Turkey and the Kurds

Joint Kurdish plan? Turkish opposition hope for election boost

For the first time in 19 years, polls suggest Turkey's opposition could be on track to defeat President Erdogan at the next election. To boost their appeal to Kurdish voters, politicians are now talking openly about solving the Kurdish issue. But how sincere are they and how realistic their chances of success? Leyla Egeli reports

With the opposition's Nation Alliance increasingly confident of wresting power from Erdogan at the next election, thereby concluding twenty years of rule by the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP), the idea of a new peace process to address Kurdish concerns is once again being broached.

It is six years since the last 'peace process', intended to end hostilities between the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish army, collapsed. For their part, the ruling AKP and its ultra-nationalist ally, the MHP, claim they have solved the issue, thus producing "unity across the nation". But opposition leaders maintain the issue is a matter for parliament – a move apparently calculated to attract pro-minority People's Democratic Party (HDP) voters in the upcoming elections.

CHP’s approach to the peace process

The main opposition party – the CHP (Republican People's Party) – criticised the AKP administration during the last peace process, which began in 2013, for liaising directly with senior members of the PKK via intelligence channels and communicating solely with the pro-minority HDP, rather than bringing negotiations to parliament for more transparency.

When the process broke down in 2015, CHP chair Kemal Kilicdaroglu blamed the government for not being serious about finding a solution and called in parliament for a "reconciliation commission" to be set up.

Six years on, there is little sign that hostilities are abating. After countless military operations against the PKK in Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq, and with the HDP facing an official ban by the Supreme Court for "co-operating with a terror group", Kilicdaroglu has once again called for a peace process.

Hopeful of gaining support from the pro-Kurdish HDP: Sezgin Tanrikulu, human rights lawyer, MP and adviser to CHP chair Kilicdaroglu, points out that the HDP supported the bill his party brought to parliament during the previous peace process, and that they could be on the same page once again: "We offered to create a 'reconciliation commission' made up of MPs from all the political parties in the parliament, and establish a 'common mind committee'. The commission was to give the committee authority and legitimacy to speak to those parties to the conflict, and everything would be on the record"

He is also demanding that the HDP should be represented in parliament. Yet he appears to ignore the importance of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to the majority of HDP voters: "It’s crucial that the HDP is represented in the Turkish parliament. But Imrali [a reference to PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan; Imrali is where he has been jailed for more than 20 years] is not legitimate. The issue must be solved by a legitimate body."

Are CHP tactics enough to attract HDP votes?

According to recent polls, the pro-minority HDP can still expect to take around 10 percent of the vote, and it has not entered into any alliance. The combined potential of the remaining opposition parties are not enough to present a viable challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which is why the opposition is hoping to gain the support of HDP voters.

Kilicdaroglu's latest initiative is a positive step, indicating that his party is open to moving towards reconciliation if they are elected. But it drew a swift reaction from senior HDP party members. Former HDP co-chair, Sezai Temelli, argued that the parliament is crucial, but that Ocalan is key to solving the problem. HDP’s current co-chair Mithat Sancar agreed, saying that "Imrali will definitely play a role in the process".

In interview with Qantara.de, CHP MP Sezgin Tanrikulu, a human rights activist, lawyer and an adviser to Kilicdaroglu, nevertheless emphasised that the HDP supported the bill his party brought to parliament during the peace process, and that they could be on the same page once again:

"We offered to create a 'reconciliation commission' made up of MPs from all the political parties in the parliament, and establish a 'common mind committee'. The commission was to give the committee authority and legitimacy to speak to those parties to the conflict, and everything would be on the record."

The oblique reference to 'parties to the conflict' would appear to imply the PKK and Ocalan. Tanrikulu believes the HDP would support the bill, were it to be tabled in parliament again.

