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)
Monday, August 26, 2024
UKRAINE
THE SECRET IS MADE PUBLIC
President Held a Meeting on Protecting the State's National Interests Under Martial Law
26 August 2024 -
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Official website
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with the heads of law enforcement agencies regarding the protection of the state's national interests under martial law.
Participants included: Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Maliuk, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko, Head of the State Border Guard Service Serhii Deineko, Director of NABU Semen Kryvonos, Deputy Prosecutor General and Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Oleksandr Klymenko, Director of the State Bureau of Investigation Oleksii Sukhachov, Head of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention Viktor Pavlushchyk, and Acting Director of the Economic Security Bureau Serhii Perkhun.
"First and foremost, we discussed countering traitors, collaborators, and those who justify Russian aggression in various sectors and assist the enemy. We also need to thoroughly discuss the mechanism for applying sanctions by our state and cooperation with partners to synchronize our sanction regimes," said Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Maliuk reported on counter-sabotage and counterintelligence activities in Ukraine, investigations into treason and collaboration, and the application of sanctions against traitors and collaborators.
Director of the State Bureau of Investigation Oleksii Sukhachov provided updates on investigations into illegal border crossings, particularly by individuals involved in criminal cases.
"More than enough structures and personnel are involved in guarding our state border, and they must prevent illegal crossings. Each instance of fleeing by individuals involved in criminal cases requires a clear response, conclusions, and accountability," noted the President.
Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko reported on strengthening border security to halt illegal channels for transporting Ukrainians.
The President also tasked the development of a plan to reinforce the border between Ukraine and Moldova along the section near the unrecognized Transnistria.
The parties also discussed the progress of implementing the Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2021–2025 and the State Anti-Corruption Program for 2023–2025.
A melting pond atop Greenland’s ice sheet. Photo: Marco Tedesco
Few places afford a such a clear view of climate change as does Greenland, a frozen island in the Arctic about half the size of the United States, with a polar ice cap that’s three kilometers thick at its center. The melting of Greenland’s ice has accelerated over the past decades, and with it, rising sea levels. According to recent estimates, Greenland has lost around 270 billion tons of ice every year over the past few decades—equivalent to the weight of 26,000 Eiffel Towers—and which has contributed around 30-40% of the current global sea-level rise. Roughly half the ice loss occurs via ice calving at the ice sheet’s edge, while the other half happens through surface melting. Studying the reasons for the recent acceleration of Greenlandic surface melting and understanding the processes that control it are fundamental to improving estimates of what will happen to our oceans and the relative impact on our society.
This melting has occurred in tandem with the increase in CO2 emissions on a global scale, in stark contrast to the goals stated in the Paris Agreement, signed almost a decade ago. For this reason, understanding where and how quickly Greenland’s ice is melting is one of the keys to studying the effects of climate change on our planet, and the reason for a recent expedition to Greenland.
Marine and polar geophysicist Marco Tedesco standing on a field of blue ice. Photo: R. Antwerpen
Accompanying me on this trip is Paolo Colosio, a young but highly trained research fellow at the University of Brescia and an expert in polar remote sensing; and Elizabeth Kolbert, a journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 with her book, ‘The Sixth Extinction’. We will be staying in Kangerlussuaq, a town on the west coast with a population of around 500 people and the arrival point of international flights to Greenland. The Kangerlussuaq International Science Station (KISS) headquarters is here and will host us upon arrival. The temperature is pleasant, although experience teaches us that it could drop significantly and quickly as we get closer to the polar cap.
For previous expeditions, we have flown to the ice by helicopter. However, renting this transportation has become more challenging over the past years due to increased tourism in Greenland, which has driven up costs and reduced the availability of helicopters. This year, we reach the ice via a bumpy road built in the 1980s by a car company to test cars on the ice.
I have now exceeded a dozen expeditions to Greenland and I never tire of both the sight and the emotions of the first steps. The sound of the ice crushing under our heavy boots, the sight of the ice as far as the eye can see, simultaneously a lunar and yet familiar landscape, constantly triggering new emotions and raising scientific questions. It’s like being in the presence of an animal in danger of extinction, enormous and majestic but fragile under the attack of the tiny but powerful carbon dioxide molecules released by humans into the atmosphere. It is both a privilege and a curse to be here.
Meltwater flowing into a “moulin”—a vertical shaft that extends through a glacier and is carved by meltwater from the glacier’s surface. Photo: Marco Tedesco
New and more powerful satellites, combined with increasingly refined climate models and artificial intelligence, have recently allowed us to make giant leaps in understanding what drives melting in Greenland. Despite these advances, it is still essential to explore new technologies, so we can continue adding more pieces to the complicated climate puzzle, promote solutions and test ideas. Carrying out these studies is not a purely scientific exercise. It is essential both for the remote future (hundreds of years) and the more immediate one (10-20 years), given the disastrous physical and economic impacts to which the population and infrastructure will be exposed as the Earth morphs into a new state. We no longer even have to wait for the future to know what will happen to us in some areas of our planet: the most recent extreme weather events, floods and wildfires have already shown us how the fate of coastal residents around the world depends on what happens in Greenland. The Greenland ice sheet is a time machine that offers a photograph of the past through the memory of ice—and insight into what could happen to our planet and the cities we live in.
