Turkish President Recep Erdogan attacks 'treason of Middle East countries' including Saudi Arabia for staying silent over President Donald Trump's 'Peace Plan' for Israel and Palestine

• President Erdogan claims Arab countries are committing treason to Jerusalem 
• On Tuesday, Trump said his Peace Plan would keep the holy city in Israel's hands
• Erdogan said today: 'Saudi Arabia in particular, you are silent. When will you break your silence? You look at Oman, Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi is the same'
• READ MORE

By RYAN FAHEY FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 31 January 2020

First ever footage of the underside of the 'doomsday' Thwaites glacier has been sent back by a robotic yellow submarine dubbed Icefin.

Glaciologists have likened the groundbreaking images and video to the first steps on the moon taken by Neil Armstrong in 1969.

Early analysis reveals that turbulent warm waters underneath the ice sheet, which is the same size as Britain, are causing an 'unstoppable retreat'.

Experts have previously predicted that if Thwaites was to melt completely, it would lead to a significant increase in worldwide sea levels of around two feet (65cm).

The impact on coastal communities around the world would be catastrophic.

+8
First ever footage of the underside of the 'doomsday' Thwaites glacier has been sent back by a robotic yellow submarine dubbed Icefin (pictured)

The ground-breaking images and video sent back by Icefin (pictured) has been likened by glaciologists to the first steps on the moon taken by Neil Armstrong in 1969
Fascinating Icefin Robot travels through Thwaites Glacier

A grounding line is the line between where the glacier rests on the ocean bed and where it floats over water. Some experts call it a grounding line, and some call it a grounding zone, as its exact shape is unknown. It is a crucial site for glacier melting (pictured, where the grounding line is found and Icefin (not to scale))

The icy 'ceiling' seen in the video is the bottom of the glacier's ice shelf. 
This section floats in the water as opposed to being nestled on the seafloor

WHAT IS THE GROUNDING LINE?

A grounding line is the point at which a glacier meets with both the seabed and the ocean water.

It is the line between where the glacier rests on the ocean bed and where it floats over water.

The farther back the grounding line recedes, the faster the ice can flow into the sea, pushing up sea-level.

For the Thwaites glacier, the ice shelf is 1,900 feet thick at the grounding line.

Preliminary data from Icefin was analysed by a team of researchers at New York University and found, for the first time, the presence of warm water underneath the glacier at its grounding line — where the glacier rests on the ocean bed.

David Holland, director of New York University's Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, said: 'If these waters are causing glacier melt in Antarctica, resulting changes in sea level would be felt in more inhabited parts of the world.'

'The fact that such warm water was just now recorded by our team along a section of Thwaites grounding zone where we have known the glacier is melting suggests that it may be undergoing an unstoppable retreat that has huge implications for global sea level rise,' notes Holland, a professor at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

Icefin was deployed five times and covered a distance of more than nine miles (15km) after being released through a borehole 2,000ft (600-meter) deep and 12 inches (35cm) wide earlier this month.

Two of the missions involved travelling as close as possible to the grounding line.

It was recently announced that in mid-January scientists conducted the first fieldwork on Thwaites.

One of the projects from a vast UK-US joint task force involved drilling holes through the glacier near its grounding line.

Some experts call it a grounding line, and some call it a grounding zone, as its exact shape is unknown and the glacier's base may come into contact with the seabed at various locations.

At this grounding zone, the ice shelf is 1,900 feet (580m) thick.

The submersible yellow submarine-like robot Icefin is capable of navigating the sub-zero waters and was fed through one borehole to study how the glacier is melting.

Icefin is designed to take several measurements, including tracking the turbulence of the water as well as its temperature.

Turbulence causes fresh meltwater from the glacier to mix with salty water from the ocean.

Icefin swam more nine miles (15 km) during five missions, including two to the grounding site — where most melting is thought to be occurring.

One of the projects from a vast UK-US joint task force drilled holes through the glacier near its grounding zone (pictured, researchers on Thwaites)

Icefin was deployed five times and covered a distance of more than nine miles (15km) after being released through a borehole 2,000ft (600-meter) deep and 12 inches (35cm) wide

Researchers studied data from the submersible remote-controlled robot and found warm turbulent water is causing high levels of melting at the grounding zone, pictured here for the first time ever by Icefin

The Icefin robot is pictured being retrieved after one of its five missions under the Thwaites glacier. Two missions took it as close as possible to the grounding line and took the first ever measurements and footage of the critical juncture

Dr Britney Schmidt, a glaciologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said: 'We saw amazing ice interactions driven by sediments at the [grounding] line and from the rapid melting from warm ocean water.'

Icefin measured, imaged and mapped the process causing melting at this critical part of the glacier.

The icy 'ceiling' seen in the video is the bottom of the glacier's ice shelf. This section floats in the water as opposed to being nestled on the seafloor.

The observations made by Icefin capture sediment that was on the sea floor just hours previously, as the glacier drifts constantly, exposing new sections of the ice.

Britney Schmidt, a glaciologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told The Athletic: 'We can definitely see it melting.

'There are a few places where you can see streams of particles coming off the glaciers, textures and particles that tell us it's melting pretty quickly and irregularly.'

Melting of Thwaites is cause for global concern as its sheer enormity means that it contains enough ice that, if it was to melt, there would be worldwide implications.

Sea level rise would be drastic, up to around 25 inches (63.5cm), and the reach of the ripple-effect would be vast.

THE RETREAT OF THE THWAITES GLACIER

The Thwaites glacier is slightly smaller than the total size of the UK, approximately the same size as the state of Washington, and is located in the Amundsen Sea.

It is up to 4,000 metres (13,100 feet thick) and is considered a key in making projections of global sea level rise.