Repulican People's Party unlikely to show its hand until just before the election: "Current CHP policy is to stay away from topics that might create division and problems within the Nation’s Alliance, and the Kurdish issue is one of them," says Vahap Coskun, law professor at Diyarbakir's Dicle University, in Kurdish-majority eastern Turkey. He is convinced, however, that " owing to the lack of options for Kurdish voters", it is likely the latter will vote for the Nation’s Alliance candidate if they feel the individual candidate is committed to ensuring genuine representation of all identities

Senior HDP member Meral Danis Bestas confirmed that "there is no way to solve the issue, other than dialogue", and that the HDP supported an 'on the record' process via parliament. But does the party believe in the sincerity of the opposition bloc?

She answered, "You may think this is naive, but if the opposition takes a positive approach, there will be more commitment to finding a solution. Political parties – nationalist or otherwise – can have an impact on the masses. We experienced it during the peace process."

How is the IYI’s stance affecting Kilicdaroglu?

The nationalist masses referred to by Bestas are the supporters of the Good Party (IYI), who present another obstacle to CHP’s efforts to send positive signals in the direction of the HDP.

The IYI, which was founded by politicians who broke away from the nationalist MHP in 2017, is CHP’s ally in the Nation Alliance. Although IYI Party members originally gave their support to Kilicdaroglu when he called for a parliamentary solution, there have been some raised eyebrows among its supporters in response to the CHP chair's latest initiative.

On a recent tour through mostly Kurdish-populated southeast Turkey, IYI Party chair Meral Aksener was approached by a Kurdish man, who declared: "You may deny Kurdistan, but you are in Kurdistan right now." With her nationalist voter base monitoring the rhetoric and aware of the sensitive nature of the issue, Aksener appeared to weigh her response carefully. Ultimately, however, she admitted she couldn’t accept the word "Kurdistan".

After a flurry of reactions – positive and negative – from both sides, she dug in further, claiming the man was working for the HDP, and that "Kurdistan" was an expression used by the "terror group". Later she called on the HDP to maintain a suitable distance from the PKK.

With much of Turkish society expecting an election sooner rather than later, the IYI and the CHP seem less than united in their approach to the Kurdish issue. Late in October, when the CHP objected to a bill giving the government authority to send Turkish soldiers to Iraq and Syria for another two years, the IYI voted in favour of the military campaign.

Dialogue is the only way: with the HDP party facing an official ban by Turkey's Supreme Court, it is crucial that Kurdish concerns are heard. "If the opposition takes a positive approach, there will be more commitment to finding a solution. Political parties – nationalist or otherwise – can have an impact on the masses," says HDP politician Meral Danis Bestas

Vahap Coskun, a professor of law at Dicle University in Kurdish-majority Diyarbakir, said that he didn't think the CHP would produce a serious plan for moving forward on the Kurdish issue until the elections. "Their policy is to stay away from topics that might create division and problems within the Nation Alliance, and the Kurdish issue is one of them. The CHP is merely sending a message to HDP voters that they will stand alongside them."

Meanwhile, the IYI is trying to consolidate support among its mostly urban, nationalist voter base. But is this indecisive policy fostering trust among HDP supporters that the Nation Alliance will breathe new life into the peace process should they come to power?

HDP voters showed they could be supportive during the 2019 local elections, says Tanrikulu, when they voted for the Nation Alliance candidates. He believes the issue could be solved with the genuine support of the IYI: "It is an issue that concerns Turkey: all sections of society should be included. I believe the IYI will show it is willing to help find a parliament-sanctioned solution to the problem."

Coskun, on the other hand, is convinced that, "owing to the lack of options for Kurdish voters", it is likely the latter will vote for the Nation Alliance candidate if they feel the individual candidate is committed to ensuring genuine representation of all identities.

When asked whether the Nation Alliance would be capable of putting forward constructive proposals on the path to future peace, he said it all depended on the strength of their parliamentary mandate.

Although it may not be a priority when they enter government, if the CHP – with the support of the HDP – treads a careful, middle-of-the-road path towards a Kurdish solution, it is likely they will get the green light from their political partners.

Leyla Egeli

© Qantara.de 2021

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Fears Midterms Will See An Authoritarian Takeover By The GOP. 
By Stephanie Rollins Last updated Nov 22, 2021



 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) shared her fears that the Republicans could take over “very authoritarian” power if they win the House of Representatives in 2022.

