BRAZIL

Tracking the Trolls
Vanessa Barbara, interviewed by Willa Glickman
“With Bolsonaro out of the way, I look forward to writing more about mental health issues and other topics of everyday life.”
February 25, 2023

Vanessa Barbara

“The following is a description of a video that I did not watch,” writes Vanessa Barbara in her report on the nation’s recent presidential election in the February 23, 2023, issue of the Review. “‘A male synthetic organism was walking down the street when it came across an evil 5G entity. The biological entity had taken the third dose of the vaccine and its graphene nano-bot system was revved up.’” Though the leftist candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva prevailed over the right-wing Jair Bolsonaro in the October election, a thriving cottage industry of social media conspiracies still mobilizes support for extremist, pro-dictatorship politicians, leaving Brazil’s democracy in a fragile, if hopeful, state.

Barbara, a Brazilian novelist, journalist, and translator,has a lively eye for detail (to take only one example, an Op-Ed she wrote for The New York Times took time to record the name of a neighbor’s pet: Turtle Moses). A current of humor runs through her writing—on subjects as diverse as health, media, and environmental degradation—which is perhaps necessary when reporting on the surrealist turn that politics has taken in both Brazil and the United States.

Last week we corresponded over e-mail about the private messaging app Telegram, Borges, and leftist vegans.

Willa Glickman: What brought you to writing and journalism?

Vanessa Barbara: I was born in 1982 on the outskirts of São Paulo, where I’ve lived my whole life. I started by getting a degree in journalism, but then realized that reporting was not exactly what I wanted to do. I also tried to concentrate on writing fiction, but that was not what I wanted to do, either. Then I tried doing a little bit of everything, and it somehow worked better. That’s what I’m still doing today. In 2008 I earned the Jabuti Prize for O Livro Amarelo do Terminal, a nonfiction book about São Paulo’s—and Latin America’s—largest bus terminal, and in 2014 I received two other prizes (one in France) for a novel, Lettuce Nights. I’ve also written a graphic novel (why not?), and I’m going to publish a children’s book in April. I swear I once copyedited the Portuguese subtitles in a Polish documentary.

Does your writing for an English-speaking audience in the US feel distinct from what you write in Portuguese for Brazilian readers? Is there one genre you especially enjoy?

My Brazilian writing career is very diverse and loose, as I mentioned. But when I’m asked to write for an American audience, things get a little tenser. As someone who’s never studied abroad and who spent most of her life mastering the Portuguese language, writing in English feels like trying to play the flute on a bamboo stick. Not very easy. Additionally, I rarely get asked to write about issues other than Brazilian politics, which eventually becomes a little restrictive. Jorge Luis Borges once said that Argentine writers should not confine themselves to a few local themes, because the universe is their patrimony too. I do try to honor Borges: in eighty pieces for The New York Times during the last nine years, I’ve managed to write about astronomy, turtles, mental health, obstetrics, my sleep disorder, feminism, dengue fever, and the nail polish industry. For the Review I once wrote about the World Cup sticker album. I love writing essays, but my favorite genre is the crônica, a Portuguese-language essay form that is a playful combination of journalism and literature.

With Bolsonaro out of the way, I look forward to writing more about mental health issues and other topics of everyday life. For example, I’ve never written about dance, planetariums, odontology, or Carnival.

In your essay about the election, you document a number of fascinating examples of political and scientific misinformation that are often spread over the messaging service Telegram, which we’re less familiar with in the US. Could you tell us a bit more about this app—what makes it so popular, and does it have certain features that make it easy for users to spread misinformation?

Telegram is an encrypted message platform that supports group chats with up to 200,000 users and channels with an unlimited number of subscribers, so it’s easier to mass-reproduce content there than on WhatsApp, for example, which limits the size of groups. Telegram’s rules on abuse and disinformation are vague, and they are loose about moderation. The company has also, until very recently, eluded all orders and requests from the Brazilian courts. Other social media companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp, had working relationships with the courts; they started flagging and removing false information. So when users were banned from other platforms, they went to Telegram.

Was there already a current of mistrust for scientists in the country before Bolsonaro came to power? You note that vaccination rates for children were once very robust.

We’ve always been cited for our successful children’s vaccination campaign. Our national immunization program, which is among the best in the world, offers more than twenty free vaccines to all Brazilians and has been making its way to self-sufficiency in vaccine production. Between 2002 and 2012 the program achieved an average child vaccination rate of 95 percent. This started to change after presidents Michel Temer (2016–2018) and Jair Bolsonaro (2019–2022) both delivered damaging cuts to our national healthcare system. Bolsonaro has also worked hard to discredit Covid vaccines, and delayed the government from buying them, while promoting an imaginary “early treatment” with ineffective drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Bolsonaro has in fact embodied a historical shift in the Brazilian population’s trust in science, especially on public health and environmental issues.

The January 8 attack on the capitol by Bolsonaro supporters echoed the January 6 attack in the United States, and there are obvious parallels in the vaccine denialism and other preoccupations of the so-called culture war—to what extent does information flow directly between American and Brazilian right-wing influencers?

Brazilian and American far-right supporters are close to one another. Steve Bannon, for example, has repeatedly cast doubt on the integrity of Brazil’s electoral system and is considered an informal advisor to Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign. Tucker Carlson has also amplified the baseless claims of election fraud in Brazil. The national politician Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of our former president’s sons, acts as Brazil’s primary representative to the American right; in the last five years, according to the Brazilian news agency Pública, he has attended seventy-seven meetings with high-ranking Trump supporters, including Trump himself, as well as Jared Kushner, several Republican senators, and representatives from the alt-right platforms Gettr and Project Veritas. (The list is very long.) He attended a CPAC conference and hosted a CPAC meeting in Brazil. During my incursion into Brazilian far-right Telegram groups and channels, I’ve seen many translations of fake news articles from American far-right conspiracy theory websites like Infowars and The Gateway Pundit describing how vaccines are supposedly killing children and how the vegan leftists are trying to normalize cannibalism.

