Venezuela's Lack Of Dredging Causes Trouble For Chevron's Heavy Oil Exports

By Mircely Guanipa and Marianna Parraga
01/04/23

An oil tanker sails on Lake Maracaibo, in Cabimas, Venezuela October 14, 2022

Ashipping channel snafu is slowing Chevron Corp's efforts to load tankers at one of its four Venezuelan joint ventures and bring heavy crude to the United States, three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Washington in November authorized the last major U.S. firm still operating in Venezuela to restore lost output and begin exporting oil as a way to encourage talks between Nicolas Maduro's government and the country's political opposition.

But a plan to move heavy oil quickly from inventories at the Petroboscan joint venture with state-run company PDVSA is facing delays because of lack of dredging at Maracaibo Lake's navigation channel, the people said.

A dredge is often needed to clean out the bed of water areas by scooping out mud, weeds and rubbish so vessels can transit.

Shallow waters in the channel caused a non-Chevron-related vessel carrying scrap metal go aground in December. Petroboscan has instructed vessels since to limit their draft after loading at the Bajo Grande oil terminal.

Maracaibo Lake's channel in the northwest of the country is suitable for loading tankers with a draft of only up to 9.8 meters, one of the people said. That means about 250,000 barrels of Boscan heavy crude can move at a time through the channel linking Bajo Grande to the Caribbean Sea.

In a sign that Chevron expects to expand operations quickly, the oil producer has begun advertising for Venezuelan contract administrators and cargo schedulers. It is recruiting to restaff long-idled operations, particularly for its marketing and trading divisions, which will handle oil exports for its own U.S. refineries and others.

Chevron started preparing to reanimate operations at its joint ventures in Venezuela last year while submitting a license request to the U.S. Treasury Department, following an agreement with PDVSA. The company wants to assemble a trading team to market oil from Venezuela and expand its role in the four projects.

PDVSA and Chevron did not reply to requests for comment.

LITTLE BY LITTLE

Small tankers coming from Bajo Grande are moving Venezuela's western crudes to a ship-to-ship transfer area along the country's coast, where they fill larger vessels. The first Chevron-chartered cargo loaded this way has not yet departed for the United States, according to the people and Refinitiv Eikon tracking data.

Chevron has chartered three vessels for Venezuela: the UACC Eagle, which will discharge a U.S. cargo of heavy naphtha at PDVSA's Jose port later this week; the Caribbean Voyager, which is loading 500,000 barrels of Hamaca crude for Chevron's refinery in Pasacagoula, Mississippi; and the Kerala, which arrived on Tuesday in Maracaibo Lake's channel to load Boscan crude, according to shipping documents and Eikon data.

Italian oil firm Eni also is planning to obtain a cargo of Venezuelan crude this month under an arrangement that began last year to receive Venezuelan oil in exchange for repayment of pending debt, according to a separate person familiar with the matter.

UK

SIR KEIR PROMISES TO BE A BETTER TORY THAN THE TORIES

Starmer pledges 'take back control' Bill

Sir Keir Starmer is now making a policy announcement on devolution. 

He says a Labour government would pass a "take back control" bill to give communities more local powers. 

The Labour leader says he wants to embrace the "take back control" slogan of the 2016 Brexit referendum "and turn it into a solution". 

He says that although he voted to remain in the EU, he understood the desire of Leave voters to "take back control and it's not an unreasonable demand".

"It's not unreasonable for us to recognise the desire of communities to stand on their own feet" he says. 

"So we will embrace the take back control message - turn it from slogan into solution, from catchphrase into change - devolve new powers over employment, transport, energy, housing, culture and how councils run their finances.

"All this will be in a new take back control bill, a centrepiece of our first King's Speech". 

Keir Starmer promises 'take back control' bill aimed at devolving power out of Westminster as he embraces Brexit slogan in first big speech of 2023

Sky News

Labour’s Starmer Promises to End ‘Sticking-Plaster Politics’

Emily Ashton
Thu, January 5, 2023


(Bloomberg) -- UK opposition leader Keir Starmer vowed to end an era of “sticking-plaster politics,” pointing to ongoing industrial action and pressure on the National Health Service as evidence that Westminster’s “short-term mindset” is failing the UK.

In a keynote speech in London on Thursday, the Labour Party leader pledged a “decade of national renewal” if he wins power in the next general election, and repurposed the language of Brexit with a promise of a “Take Back Control Bill” to revive local communities. He also insisted that Labour would repeal any new anti-strike legislation passed by the current government.

https://t.co/AsQWoq9POp pic.twitter.com/rkaFU7Ored

— Bloomberg UK (@BloombergUK) January 5, 2023

But Starmer warned that a Labour government “won’t be able to spend our way out of this mess,” saying there was “no substitute for a robust private sector, creating wealth in every community.”

Starmer’s new year address comes just one day after Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set out his own priorities, pledging to repair and grow Britain’s economy, tackle immigration and improve health care. Both men are eager to hit the reset button on their leadership as they gear up for an election expected next year - and by Jan. 2025 at the latest.

