It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, August 18, 2024
UK
Schoolgirl finds dinosaur footprints during walk on the beach
At just 10 years old, Tegan has uncovered a find that people spend their whole lives looking for (Picture: House 7 Creative / Brown Bob Cymru/WALES NEWS SERVICE)
Imagine walking along a beach when you find dinosaur footprints preserved in stone for 200 million years.
That may seem like the plot of a children’s book, but for 10-year-old Tegan, it became her own ‘cool and exciting’ reality on the south Wales coast.
She had travelled all the way from Pontardawe near Swansea to the Vale of Glamorgan with her mother Claire on the hunt for some fossils.
It turned out their pick of a spot amid red siltstone rock along a stretch of coast known as a prehistoric hotspot was exactly on the mark.
Footprint or bone discoveries emerge from there every five or so years, with an entire skeleton of a 201-million-year-old dracoraptor – a meat-eating cousin of the T-rex – unearthed in 2014.
But Tegan found not just one, but five footprints up to three quarters of a metre apart, indicating a dinosaur of considerable size.
Tegan said: ‘We were just out looking to see what we could find, we didn’t think we’d find anything.
‘We found these were big holes that looked like dinosaur footprints, so mum took some pictures, emailed the museum and it was from a long-necked dinosaur.’
A more than 200-million year-old footprint previously found on a beach in South Wales (Picture: Wales News Service)
The exact species is yet to be verified, but they’re believed to have been left by a camelotia, a huge herbivore from the late triassic period, according to Cindy Howells, a paleontology curator at the National Museum Wales.
She told the BBC: ‘These footprints are so big, it would have to be a type of dinosaur called a sauropodomorpha.’
The expert of 40 years added: ‘If they were random holes, we’d be wary but because we have a left foot, a right foot and then a left and another right… there’s a consistent distance between them.
‘It’s quite a significant find – the buzz you get when someone contacts us with a definite dinosaur find, it’s amazing.’
That buzz is most acutely felt by Tegan, who’s been invigorated by the find.
Her mum Claire said: ‘It’s hard to comprehend you’re walking on the same beach that hundreds of millions of years ago some massive prehistoric animal was here,” she said.
Tegan taking dinosaur experts on a tour of her very own discovery (Picture: House 7 Creative / Brown Bob Cymru/WALES NEWS SERVICE
‘You can spend a lifetime looking for dinosaur treasures so for it to happen for Tegan at this age is great.’
This region of south Wales would have been a hot desert subject to flash floods when the 10ft tall camelotia roamed around.
With a long neck and tail, the dinosaur walked on two legs but often grazed while stood on four.
Over time the area changed from an environment akin to the Middle East now, Howells said, to warm, shallow tropical seas sprinkled with islands like the Mediterranean now.
Dinosaurs might not live their now, but the traces they left behind shed light on a history often preserved only in fossils.
Museums are counting on enthusiasts like Tegan to provide a seemingly endless bounty of material to study.
Howells said: ‘In museums, we don’t have time to go out and do that exploration ourlseves so we rely on people like Tegan doing it for us. We can’t do our job without it.’
UK Foreign Office official resigns in protest of continuing arms sales to Israel 'I can no longer carry out my duties in the knowledge that this Department may be complicit in War Crimes,' says Mark Smith in resignation letter
A British diplomat has resigned over the UK's "complicity in war crimes" in Gaza, saying there is "no justification" for the UK's continued arms sales to Israel.
A resignation letter, criticizing the government's continuing arms sales to Israel was reported by media on Friday, attributed to Mark Smith, a diplomat working at the Foreign Office.
Early Sunday, the BBC confirmed that the diplomat is indeed Smith who worked on counterterrorism has resigned in protest at arms sales to Israel.
"It is with sadness that I resign after a long career in the diplomatic service ... I can no longer carry out my duties in the knowledge that this Department may be complicit in War Crimes," read the letter.
The Foreign Office is said to have declined to comment on the individual case, saying the government is "committed to upholding international law."
Smith, who previously worked in Middle East arms export licensing assessment for the government, said: "Ministers claim that the UK has one of the most 'robust and transparent' arms export licensing regimes in the world, however this is the opposite of the truth."
He said each day they witness "clear and unquestionable examples of war crimes and breaches of International Humanitarian Law" in Gaza perpetrated by Israel.
The letter added: "Over half of Gaza's homes and over 80% of commercial properties have been damaged or destroyed ... humanitarian aid is being blocked and civilians are regularly left with no safe quarter to flee to. Red Crescent ambulances have been attacked, schools and hospitals are regularly targeted. These are war crimes."