Best of The New York Review, plus books, events, and other items of interest
March 9, 2023
Current Issue

Alaskan Who Sued To Boot Oath Keeper From Office: We Tried To ‘Not Give Him A Platform For This Kind Of Stuff’

Screenshot from a KTOO 360TV interview / TPM Illustration

By Emine Yücel

TPM
February 25, 2023 9:00 a.m.

Many may have learned who Alaska state Rep. David Eastman (R) was for the first time this week, when he made national headlines over his befuddling remarks about the economic benefits of dead abused children.

But not 75-year-old Alaska resident Randall Kowalke.

Last year, Kowalke sued to boot Eastman — an Oath Keeper who attended the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6 — from public office, arguing that Eastman’s lifetime membership in the far-right group made him ineligible to be an elected official under Alaska’s state constitution.

After battling it out in court, an Alaska judge ultimately ruled in Eastman’s favor, allowing him to remain in office. In an interview with TPM this week, Kowalke said the court decision has given Eastman the platform he needs to continue spreading his extremist views.

“We wanted to not give him a platform for this kind of stuff,” Kowalke told TPM.

“I’m a serious student of history. And those kinds of remarks remind me of the clearing out in the mental hospitals in Germany,” he added, referring to mass sterilization and killing of psychiatric patients in Nazi Germany. “Those people were not productive citizens and so they were seen as expendable. And it’s a short step from the kinds of remarks Eastman was making.”

Kowalke’s comments to TPM come days after Eastman argued that the death of an abused child could provide “cost savings” for the government during a state House Judiciary Committee hearing.

The remarks came in response to a policy brief the Alaska Children’s Trust delivered to lawmakers during the hearing. The organization used the hearing to outline statistics on fatal child abuse and to argue that neglect can cost the family and broader society an estimated $1.5 million in health care expenses and potential lifetime earnings over time.


“It can be argued, periodically, that it’s actually a cost savings because that child is not going to need any of those government services that they might otherwise be entitled to receive and need based on growing up in this type of environment,” Eastman said referring to the death of an abused child during Monday’s hearing.

His statement has since sparked outrage among Alaska lawmakers, who voted unanimously across party lines to censure the Republican on Wednesday. Eastman became the first and only Alaska legislator to have been censured twice.

The Alaska lawmaker told TPM in an email statement that his remarks were taken out of context. He argued that he was playing devil’s advocate when he asked about the economic benefits of children’s deaths, and that he was challenging the ways in which ACT was presenting the information.


“In the literature they passed out to us during the meeting, they also went so far as to assign a dollar value of $1.5M to the life of a child who is even less than a day old, in terms of economic benefit to society. I find assigning a dollar value to a child highly problematic,” Eastman said. “Children are priceless. While it was good to hear ACT advocating against child abuse, a child’s value comes not from future economic productivity, but from the fact that every child is made in the image of God.”

“I asked ACT to explain how they got to the $1.5M figure, and asked how they would respond to the opposite argument, that society is somehow economically better off without unwanted children,” he added. “Who better to hear from on this than a group whose stated purpose is to protect kids from abuse?”

Kowalke thinks state lawmakers should do more to shut down the Republican’s extreme rhetoric.


“I think they should expel him. I think they should have expelled him during the last session… but they were too gutless to do anything,” Kowalke said.

Eastman’s membership in the Oath Keepers attracted attention in the wake of Jan. 6. Kowalke soon filed a lawsuit, supported by the Northern Justice Project, alleging that Eastman was ineligible to hold office in the state due to the “disloyalty clause” embedded in the Alaska Constitution. Kowalke and NJP lawyer Goriune Dudukgian argued Eastman’s lifetime membership in the far-right group made him disloyal and therefore ineligible to hold office in Alaska under the state constitution.

“It was sort of a case of if we don’t stand up, who’s going to?” Kowalke told TPM. “We had a portion of our state constitution that said you couldn’t be disloyal. And I certainly believe David Eastman was. I still believe he is. I had a chance to do what I thought was the right thing, and I felt it was my responsibility to do that.”


Kowalke is referring to the part of the Alaska constitution that reads, “No person who advocates, or who aids or belongs to any party or organization or association which advocates, the overthrow by force or violence of the United States or of the State shall be qualified to hold any public office of trust or profit under this constitution.”

The week-long trial over the lawsuit was a spectacle. Eastman proudly admitted he is in fact an Oath Keeper. He also brought in a slew of far-right characters to testify on his behalf: Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers who was just convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in Jan. 6, John Eastman, the Trump attorney who was involved in the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and an ex-FBI employee who has claimed that Mitch McConnell and Beto O’Rourke are agents of the Chinese Communist Party.

In December, despite acknowledging that the Oath Keepers have “through words and conduct, taken concrete action to attempt to overthrow by violence the United States government,” Judge Jack McKenna ruled in Eastman’s favor, allowing him to keep his position in the state House.

The court found that “Rep. Eastman is a member of that organization, but that he does not and did not possess a specific intent to further the Oath Keeper’s words or actions aimed at overthrowing the United States government,” McKenna wrote in his decision. “The court therefore finds that he is not disqualified from holding public office.”

Despite their disappointment, Kowalke and his lawyer Dudukgian decided not to appeal the judge’s decision to protect those who might file similar lawsuits in the future. When asked whether they would try again, Dudukgian told TPM it’s a possibility.

“We don’t have a case ready to go right now. But I’m not ruling out bringing in another case down the road,” Dudukgian said.

While his legal challenge to Eastman’s seat in the state House was ultimately unsuccessful, Kowalke — who held local office and ran for state office as a Republican — says he saw the writing on the wall regarding Eastman long before he decided to file the lawsuit.

