SYRIAN KURDISTAN

Having been affected by ISIS crimes | Residents and activists support Autonomous Administration’s decision to try ISIS prisoners

On Jun 13, 2023

After defeating ISIS in its last stronghold in Al-Baghouz area in Deir Ezzor countryside and eliminating it as a controlling power in Syria, nearly 10,000 ISIS members were arrested, mostly handed themselves to Syrian Democratic Forces. Since then, the Autonomous Administration appealed to nearly 60 international and regional countries to take back their citizens, both persons of families of ISIS members and ISIS prisoners, and launched initiatives to relevant countries and human rights and United Nations-affiliated organisations in order to establish an international tribunal, so that ISIS prisoners would be tried according to unrefuted evidence provided by the Autonomous Administration proving their involvement in crimes against the region’s residents.

Following the failure of all initiatives which have been provided to the international community, the Autonomous Administration decided to refer foreign ISIS prisoners to courts in areas under its control to ensure fair trials in accordance with international and local laws regarding terrorist acts and preserve the rights of plaintiffs and the victims’ families.

The decision of trying ISIS members, who are held in prisons of the Autonomous Administration, was met by considerable reactions by the residents, especially those who have been affected by ISIS crimes, where they welcomed the decision and expressed their support to such steps.

Speaking to SOHR, a civilian known by his initials as S. S. from Al-Hasakah city said, “on March 20, 2015, ISIS detonated booby-trapped car and motorcycle in civilians on the eve of Nowruz in Al-Hasakah city. The two explosions left 52 fatalities, some of whom were my relatives and friends, and over 200 others injured. I was also injured with tens of metal fragments. I support the Autonomous Administration’s decision to try ISIS prisoners and ensure maximum penalties against everyone involved in crimes committed by ISIS which is the source of panic in the area until now. We appeal to the international community to repatriate ISIS prisoners from prisons located inside cities and the families of ISIS members, who are held in camps, such as Al-Hawl camp which is considered as a “ticking bomb.”

Another civilian known as A. S. from Qobour Qarajenah village in Tel Tamr countryside and now living in “Washo Kani” camp, which hosts displaced civilians who have been forced to displace during “Peace Spring” operation, told SOHR, “while I was going to school, as I was a high-school student then, a landmine exploded, and I was severely injured and lost my leg. That landmine had been planted by ISIS which left the village, but its dangerous remnants remain.” The man stressed that all ISIS criminals who killed and humiliated civilians and forced them to displace must be punished.

The journalist and terrorism affairs observer “Abd Al-Halim Suleiman” has told SOHR, “regarding the decision of trying ISIS members held in prisons of the Autonomous Administration was a public demand, and the Autonomous Administration brought the decision to the fore after the end of Al-Baghouz battle, especially since this cause posed a legal dilemma. Those ISIS prisoners hail from over 60 countries, and this affects the region of north and east Syria, since they are held in prisons of the Autonomous Administration. Unfortunately, the international community did not respond to the initiative which had been launched by the Autonomous Administration a few years ago, and it reached no solutions and abandoned the issue of ISIS prisoners. Accordingly, the Autonomous Administration found itself to turn to effective judiciary. Countries whose citizens belong to ISIS and imprisoned in Autonomous Administration’s prisons have to cooperate with the Autonomous Administration to try them and put an end to this dilemma.”

Although ISIS has been eliminated as a controlling power in Syria, its affiliated cells are active and numerous in areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration and carry out frequent attacks that target combatants and civilians, including armed attacks, assassinations, explosions and ambushes, as well as attacks on SDF military posts.

‘Dances With Wolves’ actor Nathan Chasing Horse hit with more sexual assault charges amid ‘cult’ allegations

2023/06/15

Nathan Chasing Horse at his arraignment at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on March 1, 2023, where he pleaded not guilty to charges that he raped two women. 

- Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Authorities in Alberta, Canada, are pursuing Nathan Chasing Horse, a former actor known for his role in the movie “Dances With Wolves.”

Chasing Horse faces nine new charges, which include sexual exploitation, sexual assault and unlawfully removing a child from Canada who is under the age of 16, CBC reported.

An investigation into the crimes spanned several years, according to Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service, with one of the offenses dating to 2005.

Since his arrest in January, the actor has been held in a southern Nevada jail, where he already faced 18 felonies for sexual assault of a minor, child abuse and kidnapping.

According to court documents, Chasing Horse had been the leader of a cult-like group known as The Circle, and allegedly exploited his position to take underage wives and manipulate Indigenous families.