The Tories will by then have been in power for 14 years and Starmer hopes to lead Labour back to victory. He is buoyed by polling that in recent months putting Labour ahead of the Conservatives by more than 20 points.

https://t.co/UrsCCOoLhH pic.twitter.com/iO3ayfoAJZ

— Bloomberg UK (@BloombergUK) January 5, 2023

Starmer is attempting to capitalize on voter frustration with the Tory government. In office for less than three months, Sunak is struggling to prove he has a strategy to deal with strikes affecting the NHS and rail services, while also wrestling with a record cost-of-living squeeze and an economy that may already be in recession.

Starmer reiterated a previous pledge to hand more powers to local communities if Labour takes charge, reviving a famous Vote Leave slogan from the 2016 Brexit referendum. “The control people want is control over their lives and their community,” he said. “It’s what ‘take back control’ meant.”

He was also clear in his opposition to proposed Conservative anti-strike legislation, which will be announced in the coming days and could allow employers in essential sectors to fire striking employees. “If it’s further restrictions, then we will repeal it,” Starmer said. “I don’t think the legislation is going to work.”

Focusing on a positive message after months of gloomy headlines, he said Labour wanted to “give people a sense of possibility again, light at the end of the tunnel.”

But he warned that the need for reform should not “be taken as code for Labour getting its big government checkbook out again.” The investment required to revitalize the UK must instead come from a vibrant private sector and a “completely new way of governing,” Starmer will say.

His comments — which echo Sunak’s call for a focus on innovation in his Wednesday speech — are the latest effort by Labour to portray itself as pro-business and lure back supporters who abandoned the party under the left-wing leadership of Starmer’s predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

Starmer promised to set out more detail on specific policy areas in the coming weeks, vowing a more “relaxed” approach to “bringing in the expertise of public and private, business and union, town and city.”

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Starmer says Labour’s vision for government will not lead to big spending

By PA News Agency

A future Labour government will not “spend our way out” of the “mess” inherited from the Conservatives, Sir Keir Starmer will pledge.

The Labour leader is set to follow Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s vision-setting for the country by outlining his own blueprint for Britain in a new year speech in east London.

Sir Keir and his shadow cabinet have been keen to pour cold water on Conservative accusations that the party cannot be trusted with the economy.

He is expected to tell an audience in Stratford that his fresh pledges “should not be “taken as code for Labour getting its big government chequebook out again”.

We won’t be able to spend our way out of their mess – it’s not as easy as thatLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer

He is expected to say: “Of course, investment is required – I can see the damage the Tories have done to our public services as plainly as anyone.

“But we won’t be able to spend our way out of their mess – it’s not as easy as that.

“There is no substitute for a robust, private sector, creating wealth in every community.”


Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves echoed that sentiment during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in which she said Labour would have to use both investment and reforms to sort Britain’s current woes.

“We know we can’t make all the changes we want to see overnight,” she said.

“The neglect of our health service and the failure to grow our economy these last 13 years means an incoming Labour government is going to face a tough inheritance.

“But, with Labour, the cavalry is coming.”

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said reforms would have to help drive changes as well as spending (James Manning/PA)

Asked whether Labour would get close to the £70 billion extra that the Health Foundation charity has estimated will be required by the NHS by 2030, Ms Reeves pointed to the financial chaos that ensued during the short tenure of former prime minister Liz Truss.

“So much that we want to do requires money, but so much also requires reform of our public services,” she said.


Such reforms could involve increasing the amount of spare private health sector capacity the NHS currently uses, Ms Reeves confirmed.

Put to her that some within the Labour Party might consider such a stance to be “privatisation by the back door”, Ms Reeves added: “It is absolutely not.

“It is not fair that, if you don’t have the money and resources, you are waiting for months and months, sometimes years, to get hospital operations. I won’t allow that.”

Sir Keir’s first speech of 2023 comes a day after the Prime Minister delivered his own address, promising to halve inflation, deal with NHS waiting lists, and tackle small boats crossing the English Channel

.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave his first major domestic speech of 2023 at Plexal, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The Opposition leader is expected to pledge to create the “sort of hope you can build your future around”.

Speaking about the future of the country, Sir Keir is set to say: “This new year, let us imagine what we could achieve if we match the ambition of the British people, unlock their pride and their purpose, give them an economy and a politics they deserve.

“That’s why I say Britain needs a completely new way of governing.

“You can’t overstate how much a short-term mindset dominates Westminster, and, from there, how it infects all the institutions which try, and fail, to run Britain from the centre.”

On the NHS, the Labour leader will talk about how the crises affecting the country have each been “an iceberg on the horizon”.

The new approach to governing will be driven by “national missions”, which Labour is expected to set out in the coming weeks, and which the Opposition will use to build its next election manifesto.

Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi said the speech will be “yet another desperate relaunch attempt”.

“Every week he changes his position depending on what he thinks is popular – from supporting free movement to supporting the unions, he’ll say anything if the politics suits him,” he said.

“He should stop giving cliche-laden speeches and, instead, finally unveil a plan for people’s priorities.”

