NOTHING IS SACRED

One of the world's most sacred places is being turned into a luxury mega-resort

Yolande Knell - BBC News, Jerusalem
Sat, September 6, 2025 


The 6th Century St Catherine's is the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery 

[Universal Images Group via Getty Images]

For years, visitors would venture up Mount Sinai with a Bedouin guide to watch the sunrise over the pristine, rocky landscape or go on other Bedouin-led hikes.

Now one of Egypt's most sacred places - revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims - is at the heart of an unholy row over plans to turn it into a new tourism mega-project.

Known locally as Jabal Musa, Mount Sinai is where Moses is said to have been given the Ten Commandments. Many also believe that this is the place where, according to the Bible and the Quran, God spoke to the prophet from the burning bush.

The 6th century St Catherine's Monastery, run by the Greek Orthodox Church, is also there - and seemingly its monks will stay on now that Egyptian authorities, under Greek pressure, have denied wanting to close it.

However, there is still deep concern about how the long-isolated, desert location - a Unesco World Heritage site comprising the monastery, town and mountain - is being transformed. Luxury hotels, villas and shopping bazaars are under construction there.

The long-isolated desert location is being transformed [BBC]

It is also home to a traditional Bedouin community, the Jebeleya tribe. Already the tribe, known as the Guardians of St Catherine, have had their homes and tourist eco-camps demolished with little or no compensation. They have even been forced to take bodies out of their graves in the local cemetery to make way for a new car park.

The project may have been presented as desperately needed sustainable development which will boost tourism, but it has also been imposed on the Bedouin against their will, says Ben Hoffler, a British travel writer who has worked closely with Sinai tribes.

"This is not development as the Jebeleya see it or asked for it, but how it looks when imposed top-down to serve the interests of outsiders over those of the local community," he told the BBC.

"A new urban world is being built around a Bedouin tribe of nomadic heritage," he added. "It's a world they have always chosen to remain detached from, to whose construction they did not consent, and one that will change their place in their homeland forever."

Locals, who number about 4,000, are unwilling to speak directly about the changes.

Construction in the Plain of el-Raha in 2024 [Ben Hoffler]

So far, Greece is the foreign power which has been most vocal about the Egyptian plans, because of its connection to the monastery.

Tensions between Athens and Cairo flared up after an Egyptian court ruled in May that St Catherine's - the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery - lies on state land.

After a decades-long dispute, judges said that the monastery was only "entitled to use" the land it sits on and the archaeological religious sites which dot its surroundings.

Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, head of the Church of Greece, was quick to denounce the ruling.

"The monastery's property is being seized and expropriated. This spiritual beacon of Orthodoxy and Hellenism is now facing an existential threat," he said in a statement.

In a rare interview, St Catherine's longtime Archbishop Damianos told a Greek newspaper the decision was a "grave blow for us... and a disgrace". His handling of the affair led to bitter divisions between the monks and his recent decision to step down.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem pointed out that the holy site - over which it has ecclesiastical jurisdiction - had been granted a letter of protection by the Prophet Muhammad himself.

It said that the Byzantine monastery - which unusually also houses a small mosque built in the Fatimid era - was "an enshrinement of peace between Christians and Muslims and a refuge of hope for a world mired by conflict".

While the controversial court ruling remains in place, a flurry of diplomacy ultimately culminated in a joint declaration between Greece and Egypt ensuring the protection of St Catherine's Greek Orthodox identity and cultural heritage.

Mount Sinai, known locally as Jabal Musa, is where Moses is said to have been given the Ten Commandments [Ben Hoffler]

'Special gift' or insensitive interference?

Egypt began its state-sponsored Great Transfiguration Project for tourists in 2021. The plan includes opening hotels, eco-lodges and a large visitor centre, as well as expanding the small nearby airport and a cable car to Mount Moses.

The government is promoting the development as "Egypt's gift to the entire world and all religions".

"The project will provide all tourism and recreational services for visitors, promote the development of the town [of St Catherine] and its surrounding areas while preserving the environmental, visual, and heritage character of the pristine nature, and provide accommodation for those working on St Catherine's projects," Housing Minister Sherif el-Sherbiny said last year.

While work does appear to have stalled, at least temporarily, due to funding issues, the Plain of el-Raha - in view of St Catherine's Monastery - has already been transformed. Construction is continuing on new roads.

This is where the followers of Moses, the Israelites, are said to have waited for him during his time on Mount Sinai. And critics say the special natural characteristics of the area are being destroyed.

Detailing the outstanding universal value of the site, UNESCO notes how "the rugged mountainous landscape around... forms a perfect backdrop for the Monastery".

It says: "Its siting demonstrates a deliberate attempt to establish an intimate bond between natural beauty and remoteness on the one hand and human spiritual commitment on the other."

The area is known for its natural beauty and rugged mountainous landscape [Ben Hoffler]

Back in 2023, Unesco highlighted its concerns and called on Egypt to stop developments, check their impact and produce a conservation plan.

This has not happened.

In July, World Heritage Watch sent an open letter calling on Unesco's World Heritage Committee to place the St Catherine's area on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger.

Campaigners have also approached King Charles as patron of the St Catherine Foundation, which raises funds to help conserve and study the monastery's heritage with its collection of valuable ancient Christian manuscripts. The King has described the site as "a great spiritual treasure that should be maintained for future generations".

The mega-project is not the first in Egypt to draw criticism for a lack of sensitivity to the country's unique history.

But the government sees its series of grandiose schemes as key to reinvigorating the flagging economy.