The prosecution in Nevada was paused as the actor appealed the state’s Supreme Court to dismiss the case.

Lawyers representing the actor, who portrayed a young Sioux named Smiles a Lo, in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film from 1990, have argued that his accusers wanted to have sex with him.

Chasing Horse also faces criminal charges in Montana and British Columbia.

U.S. arrest documents show that, earlier this year, Alberta police received a complaint from a woman saying she was 15 years old when she was assaulted and taken to the U.S. as one of Chasing Horse’s multiple wives.

The woman said she ultimately returned to Canada because she was being physically and emotionally abused, according to the documents.

Three arrested in Austria for potential attack on gay pride parade

2023/06/18

People take part in the opening of the 27th "Rainbow Parade" at City Hall Square. 

Eva Manhart/APA/dpa

A potential plot to attack Vienna's annual gay pride parade on Saturday was foiled and three suspects were arrested, an Austrian security service said on Sunday.

Three young men - aged 14, 17 and 20 - were accused by the head of the Directorate General for Public Security of being Islamic State sympathizers.

Omar Haijawi-Pirchner said the suspects had taken predatory steps to attack the "Rainbow Parade" in the Austrian capital but there was never any threat to the public because the trio had been under long-term and constant surveillance by law enforcement.

The arrests were made before the parade kicked off.

Extensive evidence was secured during house searches on Saturday. According to Haijawi-Pirchner, sabres, an axe, gas pistols, throwing stars and knives were found.

Saturday's parade was the culmination of a week of events to celebrate the LGBTQ community and demand equal rights. More than 300,000 people were in attendance.

People take part in the opening of the 27th "Rainbow Parade" at City Hall Square. 

Eva Manhart/APA/dpa

© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

Austria foils pride parade attack, officials say

People celebrate LGBTQ rights at the annual pride parade in Vienna on Saturday.

 | REUTERS

AFP-JIJI
Jun 18, 2023

VIENNA – Austrian police have arrested three youngsters, including a 14-year-old, for allegedly planning an attack at Vienna’s pride parade, which drew hundreds of thousands of people, officials said Sunday.

The men  BOYS aged 14, 17 and 20 and suspected of being Islamic State sympathizers were held ahead of the parade, according to domestic intelligence agency (DSN) chief Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.

He told reporters that there was “never any threat” to those who participated in the Pride Parade in central Vienna on Saturday.

“They sympathized with the Islamic State online and shared extremist content. In this context, the suspects focused on the Pride Parade as a potential target for an attack,” the interior ministry said in a press release.

During raids on two premises on Saturday, authorities discovered weapons and other evidence against the three Austrians with Bosnian and Chechen roots.

One of them was already previously known to police. They had planned to use “knives or vehicles” in the attack, police told reporters.

Some 300,000 took part in the parade for LGBTQ rights.

In November 2020, a convicted Islamic State group sympathizer went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four and wounding 23 others before police shot him dead.

It marked the Alpine nation’s first deadly jihadi attack.

Earlier this year, a Vienna court sentenced two alleged accomplices of the gunman to life in prison, while two others received prison terms of 19 and 20 years.

Swiss referendum set to back global minimum corporate tax, climate goals

Sunday, 18 Jun 2023 

ZURICH, June 18 — Swiss voters looked set to approve proposals to introduce a global minimum tax on businesses and a climate law that aims to cut fossil fuel use and reach zero emissions by 2050, projections by public broadcaster SRF showed today.

The projections, based on counted votes, showed 88 per cent of those who voted in today’s national referendum backed raising the country’s business tax to the 15 per cent global minimum rate from current average minimum of 11 per cent, while 55 per cent supported the climate law.

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The results of the vote were expected later today.

In 2021, Switzerland joined almost 140 countries that signed up to an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) deal to set a minimum tax rate for big companies, a move aimed at limiting the practice of shifting profits to low tax countries.

Even with the increase Switzerland will still have one of the lowest corporate tax levels in the world, and the proposal, estimated to bring 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($RM12.9 billion) per year in additional revenue, has been backed by business groups, most political parties, and the general public.

The climate law, brought back in a modified form after it was rejected in 2021 as too costly, has stirred up more debate with those campaigning against it gaining traction in recent weeks.

Proponents say the law is the minimum the wealthy country needs to do to prove its commitment to fighting climate change while opponents from the right wing People’s Party say it will jeopardise energy security.

The projections from today’s referendum also suggested voter approval for an extension of some provisions of the country’s emergency Covid-19 law, required under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, where legislation is put to the public vote.

