India-China Conflict Exacerbated by Shifting US Alliance

Oct 27 , 2020

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  Zab Zaheer

  Development Consultant

In early September, China accused Indian soldiers of illegally crossing a disputed border and firing at Chinese troops on patrol in the Ladakh region. A senior colonel, Zhang Shuili, said that Indian troops had “seriously violated related agreements reached by both sides, stirred up tensions in the region... and is very vile in nature.” India denies that any such crossing took place, saying instead that Chinese troops fired into the air, “in an attempt to intimidate [our] own troops”. 

Just a day before the dispute, the Indian military reported that five Indian civilians were kidnapped by Chinese troops. The People’s Liberation Army was able to find the five civilians, and the process of returning them has begun. And in June of this year, , India accused Chinese troops of instigating a clash in Ladakh. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed and over seventy were injured. 

Each of these incidents are only the latest in a string of minor disputes that reflect tensions between India and China as both countries – representing two of the world’s largest armed forces – continue to vie for dominance in the region. Despite having fought only one war against each other in 1962, the last three decades have been peppered with failed attempts at conflict resolution. 

This continuing mistrust between two of the world’s most populous nuclear powers is further exacerbated by the shifting nature of their relationships with the U.S.. In July, an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier began cooperative exercises with the Indian Navy, “designed to maximize training and interoperability, including air defense.” According to a statement made by the Seventh Fleet of the U.S. Navy, the “operations are designed to provide security throughout the region while building partnerships with friends and allies.” 

It’s no secret that the relationship between the United States and China has been tense for years throughout the Trump presidency, but the U.S.’s recent move to bolster India is being read by many as a strategic move to throw its weight behind China’s biggest rival in the region. Brookings Institution’s director of the India Project Tanvi Madan said, “It was symbolic… signaling to China and others that the U.S. is standing by India.” With the U.S. presidential election right around the corner, President Trump’s need to draw a picture of China as a key rival – as demonstrated by the series of economic, political and diplomatic actions the U.S. has taken against China in the last three years – has social justice advocates claiming that the United States is once again prioritizing military hegemony over criticizing India’s human rights violations. 

As China continues to gain influence over countries in the Indo-Pacific through its Belt and Road Initiative, India’s desire to bolster its defenses is expected. This is a notable shift in strategy for the world’s largest democracy which has typically maintained a non-alignment stance, starting with the India-Pakistan Partition in 1947, where Pakistan very clearly aligned with the U.S. and India continued to receive aid from both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. As China began to take up more of India’s attention, and troubles with Pakistan faded into the background, Richard Fontaine, Senator John McCain’s foreign policy advisor says, “there’s no longer the sense of as much restraint on what India might do with the United States.” This sentiment is seconded by the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, where professor Brahma Chellaney believes, “The direction of U.S.-India relations is clear now — toward closer cooperation.” 

This view is further supported by what Foreign Affairs and the BBC have termed the “bromance” between President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Trump promising to act as a “true friend” to India, and Modi tweeting about the “warm conversation” between the two during one of their latest meetings. Key foreign policy and security officials from both sides have also met frequently through the Trump presidency, marked most significantly of course by a Presidential visit to Gujarat, Modi’s home state. Michael Kugelman of The Wilson Center spoke about how in any scenario where the U.S. and India are on the same page, China is the unspoken unifier. "China really looms large in this relationship. You can talk about shared values, the Modi-Trump friendship, but it's really the converging interests that bring the two countries together," he says. "Both countries see China as a concern." 

China’s response to this new dynamic is clear: continue to build alliances and demonstrate that the U.S.’s intimidation tactics will not work. Recent footage from the Chinese government shows Chinese soldiers proclaiming their willingness to die for their country. Coupled with recent military drills being carried out, Steven Lee Myers, writing for The New York Times, claims “they are intended to draw stark red lines for the United States, signaling that China would not shrink from a military clash.” 