Egypt's once-thriving tourism sector had begun to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic when it was hit by the brutal war in Gaza and a new wave of regional instability. The government has declared an aim of reaching 30 million visitors by 2028.

Under successive Egyptian governments, commercial development of the Sinai has been carried out without consulting the indigenous Bedouin communities.

The peninsula was captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War and only returned to Egypt after the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1979. The Bedouin have since complained of being treated like second-class citizens.

The construction of Egypt's popular Red Sea destinations, including Sharm el-Sheikh, began in South Sinai in the 1980s. Many see similarities with what is happening at St Catherine's now.

"The Bedouin were the people of the region, and they were the guides, the workers, the people to rent from," says Egyptian journalist Mohannad Sabry.

"Then industrial tourism came in and they were pushed out - not just pushed out of the business but physically pushed back from the sea into the background."

A hotel under construction in the Plain of el-Raha in 2024 [Ben Hoffler]

As with the Red Sea locations, it is expected that Egyptians from elsewhere in the country will be brought in to work at the new St Catherine's development. However, the government says it is also "upgrading" Bedouin residential areas.

St Catherine's Monastery has endured many upheavals through the past millennium and a half but, when the oldest of the monks at the site originally moved there, it was still a remote retreat.

That began to change as the expansion of the Red Sea resorts brought thousands of pilgrims on day trips at peak times.

In recent years, large crowds would often be seen filing past what is said to be the remnants of the burning bush or visiting a museum displaying pages from the Codex Sinaiticus - the world's oldest surviving, nearly complete, handwritten copy of the New Testament.

Now, even though the monastery and the deep religious significance of the site will remain, its surroundings and centuries-long ways of life look set to be irreversibly changed.

‘Luxury mega resort’ planned at one of the world’s most sacred sites

Harry Cockburn
Sun, September 7, 2025
THE INDEPENDENT


The area is believed to be where God spoke to Moses from the burning bush

 (Getty Images)

One of the world’s most sacred religious sites – Mount Sinai – where amid thunder and fire, God is said to have handed over the 10 Commandments to Moses on tablets of stone, is now on course to become home to a luxury mega resort.

The entire area, also believed to be where God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, is sacred to three world religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, but now, the isolated location is at the centre of a row over rapid development of the site for tourism.

Luxury hotels, restaurants, shopping bazaars, high-end villas, a cable car, and expanded airport facilities nearby are planned or already under construction in this mountainous area of the Sinai Peninsula, a site which is already home to the 6th Century St Catherine's Monastery, the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery.

Mount Sinai in Egypt is one of the world’s most sacred religious sites (Alamy/PA)

According to a BBC report, the Jebeleya, a traditional Bedouin community living in the area, have had their homes and existing tourist eco-camps demolished and have even been forced to exhume bodies from their graves in a local cemetery to make way for a new car park.

Ben Hoffler, a British travel writer who has previously worked with tribes living on the Sinai Peninsula, told the broadcaster: "This is not development as the Jebeleya see it or asked for it, but how it looks when imposed top-down to serve the interests of outsiders over those of the local community.

"A new urban world is being built around a Bedouin tribe of nomadic heritage.

"It's a world they have always chosen to remain detached from, to whose construction they did not consent, and one that will change their place in their homeland forever."

Saint Catherine's Monastery with Willow Peak, traditionally considered Mount Horeb, in the background (Joonas Plaan/Wiki Commons)

Around 4,000 people live locally, but are unwilling, or feel unable, to speak about the scale of the development and what it means for the region, the report suggested.

The development – known in Egypt as the Great Transfiguration Project – has been described by Egypt Today – a state-run newspaper – as “an opportunity to harness the magic of this region and elevate it into a must-visit future global destination, honouring its spiritual, religious, archaeological, and historical significance as a haven for heavenly beliefs”.

But the rapid advance of works has sparked international concerns for the UNESCO World Heritage-listed site.

In July, the organisation World Heritage Watch sent an open Letter to Unesco calling for the Saint Catherine area to be added to the list of world heritage sites considered to be “in danger”.

At the time, World Heritage Watch Chair Stephan Doempke said: “Egypt has continued to provide misleading, inconsistent or incomplete information to Unesco, and it is time now that UNESCO is very clear that they are running out of patience.”

In the letter he drafted with help from site experts and using up-to-date information from local informants on the ground, he added: “The remoteness and serenity of the area, a key value of the World Heritage, must be preserved under all circumstances in order to maintain the sacred character of the landscape and enable the spiritual retreat of the monks.”

In contrast, reports in Egypt Today describe the development as a “multi-billion-pound masterpiece”, which align with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's “vision to nurture and develop this extraordinary region”.

In March, prime minister Mostafa Madbouly expressed Egypt's intention to present this project as a “gift to the entire world and all religions”.

Texas attorney general wants students to pray in school – unless they’re Muslim

Christopher Mathias
Sun, September 7, 2025 
THE GUARDIAN


Ken Paxton speaks at CPAC in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in February 2024. In 2017 he expressed ‘concerns’ about Muslim students praying at a Frisco school.Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general running for US Senate, has long believed in school prayer. Now, he’s prescribing precisely what type of prayer he wants the state’s 6 million public school students to recite.

“In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up,” Paxton said in a statement on Tuesday, encouraging students to say “the Lord’s Prayer, as taught by Jesus Christ”.

The press release included the full text of the Lord’s Prayer as it is written in the King James version of the Bible, the latest example of Paxton and other Texas officials seeming to endorse Christianity over other faiths.