"There is no justification" for the UK's continued arms sales to Israel yet somehow it continues," he said.
"I have raised this at every level in the organisation including through an official whistle blowing investigation and received nothing more than 'thank you we have noted your concern,'" read the letter.
The resignation e-mail was sent to a wide set of distribution lists including hundreds of government officials, embassy staff and special advisers to Foreign Office ministers, according to the BBC.
The move was praised by many on social media, including by Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.
"I hope that more diplomats will follow the brave lead of Mark Smith and speak up against the enablers of Israel's atrocities," she wrote on X.
In June, the Department for Business and Trade said the UK has issued 108 arms export licenses to Israel since Oct. 7 – when the Gaza conflict began – while over 300 licenses were still active as of May. British diplomat resigns due to his country's continued collusion with Zionist entity
Sat, 17 Aug 2024
LONDON August 17. 2024 (Saba) - Mark Smith, head of the African Programs and Expertise Department at the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, has resigned from his position due to his country's government's continued collusion and sale of weapons to the Zionist entity, which is waging a brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip.
The British website "Middle East Monitor" reported that Smith submitted his resignation letter under the title of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's complicity in Israeli war crimes, in which he said: "I can no longer perform my duties while I am aware that this ministry may be complicit in war crimes, as we witness every day clear examples of these crimes and violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza committed by Israel, whose credibility is beyond question."
“Senior members of the Israeli occupation government have openly expressed their intention to commit genocide, and videos show occupation soldiers deliberately burning, destroying and looting civilian property and openly admitting to raping and torturing prisoners.
Such actions, along with the displacement of more than 80 percent of the civilian population of Gaza, are war crimes,” Smith added, stressing that there is no justification for the continuation of British arms sales to “Israel” despite the fact that it continues in one way or another to commit more crimes.
Smith explained that “as an expert in the field of arms sales, I tried to express my concerns while in office, including through an official investigation into irregularities in arms sales to the Israeli entity, but my efforts did not result in anything,” stressing that ministers claim that Britain has one of the most robust and transparent arms export licensing systems in the world, but this is the opposite of the truth.
The purpose of Scottish Independence is not to replicate the UK state on a smaller scale with a prettier flag. The purpose is to eschew the imperialist past, stop invading other countries, and build a fairer and more equal society both domestically and internationally.
I thank God I was alive and campaigning in 2014 when for a joyous few months a better world seemed within our grasp; genuine transformational change to a better society was almost tangible, we only had to reach for it.
In all the speeches I gave in that campaign, I concentrated on international relations, because others were covering domestic policy comprehensively and brilliantly, and because Independence at essence is a factor of international relations: it is the standing of a state in relation to other states.
The more radical vision I proposed was well received everywhere. I spoke of a Scotland without enemies, without nuclear weapons or aircraft carriers, with genuinely defensive defence forces, not part of the organised aggression that is NATO.
I remember Glasgow Green erupting in cheers when I quoted James Connolly to a huge crowd:
When it is said that we ought to unite to protect our shores against the ‘foreign enemy’, I confess to be unable to follow that line of reasoning, as I know of no foreign enemy of this country except the British Government
I should add that having then addressed grassroots meetings of every conceivable size over months, on pavements, in meeting rooms and church halls or on stages in parks, not a single person ever turned round and said to me “Oh no, I think we should stay in Nato” or “I think Trident is essential”.
Well, we lost the Independence referendum, though it was far closer than anybody had imagined a year previously. The energies of the Independence movement were all diverted into the institutional structure of the SNP, which became temporarily dominant in Scotland.
But there all the energy and enthusiasm, all of that idealism, was dissipated by the leadership of a political class who turned out to be just the same as the political class at Westminster. Corrupt, greedy, self-serving and desperate for “respectability” and their role within the UK Establishment.
This has been brutally hammered home this week by Angus Robertson, the Scottish Government’s external affairs and culture minister, meeting the Israeli Deputy Ambassador to the UK in the midst of the current accelerated phase of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.
A Scottish Government spokesman confirmed that areas of mutual cooperation had been discussed before John Swinney, alarmed at the criticism from the membership, dribbled out a statement to say it was “essential” to meet the Israeli diplomat to “call for a ceasefire”.
The Scottish government spokesperson’s account aligned with Israel’s account:
The spokesperson said: “They discussed areas of mutual interest, including culture, renewable energy and engaging the country’s respective diasporas.
In 1985 my first big job in the FCO was running the South Africa (political) desk during apartheid there and while Thatcher was Prime Minister. As the US and UK stood alone against international calls to sanction and boycott Israel, the Thatcher line was that contact was essential to promote reform.