Labour will not open ‘big government chequebook’, Starmer to say

Party leader’s new year speech to promise ‘national renewal’ if elected but stress role of private sector too

Keir Starmer, pictured with the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will warn that ‘we won’t be able to spend our way out of [the Tories’] mess’ in his new year speech. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA


Kiran Stacey

Wed 4 Jan 2023 

Labour will not open the “big government chequebook” in an attempt to repair Britain’s faltering public services if it wins the next election, Keir Starmer will warn.

In a new year speech in London on Thursday, setting out his principles for government, the Labour leader will promise a “decade of national renewal” if the party returns to government. But he will deny that the country’s problems can be fixed by more spending, even as doctors say the NHS is in crisis and strikes bring a number of public services to their knees.

Starmer will say: “We can give people a sense of possibility again, show light at the end of the tunnel.”

But he will add: “None of this should be taken as code for Labour getting its big government chequebook out again.

“Of course investment is required – I can see the damage the Tories have done to our public services as plainly as anyone. But we won’t be able to spend our way out of their mess – it’s not as easy as that. There is no substitute for a robust private sector, creating wealth in every community.”

Starmer’s speech comes a day after Rishi Sunak set out his own vision for Britain in a sprawling speech that touched on everything from graffiti to inflation to teaching maths in schools.

The prime minister promised to halve inflation this year, as well as to oversee an increase in growth and a decrease in national debt as a proportion of GDP. But he has been criticised for underplaying the problems plaguing the NHS, which doctors say could be causing as many as 500 avoidable deaths each week.

On Wednesday, Sunak admitted waiting lists were too long, but rejected the suggestions that elective surgeries should be cancelled to bring them down.

Starmer will talk about the multiple crises facing the government as an “iceberg on the horizon”, warning that the problems with public services are being exacerbated by short-term solutions from Westminster.

He will hint at plans to decentralise power, saying: “I call it ‘sticking plaster politics’. This year, we’re going to show how real change comes from unlocking the pride and purpose of Britain’s communities.”

“No more Westminster hoarding power, no more holding back this country’s economic potential,” he will add.

Starmer will also risk the anger of some of his MPs by speaking warmly about the idea of public-private partnerships, promising “a new approach to the power of government [that is] more relaxed about bringing in the expertise of public and private, business and union, town and city”.

The words echo the message from his shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, who has suggested using private health providers to bring down NHS waiting lists. But that idea has not proved popular with all the party’s MPs – on Wednesday, the shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan repeatedly refused to back the increased use of the private sector in the health service.

On Wednesday, Sunak set out five pledges against which he urged voters to judge him. Starmer has been more cautious about setting out specific promises, but on Thursday he will promise a Labour government would be “driven by clear, measurable objectives”.

He will add: “We will announce these missions in the coming weeks – our manifesto will be built around them. And they will be the driving force of the next Labour government.”

1918 German Revolution Contains Important Lessons for Russians when Putin Regime Collapses, Gallyamov Says

            Staunton, Jan. 4 – In the Russian of Vladimir Putin, the present and the future are discussed almost exclusively in terms of the past even by those who oppose the current Kremlin leader. Sometimes this leads to a dead end, but sometimes the past can offer extremely valuable lessons for Russians.

            An example of this is provided by Abbas Gallyamov, a former Putin speechwriter, in an article today in which he discussed the lessons the 1918 German revolution contains for Russians worried about what will happen when the Putin regime collapses and who want to avoid chaos and revolutionary change (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=63B58A6F7DA8E).

            When the Putin regime finally collapses – and this will happen next year or perhaps a little later, the commentator says – one of two groups will come to power, the moderates or the radicals. Given Russian experience, most people now fear that the radicals will win out and that everything now in place will be swept away as has happened twice since 1917.

            But it can happen that moderates will win the day if they recognize that they need to cooperate with the forces of order in the existing Putin regime and if those forces recognize that holding on to the current system to the bitter end will not only ensure that the radicals will win but that they, the current stakeholders, will be swept away.

            Germany in 1918 benefited from the fact that there were both moderates who recognized they had to make common cause with some in the existing regime to prevent radicalization and revolution and leaders within the existing government machine who understood that they could survive only by making alliances with the moderates whom they had always hated.

            Had one of the other of these forces not been present and not been willing to compromise to prevent collapse and disaster, an extreme revolution almost certainly would have broken out. And that carries lessons for both Russian moderates and for current regime supporters as to how they should act when the Putin regime enters its death agony.

            If moderates refuse to cooperate with those within the regime or if those within the regime refuse to have anything to do with the moderates, then the future is bleak, Gallyamov says, with another destructive revolution almost inevitable, one that will again sweep away the moderates, those within the current elites, and Russia’s future along with them.