China’s antagonism over the United States’ actions is not only about the most recent dalliance with India. The U.S.’s support of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as Chinese territory, and its specific focus on bolstering Taiwan’s defenses by continuing to sell arms to its military, and rumors of a trade agreement also have officials in Beijing worried. Elbridge Colby, who wrote the Trump administration’s national defense strategy, emphasized that “Taiwan is the most important thing from a military and credibility point of view.” According to The New York Times, President Trump has been advised that in order to get re-elected, he must appear tough on China, and this means bringing a seven-decade point of conflict– Taiwan– back to the forefront. In March of this year, President Trump signed the Taipei Act, committing the U.S. to providing assistance to Taiwan to improve its international standing against China’s “bullying tactics”. 

Aside from tensions over Taiwan, the U.S. has made other moves signalling a deterioration of the U.S.-China relationship: a Chinese Consulate was recently closed, and smartphone apps TikTok and WeChat were banned, not to mention the broad import tariffs imposed on Chinese goods and bans against Huawei doing business in the U.S.. Beijing is also facing pushback in Europe as several European nations have limited Huawei’s business in their countries. 

With Chinese media amping up the “wolf warrior spirit” amongst its population, emphasizing the “willingness to use force if pushed”, it is anyone’s guess how these ongoing perceived attacks by the United States will provoke the world’s most populous nation

We will lie on the bed we make
Stephen Ndegwa

A general view of Alemao slums complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil March 22, 2020.

 Picture taken March 22, 2020. /VCG

Editor's note: Stephen Ndegwa is a Nairobi-based communication expert, lecturer-scholar at the United States International University-Africa, author and international affairs columnist. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The World Habitat Day (WHD) 2020 being marked today;, October 5, would not have come at a more opportune moment. The coronavirus pandemic has made our procrastination in tackling the problems hindering human development all too apparent.

The theme for this year's WHD, "Housing For All – A Better Urban Future," is aptly captured in the message by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres: "The urgency of improving living conditions has been brought to the fore by COVID-19, which has devastated the lives of millions in cities. Access to clean water and sanitation, along with social distancing, are key responses to the pandemic. Yet in slums it has proved difficult to implement these measures. This means an increased risk of infection, not only within slums, but in whole cities."

Since January when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic of global proportions, millions of people hibernated in their homes, many of them in their abodes in towns and cities. In 2018, it was estimated that 4.2 billion people, equal to 55 percent of the world's population, lived in cities.

While the rich have generally been comfortable in their modern homes, it was double jeopardy for the poor. Ironically, most of the upmarket residential places in developing countries are bordered and surrounded by vast slums. The latter are home to more than 828 million people, and counting as millions make their way to towns and cities in search of livelihoods every year. Cities generate about 80 percent of global gross domestic product.

Housing is one of the most important building blocks of people's health, dignity, safety, well-being and inclusion. It is a basic human right that every government needs to honor in its development plan. The sector is covered under Goal 11 of the UN Sustainable Goals, which aims at making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Often, cities and towns do not want the rest of the world to see their real picture. Through the media and other marketing channels, cities project rosy narratives in order to attract investors and tourists. But these picture-perfect images have their converse ugly side that authorities wish away.

A volunteer carries donated aid for poor families at the Rocinha slum as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 27, 2020. /Reuters

A quarter of all urban residents live in slums and other informal settlements. According to UN Habitat, there are currently one billion people living in overcrowded settlements with inadequate housing, a number that is predicted to reach 1.6 billion people by 2030. Now, to bridge this massive gap means that we must build 96,000 housing units every day. An impossible task, perhaps?

Indeed, the challenge goes further. It is one thing to build the houses, but another to offer efficient services and install adequate facilities that make these structures comfortable. This includes energy, water and sanitation. Secondly, once constructed, how affordable would these houses be to the millions of urban poor currently squeezed in shanties?

The other issue is identifying whose responsibility it is to upgrade housing for the poor in urban centers and cities. The conflict between county or local governments and national governments has led to wastage of both time and resources. But the net of consultation must be cast wider to include all key stakeholders in order to ensure that the numerous interests in the sector are catered for.

Most of the challenges encountered in efforts to modernize human habitats are toughest mainly in the developing world. This is due to the thin spread of finances that is hardly adequate even for the most pressing needs. But a way around this needs to be found, which means that authorities will have to be more creative in the way they make cities the next frontier in human habitat.