The contact was of course in fact pretty well devoid of any advocacy of reform, other than a hurried mention so civil servants could say it had been raised. Instead, it was all about making money from apartheid.
Forty years on the SNP is pulling the same stunt as the Tories did over apartheid South Africa . As the ever brilliant Robin McAlpine put it:
Let me be really, really blunt; if calling for an end to genocide is only one item on your agenda for a meeting, you’re an appalling human. ‘Please stop killing Palestinian babies, oh, and would you like a Scotwind contract and an invitation to the Edinburgh Festival’? Fuck right off.
Swinney and Robertson are of course long term Zionists, as is almost the entire UK political class (and mark my words, there are few members of the British political class with their feet more firmly under the UK political structures table than Swinney and Robertson). Indeed, as I have previously explained, Zionism is a necessary badge of entry to the UK political class.
Here is Robertson with former Israeli government spokesman and Israeli Ambassador to the UK Mark Regev:
And here Robertson is with Israeli President Herzog, who was quoted directly by the International Court of Justice as giving an example of genocidal speech which was among the markers that justified their finding of a case to answer on genocide. Herzog also has signed bombs ready to drop on Gaza.
Note Kirsten Oswald front left, Nicola Sturgeon’s close political ally. These last photos were taken before last year, but Israel’s illegal and genocidal actions have been in train for 76 years, not just 10 months.
First Minister John Swinney has a terrible record of collaboration with Israel.
Eden Springs was an Israeli settler owned water company, bottling water from the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights. They opened a subsidiary company in Scotland which was the subject of much controversy a decade ago, with a huge and successful boycott movement, especially among students.
As Scottish Minister for Trade and Industry, Swinney actually gave Eden Springs £200,000 of Scottish government money to help them overcome the effects of the boycott.
Before that, as SPSC reported in 2012, John Swinney made a rare foray into the BDS arena: A subsidiary of Eden Springs, an Israeli water bottling company operating in Britain “turned successfully for help from the Scottish Government to deal with what the Israeli company called ‘a wave of protests…that is threatening the future of Eden Springs UK’”.
On January 5th 2010, a meeting took place between Eden Springs’ UK Managing Director Jean-Marc Bolinger and Scottish Minister John Swinney. The Scottish Government the following year gave £200,000 of Scottish taxpayers’ money to Eden Springs, some of which will end up as profits in Israel, taxed there and freeing up state funds for military aggression and further dispossession of the Palestinian people.
So, to use the modern phrase, Swinney and Robertson’s Zionism is a feature not a glitch. The SNP is just like the other parties in being led by career politicians for whom Zionism is an essential belief for admission to the UK Establishment.
This episode has served to highlight the difference between the continued aspiration of the Scottish people for a better state, in which foreign relations are conducted on ethical grounds, and the actual SNP political class who have precisely the same cynical and transactional approach to politics as their UK peers – they see it essentially as a tool to make a fat living.
The key point is of course that everybody cares about Gaza because of the immediacy with which we can see the devastating genocide on our mobile devices. The political and media classes cannot gaslight us that it is not happening.
Ordinary people look at creatures like Robertson with horror. Swinney is counting on the summer holidays and the traditional extreme deference of the SNP membership to enable him to ride out this storm.
Despite the best effort of the traitors to Independence who run the SNP, the extraordinary thing is that the dream has not died. Support for Independence has not fallen even as the SNP itself has dwindled to a despised rump of its former representation.
A huge well of support remains for anyone who can invoke again the spirit of 2014.
We are not far off that day. As come it will for a’ that.
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UK
Calls for open justice to be improved as Government praises riots court reporting
Journalists have been praised for ensuring that justice is being seen to be done in the wake of riots across England and Northern Ireland this month.
Since violence flared in towns and cities, police have moved swiftly to identify those involved and make arrests, while special courts have been set up to ensure cases are handled quickly.
The importance of local journalism in first covering events in real-time, and helping tackle disinformation fuelling the violence, has already been acknowledged by police forces and politicians.
Now the role of local media in ensuring people are seen to be prosectuted for their violent behaviour has been noted too.
Minister for Courts and Legal Services, Heidi Alexander, said: “I want to acknowledge and thank you and your colleagues in the media for the vital role you have played in recent weeks in upholding the principles of open justice and transparency.
“It’s important — now more than ever — that justice is not only being done, but that the public sees and hears about justice being done; that crime leads to punishment and that the consequences of criminal activity will apply, in spite of any wider challenges we face across the justice system.
“I’m fully aware of the unfailing work that goes on behind the scenes of every news story, as court reporters follow cases through the system, attend and observe court hearings in person or online, request and verify details before independently and accurately reporting court business, in real time, often to very tight deadlines.”
