Southwestern Manitoba archeology dig gives public a glimpse into the past

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Pottery and tools are among the artefacts unearthed in the Pierson Wildlife Management Area

Chelsea Kemp · CBC News · Posted: Jul 09, 2023

Brandon University archeologist Mary Malainey displays a farming hoe made out of a buffalo scapula during a tour of the archeological site in the Pierson Wildlife Management Area. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)

You might get a glimpse at a 1,000-year-old artefact being unearthed, if you visit an archeological dig in southwestern Manitoba this month.

Archeologists discovered shards of an undated Indigenous artifact at the Pierson Wildlife Management Area on Saturday, during one of the site tours being offered in July. Artifacts found in the area include bones, stone tools, pottery, hearths and other items believed to have been left behind by Indigenous people for thousands of years.

Brandon University archeologist Mary Malainey, who led the tour, said the dig provides insights into how Indigenous people lived in the area before the arrival of European settlers. The site is on Treaty 2 lands, which are the traditional homelands of the Dakota, Anishanabek, Ojibway-Cree, Cree, Dene, and Métis peoples.

Malainey's been working at the site in a river valley and nearby fields, located south of Melita, about 350 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, for five years. 

"They had well-developed cultures," Malainey said of the people who lived there in the past. "They had well-developed rituals, they had belief systems and they lived on the land and they left traces and it's important for us to recognize that."

Jack Thorn holds a projectile made in a flint knapping demonstration. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)

An area of discovery

The Pierson Wildlife Management Area has been a site of discovery for more than a 100 years. The earliest archeological work was conducted there in the 1900s. Multi-year studies have been taking place on and off ever since.

Archaeologists have been interested in the area because there's a concentration of burial mounds, Malainey said. 

Brandon University archeologist Mary Malainey displays pieces of pottery found at the archeological site. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)

"There's so much to learn."

Recently they've discovered evidence of farming and horticulture.

"They could continue on … working in this area for probably another 20 years and still be learning new things because it's pristine," Malainey said of the site. "Everywhere we dig, it's like: 'Wow, this is really cool.'"

Gary Wowchuk shows how projectiles would have been made during a flint knapping demonstration. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)

A bison scapula (shoulder blade) hoe found in 2018, provides evidence of horticultural activities in the area, Malainey said. The bison scapula was mounted on a shaft and used for gardening, "The same way you have a garden hoe."

At the top of the site is a horticultural area. Items found indicate farmers arrived there around the late 1400s to the early 1500s. They were there until the late 1700s to early 1800s. 

"Based on the posits that we found in the valley. It's ... a continuous occupation," Malainey said.

Bailey Palamar, a Manitoba Archaeological Society volunteer, shows the tour how to screen for artifacts. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)

There is also evidence of an earlier occupation that looks to be about 2,000 years old.

"It's residential areas, so people were living there. We think those were the farmers … growing corn and beans and squash, maize beans and squash in the valley," Malainey said.

A glimpse into the past

Gary Wowchuk, a site volunteer, demonstrated the art of knapping — shaping flint into stone tools — for people on the tour.

It's important to give people an idea of how people lived on the lands for thousands of years, he said.

"In this area, we know that people have been here for 12,000 years. That's just amazes me and to think that they left these things behind that we can find now and they're telling us ... a story about their life," Wowchuk said. "That's the way we connect and I think it just brings a richness to all of us."

• Ancient hoes found in southwestern Manitoba could reveal more about Indigenous farmers, archeologist says

• How archeology helped this Cree museum curator connect to his family's past

• Ancient farming evidence found at Winnipeg museum site

Colleen Lamparski and her three children travelled from Killarney to visit the dig on Saturday.

It's the second year they've visited the site. They were inspired to return and learn more about archeology in their own "backyard" in Manitoba.

"I've always been interested in archeology, so it was just cool to see it actually happen," Lamparski said.

Malainey said outside of oral traditions, archeology is the only way to learn about the past. 

Malainey said the Pierson Wildlife site is one of two in the province with really good evidence of pre-contact Indigenous gardening or farming. There is also an archeological site in Lockport, about 30 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. However, it's been disturbed and eroded, making it tough for archeologists to glean information from what they've found there. 

Archeologists from Brandon University and the Manitoba Archaeological Society work 10-day shifts on the Pierson Wildlife site. And they offer tours in the summer. Last year, more than 220 people visited the site.

"We want all these people to appreciate what was here before and gain a better understanding of this," Malainey said.

BACKGROUNDER & UPDATES

Wagner Group’s Post-Mutiny Crack-Up Is a Threat to Afrika

Jason Nichols

 The Daily Beast.
Fri, July 14, 2023

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images

The Wagner Group, a Russian state-funded private military corporation filled with mercenaries and led by ignoble billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin, entered the American consciousness with Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Even more people came to know them when Prigozhin staged a short-lived mutiny where his forces briefly took the city of Rostov in southwestern Russia. Putin was able to end the mutiny without any damage, except to his fearsome reputation.

Since then, Wagner fighters in the region have turned over their arms to the Russian military and have avoided being imprisoned or executed for their role in the mutiny. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has stated the paramilitary groups would train the Belarusian military in weapons and tactics.


How Did We Get Putin So Wrong?

What’s less discussed about the Wagner Group is their activities in other parts of the world—namely war-torn areas in the Middle East and Africa.

Wagner is known to have operated in many areas throughout the African continent, including Chad, Libya, Central African Republic, and Mali. (There are unconfirmed rumors they may be invited into Burkina Faso by its new military leadership.)

