in pain.

It was early June, shortly before Roe fell, when Texas banned nearly all abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. She endured three days of agony in one hospital before her doctor could find another that agreed to the termination procedure. She thought: “What am I supposed to do, just lay here and die?’”

Mylissa Farmer of Joplin, Missouri, faced similar delays in August. Her water broke at 17 1/2 weeks’ gestation, sending her to the emergency room. Tests showed she'd lost all her amniotic fluid. The fetus she and her boyfriend had named Maeve wasn’t expected to survive.

Despite risks of infection and blood loss, she couldn’t get an abortion. The fetus still had a heartbeat. Doctors told her Missouri law superseded their judgment, medical records show.

She tried for days to get an out-of-state abortion, but many hospitals said they couldn’t take her. Ultimately, an abortion helpline connected Farmer with a clinic in Granite City, Illinois. She drove 4 ½ hours from home — while in labor — and had the procedure.

After news outlets covered Farmer’s story and she appeared in a political ad, the Missouri health department started an investigation into whether the Joplin hospital, which declined to comment on the case, violated federal law. The state has shared its preliminary findings with the federal government .

Farmer said the experience was so traumatic that she took a permanent step to ensure nothing like this happens to her again.

She got her tubes tied.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Man dies at UK migrant center criticized over conditions


A person thought to be a migrant stands at the window at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility near Thanet, Kent, England, Nov. 6, 2022. A man being held at the much-criticized center for migrants in Britain has died after becoming sick, bringing renewed criticism to the Conservative government over its treatment of asylum-seekers. The Home Office said a man who was staying at the Manston migrant center died in a hospital on Saturday Nov. 19, 2022, after “becoming unwell.” (AP Photo Alberto Pezzali, File) 

JILL LAWLESS
Sun, November 20, 2022 

LONDON (AP) — A man being held at a much-criticized center for migrants in Britain has died after falling sick, bringing renewed criticism to the Conservative government over its treatment of asylum-seekers.

The Home Office said a man who was staying at the Manston migrant center in southeast England died in a hospital on Saturday after “becoming unwell.”

Authorities are trying to contact next of kin of the man, who is believed to have arrived in England in a small boat on Nov. 12.

“We take the safety of those in our care extremely seriously and are profoundly saddened by this event,” the Home Office said. “A post-mortem examination will take place so it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”

It said there was “no evidence at this stage to suggest that this tragic death was caused by an infectious disease.”

Cases of diphtheria, scabies and other communicable diseases have been reported at Manston, where people who have arrived by boat across the English Channel are sent for security and identity checks before moving to longer-term accommodation.

A surge in arrivals and a bureaucratic backlog has seen people, including children, languishing for weeks. A facility intended to house at most 1,600 people had more than 4,000 occupants last month, after hundreds were moved there from another site that was firebombed by a far-right attacker. The number has since dropped.

Independent government inspectors who visited the site said they saw families sleeping on floors in prison-like conditions that presented fire and health hazards.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, called for “a thorough and speedy investigation” of the death.

“Every person in Manston must be looked after with the care and attention they need, so when a tragic death likes this takes place it is always a matter of serious concern,” he said.

The U.K. receives fewer asylum-seekers than many European nations, including Germany, France and Italy, but thousands of migrants from around the world travel to northern France each year in hopes of crossing the channel. Some want to reach the U.K. because they have friends or family there, others because they speak English or because it’s perceived to be easy to find work.

In recent years there’s been a sharp increase in the number of people attempting the journey in dinghies and other small craft as authorities have clamped down on other routes such as stowing away on buses or trucks.

More than 40,000 people have arrived in Britain after making the hazardous Channel trip so far this year, up from 28,000 in all of 2021 and 8,500 in 2020.

Dozens have died in the attempt, including 27 people almost exactly a year ago when a packed smuggling boat capsized.

The small-boat crossings are a longstanding source of friction between Britain and France. Last week the British government agreed to pay France 72.2 million euros ($75 million) in 2022-2023 in exchange for France increasing security patrols along the coast by 40%.

In another attempt to deter the crossings, Britain’s government has announced a controversial plan to send people who arrive in small boats on a one-way journey to Rwanda, to break the business model of smuggling gangs. Critics say the plan is immoral and impractical, and it is being challenged in the courts.