The glacier is retreating in the face of the warming ocean and is thought to be unstable because its interior lies more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) below sea level while, at the coast, the bottom of the glacier is quite shallow.

The Thwaites glacier is the size of Florida and is located in the Amundsen Sea. It is up to 4,000 meters thick and is considered a key in making projections of global sea level rise

The Thwaites glacier has experienced significant flow acceleration since the 1970s.

From 1992 to 2011, the centre of the Thwaites grounding line retreated by nearly 14 kilometres (nine miles).

Annual ice discharge from this region as a whole has increased 77 percent since 1973.

Because its interior connects to the vast portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that lies deeply below sea level, the glacier is considered a gateway to the majority of West Antarctica’s potential sea level contribution.

The collapse of the Thwaites Glacier would cause an increase of global sea level of between one and two metres (three and six feet), with the potential for more than twice that from the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Already, Thwaites accounts for about four per cent of global sea-level rise as warming waters cause it to melt from the underside.

Researchers have long held concerns that a tipping point in the stability at its foundations could result in a run-away collapse of the glacier.

Icefin was developed and deployed by scientist to study the very root of the issue as no cameras had ever been taken to a grounding point of any glacier, let alone one of such importance as Thwaites.

'Visiting the grounding line is one of the reasons work like this is important because we can drive right up to it and actually measure where it is,' said Dr Schmidt.

'It's the first time anyone has done that or has ever even seen the grounding zone of a major glacier under the water, and that's the place where the greatest degree of melting and destabilisation can occur.'

Researchers also took cores of sediment from the seafloor and under parts of the glacier grounded on the bed to examine the quality of the foothold that it offers Thwaites.

'We know that warmer ocean waters are eroding many of West Antarctica's glaciers, but we're particularly concerned about Thwaites.

'This new data will provide a new perspective of the processes taking place, so we can predict future change with more certainty,' said Keith Nicholls, an oceanographer from the British Antarctic Survey.

WHAT WOULD SEA LEVEL RISES MEAN FOR COASTAL CITIES?

Global sea levels could rise as much as 10ft (3 metres) if the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica collapses.

Sea level rises threaten cities from Shanghai to London, to low-lying swathes of Florida or Bangladesh, and to entire nations such as the Maldives.

In the UK, for instance, a rise of 6.7ft (2 metres) or more may cause areas such as Hull, Peterborough, Portsmouth and parts of east London and the Thames Estuary at risk of becoming submerged.

The collapse of the glacier, which could begin with decades, could also submerge major cities such as New York and Sydney.

Parts of New Orleans, Houston and Miami in the south on the US would also be particularly hard hit.

A 2014 study looked by the union of concerned scientists looked at 52 sea level indicators in communities across the US.

It found tidal flooding will dramatically increase in many East and Gulf Coast locations, based on a conservative estimate of predicted sea level increases based on current data.

The results showed that most of these communities will experience a steep increase in the number and severity of tidal flooding events over the coming decades.

By 2030, more than half of the 52 communities studied are projected to experience, on average, at least 24 tidal floods per year in exposed areas, assuming moderate sea level rise projections. Twenty of these communities could see a tripling or more in tidal flooding events.

The mid-Atlantic coast is expected to see some of the greatest increases in flood frequency. Places such as Annapolis, Maryland and Washington, DC can expect more than 150 tidal floods a year, and several locations in New Jersey could see 80 tidal floods or more.

In the UK, a two metre (6.5 ft) rise by 2040 would see large parts of Kent almost completely submerged, according to the results of a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in November 2016.

Areas on the south coast like Portsmouth, as well as Cambridge and Peterborough would also be heavily affected.

Cities and towns around the Humber estuary, such as Hull, Scunthorpe and Grimsby would also experience intense flooding.


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'Grounding zone' of Antarctica's 'doomsday' Thwaites glacier is revealed in first ever footage


First ever footage of the underside of the 'doomsday' Thwaites glacier has been sent back by a robotic yellow submarine dubbed Icefin.https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/first-ever-footage-of-underside-of.html

Temperatures at a Florida-Size Glacier in Antarctica Alarm Scientists
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/temperatures-at-florida-size-glacier-in.html

Russian cruise line offers Arctic voyages along the Northern Sea Route


NOT GREEN TOURISM EVEN THIS IS EXPLOITATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE FOR THE RUSSIAN ECONOMIC INTERESTS, THE COUNTRY AND PUTIN ARE LIKE AMERICANS; CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS.

2 Feb, 2020  Get short URL

© Global Look Press / Steven Kazlowski

Cruises along the Northern Sea Route, as well as trips to Antarctica, will be available to travelers starting from 2021, Russian cruise line Vodohod has announced.

“We have big plans for 2020. We are launching an expedition tour along the Yenisei [river – Ed.] on board the Maxim Gorky vessel, and I believe many people are aware of it already,” Vodohod representative Igor Yasinsky said.


© Facebook / Vodohod

He added that cruises along the Northern Sea Route and around Franz Josef Land will be served from 2021 during the summer period. “After that, the vessel will go to Antarctica, and from 2022 it will work there together with two new expedition vessels, being built at a Finnish shipyard, each taking on board 150 people.”

The Northern Sea Route is the shortest maritime passage connecting the European part of Russia with the country’s Far East regions. The transport artery passes through several seas of the Arctic Ocean, including the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea, and partially through the Bering Sea in the Pacific Ocean.

© Facebook / Vodohod

Vodohod’s press service said the company is finalizing formalities for the icebreaker’s rent and continues working on the cruises’ programs.

READ MORE: Russia to launch first train to Arctic region for foreign tourists

© Facebook / Vodohod

“Cruises will be between 7 and 17 days long,” the press service said.  

“We are also working on using light helicopters to make tours more exciting.”