Kowalke initially supported the young Republican politician. He and his wife both voted for Eastman when he ran for the Alaska House of Representatives in 2016. Kowalke — who was then a borough assemblyman — even sat down for lunch with the young lawmaker, he told TPM.

But it’s during that meeting, Kowalke said, that he first became wary of Eastman.

Kowalke recalled Eastman saying “indigenous women were getting pregnant so they could fly to Anchorage and Seattle for abortions.”

“That comment caused me a great deal of concern and it sort of went downhill from there,” Kowalke said.

Eastman denied Kowalke’s account of the conversation.

“That’s ridiculous. Never happened,” Eastman told TPM. “He is repeating slander he heard from others.”

However, Eastman made similar remarks publicly to those Kowalke described earlier that same year.

In May 2017, he became the first Alaska House member to be censured in the state’s history, after he claimed that women in rural villages in Alaska try to get pregnant so they can get a free trip to the city for an abortion.

“We have folks who try to get pregnant in this state so that they can get a free trip to the city, and we have folks who want to carry their baby past the point of being able to have an abortion in this state so that they can have a free trip to Seattle,” he said at the time.

Kowalke shared with TPM a mileage log and a reimbursement form he submitted to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough government, where he was an assemblyman at the time. The form labeled the expense as a meal with David Eastman. He also shared with TPM a receipt for the lunch — $42.55 paid to Evangelo’s on August 15, 2017, also labeled, in pen, with David Eastman’s name.

As Kowalke describes it, Eastman is a consequence of the Republican party’s “general slide to the far right, which ended up being an avalanche to the far right.”

“We’re about wanting to have the most extreme views and then control the majority through that minority,” Kowalke said. “I think people are slowly going to realize how destructive all of this is and I hope you know they’re able to put a stop to it before it runs us into a wall.”



Emine Yücel is a national political reporter for TPM. A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Emine has worked as a politics production assistant for PBS’ Washington Week and NewsHour Weekend and a news assistant for NPR’s Investigations Team. She double majored in African American studies and Neuroscience at Northwestern University, where she also competed on the varsity fencing team. She later received her master’s degree in Social Justice and Investigative Reporting from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern.

She put Taliban members behind bars for their crimes. Now she’s in fear for her life – and the UK won’t help

Exclusive: Afghan judge, Yousa, has had death threats, been shot at and is a Taliban target after putting many behind bars. She is now ‘stateless’ in Pakistan and the UK government won’t help, as Maya Oppenheim reports

Yosra estimates while working in the Criminal Court, she was forced to relocate, alongside her son, for short periods around twice a year due to threats against her

(AP

Yousa’s night terrors keep her son awake as the horrors of fleeing the Taliban plague her sleep. Stuck in Pakistan after escaping Afghanistan, she is gripped by anxiety over when they will finally feel safe.

“My son tells me that I sometimes scream in my sleep. I often wake up and I have been biting my lips and tongue. I feel constantly overwhelmed by everything that has happened to us. I am constantly worried about our situation,” she says.

The 52-year-old judge and women’s rights defender escaped Afghanistan in September 2021 after being forced into hiding when the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

Speaking to The Independent in her first media interview, Yosra warns of the dangerous situation she is trapped in after the Home Office refused to reassess its decision to block her from coming to the UK in January.

Despite the fact her lawyers say she is in hiding in perpetual fear she will be deported to Afghanistan, the Home Office said there was a dearth of “sufficient compelling and compassionate circumstances”, her lawyers say.

“After the Taliban took over Kabul on the evening of 15 August 2021, complete fear and darkness took over the city,” Yosra, whose name has been changed to protect her safety, recounts. “As a judge who had been previously under threat from the Taliban, I was devastated and extremely scared for my and my son’s lives.”

Yosra was inside the Supreme Court for a meeting when the Taliban surrounded Kabul and the capital city descended into chaos as its “fall” became “imminent”.

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She went to stay with a family member in old Kabul city for a week with her son before having to relocate “discreetly” to live with different relatives, always wearing burqa to hide her identity. Her anxiety was heightened by the fact the Taliban were questioning local leaders and security guards about whether judges and other high-ranking officials were living in her area.

The Independent revealed back in September 2021 that more than 200 women judges were in hiding in Afghanistan, fearing they would be killed by the Taliban because of their work.

The Taliban has freed thousands of prisoners, including terrorists and senior al Qaeda operatives, and experts have warned that the judges responsible for sending many of them to jail were left terrified for their safety now they are free.

The hardline Islamist group, which previously ruled the country, has blocked women from the workplace, education and public spaces, as well as barring them from taking part in all sports since seizing power in Kabul after US and British forces withdrew.

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Commenting on the current situation, Marzia Babakarkhail, who used to work as a family court judge in Afghanistan, tells The Independent: “There are 19 female Afghan judges with their families in Pakistan. Even though they have left Afghanistan, they don’t feel safe in Pakistan. There are 49 female Afghan judges trapped in Afghanistan.”

The campaigner, who now lives in the UK, warns that recently freed Taliban members have gone to judges’ houses to track them down and says many are “fearing for their lives” and struggling to access food, money or healthcare.

Yosra explains that she is at particular risk due to her work overseeing the trials of Taliban members who plotted terrorist attacks against the government and international forces.

“These individuals were sentenced to between seven and 20 years in prison,” Yosra adds. “All have now been freed by the Taliban and are part of the Taliban government in junior to mid-level positions.”

During her time as a judge in the criminal court, she also presided over cases involving murder, kidnapping, violence against women, and rape.

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• ‘Open and honest’ review of UK Afghanistan involvement required, say MPs

“The 18 years I have spent as a judge have not been easy,” Yosra says. “Throughout my work in the criminal court, I was subjected to threats from criminals, including the Taliban.”