On Zoom, MP Ocasio-Cortez said she believed the House minority leader would remove Democrats from their committee roles in response to MP Paul Gosar (R-AZ) being criticized for sharing an anime video, that showed him killing the progressive.

She said: “Republican Leader McCarthy has made it very clear that he is alluding very much to retaliation for Republicans to take over a majority.

“And that could mean that in order to take revenge on the consequences for his white nationalist member, he also dismisses democrats from their committees.”

MP Ocasio-Cortez added: “So it is unfortunate, but in all honesty, Republicans have made it very, very clear in several statements that if they win a majority in the House, they intend to take over the House in a very authoritarian manner. “

The House of Representatives voted 223 to 207 votes, broadly in line with party lines, to reprimand Rep. Gosar. Sole Agents Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) joined the Democrats to vote for censorship.

After the vote, McCarthy, the leader of the minorities in the House of Representatives, proposed against progressive Democrats and raised concerns about possible steps to blame them after the midterm elections.

He also proposed that MPs Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) be reassigned to the committee duties they had lost.

MP Greene was removed from her committee in February for posting on social media prior to her election, including advocating violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama.

Anime controversy

Meanwhile, Rep. Gosar, who has allied himself with white nationalists like Nick Fuentes, remains unrepentant, claiming the anime clip in which he killed Rep. Ocasio-Cortez with two swords was “nothing hateful”.

Following his conviction, Rep. Gosar retweeted the same video clip that he had deleted and which resulted in his being removed from his duties on the committee.

Newsweek has reached out to MP Ocasio-Cortez and House minority leader McCarthy for comments.

Several factors suggest that Republicans will do well in next year’s midterm elections.

The White House party often loses seats in elections and the Democrats are hampered by President Joe Biden’s poor approval ratings.

Republicans also recently got a big boost when they won the Virginia gubernatorial election, a race that was seen as a trailblazer for the mood before the midterm elections.

The US MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pauses during a press conference in the US Capitol on July 15, 2019. AOC fears an “authoritarian takeover” by the GOP.

Alex Wroblewski / Getty Images

 

Pakistan: After bill against forced conversion rejected, 38 cases so far reported this year

After Pakistan turned down the bill on forced conversion, 38 cases of forced conversion have been reported across the country.

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• ANI
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• Lahore
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• Updated: 22-11-2021

Image Credit: ANI

• Country:
• Pakistan

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After Pakistan turned down the bill on forced conversion, 38 cases of forced conversion have been reported across the country. The Pakistan parliamentary committee in October had rejected the anti-forced conversion bill amid protest from the lawmakers belonging to minority communities in the country.

Young people from minority communities are generally kidnapped in broad daylight and forcibly converted to Islam. Meanwhile, Muslim members had taken the stance that forced conversion was not a problem in Pakistan. This was observed by Peter Jacob, a long-time activist for the rights of the minorities and Director Centre for Social Justice, in a session on the theme Freedom of Religion and Belief titled Minorities under Threat - Forced conversions and Marriages at Asma Jahangir Conference, reported The News International.

The session was moderated by Farida Shaheed, Executive Director Shirkat Gah and sociologist. The other speakers at this session were Wendy Gilmour, Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Kulpana Devi, Additional Advocate General of Sindh High Court and member of PPP and Dr Nasreen Rehman, economist and historian and director, National Commission on Forced Marriage (UK). The turning down of the bill on Forced Conversion by the parliamentary committee has emboldened the elements who conduct forced conversions of underage girls in an organised manner.

Jacob termed it sabotage of people's protection. He highlighted the problem of targeting young girls in particular and said the nation has been unable to find a way to address this menace because no sincere attempt has been made so far by the government to address this issue, reported The News International. "We know those who forcibly and arrogantly rejected that bill. The functional committee on human rights was turned into a standing committee which meant curtailing the powers of that committee. The parliament never discussed rights of the minorities in the twenty years that I have been observing," he lamented.

