THE POSTMODERN GOLDEN FLEECE

SCOTLAND

Dolly the sheep’s fleece donated for display at national museum

She was the world’s first mammal cloned from an adult cell.


THE FLEECE WAS DONATED BY EMBRYOLOGIST DR WILLIAM A RITCHIE

 (DUNCAN MCGLYNN/PA)

A fleece from Dolly the sheep, the world’s first mammal cloned from an adult cell, has been acquired by National Museums Scotland.

The fleece has been donated to the national collections by Dr William A Ritchie, an embryologist on the team that created Dolly – who was named after singer Dolly Parton.

Dolly the sheep was born in 1996 at the Roslin Institute just outside Edinburgh, where she spent her entire life, gave birth to six healthy lambs and died in 2003 aged six.

Her coat of wool has been gifted to National Museums Scotland along with laboratory equipment, including sharpened glass pipettes, a microscope and an electrical fusion machine.

The tools were crucial to the success of the the Roslin Institute’s groundbreaking cloning procedure which captured the public imagination and transformed scientific understanding of biology and medicine.

The fleece and tools join a range of material on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh associated with Dolly, including her preserved body, death mask and fellow preserved cloned sheep Morag and Megan.

Preserved on a custom-built fibre glass frame, Dolly has been on display at the museum for nearly 20 years and remains one of its most popular exhibits.

Sophie Goggins, senior curator of biomedical science at National Museums Scotland, said: “We are delighted to add Dolly’s fleece and these remarkable instruments to the national collections, thanks to the generosity of Dr William A Ritchie.

“Dolly the sheep represents one of the most important scientific advances of the 20th century. Her fleece will now be available to researchers, ensuring Dolly’s remarkable contribution to science continues for generations to come.”

It is only fitting that the equipment and the fleece are reunited with Dolly in Scotland’s national collections to add to the story of this extraordinary scientific achievement  

DR WILLIAM A RITCHIE, EMBRYOLOGIST

Dr Ritchie said: “When Dolly the sheep was introduced to the world the scientific community went wild. The impossible had been achieved, and to make the story even more remarkable, some of the equipment used to produce this breakthrough was handmade in the Roslin institute’s workshop just outside Edinburgh.

“It is only fitting that the equipment and the fleece are reunited with Dolly in Scotland’s national collections to add to the story of this extraordinary scientific achievement.”

Dolly’s fleece and the lab equipment were recently featured on an episode of the Antiques Roadshow and were valued at between £20,000 and £30,000.

Presenter Cristian Beadman said of the collection: “It’s almost impossible to value, I think it’s well into five figures at auction. I think you could be looking at £20,000 to £30,000.”

The items are expected to feature again on an Antiques Roadshow Christmas special being broadcast on Sunday.

A decline in Santa's salary, rising cost of turkeys and fewer presents under the tree: Is this the bleakest Christmas on record?

Santa is not alone in feeling the squeeze - it doesn't matter whether you are on the naughty or nice list - this year is costing more for everyone. Sky News investigates how the great British Christmas is holding up amid a cost of living crisis.

Megan Harwood-Baynes
Digital investigations reporter @megbaynes

SKY NEWS
Sunday 24 December 2023 

Santa Claus is coming to town - well, some of them are.

Because this year Santa could found in the job centre rather than a grotto, with 15% fewer jobs for the guy in red being advertised.

And in further bad news, Santa's salary is also rising less than average, according to job website Indeed.com. So while the average wage has gone up 7%, the most famous inhabitant of the North Pole has seen his rise by just 4%.

And he is not alone in feeling the squeeze - it doesn't matter whether you are on the naughty or nice list - this year is costing more for everyone.

Sky News investigates the state of the great British Christmas as the cost of living crisis hits harder than ever.

Santa Rob and Donna have set up a grotto at their animal park

A stand-in Santa

Competition is fierce for Santa roles, says Jack Kennedy - a senior economist at Indeed.com, with searches for this festive work reaching a six-year high.

"Lots of candidates are chasing fewer seasonal jobs this year," he adds, attributing it to "cost of living pressures and caution among retail employers".

Santa Rob - who for the rest of the year runs an animal rescue centre as Robert Baxter alongside his partner Donna Rose - found himself forced to don the big red coat and beard after he was unable to afford to pay a performer for his grotto.

"It's my genuine calling in life," he jokes. They have tried to keep costs low to enable lower-income families to visit.

Image:Donna and Rob

Their business, Get To Know Animals, in Epping, houses 400 animals, many of which are exotic and require multiple heat lamps and specialist food. "The energy costs are absolutely extortionate," says Donna.

"We struggled to get through the day and then we had the additional cost of building the grotto, but it just means so much to us that people who can't afford it could come and meet Santa as well."