© Facebook / Vodohod

Hate speech: ‘Time to evict protestors in Delhi’, says BJP’s new campaign song 

Two gunmen have fired at protestors in Delhi. But India’s ruling party continues to build its hateful, divisive campaign.

Screengrabs from the BJP campaign video.
Feb 01, 2020 ·  Scroll Staff

The Bharatiya Janata Party continues to stoke hate and divisiveness in its election campaign in Delhi. At a time when two gunmen have fired at peaceful protestors in the national capital, a new campaign song released by the party on Friday says: “It is time to evict those sitting on protest in Delhi.”

The song in Hindi, which is two minutes and eight seconds long, goes on to say: “Remember those who empower Urban Naxals” – a term that the BJP and its supporters have coined to attack social activists and civil rights defenders. The song’s video shows a grainy image of Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal at this point.

“Teach a lesson to those who fear the rise of India,” the song says. “Give an answer, Delhi, to those who love Shaheen Bagh.”

Shaheen Bagh is the locality in South Delhi where women have been staging a continuous sit-in protest since December 15. On Saturday, a gunman fired shots at the protest site. As the police took him away, a video of the incident shows him say: “In our country, only Hindus will prevail.”

Stills from the BJP video.

Second incident

This is the second instance of a gunman inspired by Hindutva firing at protestors in Delhi. On January 30, a shooter had fired his gun outside the Jamia Millia Islamia University, injuring one student. This was days after Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Minister Anurag Thakur had exhorted a crowd to raise the slogan: “Shoot the traitors of the country.” Thakur was barred from campaigning in Delhi for three days by the Election Commission.

The strictures of the election body have not stopped the BJP from raising its pitch against the protestors of Shaheen Bagh. Hours after the shooting outside Jamia, Home Minister Amit Shah asked voters to choose between Prime Minister Narendra Modi who conducted “surgical strikes” and those who support for Shaheen Bagh – a reference to the Aam Aadmi Party, which is ruling Delhi.

The new campaign song further builds on the same divisive campaign. The accompanying video mixes images of protestors holding up banners expressing their opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens in Delhi at peaceful demonstrations with scenes of arson and stone-pelting. It is not clear whether the images are from the National Capital.

The song uses the phrase “tukde tukde gang” – a term used by the BJP government to tarnish its critics and allege they are working to balkanise India. The video shows images of former student leaders of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid.

The campaign song was released on Instagram on January 31. It had garnered nearly one lakh views by 9 pm on February 1.

Here are the original lyrics in Hindi with English translation.

Samay aa gaya chalo nikalein Dilli se dharne 

waalon koYaad karo urban naxal ko empower karne waalon ko

It is time we evict those sitting on protest in Delhi
Remember those who empower Urban Naxals

Bharat ab lachar nahi to, Dilli hi lachar rahe kyun
Sabak sikhao bharat ke uthan se darne waalon ko

India is no longer helpless, why should Delhi be
Teach a lesson to those who fear the rise of India

Paanch varsha tak apne vaadon aur naaron ko bhool gaye jo
Tukde tukde gang saath lein dilli ko chaalna waalon ko

Those who forgot the promises and slogans made in five years
Taking along the tukde tukde gang, those who fooled Delhi

Do jawab unko jo Dilli love karte Shaheen Bagh se
Mile shakti iss desh ke khaatir roz roz ladhne waalon ko

Give an answer, Delhi, to those who love Shaheen Bagh
May those who fight for the country everyday gain power

Jinke mann mein sena ke prati koi bhi sammman nahi ho
Shashan ka adhikar mile kyun deshdroh karne waalon ko

Those who have no respect for the army
Why should such anti-nationals be given the power to govern

Chalo saath uske jo prerit karta rehta sakal rashtra ko
Milein samarthan sab mein sahas aur shakti bharne waalon koCome and support the man who inspires the country everyday
May those who infuse courage and power in everyone get support

INDIANAMA
The BJP’s perilous descent from Hindu appeasement to incitement
Ministers deliver hate speech, police take their cues and goons are empowered to transition from social-media rage to street violence.

Hindutva supporters in West Bengal. | HT Photo
Feb 01, 2020 · Samar Halarnkar

This week, India heard a Union minister rouse a Delhi crowd to scream “shoot the bloody traitors”, and two days later, a young man tried to do exactly that as the police looked on. In Karnataka, the police interrogated Class Four students, arrested a mother and schoolteacher on charges of sedition for a school play on the controversial citizenship law, as the tourism minister of Karnataka ranted about “anti-nationals” deserving “bullets not biryani”.

These are only the latest examples of incitement from India’s ruling dispensation. Those being incited are the Hindu majority and those being incited against are students, Muslims, liberals, other minorities and anyone opposed to government policies.

Ministers, leading lights of the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party and their media cheerleaders have directly taken charge of a task formerly reserved for what was once regarded as the lunatic fringe of Hindutva.
Triumphant majoritarianism

With unemployment rising, the economy collapsing and propaganda about rising India hard even for BJP supporters to swallow, it has been a hop, skip and jump from Hindu appeasement – previously given cover with the secular slogan “sabka saath, sabka vikas”, everyone will progress – to incitement. All the government’s efforts to make Hindus feel triumphant, such as criminalising triple talaq, dismembering Jammu and Kashmir and paving the way for a Ram temple, have failed to divert attention from a nation in economic decline.

When there is nothing of substance to offer, the easy but irresponsible – and potentially calamitous – way to ensure the faithful keep the faith is to exploit and excite their base emotions and feelings about imaginary enemies. It does not, as we have seen with cattle-related lynching, take time for hate speech to morph into hate crime.

The modus operandi is apparent: incite the majority, draw forth their inner resentment, encourage hate speech and when foot-soldiers are primed for action, encourage and weaponise the process by getting the police to step aside or look away. If arrests must be made, handle with kid gloves. Soon, Hindutva has new heroes, to be feted, glamourised and mainstreamed.
 