“Twisted, radical liberals want to erase Truth, dismantle the solid foundation that America’s success and strength were built upon, and erode the moral fabric of our society,” Paxton said. “Our nation was founded on the rock of Biblical Truth, and I will not stand by while the far-left attempts to push our country into the sinking sand.”

Paxton’s statement was released as Senate Bill 11 went into effect across Texas; it’s a piece of Republican legislation allowing schools to set aside time for “prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts” during the school day. Critics have condemned the bill as an attempt to imbue a secular public education in the state with the practice of Christianity, in violation of the US constitution’s separation of church and state.

“They’re blowing right through separation of church and state,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

Related: Texas approves new Bible-based curriculum for elementary schools

“They have no respect for other faiths. And in fact, that includes a lot of Christians who don’t agree with this far-right version of Christianity. They’re trying to indoctrinate children into this agenda and it’s outrageous, and it’s breaking one of the most important constitutional principles we have in this country with the first amendment and the separation of church and state.”

Beirich added that Paxton, along with figures in Washington DC, such as the House speaker, Mike Johnson, were “people who believe that this country is a Christian nation, that Christianity should have primacy”.

Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment about whether he was trying to push Christianity on Texas’s public school students.

It is instructive, however, to revisit how Paxton once reacted to a report of Muslim students praying in a Dallas-area school. In 2017, the attorney general’s office published an open letter to the superintendent of schools in Frisco, Texas, expressing “concerns” over Muslim students at Liberty high school using a spare classroom to pray during school hours.

“It appears that the prayer room is ‘dedicated to the religious needs of some students’,” the letter stated, quoting an article in the school’s newspaper, “namely, those who practice Islam.”

In a subsequent press release, Paxton’s office stated: “Recent news reports have indicated that the high school’s prayer room is … apparently excluding students of other faiths.”

Again, “recent news reports” seemed to refer to a single article in the high school newspaper.

But that article, written by an 11th-grader, made no mention of the room being off-limits to students of other faiths. Rather, the article quotes the principal observing how “the trademark of what makes Liberty High so great” is the “diversity” of the faiths and cultures on campus.

“As long as it’s student-led, where the students are organizing and running it, we pretty much as a school stay out of that and allow them their freedom to practice their religion,” the principal said.

Had Paxton’s office checked with the school district before publishing its open letter, school officials would have noted the spare classroom was available for all students – not just Muslims – to practice their faith.

Paxton, it seemed, had tried to create a culture-war controversy out of thin air.

“It is unfortunate that our state’s top law enforcement officer would engage in a cheap Islamophobic publicity stunt that could very well result in increased bullying of Muslim students and the creation of a hostile learning environment,” the Texas chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (Cair) said in a statement at the time.

That Paxton once fearmongered about Muslims praying in class but is now encouraging students to say the Lord’s Prayer is consistent with his particular brand of Christian nationalism or dominionism, which seeks to erode any wall between church and state, establishing a government run according to a far-right interpretation of Christian scripture.

During his time in public office, Paxton has received considerable financial support from a coterie of ultraconservative west Texas billionaires who, as ProPublica reported, have made the state into “the country’s foremost laboratory for Christian nationalist policy”.

On Thursday, Paxton announced he would appeal a “flawed ruling by a federal judge” that stopped another Christian nationalist piece of legislation from going into effect, this one requiring Texas schools to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

Paxton’s wife publicly accused him of disobeying the seventh commandment – ‘Thou shall not commit adultery’

“The Ten Commandments are a cornerstone of American law, and that fact simply cannot be erased by radical, anti-American groups trying to ignore our moral heritage,” Paxton seethed in another statement.

“There is no legal reason to stop Texas from honoring a core ethical foundation of our law, especially not a bogus claim about the ‘separation of church and state,’ which is a phrase found nowhere in the Constitution.”

Paxton’s wife publicly accused him of disobeying the seventh commandment – “Thou shall not commit adultery” – earlier this summer while stating in a divorce petition that he had had an extramarital affair.

His Christian nationalist statements this week, Texas political observers have noted, might be an attempt to repair his reputation, and to shore up ultraconservative support in his battle to unseat John Cornyn in the US Senate.

If his agenda, and the GOP’s broader Christian nationalist agenda, is allowed to move forward, Beirich said, it will be “absolutely punishing for people of other faiths”.

In a statement to the Guardian, the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was wary of Paxton’s insistence that students say the Lord’s Prayer in public schools: “Although protecting religious freedom in schools would be a noble pursuit, Attorney General Paxton’s rhetoric and his history of anti-Muslim bigotry raises the obvious suspicion that his embrace of religious liberty will not extend beyond his own claimed faith.

“If Attorney General Paxton wants schools to set aside time for praying and reading scripture, that must include time for Texas Muslims to read the Quran, Jewish students to read the Torah, and on and on,” the group added.

A decades-long peace vigil outside the White House is dismantled after Trump's order

PABLO MONSIVAIS and FARNOUSH AMIRI
Sun, September 7, 2025 


Philipos Melaku-Bello talks to people during Peace Vigil in Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement officials on Sunday removed a peace vigil that had stood outside the White House for more than four decades after President Donald Trump ordered it to be taken down as part of the clearing of homeless encampments in the nation’s capital.

Philipos Melaku-Bello, a volunteer who has manned the vigil for years, told The Associated Press that the Park Police removed it early Sunday morning. He said officials justified the removal by mislabeling the memorial as a shelter.