Switzerland is home to the offices and headquarters of around 2,000 foreign companies, including Google as well as 200 Swiss multinationals, such as Nestle. While all would be affected, business groups have welcomed the greater degree of certainty that the new tax would bring, even if Switzerland lost some of its low-tax allure.

“No other country is going to have lower taxes either. We want the additional tax revenue to stay in the country, and be used to improve its attractiveness for businesses,” said Christian Frey, from Economiesuisse, a lobby group. — Reuters

Switzerland votes for new climate change law

Projections show 58.3% of voters in favour of legislation to reduce the country's dependence on imported oil and gas

Chunks of ice float in a lake in front of the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland. AP

Matthew Davies
London
Jun 18, 2023

Swiss voters have voted to pass a new climate change law on Sunday which, if passed, would see the country reduce its reliance on imported oil and gas.

Projections by the GFS Bern Institute and released by public broadcaster SRF showed that 58.3 per cent of voters approved the passing of the bill. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points, according to SRF.

“The supporters have reason to rejoice,” Urs Bieri of the GFS Bern Institute told SRF.

“But by no means everyone is in favour of the law. The argument with the costs has brought many ‘no’ votes.”

Recent opinion polls had shown widespread support for the “Federal Act on Climate Protection Targets, Innovation and Strengthening Energy Security”, as the Swiss witness the impact of global warming on the country's rapidly melting glaciers.

READ MORE
Glacier melting 'off the charts', UN agency says

In the run-up to Sunday's vote, a survey showed despite 63 per cent being prepared to vote in favour of the bill, there was nervousness over the ability of country to quickly replace imported energy with home-grown, green alternatives.

Switzerland imports 75 per cent of its energy. All of its oil and gas comes from abroad.

Climate activists had lobbied for a total block on oil and gas imports by 2050, but the government subsequently opted not to have an outright ban in the final bill.

Instead, the new law will pledge 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion) over a decade to kick-start the replacement of gas or oil heating systems with greener alternatives.

An electoral poster urging Swiss people to vote in favour of the bill in Lausanne. AFP

Opposition from the Right

The right-wing SVP party said the law would create supply problems and send household electricity bills soaring.

SVP leader Marco Chiesa said the bill would effectively be a “electricity-wasting law” driving up energy costs by 400 billion Swiss francs, and have “no impact” on the global climate

.

The Fiescher Glacier in Switzerland. AP

Meanwhile, environmentalists welcomed the triumph of the “yes” vote.

“This victory means that at last the goal of achieving net-zero emissions will be anchored in law. That gives better security for planning ahead and allows our country to take the path towards an exit from fossil fuels,” said Georg Klingler, an expert on climate and energy at Greenpeace Switzerland.

“The result of the vote shows that the citizens of our country are committed to the aim of limiting global warming to 1.5°C in order to preserve as much as possible our glaciers, our water reserves, our agriculture and our prosperity.

“I am very relieved to see that the lies disseminated by the opposite camp during the campaign did not sow the seed of doubt in people,” he added.

Back in April, the World Meteorological Organisation said the economic impact of Switzerland's melting Alpine glaciers would have a serious impact on the country's economy – from loss of tourism and the potential for natural disasters such as landslides, to the possible lowering of river levels that supply hydroelectric power plants.

Swiss glaciers lost 6 per cent of their volume last year, a figure that rang alarm bells for scientists who said a 2 per cent loss due to melting would have been considered extreme.

Between 2001 and 2022, Switzerland's glaciers lost around a third of their volume.

Switzerland holds referendum on net-zero climate law

The government plans a 75% emission cut by 2050 but the right-wing Swiss People's Party warned the plan will cause energy prices to rise

Deutsche Welle Published 18.06.23

An ad for the climate protection law referendum calls on voters to "Upset Putin with your voice"

Deutsche Welle

Swiss voters took part in referenda Sunday on a new climate protection law and higher corporate taxes, with polls indicating that both measures will pass.

Parliament already passed the climate law, which aims to make Switzerland climate neutral by 2050 and reduce the impact on the country's iconic glaciers, which are melting away at an alarming rate.

But the right-wing conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP) has refused to back it, arguing that cutting climate-damaging emissions by 75% by 2050, compared to 1990, would cause energy prices to explode.

SVP leader Marco Chiesa last month criticized the "utopian" vision behind the bill, maintaining it would drive up energy costs by 400 billion Swiss francs (€447 billion, €4.08 billion) while having basically "no impact" on the global climate.