Pakistan in a quagmire: Resurgence of terrorism along with its relations with Afghanistan

January 5, 2023
By Safwan Ali


When Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021, a large faction of the Pakistani society including mainstream politicians amused the fact that reins of Kabul had become in control of Taliban. One obvious reason for this felicitation was the much awaited perceived stability in neighboring Afghanistan which had direct impact on Pakistan. The other reason for jubilation in some factions was about the solidarity with regards to the identity of Afghan people. As brotherly nation, perseverance of Afghan people against the scourge of prolonged war, that too against the strongest military alliance, was a matter of inspiration for many in Pakistan. However, the formal response of the government was very much aligned with the global response. Islamabad did not officially recognize the interim government of Taliban. The eventful month of August, 2021 was followed by some key developments.

Considering the geo-political change in the neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan started to rethink its strategy at the western border. Through a backdoor channel, Islamabad approached the Taliban government to ensure the security of its western border from the hideouts of TTP living in Afghanistan. In short, Pakistan wanted the Taliban government to take strong action against TTP. However, in response to that, Kabul with TTP onboard, came up with a “quid pro quo plus” approach. It urged the Pakistan’s government to have a formal agreement with TTP which later on proceeded through a back door channels. In the agreement, TTP agreed for so called cease-fire along and inside Pakistan’s territory in exchange for cessation of Pakistan’s military operation against TTP. Moreover, the strangest of demands that Pakistan agreed to, was providing, the previously expelled TTP associates, with permission to come back and reside in districts of the tribal area. On the other hand, second critical development following the fall of Kabul, was Pakistan’s stance in the international community with respect to humanitarian concerns in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s foreign minister repeatedly urged the International community to establish a meaningful dialogue and engagement with the fragile state of Afghanistan to help the people of Afghanistan. He frequently argued that alienation of a rouge actor prompts even harsher human rights violation by that actor. Hence the world should not neglect Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan Rather, it should accept the reality and engage with Afghanistan.

However, it is extremely unfortunate to write that, both the aforementioned developments, gave rise to a Pro-Taliban sentiment vis-à-vis Pakistan. Nevertheless, the same sentiment has often been misrepresented in the western literature, and the same narrative has also been used to demonize Pakistan at the international forums. However, in reality Pakistan had been the most affected country by terrorism and it had been fighting against the scourge of terrorism since over a decade now. What is even more unfortunate is that in the recent past, TTP announced to resume its nefarious terrorist activities in Pakistan. As a result, a spike in terrorist events specifically in KPK province has been witnessed. The December 21st,2022 military operation is a testament to aggravating law and order situation in the country, in which a group of 25 TTP associated terrorists had been killed, while holding a CTD compound, hostage in Bannu.

Because there is a resurgence of terrorism coupled with the international criticism due to perceived relations with Afghanistan under Taliban. “Pakistan is appeared to be in a quagmire.”

Now, what Pakistan can pursue to undo this, is to redevise a comprehensive plan of action against terrorism in KPK and former FATA. It should also formulate a clear strategy at the western border not to tolerate any presence as well as influx of militants from Afghanistan. Moreover, for future, the state of Pakistan should also learn from the abysmal agreement that it went in with a Non-State Actor (NSA). For NSA’s an agreement is nothing more than a concealing tool for a limited survival. It is because of the three reasons. First, an agreement is always done between two responsible actors; terrorist group like TTP has no burden of responsibility neither in a domestic setting nor at the international level. Whereas, a sovereign state has immense responsibility at the domestic and international level. Second, an agreement between two states holds significance because of the perceived repute in the international system, Whereas, for a non-state actor like TTP, International reputation never comes into the equation as such groups are already infamous for their terrorist agenda. Third, States are mostly bound to stick fast to their bilateral or multilateral agreements, because of the fear of diplomatic and economic sanctions once they pull back from the agreement. Whereas in case of Non-state actors, there exist no such incentive to remain in the agreement.

Considering all the three reasons, it is quite evident that engaging with TTP for so called ceasefire agreement was neither viable nor will it ever be, particularly because, as a state, Pakistan would have to offer a lot in exchange to absolutely nothing. Moreover, because of such an agreement, Pakistan would itself invite criticism from the already skeptical international community. Hence for Pakistan, no tolerance policy against terrorism is the only option possible in order to lower domestic and international cost simultaneously.

Quarry workers stumble upon remains of rare 16th-century English ship, researchers say

Layla Nelson

January 3, 2023




The remains of a rare 16th-century ship were unexpectedly unearthed along the English coast by quarry workers last year, archaeologists said.

Workers from CEMEX, a building materials company, were dredging a quarry near Kent in April when they came across the remains of the wooden ship and contacted experts, according to a December 30 press release from Wessex Archaeology.

“Very few English-built ships from the 16th century survive, making this a rare find from a fascinating period in maritime history,” said archaeologists.

The remains, including 100 English oak logs dating from 1558 to 1580, were found about a quarter of a mile from what is now the coast, archaeologists said. Experts believe the site was once on the coast and that the ship was likely wrecked or discarded.

The wooden remains are “really significant” because they allow for a broader understanding of trade and shipbuilding during the Elizabethan era, which lasted from 1558 to 1603, archaeologists said.



The era was a transitional period for shipbuilding, as shipbuilders were thought to have moved from a traditional building practice — like that observed with Viking ships — to a multi-part process of building the inner frame first, archaeologists said.