Volunteers of a cow vigilante group gather to inspect a truck 

on a highway in Rajasthan. Credit: AFP

Incitement works best when dissenters are kept in check, and the incited know that the government has their back. The police have a particularly important role in enabling this process, evident in the gentle way police handle goons of Hindutva persuasion, in sharp contrast to violent and often brutal action against students and other protestors. There is also clear evidence that many police forces are as radicalised as the people they are meant to restrain, falling victim to the mass incitement flowing from the top.

That the police are intrinsically associated with the government and majoritarianism and idolised for the wrong reasons is evident in a video of a brainwashed, radicalised little girl who chants into a mike: “Lal chowk main goli maaron, desh ke gaddaron ko, bahut ho gaya bhaichara, lathon maaron saalon ko (Shoot the traitors in [Srinagar’s] Lal Chowk, enough brotherhood, kick them).” This is, sadly, unexceptional. What she says next is revealing: “When I grow up, I want to become an IPS officer, so I can pick out and shoot traitors.”
Flood of hate speech

There are so many threats to shoot, kill and otherwise do away with dissenters that a large number are ignored. Only the most egregious ones make it to national debate. But the relentless flood of hate speech slowly corrodes minds, removing all that is good and hopeful. It leaves behind a shell of the basest passions, denying those so affected of restraint, logic and compassion.

History indicates that this phase of denial has a disquieting prognosis. If appeasement to incitement was a skip away, mass violence or even genocide is a bit of a leap, but it is a leap India has previously made in fits and starts.

History and a growing body of literature documents how mass human-rights violations and genocide occur with the knowledge of or by order of the highest authorities of a country. They also argue that physical extermination is not the only form of genocide.

Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal 

in Chandigarh in 2008. Credit: Reuters

“Recent genocide studies have begun to embrace a wider variety of genocidal acts than mass murder and acknowledges new dynamics and meanings in such acts,” says a 2018 paper by US and Canadian researchers in Genocide Studies and Prevention, an international journal. Another paper from 2015 warns of “cold genocides”, which “can take place through subtle forms of structural violence that destroy the group through gradual measures”, such as gradual disappearances or denying access to daily necessities, such as work, housing, schooling, food and health services, or gradual. Some of these indicators are already evident in India’s minority communities.

The deliberate and violent harnessing of majority resentment by the state in India could lead the county into known or unknown escalation, however defined or categorised. The form does not matter as much as a recognition that if the ruling party itself incites Hindus to violence, the consequences may be too terrible to contemplate.

In the past, India has usually pulled back from the brink because one or more of its institutions – political, judicial, media or administrative – took the tough decision, went against the grain and did the right thing. There is, currently, no sign of that.

Look at the islamophobia in whatsapp group for reporters administered by police, including the DCP. Main provocateurs in these screenshots are Dainik Jagran's Arvind Dwivedi and India TV's Abhay Parashar. This, a few hours after a gunman has shot a student right in front of cops. pic.twitter.com/yBkuuOxDFt
— Abshar (@Scepticindian) January 31, 2020


Narendra Modi and the unsurprising politics of vendetta

The Daily Fix: 

Delhi shooting shows that BJP’s hateful speeches have lit fires it cannot control 

The ruling party is constantly fuelling communal debates, placing India on a tinderbox.

A photo of the teenage shooter from his Facebook page (left)

and an image of him opening fire outside Delhi's 

Jamia Millia Islamia on Thursday. | Reuters

Jan 31, 2020 · Shoaib Daniyal

“Desh ke ghaddaron ko, goli maro salon ko.” Shoot down the bloody traitors of the country.

This Hindutva battle cry has echoed across Delhi over the past months. It has come from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules the country. The slogan is aimed at anyone protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, which critics say discriminates against Muslims and could be use to disenfranchise them. The slogan was first used by Kapil Mishra, a BJP leader in the Capital. On Monday, it was picked up by a minister in the Modi government, Anurag Thakur, and chanted during a campaign rally for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

The incendiary slogan had an immediate impact. Four days after it was deployed by Thakur, a teenage boy fired a pistol at a crowd in Delhi protesting against the citizenship initiatives on Thursday, even as the police watched passively. His bullet injured a student.

Information accessed by Scroll.in showed that the teenage shooter was associated with Hindutva causes. His Facebook page shows how passionately he identified with the ideas propagated by the saffron ecosystem. Messages posted by the shooter on social media just before the attack asked friends to “do my funeral rites with me covered in the saffron flag” and threatened demonstrators at Shaheen Bagh that “the game is over”.

Shaheen Bagh is the centre of the protests against the citizenship initiatives in Delhi and demonstrators there have been sharply attacked by the BJP as part of its Delhi election campaign, which is attempting to divide the electorate on religious lines. On Thursday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said at a rally that the Aam Admi Party was “with Shaheen Bagh” while the BJP stood with “Sanjay Colony”. On Tuesday, a BJP MP claimed that participants in the women-led agitation at Shaheen Bagh will “rape your sisters and daughters”.

Only communalism

The faltering economy and the significant missteps made by the BJP to boost it, such as demonetisation and the botched-up introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, has meant that the party now depends solely on emotive issues such as communal polarisation to win elections. To this end, the BJP has passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, introducing a religious criterion in India’s citizenship law.

Delhi, which votes on February 8, is basically a city poll, with an electorate smaller than that for the Mumbai municipal elections. Yet, even for this small territory, the BJP has sharply communalised the atmosphere in a bid to defeat the Aam Aadmi Party. It is unclear what the BJP’s plan is – or even if it has one, beyond simply winning the next election.