“The difference between an encampment and a vigil is that an encampment is where homeless people live,” Melaku-Bello said. “As you can see, I don't have a bed. I have signs and it is covered by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

The White House confirmed the removal, telling AP in a statement that the vigil was a "hazard to those visiting the White House and the surrounding areas.”

Taking down the vigil is the latest in a series of actions the Trump administration has ordered as part of its federal takeover of policing in the city, which began last month. The White House has defended the intervention as needed to fulfill Trump's executive order on the “beautification” of D.C.

Melaku-Bello said he's in touch with attorneys about what he sees as a civil rights violation. “They’re choosing to call a place that is not an encampment an encampment just to fit what is in Trump’s agenda of removing the encampments,” he said.

The vigil was started in 1981 by activist William Thomas to promote nuclear disarmament and an end to global conflicts. It is believed to be the longest continuous anti-war protest in U.S. history. When Thomas died in 2009, other protesters like Melaku-Bello manned the tiny tent and the banner, which read “Live by the bomb, die by the bomb," around the clock to avoid it being dismantled by authorities

The small but persistent act of protest was brought to Trump's attention during an event at the While House on Friday.

Brian Glenn, a correspondent for the conservative network Real America’s Voice, told Trump the blue tent was an “eyesore” for those who come to the White House.

“Just out front of the White House is a blue tent that originally was put there to be an anti-nuclear tent for nuclear arms,” Glenn said. “It’s kind of morphed into more of an anti-American, sometimes anti-Trump at many times.”

Trump, who said he was not aware of it, told his staff: “Take it down. Take it down today, right now."

Melaku-Bello said that Glenn spread misinformation when he told the president that the tent had rats and “could be a national security risk" because people could hide weapons in there.

“No weapons were found," he told AP. He said that it was rat-infested. Not a single rat came out as they took down the cinder blocks."

___

Amiri reported from New York. Will Weissert in New York contributed to this report.

Maryland leaders tell Trump they don't need the National Guard to curb gun violence

Homicides and shootings have fallen in Baltimore

LEA SKENE
Fri, September 5, 2025 


Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, center left, addresses the crowd, joined by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, ahead of a Community Walk in northwest Baltimore, Md., on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Baltimore Banner via AP)

BALTIMORE (AP) — In a pointed show of solidarity against President Donald Trump, state and local leaders walked through one of Baltimore’s most historically underserved neighborhoods Friday evening amid ongoing efforts to curb gun violence.

Those efforts are working, Gov. Wes Moore said. Homicides in Baltimore have reached historic lows with sustained declines starting in 2023. He said the last thing Baltimore needs is the National Guard presence Trump has threatened.

“We do not need occupiers,” Moore said to a crowd of law enforcement officers, anti-violence advocates, local clergy and other community leaders who gathered in northwest Baltimore’s Park Heights neighborhood

Moore wrote a letter to the president last month inviting him to visit Baltimore and see its recent success firsthand. Officials attribute the progress to their crime-fighting strategies, which include social services meant to address the root causes of violence.

In an escalating feud over public safety, Trump responded to the invitation by calling Baltimore “a horrible, horrible deathbed” and insulting Maryland leaders.

“I’m not walking in Baltimore right now,” he said.

His refusal prompted state and local leaders to present a strongly united front.

Moore, a U.S. Army veteran, criticized Trump for using National Guard members to send a political message in a “purely theatrical” show of force.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joined the governor Friday in his childhood home of Park Heights. The sprawling majority-Black community in northwest Baltimore has suffered from decades of disinvestment, but Scott has made a point of investing in its future. Park Heights once boasted a thriving economy and picturesque tree-lined streets surrounding the historic Pimlico Race Course. But white flight and other factors led to increased rates of poverty, violence and economic decline.

As the group started walking, they chanted: “We all we got, we all we need.” They passed a dollar store and other rundown businesses. They turned down a residential street where people waved from the porches of brick row homes

Kevin Myers, a longtime Park Heights resident, was climbing into his truck when the group passed. He said Baltimore leaders are making him proud.

“Let Trump know you can handle Baltimore,” he yelled to the mayor, who smiled widely in response.

Another man briefly heckled the group, saying the event was just a media stunt, not proof that elected officials are truly committed to helping the community.

Trump has previously targeted Baltimore

Scott has repeatedly accused Trump of using racist rhetoric and targeting Black-led cities with his promises to deploy National Guard troops. In remarks after the walk, he urged Baltimore residents to push back against that rhetoric.

“Do not shrink. Stand up in the moment,” he said. “So a hundred years from now … they will know that you stood up to fascism, that you stood up to racism, that you stood up to folks who were trying to destroy your democracy.”

Earlier this week, the president renewed his threats to send National Guard troops to Baltimore, though he appeared more focused on Chicago. He has already sent troops into Los Angeles and Washington, where he has also federalized the police force. He has said he plans similar moves in other Democrat-run cities even as a federal judge on Tuesday deemed the California deployment illegal.

This isn’t the first time Trump has taken aim at Baltimore. He previously called the city a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” Those comments came amid the president’s attacks on Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, whose district included Baltimore until his death in 2019.

In his letter to the president, Maryland’s governor noted recent cuts to federal funding for violence intervention programs. He asked Trump to “be part of the solution, not the problem.”

Homicides and shootings have fallen in Baltimore

Homicides and shootings in Baltimore have plummeted over the past two years. The city recorded 201 homicides in 2024, the lowest annual total in over a decade and a 23% drop from the previous year. The downward trend has continued throughout 2025, including the lowest number of homicides on record for the month of August. It is a relief for Baltimore, where violence surged following the 2015 in-custody death of Freddie Gray and subsequent protests against police brutality.