During that time, she and her son were forced to relocate for short periods of time around twice a year due to threats made against her. In recent years, she was monitored by the National Department for Security, as well as being transported to and from work in a government vehicle alongside two armed security guards.

“In 2020, the Taliban hand-delivered a threatening letter, addressed to me at my parents’ house in Kabul, by dropping it over the wall perimeter,” Yosra adds. “A few days later, my parents’ home, where me and my son were living, was shot at. My room was the only one facing the street, so was the target of the shots.”

A male judge colleague was killed at the end of 2020, she says, while two senior female judges she knew were assassinated on their way to work in January 2021. Her son is also at risk of being targeted as he worked with the Attorney General’s office, which looked into harassment against women in public and private institutions.

Discussing her escape into Pakistan, she explains she and her son wore traditional Afghan clothes to appear as though they lived in a rural part of the country. Despite passing through between 10 and 15 Taliban checkpoints, they successfully managed to flee Afghanistan, hiding their passports each time, Yosra recalls.

Instead they said they needed to pass the checkpoints for healthcare, showing their prescriptions which included handwritten notes from her doctor, she notes.

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The pair now live in “constant fear” about their future in Pakistan. She explains she is very “scared” they will be discovered and arrested – adding that they “live in limbo” unable to build a proper life there.

“I don’t understand how the Home Office decided that we could remain in Pakistan with no status, no opportunity to regularise our status and under the constant risk of removal to Afghanistan,” Yosra says.

Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, warns the Home Office’s decision to block Yosra from coming to the UK is a “profound disappointment”.

She argues that the decision is “wholly inconsistent with the UK government’s repeated pledges” to help “at-risk” Afghan human rights champions. Yosra and her son’s case to enter the UK is scheduled to be heard at an immigration tribunal in March. The pair applied for resettlement in the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) but were refused.

To date, more than 12,000 Afghans who worked for the UK government have been welcomed into the UK via ARAP, the Home Office said, adding that the scheme is “uncapped” and remains open.

It comes after lawyers from Kingsley Napley, Jenner & Block London, and counsel Helen Foot of Garden Court Chambers lodged an appeal on behalf of Yosra and her son back in November, after they were denied leave to enter the UK last August.

“We have spent more than a year in extreme anxiety, isolation and uncertainty about our futures,” Yosra, who has relatives living in the UK, says. “We have spent every day in a small, dark apartment without any plan for the future.”

The Independent has contacted the Home Office for comment.

SOLIDARITY IS MUTUTAL AID

‘Homeland is humanity’: Cuban doctor uses poet’s words to describe work helping quake victims in Türkiye

32-member Cuban medical team have treated more than 2,500 victims in Kahramanmaras

Muhammed Enes Calli |25.02.2023


KAHRAMANMARAS, Türkiye

Being thousands of miles from the epicenter of earthquakes is not an obstacle to rendering voluntary medical service to victims.

A 32-member Cuban medical team has been working since they arrived in Kahramanmaras province Feb. 12, six days after devastating twin quakes hit southern Türkiye.

The team operates and is stationed at the Kahramanmaras Necip Fazil City hospital in the Dulkadiroglu district.

Dr. Juan Carlos Dupuy Nunez, who is in charge of the team, told Anadolu that his group has 28 doctors and nurses --19 in different specialties that provide service to three locations in Kahramanmaras.

"We started to take care of a patient in our intensive care unit on the first day we arrived. All of the patients have been the victims of the earthquakes directly or indirectly," he said.

Nunez said the team takes care of patients with mostly orthopedic issues and children with respiratory issues.

"We had a patient who was over a hundred years old and had diabetes, but after the earthquake, his condition got worse. We managed to stabilize him and saved his life. Turkish and Cuban orthopedic surgeons together took care of patients who suffered from traumas," he said.

The Cuban team has treated more than 2,500 patients and is still counting.

"We have seen that the Turkish health personnel is qualified at the top level, and thanks to this, we have been able to successfully do our duty here," said Nunez.

The team is grateful for the opportunity to participate in international aid and to respond to disasters.

"We would like to especially thank the Turkish state and people for the hospitality they have shown us here. We are ready to do our best to be here with you for as long as needed," he said.

Cubans are among several foreign medical staff that rushed to help Türkiye's from thousands of miles after the quakes struck Feb. 6 and killed thousands.

'Homeland is humanity'

An intensive care specialist, Jorge Rodríguez Salas told Anadolu about a patient who is one of the few unusual experiences that he has treated during his career.

"A victim was brought to our intensive care unit. We only knew that the patient had surgery but did not have further information. We started the victim's treatment but we didn't even know the patient has cancer. Later, the doctor, who underwent the patient's surgery, arrived here," he said.

"His family had also been looking for him since the earthquake occurred as they had thought he would be in another city. We then were able to access the patient's entire health background and started collaborating with the surgeon," said Rodríguez Salas.

He said there is no nationality for doctors in intensive care.

"We worked together as a human. I would like to explain this situation with the lines of our poet Jose Marti: Homeland is humanity," he said.

He said disasters bring out the best and worst parts of people.

"Our experience here has revealed the best, solidarity and sensitive side of us," he added.

Pediatrician Alemy Paret Rodriguez has been impressed by the way Turks and the country’s medical personnel welcomed the Cuban team.

"It amazed me how the local people, children, health workers, and officials welcomed us in the villages we have been in despite the gravity of the situation they lived in," she said. "They always gave us a smile and hospitality.”

More than 44,200 people have been killed in the quakes that hit southern provinces.

The 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude quakes were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces -- Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa.

Life amid the rubble: UK specialists on their Turkey earthquake rescue effort

Geneva Abdul
Thu, 23 February 2023 

Photograph: FCDO/PA

British search-and-rescue specialists deployed to Turkey after its earthquake on 6 February have recalled the scenes of devastation that they encountered, as the country and its southern neighbour Syria were hit by two more tremors this week.