After the ship has been photographed and laser scanned, it will be reburied in the quarry so the silt can continue to support the wooden beams, archaeologists say.

“Finding a late 16th-century ship preserved in the sediment of a quarry was an unexpected but very welcome find,” said Andrea Hamel, marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, in the press release.

A spokesman for Wessex Archeology did not immediately respond to a McClatchy News request for comment.

Million-year-old skull could hold key to understanding evolution, Chinese experts say

Layla Nelson

January 4, 2023


More than a million years ago, the first humans—upright creatures with long legs, short arms, and large brains—roamed the earth for the first time.

Now Chinese experts say they have unearthed the most complete skull fossil of one of these humans, known as Homo erectus, from about a million years ago. And it could contain important details about human evolution.

It took more than six months to fully unearth the fossil.

The fossil was discovered in the northern region of China’s Hubei province at the Xuetang Liangzi site, which the National Administration for Cultural Heritage says dates to the Paleolithic period. The skull was found in May, but it took experts until December 3 to safely and fully excavate it.

Two damaged ancient Homo erectus skulls were previously found at the site in 1989 and 1990, the administration said. These fossils were named “Yunxian Man”.

As of 2021, the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology began a comprehensive search of the site for additional relics. Archaeologists found the third skull about 115 feet from where the first two were discovered, the administration said.

The discovery fills an existing gap in evolutionary understanding, Gao Xing, head of the archaeological team at the site and a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, told Xinhua News.

When the skull was unearthed, experts said they left a few inches of sediment for further sampling and study. The bone will now undergo further testing as researchers work to understand early humans and evolution.

Google Translate was used to translate press releases from the National Cultural Heritage Administration and the Institute of Archaeology.

Sacrificial pit – over 5,300 years old – containing jade relics found in China. Just look

Layla Nelson

January 4, 2023




An ancient sacrificial pit was recently unearthed in China along with hundreds of Neolithic artifacts including jade tools and clay vessels.

The discoveries were made at the ruins of Lingjiatan, an ancient archaeological site on the Yangtze River in China’s Anhui province, the Anhui Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology said in a Dec. 9 press release.

Researchers first came across the site in 1985, which is surrounded by two concentric moats. The settlement is between 5,300 and 5,800 years old.

The largest piece of jade unearthed at the Lingjiatan Relics site

It has been excavated five times over the years, and the most recent excavation, from October 2021 and April 2022, focused on a 327-square-meter area near a cemetery, archaeologists said.


Read Also: BC Richter slams Save Old Growth for using frontline protesters as 'sacrificial lambs'

One of the most important finds was a sacrificial pit about 13 feet long and a foot deep. It was filled with baked mud bricks, broken stone tools, and several shards of bone.

The exact purpose of the pit is not clear, although Neolithic Chinese may have burned jade as part of a ceremonial sacrifice, according to Antiquity magazine.

A dragon-shaped jade discovered at the Lingjiatan Relics site

In addition to the pit, archaeologists exhumed over 400 artifacts including jade beads, bracelets, combs and other accessories. According to the press release, a dragon-shaped jade object was one of the “curiouser” finds.

The newly found jade objects are of great importance for the study of minerals and rituals in prehistoric China, officials said.

In addition, five Han Dynasty tombs dating from 206 B.C. to AD 220.

In addition to sacrificial pits and jade jewelry, previous excavations have uncovered altars and house foundations, according to the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology of Anhui Province.

Google Translate and Baidu Translate were used to translate the Anhui Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology press release.

Ankara: The Officious Intermedler in Paris Attacks Against Kurds

by Seth J. Frantzman
The Jerusalem Post
December 27, 2022

This is an abridged version of an article published originally under the title "Turkey Exploits Paris Attack on Kurds While Claiming to Be 'Anti-Terror.'"

Protests erupted in Paris following the murder of three people at a Kurdish cultural center on December 23, 2022.

A 69-year-old Frenchman has been charged with killing three people in Paris last week.

The attack targeted a Kurdish culture center, and three Kurds were murdered. Even though government authorities were quick to condemn the attack at the highest levels, there were days of protests and some riots and clashes after the killing.

Turkey's ruling party and pro-government media have led a campaign to exploit the attack, not sympathizing with the victims but condemning the protesters as "terrorism supporters."

Turkey has also summoned France's ambassador, claiming protesters spread anti-Turkish propaganda. This is a new type of exploitation, where an extremist murders members of a minority, and then a foreign country condemns the minority and bashes the country where it took place.

This is the latest incident of extremism in France. In the past, migrants have been attacked in racist assaults, and other people have been attacked by extremists and terrorists. For instance, a kosher deli was targeted in 2015, and media figures, teachers, a priest, a Jewish school and other people and institutions have been attacked in recent years.

Turkish presence in Paris' internal politics

Turkey has meddled in France's internal politics in the past. After a French teacher named Samuel Paty was beheaded by an extremist, Turkey slammed France for "Islamophobia" – in essence, inflaming the tensions after the beheading.