Although it has devastated social and economic lives of millions globally, COVID-19 is a silver lining in the search for both urban rejuvenation and growth. It has exposed the social injustice faced by those who now live on the precipice due to loss of livelihoods.

Still, the pandemic has shown that there is still hope for humanity. Simple, kind gestures between neighbors and across the class or economic strata have been invaluable in enhancing the resilience of society. If the solidarity that has arisen between the poor and the rich when faced by an insurmountable challenge like COVID-19 was permanent, there would be a high level of equity in people's standards of living.

As the world works tirelessly towards curbing the pandemic, it is time to address the factors that makes the housing system fragile and unequal to some people and not others. In addition, this is the time to harness the transformative potential of urbanization for the benefit of the planet and its entire population.

Will the referendum result make a difference in the lives of Chileans?

Guy Burton


People during the referendum to decide whether the country should replace its 40-year-old constitution, Chile, October 25, 2020. /Getty Images

Editor's note: Guy Burton is an adjunct professor at Vesalius College, Brussels. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The result of the constitutional referendum in Chile on Sunday was striking. More than three-quarters of voters backed the call for constitutional change. A majority of voters also preferred to have the new constitution drafted by an entirely elected constitutional assembly rather than one that was half elected and half appointed by congress.

But will the result make a substantial difference in the lives of Chileans? That is a key question that will need to be answered as the next stage unfolds. Elections for the constituent assembly are expected to take place by April next year and those elected will have a year to put together a text which will then go to the electorate in April 2022.

A first test will be who the candidates will be. Will it be regular and established politicians who take part or a new and different group of citizens? Here, the experience of other constituent assemblies in Latin America may be a guide, including in Venezuela in 1999, Bolivia in 2006 and Ecuador in 2007.

In all three countries, the assemblies were proposed by recently elected presidents, who saw their support transfer to a majority share of the vote. That made for constitutional texts which were broadly in line with the governments of the day.

By contrast, it is less clear that this will be the case in Chile. The constituent assembly elections in April 2021 will take before the next presidential and parliamentary elections in November. Consequently, rather than a new president lending his or her aura to the constituent assembly elections, Chile's next president may owe much to the wrangling in the assembly and how the public perceives it.

Just as it remains uncertain who will deliberate over the new constitution, it is also difficult to know how the new document can best reflect public opinion. Here it is useful to set Chile's current constitution and public sentiment in context.

Sunday's referendum result marks the culmination of a decades-long campaign by many in Chile, especially for those on the political left. Chile's current constitution was written in 1980 during General Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship, which overthrew the Socialist president, Salvador Allende, seven years earlier.

The 1980 constitution enshrined the authoritarian bent of the Pinochet regime. It granted strong powers to the president and limited ones for congress and the military had the right to appoint nine senators. The constitution also demonstrated a strong bias in favor of markets, limiting the role of the state and protecting private property.

Given its origin, the 1980 constitution acquired totemic status for many, who saw it as illegitimate. Although opposition to the constitution persisted, the center-left Concertación governments which ran Chile between 1990 and 2010 were able to rub away its worst excesses.

People gather to celebrate the victory of the referendum, in Santiago, Chile, October 25, 2020. /Getty Images


A raft of constitutional amendments was passed after 2000 and the authoritarian nature of the constitution was undermined by the application of democratic rule and government-opposition give and take.

At the same time, the Concertación governments presided over a period of marked economic growth and development in Chile. Both the country and its citizens grew richer and inequality fell, helped in part by some of the government's redistributive measures.

But these advances did not prove enough for many Chileans. Within Latin America, Chile remained more unequal than many and especially so when compared to other wealthier and industrialized countries.

For many Chileans, the burden was felt in the high and growing cost of living. The limited role of the state meant that many had to pay for their children's education or provide for their own healthcare and pensions.

Then, last October, the proposed increase in public transport fares sparked complaints among students which captured wider public frustration and resentment, leading to even larger public protests. In response, the government proposed a constitutional referendum as a way forward. Elections were due to be held in April but were pushed back six months, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and movement restrictions.

While Chile's political class has been given a clear steer that the public wants change, it is not clear what that will mean in practice. It will be a challenge to express public frustration and dissatisfaction in what is meant to be a baseline document.