Many believe that Wagner’s purpose is not only to extract key valuable resources from the mineral and oil-rich continent, but to extend Russia’s diplomatic influence by supporting a bloc of African states militarily. With the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin unknown and the status of Wagner unclear, their presence in these volatile areas present potentially grave security risks. In other words, having heavily armed soldiers of fortune open to the highest bidder and untethered to any nation-state in regions where human rights abuses are already common is incredibly dangerous.

Russia has assured some African leaders that they would not lose their fighting forces. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has promised the leadership in African nations like Chad and Mali that the “work will continue.” Russia extracts valuable resources from Africa as a result of Wagner’s presence.

However, questions remain about whether the loyalties of Wagner mercenaries are split between the Kremlin and Prigozhin. Though it has been reported that Prigozhin and Putin met in person days after the attempted mutiny—and more than likely worked out a deal for control of the Wagner Group—it is unclear how the mercenaries who are thousands of miles from the Kremlin feel about it.

Even if Putin is in charge, his image as a strongman was severely weakened by the mutiny attempt itself. Whether the Wagner mercenaries will accept his leadership without Prigozhin is anyone's guess.

America’s Tragedy Is Its Culture of Fear—Armed With Millions of Guns

Retired U.S. four-star General Robert Abrams told ABC News that he believes that Prigozhin is already dead and that the meeting between him and Putin was faked. While there’s no evidence to back up this assumption at the time, were it to be true, it’s unclear how Wagner mercenaries would accept their leader and cofounder being killed by the Russian state. The potential for desertion or illicit weapon sales rises as morale plummets.

Wagner already has a presence in the Central African Republic (CAR), a state whose political atmosphere was described by the United Nations as “fragile.” Religious-based sectarian violence has been commonplace since its independence in 1960. A Muslim rebel group called Seleka led a successful coup in late 2012. Seleka was disbanded soon after it gained control of Bangui, but violence between its former members and Christian “anti-balaka” fighters has continued. Both groups have since splintered off, causing more confusion and violence.

The Wagner Group has helped the CAR government to put down and deter insurgency efforts by these rebel factions. The CAR is one of the poorest nations in the world, with 71 percent of its population below the poverty line, but is home to an abundance of natural resources including oil, gold, and diamonds.

While it appears that some Wagner forces have left the country on planes, the government of CAR has said that these are rotations, and indicated that Wagner still has some structure despite the nebulous chain of command in Prigozhin’s absence. What is unclear is if CAR officials are bluffing about Wagner personnel rotations in order to deter the insurgents from mounting an offensive.

Debunking the Right-Wing Lie That Black Lives Matter Got $82 Billion From Corporations

If remaining Wagner mercenaries do not have a clear chain of command, or divided loyalties, or even lower morale since the removal of Prigozhin, they are more susceptible to offers from CAR’s many ex-Seleka and anti-balaka groups. (It is believed by the UN and human rights organizations that both ex-Seleka and anti-balaka groups have committed war crimes.)

Countries like CAR and Chad were violent and unstable and prone to coup attempts long before the arrival of Wagner. The west’s contributions to less stability and security in Africa also predate Russia and Wagner.

However, the potential human cost of an unstable mercenary group like Wagner in countries that are already struggling with Boko Haram and sectarian warring factions is very high.

While the world is rightly focused upon the unjust invasion of Ukraine, we must not lose sight of how the fallout could affect Africa and its people. We see how the developed world and its media has prioritized the lives of Ukrainians, it’s time they show the same regard for Black African lives.

Russia’s Wagner mercenaries hire Gurkha soldiers spurned by India

Samaan Lateef
Sat, July 15, 2023 

Nepal's young soldiers have begun looking elsewhere for employment since the launch of India's controversial Agnipath Scheme

Dozens of elite Gurkhas have joined Russia’s Wagner mercenary group after India tightened the rules governing the recruitment of Nepalese troops into its army.

Gurkha soldiers have shared videos online showing them training with firearms at bases in Russia and Belarus, dining in military canteens and discussing the potential risks of fighting in Ukraine.

The mercenary force’s new recruits have become a cause for embarrassment for the government in Kathmandu, which has come under fire for failing to stop Nepalese citizens from joining Russia’s war effort.

Kamal Acharya, 22, left the small Nepalese village of Chisapani for Moscow in early May to join the Wagner Group.


On May 29, he shared a picture of himself holding an assault rifle inside a Russian military installation. A later TikTok video shows him effortlessly disassembling and reassembling the weapon.

Footage of the Russian training sessions has been shared on TikTok

Umesh Shahi, a friend of Mr Acharya, told The Telegraph he had travelled to Russia after learning that Moscow was paying good salaries for mercenary fighters.

“He told us it’s a risk but the money lured him to go,” he said.

Other Gurkhas who have joined up with the Kremlin’s forces have done so after completing university studies in Russia.

“I had two choices after finishing my studies: to remain unemployed or to join the Russian Army,” one man, who completed his medical degree in Russia and joined its military instead of returning home, told Nepal TV.

The Gurkha said his physical fitness was key to his acceptance into the army after he applied to join at the end of May.

He said more than a dozen Nepali citizens were undergoing intensive training alongside other foreign fighters at a base near the border with Ukraine.

“Our training encompasses the use of advanced weaponry, and it spans throughout the day and sometimes extends into the night,” he said.