“If we were still out there [this week], we would have been in those buildings,” said Wayne Ward, a firefighter for Lancashire’s rescue service, and one of 77 British specialists deployed to Turkey in the days that followed the first quake.

On the morning of the magnitude-7.8 quake, Ward received a text message with a deployment notice from the UK International Search and Rescue team (UK-Isar) – a specialist humanitarian disaster response team deployed by the Foreign Office.

Within hours he was saying goodbye to his seven-year-old twin daughters, packing his kit and leaving for Turkey alongside specialists from 14 fire brigades across the UK.

In the southern province of Hatay, rescue workers were met with the full scale of devastation, including destroyed buildings and split roads. The sounds of ambulances and police sirens were constant, and the air filled with dust from the concrete, stirred by passing vehicles.

An aerial view of debris of collapsed buildings in Hatay. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

“There was no time to feel bad and worried about everything. It was just: ‘We’ve got a job to do now to start rescuing as many people and helping as many people as we can,’” said Ward, 41.

At the peak of the aid response, more than 11,000 rescue workers arrived from around the world, according to Winston Chang, the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group global lead who helped oversee the United Nations response.

“This is a strong show of a level of solidarity that has never been seen, especially for international urban search and rescue teams,” said Chang. Of the disaster responses coordinated by Insarag – including the 2020 Beirut blast, the Nepal earthquake in 2015 and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami – this show of solidarity “beats them all”, he said.

The same cannot be said of the response across the border in Syria, where the long-running civil war hindered attempts to coordinate assistance.

As crew leader in Hatay, Ward led a team of 12, including search and rescue specialists, a medic, a doctor, and a search dog. Within 30 minutes of their operation beginning the team rescued a 91-year-old woman from the first floor of her apartment building, which had split in half.

While not all their efforts were so successful, they were able to recover buried bodies for local survivors. “They couldn’t thank us enough for being able to get their family members out even though they had passed away, it still meant a lot to them to recover the bodies,” said Ward, who has served two tours in Afghanistan and worked 15 years in the fire service.

“That was bittersweet,” said Ward.

A child’s stroller amid the rubble of a collapsed building in Malatya, Turkey. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

“I’m still dreaming about it,” he added. “It was so in your face, the noises, the sounds and the smells, and everything that was going on … It’s just still wired into my head.”

Adam Varey, a technician for the Lancashire fire service, recalled seeing the Gaziantep airport runways full of military planes bearing international flags. The trip to Turkey was his first heavy rescue deployment. “I could immediately tell that this was going to be bigger than anything I’ve ever been involved in,” Varey said.

The team set up its base next to Hatay stadium where they would eat and sleep, and soon international teams from Spain, Hong Kong, Korea and Italy, appeared. Nearby, a refugee camp was being established. Sleeping was uncomfortable, he said. The nights were cold and with the morning came frosted tents.

“Every morning you woke up and you thought about the local people who didn’t have anything and how cold they must have been overnight, and also the survivors trapped under the rubble,” he said.

In their first rescue, part of a fence was fashioned as a ladder to rescue the 91-year-old woman from her building. In another, the entire team worked 17 hours as they tunnelled to a trapped man and woman. Varey was constantly observing their surroundings, wondering whether they would fall.

“I’ll be honest, I was more scared than I’ve ever been in my entire life when I was over there,” he said. “The destruction is bigger than anything that I’ve ever seen.”

But what he is going to remember most are the reminders of lives they found amid the rubble containing children’s toys and books, and the bravery of local residents. “I’ve never seen people so brave.”

When Jim Davison, 51, was first notified of the request for rescue teams immediately after the initial quake, the team leader for Lancashire’s Isar had a 20-minute window to respond.

As the operational commander in Hatay, much of Davison’s role was protecting his team and ensuring nothing was stopping rescue efforts – including helping them adapt to the scale of the disaster, crowd management and delivering difficult news, through an interpreter, to surviving family members.

“Without a doubt, the way that the Turkish people were dealing with that disaster was unbelievable. When you first got there you thought: ‘Oh, my God, this is total chaos.’ But there was order to the chaos,” said Davison, who was a member of the team that responded to the 2011 Japan tsunami.

On the team’s first rescue, he recalled requesting an ambulance from people on the street. Within 5 minutes one arrived. Some of the most successful rescues came from members of the public notifying the team of sounds beneath the rubble.

“It’s just amazing to see the humanity in people,” he said. “I think nowadays everyone’s weary of everyone and it always seems to be doom and gloom in the press – but there are certain times when you realise that humanity is a beautiful thing.”

Large crowd in London demands end to sending weapons to Ukraine

Anti-war protesters march toward Trafalgar square, demand end to war in Ukraine

Burak Bir |25.02.2023
LONDON

A group of people in London on Saturday held a demonstration, calling for peace in Ukraine and an end to sending more weapons.

At the demonstration held by Stop the War Coalition at Portland Place in Central London, the protesters chanted anti-war slogans, while holding banners against sending more weapons to Ukraine as well as Russia. The group later marched toward Trafalgar square.

Jeremy Corbyn, a former Labor Party leader and member of parliament for Islington North, was among the attendees at the anti-war protest.

Speaking to Anadolu, Dalia Sanchez, an anti-war activist, said that she just wants to see the end of the war as so many people have lost their lives, regardless of which side they are on.

"I don't agree with sending weapons [to Ukraine] because, it extends the war," she said, adding both NATO and Russia should engage in talks to prevent more escalation and deaths.

Saying that there is no need for war, Sanchez said this is a result of "failed diplomacy."

John Clark, another participant at the demonstration, also said that he thinks NATO's eastern expansion is not right.