Donna grows teary as she talks about the future of the company, which has suffered from a drop in donations and a decline in footfall: "We are not sure if we are going to make the new year."

Donna with Goose the skunk

Turkeys are growing - and so is the cost

For Jonathan Smith, Christmas preparations start in the summer.

The second-generation farmer welcomes the 4,000-strong flock of day-old chicks to Great Garnett's farm in Essex at the beginning of June and starts fattening them up for Christmas.

Five years ago, they would have produced around 8,000 turkeys in December, but a decline in foreign labour due to Brexit and the expensive costs of visas has forced the farm to dramatically reduce numbers.

Jonathan is chair of the National Farmers' Union's turkey group and says fattening them up is a lengthy process, fraught with the worry of a bird-flu outbreak at any moment - and the cost of living crisis has increased tensions.

Jonathan Smith, of Great Garnett's farm

Because the cost of producing a 5.5kg (21lb) turkey (which is the weight they sell the most of and would feed about eight to ten people) has gone up by 21% in the last year.

Jonathan's food bill, across the farm, used to average between £12,000 and 15,000 a month. It now stands at £30,000 due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine disrupting grain supplies around Europe.

Read more: How much more expensive is Christmas since inflation surged?

His energy contract, which six years ago was £3,000, in December 2022 reached £20,000 - something he expects to see again this year. And even though these higher prices may be being passed on to shoppers it isn't dampening their demand for the festive bird.

"Turkeys are just a lot more expensive than they were," he says. "But we aren't seeing that reflected in sales - people just accept it and want it for their Christmas lunch.

"They want a special turkey and a special turkey is what we produce."

But the farm has struggled with the rising cost of living

The cost of Christmas

However, the resilience of the turkey trade is not reflected elsewhere. Brits are predicted to buy fewer and cheaper Christmas presents this year.

One forecast by World Remit, the international money transfer firm, suggests that Brits will spend 10% less on Christmas this year. But even with everyone cutting back, WorldRemit says it is expected to cost 23% of the average monthly income.

It is particularly bad for households with children, with one in three struggling to afford a family festive celebration, according to debt charity StepChange.

Dad-of-nine Derrick, 34, says he has delayed paying some bills in a bid to make a magical Christmas for his family, and he and his wife have stopped heating their four-bedroom flat.

The DadsHouse team

"I know it'll be a problem in January, but I am trying not to think about it," the stay-at-home dad says. With children ranging from 18 to one still unborn, providing for them is no small task.

"Things have always been tight, but it's definitely getting worse."

Derrick is supported by DadsHouse, a charity that supports dads in London - although it was founded to help single dads, they welcome anyone in.



In their West London centre, six days before Christmas, a small team of dedicated volunteers are gathered together cooking lunch. Turkey is served alongside lentil soup and salad, while one young boy is given a plate of pasta. Tinsel and fairy lights adorn the ceiling and racks are filled with cans of soup - a foodbank for those who need it.

Billy McGranaghan founded the charity after raising his son alone but the pandemic and subsequent economic downturn has seen demand soar. What started as a way to help dads bond has expanded into a vibrant community hub, with a foodbank, home-cooked meals, homework clubs and guitar lessons.

DadsHouse also runs a Family Law Clinic, and Ceri Parker-Carruthers, the lawyer who manages it, says they are seeing increased family breakdowns inflicted by the economic crisis.

Billy receives up to 20 phone calls a day from people reaching out for help from him and his small team of dedicated volunteers.



Yet, despite the growing desperation of those around him, anyone who walks through their door is greeted with a cheery shout of 'hello' from the 60-year-old Scotsman. He is warm and friendly, remembering everyone's names as he moves around the room, offering them coffee, tea, more turkey, more gravy, a hamper to take home.

Billy grows emotional as he talks about those the charity has helped this year.

"The increase we have seen is unbelievable," he says. "But when they are here, we want to give them a chance to forget about the outside world for a bit."

Billy McGranaghan and Patsy

Patsy, 68, doesn't fit the label of 'single dad', but she is welcomed to the Christmas meal and sent away with a hamper of goods, the same as anyone else.

And like everyone else, she's feeling the squeeze this year. "I've had to ask my family to chip in for Christmas dinner, it's too expensive now," she says.

Inflation fell to another two-year low of 3.9% in November, but that hasn't halted historic price rises, including on many Christmas favourites.

Our Christmas list costs £7.50 more than this time last year - a rise of almost 5%, which is faster than the overall level of inflation in the same timeframe (3.9%).

Securing pigs in blankets for your festive feast will come at a higher price this year, with sausages and bacon both up 14%.

While the shopping basket data from the ONS doesn't have a whole turkey, the centerpiece of many Christmas dinners, it does have prices for pre-cooked turkey slices.