How should Chileans' struggle with the high cost of living and perceived inequality be captured? Should it be captured in a commitment to raising the minimum wage or enabling the state to engage in productive activity? Does it mean the provision of targeted state subsidies or the broader allocation of public funds for certain public services?

Moreover, is a constitution the most appropriate means to capture those demands? By their very nature, constitutions are designed to be documents that are hard to change. If these commitments are made constitutional, how much more difficult will it be to amend them should the country's social and economic circumstances change? Alternately, should demands like these not be debated and introduced through ordinary legislation?

Undoubtedly, some of these issues will be addressed in the coming months. One of the first items that the new constituent assembly will have to set for itself is the subjects it can cover and the procedures to allow for the incorporation of a commitment into the text.

For now though, those details are for another day while a majority of Chileans celebrate a poll result which expresses an end to business as usual.

 

EU gets WTO green light for tariffs on US exports over Boeing

— filed under: Headline, USA, Trade

Boeing

(GENEVA) - The WTO's dispute settlement body gave formal authorisation Monday for the EU to increase duties on U.S. exports worth up to $4 billion, in retaliation for illegal subsidies granted to U.S. aircraft maker Boeing.

The European Commission says it is currently finalising the process, with the involvement of the EU Member States, to be ready to use its retaliation rights in case there is no prospect of bringing the dispute to a mutually beneficial solution in a near future.

The ruling was welcomed by the Commission which said the WTO Dispute Settlement Body confirmed the EU's right to impose countermeasures for illegal subsidies to the American aircraft maker, Boeing. However the EU executive has made clear that its preferred outcome is a negotiated settlement with the U.S.

EC vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis said "we continue to engage intensively with our American counterparts. and I am in regular contact with U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer. In the absence of a negotiated outcome, the EU will be ready to take action in line with the WTO ruling."

The Commission says it will however be ready to use its retaliation rights in case there is no prospect of bringing the dispute to a mutually beneficial solution in a near future.

WTO Appellate Body ruling on US subsidies to Boeing

Public consultation on preliminary list of products in the Boeing case

Preliminary list of products

WTO clears EU request for tariffs on US over Boeing

The EU has been given permission to impose tariffs on the US for its help for Boeing. It's part of a long-running spat in which both sides have accused each other of unfairly subsidizing their respective aviation giants.



The World Trade Organization's (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) on Monday gave approval to European Union (EU) retaliatory tariffs on $4 billion (€3.4 billion) worth of US goods in response to US subsidies for airplane manufacturer Boeing. The EU had sought $8.6 million in tariffs, in response to tariffs imposed by the US tied to European Airbus subsidies last year..

The EU sanctions were originally approved by a WTO auditor on October 13, but needed approval from the trade body's 164 member states.

On Monday, a representative from the WTO in Geneva announced: "WTO members approved the European Union's request for authorization to impose retaliatory measures against the United States for its failure to comply with the WTO ruling regarding US government subsidies for Boeing."

The EU is now expected to place tariffs on US farm equipment and agricultural products such as sweet potatoes, peanuts and tobacco.

Read more: Airbus-Boeing WTO dispute: What you need to know

Change of heart?

The US said it "strongly favors a negotiated resolution of its dispute with the EU over the massive launch aid subsidies it provided to Airbus. The United States has recently provided proposals for a reasonable settlement that would provide a level playing field."

Brussels says it is prepared to negotiate with the US and has no immediate plan to apply the tariffs, but rather seeks leverage to force a negotiated deal with the US that would lead Washington to drop its own punitive tariffs from 2019.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, however, claimed the US had cut subsidies to Boeing long ago and threatened further retaliation.

European industry representatives have been pushing Brussels to take quicker and more aggressive action in hopes of finally putting an end to the US tariffs already in place.

Last year, the WTO gave approval to $7.5 billion in US tariffs against the EU for its support of Airbus.

Monday's announcement is the latest development in a trade fight in which the EU and US have accused one another of unfairly subsidizing their respective aviation giants for over 15 years now.

js/msh (AFP, Reuters)

The Secret Hellfire Club and the Hellfire Caves


Image Credit : Zoltan Kuruc

The Hellfire Club was an exclusive membership-based organisation for high-society rakes, that was first founded in London in 1718, by Philip, Duke of Wharton, and several of society’s elites.