"I am here today just because I think we need to stop war mongers and we need to reconsider what is happening," he added.

"I want to see cease-fire and talk for the peace," said Clark, adding: "We should be sending diplomats, not weapons."

Also speaking to Anadolu, Talia, an activist who only gave her first name, said: "US is manipulating the world for its own interest."

"I think we should stop sending weapons, we should start talking, because it doesn't bring us a solution," she added

"We need to understand that Russia is big, powerful country and we should not the forget that it is a big nuclear state," said Talia.

Meanwhile, another group of people held a counter-protest, calling for increasing the military supply to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Chanting pro-Ukraine slogans, the group was seen holding banners, calling for arming Ukraine to stop Russia.

Russia's war in Ukraine has entered its second year with at least 8,000 civilians killed, according to the UN.

Western countries, including the UK, have stood with Ukraine supplying it with weapons to fight the much larger, nuclear-armed Russia.

First Australian uterus transplant changes future of infertility treatment

Sylvia Jeffreys and Lisa Brown

Feb 26 2023

FRANK REDWARD/SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Kirsty Bryant, right, received her mother Michelle’s uterus in a 16-hour surgery that may allow her to carry another child to term.

A 30-year-old woman has become the first Australian to receive a transplanted uterus in a medical breakthrough at the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney.

Kirsty Bryant was told she’d never carry another baby after undergoing a life-saving hysterectomy during the birth of her daughter, Violet, in April 2021.

She now has a shot at defying that prognosis after undergoing marathon transplant surgery in January.

The organ was donated by Bryant’s 54-year-old mother, Michelle Hayton, who endured an 11-hour operation to remove her womb. Bryant told 60 Minutes she is still wrapping her head around the selfless gift from her mother.

READ MORE:

* Couple desperate to have baby before hysterectomy to end daily pain

* Heart parts harnessed for groundbreaking research

* First baby born using uterus transplanted from dead donor

“I am going to potentially, all fingers and toes crossed, carry a baby in the same uterus, in the same womb I was growing in,” Bryant said. “It will hopefully be a great story to tell my baby one day.”

Hayton met all the relevant criteria for a donor, including being fit, premenopausal and, crucially, willing to hand over her womb without expecting anything in return.

“Kirsty rang, she said to me, ‘Hi, Mum. What do you think about having a hysterectomy and giving me your uterus?’ I said, ‘Yep, it’s on. I have no problem with that’,” Hayton said.

The trial’s lead surgeon, Dr Rebecca Deans, who has spent years researching the project and securing ethics approval, described the 16-hour dual surgery as a success and one of the best days of her life.

“I couldn’t have been happier,” Deans said. “It was such a wonderful day to actually finally get there and be in that room. The buzz was amazing. And then it all went to plan, and Kirsty’s doing beautifully.”

Huge medical moment

The Swedish surgeon who performed the world’s first uterine transplant in 2012, Professor Mats Brannstrom, led the operations on Bryant and Hayton, sharing his expertise with the team at the Royal.

The donor surgery to remove Hayton’s uterus, which began at 7am, was by far the longer and riskier of the two operations, Brannstrom said.

“The difficulty is because the blood vessels are small, and you’re working in, like, a funnel. So, the access for you is very restricted. We dissect the organ, and that means that you actually remove all the other tissues around the uterus.

“There are small blood vessels going out, and we try to isolate those. The problematic thing is that there is a ureter on each side. And the ureter goes from the kidney to the bladder, and we cannot injure that.”

The uterus was lifted from Hayton’s body about nine hours in and was passed across to a table where it was flushed out over ice, before being stitched onto Bryant’s blood vessels using extremely fine threads almost too small for the naked eye to see.

The recipient surgery finished about 10pm, marking a huge moment in Australian medical history and opening an exciting new avenue in infertility treatment.

“Personally, professionally, it was just incredible, and I think everyone felt the same,” Deans said. “There were so many components to the team, the nursing staff, the anaesthetists, and everyone’s saying that they felt the same way, that they really felt like it was one of those moments you’ll reflect on professionally and never, ever forget.”
No guarantee, but no regrets

While the operations were free of major complications, the recovery for both patients has not been easy. Bryant experienced significant blood loss 24 hours after the surgery and required transfusions, while Hayton suffered a serious infection and is yet to feel any sensation in her bladder.

However, a month on from the biggest day of their lives, Bryant and Hayton said they have no regrets – even though there is no guarantee of the reward of a baby.

“To not put my hand up and give it a go, I think would be a massive regret for myself,” Bryant said. “Even if it doesn’t go to plan, the research and the information that they will get from this, in Australia, is going to be worth it. I just want to give hope and give options for other women out there.”

The next step for Bryant is still resting on ice at the IVF lab at the Royal: six embryos frozen months before the operation. Deans will determine when she is ready for the transfer, but the early signs are that the uterus is responding well and Bryant could be pregnant by Christmas.

“It could be somewhere between three and six months from the surgery where we can start implanting those embryos… and each of those embryos has a 30 to 50 per cent chance of success.”

‘I’m going to dream big’

While transplanted wombs are typically removed after five years, some recipients overseas have managed to carry two pregnancies in their donated organ; an opportunity that Byrant is very much open to.

“If we can dream a little, I’d love to carry two more pregnancies. After my hysterectomy, that was something that I really had to mourn – the fact that I wouldn’t be able to be pregnant again. And then to get that chance, yeah, I’m going to dream big.”

While the anxious wait for a baby begins for Bryant, the Royal will forge ahead with plans for 11 more transplants. However, the hospital’s foundation will need to raise a further AU$1 million to fully fund the three-year research trial, and to achieve Deans’ goal of one day making uterine transplants as mainstream as IVF.

“There is a good number of women coming forward saying, ‘I really would love to do this. I don’t have other options. We desperately want to have another child and we’d really love to be considered.’