Jacob also said that the Ministry of Religious Affairs is part of the problem than the solution. Dr Ewlina Olchab, the senior researcher on All-Party Parliamentary Group and Pakistani minorities, said she has come across cases of abduction of a number of 14-15-year-old girls who are forcibly married to men much older than them. "The state must train the police to investigate such cases," she said.

Dr Ayra Indrias Patras, Assistant Professor Forman Christian College University, said, "We need to situate the problem of religious conversion of underage girls of the minority community in a society that is already riddled with socio-religious hostilities and gendered power relations. There is a thin line to substantiate whether girls are exercising their free choice to marry or are forced to religious conversion." "It is a one-way conversion of mostly girls of poor religious minorities, who marry Muslim men and convert to Islam. At times, patriarchal claims of minority communities control and curtail the independent choices of minority girls. Women of minority communities are subjected to multiple strands of marginality stemming from lower caste, class, gender and religions," she said. (ANI)

Pakistan: Hundreds of children protest in Gwadar in support of basic rights

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Balochistan | November 22, 2021 5:48:08 PM IST

In solidarity with protestors staging a sit-in against the unnecessary check posts and fishing trawlers in Gwadar district of Balochistan province, hundreds of children took to the streets on Sunday, local media reported. Carrying placards and banners inscribed with demands "Gwadar ko haq do" (Give rights to Gwadar), the children marched on various roads of the city and later joined the main sit-in, Dawn reported. Speaking on the occasion, Maulana Hidayat Ullah Baloch, who led the rally, criticised the elected representatives of Gwadar and Makran and asked them to join the sit-in or resign from the assembly as they had been elected to represent them, the Pakistani publication reported. He said the representatives who did not visit their constituency should be included in a list of missing persons. Maulana Baloch said that despite the deployment of various security agencies, hundreds of illegal trawlers were involved in illegal fishing in Balochistan's waters, depriving local fishermen of their livelihood. He asked the authorities concerned to take steps for stopping illegal fishing immediately and seal all liquor stores in the province. "Otherwise people will destroy them," Dawn reported. Further, Maulana Baloch called for the recovery of all disappeared people and said if they were involved in any crime they must be produced before a court of law. "If our demands are not met, we will continue the sit-in for 127 days in order to break the record of Imran Khan who staged his sit-in for 126 days," he said. Balochistan is a resource-rich but least developed province of Pakistan where a movement for freedom has been ongoing for the past several decades. Many Balochs believe that the region was independent before 1947 and was forcibly occupied by Pakistan. While successive governments have promised to criminalise enforced disappearance, none has taken concrete steps and the practice continues with impunity. Recently, fighting between the Pakistan security forces and Baloch insurgents have intensified in the region. In its 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights, the US State Department has highlighted significant human rights issues in Pakistan, including unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government and forced disappearance of Pashtun, Sindhi and Baloch human rights activists. (ANI)

Israel: intelligence agency was key in British decision to designate Hamas

November 22, 2021 

Pro-Palestine demonstrators hold placards during a protest against Israel's treatment of Palestinian protesters in London, UK on 15 May 2018 [Yunus Dalgic/Anadolu Agency]

November 22, 2021

Israel' domestic security agency, Shin Bet, has worked with its counterparts in Britain in order to get the government to designate Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, in its entirety as a "terrorist" group, Israeli media revealed on Sunday. Citing Channel 12 news, the Times of Israel said that several officials from Shin Bet travelled to the UK in recent weeks for this purpose.

The Israeli officials apparently provided "intelligence" on several individuals living in Britain who are, it is alleged, affiliated with Hamas and help to finance it. The designation, it is reported, will undermine the movement's activities in the UK, where it is alleged to carry out significant fundraising.

The decision to designate Hamas must be approved by parliament before it takes effect. According to the Times of Israel, it followed a face-to-face meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Britain's Boris Johnson at the climate change conference in Glasgow earlier this month.