The SVP collected sufficient signatures to force the referendum vote under Switzerland's system of direct democracy.

Alpine glaciers melting fast

Backers of the plan argue that Switzerland will be hard-hit by climate change and is already seeing the effects of rising temperatures in the Alps.

Swiss glaciers experienced record melting last year, losing more than 6% of their volume and alarming scientists who say a loss of 2% would once have been considered extreme.

Opinion polls indicate strong support for the proposed law, the most recent by pollster gfs.bern put public backing at 63%.

Subsidies for renewable heating systems

The Swiss government is keen to promote the departure from fossil fuel use in heating with financial incentives.

Companies will also be supported to help them convert to climate-friendly technologies.

Over a period of 10 years, 3.2 billion Swiss francs are available for this purpose.

Switzerland still imports about three quarters of its energy and the need to transition has been made more urgent by unstable supplies from Russia due to the Ukraine war.

In an attempt to bring down that share, the government is planning to allow companies to build large solar panel parks in the Alps, along with more wind turbines.

Climate activists had initially wanted to push for a total ban on all oil and gas consumption in Switzerland by 2050.

But the government balked at the so-called Glacier Initiative, drawing up a counter-proposal that scrapped the idea of a ban but included other elements.

Meteorologists have warned that climate change to exacerbate natural disasters in the Alps and hurt tourism revenues.

Corporate taxes to rise in line with rest of world

In the case of corporate taxes, the issue is the implementation of a decision by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to require international companies with sales of at least $750 million to be taxed at a rate of at least 15%.

Many of Switzerland's 26 cantons have imposed some of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world, in what they often said was needed to attract businesses in the face of high wages and location costs.

The government estimates that revenues from the supplementary tax would amount to between 1.0 and 2.5 billion Swiss francs in the first year alone.

Basel and Zug, where large pharmaceutical and trading groups are based, would benefit most from higher tax revenues.

The latest opinion poll indicated that 73% of voters backed the plan.

Polling stations were due to remain open until 12 p.m. local time (1000 GMT), with most voters casting their ballot in advance.

Initial results were expected by mid-afternoon.

'They are choosing profit over humanity': Hollywood writers of Middle Eastern heritage talk about why they're on strike

Hollywood writers of Middle East origin have long worked to make stories more representative of their cultures. With the writers' strike well into month two, it has brought together different communities, who say they are fighting for their future.

Brooke Anderson
Washington, D.C.
14 June, 2023

As a son of Lebanese immigrants in Ohio, George V. Ghanem grew up watching Hollywood movies with his mom as she learned English, and he also wrote scripts that he dreamed of turning into his own productions.

Now based in southern California with several hit TV shows under his belt, he says that through the Hollywood writers' strike, now in its second month, he is fighting for the survival of the industry he loves.

"We're fighting for the future of this industry," Ghanem tells The New Arab. "Everyone is doing as much as they can. We're in solidarity with each other. No one can work in the meantime."

 
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New technology, old disputes

The future of the quickly-changing industry, which has brought the parties to a standstill, is digital. These days, this means acclimating to the realities of streaming and artificial intelligence, both of which have effects on the structure of the industry, including writers' pay.

The surge in streaming has coincided with writers' pay cuts and smaller staff, along with shorter TV show seasons, despite record profits for the studios. Strikers are asking for guarantees of residuals for streaming, larger writers' rooms and prevention from their original work to be used for artificial intelligence.

"We don't want our scripts generated by AI. We want protections from our own scripts being fed into AI"

"This is one of the big things we're negotiating. We don't want our scripts generated by AI. We want protections from our own scripts being fed into AI," says Ghanem.

AI has been compared with past shifts in technology, including 15 years ago, when the last writers' strike took place, with the shift toward streaming, now the norm for entertainment consumption.


Those leading the strike are around 11,500 writers represented by the Writers Guild of America, who are going up against the major studios: Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount and Sony, represented by Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

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Sabena Siddiqui

Solidarity among the underrepresented

The strike, which started at 12:01 am on 2 May, the day after the WGA contract expired, has united a stratum of American society — bringing together young and old, gay and straight, and writers from different cultural backgrounds, as they take turns standing on the picket lines in front of the major Hollywood studios.


"The pickets are supported by committees from the queer, black, Latinx, and Native communities. Being Middle Eastern myself, I'm really passionate about our lack of representation. I want to show solidarity with other underrepresented groups"

"It's truly been amazing, but bad news for powers that be," Mano Agapion, a comedy writer and vice chair of the Middle Eastern Writers Committee," tells The New Arab.