A 100-180g pack increased by just 5p (2%), from £2.26 to £2.31.

What about the trimmings? A kilo of potatoes is 7% more expensive than they were in November 2022. Carrots are 15% more expensive and cauliflower is 4% more.

As for a Christmas tipple, a bottle of cream liqueur is 5% more expensive and a bottle of champagne is up 6%.

Gift buying is also pricier. When you're stumped about what to buy, socks make for a reliable gift choice but a pair of men's has increased by 5%, and a lady's scarf, also great for keeping warm, is now 8% more expensive.

For families with young children, the price of a sit-and-ride toy for under-5s has increased by just 2%, and if you want to combine some festive joy with some Christmas holiday learning, an electronic educational toy has increased by 1%.

A Christmas lifeline - or a road to more debt?

The continued popularity of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) schemes risks tipping millions of people into debt this Christmas. More than a quarter of Brits will use them to help with Christmas shopping. In some instances, it is almost as common as going into an overdraft - according to Citizen's Advice.

The charity, who surveyed 2,132 people, has said it is braced to provide debt support in the new year, with some 28% of consumers (equivalent to 15.1 million people) planning to use the unregulated form of credit this December. This rises to 56% of parents with primary-school-aged children.

Citizens Advice, MoneySavingExpert and Which? recently teamed up to urge the Government to protect BNPL users after its commitment to regulating the industry in 2021 appeared to have stalled.

Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said many users do not realise they are taking on debt.

This is because BNPL lending does not require any affordability checks, unlike other credit options.

The charity found 21% of BNPL users have missed or made a late BNPL payment in the last 12 months, with one in 10 of this group visited by an enforcement agent or bailiff as a result.


'There will be fewer presents - but more love'

Forest Churches Emergency Night Shelters is in its 15th year of providing winter shelter and food for those who are homeless in Waltham Forest and has seen the number of people seeking its help soaring in the last year.

Jessica* spent much of her 20s without a home but, after reaching "breaking point", found herself at the shelter and is now a volunteer.

"I never could have known that in a year, my life would have done a complete 180," she says. "I have gone from living somewhere to becoming homeless, to now being part of a community where I can give back."

This small local shelter has 28 active cases, compared to 10 this time last year.

"I think this is potentially one of the worst Christmases we've had," says David Hoskins, the group's charity director.

"We simply don't have enough beds for all of those people who are rough sleeping."

And this is being echoed across the UK, as research from the charity Crisis revealed nearly a quarter of a million households are spending night after night couch surfing or in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

Beth from Newport found herself in a vicious cycle with housing costs after her rent began creeping up.

The single mum of two is studying at university in a bid to create a better life for her children after fleeing an abusive relationship.

"I want to be a good tenant, but being a good mum comes first, and it's been years since paying the rent in full and on time - without having to think about it - was normal," she said.

She now lives in fear of her energy being shut off, and it means for her children, aged 12 and 14, there is little chance of expensive gifts under the Christmas tree.

"My children have been understanding and told me they don't need anything," she says. "The guilt attached to wanting to and not being able to is the worst feeling of all."

She said she takes comfort in knowing it's not just her.

"Of all my Christmases, this is the bleakest so far, but there is comfort in knowing I am not the only one feeling that," she says.

"I am very blessed to have my children with me on my Christmas morning, being in a house and being able to put the kettle on - that's a privilege compared to some.

"It's going to be full of love - less presents, but more love."

* Names have been changed

SKY NEWS DATA TEAM ANALYSIS

Saywah Mahmood
Data journalist@saywhatsaywah

 RULING CLASS STUDIES

Woodrow Wilson’s Christmas Grift Of 1913 – OpEd

 December 24, 2023 

By MISES

By George Ford Smith

We think of thieves as conducting their work when no one is looking, such as breaking into a house while the owners are away. But the most successful thieves have done their stealing in plain sight, on a grand scale, while the owners were home and often with their tacit approval, though with sleights of hand that few are able to detect. Such a theft occurred when Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law on December 23, 1913.

A central bank such as the Fed has a remarkable character. According to establishment boilerplate, its purpose is to stabilize the economy and ensure prosperity and “full employment.” The decision makers at the Fed are of necessity selected for their superhuman brilliance and neutrality of judgment, thus qualifying them to adjust the amount of money available to the banks so that they may in turn serve the interests of a public numbering some 330 million people.

If for some reason certain members of the public don’t reap the benefits of this policy—or worse, end up losing their jobs, their savings, their businesses, and their homes—it’s not because the Fed itself is a bad idea. How could it be? Without the Fed as an emergency lender, bankers threw the economy into panics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

But there’s another side to the Fed’s character that is somewhat less wholesome than its public image and is best revealed by the way it was founded.