“After one year, citizenship is also available. If I don’t die in one year, I will live here,” he said, adding that he is receiving a monthly payment equivalent to 50,000 Nepalese rupees (£290), along with insurance coverage, during the rigorous training.

The young men are choosing to join Russia's mercenary troops

A former Nepali Army soldier from Karnali Province, who has joined the mercenary group, told Nepal TV that he had found out about “opportunities in the Russian Army” while working as a security guard in Dubai.

Now enrolled in the Russian military, he found his prior training in the Nepali Army to be advantageous, as it eased his transition into the Russian forces.

“We are more than two hundred foreign comrades and three Nepali friends,” he said.

He had considered joining the French Foreign Legion, but was put off by a lengthy and challenging recruitment process.

At least 50 Gurkhas are believed to have joined the Wagner Group since the beginning of the war, with as many as 200 Nepalese citizens travelling to Russia to join its army.

A source in the Nepalese government said it did not know exactly how many Gurkhas had joined the mercenary force, but said “we have identified some of these youths and contacted their families to persuade them to return home”.
‘It should be stopped’

The Gurkhas, renowned around the world for their combat prowess, have served in the British Army since 1815. Tens of thousands of Gurkhas also serve in the Indian Army.

But last year, India replaced long-term employment with shorter contracts and eliminated pension benefits through the controversial Agnipath Scheme.

In response, Nepal temporarily suspended the recruitment process under the 1947 Tripartite Treaty involving Britain, India and Nepal.

The disruption to the established recruitment procedure has pushed Gurkha fighters towards Russia, which has also loosened its requirements for citizenship in an effort to entice volunteer fighters to join its forces in Ukraine.

Now, Nepal’s government is being urged to take action to stop its elite warriors from joining the Russian military.

“A Gurkha joining a Russian mercenary army tarnishes the pride of my nation. It should be stopped,” said Prem Singh Basnyat, a retired Nepalese Brigadier General.

“They might have been lured with good money and joined the mercenary group in disregard of the national interest,” he told The Telegraph.

Retired Major General Binoj Basnyat, a strategic analyst for the Nepal Army, said: “The Nepalese government should take immediate action and implement measures to prevent its citizens from joining the Russian military.

“Such participation goes against Nepal’s foreign policy of neutrality and non-alignment.”

The disruption to recruitment opportunities in the Indian Army have played a significant role in influencing the Gurkhas’ decision to join the Wagner Group, he added.

The Indian government has also been criticised for failing to protect the recruitment process that has helped Gurkhas find their way into service abroad for centuries.

“Gurkhas are universally acknowledged to be among the finest soldiers in the world,” said Jairam Ramesh, a spokesman for India’s main opposition Congress party. “Yet the ill-conceived Agnipath Scheme has interrupted a 200-year-old recruitment process and no Gurkha soldiers will be entering the Indian Army in 2023.”

He added: “This disruption is leading to Gurkhas being recruited by private military companies like the Wagner Group.”

Ukraine, Poland say Wagner fighters arrive in Belarus


Wagner fighters are training Belarusian soldiers in Belarus

Reuters
Updated Sun, July 16, 2023

(Reuters) -Fighters from the Wagner group have arrived in Belarus from Russia, Ukrainian and Polish officials said on Saturday, a day after Minsk said the mercenaries were training the country's soldiers southeast of the capital.

"Wagner is in Belarus," Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border agency, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. He said the movement of "separate groups" from Russia had been observed in Belarus.

Some Wagner fighters have been in Belarus since at least Tuesday, two sources close to the fighters told Reuters.

The Belarusian defence ministry released a video on Friday, showing what it said were Wagner fighters instructing Belarusian soldiers at a military range near the town of Osipovichi.

Wagner's move to Belarus was part of a deal that ended the group's mutiny attempt in June - when they took control of a Russian military headquarters, marched on Moscow and threatened to tip Russia into civil war - President Vladimir Putin said.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has not been seen in public since he left the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don late on June 24.

Poland's deputy minister coordinator of special services, Stanislaw Zaryn, said Warsaw also has confirmation of Wagner fighters' presence in Belarus.

"There may be several hundred of them at the moment," Zaryn said on Twitter.

Poland said this month it was bolstering its border with Belarus to address any potential threats.

While not sending his own troops to Ukraine, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to launch its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022 and has since let his country be used as a base for Russian nuclear weapons.

The Belarusian Hajun project, which monitors military activity in the country and which is viewed as an extremist formation by Belarusian authorities, said a large column of at least 60 vehicles entered Belarus overnight Friday from Russia.

It said the vehicles, including trucks, pickups, vans and buses, had licence plates of the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in what is internationally recognised as eastern Ukraine. In a move widely condemned as illegal, Moscow moved last year to annex the republics, which have been Russian proxies since 2014.

Hajun said it appeared that a Wagner column was headed to Tsel in central Belarus, where foreign reporters were last week shown a camp with hundreds of empty tents.

Video shared by Russian war correspondent Alexander Kotz on Saturday evening appeared to show a convoy of trucks and military vehicles on a highway in southern Russia, some of which were flying the Wagner flag.

Reuters could not independently verify the Belarusian Hajun report. There was no immediate comment from Russia or Belarus on the reports.

(Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Mark Trevelyan in London; Additional reporting by Caleb Davis in Gdansk;)

Lukashenko's Calls To Prigozhin Tapped; But German Intel Failed To Predict Russian Mutiny I Details

According to a recent inquiry, the German intelligence service was aware of the Wagner insurrection before it happened. The German intelligence agency BND tapped the phone calls between Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko and Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. However, BND is under fire for learning too late about the recent Wagner Group coup attempt in Russia. Watch this video to know more. 