"It's making us stronger. Getting us to connect with other writers has made us more resolute," says Agapion, who is gay and whose background is Palestinian, Syrian and Greek. "The pickets are supported by committees from the queer, black, Latinx, and Native communities. Being Middle Eastern myself, I'm really passionate about our lack of representation. I want to show solidarity with other underrepresented groups."

 
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Hasan Kilani

The Middle Eastern Writers Committee, established in 2020, aims to generate inclusiveness for an underrepresented group, accounting for around 0.3 percent of Hollywood screenwriters, and to try to counter negative depictions of Middle Easterners in entertainment.

"The last thing we need is more stories about rich white men. Sorry, Succession," says Agapion, referring the hit series about a family company dynasty. "Pop culture is viewed through the lens of whiteness. Why not a duplicitous oil family from Dubai?"

He says he tends to tell outsider or underdog stories, something he identified with as a gay Arab growing up in North Carolina. For his part, Ghanem has worked to portrayals of the Middle East, including a taxi scene in Beirut, as realistic as possible.

International solidarity amid divisive tactics

At the beginning of this month, writers' unions across the world announced they would be joining them, vowing they will not cross the digital picket lines by writing for Hollywood studios, with a demonstration planned in London's Leicester Square on the 14th. There will be similar actions in at least 20 countries across the world, including Buenos Aires, Cologne, Paris, and Seoul.

“On this Global Day of Solidarity, I would like to join my fellow union members in the UK in sending this message to screenwriters across the Atlantic – we hear you, we support you and we stand with you," Sandi Toksvig, president of the Writers Guild of Great Britain said in a public statement issued on the eve of the Global Day of Solidarity.

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"We understand that these are difficult times and that many writers are in need of work but we are advising our members not to work on projects in the jurisdiction of the WGA for the duration of the strike following a motion of solidarity passed by our lay governing body," the Writers Guild of Great Britain wrote in a public statement, following the outbreak of the WGA strike.

This show of solidarity comes just as the Directors Guild of America has struck a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, described by many observers as a divide-and-conquer tactic by the studio heads. A similar strategy was used in the 2007-2008 strike, which so far has not worked during this ongoing strike.

Beyond just business for the strikers

For many of the striking writers, their picketing goes far beyond their demands for higher pay and more job security. Many see themselves as part of a global movement that is fighting for the rights of creative workers and the middle class amid a collusion of overpaid executives who lack the artistic skills to write scripts but who hold the financial power.

"They're choosing profit over humanity. The people who ran the studios used to be art lovers. Now, it's corporate people and numbers people. It was allowed to change, and now we have to protect ourselves. It's been gradual, and it's tough"

"As a creative, it's a very interesting time to be sticking with your guns. I'm incredibly proud to be part of the WGA to support the future of our careers," says Agapion. "I think it's part of a bigger labour movement. The middle class is disappearing. As writers, we're no different."

Ghanem says, "They're choosing profit over humanity. The people who ran the studios used to be art lovers. Now, it's corporate people and numbers of people. It was allowed to change, and now we have to protect ourselves. It's been gradual, and it's tough."

Vincent Mosco, professor emeritus of sociology at Queen's University in Canada, who left the US following the re-election of former President Ronald Reagan after his mass firing of the striking air traffic controllers, tells TNA that he is impressed by the worker mobilisation he is seeing among the younger generations.

"There's a satisfaction I have today that the younger generation is starting to mobilise and fight back," says Mosco. "For the short term, the writers have the club of creativity. As long as you have that, you can retain control. The producers think they can squeeze the product out of them for the least pay."

As AI has become increasingly widespread in daily life, threatening to replace writers, Ghanem has thought about how it could also replace studio executives.

"I keep on thinking about all of this AI stuff and executives thinking they can't be replaced," he says. "The idea that they think they're immune is preposterous. They're figuring out what's going to make a profit. They have AI for that already."

Brooke Anderson is The New Arab's Washington, DC correspondent. She spent five years in Damascus, where she studied Arabic and worked as a journalist and eight years in Beirut, where she mainly worked as a journalist. She has won awards for writing about police brutality in the US and Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Follow her on Twitter: @Brookethenews

Israel gives nod to Gaza Marine gas development, wants security assurances

Israel has given its preliminary approval for the development of a gas field off the coast of the blockaded Gaza 

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
18 June, 2023

Gaza's Hamas rulers have said it will not allow Israel to exploit the territory's gas [Getty]

Israel gave preliminary approval for the development of a gas field off the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday, while saying it would require security coordination with the Palestinian Authority and neighbouring Egypt.