While Baltimore’s numbers are especially dramatic, other cities are also seeing post-pandemic declines in violence.

Baltimore officials say that is because they are taking a holistic approach to public safety, instead of relying solely on law enforcement. The city is investing in historically neglected communities to help address the myriad factors that perpetuate cycles of gun violence: hopelessness, joblessness, poverty, mental health, substance abuse, housing instability, poor conflict resolution and more.

Analysis: What's behind Putin's uncompromising stance on Ukraine war?

Steve Rosenberg - BBC Russia editor, in Vladivostok
Fri, September 5, 2025 at 8:34 PM MDT


Sometimes it's not what's said that makes the biggest impression.

It's the reaction.

In the Russian Far East, Vladimir Putin delivered a warning to the West: don't even think about sending soldiers - and that includes peacekeepers - to Ukraine.

"If some troops appear there," the Russian president said, "especially now while the fighting's going on, we proceed from the premise that these will be legitimate targets for destruction."

Then the reaction.

The audience at the economic forum in Vladivostok burst into applause, with Russian officials and business leaders apparently welcoming the threat to "destroy" Western troops.

Observing the scene in the hall, I found the applause quite chilling.

And this came just a day after Kyiv's allies, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had pledged a post-war "reassurance force" for Ukraine.

Putin said he would only meet Zelensky in Moscow - a proposal dismissed outside Russia as a non-starter [SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL/EPA/Shutterstock]

The audience applauded again when the Kremlin leader suggested that he would be prepared to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky - but only on home soil.

"The best place for this is the Russian capital, in Hero City Moscow," said Putin.

Outside Russia, Putin's proposal has been dismissed as unserious, a complete non-starter. 

But in many ways it encapsulates the Kremlin's current position on the war in Ukraine: "Yes, we want peace, but only on our terms. You reject our terms? No peace then."

This uncompromising stance is being fuelled by a combination of factors.

First, by the Kremlin's belief that, in Ukraine, Russian forces have the initiative on the battlefield.

Second, by diplomatic success. In China this week, Putin shook hands and shared smiles with a string of world leaders. The optics were all about demonstrating that Russia has powerful friends, such as China, India and North Korea.

And then there's America. Last month US President Donald Trump invited Putin to Alaska for a summit meeting. Back home pro-Kremlin commentators hailed the event as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine had failed.

To convince the Kremlin to end the fighting Trump has previously set ultimatums and deadlines; he's threatened further sanctions if Russia won't make peace.

But Trump hasn't followed through on his threats - and that's another reason for Russia's confidence.

Putin publicly praises Trump's peace efforts. And yet he has rejected Trump's ceasefire proposals and shown no desire to make concessions over the war in Ukraine.

So where does that leave prospects for peace?

Putin said recently that he could see "light at the end of the tunnel".

It seems to me that right now Russia on the one hand, and Ukraine and Europe (and to some extent America) on the other are in different tunnels, on different roads, with different destinations.

Ukraine and Europe are focused on ending the fighting, shaping security guarantees for Kyiv and making sure that the Ukrainian army is strong enough post-war to prevent another invasion.

When Putin talks about "light at the end of the tunnel", I believe he imagines a path that leads to a Russian victory in Ukraine, and more widely, to the construction of a new global order that benefits Russia.

In terms of peace, it's hard to see where and when these two very different highways will converge.

US yet to approve any help following Afghanistan earthquake, sources say

MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS

Jonathan Landay
Fri, September 5, 2025 

REUTERS


FILE PHOTO: Aftermath of deadly earthquake in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Nearly a week after an earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in Afghanistan and left tens of thousands homeless, the United States has not taken the first step to authorize emergency aid, and it was unclear if it plans to help at all, two former senior U.S. officials and a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

The lack of response by Washington to one of Afghanistan's deadliest quakes in years underscores how President Donald Trump has forfeited decades of U.S. leadership of global disaster relief with his deep foreign aid cuts and closure of the main U.S. foreign assistance agency, said the source and the former officials

The U.S. Agency for International Development was officially shuttered on Tuesday.

The State Department on Monday extended its "heartfelt condolences" to Afghanistan in an X post.

As of Friday, however, the State Department had not approved a declaration of humanitarian need, the first step in authorizing U.S. emergency relief, said the former officials, both of whom worked at USAID, and the third source, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Such a declaration is usually issued within 24 hours of a major disaster.

The sources said State Department officials had considered recommendations for U.S. disaster aid for Afghanistan. One former senior official said the White House also has considered the issue, but decided against reversing a policy of ending aid to Afghanistan.

When asked if the U.S. would provide any emergency aid to Afghanistan following the magnitude 6 quake on Sunday, which was followed by powerful aftershocks on Thursday and Friday, a State Department spokesperson said: "We have nothing further to announce at this time."

The United States was, until this year, the largest aid donor to Afghanistan, where it fought a 20-year war that ended with a chaotic U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban's seizure of Kabul in 2021.

But in April, the Trump administration ended virtually all aid - totaling $562 million - to Afghanistan, citing a U.S. watchdog report that humanitarian groups receiving U.S. funds had paid $10.9 million in taxes, fees, and duties to the Taliban.

Asked whether the U.S. would provide emergency relief for earthquake survivors, a White House official said, "President Trump has been consistent in ensuring aid does not land in the hands of the Taliban regime, which continues to wrongfully detain U.S. citizens.”