‘It is like a virus that spreads’: business as usual for Wagner group’s extensive Africa network

Story by Jason Burke • Jul 6, 2023

THE GUARDIAN

Photograph: AP© Provided by The Guardian

Four days after Wagner group mercenaries marched on Moscow, a Russian envoy flew into Benghazi to meet a worried warlord. The message from the Kremlin to Khalifa Haftar, the self-styled general who runs much of eastern Libya, was reassuring: the more than 2,000 Wagner fighters, technicians, political operatives and administrators in the country would be staying.

“There will be no problem here. There may be some changes at the top but the mechanism will stay the same: the people on the ground, the money men in Dubai, the contacts, and the resources committed to Libya,” the envoy told Haftar in his fortified palatial residence. “Don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere.”

The conversation, relayed to the Guardian by a senior Libyan former official with direct knowledge of the encounter, underlines the degree to which the Wagner group’s deployments and its extensive network of businesses across Africa is yet to be hit by the fallout from the rebellion of its founder and commander, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The resilience of Wagner’s commercial operations despite the turmoil in Russia strongly suggests Vladimir Putin’s regime will seek to appropriate and exploit the lucrative web of hundreds of companies that Prigozhin built, rather than shut it down, experts believe.

Related: ‘He lived by the troll, he dies by the troll’: Putin takes on Prigozhin’s business empire

In Libya, there has been no abnormal movement of Wagner personnel, other than the redeployment of a small detachment of 50 closer to the border with Sudan.

The situation is similar elsewhere in the continent, according to sources in half a dozen African countries with knowledge of its operations.

“For the moment, it looks like Wagner’s operations are on hold. But they are successful and not so expensive, so it is very likely Wagner will be rebranded [by Moscow] while maintaining most of its assets and systems,” said Nathalia Dukhan, the author of a recent report on Wagner’s operations in Central African Republic (CAR) published by The Sentry, a US-based investigative organisation. “It is like a virus that spreads. They do not appear to be planning to leave. They are planning to continue.”

Though attention has mainly focused on Wagner’s combat role, particularly in Ukraine in recent months, analysts and western intelligence officials say that in Africa it is the group’s economic and political activities that are important to Putin’s regime.

“Since its first deployments in 2017, Wagner has really become much more widespread and high profile. Now the Kremlin certainly seems to be trying to emphasise continuity, if not immediate expansion,” said Julia Stanyard, an expert on Wagner at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, last week reassured allies in Africa that Wagner group fighters deployed to the continent would not be withdrawn. In an interview with Russia Today, Lavrov promised that “instructors” and “private military contractors” would remain in CAR and Mali, the two countries in sub-Saharan Africa where Wagner has the biggest presence.



A demonstration in Bangui, Central African Republic, in support of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, in May 2022. 

Photograph: Carol Valade/AFP/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

The most developed commercial operation run by Wagner is in CAR, where the group’s mercenaries arrived in 2018 to bolster the regime of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, which was struggling to fight off a rebel offensive.

From multiple bases in and around Bangui, CAR’s capital, Wagner has run an extensive mining operation across the country. The group has also begun making and selling beer and spirits, and has been granted a hugely profitable concession to exploit rainforests in the south of CAR.

The biggest single project is the vast Ndassima goldmine, which has been taken over by Wagner and is being developed. Poor infrastructure is thought to have restricted output at Ndassima, however, forcing Wagner to seek profits through the takeover of smaller mines along CAR’s remote eastern frontier region. Last year, Wagner fighters launched raids on goldmines there that killed dozens of people, witnesses interviewed by the Guardian said.

These operations are thought to be the primary responsibility of a small detachment of Wagner fighters, which also oversees the smuggling of gold and much else into Sudan, where the Wagner group has close contacts with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo currently fighting for control of the state.

Last month the US Treasury imposed a new round of sanctions that aimed to “disrupt key actors in the Wagner group’s financial network and international structure”.

Three companies were targeted, all involved in Africa. One was Midas Ressources, a CAR-based mining company linked to Prigozhin, which the US Treasury said “maintains ownership of CAR-based mining concessions and licenses for prospecting and extracting minerals, precious and semi-precious metals, and gems”, including the Ndassima mine.



A man waves a flag thanking Wagner in Mali, where the military group has a growing presence. Photograph: Florent Vergnes/AFP/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

Related video: Wagner troops surrender arms after aborted mutiny (France 24)
Duration 1:51  View on Watch


A second company targeted was Diamville, described by the Treasury as “a gold and diamond purchasing company based in the CAR and controlled by Prigozhin”, which the US alleges shipped diamonds mined in the CAR to buyers in the UAE and in Europe, using a third company under sanctions called Industrial Resources.

Experts have said diamonds would be useful for evading sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. “You can buy any goods anywhere with diamonds,” Dukhan, the analyst, said.

An earlier round of US and EU sanctions targeted Wagner’s holdings in Sudan, in particular a company called Meroe Gold. Recent EU sanctions listed further companies alleged to be “illegally trading gold and diamonds looted by force from local traders”.

Until fighting between rival factions in Sudan broke out in April, Wagner operatives ran an office near the airport in the capital, Khartoum, with bullion flown out from an airbase a short distance away in the desert, local officials and diplomats told the Guardian last year. Bullion is sent to the United Arab Emirates and Moscow for sale on to international markets.