Drones are among the tools that make it possible to fill some of the most critical scientific gaps. They allow us to observe details within the ice that are not observable from satellites, and they offer an opportunity to discover or improve new processes that can be used within climate models. The drone we use in Greenland on this expedition collects images similar to those of a very high-resolution camera, along with other images that are invisible to our eyes but hold the secret of what is happening to the ice.
Ice covered by “metamorphosed” snow (it appears dark in infrared light though invisible to our eyes) and light-absorbing material (soot, dust, algae, etc.). Photo: Marco Tedesco
At first glance, it is logical to assume that Greenland’s increased melting is due to rising global temperatures. Indeed, that is true, but there’s more going on. One thing that significantly controls the melting of Greenland ice is the amount of solar energy absorbed by the ice, a parameter called “albedo,” from the Latin albus, or whiteness. We all know the albedo effect and the difference it makes in staying cool when wearing a white t-shirt instead of a black one on a sunny day. The same applies to Greenland, which becomes darker (lower albedo) or lighter (higher albedo) depending on melt-freeze cycles and precipitation. Heavy snowfall is equivalent to wearing a white shirt, since fresh snow favors the reflection of solar radiation, “cooling” the frozen island. Increased melting and refreezing cycles (as has been happening over the past decades) also alter the albedo: the snow absorbs more solar radiation as they occur. This phenomenon is, nevertheless, invisible to our eyes, but if we could see in the infrared region, we would see the snow becoming increasingly dark as it melts more and more. The melting and refreezing cycles further favor melting, increasing the absorption of solar radiation, in a sort of “melting cannibalism” in which the snow eliminates itself.
The Greenland ice sheet is a time machine that offers a photograph of the past through the memory of ice—and insight into what could happen to our planet and the cities we live in.
We are freezing due to the strong wind coming down from the mountain of ice behind us. The wind does not make operations easier, and the work requires patience and stubbornness to operate the instruments. It is an effortless act in the office but an Olympic athlete’s stunt once on the ice. This same wind is also complicit in another phenomenon responsible for lowering the albedo in some areas, including where we are on this expedition. This time is it visible to our eyes, in the accumulation of substances such as ash, dust and sand on the frozen surface that makes the ice darker, favoring melting. The very fine material is deposited on the ice after being eroded by surrounding rocks or is caught by raindrops or snowflakes as they fall. Solar radiation heats the microscopic particles, forming small pools of water around them. These pools grow in size and depth, merge and give rise to micro-lakes ranging from a few centimeters to a few meters in length, in which the dark material composed of algae, bacteria, meteorite dust and other resilient animals continues to promote the melting of ice.
Aerial view of crevasses near the edge of the ice sheet. Photo: Marco Tedesco
It takes longer we expect to collect the data due to the “usual” unforeseen events: drone batteries that the shipping company ruined and now run out more quickly than we expect; strong winds that limit the autonomy of the drone; the difficulty in crossing streams and waterways that are visibly swollen due to melting; fingers that can’t secure a small screw because of the cold. But in the end, we succeed. It will take months to analyze the data. Still, the good news is that preliminary analysis confirms the possibility of improving climate models and satellite data extraction using the data collected by our drone in conjunction with artificial intelligence techniques. The bad news is that our data also confirms that the glacier has thinned by several meters, in contrast with previous years when the change was much smaller.
Making things worse is the recent alteration of atmospheric circulation in the Arctic. The recent decrease in albedo has been accompanied by an increase in the amount of solar energy that reaches the ice. Changes in the Arctic atmosphere associated with climate change favor an increase in the number of cloudless days along many areas where melting is already accelerating, providing more “gas” for melting. The decrease in albedo and the increase in solar radiation reaching the ice are accomplices in a climate crime against Greenland. If melting is the speed of a train, the albedo is the slope of the train track, and solar radiation the gas we give to the train. Increasing the downhill slope and adding more gas will make the train run faster, eventually making it unstoppable.
Despite being geographically isolated and far from many densely populated places, Greenland and the melting of its ice influence our lives through sea level rise and the compounding effects of increased extreme weather, flooding and storms. As we search for solutions to reduce emissions and capture greenhouse gases, we must continue to study processes that lead to understanding how to reduce the uncertainties associated with projections of sea-level rise, ensuring that the future we predict does not arrive earlier than we anticipate, with many cities and regions unprepared to tackle the consequences. The incredible acceleration of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet holds a mirror to society and affects us all.
A stream running among frozen hills covered by refrozen snow. Photo: Marco Tedesco
Marco Tedesco is a research professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which is part of the Columbia Climate School.
KULTURKAMPF
‘Rooster hairstyle,’ see-thru sleeves now banned in North Korea
List of off-limits fashion items grows to include jeans, dyed hair and even shoulder bags.
By Kim Jieun for RFA Korean 2024.08.26
Illustration by Rebel Pepper
North Korea has added the “rooster hairstyle” and blouses with see-through sleeves to its banned fashion list, saying they “obscure the image of a socialist system,” sources inside the country said.
Violators face up to six months of labor sentences, the sources told Radio Free Asia.