READ: It is absurd for Britain to proscribe Hamas

Channel 12 claimed that these alleged Hamas members raise funds in Britain that are then sent to institutions in Gaza which, Israel says, are linked to the Palestinian group. Israeli intelligence officials claim that the most significant of these is the Islamic University of Gaza. Israel has bombed the university on a number of occasions, alleging that its laboratories are used to develop weapons for Hamas. This is denied by the well-respected academic institution, which has eleven faculties and more than 20,000 students, as well as connections with major universities around the world.

Critics of the designation such as journalists Yvonne Ridley and Motasem Dalloul point out that it is likely to be counterproductive because of the political importance of Hamas in occupied Palestine. The chair of the London-based Europal Forum, Zaher Birawi, told Dalloul that, "Home Secretary Priti Patel's plan to designate Hamas is intended to restrict even further the public space for expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians and their cause against the Israeli occupation."

 

Boris Johnson defends 'Peppa Pig' speech in which he quoted Lenin and compared himself to Moses

Britain’s Prime Minister lost his place in his notes and made car noises as he delivered a keynote speech to business leaders.

1 hour ago 

Image: PA Images

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson stumbled through a major speech in which he lost his place in his notes, talked about a day trip to a Peppa Pig theme park and imitated a car, before insisting: “I thought it went over well.”

The UK leader’s keynote address to business leaders saw him struggle with his papers, at one point muttering “blast it” before shuffling sheets and begging the audience to “forgive me” as he tried to find the right point to resume.

The speech to the Confederation of British Industry was an attempt to set out how pursuing green policies could help in the “moral mission” to “level up” the UK.

But it risks being remembered for Johnson’s reflections on his trip to Peppa Pig World, comparisons with Moses, a reference to Lenin and the spectacle of a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom making car noises.

Following the speech in South Shields, Johnson was asked: “Is everything OK?”

He told ITV: “I think that people got the vast majority of the points I wanted to make and I thought it went over well.”

But Labour mocked Johnson online, saying “the joke’s not funny anymore”, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Businesses are crying out for clarity. Instead, all they got was Boris Johnson rambling on about Peppa Pig.

It is a perfect metaphor for Johnson’s chaotic, incompetent Government as it trashes our economy, but it is not worthy of a British Prime Minister.

Johnson told the audience how he spent Sunday at Peppa Pig World in Hampshire, describing it as “very much my kind of place” but “they are a bit stereotypical about Daddy Pig”.

Praising the ingenuity of the private sector, Johnson said “no Whitehall civil servant could conceivably have come up with Peppa”, which had become a £6 billion global business with theme parks in the US and China.

He mimicked the sound of a roaring car as he said electric vehicles, while lacking the characteristic noise of a high-powered petrol engine, “move off the lights faster than a Ferrari”.

He quoted Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin as he said electrification will be the key to the new “green” industrial revolution.

“Lenin once said the communist revolution was Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country,” Johnson said.

The coming industrial revolution is green power plus electrification of the whole country. We are electrifying our cars, we are electrifying our rail.

The Prime Minister compared his 10-point plan for a green economy with the 10 commandments in the Bible.

It was “a new Decalogue that I produced exactly a year ago when I came down from Sinai”, he said.

The Prime Minister also defended his levelling-up agenda, following criticism of scaled-back plans for new railways in the North and Midlands.

Ministers announced last week that the eastern leg of HS2 between the Midlands and Leeds would be cut, while a promised Northern Powerhouse Rail link between Leeds and Manchester would run partly on existing tracks.

Tony Danker, director-general of the CBI, said the decision had “upset” businesses in the north of England. But Johnson defended the rail proposals, describing the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) as “transformatory”.

Johnson, who argued that achieving his goal of addressing imbalances in the UK would help it become a bigger economy than Germany, said: “It’s a moral thing but it’s also an economic imperative.”

The British Prime Minister said there would still be “massive gains” by a mixture of investing in new lines and upgrading existing track.

“I must say that I thought, as a lesson in what happens when you tell the British people we’re investing £96 billion in the biggest railway programme for 100 years, some of the coverage was missing the point, let me put it that way,” he told the conference.