The Bankers’ Dream

Before the Fed’s founding, bankers in general and Wall Street in particular complained about US currency’s lack of “elasticity.” “Elasticity” in this context is one of the great euphemisms of human history. According to lore, this missing feature of “hard” money, such as gold or silver, was responsible for the panics of 1873, 1884, 1893, and 1907. The supply of the coins that were behind the paper banknotes couldn’t be increased when needed. Gold and silver were therefore said to be inelastic. Because of this inelasticity, the legend persisted that banks were having trouble meeting the demand for farm loans at harvest time, as G. Edward Griffin explains in The Creature from Jekyll Island:

To supply those funds, the country banks had to draw down their cash reserves which generally were deposited with the larger city banks. This thinned out the reserves held in the cities, and the whole system became more vulnerable. Actually, that part of the legend is true, but apparently no one is expected to ask questions about the rest of the story.

Several of them come to mind. Why wasn’t there a panic every Autumn instead of just every eleven years or so? Why didn’t all banks—country or city—maintain adequate reserves to cover their depositor demands? And why didn’t they do this in all seasons of the year? Why would merely saying no to some loan applicants cause hundreds of banks to fail?

The Morgan and Rockefeller bankers on Wall Street dreamed of having a central bank that could supply money when needed, as a “lender of last resort.” A central bank would also control the banks’ inflation rate. If bank reserves could be maintained at a central bank and a common reserve ratio established, then no single bank could expand credit more than its rivals, and therefore there would be no bankruptcies caused by currency’s draining from overly inflationary banks. All banks would inflate in harmony, and there would be tranquility and profits for all.

The bankers who traveled a thousand miles to meet on Jekyll Island in November 1910 understood they needed a cartel to bring their dream to life. And they needed the threat of state violence for the cartel to work.

Thus, included in their secret meeting were two politicians serving as the bankers’ advocates in Washington. The bankers planned to establish their cartel over the Christmas holidays, while the American public was distracted, though for political reasons it was delayed until 1913.

The public would be a hard sell. Americans were profoundly suspicious of Wall Street and cartels. They distrusted anything big in business or government. A central bank operating for the benefit of the big banks had no chance of becoming law, unless it was promoted as shackling Wall Street itself. This could be accomplished, it was widely believed, through a government bureaucracy of overseers.

The Pujo Committee

Frequent speeches by Wisconsin senator Robert LaFollette and Minnesota congressman Charles Lindbergh brought public outrage over the “money trust” to a boil. LaFollette charged that the entire country was under the control of just fifty men; Morgan partner George Baker disputed the allegation, claiming it was no more than eight men. Lindbergh pointed out that bankers had controlled all financial legislation since the Civil War through committee memberships.

Government, acting as the sword of justice, decided to act, with most people oblivious to the fact that the executioner and the accused were one and the same. In response to the accusations, it formed a new subcommittee, which held hearings from May 1912 until January 1913.

The Pujo Committee was headed by Louisiana congressman Arsène Pujo, then roundly considered to be a spokesman for the “oil trust.” The hearings followed the usual pattern, bringing forth immense quantities of statistics and testimonies from bankers themselves. Though the hearings were conducted largely because of the charges brought forth by LaFollette and Lindbergh, neither man was allowed to

 testify.

Under the direction of Paul Warburg, the principal author of the Jekyll Island plan that in its essentials became the Federal Reserve Act, the banks provided 100 percent financing for something called the National Citizens League, the purpose of which was to create the illusion of grassroots support for Warburg’s brainchild.

University of Chicago economics professor J. Laurence Laughlin was put in charge of the league’s propaganda, ostensibly to bring a measure of objectivity to the discussions. John D. Rockefeller, whose representatives at Jekyll were Senator Nelson Aldrich and bank president Frank Vanderlip, had endowed the university with $50 million.

Woodrow Wilson was an outspoken critic of the money trust in his 1912 presidential campaign, all the while receiving funding from the very trust he was condemning. Wilson said:

I have seen men squeezed by [the money trust]; I have seen men who, as they themselves expressed it, were put “out of business by Wall Street,” because Wall Street found them inconvenient and didn’t want their competition.

Benjamin Strong Runs the Show

When the Fed began operations in late 1914, the man in charge of the system was Morgan banker Benjamin Strong Jr., one of the Jekyll Island attendees. Strong served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from its inception until his death on October 16, 1928. Strong, in the Morgan tradition, was an anglophile who inflated the US money supply from 1925–28 to keep Britain from losing gold to the US. Details of Strong’s reign and the precrash conditions he created can be found in Murray Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression:

The long-run tendency of the free market economy, unhampered by monetary expansion, is a gently falling price level, falling as the productivity and output of goods and services continually increase. The Austrian policy of refraining always from monetary inflation would allow this tendency of the free market its head and thereby remove the disruptions of the business cycle.