If concluded, the agreement would be a boost for the cash-strapped Palestinian economy.

Announcing the move on the Gaza Marine project, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said progress would hinge on "preserving the State of Israel's security and diplomatic needs".

While Egypt and Israel have been producing gas in the eastern Mediterranean for years, the Gaza Marine field, about 30 km (20 miles) off the Gaza coast, has remained undeveloped due to political disputes and Israel's wars against the Palestinian coastal territory, as well as economic factors.

Gas and the blockade: Egypt's economic plan for Gaza

Gaza Marine is estimated to hold over 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, much more than is needed to power the Palestinian territories and some of which could potentially be exported.

The Palestinian Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"We are waiting to know what exactly the Israelis have agreed to in details. We can’t make a position based on a statement to the media," one Palestinian official told Reuters.

Hamas official Ismail Rudwan told Reuters: "We reaffirm that our people in Gaza have the rights to their natural resources."

(Reuters)

 All-Muslim council in Michigan bans LGBTQ Pride flags

By

 5Pillars (RMS)

 -

18th June 2023

LGBTQ flag

A Muslim-led local authority in Michigan, USA, has banned LGBTQ+ flags on city property.

Earlier this week, Hamtramck City Council approved a proposed “neutrality flag” resolution that effectively banned LGBTQ+, religious, ethnic, racial and political flags from being flown on city property.

According to local media, several speakers who addressed the council on Tuesday said they supported the resolution, and many applauded in agreement. About 125 also sent in written comments, with many against the proposal.

The resolution said:

“WHEREAS, the City of Hamtramck is one of the most diverse cities in the United States, in which we should proudly promote and embrace its diversity; and

“WHEREAS, the City must and will serve and treat its residents equally, with no discrimination, or special treatment to any group of people; and

“WHEREAS, the City has authorized in the past, the Human Relations Commission to install nations flags on the City flagpoles to represent the international character of the City, Resolution 2013- 102: and

“WHEREAS, each religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexually oriented group is already represented by the country it belongs to; and

“WHEREAS, the City does not want to open the door for radical or racist groups to ask for their flags to be flown; and

“WHEREAS, this resolution does not in any way, shape or form infringe upon the fundamental right of an individual or business in the City of Hamtramck to engage free speech. Nor does this resolution limit speech by public employees provided that such employees engage in such speech in a protected time, manner and place.

“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Hamtramck, Wayne County, Michigan, that the government of the City of Hamtramck does not allow any religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation group flags to be flown on the City’s public properties, and that only, the American flag, the flag of the State of Michigan, the Hamtramck Flag, the Prisoner of War flag and the nations’ flags that represent the international character of our City shall be flown.”

In 2022, Hamtramck, which is only 2 square miles, appointed its first all-Muslim city council and mayor. The city is among the most diverse in Michigan.

Many told the council they believed limiting the types of flags allowed was a way to criticize the LGBTQ+ community and defied Hamtramck’s reputation as an inclusive place.

“This resolution, to me, feels like a thinly veiled attack on one flag,” said Darren Shelton, executive director of the city’s Planet Ant Theatre.

“We have to respect every human being,” said Bill Meyer, executive director of OneHamtramck LLC.

“I have a right to say I’m against the gay pride flag,” one man told the council.

Trotsky's Grandson Dies In Mexico

Esteban Volkov Bronstein

June 18, 2023
By RFE/RL

Esteban Volkov Bronstein, grandson and guardian of the memory of Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky, died in Mexico on June 17, the Spanish daily El Pais reported on June 18. He was 97. Born in Yalta, Ukraine, in 1926, Volkov came to Mexico at the age of 13 after spending most of his childhood moving from one country to another. Volkov was the last surviving witness to the 1940 assassination of Trotsky in his house in Mexico by Stalinist agents. He later turned the family home into a museum to honor the memory of his grandfather.

5 Weird Energy Innovations That May Become Reality

By Charles Kennedy - Jun 14, 2023

Human excrement and urine are smelly, but potential sources of energy.

•      Seaweed-to-fuel has not yet become a major industry, but research continues.
• 
  
•     Sand silos can be effective to store energy according to Finnish researchers.

Scientists are constantly pushing frontiers in search for solutions to the many challenges that human civilization faces, and nowhere is this truer than in energy.