The new regulations were detailed in a video lecture shown to people, with hairstyle violators forced to shave their heads, a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The bans are the latest to target the fashion choices of the North Korean people, and join a long list of other prohibited clothing that includes sleeveless shirts, jeans, hair dye, non-creased pants, T-shirts with foreign lettering, shoulder bags, and specifically for women, hair below the waist, shorts and figure-hugging tops.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Ju Ae attend the inauguration ceremony of Jonwi Street in Pyongyang, May 14, 2024. (KCNA via KNS/AFP)
But another round of fashion bans seems to prevent people from having the same style as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and those around him.
Citizens found sporting the same hairstyle as Kim, or his same style of wide-legged pants, or his iconic leather trenchcoat look can also be punished.
Negative reaction
Residents were critical of the bans, noting that they don’t seem to apply to people in Kim Jong Un’s inner circle.
The supreme leader’s daughter Kim Ju Ae recently appeared in a blouse with semi-transparent sleeves.
And Hyon Song Wol, the deputy department director of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party, who often appears at events alongside Kim, has sported the “rooster hairstyle,” in which long hair is tied atop the head with bangs covering the forehead and one eye.
That ordinary citizens aren’t allowed to wear these styles is a double standard, residents said.
“Residents protested, saying, ‘You can’t wear hair in a bun, you can’t cover your forehead and eyes with your bangs. Are people machines?’” the North Hamgyong resident said.
Another resident from the northwestern province of North Pyongan said that people there took issue with the ban on transparent-sleeved blouses.
“Even the leader’s daughter appeared wearing see-through clothes,” he said. “People protested and asked why wearing them would be anti-socialist.”
Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong, Joshua Lipes, and Malcolm Foster.
Opinion
Applying the moral wages of Watergate 50 years on
What lessons might we draw from that scandal for our political dilemma today?
President Richard Nixon gestures toward transcripts of White House tapes after announcing he would turn them over to House impeachment investigators and make them public in April of 1974. (AP Photo)
(RNS) — This summer we remember a political tragedy from 50 years ago that many at the time considered the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War. What became known as the Watergate scandal began a series of questionable and illegal actions during the Richard Nixon administration that first came to light with the arrest of five burglars at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington in June 1972.
Evidence would reveal that the burglary, at a hotel and office complex called the Watergate, was part of a larger spying and sabotage component of the Nixon reelection effort, financed by campaign funds.
President Nixon tried to stop the discovery of the full scope of this activity, telling his aides to order the FBI to limit its inquiry. But in July of 1973, a secret White House recording system was uncovered and when the relevant tapes were released by court order, the extent of Nixon’s involvement was revealed. Months of Senate hearings, followed by an impeachment inquiry by the House Judiciary Committee, led to three articles of impeachment in July 1974.
With revelations from the last tapes delivered on Aug. 5 of that year, Nixon’s support in Congress vanished. Nixon announced his resignation on Aug. 8 and was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford, who pardoned Nixon on Sept. 8, 1974.
A crowd outside a Pittsburgh hotel where President Gerald Ford was addressing a transportation conference holds signs protesting his decision to grant a pardon to former President Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while chief executive. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society)
Throughout U.S. history, political scandals have exposed corruption and misdeeds in nearly every presidential administration. Something different took place, however, in Watergate. More was at stake than isolated conflicts of interest or political dirty tricks. The very processes of our nation and the foundation on which the country stands were at stake. The tools of government designed for use against national enemies were used against U.S. citizens, and instruments of the intelligence community were used against another branch of government to stop an investigation.
At the time, it was common to hear that partisan politics were behind the outcries, or that much was being made over little more than run-of-the-mill political chicanery. But as records and transcripts from the White House tapes continued to come out, it became clear that it was not politics or the press that brought down a president. It was criminal evidence.
What can people of faith learn from this chapter in our history?
One thing missing through the course of the Watergate saga was a sense that the participants felt any moral accountability. Jeb Stuart Magruder, a Nixon aide who went to jail for his role in the scandal and later became a Presbyterian pastor, told Watergate Judge John Sirica, “Somewhere between my ambitions and my ideals I lost my ethical compass.”
One of the most prominent witnesses at the Senate hearings was White House counsel John W. Dean, who said, “Slowly, steadily, I would climb toward the moral abyss of the President’s inner circle until I finally fell into it, thinking I had made it to the top just as I began to realize I had actually touched bottom.” He aptly titled his account of those years “Blind Ambition.”
But Watergate also provides examples that new life can come to those who repent. The Boston Globe wrote at the time about Charles Colson, a Nixon aide willing to do virtually anything for his boss, “If Mr. Colson can repent his sins, there just has to be hope for everybody.” Yes, that is truly what many people of faith believe. There is hope for everyone. The new life and purpose found by many, though not all, of the Watergate participants bears witness to this reality.
Billy Graham was the presidential “court evangelical” long before historian John Fea coined it in reference to Donald Trump’s advisory committee of Christians. Graham had benefited from — and been used by — presidents well before Nixon. In Watergate, Graham faced the greatest crisis of his own credibility because of his staunch defense of Nixon. In one afternoon, Graham read all of the transcripts published by The New York Times and became “physically, retchingly sick.” As he examined his own soul, he said, “I had to say with John Wesley, ‘I looked at my soul and it looked like hell.’”