The Chicago goal of a constant price level, which can be achieved only by a continual expansion of money and credit, would, as in [Benjamin Strong’s policy of the] 1920s, unwittingly generate the cycle of boom and bust that has proved so destructive for the past two centuries.

• About the author: George Ford is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor and the author of eight books and welcomes speaking engagements.
• Source: This article was published by the Mises Institute

Woodrow Wilson. Portrait by Harris & Ewing, Wikipedia Commons.

 

Ukraine Joins NATO’s Arctic Projects Against Russia – OpEd

 December 24, 2023

By M.K. Bhadrakumar

In a plea earlier this month to Republicans not to block further military aid to Ukraine, US President Joe Biden warned that if Russia is victorious, then President Vladimir Putin will not stop and will attack a NATO country. Biden’s remark has drawn a sharp rebuke from Putin when he said, “This is absolutely absurd. I believe that President Biden is aware of this, this is merely a figure of speech to support his incorrect strategy against Russia.”

Putin added that Russia has no interest in fighting with NATO countries, as they “have no territorial claims against each other” and Russia does not want to “sour relations with them.” Moscow senses that a new US  narrative is struggling to be born out of the debris of the old narrative on Ukraine war. 

To jog memory, on 24 February, during a White House press conference on the first day of Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, Biden said western sanctions were designed not to prevent invasion but to punish Russia after invading “so the people of Russia know what he (Putin) has brought on them. That is what this is all about.”

A month later, on 26 March Biden, speaking in Warsaw, blurted out, “For God’s sake, this man (Putin) cannot remain in power.” These and similar remarks that followed, especially from Britain, reflected a US strategy for regime change in Moscow, with Ukraine as the pivot. 

This strategy dates back to the 1990s and was actually at the core of the expansion of NATO along Russia’s borders, from the Baltics to Bulgaria. The Syrian conflict and covert activities of US NGOs to foment unrest in Russia were offshoots of the strategy. At least since 2015 after the coup in Kiev, CIA was overseeing a secret intensive training programme for elite Ukrainian special operations forces and other intelligence personnel. Succinctly put, the US set a trap for Russia to get it bogged down in a long insurgency, the presumption being the longer the Ukrainians can sustain the insurgency and keep Russian military bogged down, the more likely is the end of the Putin regime.

The crux of the matter today is that Russia defeated the US strategy and not only seized the initiative in the war but also rubbished the sanctions regime. The dilemma in the Beltway narrows down to how to keep Russia as an external enemy so that the West’s often fractious member states will continue to rally under US leadership. 

What comes to mind is a sardonic remark by Soviet Academician Georgy Arbatov who was advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev, to an elite group of senior US officials even as the curtain was coming down on the Cold War in 1987: “We are going to do a terrible thing to you -– we are going to deprive you of an enemy.”

Unless black humour in this cardinal truth is properly understood, the entire US strategy since the 1990s to rebuff the efforts of Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and early Putin to establish non-adversarial relations with the West cannot be grasped. 

Put differently, if the US’ post-cold war Russia strategy has not worked, it is because of a fundamental contradiction: on the one hand, Washington needs Russia as an enemy to provide internal unity within the western alliance, while on the other hand, it also needs Russia as a cooperative, subservient junior partner in the struggle against China.

The US hopes to draw down in Ukraine and stave off defeat by leaving behind a “frozen conflict” which it’s free to revisit later at a time of its choice, but in the meanwhile, is increasingly eyeing the Arctic lately as the new theatre to entrap Russia in a quagmire. The induction of Finland as into NATO (and Sweden to follow) means that the unfinished business of Ukraine’s membership, which Russia thwarted, can be fulfilled by other means.

After meeting Biden at the White House last Tuesday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky headed for Oslo on October 13 on a fateful visit to forge his country’s partnership in NATO projects to counter Russia in the Arctic. In Oslo, Zelensky participated in a summit of the 5 Nordic countries to discuss “issues of cooperation in the field of defence and security.” The summit took place against the backdrop of the US reaching agreements with Finland and Sweden on the use of their military infrastructure by the Pentagon.

The big picture is that the US is encouraging Nordic countries to get Ukraine to participate in strengthening NATO’s Arctic borders. One may  wonder what is the “additionality” that a decrepit military like Ukraine’s can bring into the NATO. Herein hangs a tale. Simply put, although Ukraine has no direct access to the Arctic, it can potentially bring in an impressive capability to undertake subversive activities inside Russian territory in a hybrid war against Russia. 

In a strange coincidence, Pentagon recently prepared the Starlink satellite system for use in the Arctic, which was used by Ukrainian military for staging attacks on the Crimean Bridge, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and strategic assets on Russian territory. The US’ agreement with Finland and Sweden would give Pentagon access to a string of naval and air bases and airfields as well as training and testing grounds along the Russian border. 