However, as Thursday’s shooting shows, the party’s inflammatory rhetoric has been burnt into the minds of some sections, who are now willing to take the law into their own hands to attack people who the BJP has marked as “anti-nationals” or enemies of the state. The party cannot hope to control its radicalised supporters from carrying out the violent tasks that their leaders have openly articulated. The BJP’s short-term desire to win elections could have incendiary, long-term consequences for Indian society.

In Uttar Pradesh town, neighbours of Delhi shooter shout slogans in his support 

The teenager had been ‘affected by the atmosphere’ in the country with the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, said one person.

The teenage shooter. | Reuters
Jan 30, 2020 · Vijayta Lalwani

On Thursday night, large crowds gathered outside a house that was locked in a small neighbourhood in the district of Gautam Buddh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh.

The house was situated along a narrow lane. The family was not at home but neighbours had heard that a teenage resident had fired at protestors in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar. One student was injured in the firing.

The incident occurred in the afternoon, as students of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia began to march towards Rajghat, where Mohandas Gandhi was cremated. Thursday marked the 72nd anniversary of his assassination.

“At around 1.30pm, while the gathering was moving, one person suddenly came out of it brandishing a small firearm like object and within a split second, before anyone could assess or react to what he was doing, the man suddenly fired towards the marching students,” the Delhi Police said in a statement. “The police staff immediately rushed towards the person and overpowered him.”
Neighbours decline to comment

In Gautam Buddh Nagar, most residents who gathered around the teenage shooter’s home declined to speak to reporters and asked them to leave the area. Those who did, said that they did not want to be identified.

Around a shop situated in the corner of the teenager’s house, some residents started to chant slogans like “Jai Shri Ram!” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai!” They also chanted slogans in support of teenager’s actions. You carry on your struggle, we are with you, they shouted.

Some neighbours who spoke to Scroll.in said that the teenager’s family had left the town on Wednesday to attend a wedding 17 kms away in Kalupura. They claimed the teenager told them that he was going to school at 9.30 am on Thursday and would join his family in Kalupura.

They said that he studied at a local school and claimed that he had been “affected by the atmosphere” in the country.

“It is all because of this atmosphere that has been created,” claimed one neighbour who did not wish to be identified. He was referring to the ongoing protests against the amended citizenship Act and proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens.

Tens of thousands of people have joined rallies and sit-ins against the initiatives, which they say discriminate against Muslims and could even be used to disenfranchise them. The longest continuous sit-in has been underway at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh.

“Some see NDTV and they think what is happening,” said the teenager’s neighbour. “While some watch R TV [Republic TV] and think why are they doing this,” the neighbour claimed. “It’s the affect of Shaheen Bagh, JNU [Jawaharlal Nehru University] and AMU [Aligarh Muslim University.” Both institutions have seen violence against students, in the first case by a masked group and in the second by the police.

 

The teenager's locked home. Credit: Vijayta Lalwani.

The neighbour also compared the shooter with JNU student Sharjeel Imam, who was charged with sedition for an alleged speech he made in January 16. Imam arrested by Delhi police on Wednesday. “He [Imam] is very educated and this one [the shooter] is not very educated but the link between the two is Facebook and Whatsapp,” he said.

Neighbours said the teenage shooter was not a part of the Bajrang Dal, a youth outfit linked to the Hindutva organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and that the organisation had little presence in the area.

Another neighbour dismissed the shooter’s actions and claimed that “it was not a big thing”. “He is a good child,” said 43-year-old Rishab Jain, an entrepreneur and resident of the area. Jain compared Gopal’s actions with celebratory firing. “Goliyan hamesha chal rahi hai,” Jain said. Bullets are always being fired.

He added: Anyone can fire shots but this happened in Delhi that’s why it has become so big.

Jain added that he supported the amended Citizenship Act that fast tracks the citizenship of undocumented non Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. “There is nothing wrong with it,” he said. 

Support our journalism by subscribing to Scroll+. We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=HINDUISM 
IS FASCISM, CASTISM AND RACISM

---30---

QUIRKY SCIENCE
Latest buzz: Honeybees’ learning patterns can reveal how humans acquire new skills 

A group of scientists taught bees simple arithmetic and got surprising results.

Jewel Samad/AFP

Understanding how humans learn is one key to improving teaching practices and advancing education. Does everybody learn in the same way or do different people need different teaching styles?

The question may sound straightforward, but assessing and interpreting learning performance remains elusive. It is one of the most widely debated educational topics of today, especially for learners who have unique ways of demonstrating their understanding.

We looked for answers in what might be an unexpected place: among honeybees. In a new study published in the Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy, we use the bees as a model to understand how different individuals acquire information.

Using animal models to understand learning has a long and proud history. The Nobel Prize winner Ivan Pavlov famously trained dogs to associate a sound with a food reward. Eventually, Pavlov demonstrated that the dogs began to salivate at the sound.

Pavlov’s experiment revealed the core theory behind how we understand associative learning in education, society and popular culture. Think of how Gringott’s dragon was conditioned in Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows.

Much of what we know about the physiology of memory formation comes from the seminal work of the Nobel laureate Eric Kandel. Kandel used the simple sea slug, Aplysia californica, to investigate how connections between neurons in the brain enable learning.

Bees are surprisingly good learners and recent research shows individuals can learn faces, add and subtract and even process the concept of zero. Bees learn complex tasks through trial and error, where a reward of sugar water is provided for correctly solving a problem.
A honeybee with a white identification mark learns to discriminate between three and five item displays that each present the same overall surface area. Credit: Author supplied/The Conversation

Teaching bees arithmetic

We were very interested to discover whether all individual bees would learn complex tasks in a similar way. Would each individual show similar learning performance throughout training, or would individuals demonstrate different learning strategies?