The conflict in Sudan is thought to have constrained – but not entirely halted – Wagner’s extensive operations there, which are focused on gold mining and refining in collaboration with the paramilitary RSF.

The small Wagner detachment in Sudan has also had sporadic contacts in recent months with RSF, and may have supplied them with weapons, according to local sources, but has otherwise stayed away from significant involvement in the fighting.

“The priority is basically to keep the gold moving,” said one western security source who was recently forced to leave Khartoum by the fighting.

Last weekend, observers with multiple sources on the ground in CAR said there had been no evidence of movement of Wagner personnel on any of the poverty-hit country’s few major roads, nor at its principal airport.

On the Sudanese frontier, it was “business as usual”, according to Enrica Picco, central Africa director of the International Crisis Group.


A truck belonging to the Wagner group at an abandoned military base in Bangassou, Central African Republic.

 Photograph: Alexis Huguet/AFP/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

In Mali, where Wagner’s commercial operation is less well-developed, the group is thought to have struggled to make significant profits since deploying in December 2021. Diplomatic sources told the Guardian that Wagner had experienced difficulty accessing the goldmines they were allowed to exploit under the deal struck with the regime of military ruler Assimi Goïta but had been paid handsomely by the military regime.

The US believes Mali’s transition government has paid more than $200m (£157m) to Wagner since late 2021, the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters last week.

Political dividends have also been significant. Last week, the UN security council voted to withdraw its peacekeeping mission in Mali after a decade, allowing the country to swing further under the influence of Moscow. Earlier this month, Mali had asked the UN peacekeeping force to leave “without delay”, citing a “crisis of confidence” between Malian authorities and the UN mission.

Kirby said Prigozhin had helped engineer the UN’s departure “to further Wagner’s interests. We know that senior Malian officials worked directly with Prigozhin employees to inform the UN secretary general that Mali had revoked consent for the [UN] mission,” he said.

Local sources in Mali said a routine rotation of Wagner staff had been completed without incident in the days after the mutiny and mercenaries had continued operations with Malian forces fighting insurgents across the centre and north of the country.

In Libya, another sizeable contingent of Wagner mercenaries is deployed in the eastern part of the country controlled by the warlord Khalifa Haftar. The deployment has earned hundreds of millions of dollars in direct payments since the group participated in an abortive offensive to seize Tripoli in 2019, but has also offered opportunities to engage in oil smuggling on a massive scale, potentially earning similar sums.

There have been no abnormal movements of Wagner personnel in Libya either, since Prigozhin’s “mutiny”, according to a well-placed former official and analysts. Low-level fuel and weapons trafficking is thought to be continuing across Libya’s vast and largely unpoliced southern borders.

Speculation has been rife on social media accounts used by Wagner fighters in Mali, CAR and elsewhere that the group’s employees would be offered new contracts with the Russian state.

However, any process of “nationalisation” could lead to tensions, analysts said. Alia Brahimi, an expert on mercenaries at the Atlantic Council, said: “In theory, this should be quite straightforward, given the Wagner group’s origins as the Kremlin’s creature. But the commanders who ran the day to day in Africa, like [Ivan] Maslov in Mali who’s been personally sanctioned, were elevated by Prigozhin.

“They will have to reconcile the personal debt they owe to Prigozhin and their tribal identity as private operatives rather than public soldiers with more centralised Kremlin control,” he added.

“From the Kremlin’s side, the whole point and draw of letting Wagner off the leash in Africa was that they were a deniable force. Now the horrific crimes and abuses, as well as the economic predation, will have a clear return address.”

The destabilising effects on local regimes are already evident. There have been public disputes in CAR between ministers over Wagner’s exact role there, and senior officials have sought assurances that Russia will continue its support for Touadéra’s campaign to change the constitution to allow a third term as president. A referendum is due next month.

US officials believe Wagner in Mali has been using false documentation to hide the acquisition and transit of mines, uncrewed aerial vehicles, radar and counterbattery systems for use in Ukraine.

As the head of Wagner in Mali, Maslov “arranges meetings between Prigozhin and government officials from several African nations”, sanctions documents claim.

In the weeks before Prigozhin’s mutiny in Russia, there was evidence that Wagner was committing new resources and reinforcements to Mali and CAR, where Moscow wants to ensure a successful result for Touadéra’s ally in a coming referendum. Officials and diplomats in CAR have described Russia’s plan for a new major base, with capacity for up to 5,000 fighters, which would be a launchpad for Moscow’s geopolitical interests and operations in the surrounding countries.

Two other targets for the Kremlin are believed to be Burkina Faso and Chad, but the biggest prize would be the vast and resource-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Last year, approaches were made by Wagner representatives to the president of DRC, Félix Tshisekedi, who eventually decided against hiring the group to fight against rebels in the vast country’s restive east in return for giving Wagner access to lucrative mining concessions. The bid to win new contracts and business opportunities in DRC was preceded by a significant influence operation masterminded by Prigozhin’s media specialists in St Petersburg.

Just four months ago, Wagner was mounting recruitment campaigns specifically for African operations, as evidence suggested deployments were being reinforced in CAR, Mali and elsewhere.

Wagner’s operations have always been closely aligned with Russia’s longer-term foreign policy objectives, analysts point out. In 2019, leaked memos obtained by the Guardian revealed the Kremlin’s aim to use clandestine influence operations in Africa to build relations with existing rulers, strike military deals, and groom a new generation of “leaders” and undercover “agents” in Africa. One goal was to “strong arm” the US and the former colonial powers the UK and France out of the region. Another was to see off “pro-western” uprisings, the documents said.