News Media Association directorSayra Tekinsaid: “Acting as the eyes and ears of the public, the media plays a critical role in upholding the principles of open justice.
“In recent days and weeks, the role of local and national media in reporting on the disorder in communities across the UK and the subsequent response of the courts has been crucial to keeping the wider public informed.
“We appreciate the government’s recognition of this and look forward to working with the new government to ensure open justice continues to be protected.”
It is now hoped the new Government will take steps to make it easier for local newsrooms to report on court.
Across the country, police forces operate different policies on when they will issue mugshots of those ultimately prosecuted, many of which have been paused to ensure maximum publicity for those convicted of riot-related offences.
In recent years, police have significantly reduced the amount of information they proactively release about crimes when committed, or about investigations leading to court cases.
Perhaps the most extreme example of this was Cheshire Police’s decision to produce its own documentary on Operation Hummingbird, the investigation into deaths at the Countess of Chester maternity unit, which ultimately led to the conviction of Lucy Letby.
Meanwhile, the closure of courts, particularly magistrates courts, has made it harder for newsrooms to track court cases. The time it takes cases to move through the system also poses challenges for newsrooms which are much smaller than they used to be.
All of these are issues the news industry is working with Government to attempt to resolve.
Journalists haven’t just been reporting on those convicted of violent offences — but those accused of inciting violence online.
Although Labour’s response to the riots and disorder across the UK might have upset the odd social media-owning billionaire this month, the results from two major opinion polls indicate that the general public is relatively pleased with the government’s handling of the issue. Post riots, Starmer and Sunak both record negative net approval ratings
After leading the Tories to crushing defeat at the General Election, Rishi Sunak remains rather unpopular among the general public. His approval rate stays at -30%, and has not changed within the last fortnight. The honeymoon is also over for Keir Starmer.
The PM and Labour leader, who saw his approval rating soar to +19 in July, now has a net score of -7% – despite the electorate largely supporting the government’s response to riots and disorder this month, with a 43% – 31% split on approvals and disapprovals. PM, Police seen to be ‘doing a good job’ by the electorate
This data is also well-aligned with figures released by Savanta this week. Both the police and Mr. Starmer have a majority of participants who believe they both handled the ‘civil unrest’ well. Yvette Cooper, and the government in general, also landed favourable scores.
UK
Poll shows all Tory leadership candidates trailing behind ‘None Of The Above’
The Tory leadership race has so far failed to inspire the electorate - with many of those surveyed rejecting all candidates.
If this doesn’t summarise the current state of the Conservative Party, then nothing else will. Latest figures released by Opinium Research reveal that the six front-runners to replace Rishi Sunak are all polling at single figures. But wait, there’s more…
Tory leadership race already heading for stalemate
The figures show that roughly 49% of those surveyed, from both a national perspective and from within the 2024 Tory voting cohort, still remain unsure about who they would pick to lead the party while in opposition.
A narrow favourite is starting to emerge. Priti Patel has edged ahead, gaining between 7-9% of public approval. The rest of the numbers are even more bleak. Tom Tugdenhat and James Cleverly sit on 6%, with Kemi Badenoch polling at 5%.
Mel Stride and Robert Jenrick already look to be falling by the wayside, with both of these outsiders stumping up just 2% to 3% of support from the respondents. However, all candidates are facing the ignominy of being beaten by the ‘None Of The Above’ option.
And the winner is… None Of The Above! Tory leadership race off to a quiet start
From all of those surveyed, a whopping 23% would not choose a candidate from the current field. Even among Conservative voters, only Priti Patel can match the total for NOTA, tying with 9%. The former Home Secretary appears to be forging an early, if not unconvincing, advantage
. Starmer and Sunak both record negative net approval ratings
After leading the Tories to crushing defeat at the General Election, Rishi Sunak remains rather unpopular among the general public. His approval rate remains at -30%, and has not changed within the last fortnight. The honeymoon is also over for Keir Starmer.
The PM and Labour leader, who saw his approval rating soar to +19 in July, now has a net score of -7% – despite the electorate largely supporting the government’s response to riots and disorder this month, with a 43% – 31% split on approvals and disapprovals.
Is Europe after Abraham Accords II?
TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (MNA) – White House officials have expressed their support for the European plan as they view it as a continuation of the 2020 Abraham Accords, which led to recognition of Israel's sovereignty over Palestinian territories.
France, Germany, and Britain intend to join the 146 countries recognizing Palestine as a state, contingent upon significant concessions from Iran, including its recognition of Israel and a halt to support for Resistance groups in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria, according to information obtained by the Tehran Times.