One foundation math skill we all learn at about preschool age is how to add and subtract numbers. Arithmetic is not a trivial task. It requires long-term memory of rules associated with particular symbols like plus or minus, as well as short-term memory of what particular numbers to manipulate in a given instance.

When we trained bees to add and subtract, we evaluated how many trials it took each bee to acquire the task, and summarised the data examining how individuals learn in a video.

We were surprised to see that all bees did not learn the task at the same stage of training. Instead, different individuals acquired the capacity to solve the problem after a different number of trials.

There was no common learning stage throughout the trials where bees achieved success. Rather the task required bees to try different strategies to see what worked. In particular, the opportunity to learn from mistakes was critical to enabling the bees to learn math-based problems.

This finding suggests that when brains have to learn multi-stage problems involving different types of memory, an opportunity for exploratory behaviour is what nature prefers.

Performances of three different bees in an arithmetic task. While all three reach success, the path to learning the task is very different. Credit: Author supplied/The Conversation

What this means

Humans and bees last shared a common ancestor about 600 million years ago. However, we share a large number of genes and it is likely we have some similarities in how we process information.

We know that bees and humans have a common way of processing numbers from one to four, for instance, suggesting that learning processes may be linked to evolutionary conserved mechanisms. So bees’ improved results when learning maths problems in an individual exploratory fashion suggests this may be how humans too are wired to acquire new skills.

Indeed, some recent research in learning and learning difficulties in children has found evidence that individuals frequently see and learn in different ways depending on environmental context.

Our biology may be programmed to encourage exploratory learning, rather than trying to acquire information in a set prescribed way. If so, our education systems should take this into consideration. This idea may not be new, but may face challenges if computer-based learning is increasingly adopted as there is a risk that limited programming could limit learning styles.

On the other hand, the clever use of exploratory learning environments – digital or physical – may enhance learning outcomes. We should not shy away from examining how our evolutionary history impacts learning and using this to our advantage. Understanding evolutionary principles could help in designing learning environments best suited to encouraging exploration for optimal learning, for example.

Adrian Dyer, Associate Professor, RMIT University. Elizabeth Jayne White, Professor ECE, RMIT University. Jair Garcia, Research fellow, RMIT University. Scarlett Howard, Postdoctoral research fellow, Université de Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier.


This article first appeared on The Conversation.

DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT
After Supreme Court order, India’s forest ministry has made restoration of mined-out areas mandatory
Stricter conditions are welcome but compliance is rarely monitored, say experts.

Alasdair Pal/Reuters Mayank Aggarwal

Mining companies will be required to carry out re-grassing in the mined-out areas to make them suitable for the growth of flora and fauna once the mining activity is complete, as directed by the Indian government’s environment ministry.

The direction of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change came after a Supreme Court order earlier this month, on January 8. The decision has now become part of the conditions stipulated by the ministry while giving forest clearance.

Under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, the MoEFCC gives clearance for diversion of forest land for non-forestry purposes like mining or infrastructure projects such as road or railways. While giving such clearances, the MoEFCC stipulates that the project proponent shall undertake mining in a phased manner and shall undertake concurrent as well as final reclamation of the mined over the area. The status of reclamation of mined-out areas is regularly monitored by ten regional offices of the environment ministry across India.
Supreme Court order

While hearing a case regarding “deleterious effect of mining on vegetation, after mining activities are over”, a bench led by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde noted that “an area which is mined results in a complete elimination of grass which in turn denies fodder to the herbivores.”

“The only solution can be re-grassing of such mined areas. It is not in dispute that re-grassing technology is available in this country. We see no reason why the area which has been mined should not be restored so that grass and other vegetations including trees can grow in the mining area for the benefits of animals,” said the bench.

“We are of the view that this can be achieved by directing the Union of India to impose a condition in the mining lease and a similar condition in the environmental clearance and the mining plan to the effect that the mining lease holders shall, after ceasing mining operations, undertake re-grassing the mining area and any other area which may have been disturbed due to their mining activities and restore the land to a condition which is fit for growth of fodder, flora, fauna,” said the SC, while directing the Central Government to do so within three weeks by the end of January.

The apex court of India also asked the Centre to devise appropriate methods to ensure compliance of this condition after the mining activity is over at the cost of the mining leaseholders. “This condition shall be in addition to those conditions which have already been imposed for achieving the same purpose under the mine closure plan. This condition shall not be imposed in derogation of any conditions which are already in force,” the SC order noted.

The order is of significance, given the large area under mining across the country. India produces over 80 minerals and less than 3% of India’s Gross Domestic Product comes from mining. To increase the country’s growth rate, there has been constant talk of increasing mining activities. In such a scenario, if there is an increase in mining activities, the proper closure of mines once the activity has ended and reclamation of land – carried out by activities like landscaping, soil improvement and re-vegetation of the mined land – will gain more significance.
 

Mining contributes to less than 3% of India’s GPP. 

Credit: Rohit Naniwadekar/Wikimedia Commons

For instance, according to official data from 2018-’19 regarding land restoration and reclamation of 52 opencast coal mines projects of Coal India Limited, the total mine leasehold area is 671.44 sq km. Of that, the total excavated area is 255.43 sq km and of that, 60.8 sq km – 23.8% – has been planted or biologically reclaimed, 99.99 sq km – 39.15% – is under backfilling or technical reclamation, and 94.64 sq km – 37.05% – is under active mining. CIL is an important player in mining as it accounts for over 80% of India’s total coal produced and is also considered the world’s single largest coal producer.

“Land reclamation has been part of the environment clearance process but this direction would certainly strengthen it. However, the implementation of these rules remains a problem. There are so many abandoned mines across the country. There is no central data about mines abandoned or land reclaimed after mining is over,” said environmental lawyer Rahul Choudhary.