Several hundred thousand Ukrainian citizens are presently domiciled in the Nordic countries who are open to recruitment for “an entire army of saboteurs like the one that Germany collected during the war between Finland and the USSR in 1939-1940 on the islands of Lake Ladoga,” as a Russian military expert told Nezavisimaya Gazeta recently. 

Russia’s naval chief Admiral Nikolai Evmenov also pointed out recently that “the strengthening of the military presence of the united NATO armed forces in the Arctic is already an established fact, which indicates the bloc’s transition to practical actions to form military force instruments to deter Russia in the region.” In fact, Russia’s Northern Fleet is forming a marine brigade tasked with the fight against saboteurs to ensure the safety of the new Northern Sea Route, coastal military and industrial infrastructure in the Arctic. 

Suffice to say, no matter Ukraine’s defeat in the US’ proxy war with Russia, Zelensky’s use for the US’ geo-strategy remains. From Oslo, Zelensky made an unannounced visit on December 14 to a US Army base in Germany. Analysts who see Zelensky as a spent force had better revise their opinion — that is, unless the power struggle in Kiev exacerbates and Zelensky gets overthrown in a coup or a colour revolution, which seems improbable so long as Biden is in the White House and Hunter Biden is on trial.

The bottom line is that Biden’s new narrative demonising Russia for planning an attack on NATO can be seen from multiple angles.  At the most obvious level, it aims to hustle the Congress on the pending bill for $61 billion military aid to Ukraine. Of course, it also distracts attention from the defeat in the war. But, most important, the new narrative is intended to rally the US’ transatlantic allies who are increasingly disillusioned with the outcome of the war and nervous that US involvement in Europe may dwindle as it turns to Indo-Pacific.

When Putin reacts harshly that Biden’s new narrative is “absurd”, he is absolutely right insofar as Russia’s focus is on things far more important than waging a senseless continental war in Europe. After all, it was one of the founding fathers of the USA, James Monroe who said that a king without power is an absurdity. 

This article was published at Indian Punchline

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photo Credit: NATO

M.K. Bhadrakumar

M.K. Bhadrakumar is a former Indian diplomat.

Our ancient ancestors cut off their fingers to worship prehistoric deities, study finds

THE GOD OF CARPENTRY

By Katherine Donlevy
Published Dec. 23, 2023

Say what you want about the body modification trends of the 21st century, but our prehistoric ancestors did a number to their digits.

Men and women of the Palaeolithic era in Western Europe may have chopped off their own fingers as part of religious rituals, according to researchers.

The proof? Hundreds of cave paintings depict hands missing at least a portion of their phalanges.

“There is compelling evidence that these people may have had their fingers amputated deliberately in rituals intended to elicit help from supernatural entities,” archaeologist professor Mark Collard of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver told The Guardian.

Collard recently presented a paper on his long-peddled self-mutilation theory at a European Society for Human Evolution, pointing to 25,000-year-old hand paintings in France and Spain.

At least one finger was missing from each of the 200 prints. Some only parted with an upper segment, while others lost several.

Collard’s presentation built upon his original idea — published in a 2018 study — that our prehistoric ancestors purposefully amputated to appease deities.

There are hundreds of cave paintings showing at least one amputated finger.

Patrick Aventurier/SIPA

As evidence, he and Ph.D. student Brea McCauley pointed to 100 other ancient societies where people practiced finger amputation and memorialized their lives with print and stencil hand paintings.

“This practice was clearly invented independently multiple times,” they state in the paper. “And it was engaged in by some recent hunter-gatherer societies, so it is entirely possible that the groups at Gargas and the other caves engaged in the practice.”


Scientists previously theorized the amputations could have reflected the use of sign language or a counting system, while others suggested it could have been caused by frostbite or that painters simply bent their fingers to create an illusion.

Collard and McCauley argued that finger amputation is not the only form of self-mutilation practiced by ancient — and even some modern — societies.

Other communities turned to fire-walking, face-piercing with skewers and putting hooks through skin so a person could haul heavy chains behind them instead, all of which accomplished similar, ritualistic goals.

They also pointed to the Dani women of New Guinea Highlands, who continue to this day to chop off their fingers to signify the death of a loved one.

Some societies continue to self-amputate as a form of cultural practice.

“Quite a few societies encourage fingers to be cut off today and have done so throughout history,” he told the outlet.

“We believe that Europeans were doing the same sort of thing in palaeolithic times, though the precise belief systems involved may have been different. This is a practice that was not necessarily routine but has occurred at various times through history, we believe.”