So, Birmingham to Newcastle is 40 minutes quicker under the IRP; from Newcastle to London will have 20 minutes shaved off because of the upgrades to the East Coast Mainline.

“You are mad as a railway enthusiast, which I am, to think that you always have to dig huge new trenches through virgin countryside and villages and housing estates in order to do high-speed rail.”

He added that Chancellor Rishi Sunak wanted to cut the tax burden for businesses but the Government had to be “prudent” following £407 billion of pandemic spending that had been “extremely tough for the taxpayer”.

The Prime Minister also announced in his speech that new laws will see new homes, supermarkets and workplaces compelled to install electric car charging points.

The announcement on charging points is another step towards the banning of the sale of petrol and diesel cars in the UK by 2030.

James Mancey, operations director at Paultons Park, where Peppa Pig World is based, said the attraction was “delighted” Johnson attended on Sunday.

He said: “The fact that Mr Johnson has chosen to speak at length about his visit during today’s CBI conference, positively endorsing the creativity and innovation showcased by Peppa Pig World and encouraging others to visit, is testament to the hard work of everyone at Paultons Park who create the wonderful experience our millions of guests enjoy each year.”

 

'Love It': Johnson Tells UK Business Leaders Peppa Pig World is 'Very Much My Kind of Place' - Video

6 hours ago

© REUTERS / HENRY NICHOLLS

SubscribeThe usually eloquent British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was lost for words as he was supposed to deliver a speech to the Confederation of British Industry in Port of Tyne in northern England on Monday.

Boris Johnson was frantically going through his notes and repeatedly mumbling "forgive me" before he gave a bizarre speech about Peppa Pig World to UK business leaders.

“Yesterday I went, as we all must, to Peppa Pig World. I don’t know if you’ve been to Peppa Pig World? Hands up who’s been to Peppa Pig World. I love it. Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place: it has very safe streets, discipline in schools, heavy emphasis on mass transit systems, I notice, even if they are a bit stereotypical about Daddy Pig,” the prime minister said, stumbling over his words multiple times.

Johnson continued his perplexing monologue by telling business executives, "who would have believed that a pig that looks like a hairdryer or possibly a Picasso-like hairdryer, a pig that was rejected by the BBC, would now be exported to 180 countries with theme parks both in America and China?"

Peppa Pig World, a park based on the children’s TV show, is situated 330 miles away from South Shields, where the Confederation of British Industry took place.

WALES

Our agreement with Plaid Cymru will help deliver a radical socialist agenda

Mick Antoniw

Welsh Labour Party

The Welsh parliament elections delivered an equal best ever result for Welsh Labour. Contrary to all expectations, and in sharp contrast to local elections in many parts of England, Welsh Labour increased the number of seats held to 30, exactly half the total in the Senedd, enabling it to form another Welsh Labour government.

Labour has now been in power in Wales for over 20 years and for the entirety of devolution. It is a remarkable success story and Mark Drakeford has become the most well-known and popular Welsh politician in recent generations. With an electoral system consisting of 40 constituency seats elected by first-past-the-post and a further 20 seats elected via a proportional top-up system (as is also the case in Scotland), it is virtually impossible for a political party to win an outright majority.

Welsh Labour has won every election since 1999 but has always depended on support from another political party in order to govern. This has normally been in the form of some sort of partnership agreement with the Lib Dems or, as in 2007 when Labour went down to 26 seats, a formal ‘One Wales’ coalition with Plaid Cymru – and the compact with them in 2016 that secured a Labour First Minister with an agreed policy and legislative programme for 18 months.

It should therefore come as no surprise that cooperation talks with Plaid Cymru have taken place and have now delivered an agreement. It is not a coalition and it is very different to the agreement between the SNP in Scotland and the Greens, where they have been given two ministerial positions. There will be no Plaid Cymru ministers.