A senior MoEFCC official said the latest step would strengthen the land reclamation process that is already followed in case of mined-out areas. “Now that re-grassing of mined-out areas has been made a stipulated condition, it would strengthen the land reclamation work that is carried out in mined-out areas,” said the MoEFCC official.
Monitoring compliance

The National Mineral Policy 2019, which guides mining activities in India, also talks about the importance of land reclamation once mining is complete. It stressed that once the reserves in mine are completely exhausted there is a need for scientific mine closure, which will not only restore the ecology and regenerate biodiversity but also take into account the socio-economic aspects of such closure.

“Where mining activities have been spread over a few decades, mining communities get established and closure of the mine means not only loss of jobs for them but also disruption of community life. Mine closure should be done in an orderly and systematic manner. Government has a role in ensuring that post-production mine decommissioning and land reclamation are an integral part of the mine development process...and that consistent approaches are adopted for efficient and effective mine reclamation and rehabilitation,” said the policy.

Following the SC’s order, the MoEFCC on January 14 came out with an order to add this condition to standard conditions imposed in the approvals accorded under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. “The mining lease holder shall, after ceasing mining operations, undertake re-grassing the mining area and any other areas which may have been disturbed due their mining activities and restore the land to a condition which is fit for growth of fodder, flora, fauna, etc,” said the MoEFCC order sent to all state governments seeking compliance of it.

It has also been a regular complaint of environmentalists and activists that mined out areas are abandoned or re-greening activities are not carried out once the mining is over. “If you see a forest as merely a stand of trees, mining a forest might seem a simple matter of removing trees, taking minerals out, and perhaps, putting the trees back in. But if you see the forest for what it actually is – a complex web of ecological relationships – destroying what exists is incredibly costly, and replacing what is lost is nearly impossible,” said independent researcher MD Madhusudan.

“The ways in which a forest provides for a community are varied and complex. This cannot be reinstated simply by sticking trees back in the mud after ravaging a place. Proper ecological restoration is complex and arduous. While we are always happy to add stricter conditions to forest clearances when diverting forests, we almost never audit for compliance, or prosecute violations which are commonplace. I am not aware of any instance of systematic prosecution for violating conditions on which clearance was granted to them,” said Madhusudan.

This article first appeared on Mongabay.

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Climate strikes, environmental protests in January 2020

Strikes, demonstrations and protests grip world entering 2020s as environment, climate change awareness tightens

Burak Bir |01.02.2020 ANKARA


Entering the 2020s, people across the world are staging strikes, demonstrations and protests calling for action against human-made climate change and damage to the environment.

In only the decade's first month, activists and concerned citizens alike held new events at an average every other day across a myriad of countries.

These include the Fridays for Future protests sparked by 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, a hunger strike in Canada against university funding for fossil fuels and an elephant-borne march in Thailand by school students following the damage caused by ravaging bushfires in Australia.

Jan. 3:
- The first climate strike of 2020 was led by the Fridays for Future movement, taking place across the globe from Uganda to Australia, with students not attending school for one day a week to raise awareness on the effects of climate change.

Jan. 6:
- A group of students at the University of British Colombia in Canada, ranging in age from 19 to 23, launched a hunger strike demanding their university divest from fossil fuels.



Jan. 10:
- After a call from activist environmental group Extinction Rebellion, people around the world protested at Australian diplomatic missions to push Canberra to declare a "climate emergency" over the raging deadly bushfires.

- Thousands rallied in Sydney, Australia over the deadly bushfires and demanded further steps to tackle the fires as well as climate change.

- Students in the Kenema province of Sierra Leone gathered for their first school strike for the climate as part of the Fridays For Future organization.

Jan. 12:
- A troupe of elephants and school students held a silent march at an elephant camp in Thailand to raise awareness for the millions of animals killed in Australia's raging bushfires.

Jan. 14:
- Climate activists in Switzerland dumped coal inside a branch of the UBS Group to protest the bank's funding of fossil fuel projects.

Jan. 15:
- Harvard law students shut down a recruitment reception of Paul Weiss, a law firm representing ExxonMobil in climate lawsuits, in the hopes of opening a new front in climate activism.

- Hundreds of protesters wearing white masks held the streets in Tuzla, a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to call for governmental action on air pollution in the region.

Jan. 16:
- Extinction Rebellion demonstrators blocked entrances to Shell's headquarters in Aberdeen, Scotland in solidarity with Nigerians they said were suffering from the company's actions in the country.

Jan. 17:
- Despite reactions, a 17-year-old climate activist Theo Cullen-Mouze hit his 20th week of Friday school strikes alongside only his sister in Ireland's Clare Island.

Jan. 18:
- Extinction Rebellion Belgium organized a mass action of civil disobedience at the AutoSalon 2020, hanging a banner outside of the salon, spraying slogans on its walls and splashing fake blood on cars. Police arrested 185 protesters.


- Bill McKibben, environmentalist and co-founder of the climate advocate group 350, was jailed along with other activists in Washington during a test run of an upcoming national protest targeting financial institutions that invest in fossil fuels.

Jan. 21:
- Hundreds of activists protested for urgent action on climate change in Davos, Switzerland, where world political and corporate heavyweights had gathered for the annual World Economic Forum.

Jan. 22:
- Dozens of indigenous demonstrators in Canada protested a proposed oil sands mine project in northern Alberta.

Jan. 24:
- Greta Thunberg reached her 75th week of striking school in Davos along with fellow young climate activists.

Jan. 26:
- Hundreds of Amazon employees protested the company's communication policy by signing an online blog post accusing the firm of failing to meet its "moral responsibility" in climate change.

- U.S. activists for climate action marched along the George Washington Bridge from New York City to New Jersey.