Wharton was a powerful Jacobite politician, writer, a wealthy peer, and Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England who led a double life as a drunkard, a rioter, an infidel and a rakehell (meaning a man who was habituated to immoral conduct such as womanising, and wasting his fortune through acts of gambling and debauchery).

Wharton’s club was considered a satirical “gentleman’s club” (although women are also purported to attend), intended to shock and ridicule religious beliefs through the act of mock religious ceremonies with the supposed president of this club being the devil.


The club came to an end in 1721, due to political maneuvering by Wharton’s enemies pushing through a bill against “horrid impieties”, resulting in Wharton being removed from Parliament and the club being disbanded.

Hellfire Caves – Image Credit : Zoltan Kuruc

The club was reformed by Francis Dashwood, the 11th Baron le Despencer under the name of the Order of the Knights of St Francis (although the club also went under the names of the Brotherhood of St. Francis of Wy, the Order of the Friars of St Francis of Wycombe and the Order of Knights of West Wycombe) around 1746.

Dashwood commissioned the construction of a complex series of tunnels and chalk and flint caverns for the club’s meetings on the Dashwood estate of West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire, England. Known today as the Hellfire Caves or the West Wycombe Caves, the complex extends for 0.25 miles beneath the church of St Lawrence and the Dashwood family Mausoleum.

Each chamber is connected by a series of narrow passageways, consisting of the Entrance Hall, the Steward’s Chamber, the Whitehead’s Cave, Lord Sandwich’s Circle, Franklin’s Cave, the Banqueting Hall, the Triangle, the Miner’s Cave, and the Inner Temple, which was accessed by crossing a faux river meant to represent the River Styx (a river in Greek mythology that forms the boundary between Earth and the Underworld).

Hellfire Caves – Image Credit : Zoltan Kuruc

Members of the club included prominent 18th-century figures such as John Montagu (the 4th Earl of Sandwich), William Hogarth (an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist), John Wilkes (a journalist and politician), and Thomas Potter (a politician and Vice-Treasurer of Ireland).

It has also been claimed that Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a close friend of Dashwood visited the caves on more than one occasion.

Many rumours of black magic, satanic rituals and orgies were in circulation during the life of the club, with the notable English writer Horace Walpole stating that “practice was rigorously pagan: Bacchus and Venus were the deities to whom they almost publicly sacrificed; and the nymphs and the hogsheads that were laid in against the festivals of this new church, sufficiently informed the neighbourhood of the complexion of those hermits.”

Hellfire Caves – Image Credit : Zoltan Kuruc

By the early 1760’s, the club began to decline and would eventually be dissolved, possibly due to Dashwood’s appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer which ended in failure, or him taking a role of greater respectability in society with his elevation as the 11th Baron le Despencer.

Various branches or legacy incarnations of the Hellfire Club continued to carry out meetings, such as the Beggar’s Benison in Scotland which dissolved in the 19th century, and some argued to meet at various historic educational institutions of Ireland and Britain today.

Header Image Credit : Zoltan Kuruc

Cognitive Elements of Language Have Existed for 40 Million Years



Humans are not the only beings that can identify rules in complex language-like constructions – monkeys and great apes can do so, too, a study at the University of Zurich has shown.

Researchers at the Department of Comparative Language Science of UZH used a series of experiments based on an ‘artificial grammar’ to conclude that this ability can be traced back to our ancient primate ancestors.

Language is one of the most powerful tools available to humankind, as it enables us to share information, culture, views and technology. “Research into language evolution is thus crucial if we want to understand what it means to be human,” says Stuart Watson, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Comparative Language Science of the University of Zurich. Until now, however, little research has been conducted about how this unique communication system came to be.


Identifying connections between words

An international team led by Professor Simon Townsend at the Department of Comparative Language Science of the University of Zurich has now shed new light on the evolutionary origins of language. Their study examines one of the most important cognitive elements needed for language processing – that is, the ability to understand the relationship between the words in a phrase, even if they are separated by other parts of the phrase, known as a “non-adjacent dependency”.