Instead, it is a cooperation agreement, based on the common policy commitments of both Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru, to work together for the people of Wales to deliver on the progressive policies both parties have promised in their manifestoes. It will be facilitated by access to the civil service in appropriate areas, joint working and the appointment by the First Minister of two special advisers to assist. It will be a different way of working collaboratively on the areas of the agreement, but formal portfolio responsibilities will remain with government ministers.

Political cooperation in Wales has changed over the past two decades, and for the better. When the people of Wales voted a quarter of a century ago for self government, they were promised a new type of progressive politics – a democracy and government that would work inclusively and cooperatively. This agreement is the latest fulfilment of this progressive political transition.

During the Tony Blair years, Welsh Labour adopted a ‘clear red water’ identity to distinguish its more overtly socialist agenda from the direction of the party in England. The manifesto on which Welsh Labour was elected in May of this year is no less progressive and has continued the tradition of a radical Welsh socialist agenda on issues attuned with the aspiration and identity of Welsh communities, many of whom have suffered from Tory austerity and welfare cuts and are also still recovering from the impact of the Tory policies of the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher and deindustrialisation.

The agreement builds on that manifesto and will enable it to be delivered, as it will for parts of the Plaid Cymru manifesto. It commits to working together to deliver a number of radical policies that would take pride of place in any Labour manifesto. Extending free school meals to all primary school pupils with the commitment that no child should go hungry. Extending childcare to all two-year-olds and strengthening  Welsh medium childcare. Joint work will be undertaken to establish a national care service, free at the point of need, with progress towards a better integrated health and social care system and work towards parity of recognition and reward of health and care workers.

Action will be taken to address the proliferation of second homes and the issue of unaffordable housing with a commitment to a white paper to establish a right to adequate housing, fair rents and an end to homelessness. As well as the policy agenda, the agreement will facilitate the Welsh government’s own legislative programme in these and other areas and, importantly, will enable a smooth three-year budgetary process.

The alternative is a government that would otherwise have to devote much of its time to negotiating and arguing, line by line, all its key legislation and a budgetary process where there could be no certainty from one year to the next.

At a time when devolution is under assault from a right-wing centralising government and a three-year austerity financial settlement, which will leave Wales £3bn worse off in real terms by 2024 than it was in 2010, the agreement will enable the Welsh government and the Senedd to focus on protecting and improving services, tackling poverty and improving the quality of life of our communities. It will provide an example of progressive government and an alternative to the sleazy, right-wing politics of the Tories in Westminster.

The agreement does not end scrutiny and challenge to the Welsh government. That will continue. Welsh Labour will continue with its other manifesto commitments in respect of radical electoral reform, public ownership of Welsh railways, the constitutional commission that has been set up, the social partnership bill and our commitment to legislate in areas of clean air, single use plastic and environmental protection.

The agreement will require trust and goodwill from both parties, and it will not always be easy. The temptation for both to resort to the political comfort of division and conflict is always there. But, as we work together to get through the pandemic, seek to rebuild our economy and deliver social justice, the prize is too great to fail. The overwhelming endorsement of the Welsh Labour executive committee and the national executive of Plaid Cymru is confirmation of this. We know we can make this work. We have done it before and we can do it again.

As the only current bastion of Labour parliamentary government in the UK, this agreement to work together, to take Wales forward, is the best and most effective way of delivering the progressive policies and services the people expect from a Welsh Labour government.

Mick Antoniw

Mick Antoniw is the Welsh parliament member for Pontypridd and chair of the legislation, justice and constitution committee of the Welsh parliament.

Giant 'toothed' birds flew over Antarctica 40 million to 50 million years ago


Peter A. Kloess, Doctoral Candidate, Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley
Sun, November 21, 2021, 

Picture Antarctica today and what comes to mind? Large ice floes bobbing in the Southern Ocean? Maybe a remote outpost populated with scientists from around the world? Or perhaps colonies of penguins puttering amid vast open tracts of snow?