“I’d love to be able to offer this to women in Australia.”

This article originally appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and has been republished with permission.

https://teoriaevolutiva.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/firestone-shulamith-dialectic-sex-case-feminist-revolution.pdf

The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution 

In THE DIALECTIC OF SEX: THE CASE FOR FEMINIST. REVOLUTION, Shulamith Firestone cuts into the prejudice against women (and children)--amplified through the.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M IS ECOCIDE

Brazil moves on illegal mines in Indigenous Yanomami territory

Issued on: 25/02/2023

Alto Alegre (Brazil) (AFP) – Brazilian authorities this week intensified their fight against illegal mining on the land of the Indigenous Yanomami people, sending helicopters over the Amazon jungle in search of clandestine dig sites.

From above, heavily armed police and officials from the Ibama environmental agency spot a camp: a brown patch of deforested land in the middle of the vast green carpet that is the Amazon.

There are improvised sleeping quarters, a kitchen, bathrooms. The sound of engines thrumming indicates the miners are not far away.

Government agents have already blocked illegal movement on the area's two main rivers, said Felipe Finger, an Ibama coordinator. "Now we are starting another phase -- to attack these mining operations, break up and neutralize these camps."

Spotting the helicopters, the "garimpeiros," or illegal miners, flee into the jungle, leaving behind sacks of cassiterite -- tin dioxide-rich ore known as "black gold" -- which they sell to commercial buyers.

While camouflage-wearing soldiers torch the camp, agents question a 36-year-old miner who failed to escape.

"Illegal mining is not going to end -- it has nothing to do with Lula or Bolsonaro," he says, referring to the current leftist president and his right-wing predecessor.

The miner, who gave his name as Eduardo, said he could make 5,000 reais ($1,000) a week working in the camp, adding, "where can you earn that in the city?"

Yanomami leaders say some 20,000 clandestine miners have invaded their territory, killing Indigenous people, sexually abusing women and adolescents and contaminating rivers with the mercury they use to separate gold from sediment.

One miner at the illegal site was captured by members of Brazil's environmental police © ALAN CHAVES / AFP

'Nothing to eat'

In January, the federal police opened an investigation of possible genocide linked to the miners' abuse of the Yanomami and their resources.

The move came after an official report found that around 100 young children had died in the area last year, some from malnutrition.

"We suffer from diarrhea and vomiting, we have no health care, people go hungry and we have nothing to eat," one Yanomami told AFP on Friday.

Brazil's air force has installed a field hospital in Boa Vista, capital of northern Roraima state, and the military said it has evacuated some 130 patients by helicopter from remote locations.

Early Thursday, armed miners aboard seven boats attacked an Ibama checkpoint on the Uraricoera river. One gang member was wounded in an exchange of fire, while the rest fled.

A member of a Brazilian governmental unit breaking up illegal mining camps shows a basket of valuable tin-oxide ore known as 'black gold' © ALAN CHAVES / AFP/File

Authorities said the attack showed the criminals were feeling the pressure of the government operation.

Illegal mining rose sharply during the 2019-2022 presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, who favored opening Indigenous lands to such activity.

© 2023 AFP

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

South Africa

Two ministers implicated in Eskom corruption probe
Daily Investor • 26 Feb 2023

Two ministers are implicated in an Eskom corruption investigation and have been reported to Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan, The City Press reported.

Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter launched the intelligence-driven private investigation in 2022 using money from donations.

Rapport said De Ruyter launched the private investigation because of the poor support from official law enforcement agencies.

According to the reports, the implicated cabinet members cover their tracks exceptionally well to avoid detection.

They allegedly use trusted partners and distant family members to funnel the ill-gotten gains to themselves.

When Gordhan was asked about De Ruyter reporting the corrupt ministers to him, he did not deny that it happened.

Instead, he said he despised corruption and that the Eskom board must now investigate De Ruyter’s allegations.

These revelations follow an explosive ENCA interview where De Ruyter said Eskom is a feeding trough for the ANC,

He said there is knowledge and support for corruption at the highest levels of the ruling party and the government.

He said he approached a senior minister, which has now been revealed as Gordhan, about a high-level politician involved in sinister and potentially criminal activities at Eskom.

“The minister in question looked at a senior official and said, ‘I guess it was inevitable that it would come out anyway’. It suggests that it was not news,” De Ruyter said.

He explained that there is a connection between theft, sabotage, procurement irregularities, and local and national politics.

“There is very little explanation for the very vociferous opposition to starting the just energy transition,” he said.

De Ruyter added that the ANC wants what will win them the next election, not keep the country going for the next two decades.

“There is a narrative that the state should control everything. The ghosts of Marx and Lenin still haunt the halls of Luthuli House,” he said.

“They still address one another as comrades – which is, frankly, embarrassing. They use words like Lumpenproletariat, which is ridiculous.”

Attacks on De Ruyter after interview

Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan

De Ruyter faced attacks following the interview where he exposed ANC corruption at Eskom and embarrassing behind-the-scenes information.

Eskom Chairman Mpho Makwana said De Ruyter behaved “reprehensibly”, adding that he hadn’t discussed the majority of his allegations with the board.

Makwana said he spent his time “chasing renewables” rather than focusing on fixing existing coal plants and avoided a performance review by resigning just before it.

ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula threatened to take legal action against De Ruyter for his allegations that senior ANC members were involved in Eskom corruption.

Mbalula questioned De Ruyters’ political position, adding that he had right-wing leanings, failed at his Eskom duties, and acted repulsively during the interview.

Gordhan attacked De Ruyter for “meddling” in politics instead of focusing on ending load-shedding.

“Where they have political views, that is their private business, and they are welcome to express those views privately,” Gordhan said.

He downplayed De Ruyter’s allegations that little is done to combat corruption and theft at Eskom and that senior officials continue to loot.