President Richard Nixon, right, and Billy Graham bow their heads in prayer during the president’s visit to the Billy Graham East Tennessee Crusade at Knoxville, Tenn., in 1970. (RNS archive photo)
One lesson that came from Watergate was a new appreciation for persons of unshakable integrity, a virtue our culture often regards as less important than superficial success or status. Why did so many involved choose not to speak out or simply resign? Had they no lively sense of right and wrong? What if once in those exchanges in the released transcripts somebody had said, “This is wrong” or simply asked, “Is this right?” instead of “Can we get away with it?” Judge Sirica was correct to observe that just a little honesty and character would have stopped this awful thing at the very beginning.
If there are any heroes in Watergate, they are found in people who simply did their duty in the way they sensed to be right: Frank Wills, a night watchman at the Watergate who was so good at his job that he spotted tape the burglars had used to hold open a door. Sam Ervin, a “country lawyer” senator from North Carolina, who could quote from both the Constitution and the Bible “by heart.” Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus, an attorney general and deputy attorney general who resigned rather than carry out a presidential order to fire the special prosecutor on the case. Young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, along with their courageous editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham, exposed what too many were attempting to hide. These are among those we may still remember and honor.
When President Nixon resigned in August 1974, I was a pastor in Mississippi. I wrote these words to my congregation: “Seldom do we value or even try to understand the person who acts on the basis of conscience if we personally disagree with his or her action. How wonderful it would be if we could really believe that the sun shines on nothing more beautiful or majestic than a person of integrity and principle. If this were the case, then we would reserve our highest honors for those who say with Job, ‘Till I die, I will not violate my integrity.’”
What might all this mean for our political dilemma today? The actions and language of some political figures today make the villains of Watergate seem almost moral by comparison — their attempted cover-up at least acknowledged a sense of guilt. Bipartisan action when confronted with evident corruption appears to belong to another time.
Perhaps we would do well to remember some words from former New York Times executive editor Turner Catledge about Nixon after Watergate, “We should have paid more attention to the kind of man he was.”
That’s something about which people of faith have traditionally cared deeply.
(Lovett H. Weems Jr. is professor emeritus of church leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington and senior consultant at the seminary’s Lewis Center for Church Leadership. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)
Anti-Trump evangelical Christians make the case for Harris
A group of mostly progressive evangelical political strategists are trying to help religious conservatives see Harris as the more biblically faithful of the two candidates.
This combination photo shows Vice President Kamala Harris, left, at the White House in Washington, July 22, 2024, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at an event July 26, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photos)
(RNS) — In his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama captured 26% and 21% of white evangelical Christian voters, respectively — and won. Hillary Clinton got only 16% of the white evangelical vote in 2016 and lost. In the past two elections, Donald Trump took more than 80% of the white evangelical vote. Most analysts agree that if Kamala Harris can break this hold on religious conservatives and approach Obama’s numbers, she will sail into the White House.
To recapture the religious conservative vote for the Democrats, evangelical groups that are aligned with the Democratic mission are alternating between the carrot and the stick. The “carrot,” — appealing to voters’ religious identities in a positive way — aims to show that Democratic policies in general and Harris’ in particular manifest a rich and broad understanding of religious duty grounded in the gospel.
The “stick” is in large measure about wielding the prospect of a second term for Donald Trump. In this case, some of the same groups make the case that Trump is simply not a worthy representative of Christianity. But it’s also the broader argument that the Republican Party promotes an idea of religion that is too narrowly focused, divisive, intensely politicized.
Doug Pagitt, an evangelical Christian pastor and co-founder and executive director of Vote Common Good, an organization committed to engaging Christian voters, articulated the carrot-flavored strategy at last week’s Democratic convention, saying, “We are trying to help religious conservatives understand it’s okay for them to let concern for the common good, and not allegiance to a political party, determine how they vote.”
Pagitt was in Chicago for a series of events for Catholic voters, evangelical voters, young Black voters and interfaith leaders organized by his organization. Along with leaders of like-minded groups, Pagitt cited a range of liberal and progressive issues that, in their view, align with Jesus’ teachings: affordable housing, fair wages, access to adequate health care, food security and common-sense gun reform among them.
Doug Pagitt. (Courtesy photo)
Tim Whitaker, creator and facilitator of the New Evangelicals, who also attended the convention, also favored the carrot approach. “What values should be guiding voters?” he asked. “The biggest one is the value of non-dehumanization. How to make sure that we care about people who fall through the cracks of our society. What does it mean to love, not just our personal neighbors, but all of our neighbors. Policies that help all of us promote our human flourishing and the flourishing of our neighbors.”
CNN commentator and civil-rights advocate Van Jones identified Harris as the champion of those values, telling the crowd at a gathering for Christians for Kamala, “Her agenda is to stand for what Jesus called the least of these: the addicted, the convicted, the afflicted, the evicted.”
Jones added, “It’s an exciting time for people of faith to step forward, and we shouldn’t be shy to say that we come to this with a particular perspective. For those of us who take seriously the social gospel, who take seriously the idea that we have to deal with the least of these, Kamala Harris is a fantastic representative for that.” Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Kristin Kobez Du Mez, author of “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,” remarked on the racial and ethnic diversity of participants on an Evangelicals for Harris call, who reportedly included a granddaughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham.
Du Mez pointed out that this was no less true of Black evangelicals, who “have always held different social and political views than their white counterparts. They have applied their faith in ways that support equality and social justice, and they have done so ‘as Christians,’ motivated by their biblical faith.”