Fossils from Seymour Island, just off the Antarctic Peninsula, are painting a very different picture of what Antarctica looked like 40 to 50 million years ago – a time when the ecosystem was lusher and more diverse. Fossils of frogs and plants such as ferns and conifers indicate Seymour Island was much warmer and less icy, while fossil remains from marsupials and distant relatives of armadillos and anteaters hint at the previous connections between Antarctica and other continents in the Southern Hemisphere.

There were also birds. Penguins were present then, as they are now, but fossil relatives of ducks, falcons and albatrosses have also been found in Antarctica. My colleagues and I published an article in 2020 revealing new information about the fossil group that would have dwarfed all the other birds on Seymour Island: the pelagornithids, or “bony-toothed” birds.

Giants of the sky

As their name suggests, these ancient birds had sharp, bony spikes protruding from sawlike jaws. Resembling teeth, these spikes would have helped them catch squid or fish. We also studied another remarkable feature of the pelagornithids – their imposing size.

The largest flying bird alive today is the wandering albatross, which has a wingspan that reaches 11 ½ feet. The Antarctic pelagornithids fossils we studied have a wingspan nearly double that – about 21 feet across. If you tipped a two-story building on its side, that’s about 20 feet.

Across Earth’s history, very few groups of vertebrates have achieved powered flight – and only two reached truly giant sizes: birds and a group of reptiles called pterosaurs.

A model of an enormous prehistoric bird is mounted outdoor in the middle of a river. The wingspan reaches from bank to bank.

Pterosaurs ruled the skies during the Mesozoic Era (252 million to 66 million years ago), the same period that dinosaurs roamed the planet, and they reached hard-to-believe dimensions. Quetzalcoatlus stood 16 feet tall and had a colossal 33-foot wingspan.
Birds get their opportunity

Birds originated while dinosaurs and pterosaurs were still roaming the planet. But when an asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago, dinosaurs and pterosaurs both perished. Some select birds survived, though. These survivors diversified into the thousands of bird species alive today. Pelagornithids evolved in the period right after dinosaur and pterosaur extinction, when competition for food was lessened.

The earliest pelagornithid remains, recovered from 62-million-year-old sediments in New Zealand, were about the size of modern gulls. The first giant pelagornithids, the ones in our study, took flight over Antarctica about 10 million years later, in a period called the Eocene Epoch (56 million to 33.9 million years ago). In addition to these specimens, fossilized remains from other pelagornithids have been found on every continent.

Pelagornithids lasted for about 60 million years before going extinct just before the Pleistocene Epoch (2.5 million to 11,700 years ago). No one knows exactly why, though, because few fossil records have been recovered from the period at the end of their reign. Some paleontologists cite climate change as a possible factor.
Piecing it together

The fossils we studied are fragments of whole bones collected by paleontologists from the University of California at Riverside in the 1980s. In 2003, the specimens were transferred to Berkeley, where they now reside in the University of California Museum of Paleontology.

There isn’t enough material from Antarctica to rebuild an entire skeleton, but by comparing the fossil fragments with similar elements from more complete individuals, we were able to assess their size.

Photo of a fossil fragment of a jawbone section that has worn toothlike projections. Line drawing around it illustrates where in the jaw it would have fit.

We estimate the pelagornithid’s skull would have been about 2 feet long. A fragment of one bird’s lower jaw preserves some of the “pseudoteeth” that would have each measured up to an inch tall. The spacing of those “teeth” and other measurements of the jaw show this fragment came from an individual as big as, if not bigger than, the largest known pelagornithids.

Further evidence of the size of these Antarctic birds comes from a second pelagornithid fossil, from a different location on Seymour Island. A section of a foot bone, called a tarsometatarsus, is the largest specimen known for the entire extinct group.

These pelagornithid fossil findings emphasize the importance of natural history collections. Successful field expeditions result in a wealth of material brought back to a museum or repository – but the time required to prepare, study and publish on fossils means these institutions typically hold many more specimens than they can display. Important discoveries can be made by collecting specimens on expeditions in remote locations, no doubt. But equally important discoveries can be made by simply processing the backlog of specimens already on hand.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Peter A. Kloess, University of California, Berkeley.

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Peter A. Kloess does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.