“Lots of people have been reported to the law enforcement authorities for alleged involvement in acts of corruption or fraud,” he said.

Gordhan told Sunday Times he was blindsided by the man who he trusted and supported for three years.

National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe has also slated De Ruyter’s criticism of the police and their investigation into his alleged poisoning.

De Ruyter gone

Eskom Chairman Mpho Makwana

On Wednesday evening, shortly after the ENCA interview aired, Eskom announced that De Ruyter had left the power utility with immediate effect following a special board meeting.

“The Eskom Board and Group Chief Executive (GCE) Andrè de Ruyter have reached a mutual agreement to curtail his notice period to 28 February 2023,” Eskom said.

“The board further resolved that De Ruyter will not be required to serve the balance of his notice period but that he will be released from his position with immediate effect.”

On Friday, Eskom announced the appointment of Calib Cassim as Interim Group CEO with immediate effect. Cassim will lead the Eskom management team until further notice.

De Ruyter said during the interview that he would be leaving South Africa for a while to ensure his safety.

Asked whether he is concerned that he may be murdered for speaking out, De Ruyter said he plans to spend time abroad after leaving Eskom.

“I think that will be good for my health,” the former Eskom CEO said.

SOUTH AFRICA

Eskom’s $13.9 Billion Debt Plan Opens Up Power Privatization

Prinesha Naidoo
Wed, February 22, 2023 

A ‘fraught’ Eskom cleanup

National Treasury has appointed an international consortium to advise on the future of the state-owned power utility — and it’s looking very much like privatisation

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s stricken power utility will receive 254 billion rand ($13.9 billion) in debt relief from the government over the next three years, provided it brings in private partners to help operate its plants and the electricity transmission network.

The package will strengthen Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s balance sheet and cover all interest payments over the next three years, budget documents presented by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to lawmakers in Cape Town on Wednesday show. That will free up money for the utility to undertake plant maintenance and improve the transmission and distribution infrastructure as the country battles record electricity outages.

Eskom “imposes an enormous drain on the economy,” the National Treasury said in its Budget Review. “Prolonged and debilitating power failures” are among the factors that prompted it to cut its economic growth forecast for 2023 to 0.9% from 1.4% in October.

The rand gained as much as 0.7% and was 0.2% stronger at 18.2118 per dollar by 3:19 p.m. in Johannesburg, while the yield on South Africa’s most liquid government debt due in 2026 dropped. The yield on Eskom’s unguaranteed tranche of dollar notes maturing in 2028 fell 45 basis points to 9.49%.

“The 2023 budget reiterates government’s commitment to debt stabilization and a primary surplus,” said Elna Moolman, an economist at Standard Bank Group Ltd. “Investors will draw some comfort from the continuity of the general fiscal intent, and more clarity about the fiscal impact of support for Eskom.”

The relief adds to 263.4 billion rand in bailouts handed to Eskom since 2008, when it started imposing rolling blackouts that have roiled the economy. The Treasury said the success of the plan hinges on the implementation of politically unpopular, inflation-beating electricity-tariff increases approved by the nation’s energy regulator last month.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is expected to lead the ruling African National Congress in its toughest election battle since the end of apartheid next year, has appealed to Eskom to suspend the tariff hikes of as much as 18.7%. Opinion polls show the party risks losing its national majority.

The government will give Eskom three annual advances totaling 184 billion rand through March 2026 to repay maturing debt and cover interest costs. The funding will be converted to equity if Eskom meets its performance criteria. The bulk of the transfers will be financed through additional borrowing, the Treasury said.

The government hadn’t yet discussed details of the debt-relief plan with Eskom’s creditors before the announcement, though the package was shaped by feedback from engagements with them, said Duncan Pieterse, the head of the Treasury’s asset and liability management unit. An investor call is scheduled to take place later on Wednesday afternoon.

While the relief will give the loss-making utility room to undertake critical maintenance needed to secure electricity supplies, it will weigh on public finances.

Government debt will probably peak at 73.6% of GDP in 2026 — a higher level and three years later than previously expected. Debt-service costs — the fastest growing expenditure line item for about a decade — will increase to almost 20% of main-budget revenue. That’s even as the government uses higher-than-expected tax revenue to pay down debt and rein in the budget deficit.

Debt relief for Eskom is contingent on the company meeting pre-determined performance targets. An international consortium of energy experts will review its fleet of coal-powered plants by mid-year, determine which ones can be “resuscitated” to original equipment-manufacturer’s standards and advise on operational efficiencies. Eskom will then be obliged to implement the recommendations, and to concession operations and plant maintenance to private operators.

While the utility will be given a window to boost compliance, it will be expected to meet all the conditions, said Jeffrey Quvane, the director for energy and telecommunications in the Treasury’s asset and liability management unit. Eskom’s performance will be reviewed on a quarterly basis and it will have to repay loans at market rates to the National Revenue Fund if it fails to meet targets.

Eskom, the Treasury and Department of Public Enterprises also agreed to design a mechanism for building new transmission infrastructure “that will allow for extensive private-sector participation,” the Treasury said. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, which the ANC wants to take over responsibility for Eskom, was consulted as part of the debt-relief arrangement process, said Ravesh Rajlal , the chief director for oversight in the Treasury’s asset and liability management unit.

Under the plan, Eskom may only undertake capital expenditure on transmission and distribution, while any spending on generation will have to relate to meeting minimum emission standards. The utility will also be barred from awarding unsustainable salary increases, and taking on new borrowings from April until the end of the debt-relief period without written permission from the finance minister.

Eskom’s debt burden stands at 423 billion rand, almost 80% of which is guaranteed by the government. The guarantee framework expires at the end of next month, after which the company will no longer be able to draw down on guarantees.

--With assistance from Mike Cohen.