Ankara's new critique of France comes as Turkey has tried to get Sweden and Finland to crack down on dissidents and critics of Ankara. This often results in the targeting of Kurds, especially Kurds on the Left. Sweden and Finland want to join NATO, but Turkey, which is a member of NATO, has prevented them from joining until they agree to crack down on critics of Ankara. Recently, a court in Sweden appeared to prevent a dissident from being extradited.

"The shooting at a Kurdish cultural center and a nearby hairdressing salon on Friday sparked panic in the city's bustling 10th district, home to numerous shops and restaurants and a large Kurdish population," France24 reported. "Hundreds of people marched in Paris on Monday to pay tribute to the three Kurds shot dead."

In contrast to French media and most international coverage of the attack, Turkish media quickly began to criticize the protesters. Turkish pro-government media called the protesters "terrorists." This narrative was picked up by Ankara's Islamist media and online supporters.

Why would Ankara seek to exploit this case in France?

Turkey claims it is fighting "terrorism" even though there is no evidence of the kind of claims Ankara makes. Ankara wants support for a new invasion of Syria. In Syria, Turkey claims to be fighting the "YPG" and "PKK," two Kurdish groups. It claims that the US-backed SDF, another group, is the same as these "terrorists."

This is a kind of Orwellian rhetoric that condemns every critic and group as "terrorists" as a way to excuse targeting them. For instance, after a recent bombing in Istanbul, Turkey carried out dozens of attacks on Syria, even though there was no evidence linking the bombing to Syria.

By quickly using the media to claim any protesters in Paris were "terrorists," Ankara sought to prevent any criticism of Turkey and to prevent Kurds in France from being able to organize a protest.

Ankara fears Kurdish dissidents and any Kurdish groups abroad. It often works to target the Kurdish language, Kurdish music and flags. Ankara also knows that its opponents will sometimes use these events to raise their flags and voices, so it's easier for Ankara to claim "terrorists" are protesting than to try to segment out the organized critics from the innocent average people.

Major media in the West didn't portray the protesters as "terrorists" and generally sympathized with the Kurdish victims, even if some felt the riots were unacceptable.

The danger that Ankara's intervention represents is that Ankara is always willing to exaggerate and even willing to summon ambassadors of European countries, or try to force NATO not to admit democracies like Sweden, in order to force European countries to suppress critics and minorities in the same way that Ankara does at home.

So far, it appears that France's judicial system is doing the right thing and that peaceful demonstrations are now the norm in Paris. However, it should be noted that this incident of Ankara meddling in internal politics in France, just as it tried to do in 2020 with protests in the US, is a new escalation.

Ankara is seeking to exploit issues in Europe and the West to its benefit. Under the guise of claiming to be against "terrorism," it has warped language to an Orwellian degree.

This is a remnant in some ways of the US "global war on terror" and the way countries such as Turkey took this to mean it could do whatever it wants as long as it labels its adversaries "terrorists."

Seth Frantzman is a Ginsburg-Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and senior Middle East correspondent at the Jerusalem Post.

Dream of Normal Life Drives Rohingya Girls to Perilous Sea Voyage
January 04, 2023
Sarah Aziz

An unidentified Rohingya family is seen at their Cox's Bazar shanty in Bangladesh. The family, like many others in the community, has been unable to afford to marry off their oldest daughters, aged 20 and 18. (Noor Hossain/VOA)

Dressed in an embroidered salmon-hued outfit and sparkling silver boots, a girl gazes seriously into the camera. She stands in stark contrast to the dingy background — walls and a roof fashioned out of crisscrossed bamboo sticks and plastic drape sheets.

The photograph is sent to a network of relatives and family friends who forward it to prospective grooms.

The Rohingya Muslim girl, Mubina Khatoon, was 13 on Dec. 2, 2022, when she boarded a Malaysia-bound boat in Bangladesh. Accompanying her were at least 32 more unmarried Rohingya girls and women from refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Hamida Khatoon, Mubina's 20-year-old unmarried aunt, was also with her.

Rohingya refugee Mubina Khatoon, 13, poses for a photograph before boarding a Malaysia-bound boat, In Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Dec. 2, 2022. (Photo courtesy of family, and blurred at family's request)

The boat, belonging to an illegal ferry service operated by human traffickers, has been missing since December 8, along with about 180 passengers aboard, all of them Rohingya Muslim refugees.

In a statement issued on December 25, the United Nations refugee agency, or UNHCR, described the boat as "unseaworthy" and said it had likely sunk at sea, killing everyone on board.

Since the release of the UNHCR statement, gloom has descended on the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar. More than a million members of the stateless Muslim minority call the ramshackle, congested shanty colony their home.

Mubina's father, Shah Alam, 35, is a day wage laborer. He is one of the hundreds of refugees in the camp who had loved ones aboard the missing boat and are fearing the worst.

"Mubina is the oldest of my four children. I do not earn enough to arrange for a wedding celebration and other necessities for my daughter or sister, here in Bangladesh. So, we decided to send them to the Muslim-majority Malaysia," Alam told VOA in a telephone interview.