The positive appeal to the social gospel was by no means limited to evangelicals. “My work is informed by my faith and defined by my faith,” said U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Catholic lawyer serving Pennsylvania’s 4th congressional district, who appeared on a panel titled “The Importance of Catholic Voters in the 2024 Election.”
“My parents gave us the gift of the Catholic faith,” said Dean. “But those tenets of the common good have informed my work and that’s why it’s so comfortable to fight for these things.”
Fellow panelist Carolyn McGraw, a 23-year-old delegate from New York State’s 20th congressional district and a graduate of Catholic University, said, “A lot of my core values align with both the Democratic Party and with my Catholic faith.” Remarking on the enthusiasm for Harris among many people her age, she said, “I have seen people who voted for (Trump) in 2020 and went to pro-life rallies and are now voting for Harris.”
Groups representing both Jewish and Muslim voters likewise joined forces in advocating progressive policies, and religious leaders of all faiths joined together at a late-afternoon Interfaith Leaders Meet-Up for a participatory conversation called Promise 2025: Democracy, Religion & an Inclusive Vision for the Future.
The “stick” strategy made its convention debut with an ad produced by Evangelicals for Harris that called Donald Trump a “false prophet.” It featured scathing clips of Trump insisting that he alone can fix things and boasting he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and wouldn’t lose any voters, and highlighting his dehumanizing characterizations of fellow Americans. At its close, the ad exhorts viewers to read the New Testament’s First Letter of John and to “Choose Christ’s Love.”
The Jan. 6 attack on our Capitol is part of the argument against Trump’s character. “It was clear that Mr. Trump incited folks to go to the Capitol, and in effect he is morally responsible for that insurrection, as Senator (Mitch) McConnell said on the floor of the Senate,” Jim Ball, founder of Evangelicals for Trump, noted during the convention. “That voters of faith can support someone who they would never support as a Democrat on the character issue, that they would support someone who has tried to subvert democracy and the rule of law, is a profound shock.”
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks at a Get Out the Vote rally at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C., Feb. 10, 2024.
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Pagitt wrote in an Aug. 25 article for MSNBC that Trump’s temperament that serves him well at rallies may also turn faith voters off. “I’ve gleaned the reason many evangelical and Christian voters ultimately leave Trump: his obvious lack of kindness,” he wrote, citing a 2020 poll commissioned by Vote Common Good.
The efforts to attract religious conservatives have not gone unnoticed in the Republican camp. Fox News, which supports Trump, has awarded hours of airtime to Megan Basham, author of “Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda,” who asserts in the book that Harris’ platform is “diametrically opposed” to “biblical ethics” and accused Democrats of trying to “weaponize” Christianity “in order to sway the evangelical vote.”
Such counter-programming, which includes more fanciful maneuvers like a recent article in the New York Post that warned of a “progressive takeover of America’s evangelical churches” by left-wing billionaires, illustrated with an image of George Soros, indicates what some on the right consider a not insignificant section of evangelicals in play come November.
The question is whether that section is large enough to make a difference for Harris. In Chicago, at least, the mood among progressive faith leaders was decidedly upbeat.
“It gives me hope to see so many speaking out to reclaim their faith for justice,” said the Rev. Jennifer Butler, executive director of Faith Forward, a multifaith coalition advancing policies and candidates to protect democracy, at the Interfaith Leaders Meet-Up. “As Americans, we come from different religions, yet we share core values like loving our neighbors and the dignity of all. The pushback reveals how powerful it is to advance faith as a bridge rather than a weapon.”
AU CONTRAIRE
Opinion
The UN’s ‘memories’ of antisemitic terrorism are painfully faulty
A tribute to the victims of terrorism at the world body's New York headquarters fails to mention attacks on Jews.
FILE - Visitors look at photos of Israeli people who were killed during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 and those who died during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, displayed on a giant screen at the National Library in Jerusalem, Israel, Jan. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
(RNS) — “Memories” is the title of an exhibition currently mounted in the entrance hall of the venerable United Nations headquarters in Manhattan. Its 14 large panels, featuring photographs and stories of terror victims and their relatives, have greeted visitors to the U.N. building since Aug. 21, the U.N.’s “International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism,” and will be on display through Tuesday (Aug. 27).
The International Day, according to the U.N., “aims to pay tribute, honor, and remember all victims of terrorism regardless of their nationality, ethnicity or religion.”
The current exhibit, the U.N. explains, “aims to raise awareness about the human stories that lie at the heart of each victim and survivor of terrorism, as well as the long-lasting impact each terrorist attack has on its surviving victims.”
The U.N. further notes that “(a)cts of terrorism propagating a wide range of hateful ideologies continue to injure, harm and kill thousands of innocent people each year,” and that the international body “has an important role in supporting Member States to implement the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy by standing in solidarity and providing support to victims of terrorism.”
That solidarity and support, however, seems somewhat selective.
While the exhibit rightfully includes tributes to victims of 9/11 and of terrorist attacks in Boston, Indonesia and Kenya, among other places, not one of the panels concerns or so much as mentions the toll of any of the scores of terrorist attacks on Israel or against Jews around the globe.
The sole panel that seems to refer to the Middle East at all is dedicated to Maysoon Salama, a Palestinian woman who lost her son in the Christchurch, New Zealand, attack on two mosques perpetrated by a white supremacist.