For example, we know that in the sentence “the dog that bit the cat ran away”, it is the dog who ran away, not the cat, even though there are several other words in between the two phrases. A comparison between apes, monkeys and and humans has now shown that the ability to identify such non-adjacent dependencies is likely to have developed as far back as 40 million years ago.

Acoustic signals instead of words

The researchers used a novel approach in their experiments: They invented an artificial grammar, where sequences are formed by combining different sounds rather than words. This enabled the researchers to compare the ability of three different species of primates to process non-adjacent dependencies, even though they do not share the same communication system. The experiments were carried out with common marmosets – a monkey native to Brazil – at the University of Zurich, chimpanzees (University of Texas) and humans (Osnabrück University).

Mistakes followed by telltale looks

First, the researchers taught their test subjects to understand the artificial grammar in several practice sessions. The subjects learned that certain sounds were always followed by other specific sounds (e.g. sound ‘B’ always follows sound ‘A’), even if they were sometimes separated by other acoustic signals (e.g. ‘A’ and ‘B’ are separated by ‘X’). This simulates a pattern in human language, where, for example, we expect a noun (e.g. “dog”) to be followed by a verb (e.g. “ran away”), regardless of any other phrasal parts in between (e.g. “that bit the cat”).

In the actual experiments that followed, the researchers played sound combinations that violated the previously learned rules. In these cases, the common marmosets and chimpanzees responded with an observable change of behavior; they looked at the loudspeaker emitting the sounds for about twice as long as they did towards familiar combinations of sounds. For the researchers, this was an indication of surprise in the animals caused by noticing a ‘grammatical error’. The human test subjects were asked directly whether they believed the sound sequences were correct or wrong.

Common origin of language

“The results show that all three species share the ability to process non-adjacent dependencies. It is therefore likely that this ability is widespread among primates,” says Townsend. “This suggests that this crucial element of language already existed in our most recent common ancestors with these species.” Since marmosets branched off from humanity’s ancestors around 40 million years ago, this crucial cognitive skill thus developed many million years before human language evolved.

UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH

Matthew Hopkins – The Real Witch-Hunter


Matthew Hopkins was an infamous witch-hunter during the 17th century, who published “The Discovery of Witches” in 1647, and whose witch-hunting methods were applied during the notorious Salem Witch Trials in colonial Massachusetts.

From the 16th century, England was in the grips of hysteria over witchcraft, caused in part by King James VI, who was obsessed with the dark arts and wrote a dissertation entitled “Daemonologie” in 1599.

James had been influenced by his personal involvement in the North Berwick witch trials from 1590, and amassed various texts on magical studies that he published into three books to describe the topics of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft, and tried to justify the persecution and punishment of a person accused of being a witch under the rule of canonical law.

The published works assisted in the creation of the witchcraft reform, that led to the English Puritan and writer – Richard Bernard to write a manual on witch-hunting in 1629 called “A Guide to Grand-Jury Men”. Historians suggest that both the “Daemonologie” and “A Guide to Grand-Jury Men” was an influence that Matthew Hopkins would draw inspiration from and have a significant impact in the direction his life would take many years later.

Matthew Hopkins was born in Great Wenham, located in Suffolk, England, and was the fourth son of James Hopkins, a Puritan vicar of St John’s of Great Wenham. After his father’s death, Hopkins moved to Manningtree in Essex and used his inheritance to present himself as a gentleman to the local aristocracy.



Hopkins’ witch-finding career began in March 1644, when an associate, John Sterne alleged that a group of women in Manningtree were conducting acts of sorcery and were trying to kill him with witchcraft. Hopkins conducted a physical investigation of the women, looking for deformities and a blemish called the “Devil’s Mark” which would lead to 23 women (sources differ in the number) being accused of witchcraft and were tried in 1645. The trial was presided over by the justices of the peace (a judicial officer of a lower or puisne court), resulting in nineteen women being convicted and hanged, and four women dying in prison.

After their success in the trail, Hopkins and Stearne travelled throughout East Anglia and nearby counties with an entourage of female assistants, falsely claiming to hold the office of Witchfinder General and also claimed to be part of an official commission by Parliament to uncover witches residing in the populous by using a practice called “pricking”. Pricking was the process of pricking a suspected witch with a needle, pin or bodkin. The practice derived from the belief that all witches and sorcerers bore a witch’s mark that would not feel pain or bleed when pricked.