The initiative proposed by Paris and endorsed by London and Berlin aims to offer additional protections for Israel but does not establish any conditions to safeguard Palestinians against Israel's apartheid policies in the occupied territories, its massacres in Gaza, the abuse of Palestinian prisoners, or the growing number of illegal settlements in the West Bank.
If the initiative is implemented, the European trio will align with their counterparts in Norway, Ireland, and Spain, who became the latest group of European countries to recognize Palestine as a state earlier this year. While the May decision drew fury from the Israeli regime, it failed to stop the ongoing suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories.
According to information gathered by the Tehran Times, White House officials have expressed their support for the European plan as they view it as a continuation of the 2020 Abraham Accords, which led to recognition of Israel's sovereignty over Palestinian territories by some Arab and African nations, including the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. Saudi Arabia was on the verge of joining the accords before the outbreak of the latest round of Israeli onslaughts in Gaza.
As the data collected by the Tehran Times shows, some critics in Europe and the U.S. have warned that even if Iran were to acknowledge Israel and distance itself from the Resistance, Israel would not be granted the security it desires. Rather, the move would reinforce the regime's unlawful practices and hinder any prospects for a genuine peace process. They highlight that the Abraham Accords did not stop the successful Hamas operation on October 7, when Palestinian fighters seized control of several Israeli settlements for hours and took some Israelis to Gaza.
Sources have told the Tehran Times that voices averse to the initiative believe Western leaders should recognize and respect Palestinians’ rights, instead of turning to regional countries to strengthen Israel’s hand.
The Tehran Times understands that besides the perceived impracticality and ineffectiveness of the initiative, some in Europe and the United States also believe that Iran is highly unlikely to acquiesce to Europe's demands. Nevertheless, the leaders of France, Germany, and Britain intend to promote the initiative in the future as a way to vindicate themselves following months of intense criticism regarding their support for Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza.
Europe will manage to throw the ball in Iran’s court and blame it for the crisis in Gaza after Tehran rejects the initiative, the Tehran Times was informed. Rather than a genuine attempt at peace, Europe’s proposed recognition of Palestine is a calculated move to shift blame onto Iran.
In the past 10 months, over 40,000 Palestinians have lost their lives as a direct result of Israeli attacks on the besieged enclave. War experts say at least 100,000 more people will end up losing their lives, due to the complete decimation of medical centers in Gaza, as well as an acute shortage of food, clean water, and medicine.
WWIII
NATO IN THE PACIFIC
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105), top, and the French navy Aquitane-class frigate FS Bretagne (D 655) sail together during bilateral operations in the Philippine Sea, Aug. 13, 2024. (U.S. Navy photo)
U.S., French Naval Forces Conduct Bilateral Operations in Indo-Pacific
The U.S. Navy and French Navy joined forces to conduct bilateral operations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific in the Philippine Sea, Aug. 13.
The operations included U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) and the French Navy Aquitane-class frigate FS Bretagne (D655).
“The U.S. 7th Fleet takes regular steps to advance our interoperability with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, as we did during this week’s bilateral operation with our longstanding French Navy allies. The work we do together strengthens the combined capabilities of our professional maritime forces and enhances our ability to deter conflict in the region.”
Vice Adm. Fred Kacher, Commander of U.S. 7th Fleet
The ships conducted formation sailing, combined communication, and simulated refueling at sea.
“Our bilateral training affirms the high level of interoperability between French and American navies. The newly-swapped crew of the FS Bretagne continues to ride with high spirits established during RIMPAC as demonstrated with our cooperation with the U.S. Navy in the Philippine Sea!”
Capt. Audrey Boutteville, commanding officer of Bretagne
The U.S. Navy regularly operates alongside our allies in the Indo-Pacific region as a demonstration of our shared commitment to the rules-based international order. Bilateral operations such as this one provides valuable opportunities to train, exercise and develop tactical interoperability across allied navies in the Indo-Pacific.
“Professional engagement with allies, partners, and friends operating in the region allows us to build upon our existing, strong relationships and learn from each other,” said Cmdr. Nicholas Maruca, commanding officer of Dewey. “These sails are great opportunities to enhance interoperability, information sharing and combined warfighting capabilities with our partners and allies through realistic scenarios across a number of warfare areas.”
Dewey is forward-deployed and assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force.
U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
‘It’s not about Raygun’: Breakdancers speak out on Olympics row
Legendary breakers Kwikstep and Rokafella give their take on the now infamous ‘kangaroo hop’.