'STUCK IN STORAGE'

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said the Afghan earthquake was “the latest crisis to expose the cost of shrinking resources on vital humanitarian work.”

“Massive funding cuts have already brought essential health and nutrition services for millions to a halt; grounded aircraft, which are often the only lifeline to remote communities; and forced aid agencies to reduce their footprint,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

The Trump administration also has yet to respond to a request by the International Rescue Committee humanitarian organization to send $105,000 worth of U.S.-funded medical supplies following the first earthquake.

The materials include stethoscopes, first aid supplies, stretchers, and other essentials, said Kelly Razzouk, vice president of policy and advocacy for the IRC.

"The stocks are stuck in storage," said Razzouk, who served on former U.S. President Joe Biden’s National Security Council. "In recent memory, I can't remember a time when the U.S. did not respond to a crisis like this."

The IRC needs Washington’s permission to send the equipment to Afghanistan because it had been funded by an unrelated U.S. grant that the Trump administration had since canceled.

"Beyond the loss of life, we have also seen basic infrastructure and livelihoods destroyed," Stephen Rodriguez, the representative in Afghanistan for the U.N. Development Programme, told reporters on Friday.

He said donations of money, goods, and services have come from Britain, South Korea, Australia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and other countries.

"Far more is needed."

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; additional reporting by Michelle Nichols and Charlotte Greenfield;Editing by Rod Nickel)



Virginia nonprofit STEP aids earthquake victims in Afghanistan

John Eldridge
Sat, September 6, 2025

WAVY



SPRINGFIELD, Va. (WAVY) – After a devastating 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan on Sunday, a Virginia-based nonprofit has been on the scene to help.

The Society to Empower People, otherwise known as STEP, is based out of Springfield, Virginia, and their staff and survey teams have been on location to ensure aid is delivered to those affected by this disaster.

The organization recently launched a GoFundMe to help with the costs of food, water and aid for the people of Afghanistan. Per GoFundMe:

$25 can provide a family with a hygiene kit and clean water.


$50 can supply emergency food parcels to a family for one week.


$100 can provide temporary shelter and blankets for a family who has lost their home.


$250 can help with urgent medical supplies and first aid for the injured.

Amy Coney Barrett, conservative panelists discuss overturning marriage equality

Trudy Ring
Sat, September 6, 2025

THE ADVOCATE


Amy Coney Barrett Katy Faust John Eastman

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett doesn’t appear inclined to overturn marriage equality — but can she be trusted?

Barrett calls the right to marry “fundamental” in her new book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution, which comes out Tuesday. However, she has previously said the matter should be up to each state. And in her confirmation hearings in 2020, she was cagey about whether she would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion nationwide, but in 2022 she voted to overturn it.

Meanwhile, panelists at the National Conservatism Conference, held this week in Washington, D.C., discussed the possible reversal of Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that established marriage equality in every state

In her book, Barrett writes, "The court has held that the rights to marry, engage in sexual intimacy, use birth control, and raise children are fundamental, but the rights to do business, commit suicide, and obtain abortion are not."

Barrett recently told Norah O’Donnell of CBS News that she hopes to help readers “understand the law.” It’s not just an opinion poll,” she said.

“You know, what the court is trying to do is see what the American people have decided. And sometimes the American people have expressed themselves in the Constitution itself, which is our fundamental law. Sometimes in statutes,” she said. “But the court should not be imposing its own values on the American people. That’s for the democratic process.”

Barrett was evasive about her views on marriage equality during her confirmation hearings. But she had previously suggested it should be decided state by state.

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton recently said she expects the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, to overturn Obergefell. “It took 50 years to overturn Roe v. Wade,” she told Jessica Tarlov of The Five in a podcast interview. “The Supreme Court will hear a case about gay marriage. My prediction is they will do to gay marriage what they did to abortion. They will send it back to the states.”

Last month, Kim Davis, the former clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, asked the Supreme Court to hear her case challenging Obergefell. Davis, a conservative Christian, quit issuing marriage licenses altogether after the ruling so she wouldn’t have to issue them to same-sex couples. The high court justices haven’t said if they’ll take the case.

Some political observers disagree with Clinton, saying the Supreme Court likely doesn’t want to revisit marriage equality, even though two ultraconservative members — Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — have said they’d like to overturn it.

Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor, told Newsweek that Barrett’s comments in her book and to CBS indicate she’s “not inclined to overturn the right to same-sex marriage.” She has sometimes gone against other conservative justices.

“As to whether other justices share her apparent view, I would further guess that at least Justice Thomas would not agree with her,” Rossi added. “In the end, my prediction is that a majority of the court will stand firm and preserve the right to same-sex marriage.”

O'Donnell's interview on with Barrett will air on CBS Sunday Morning at 9 a.m. Sunday and at 11 a.m. on CBS News 24/7.

If the court did overturn Obergefell, there would be some protection from the Respect for Marriage Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It requires federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages, and requires states to recognize those performed in other states. However, no state would have to offer equal marriage rights.

In addition to Davis, there are other right-wing forces who would like to see the ruling reversed. At the National Conservatism Conference’s “Overturn Obergefell” panel Thursday, participants portrayed marriage equality as the source of many societal ills, including harm to children — something debunked by many studies.

“The last 10 years have made one thing unmistakably clear: We can either recognize gay marriage, or we can recognize a child’s right to the mother and father. We can't do both,” anti-LGBTQ+ activist Katy Faust said at the event, according to The Washington Times. “If we are to retake legal marriage, we highlight the real victims, the children starved of maternal or paternal love, acquired by predators, mass produced, trafficked across borders, struggling with identity confusion, subjected to risky households.”