Jan. 30:
- A group of demonstrators at the 15th annual South African Coal Conference in the capital Cape Town protested fossil fuels with the slogan, coal kills.


Jan. 31:
- Eight-year-old climate activist Licypriya Kangujan, the 2019 World Children Peace Prize Laureate and founder of The Child Movement held the last Friday school strike of the month outside of the Gujarat State Assembly House in Gandhinagar, India.

What’s at stake for women’s rights in 2020?

Achieving social change to protect marginalised groups is never an easy process of quick victories over weak opposition. But, as feminists have proved time and again, with sustained commitment, changes that once seemed impossible can later seem inevitable.

Indian women activists participate in a protest rally to fight

 sexual violence against women in Kolkata, India on December 7, 2015.

By Francoise Girard Jan. 31, 2020

From US Republicans’ effort to get the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a woman’s right to an abortion, to Poland’s increased restrictions on access to emergency contraception, to Brazil’s clampdown on sexual health education, this is a difficult time for women.

But if the global feminist movement has proved anything over the years, it is that it can overcome powerful resistance to defend the rights of marginalised groups. In 2020, it will do so again.

The challenge is formidable. An inevitable corollary of the authoritarianism, ethno-nationalism, and xenophobia embraced by political leaders in many countries — in particular, Brazil, Hungary, India, Turkey, and the United States — is the perpetuation of regressive gender norms.

According to “strongman” leaders like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and India’s Narendra Modi, women are born to be wives and mothers; immigrants and racial, religious, and ethnic minorities are dangerous and inferior; and LGBTQI+ persons deserve ostracism, detention, or even death.

These leaders have emboldened people who share their views to engage in discrimination and violent attacks against racial or other minorities, migrants, women, and other marginalizsd groups.

Through measures like restrictions on abortion and contraception and the removal of protections for LGBTQI+ people, these leaders have sought to control people’s bodies, sexuality, and reproduction, and punish those who defy their outdated beliefs.

For example, immediately upon entering the White House, US President Donald Trump reinstated the “global gag rule,” which, by barring US aid to any international organisation that provides, refers, or advocates for abortion care, is deadly for women.

Yet, as president of the International Women’s Health Coalition and a longtime women’s rights advocate, I have seen firsthand what the feminist movement can do. Consider Argentine feminists’ fight against highly restrictive abortion laws.

Twenty years ago, at the United Nations, Argentinian diplomats refused even to acknowledge sexual health or reproductive rights. But in 2005, Argentine feminists launched the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion, beginning a grueling uphill battle against powerful adversaries.


If the global feminist movement has proved anything over the years, it is that it can overcome powerful resistance to defend the rights of marginalised groups.

In 2018, hundreds of thousands of activists took to the streets across the country wearing green handkerchiefs (now a global symbol of the fight for abortion rights) to demand that the Senate pass a bill legalising abortion. They lost, but only narrowly — an outcome that would have seemed impossible just a couple of decades earlier. And they kept fighting. Last month, Argentina inaugurated a president, Alberto Fernández, who has vowed to legalise abortion.

Achieving social change to protect marginalised groups is never an easy process. There are no quick victories over weak opposition. But, as feminists have proved time and again, with sustained commitment, changes that once seemed impossible can later seem inevitable.

In the last year alone, there have been numerous examples of such changes. The Mexican state of Oaxaca and the Australian state of New South Wales decriminalised abortion, as did Northern Ireland, while others liberalised their laws, expanding the circumstances in which women can access safe, legal abortion services. In April, South Korea’s Supreme Court struck down the country’s abortion law as unconstitutional, setting the stage for decriminalisation this year.

Beyond abortion, Austria, Ecuador, Northern Ireland, and Taiwan all legalized same-sex marriage in 2019. Moreover, in a striking shift of political power, Finland elected Sanna Marin, a 34-year-old woman, as prime minister. Women now lead all five political parties comprising the country’s governing coalition, and four of them are under the age of 40.

Advocates for women’s rights are committed to making 2020 at least as important a year in the global fight for equality, not only for women and girls, but for all people. In India, for example, women are leading protests against a new citizenship law that discriminates against Muslims.

Particularly inspiring are the young female and non-binary activists who are leading movements for transformative change. For example, Emma González is demanding gun reform in the US; Bertha Zúñiga is defending the land rights of Honduras’ indigenous people; and Jamie Margolin and Greta Thunberg have emerged as leading climate activists.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations’ Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which recognised women’s rights as human rights and established gender equality’s place on the global agenda.

Since the platform’s creation, activists have used it to hold governments to their commitments on a wide range of issues, including maternal mortality, child marriage, gender-based violence, political participation, and reproductive rights.

Feminist activists will continue this work at the Beijing+25 Generation Equality Forum, convened by Mexico and France, in Mexico City in May and Paris in July. There, they will call for bold new commitments to address crosscutting challenges like climate change and the refugee crisis.

This broader perspective is vital. In fact, feminists must strengthen their alliances with other progressive movements, especially those fighting for environmental sustainability, racial justice, and LGBTQI+ rights.

Only by mobilising together and supporting one another’s agendas can we overcome white supremacist, heteronormative, patriarchal, and exploitative forces to build a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.

The effects of these efforts will be shaped by decisions made by citizens and policymakers. The US presidential election in November will be particularly consequential. For better or worse, the US has an outsize impact on how the rest of the world addresses issues ranging from climate action and foreign aid to diplomacy and human rights.

If Trump loses the election, the US could again set a positive example, reviving multilateral cooperation, renewing support for UN agencies working on health and human rights, and ensuring that key government and judicial posts are once more occupied by qualified individuals who support human rights and the rule of law.

But, whatever happens, one thing is certain: the feminist movement and its progressive allies will not give up.

Françoise Girard is President of the International Women’s Health Coalition.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2020.