The winners of the men's Olympics breaking competition: Gold medallist B-Boy Phil Wizard of Team Canada (C), Silver medallist B-Boy Dany Dann of Team France (L) and Bronze medallist B-Boy Victor of Team United States. Many in the breaking community believe their triumphs were overshadowed by the 'kangaroo hop' controversy caused by an Australian dancer who received zero points
The worst thing about the uproar that erupted when an Australian breakdancer received zero points for her performance at the Olympics was not the slightly bizarre “kangaroo hop” she performed, say the renowned, New York-based breakdance champions Gabriel “Kwikstep” Dionisio and Ana “Rokafella” Garcia.
The particularly devastating angle to the whole mess – “frustrating, insulting, offensive” is how Rokafella puts it; “burning the scene” is how Kwikstep sees it – was that it completely overshadowed the other performers, some of whom did win medals and “made an incredible impression on that dance floor”.
It’s a huge shame, they say, because dancers such as Ami Yuasa (B-Girl Ami) from Japan who won the gold medal in the women’s (“b-girls”) breaking competition and Philip Kim (B-Boy Phil Wizard) from Canada who won a gold medal for the men’s (“b-boys”) competition, should have come away from the games covered in glory.
Many in the breaking community had hoped the art form would grow in popularity and attract a wider audience after the International Olympic Committee announced that it would become an official sport at the Paris 2024 games.
Instead, the art was roundly derided and mocked as the performance by university professor-turned-b-girl Rachael Gunn – known as Raygun in breakdancing circles – went viral on social media. The criticism even extended to a parody on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the United States.
There were also accusations of cultural appropriation as Raygun – a white Australian – was seen as mocking breaking, which has roots in American Black and Latino culture. Malik Dixon, who is from New York but currently lives in Australia, told the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC): “It just looked like somebody who was toying with the culture and didn’t know how culturally significant it was being the first time in the Olympics and just how important it was to people who really cherish hip-hop and one of the elements of hip-hop, which is breakdancing.”
Paris Olympics 2024 was the first time breakdancing – called “breaking” – was classed as an Olympic sport. Breaking is derived from the word “break”, which refers to the instrumental sections of songs, particularly in funk, soul and hip-hop music. It was during these breaks that dancers would showcase their moves to the beat, hence the term “breaking”.
At the Paris Olympics, the breaking competitions – known as “battles” – took place at the city’s iconic Place de la Concorde, its largest public square and the designated “cool corner” for “urban” sports such as skateboarding, BMX biking and breaking.
Kwikstep and Rokafella, a married b-boy and b-girl couple who have been famous on the New York breakdancing scene since the 1980s when the dance style was still in its infancy, watched intently from afar.
Kwikstep has judged breakdance contests such as Battle of the Year in Germany, the Notorious IBE in the Netherlands and R-16 Korea and served as a judge for the Red Bull BC One competition, one of the biggest international breakdance events, this year in Rio de Janeiro.
Rokafella is a professional hip-hop dancer and choreographer who has also judged many competitions and co-founded with Kwikstep the nonprofit Full Circle Productions, dedicated to teaching young people about the political roots and future of breakdancing. Neither was involved with the breaking competition at the Paris Olympics this year, however.
Al Jazeera talked to them about their impressions of this year’s event, the fallout when Raygun hit the headlines, and the fight for civil rights which lies at the root of their art.
B-Girl Ami – Ami Yuasa of Japan, who won the women’s (b-girl) Gold medal at the Paris Olympics 2024, competes in the B-Girl Robin Battles during the WDSF World Breaking Championship 2023 on September 24, 2023 in Leuven, Belgium [Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images]
Al Jazeera: What was your impression of the breakdancing at the Paris Olympics?
Rokafella: Now, with all this little firestorm backlash that’s happening, I’m frustrated.
Emotionally, this was an intense chapter in my breakdance life, my breaking life as a b-girl.
We had a watch party for the b-girl day, and so we were bringing the gathering, the New Yorkers and the community, to go through this moment together.
I tried my best to be as impartial and as open-minded as I could be, and I’m still being open-minded with it.
I do wish that the world would focus more on the amazing and excellent display that all the Olympians had. You know, I feel like the medallists in each of the categories should be the ones that are being pumped up and they’re not.
And so that part is definitely frustrating, insulting, offensive, and the people who are outside of the community who are weighing in, you don’t need to weigh in.
Kwikstep: We were excited that breaking was going to be on a world stage.
I’m an athlete myself. I’m a tumbler. An all-around gymnast. I play baseball, basketball, I surf. Martial arts, all of that. And the best breakers I know have an athletic component to them outside of breaking. So I can see the attraction, it being on that stage, but there wasn’t a community component to it on the way there.