Climate Change: UBC researcher raises serious concerns about methane release from melting glaciers

A new international study in Norway has identified reservoirs of methane gas leaking from groundwater springs from melting glaciers.

Author of the article:Tiffany Crawford
Published Jul 09, 2023 

Proglacial icing formed in front of the rubble of a surging glacier on Svalbard, Norway.

 Photo: Gabrielle Kleber PHOTO BY GABRIELLE KLEBER /jpg
Article content

Shrinking glaciers caused by human-induced climate change are causing the release of tonnes of methane gas, according to a new international study that involves the University of B.C.

The study, published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience and led by University of Cambridge and the University Center in Svalbard, Norway, raises serious concerns about hidden sources of emissions, and suggests these emissions be included in climate change calculations.

Co-author Dr. Hal Bradbury, a professor in UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, says as the planet warms up, disappearing glaciers are causing the formation of bubbling groundwater springs, which are releasing trapped reservoirs of subsurface methane.

He said scientists are worried these emissions released by the Arctic thaw could exacerbate the climate crisis.

The researchers measured methane concentrations from 120 separate springs over three summers in Svalbard, and estimate emissions could exceed 2,000 tonnes annually just from Svalbard.

Bradbury says because this phenomenon occurs in areas with significant permafrost where glaciers are melting, this could also be a problem in the Canadian Arctic or the Russian Arctic.

“When the glaciers retreat due to the increasing temperatures, this leaves behind ground that is not frozen. And when this happens the methane that’s trapped in groundwaters beneath the glaciers then comes out under pressure in these groundwater springs,” Bradbury explained, in an interview Friday.

Co-author Dr. Hal Bradbury, a professor in UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. 

Photo: Junyi Sun. PHOTO BY JUNYI SUN JUNYI SUN. /jpg

Previously, research has measured methane release from thawing permafrost but he said this study looked at permafrost and glacier melt and shows there are more sources for this mass methane leak.

“It takes quite a lot of heat to melt the permafrost in the soil. But the (glacier) bases are retreating much faster than the melting of the permafrost.”

Canada has about 40 per cent of its land area covered by permafrost, so while more research is needed, it’s likely that this methane release could be a significant problem in Canada as well as Norway, he added.

Their findings reveal that the climate-driven glacial melt causes widespread release of methane, creating a feedback loop that could exacerbate global warming.

“When we think about climate change we really need to be considering these feedback cycles. What we’re doing is releasing greenhouse gases, leading to increased temperatures, which causes glacier retreat, leading to more release of greenhouse gases,” said Bradbury.

Between 1936 and 2010, the Svalbard glaciers have overall lost 15 per cent of their mass, although some of the glaciers have lost 30 per cent of their total mass over this period, he said.

What concerns Bradbury the most is that, at this time, the only solution to preventing this massive methane release is to limit global warming, and the planet is not on track to reduce emissions to limit warming to 1.5 C above industrial times.

Bradbury said the amount of emissions being released in Svalbard in the study represents about eight per cent of Norway’s annual oil and gas related emissions.

“At the moment, it’s not a huge number. But one of the reasons why it’s important is that if this continues happening in other areas like Canadian Arctic or the Russian Arctic, we know that there are vast stores of methane in general in these areas. So if we continue having the melting of the glaciers this could potentially lead to much larger releases of methane into the future,” said Bradbury.

Gabrielle Kleber taking water samples for methane analysis on a glacier in Svalbard, Norway. 

Photo: Leonard Magerl PHOTO BY LEONARD MAGERL /jpg

Gabrielle Kleber, lead author of the research who is from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, said the springs are a potentially growing source of methane emissions, and “one that has been missing from our estimations of the global methane budget until now,” according to a statement posted by the university.

 

The future of recycling could one day mean dissolving plastic with electricity

by Daniel Strain, University of Colorado at Boulder

Graphical abstract. Credit: Chem Catalysis (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.checat.2023.100675

Chemists at CU Boulder have developed a new way to recycle a common type of plastic found in soda bottles and other packaging. The team's method relies on electricity and some nifty chemical reactions, and it's simple enough that you can watch the plastic break apart in front of your eyes.

The researchers described their new approach to chemical recycling in the journal Chem Catalysis.

The study tackles the mounting problem of plastic trash around the world. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States alone produced nearly 36 million tons of plastic products in 2018. A majority of the waste winds up in landfills, said study co-author Oana Luca.

"We pat ourselves on the back when we toss something into the recycling bin, but most of that recyclable plastic never winds up being recycled," said Luca, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry. "We wanted to find out how we could recover molecular materials, the building blocks of plastics, so that we can use them again."

In the new research, she and her colleagues got one step closer to doing just that.

The group focused on a type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which consumers encounter every day in water bottles, blister packs and even some polyester fabrics. In small-scale lab experiments, the researchers mixed bits of that plastic with a special kind of molecule then applied a small electric voltage. Within minutes, the PET began to disintegrate.

The team has a lot more work to do before its recycling tool can take a realistic bite out of the world's plastic trash problem. But it was still fun to watch the waste, which can stick around in garbage piles for centuries, disappear in a matter of hours or days, said study lead author Phuc Pham.

"It was awesome to actually observe the reaction progress in real time," said Pham, a doctoral student in chemistry. "The solution first turns a deep pink color, then becomes clear as the polymer breaks apart."