A 400-Year-Old Mexican Tradition, Pinatas Are Not Child's Play

December 23, 2023 
Associated Press

A child swings at a pinata during a street "posada" organized by neighbors in Mexico City, Dec. 22, 2023.

ACOLMAN, MEXICO —

Maria de Lourdes Ortiz Zacarias swiftly cuts hundreds of strips of newsprint and colored crepe paper needed to make a pinata, soothed by Norteno music on the radio while measuring pieces by feel.

"The measurement is already in my fingers," Ortiz Zacarias says with a laugh.

She has been doing this since she was a child, in the family-run business alongside her late mother, who learned the craft from her father. Pinatas haven't been displaced by more modern customs, and her family has been making a living off them into its fourth generation.

Ortiz Zacarias calls it "my legacy, handed down by my parents and grandparents."

Business is steady all year, mainly with birthday parties, but it really picks up around Christmas. That's because piñatas are interwoven with Christian traditions in Mexico.

There are countless designs these days, based on everything from Disney characters to political figures. But the most traditional style of pinata is a sphere with seven spiky cones, which has a religious origin.

Each cone represents one of the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Hitting the papier-mache globe with a stick is a symbolic, with the added advantage of releasing the candy within.

Crepe paper decorates a Christmas pinata at a small family-run business in Acolman just north of Mexico City, Dec. 13, 2023.

Pinatas weren't originally filled with candy, nor made mainly of paper. Grandparents in Mexico can remember a time a few decades ago when piñatas were clay pots covered with paper and filled with hunks of sugar cane, fruits and peanuts. The treats were received quite gladly, though falling pieces of the clay pot posed a bit of a hazard.

But the tradition goes back even further. Some say piñatas can be traced back to China, where papermaking originated.

A worker makes a traditional Christmas "piñata" that will filled with fruit and candy at a family-run piñata-making business in Acolman, just north of Mexico City, Dec. 13, 2023.

In Mexico, they were apparently brought by the Spanish conquerors, but may also replicate pre-Hispanic traditions.

Spanish chronicler Juan de Grijalva wrote that piñatas were used by Augustine monks in the early 1500s at a convent in the town of Acolman, just north of Mexico City. The monks received written permission from Pope Sixtus V for holding a year-end Mass as part of the celebration of the birth of Christ.

But the Indigenous population already celebrated a holiday around the same time to honor the god of war, Huitzilopochtli. And they used something similar to pinatas in those rites.

The pre-Hispanic rite involved filling clay jars with precious cocoa seeds — the stuff from which chocolate is made — and then ceremonially breaking the jars.

"This was the meeting of two worlds," said Walther Boelsterly, director of Mexico City's Museum of Popular Art. "The pinata and the celebration were used as a mechanism to convert the native populations to Catholicism."

Pinatas are also used in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, mainly at children's parties.

The pinata hasn't stood still. Popular figures this year range from Barbie to Spider-Man. Ortiz Zacarias' family makes some new designs most of the year, but around Christmas they return to the seven-pointed style, because of its longstanding association with the holiday.

The family started their business in Acolman, where Ortiz Zacarias' mother, Romana Zacarias Camacho, was known as "the queen of the piñatas" before her death.

Ortiz Zacarias' 18-year-old son, Jairo Alberto Hernandez Ortiz, is the fourth generation to take up the centuries-old craft.

"This is a family tradition that has a lot of sentimental value for me," he said.

Highway service zone construction suspended after fossil discovery in China

KUNMING – Construction of a highway service zone in south-west China’s Yunnan Province has been suspended after palaeontological fossils were discovered at the site.

The fossils were discovered at the construction site of a service area in the Malong District of the city of Qujing, when a fossil collector revealed in late November that rubble at this site possibly contained fossils of ancient creatures.

The man, surnamed Yang, soon reported his suspicions to local authorities. Experts later confirmed that fossils including malungia laevigata, isoxys, naraoia, bradoriids and hyolithoid were found in the debris. These fossils date back to around 500 million years ago.

According to Liu Yu, a researcher with the Institute of Palaeontology at Yunnan University, the fossils are valuable to scientific studies, with relatively well-preserved exoskeletons found in most of the fossils.

He noted that it was not surprising to discover fossils in Malong, as Malong fauna was named after this district, which has attracted lots of researchers and fossil collectors over the years.

Mr Yang, who started collecting fossils in 2015, said he had already found fossils with more than 1,000 intact malungia laevigata. “In some rocks there are as many as 20 such creatures,” he said, adding that he is now in contact with local authorities to find a home for the fossils he collected.

Mr Leng Tao, a manager of the highway construction project, told Xinhua that they have suspended their work at the site since the end of November. “It certainly affects construction progress, but it is significant for the protection of the palaeontological fossils,” he said.

Experts believe that new discoveries are possible at the site. According to the Department of Natural Resources of Yunnan, excavation efforts will be launched.