Friends and relatives of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group attend a rally calling for their release in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israel and Jews, it shouldn’t have to be said, have been prime targets for hundreds of terrorist acts for many decades. Not even a year has passed since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israelis, the most deadly attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
When Gilad Erdan, Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the U.N., called attention to the omission of anti-Israel and antisemitic terror attacks in the display, a spokesperson for the UN’s Counter-Terrorism Office, Laurence Gerard, defended the lack of a mention of Oct. 7 by saying: “The exhibition was launched in 2022 with victims of prior terrorist attacks.
Fair enough, one supposes, though updating it with Hamas’ murder of more than 1,000 people in Israel, the vast majority of them civilians, some 10 months ago, might have been something to consider.
But, even leaving that mass-massacre aside, what about the myriad earlier terror attacks on Israelis or Jews?
On the day the display went up, a reporter asked U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric about the omission of any attacks on Jews, suggesting that the 2012 terror attack in Bulgaria in which five Israelis had died, or the Amia bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994 in which 85 people had died and 300 more were injured, might have been good candidates for the display. Dujarric brushed off the line of questioning.
People hold photos of bombing victims in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024, during a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center that killed 85 people. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
The reporter could have added the murder and mutilation of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics; the waves of plane hijackings culminating in the 1976 rescue at Entebbe; and the Palestinian bus bombing campaign in the late 1990s and early 2000s. More recently, there was the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue attack in Pittsburgh and the 2019 Monsey, New York, stabbing spree.
The U.N. was founded in the wake of World War II and the attempt by the Nazis and their friends to obliterate European Jewry. It played, moreover, a pivotal role in the establishment of Israel in 1948.
But today the U.N. has become a relentless critic of the Jewish state. Prodded by member states such as Iran, Cuba, Russia, China and Arab countries, the world body has condemned Israel on many occasions for actions taken in self-defense. Neither the U.N. Security Council, General Assembly nor its Human Rights Council has ever condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre; some member states and U.N. leaders have even tried to justify the gruesome attacks.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said about the Oct. 7 Hamas murder spree, “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.” Neither, though, did the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., or any terrorist attack. The perpetrators of murdering innocents always claim a “cause.” RELATED: The war comes home — to a Brooklyn bookstore
Martin Griffiths, until recently the U.N.’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, has contended that Hamas, which gleefully murdered men, women and children, “is not a terrorist group for us, as you know; it is a political movement.”
Some U.N. relief aid staffers are being investigated under suspicions that they directly participated in the Hamas attacks.
It is hardly hyperbole to contend, as Erdan did, that “there is no place more corrupt and morally twisted than the U.N.”
The U.N. was created to unite the world’s nations in the cause of peace and security. Today, though, it seems that perhaps the cause in which it unites nations is something more disturbing and dark.
(Rabbi Avi Shafran writes widely in Jewish and general media and blogs at rabbishafran.com. He also serves as public affairs director for Agudath Israel of America. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)
Ceasefire negotiations as a weapon of war
Our hope for a ceasefire has been weaponized against us. Every time politicians issue statements, mediators shuttle between capitals, headlines promise a breakthrough, and then it all falls apart. And every time, my hope breaks me.
The aftermath of an airstrike in Nuseirat refugee camp, February 28 , 2024.
Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)
I have lost count of how many times I have clung to the hope of a ceasefire, only to watch it crumble into dust. As the war in Gaza stretches into the summer of 2024, the promise of ending this suffering has become nothing more than a cruel illusion. Every time the news mentions new negotiations, I feel a flicker of hope — a tiny, fragile flame that maybe, just maybe, this time will be different. But deep down, I know the pattern all too well.
As time seemed to stand still in October, my life was suspended in a state of uncertainty. I made a list of what I would do on the first day after the war ends: reconnect with loved ones in Southern Gaza whom I cannot meet now, take a deep breath of freedom, contemplate what lies ahead, and grieve for those lost. In Gaza, we don’t have the privilege of properly mourning. Our days are consumed by an unforgiving routine: evacuating from one place to another, listening to the news, carrying water, searching for food, and gathering wood to make a fire. Soon, the familiar pattern emerges —negotiations collapse, the blame game begins, and hope slips through my fingers like sand.
Every month follows the same script: politicians issue statements, mediators shuttle between capitals, and headlines tout the promise of a breakthrough. There’s some progress, then a significant step forward, but Israel holds firm, and it all falls apart.
Hope followed by a massacre
People in Gaza are victims of massacres. But they also have fallen prey to a hope that is being weaponized against them. In the shadows of negotiations, Israel unleashes its most brutal massacres. Over ten months of genocide, I recall countless moments when my family and I clung to hope, only for it to be shattered by yet another massacre. Again and again, hope betrayed me and everyone I know.
After the first ceasefire in November, there was talk of extending it to end the war. I felt a brief comfort, but it was soon destroyed. Just one week after the ceasefire broke, I experienced the worst day of my life. The Israeli army invaded my home, forcing my family and myself to leave in the dead of night without our phones or any source of light. I was terrified, especially when an Israeli soldier threatened to kill us. I walked with tears streaming down my face, gripped by fear. We eventually found refuge in a hospital, where I slept on a filthy floor before heading to a relative’s house. A month later, we returned to a changed neighborhood. Our house was partially destroyed, while many families had lost theirs entirely.