Although torture was considered unlawful under English law, Hopkins would also use techniques such as sleep deprivation to confuse a victim into confessing, cutting the arm of the accused with a blunt knife (if the victim didn’t bleed then they’d be declared a witch) and tying victims to a chair who would be submerged in water (if a victim floated, then they’d be considered a witch).

This proved to be a lucrative opportunity in terms of monetary gain, as Hopkins and his company were paid for their investigations, although Hopkins states in his book “The Discovery of Witches” that “his fees were to maintain his company with three horses”, and that he took “twenty shillings a town”. Historical records from Stowmarket shows that Hopkins actually charged the town £23, taking into account inflation would be around £3800 today.

Between the years of 1644 and 1646, Hopkins and his company are believed to be responsible for the execution of around 300 supposed witches and sent to the gallows more accused people than all the other witch-hunters in England of the previous 160 years.

By 1647, Hopkins and Stearne were questioned by justices of the assizes (the precursor to the English Crown Court) into their activities, but by the time the court resumed both Hopkins and Stearne retired from witch-hunting.

That same year, Hopkins published his book, “The Discovery of Witches” which was used as a manual for the trial and conviction of Margaret Jones in the Massachusetts Bay Colony on the east coast of America. Some of Hopkins’ methods were also employed during the Salem Witch Trials, in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692–93, resulting in hundreds of inhabitants being accused and 19 people executed.

Matthew Hopkins died at his home in Manningtree on the 12th August 1647 of pleural tuberculosis and was buried in the graveyard of the Church of St Mary at Mistley Heath. Within a year of the death of Hopkins, Stearne retired to his farm and wrote his own manual “A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft” hoping to further profit from the infamous career path both men had undertaken that caused the death of hundreds of innocent souls.

Witchfinder General [1968]

Port Royal – The Sodom of the New World



Port Royal, originally named Cagway was an English harbour town and base of operations for buccaneers and privateers (pirates) until the great earthquake of 1692.

The region around Port Royal was first occupied by the Taino, an indigenous people of the Caribbean who Christopher Columbus encountered during his voyage to the New World in 1492.

With the arrival of Europeans to the new continent, the Spanish landed in Jamaica in 1494, who planned to use Jamaica as a supply base for both New Andalusia and Nicuesa and take advantage of the natural resources. Having discovered little to no riches, the Spanish instead started to cultivate the land and established a colony for the processing of sugar cane.

During the Anglo-Spanish War, an English expeditionary force invaded Jamaica in 1655 and the entire island was formally ceded by Spain in the 1670 Treaty of Madrid. The English began to develop a new harbour town named Port Royal and constructed a series of forts for the town’s defence.

To provide further security for the town, Governor Edward D’Oley invited the Brethren of the Coast, a loose coalition of pirates and privateers commonly known as buccaneers to make the town their homeport of operations. The Brethren of the Coast were a regulated syndicate of captains with outside benefactors, who preyed upon Spanish maritime shipping for their cargo.

By the 1660’s, Port Royal had gained a reputation as the “Sodom of the New World” for notable privateers such as Christopher Myngs (who commanded whole fleets of buccaneers, sacking and massacring entire towns) and Henry Morgan (who raided shipping on the Spanish Main and attacked Panama City).

The port was also a base for buccaneers such as Roche Brasiliano (who was known to cut off the limbs of his captives and roast them alive on a spit), John Davis (who sacked the Dutch island of Tobago, near Trinidad) and Edward Mansvelt (who led the fleet which captured Granada and the island of Santa Catalina).

Submerged remains of Port Royal – Image Credit : National Geographic

This relationship greatly benefited the English crown, as it gave England the means to weaken Spain’s foothold in the Caribbean and America’s, without committing military forces in the endeavour.

The situation changed in 1687, when Jamaica passed anti-piracy laws and Port Royal became one of the primary sites of execution for pirate captains such as Charles Vane, Calico Jack (John Rackham) and Mary Read (a famed female pirate) who died in prison.

The town continued to prosper, and Port Royal grew to a population of around 6500 inhabitants. This rapid development led to a shortage of available land and houses were often built on reclaimed land from heavy brick construction.