 XINHUA

TURKIYE'S WAR ON KURDISTAN

Turkey Hits Iraq, Syria With Airstrikes After 12 Soldiers Killed

December 23, 2023 
Reuters

Syria map, Turkey, Iraq

THE YELLOW HIGHLIGHTED AREA OF THE INSERT MAP SHOWS KURDISTAN


ANKARA, TURKEY —

The Turkish air force conducted airstrikes in northern Iraq and Syria on Saturday and destroyed 29 targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after 12 soldiers were killed in the past two days in northern Iraq, the defense ministry said Saturday.

The operations were conducted in northern Iraq and Syria at 10 p.m. local time and the targets hit included bases, shelters, and oil facilities believed to be used by PKK militants, the ministry said.

It did not say which regions of northern Iraq and Syria it struck.

Earlier Saturday, the defense ministry said that 12 Turkish soldiers had been killed in the past two days in clashes with PKK militants in northern Iraq.

The military carried out operations on PKK targets and said it neutralized at least 16 PKK militants on Saturday in ongoing clashes, the ministry said in a statement.

Turkey typically uses the term neutralized to mean killed. The ministry also said seven militants had been killed Friday.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.

Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes in neighboring Iraq as part of its offensive against PKK militants based there.

Israel takes revenge on Palestinians with administrative detentions: Head of Palestinian prisoner group

'80% of those detained after Oct. 7 were arrested without any charges,’ says Kadura Fares

Qais Abu Samra |24.12.2023 - 

Israeli soldiers detain a 10-year-old Palestinian boy Ismail en-Nicce in Hebron, West Bank on September 23, 2021. Ismail en-Nicce was brutally battered before being taken to a detention center. 

( Amer Shallodi - Anadolu Agency )


- '80% of those detained after Oct. 7 were arrested without any charges,’ says Kadura Fares

- 'Administrative detention courts are a theatrical show'

- Policy inherited from British mandate regime Palestinians were detained without charge under emergency law of 1945

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Israel uses administrative detention, inherited from the British mandate, as a tool of revenge against Palestinians, according to the head of the Palestinian Commission on Prisoners, Kadura Fares.

Since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, a large wave of detentions and arrests have taken place in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

A total of 4,675 Palestinians have since been rounded by Israeli forces, according to the latest data from Palestinian prisoners’ affairs groups.

At least 2,870 Palestinians are held in Israeli detention facilities under administrative detainees; 2,345 were detained after Oct. 7. It is the highest figure in the last 30 years.

Administrative detention allows Israeli authorities to extend the detention of a prisoner without charge or trial.

The policy has been inherited from the British mandate regime on Palestine where the British detained Palestinians without charge under an emergency law in 1945.

The policy, prohibited by international law, has been implemented by Israel against all Palestinians, including women and children, since 1967.

Unprecedented increase of administrative detainees

“There has been an unprecedented increase in the practice of administrative detention,” Fares told Anadolu.

“Eighty percent of those detained after Oct. 7 were arrested without any charges,” he said.

The official stressed that “Israel arrests Palestinians in a vindictive and selective manner.”

Fares explained that “Palestinians are divided into two groups after their arrest. Those with an indictment, and those with no charges.”

"Never in the history of Palestine has the number of administrative detainees increased this much,” he said.

“Israel doesn’t stop at arresting Palestinians, it also demolishes their houses, tortures and intimidates them on the way to prison and during interrogation as part of its war of revenge against the Palestinian people,” he added.

Israel -- a gang country’

“Palestinian prisoners are subjected to brutal interrogation, hunger, cold and torture every hour of the day,” Fares said, noting that “this leads to their deaths most frequently.”

“Israel has become a disgusting regime that has gone completely out of control,” the official stated.

He noted that “Israel started as a terrorist group and now it has turned into a gang coalition.”

Fares pointed out that “Israel arrests Palestinians who are active in society, such as academics, former members of the legislative council, and administrators of institutions.”

He said Palestinian resistance would include the suspension of administrative detention in hostage swap negotiations, however, Israel would be expected to reject the proposal.

Administrative detention used as psychological warfare tool

“Israel uses administrative detention to intimidate Palestinians and discourage them from playing their social roles,” said Palestinian writer and former prisoner Waleed Al-Houdali.

Houdali previously was imprisoned for 12 years and was in administrative detention twice; for 20 months and four months.

"Administrative detention is renewed at the last moment when you expect to be released. This is to deal a psychological blow to the detainee and his family,” said Houdali.

“Administrative detention courts are a theatrical show,” the Palestinian writer said, noting that “they are a tool of psychological warfare.”

Houdali’s wife was also arrested and taken from her toddler daughter under administrative detention for 36 months.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi​​​​​​​ in Ankara