In March, my aunt called us, convinced the war would end before Ramadan, based on the news she had read. She was happy and hopeful, even sharing her plans for life after the war and the recipes she would cook. But not long after, the Israeli army invaded al-Shifa Hospital and the surrounding neighborhood for the second time, where my aunt lived. She was trapped in her home for three days during Ramadan, with no food or water, terrified by the sounds of tanks bombing everything around without any clear target. When we called her, she was crying, feeling death was near. The Israeli army eventually invaded her house, forcing her, her children, and the neighbors to move south on foot, with empty stomachs, walking over the bodies of the dead.
In May 2024, Hamas signaled its willingness to accept a ceasefire proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden. For a brief moment, people thought the horrors of war were finally ending. I vividly remember that day. Displaced families taking refuge in a nearby school were shouting and celebrating, embracing a fleeting sense of happiness as they believed relief from relentless suffering was within reach. Neighbors cried tears of joy, and my little nieces jumped up and down with excitement. But that joy was short-lived. The very next day, Israel launched an invasion of Rafah, shattering the brief hope for a promised end.
Each round of negotiations is met with what is termed increased “military pressure” on Hamas, which often translates to the killing of more Palestinians. Israel employs a strategy that involves committing war crimes and massacres to derail negotiations, such as burning the tents of displaced people, killing over 200 Palestinians to free four Israeli hostages, or killing 100 Palestinians during dawn prayers. Israel justifies these crimes as necessary to impose its conditions for a ceasefire. But what are these conditions? Israel does not truly want the war to end. It seeks only a brief pause to regroup before returning to kill more Palestinians. Israel wants control over the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors to dominate the lives of Palestinians indefinitely, blocking access to food and medicine, increasing travel restrictions, and making life in Gaza unlivable once more. And it still prevents Palestinians from returning to their houses in north Gaza. When our hope is weaponized against us
After each failure of ceasefire negotiations, I question the purpose of the ongoing war: What does Israel truly want? A regional war? The complete eradication of Palestinians in Gaza? The forced displacement of Palestinians into Egypt? What plans are being devised behind closed doors? I find myself overanalyzing every statement from Israeli leaders and American presidential candidates. Our lives seem to be controlled by criminal psychopaths.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has affirmed that there will be no withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza. What does this mean? Does it imply that they can invade our city at will, killing everyone in their path and destroying any remaining homes? For how long? Two, three, or even ten years? Will we be constantly under threat, living in fear of death or injury for the rest of our lives, if we are fortunate enough to survive?
The Democrats’ decision to allocate an additional $3.5 billion to Israel after Kamala Harris called for an end to the war seems remarkably disingenuous. This contradiction highlights a troubling hypocrisy. How many more children will suffer? How many homes will be reduced to rubble? How many dreams will be destroyed?
When Donald Trump advocates for expanding Israel’s territories, what does that entail? Which lands will be taken? Are we to be forcibly relocated to the Sinai Desert?
Both the U.S. and Israel are driven by their pursuit of military victory and political gain, all at our expense. Yet, no one seems to care that Gaza needs to be rebuilt. Our children need to return to school, and we must reconstruct our universities and hospitals. While we strive to restore our lives and infrastructure, the focus remains on political and military goals, leaving our essential needs and future prospects neglected.
As this war nears the one-year mark, I’ve come to realize that these ceasefire negotiations are just another weapon in this war. They dangle the promise of ending this holocaust in front of us, only to snatch it away when we reach out for it. I watch the world talk about the need for a ceasefire, I hear the speeches, and I see the headlines, but here on the ground, nothing changes. Massacre after massacre happens in horrific ways, and the innocent who dreamed of the war’s end die. I wonder how much hope those who were killed had. Like me, they too were planning for the end of the war. Yet, what else could I do? Even the drowning soul clings to the hope of a lifeline. What allows me to bear the weight of life is hope, and what breaks me each time is also hope.
POLITICO: Georgia goes ‘North Korea’ with bombshell plan to ban main opposition parties
The influential American publication POLITICO has published an article stating that the Georgian government, by planning to ban opposition parties, is putting the country “on the path to North Korea,” and the ambitions of the Georgian people to join the European Union are now under new threat.
According to a statement from the ruling party’s political council, later reiterated by party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the ruling team needs a constitutional majority in parliament to initiate a legal process that would declare the “United National Movement” (UNM, the main opposition party founded by Mikheil Saakashvili) and all its satellite or successor parties unconstitutional.
Georgian prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze even provided a specific list, which, in addition to the UNM, includes four other parties.
“This will eliminate the entire opposition, which ‘Georgian Dream’ sees as a threat. The only comparison can be made with Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus and North Korea. This will mark the end of Georgian democracy,” says Tinatin Akhvlediani from the European Center for Political Studies.
According to POLITICO, a “ban on the opposition” would put an end to Georgia’s already stalled aspiration to join the European Union.
Irakli Kobakhidze claims that the ruling party’s plans do not block the country’s path to the EU. POLITICO has reached out to the European Commission for comment but has not yet received a response.
The outlet also addresses Kobakhidze’s assertion that similar measures were taken in Ukraine and Moldova without threatening the bridges built between these countries and the West.