“If an adult can assemble sperm, egg, and womb — and ‘intend’ to parent the child —they get the baby,” she said. “Biologically related or not. Pedophile or not. Retiree or not. Foreign national or not. Intent-based parentage is child trafficking disguised as constitutional rights. Gay marriage did that.”

“The moment the state has the power to assign parenthood to strangers, it can unassign it from you,” she added. “Your legal relationship to the children you’ve begotten is weaker than it was a decade ago. Make no mistake. Gay marriage did that.”

Jeff Shafer, director of the Hale Institute, a conservative think tank, said that “Obergefell requires the gender neutralization of indelibly sexed legal standards. The whole point of Obergefell’s audacity was to knock over a cultural pillar that defines and orients a whole legal framework.”

Orthodox Rabbi Ilan Feldman put in, “Marriage is not for us to redefine. It’s God’s plan for the world,” ignoring that the U.S. is not a theocracy and that different faiths have different ideas about marriage.

Another on the panel was longtime anti-LGBTQ+ activist John Eastman, a close ally of Donald Trump. He was forced to resign as a law professor at Chapman University because of his role in the rally that preceded the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection, and he has been disbarred. But he’s still out there trying to end marriage equality.

He said he’s encouraged by the fact that after Davis filed her request with the Supreme Court, the court asked for a response from the gay couple who sued her over her denial of their marriage license. She wants to avoid paying damages to them as well as having the court overturn Obergefell.

The request for a response indicates the high court is interested in the case, he said at the conference, according to The Washington Times, although he thinks the court may limit itself to religious freedom concerns. “We should be very clear in the Kim Davis case, this wasn't about the couple being able to get a marriage certificate under the auspices of Obergefell — they got one,” he added. “It was getting it from her despite her religious objection. It was an Orwellian bend-the-knee move.”

This article originally appeared on Advocate: Amy Coney Barrett, conservative panelists discuss overturning marriage equality

Ex-CDC Vaccine Chief Scorches 'Bigoted Bully' Rand Paul For Saying ‘Lifestyle’ Disqualified Him From Job

Pocharapon Neammanee
Sat, September 6, 2025 

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a former top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, completely unloaded on Kentucky Senator Rand Paul Saturday morning after the Republican lawmaker criticized his “lifestyle.”

“You know, he doesn’t know me,” Daskalakis told CNN’s Victor Blackwell. “He doesn’t know my husband, and he doesn’t know my family. So I’m not sure why he feels willing to comment on my personal life.”

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis slammed Republican Paul Rand as a "bully." John Lamparski via Getty Images

Daskalakis, a gay man and advocate for LGBTQ+ health, defended himself from a barrage of MAGA fury this week following his recent resignation from the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R), who was once the center of online mockery for liking a hardcore porn video on Twitter, flew over to X to repost photos that showed Daskalakis scantily clad or wearing leather gear. Cruz asked his followers, “Would you trust this guy to make sensitive medical decisions for your family???”

Daskalakis responded to Cruz’s comments on X, writing, “I guess you can’t argue against the fact that public health is being destroyed… so instead you repost my instagram.”

Related: Republican Senators Grill RFK Jr. Over Chaos At CDC

The former vaccine chief called the attack “so 2022,” a reference to when right-wing critics called him a Satanist after they spotted a pentagram tattoo in one of his shirtless pictures. He noted at the time that the tattoo included the words, “I believe there’s a light even in the darkest place.”



Paul’s longer form attack on Daskalakis came Tuesday in an interview with The Hill. The senator expressed opposition to infant vaccinations against hepatitis B, and said that Daskalakis was the “biggest proponent of doing all this.”

“A guy that is so far … out of the mainstream, I think most people in America would discount his opinion because of the things he said in the past. He does not represent the mainstream of anything in America,” Paul said.

The Kentucky lawmaker and licensed ophthalmologist went on to say Daskalakis “should have never had a position in government,” adding that he “brags about his lifestyle.”

“You know, this whole idea of bondage and, you know, multiple partners and all that stuff,” Paul told the outlet. “He brags about that stuff, but he’s got no business being in government. It’s good riddance.” 

Daskalakis told Blackwell on Saturday, “I don’t care what the senator says about my personal life.”

“My record of public service, ending outbreaks and protecting the public health stands for itself,” he continued.

Daskalakis then took aim at Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr., saying Paul has “adequate evidence” that Kennedy is “hazardous to the health of American children and other vulnerable people.”

“So, I mean, I think that really he should take that up rather than being a bigoted bully toward me or others. I mean, I think he’s a doctor, right? Doctors aren’t supposed to do that,” Daskalakis said.

Related...

Pro-Trump New York Post Utterly Shreds RFK Jr. In Brutal Editorial: ‘Paranoid Kook’


Ex-CDC Vaccine Chief Accuses RFK Jr. Of Lying To Congress: 'Just Continually Making Things Up'


'MADMAN!': Lawrence O’Donnell Goes Scorched Earth On 'Dangerous Nepo Baby' RFK Jr.

Whoops, Humans Made a Space Barrier Around Earth

Caroline Delbert
Sat, September 6, 2025 
POP MECH

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

Earth is surrounded by a radio field caused by very low-frequency waves.


This field pushes away the Van Allen Belts, a radiation swim-floaty that surrounds Earth's middle.


Van Allen radiation hinders and complicates spaceflight, magnetic instruments, and more.