[But now] there’s a lot of speculation about what went down. [That breaking] is not being included in the 2028 Olympics because of what happened here. That’s not true. The LA committee already made the decision about it not being included. Doesn’t make sense because it was born here in America.
[In the Paris Olympics] I think a lot of compromises were made on the way, and it’s why we have the fallout that we’re having.
I like what I saw, but it was very clean cut. They wanted culture. Now, if you want culture, it’s cute. You had a boombox. I like that you had the vinyl in the middle. We would have had graffiti artists do up that boombox. I would have had breakers come out of the tape deck, coming down into a ramp out of the radio. I would have had LL Cool J KRS-One as part of the ceremony.
I would have had Big Daddy Kane, everyone who had the courage to represent breaking before any of this happened. I would have had a contingency of multi-generational representation there from the 1970s all the way to now.
There’s attention on somebody [Rachael Gunn] who, you know, took the breaking skills and didn’t present it at the highest level.
And that right now is getting a lot of fuel, and it’s burning the scene. But what I say to people is, don’t let it burn you, use it as fuel to engage you, to figure out what you’re going to do with what you have.
So this field runs out with a young lady by the name of Raygun. What will be left over are the champions that took home medals, the ones who made an incredible impression on that dance floor.
B-Girl Raygun of Team Australia competes during the B-Girls Round Robin – Group B on day 14 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Place de la Concorde, on August 09, 2024 [Ezra Shaw/Getty Images]
Al Jazeera: What do you think of Raygun’s performance?
Rokafella: We watched the battle [breakdancing competition] live, but we’ve watched many battles, sometimes in person, sometimes with one of our dancers, our b-girls, competing.
The kangaroo hop, that was a surprise.
However, what I’m trying to get at is that in b-girl battles occasionally, but more often than not, you will get dancers who are not at a high skill level. In general, we all have to work hard and we have to train. In general, we’re doing the same steps, but mentally, physically, there’s a lot of differences here.
And so when people want to criticise her performance, we trust that the judges will see what we’re seeing. And no, she does not get to move to the next bracket, so we trust that.
Kwikstep: My initial reaction when I saw Raygun was, how does she make it into this, to begin with? What were the checks and balances? In every event, there’s people in last place, but nobody’s focusing on that for days and days, making it into memes. And they’re on talk shows and all of that kind of stuff.
Let me give you an example. So I have a young man who called me, and he was almost in, I can say, in tears. His voice was shaking because he owns a school teaching breaking in a rural area.
And parents came in and said, “Teach my kids the kangaroo.” And he said, “Please don’t come in here and say that to me. It’s very disrespectful.” They didn’t listen. Now they’ve been asking him to teach their kids the kangaroo and sending him memes. He called me, said, “I don’t know what to do because I think I’m going to lose all my students and their parents because this is all they want.”
To take this culture and beat somebody up with it, is not the right thing to do.
by Kwikstep
And I told them, if you lose all of them, it’s time for you to do something else. Because they weren’t loyal to you to begin with. If they had empathy, they would understand you and say, you know what? You’re right, I’m wrong. And remind people that this dance is about soldiers in the trenches.
If you look at the headlines at that time, it said, “New York can drop dead.” They left us for dead, literally. And post-civil rights, where I watched leaders get assassinated, I’m listening to rhymes that say “I am a somebody” and I’m cognisant that that comes from what? Civil rights marches. I am somebody.
And so when you have all of this happening in my mind and in my soul now, here I come to watch the Olympics, and I’m watching people at the top of their game. Some things are missing, but I’m like, it’s cool. The movement is what I’m watching. This is not just about moves. It’s about the movement of the people.
But then they chose to focus on her instead of, you know, Logistx or Sunny or Nicka, for that matter, who’s killing the game. They were incredible. And so you take away all the momentum to focus on this one person who doesn’t have the skillset. But it’s almost like a knee-jerk instinct to make a parody of a Black and Brown dance, because that’s what you were taught how to do. That’s not cool.
And I really feel bad for Raygun and what she has to deal with, because mental health is a real thing. And as a community, we come from a place where we’re mentally up against the wall, and this dance and music healed us. And so to turn around and take this very same culture and beat somebody up with it is not the right thing to do.
B-Girl Logistx, 21, of Team United States and who has also competed as a part of the youth hip-hop group The Lab, competes during the B-Girls Round Robin – Group B on day 14 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 [Elsa/Getty Images]
Al Jazeera: Tell us a bit about how breaking evolved.
Kwikstep: So breaking, in its first incarnation, started in the early 1970s … We were fortunate enough to be exposed to Lindy Hop [on TV] – it’s a dance that comes from the African-American contingent that was being done to swing music.
Rokafella: In the 1930s.