"My wife has not eaten in days and keeps weeping since we got the news of the boat drowning. … All of us feel lost and distraught," he said.

His tone brightened, however, when he spoke of his family's dreams about life in Malaysia.

"In the last 10 to 15 years, thousands of young men have traveled to Malaysia from Bangladesh and Myanmar and settled down there with good jobs. They want to marry Rohingya women. A distant cousin in Malaysia said he could easily find grooms for Mubina and Hamida.

"Our girls would be safe and happy there; the economic and living conditions of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are atrocious," Alam said.

The promised land

Several girls have succeeded over the last few years in achieving the Malaysian dream — one of an average life.

Surah Khatoon, whose husband died in Myanmar in 2016, lives in Cox's Bazar now. Her oldest daughter, Sanowara Begum, now 20, married a Rohingya man in Malaysia after her arrival there in January 2021.

"My son-in-law earns well as a construction worker. Sanowara is very happy with him and their son, who is 1 now. Although I miss her often, it consoles me to remember that she is leading a good life now," Khatoon said in a telephone interview. She hopes to send her other children to Malaysia, too.

Rohingya refugee Surah Khatoon sits with her children in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, to speak to her daughter Sanowara Begum — who is in Malaysia— over a video call. Using an illegal boat service, Sanowara reached Malaysia in 2021, got married to a Rohingya man and has been living there ever since. (Mohammed Rezuwan Khan/VOA)

Between 2012 and 2015, a majority of the 100,000 Rohingya who took boats to Malaysia were young men, according to Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which works to support the heavily persecuted Rohingya population and monitor the community's movements.

"These young men who arrived earlier have by now managed to reimburse their debts for their own journey and to save some money to get married," Lewa said in a telephone interview. So, the men often offer to forgo the customary dowry and pay part or all of the cost of the journey of a bride to join them, she explained.

Soyed Alam, 28, is one such young man who works in a Kuala Lumpur restaurant after having moved to Malaysia from Bangladesh in 2014.

Shyly, Alam said, "I wake up every day hoping to receive news of the arrival of a suitable Rohingya girl in Malaysia from Bangladesh, whom I can marry. … I am past the usual age of marriage by my community's standards. There is a dearth of Rohingya girls in Malaysia, and there are many other expectant men here like me."

Settling down in Malaysia is no simple task for Rohingya refugees, however.

Until recently, the Malaysian government had been issuing UNHCR refugee cards to the Rohingya refugees who came to the country. A UNHCR registered refugee can work freely anywhere. According to the U.N., about 57% of the 181,000 officially registered refugees in Malaysia are Rohingya.

But for the last few months, the UNHCR has not been registering the new Rohingya refugees entering Malaysia, leaving them to enter surreptitiously by way of Indonesia with the help of traffickers.

Most of the Rohingya who have reached Malaysia in the last few months are unregistered refugees under the threat of arrest. They live inconspicuously to avoid police, settling in forest plantations, agricultural lands and rural areas.

No woman's land — or sea

The threats of drowning, dehydration and starvation are not the only ones faced by the Rohingya girls and women undertaking the illegal sea journey. Travel to Malaysia from Bangladesh for the Rohingya involves both sea and land-and-sea routes. Gender-based violence — particularly incidents of sexual abuse on the way — are common.

Most Rohingya girls are vulnerable to sexual abuse because they travel without a guardian, Jaan Mohammed, a refugee in Cox's Bazar, told VOA by telephone.

Fishing boats wait at a harbor near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Human traffickers use such boats to illegally ferry Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. (Noor Hossain/VOA)

"I am aware of many such incidents of abuse. But survivors rarely choose to speak about the abuse, fearing it would jeopardize their marriage prospects," Mohammed said.

"A female relative got married in Malaysia three months after her arrival there. But, only four months after the marriage, she delivered a child. It was later revealed that she had been raped by several men during her land-and-sea journey," he said.

Activist Lewa said that during the sea journey, Rohingya women and girls have been raped or sexually harassed on the boat by crew members but also sometimes by Rohingya smugglers aboard.

She described one such incident of abuse in 2020.

"In that case, some women who landed in Indonesia said that the smuggler on the boat had selected some good-looking girls among female passengers and offered them to the crew for the night," she said.

Even risks of death and sexual abuse are not deterring Rohingya families in Bangladesh from sending their daughters to Malaysia.

Rawshidullah, who like many Rohingya does not use a surname, saw his 16-year-old daughter, Umme Salima, off when she boarded the ill-fated Malaysia-bound boat on December 2.

"We took Salima's photograph before her departure and sent it to a cousin of hers who is married to a Rohingya man in Malaysia. She had promised to arrange for a groom for my daughter. It had been a big relief for our family," he said.

Echoing Rawshidullah's sentiments, Shah Alam accompanied his daughter to the boat to bid her farewell, knowing he might never see her again. The Rohingya have no legal travel documents and cannot return to Myanmar or Cox's Bazar once they leave for another country.

"I knew I would probably never see my daughter in person again," said Rawshidullah. "What I was not prepared for was for her to go missing."