With the tone of climate change alarm-sounding growing louder by the day, alternative energy sources have become one of the most active areas of innovation. Some of the results of that innovation are literally eye-watering. Others, you could call eye-opening. 

#1 Waste-to-power

This is not the waste-to-power you are probably thinking about; that is, farm animal manure or biomass.

No, this is the idea of turning human waste—both the number twos and the number ones—into energy. In Britain, a company operating in London has developed a sewage-powered heating system for more than 2,000 homes.

Per plans, sewage captured from the water treatment system can be used for heating, producing up to 7 GWh of electricity annually, which is a really impressive number. If this pilot project becomes a success, it will be expanded to more homes to provide them with low-carbon, essentially recycled power.

So much for the number twos. Meanwhile, number ones are also being researched as a source of energy and some researchers are producing results, such as this one: a battery capable of generating electricity from urine.

There’s also this one: scientists developing a fuel cell using bacteria that can turn urine into electricity. "The beauty of this fuel source is that we are not relying on the erratic nature of the wind or the sun; we are actually reusing waste to create energy,” one of the scientists involved in the project said.

#2 Cremation as a dual use service

If you think using pee and poo to generate energy is kind of disgusting, wait till you hear about the idea of using crematoriums as power generators. Once you get past the initial shock. However, the idea actually makes sense on some level. 

Crematoriums are a way of essentially disposing of human remains in an environmentally responsible way that incidentally involves the generation of massive amounts of strong heat—as much as 1,500 degrees F. Why let this heat go to waste instead of using it?Related: Rystad Sees Major Jump In Battery Storage Capacity Through 2023

It seems that a lot of researchers have been asking this question and some have come up with possible answers. One way of harnessing the power of heat from crematoriums was by attaching turbines to the facility’s burners. The turbines get turned by steam produced in the cremation chamber. The output is not massive, but it’s enough to power the crematorium and related facilities. And with more people choosing cremation over burial, at least in Europe, the “feedstock” is on the rise.

#3 The power of seaweed

Seaweed is already a pretty essential life form, but it could become even more essential in a low-carbon economy because apparently it could be used as fuel instead of gasoline or diesel.

A few years ago, Danish researchers drove a car fuelled by a seaweed-based fuel and managed to reach 80 kph with it. Seaweed-to-fuel has not yet become a major industry, but research continues.

Besides cars, biofuel produced from seaweed could potentially power aircraft as well. However, that path faces the same challenge as so-called sustainable aviation fuels or SAFs: there is too little feedstock. Planes use massive amounts of fuel.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is also involved in research focusing on seaweed and turning it into fuels, including jet fuel. A team is working on this in the Caribbean, with the twist that they are trying to see if they could combine abundant wood waste with seaweed to make fuel—and graphite. Graphite is a critical mineral or EV batteries. Seaweed is certainly an impressive life form.

#4 Sand batteries

One of the gravest problems with wind and solar energy is that battery storage based on the lithium-ion tech that dominates electronics today is hugely expensive. Some scientists are looking for alternatives and one team has found such an alternative in an unlikely place: sand.

It looks really simple. You just need to fill a silo with builder’s sand and then connect it to a wind or solar farm. The electricity that the farm produces goes into the silo and heats up the sand to temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius, or over 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

The heating creates hot air that circulates in the sand thanks to the deployment of a heat exchanger. According to the Finnish team that came up with the idea, this simple system can keep the sand heated up to 500 C/900 F for as long as several months. Once the energy is needed, it gets released to heat homes or other buildings.

#5 Body heat

If there is something even simpler than using 100 tons of sand to store heat, it is using the natural heat of human bodies to generate energy. “Simple” here doesn’t mean easy but the fact is that it is already being done.

Body heat energy generation is not a new concept. It has been around for more than ten years and it has been advancing. Initially, capturing the energy released as heat from the body could only power things like heart-rate monitors and watches, but now researchers are aiming higher—as high as cars.

A night club in Glasgow is storing the heat generated by the bodies of its patrons in reservoirs and then using it for heating or cooling the premises. The Mall of America in Minneapolis is also using the body heat of shoppers and visitors for heating purposes. Body heat looks like it has been underestimated for years but things are changing.