Kwikstep: And you had jazz, swing, bebop music. And you listen to the word bebop, it sounds a lot like hip-hop. And when people say, let’s go to the hop, that’s like saying, let’s go to the jam. So Lindy Hop swing, there’s a clip called hell is a popping.
When you look at this footage, see the video? That energy is like breaking energy, but it’s not breaking.
When you look at it like that – you know – shuffling in the sand and being quiet and the chains come off. Now you’re tapping sort of works and hear, “I’m here.” The Nicholas Brothers, the Barry Brothers.
It’s like watching your aunt move her hips while she’s cooking. There’s a sense of ancestry and knowledge being passed down to you.
When you look at hip-hop, it’s like rock and roll. You’re rocking and you’re rolling to that rhythm. Rhythm and blues, we’re doing these rhythms because of the blues.
When I look at the African-American dynamics and Afro-Caribbean dynamics, and when we saw one another. When hip-hop was being born, before it was called hip-hop, there was a social exchange happening.
You’re watching Lindy Hop, you’re watching swing music, you’re watching the big bands, you’re watching tap, and you go down with these moves in your head, and now you’re rocking to this music that’s jazz. And you’re actually reliving through your ancestry in the moment, doing similar moves.
Rokafella: The phase of the civil rights movement which also bled into Puerto Ricans standing and marching right there with the Black Panthers in New York City. So we were coming out of this and we were trying to find respect from our city officials and the government and at large.
And our leaders were assassinated. So we both marched together, and we both had to cope and endure the aftermath of that. And there were these music genres that were coming in quickly right after that. You had punk, which was also protest music. You had salsa, which really became very politically heavy with messages about South America, about the Caribbean, about America being a coloniser. You’ve got disco.
The movement is what I'm watching. This is not just about moves. It's about the movement of the people.
by Rokafella
You’ve got the Black is Beautiful movement. You’ve got Puerto Ricans bringing their congas to different party basement parties. It’s like a wave of pride that comes up at that moment which stems from the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
We got the city, which isn’t funded, so fire stations are closing. Arts programming is being cut. We’re not accommodating or catering to you, but we have to feel like we’re still here. We’re surviving the fires. Right after fires, you have crack, right after that, you’ve got AIDS, you’ve got the three strike laws, you could easily get stopped and frisked and locked up for just holding a joint.
And then you’ve got the DJs, you’ve got the dancers, you’ve got different cultures coming together. There’s this whole vibe that’s happening in New York City that really does catapult the artist to rise.
It was like the Latin, the Capoeira, the Bruce Lee, our lineages from African-American or Afro-diasporic traditions.
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abriel ‘Kwikstep’ Dionisio teaches at KBL studios in New York in August 2019. Many in the breaking community hoped the art form would expand its audience after the International Olympic Committee announced that it would become an official sport at the Paris 2024 games [Frank Franklin II/AP]
Al Jazeera: Which films and other source material would you recommend for those who want to learn about breaking?
Rokafella: I think that we can name a couple of films: Style Wars, Wild Style, Beat Street, Freshest Kids, Rubble Kings, A Decade of Fire. The book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop by Jeff Chiang. Imani Kai Johnson just put out a wonderful book [Dark Matter in Breaking Cyphers: The Life of Africanist Aesthetics in Global Hip Hop].
There’s definitely a lot in terms of crews from back then that don’t get the notoriety. Incredible Breakers, Fresh Kids, Furious Rockers, Scrambling Feet. You got Rocksteady Breakers and Dynamic. We got the people who were definitely a force on the underground to reckon with.
And they didn’t get the cameras on them. They didn’t get the movies or the tours, but they were definitely people who could take you out in a circle.
So in the end, when you really ask yourself, how come there’s so little Black and Latin and Puerto Rican representation at the Olympics. The whole entire landscape. It’s because there’s no support, there’s no investment.
I have mouths to feed. We got bills to pay. We have to live. There’s a whole health aspect that comes in with breaking, with dancing. I got to get the chiropractor. I gotta get acupuncture. And so all that to say that if people really, really have eyes, the issue is bigger. It’s much bigger.
Whatever lane you want to take breaking to, who’s funding that? We have to evolve and bring breaking into other realms and open up all the other chambers and chakras that we have as we walk in, as we walk with breaking. Source: Al Jazeera
The winners of the men's Olympics breaking competition: Gold medallist B-Boy Phil Wizard of Team Canada (C), Silver medallist B-Boy Dany Dann of Team France (L) and Bronze medallist B-Boy Victor of Team United States. Many in the breaking community believe their triumphs were overshadowed by the 'kangaroo hop' controversy caused by an Australian dancer who received zero points 
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