CANADA/QUEBEC COLONY
Rich nations must press Haiti’s elite to resolve crisis: former governor general

By Dylan Robertson The Canadian Press
Posted January 4, 2023 

Haiti remains mired in a political and humanitarian crisis, and the situation seems to only be getting worse. Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations Bob Rae just returned from Haiti, and joins Antony Robart for more on what Canada is going to help – Dec 13, 2022

Former governor general Michaelle Jean says wealthy countries must admit mistakes they’ve made in Haiti and pressure that nation’s elite to find a path out of an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

“What is endangered, at great risk, is the very national sovereignty of this country,” Jean said in French, in an extensive interview with The Canadian Press.

Jean said countries such as Canada need to take responsibility for ushering in debilitating economic policies in Haiti and deporting criminals who have sowed chaos in its capital, Port-au-Prince.

READ MORE: Former Haitian prime minister asks court to overturn Canadian sanctions against him

“We cannot look at all this with fatalism and say that this country is cursed. It is not cursed. It carries within it men and women of very strong will, who have even worked very hard to find a Haitian solution — but who also realize that they cannot achieve it alone.”

Jean was born in Haiti and was the former UNESCO envoy for that country after serving as Canada’s representative of the British monarch from 2005 to 2010.

Violent, feuding gangs have taken over the Haitian capital in recent months, sexually assaulting women and children and curtailing access to health care, electricity and clean water.

Hundreds have been killed and kidnapped by gangs who have filled a power vacuum in Haiti, which has not held elections since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

5:15 Chaos in Haiti: What is Canada’s responsibility?

In July 2021, President Jovenel Moise was assassinated after a crackdown on Haitian democratic institutions that Jean argued the West should have called out, instead of allowing Moise to provide impunity to gangs.

“By destroying the country’s institutions, and even in wanting to manipulate the Constitution to stay in power _ eventually, the monster started to grow much stronger and bigger, and Jovenel Moise himself ended up being swallowed by this monster,” she said.

After his assassination, Canada joined the U.S., France and the UN in recognizing Moise’s unelected ally Ariel Henry as prime minister, who Jean said never had legitimacy in the eyes of the Haitian public.

A year later, as gangs took over the capital, Henry called for an international military intervention to allow for humanitarian aid and to create conditions safe enough to hold an election.

1:34 Trudeau promises $16.5 million in aid to stabilize Haiti as Francophonie summit closes

The U.S. supports the idea, arguing it could stem a growing migration crisis and prevent gangs from destabilizing the entire Caribbean.

Washington has said Canada would be an ideal country to lead such a force. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has responded that Ottawa will only act based on a political consensus of Haitians.

Jean said that means there must be a deal between Henry and the civil society groups who have demanded his resignation.

She also said she supports the Liberals’ decision to sanction 13 of Haiti’s political and economic elite, saying it was one of the few times the people responsible for human trafficking and arms trade have been called out.

“Now, for the first time that sanctions have been imposed on these individuals, it’s panic for them,” said Jean.

READ MORE: Canada sanctions 2 Haiti cabinet ministers accused of helping violent gangs

The U.S. also sanctioned some of the same people, and Jean argued France should join them in applying pressure.

She also said rich countries need to own up to policies that have sowed instability in Haiti, from economic reforms that led to the collapse of agricultural sectors to turning a blind eye when leaders who support the U.S. undermine civil society.

“Haitians also recognize their own responsibility in this situation, which is bad governance,” Jean said.

She was among dozens of high-profile signatories to an open letter issued this week in French, with the title “Taken hostage, Haiti is dying.”

The letter argues Haiti needs international help to avoid becoming a failed state.

The signatories include Senegalese President Macky Sall, who currently chairs the African Union, former UN under-secretary-general Adama Dieng and the former heads of government of Timor-Leste, Chad, Mali, Nigeria and the Central African Republic.



1:42 Trudeau meets with French-speaking nations in Tunisia amid geopolitical turmoil

The letter notes that virtually the entire Haitian population descends from slaves brought from Africa, and that the country was the first to successfully overthrow a colonial government in 1804.

“The first Black republic, perhaps the most fragile within the family of nations, is short of food, drinking water, fuel, peace, justice,” the letter reads.

When the country ousted the French, Paris imposed a crippling debt to compensate slaveowners. The country faced a series of invasions, corrupt governments and deforestation.

“These factors could only result in a failed state, fed for many decades with the adrenaline of violence and the jolts of anarchy and chaos,” the letter reads.

READ MORE: Haitians want new government but are torn on military intervention, MPs hear

“It is difficult to imagine the resolution of this Gordian knot without outside intervention,” the letter reads, stressing that this might mean support for justice and governance systems instead of a military occupation.

Jean said that could mean building up institutions led by Haitians and providing technical support.

She said she witnessed RCMP and provincial officers provide training to local police that helped them prove more successful at weeding out crime than peers who had been instructed by UN peacekeepers.

“History will not be kind to those who remain inactive or who choose to look elsewhere,” the letter warns.