Forget the Kármán line—there’s a human-made space barrier to wonder about, first observed by NASA in 2017. The mysterious zone of anthropogenic space weather is caused by specific kinds of radio waves that we’ve been blasting into the atmosphere for decades, but experts say the expanding band actually helps protect humankind from dangerous space radiation.

ScienceAlert reports that NASA first observed this belt in 2012. The agency sends probes to explore different parts of our solar system, including the Van Allen Belts: a huge, torus-shaped area of radiation that surrounds Earth. The donut shape follows the equator, leaving the North and South Poles free.

A cross section of Van Allen radiation belts. NASA/Public Domain

The Van Allen Belts are related to and affected by the magnetosphere induced by the nonstop bombardment of the sun’s radiation. They affect benign-seeming magnetic effects like the Northern Lights, as well as more destructive ones like magnetic storms.

People planning spaceflight through areas affected by the Van Allen Belts, for example, must develop radiation shielding to protect crew as well as equipment—and most spacecraft launch from as near to the equator as possible, right in the Van Allen zone.

So, what’s our new protective barrier? The same probes that launched in 2012 to help us understand the Belts better in the first place detected this phenomenon, and in 2017, the probes gave us the first evidence of the radio-wave barrier emanating from Earth. ScienceAlert explains:


“A certain type of transmission, called very low frequency (VLF) radio communications, have become far more common now than in the 60s, and the team at NASA confirmed that they can influence how and where certain particles in space move about.”

Why is this? Well, the very low frequency (VLF) waves are exactly right to cancel out and repel the radiative advances of the Van Allen Belts as a matter of total coincidence. In fact, NASA initially considered this a true coincidence, saying that a radio wave area happened to match exactly with the edge of the Van Allen Belts. But in 2017, the agency published findings revealing that one has caused the other after all.

Typically, services like the military have dibs on very low frequencies. These were the first frequencies to be discovered and used for broadcasting, but successive discoveries pushed private and recreational users further up the spectrum. At the very lowest point is the simplest broadcast, things like Morse code, where only binary values need to be received. After that, VLF used by military equipment, for example, occupies a chunk of wavelengths.

From there, AM is still pretty low, and FM is farther up. Some “regular” bandwidths of civilian-type radio are off limits because they’re used for more traditional radio communications by people like pilots and ship captains for different purposes. Any physical communication like this must be negotiated—remember the government has objected to some 5G ideas because of the conflict with GPS satellite signals.

Isn’t it interesting that VLF blankets the Earth without interfering with literally any other radio signal, for example, or the many other kinds of waves that flow around us all the time, but makes it into space far enough to push away harmful radiation?

This means that, for example, space programs could develop VLF technology to punch holes for spacecraft to travel through. As always, truth is stranger than fiction.

Archaeologists Uncovered a Mysterious Ancient Tablet With Major Historical Implications

Connor Lagore
Sat, September 6, 2025 

POP MECH


Ancient Clay Tablet Holds Bronze Age Shopping List 

Homo Cosmicos - Getty Images


Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

Archaeologists discovered a small, clay tablet covered in cuneiform in the ancient ruins of Alalah, a major Bronze Age-era city located in present-day Turkey.


Researchers have deciphered parts of the Akkadian cuneiform and determined the tablet to be, essentially, a receipt for a major furniture purchase.


Continued study of the tablet should help to shed light on the economic and administrative processes of the time period.


Most of us can do all of our shopping with the click of a few buttons, and while that’s certainly convenient, it can make it difficult to keep track when exactly that new armoire or bookshelf will show up at your doorstep. If you’re really struggling, it might help to take a page out of ancient Turkey’s proverbial book and keep the details written down—on a palm-sized piece of clay.

An excavation at the Aççana Mound—the site of the ancient Anatolian city of Alalah, which served as the capital of the Mukis Kingdom and lives on in ruins that date as far back as 4,000 years ago—recently unearthed a small clay tablet covered in inscribed cuneiform, according to a statement by Mehmet Ersoy, Turkey’s minister of culture and tourism. Researchers studying the tablet have narrowed its origins to some time in the 15th century B.C., during the Late Bronze Age.

Representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are conducting the research on the find, along with Johns Hopkins University associate professor Jacob Lauinger and doctoral student Zeynep Türker.

The initial readings of the tablet’s Akkadian cuneiform include details of a major furniture purchase. Linguists are still working through the writing, according to the ministry’s statement, but the deciphered lines detail purchases of an ample number of wooden tables, chairs, and stools. The experts are slowly putting together more information about the buyers and sellers involved with the exchange, making headway towards deciphering a window into the city’s economic processes.

The small piece of clay measures only 4.2 centimeters by 3.5 centimeters, it’s just 1.6 centimeters thick, and it weighs 28 grams. But despite its diminutive size, the tablet will help paint a much larger picture of Bronze Age Turkey as it undergoes more study, providing helpful insight into “the economic structure and state system of the Late Bronze Age,” according to Ersoy


Alalah was located along a trade route at the time, which would have given it the distinction of being a center of commerce in addition to its capital status. There have been other similar discoveries in the region, including another cuneiform tablet that details the purchase of an entire city (and, presumably, the furniture in it), which was uncovered in 2023.

The area—which contains ruins that date to as far back as 4,000 years ago—was first excavated by British archaeologist Leonard Wooley in the 1930s. But, as exemplified by the clay list furniture, there’s still plenty to discover about these truly ancient ruins.

And, if nothing else, perhaps the tablet’s itemized details will provide a bit of home-decor inspiration.