One person's trash

Luca said it's a whole new way of thinking about the possibilities of trash. Recycling bins, she noted, may look like a good solution to the world's plastics problem. But most municipalities around the world have struggled to collect and sort the small mountain of rubbish that people produce every day. The result: Less than one-third of all PET plastic in the U.S. comes close to being recycled (other types of plastic lag even farther behind). Even then, methods like melting plastic waste or dissolving it in acid can alter the material properties in the process.

In a lab on campus, Phuc Pham applies electricity to a solution containing ground up PET plastic. The solution turns pink as the plastic begins to dissolve. The final step in the proccess is exposing the solution to oxygen, which turns it yellow and eventually back to clear as the plastic fully breaks down. Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

"You end up changing the materials mechanically," Luca said. "Using current methods of recycling, if you melt a plastic bottle, you can produce, for example, one of those disposable plastic bags that we now have to pay money for at the grocery store."

She and her team, in contrast, want to find a way to use the basic ingredients from old plastic bottles to make new plastic bottles. It's like smashing your Lego castle so that you can retrieve the blocks to create a whole new building.

Another's treasure

To achieve that feat, the group turned to a process called electrolysis—or using electricity to break apart molecules. Chemists, for example, have long known that they can apply a voltage to beakers filled with water and salts to split those water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gas.

But PET plastic is a lot harder to divide than water. In the new study, Pham ground up plastic bottles then mixed the powder into a solution. Next, he and his colleagues added an extra ingredient, a molecule known as [N-DMBI]+ salt, to the solution. Pham explained that in the presence of electricity, this molecule forms a "reactive mediator" that can donate its extra electron to the PET, causing the grains of plastic to come undone. Think of it like the chemistry equivalent of delivering a karate chop to a wooden board.

The researchers are still trying to understand how exactly these reactions take place, but they were able to break down the PET into its basic building blocks—which the group could then recover and, potentially, use to make something new.

Deploying only tabletop equipment in their lab, the researchers reported that they could break down about 40 milligrams (a small pinch) of PET over several hours.

"Although this is a great start, we believe that lots of work needs to be done to optimize the process as well as scale it up so it can eventually be applied on an industrial scale," Pham said.

Luca, at least, has some big-picture ideas for the technology.

"If I were to have my way as a mad scientist, I would use these electrochemical methods to break down many different kinds of plastic at once," Luca said. "That way, you could, for example, go to these massive garbage patches in the ocean, pull all of that waste into a reactor and get a lot of useful molecules back."

More information: Phuc H. Pham et al, Electricity-driven recycling of ester plastics using one-electron electro-organocatalysis, Chem Catalysis (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.checat.2023.100675

Provided by University of Colorado at Boulder 

Recycling plastics might be making things worse

France's penchant for protests offers challenge ahead of Paris Olympics

Expert says racial, economic divisions in French society could be inflamed by Games


Jamie Strashin · CBC Sports · Posted: Jul 09, 2023 

A protester holds an altered Brittany flag during a demonstration in Rennes, western France, on March 22. (AFP via Getty Images)

Widespread protests in France are not uncommon. In fact, they are an ingrained part of the country's history dating back to the French Revolution. But the last few months have been especially rattling and have cast a shadow over the planning and execution of next summer's Olympic Games in Paris.

First the country was paralyzed in January by pension protests directed at French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to raise the legal retirement age by two years to 64.

The constant refrain of demonstrators was "No withdrawal, no Olympics."

Then this month, thousands of people took to the streets after the police shot and killed 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, a French citizen of Moroccan and Algerian descent, as he attempted to flee a traffic stop in a Paris suburb.

In the wake of the killing, mass riots broke out in cities across the country, driven by a long-standing tension between French police and many of the country's racialized population. Thousands of cars and buildings were destroyed. Calm has only been restored in recent days and came only with the deployment of thousands of police.

Spectators hold a banner that reads 'Justice for Nahel' along the race route at the start of the first stage of the 110th edition of the Tour de France cycling race on July 1. Nahel was the teen killed by police during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb on June 27. (AFP via Getty Images)

'Politics through different means'

"Protests are more common in France than in many other democracies. So it seems more common in France that important political issues are resolved after big protests rather than in parliaments," says Johannes Lindval, a political science professor at the University of Gothenburg.

"The regular ways of expressing political opinions and being represented in politics are sort of closed off in France more than in other comparable countries in this region. Therefore people feel that they have to kind of participate in politics through a different means."

Both of these protests have already affected France's Olympic efforts.

During the pension riots, a French labour union cut power to numerous Olympic sites, including the main Olympic Stadium and the Olympic Village. Protesters even briefly occupied the Olympic organizing committee offices.

The widespread protests seen over the past few weeks left the Olympic Aquatic Training Centre, which was under construction, badly burned.

Organizers and Olympics officials are downplaying any impact these events could have on the Games.

"We have learnt with regret about the recent incidents in France," an IOC spokesperson told Reuters. "We have full confidence in the organizing committee and the French authorities to deliver successful Olympic and Paralympic Games and in the hospitality of the French people to welcome the world to these Games."

"We're still a year away from the Games," said Emmanuel Gregoire, First Deputy Mayor of Paris. "We shouldn't get our calendars mixed up."

But some experts say officials should pay close attention to what is happening.