There are plenty of other weird-sounding or outright gross ideas for energy generation. Some of these could work and are already working, and others will likely never leave the lab. The momentum behind energy innovation, however, will likely remain quite considerable.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

Scientists Leap Forward In Sustainable Hydrogen Production

By Brian Westenhaus - Jun 15, 2023

• The researchers have gained a complete understanding of the reaction mechanism for a group of water-splitting catalysts, which could aid in producing pure hydrogen without relying on fossil fuels.
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• The team studied a catalyst based on a pentamethylcyclopentadienyl rhodium complex, focusing on the Cp* ligand and rare metal rhodium, which showed promising potential for this research.
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• The findings of this research could lead to improvements in other chemical processes besides clean hydrogen production and have broader applications in industrial chemistry, including the recycling of nuclear fuels and handling of actinide species.

University of Kansas and Brookhaven National Laboratory chemists have taken a big step toward splitting hydrogen and oxygen molecules to make pure hydrogen – without using fossil fuels. Results from pulse radiolysis experiments have laid bare the complete reaction mechanism for an important group of ‘water-splitting’ catalysts. The work means scientists are closer to making pure hydrogen from renewable energy, an energy source that could contribute to a greener future for the nation and world.

The team’s findings have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Co-author James Blakemore, associate professor of chemistry, whose research in Lawrence forms the basis of the discovery said, “Understanding how the chemical reactions that make clean fuels like hydrogen work is very challenging – this paper represents the culmination of a project that I started in my very first year at KU. Our paper presents data that were hard-won from specialized techniques to understand how a certain catalyst for hydrogen generation does the job. The techniques that were used both here at KU and Brookhaven are quite specialized. Implementing these allowed us to get a full picture of how to make hydrogen from its constituent parts, protons and electrons.”

Blakemore’s research at KU was the foundation of the breakthrough. He took his work to Brookhaven for research using pulse radiolysis, as well as other techniques, at their Accelerator Center for Energy Research. Brookhaven is one of only two places in the nation housing equipment that enables pulse radiolysis experiments.

Brookhaven chemist Dmitry Polyansky, a co-author of the paper said, “It’s very rare that you can get a complete understanding of a full catalytic cycle. These reactions go through many steps, some of which are very fast and cannot be easily observed.”

Blakemore and his collaborators made the discovery by studying a catalyst that is based on a pentamethylcyclopentadienyl rhodium complex, which is [Cp*Rh] for short. They focused on the Cp* (pronounced C-P-“star”) ligand paired with the rare metal rhodium because of hints from prior work showing that this combination would be suitable for the work.

“Our rhodium system turned out to be a good target for the pulse radiolysis. The Cp* ligands, as they’re called, are familiar to most organometallic chemists, and really chemists of all stripes, he explained. “They’re used to support many catalysts and can stabilize a variety of species involved in catalytic cycles. One key finding of this paper gives fresh insight into how the Cp* ligand can be intimately involved in the chemistry of hydrogen evolution.”

But Blakemore stressed the findings could lead to other improved chemical processes besides producing clean hydrogen.

“In our work, we hope that chemists will see a study about how a common ligand, Cp*, can enable unusual reactivity,” the KU researcher said. “This unusual reactivity is relevant to the hydrogen story, but it’s actually bigger than this because Cp* is found in so many different catalysts. Chemists normally think of catalysts as being based on metals. In this way of thinking, if you’re making a new molecule, the metal is the key actor that brings the constituent parts together. Our paper shows that this isn’t always the case. Cp* can be involved in stitching the pieces together to form products.”

Blakemore said he hoped this paper could be an opening that leads to improvements in other catalysts and systems that rely on Cp* ligands. The breakthrough, which was supported by the National Science Foundation and the DOE Office of Science, could apply more broadly to industrial chemistry. Blakemore is now working on applying techniques like those used in this work to the development of new approaches to recycling of nuclear fuels and handling of actinide species.

KU students at the graduate and undergraduate levels also were involved in research that underpinned the breakthrough.

“This project was a very important training vehicle for students,” Blakemore said. “Graduate student Wade Henke, the first author, is now at Argonne National Laboratory as a postdoc. Graduate student Yun Peng is the second author and kicked off the joint work with Brookhaven; both have now finished their Ph.D.s. Undergraduates also contributed to this project over the years, providing new complexes and insights that we used to frame the story that emerged in this paper.

“All in all, I consider this a successful project and one that was a real team effort over the years,” he concluded.

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Chemistry research just continues to amaze. The research is looking more and more as one of the optimal energy and fuel solutions out in the future.

The tech used for the research is also amazing. We’re getting answers to those questions like ” what does what exactly and how?”

Now if we could get the industry to be more conscientious about some of those molecules getting away during production, use and disposal.

By Brian Westenhaus via New Energy and Fuel