“The two Eastern European countries have banned specific pro-Moscow factions in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine and amid warnings they had been working to stage coups — but both have still maintained vibrant multi-party systems,” POLITICO states.
The publication highlights that Georgia’s EU accession process is already on hold due to deteriorating human rights conditions, and the US has suspended funding for the Georgian government due to its tilt towards the Kremlin.
The members of “Vlahakis Greek tribe” that bear the surname are about 3,500 people, scattered not only across Africa but around the world. Credit: Facebook/Metropolis of Zambia
The name Vlahakis is widespread in Zambia, thanks to a brave Greek man from the island of Crete called Nikolaos Vlahakis who arrived in southern Africa at the end of the 19th century.
His descendants, who are members of the “Vlahakis tribe” and proudly bear the surname, total about 3,500 people, scattered not only across Africa but around the world. The story of Vlahakis in Zambia could be made into a Hollywood movie
Vlahakis was born in the town of Malia on the island of Crete. As he grew up in the 1890s, he became known for his revolutionary action against the Ottomans.
He fled to Asia Minor from where he managed to travel over 11,500 kilometers until he reached Mozambique in south-east Africa.
After walking in the jungle for more than 2,000 kilometers, Vlahakis finally settled in the town of Chirundu in what was then called Northern Rhodesia on the border of Zimbabwe.
Upon settling in his new homeland in the jungle, Vlahakis started hunting wild animals, worked in mines, and engaged in livestock raising to survive. Such was his physical prowess that he is said to have killed crocodiles with a bat and saved many natives from animal attacks.
Rumors of his exploits swept the jungle, making him famous among local tribes which then informally appointed him as their “leader.” Vlahakis, however, felt lonely without his own people by his side and so returned to Crete in the early 1900s to fetch his younger brother, Dimitris.
Vlahakis brothers founded an “independent Greek state”
Metropolitan Ioannis of Zambia told Greek Reporter that upon their return, the Vlahakis brothers settled on a small island called Kanima in the vast Zambezi River, where they founded an “independent Greek state,” and raised a Greek flag.
Metropolitan Ioannis said that the two brothers had a great reputation and that the founder of the territory of Rhodesia, Cecil John Rhodes, gave them a large enough area of land to cultivate.
The two brothers started their farm, named Demetra, and engaged in the cultivation of tobacco. They simultaneously continued to hunt with great success, which thus contributed to their local fame.
The two brothers started their own families, marrying local women and living happily and in harmony with local tribes until April 13, 1913, when Nikolaos passed away after an encounter with a lion in the forest.
Local tribes mourned his death and buried him at the top of a hill, overlooking the “independent Greek state” he had founded years earlier, with honors reserved for a leader, Metropolitan Ioannis said.
His brother continued living on the farm, adhering to the Orthodox faith and traditions and ensuring that his children led an Orthodox way of life and attained a proper education and upbringing.
First descendants all bore Greek names
Nikolaos’ 32 descendants—one of whom was a daughter—all bore Greek names, such as Nikolaos, Stefanos, Athena, Xenophon, Thekla, Cleopatra, Kalliopi, Konstantinos, and Anna among others. Likewise, this applied to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, most of whom bore the names of the first two brothers.
With Dimitris’ death on September 17, 1939, the era of the two pioneer Cretans ended, but their legacy remains.
Kenneth Kaunda, the first president of Zambia, who is considered the father of all independence movements on the African continent, awarded the Vlahakis family the honorary title of the 64th tribe of Zambia during a public speech. Descendant writes book on the story
A descendant of the Vlahakis tribe wrote a book on the astonishing story of the two Vlahakis brothers.
The cover of the book
Jane Vlahakis Nash’s “Born and Bred in the Zambezi Valley” is a gold mine for members of the extensive Vlahakis family, but it’s also a valuable resource for lovers of Africa, students of sociology, and anyone who is aware of what it means to be ‘colored’ in a predominantly Bantu society ruled in those days by white settlers.
At the heart of this flowering family tree is Demetra Farm and the happy times spent there learning bush lore, swimming in the Zambezi, playing games by moonlight, and going off to school at Fatima, the ‘home away from home’ for many Vlahakis children.
A few unfortunate circumstances overshadow the lives of the Vlahakis family, including untimely deaths, warfare, and the specter of AIDS, but these are counterbalanced by contacts made abroad, rediscovery of Greek ‘roots,’ and an idyllic life under a hot sun in the warm embrace of a big-hearted family. Missionary center to honor the Vlahakis Greek tribe of Africa
Metropolitan Ioannis is currently establishing a missionary center in Chirundu where the two Vlahakis brothers first settled which will include a church, spiritual center, clinic, school and trade school
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Metropolitan Ioannis with the descendants of the Vlahakis Greek tribe of Africa at the missionary center in Chirundu. Credit: Facebook/Metropolis of Zambia
In 2020, Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria laid the foundation for the project; Metropolitan Ioannis has now embarked on a mission to find funding.
“It will be a contribution of historical importance for the place and its people, not only for the descendants of the Vlahakis brothers, but also for every person who wants to get to know Christ,” the metropolitan said while appealing to all those who are financially able to help in the completion of the mission.
Children of Chirundu at the missionary center. Credit: Facebook/Metropolis of Zambia