"There is an opportunity for social movements that aren't directly related to the Olympics themselves," says Simon Black, a labour studies professor at Brock University. "[Groups] who have grievances with the French government and could use the Olympics in Paris as a platform with the eyes of the world on Paris to forward or advance their cause."
More than 1,300 arrested in France after 4th night of rioting ahead of funeral for slain teenANALYSISWith chaos consuming France, police rules for firing their guns are under scrutiny

Black says the racial and economic divisions in French society could easily be further inflamed by the Olympics, which he says are increasingly a microcosm of broader society.

"I think there's a degree to which people see the Olympic Games, which were originally in the spirit of being anti-commercial and in the spirit of amateurism, of brotherhood or sisterhood," Black says. "And now really reflecting the broader economy where you have the IOC, which many people see as a kind of antidemocratic rich elite who operate with little accountability."

Angela Schneider, director of Western University's International Centre for Olympic Studies, agrees the French population's propensity for demonstrations brings special considerations.

"I do think there is a special strength to the French people and their kind of demonstrations. So it is something that merits consideration and planning," Schneider says. "I do think having the big stage does motivate some people who don't feel they get the attention that they would have gotten without that, so I think [officials] will have to contend with that. These things can blow up and balloon out quite unexpectedly at times."

At the same time, Schneider says there are a number of factors that could insulate the Paris Games from wider unrest in the country.

There appears to be widespread support for the Olympics in France beyond the recent protests. Four million applicants signed up for the initial ticket draw and more than 200,000 candidates applied to fill the 45,000 volunteer positions needed for the Games.

Then there is France's deep connection to the Game, dating back to the founder of the modern Olympics, Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin.

"The history of the Games themselves and the role of France and de Coubertin, the French are extremely proud of that," Schneider says. "So that weighs heavily. It's worth thinking about when we think about the Olympics in the context of social demonstrations."
Riots ahead of London 2012 Olympics

The Paris Olympics won't be the first or last to take place in the context of wider domestic or international conflict, strife or protest.

In London in 2011, a year before it hosted the Games, the city dealt with a similar set of circumstances that played out this summer in Paris. Riots broke out after British police shot Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop. The resulting violence left five people dead and millions of dollars in damage.

British Olympic Association chairman Sir Hugh Robertson, who was Britain's Minister of Sport and Olympics, offered this advice to French officials.

"Stay calm and keep focused. The organizers have my sympathy and I am sure that they will sort this out," Robertson told AFP. "We are still over a year out from the opening ceremony, which is a very long time in the course of organizing something as big as the Olympic Games."

Innovative Supply Chain Model Marks A New Era For Hydrogen

By Brian Westenhaus - Jul 06, 2023

• A new supply chain model for hydrogen transport was developed by a collaborative team from Australia, Singapore, and Germany.
• 
  
• The model revealed that exporting 'hydrogen the atom' or 'hydrogen the energy' leads to different supply chain systems.
• 
  
• The model suggests that methanol could serve as a promising chemical carrier for exporting renewable energy from Australia at low costs.

A University of Technology Sydney team of researchers has created a new supply chain model which could empower the international hydrogen renewable energy industry.

Hydrogen has been touted as the clean fuel of the future; it can be extracted from water and produces zero carbon emissions. However, it is currently expensive to transport over long distances, and currently no infrastructure is in place to do so.

The new supply chain model, created by researchers in Australia, Singapore and Germany, successfully guides the development of international transport of hydrogen and its embodied energy.

The full report was recently published behind a a paywall in the peer-reviewed journal, Energy Conversion and Management.

Associate Professor Kaveh Khalilpour, from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and lead of the report, said supply chain design is critical for making hydrogen economic.

“We looked at the renewable hydrogen export from Australia to Singapore, Japan, and Germany. Surprisingly, the analysis revealed that it matters whether the goal is to export ‘hydrogen the atom’ or ‘hydrogen the energy’. Each choice leads to a different supply chain system. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the whole system is necessary for correct decision making,” said Associate Professor Khalilpour. “The abundance of renewable energy resources in Australia, as well as its stable economy, means the country can attract investments in building these green value chains in our region and even as far away as Europe.”

Hydrogen is expected to help diversify Australia’s renewable energy resource beyond solar and wind power. This is seen as critical to the country’s energy security, as well as necessary for climate change mitigation.

Professor Reinhard Madlener, co-lead of the project, from RWTH Aachen University, Germany said, “Hydrogen is just an energy carrier, i.e. not a primary energy source, and thus only a means to an end for transporting renewable energy from one place to another. The key business question around the emerging hydrogen economy is whether commodities such as green hydrogen, methanol or ammonia can be exported profitably and competitively also over long distances and across the oceans, thus bringing green energy to other places in the world. If this is so, this will also have major international energy and climate policy implications,”

Professor Iftekhar Karimi, from the National University of Singapore, and co-lead of the project said, “Our model suggests that methanol shows great promise as a chemical carrier for exporting renewable energy from Australia at low costs.”

***

It is very encouraging to see some good sense come into the discussion about hydrogen, its storage and transport.. While the press release is using the word “new”, the connection of hydrogen atoms to carbon and nitrogen has been done by nature for hundreds of millions if not billions of years. These examples are just two of thousands.

Another major plus is that fuel cell tech is already existent for methanol. The technology may have had to go to the back burner due media and political pressure about the carbon content in methanol, but its excellent technology, a liquid fuel, does not require pressurization nor has especially dangerous attributes.

The downside is that the mentioned carriers are low in energy content compared to some heavier fossil fuel products. But that probably wouldn’t be a market killer if the efficiency is high enough.

Lets hope that down to earth practical applications can muscle in over the way out there ideas about energy and fuel products.

By Brian Westenhaus via New Energy and Fuel