On the 7th June, 1692 – the fortunes of Port Royal would change forever. Jamaica was hit by a large earthquake causing the land under Port Royal to liquefy and flow out into Kingston Harbour. Buildings would literally sink into a sludge resembling quicksand and the town was enveloped by a tsunami that followed.

In the aftermath, the lack of clean water, sewage and corpses deposited by the floodwaters led to malignant fever and cholera for the survivors. In the years that followed, attempts would be made to rebuild Port Royal, but mother nature would continue to strike down the “Sodom of the New World” with hurricanes, fires, and outbreaks of disease.

Header Image – Port Royal earthquake 1692 by Jan Luyken and Pieter van der Aa

 

Ancient lake contributed to past San Andreas fault ruptures

Research presented at the 2020 GSA Annual Meeting

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Research News

 

IMAGE: SAN ANDREAS FAULT AREA view more 

CREDIT: REBECCA DZOMBAK

Boulder, Colorado, USA: The San Andreas fault, which runs along the western coast of North America and crosses dense population centers like Los Angeles, California, is one of the most-studied faults in North America because of its significant hazard risk. Based on its roughly 150-year recurrence interval for magnitude 7.5 earthquakes and the fact that it's been over 300 years since that's happened, the southern San Andreas fault has long been called "overdue" for such an earthquake. For decades, geologists have been wondering why it has been so long since a major rupture has occurred. Now, some geophysicists think the "earthquake drought" could be partially explained by lakes -- or a lack thereof.

Today, at the Geological Society of America's 2020 Annual Meeting, Ph.D. student Ryley Hill will present new work using geophysical modeling to quantify how the presence of a large lake overlying the fault could have affected rupture timing on the southern San Andreas in the past. Hundreds of years ago, a giant lake -- Lake Cahuilla -- in southern California and northern Mexico covered swathes of the Mexicali, Imperial, and Coachella Valleys, through which the southern San Andreas cuts. The lake served as a key point for multiple Native American populations in the area, as evidenced by archaeological remains of fish traps and campsites. It has been slowly drying out since its most recent high water mark (between 1000 and 1500 CE). If the lake over the San Andreas has dried up and the weight of its water was removed, could that help explain why the San Andreas fault is in an earthquake drought?

Some researchers have already found a correlation between high water levels on Lake Cahuilla and fault ruptures by studying a 1,000-year record of earthquakes, written in disrupted layers of soils that are exposed in deeply dug trenches in the Coachella Valley. Hill's research builds on an existing body of modeling but expands to incorporate this unique 1,000-year record and focuses on improving one key factor: the complexity of water pressures in rocks under the lake.

Hill is exploring the effects of a lake on a fault's rupture timing, known as lake loading. Lake loading on a fault is the cumulative effect of two forces: the weight of the lake's water and the way in which that water creeps, or diffuses, into the ground under the lake. The weight of the lake's water pressing down on the ground increases the stress put on the rocks underneath it, weakening them -- including any faults that are present. The deeper the lake, the more stress those rocks are under, and the more likely the fault is to slip.

What's more complicated is how the pressure of water in empty spaces in soils and bedrock (porewater) changes over both time and space. "It's not that [water] lubricates the fault," Hill explains. It's more about one force balancing another, making it easier or harder for the fault to give way. "Imagine your hands stuck together, pressing in. If you try to slip them side by side, they don't want to slip very easily. But if you imagine water between them, there's a pressure that pushes [your hands] out -- that's basically reducing the stress [on your hands], and they slip really easily." Together, these two forces create an overall amount of stress on the fault. Once that stress builds up to a critical threshold, the fault ruptures, and Los Angeles experiences "the Big One."

Where previous modeling work focused on a fully drained state, with all of the lake water having diffused straight down (and at a single time), Hill's model is more complex, incorporating different levels of porewater pressure in the sediments and rocks underneath the lake and allowing pore pressures to be directly affected by the stresses from the water mass. That, in turn, affects the overall fault behavior.

While the work is ongoing, Hill says they've found two key responses. When lake water is at its highest, it increases the stresses enough to push the timeline for the fault reaching that critical stress point just over 25% sooner. "The lake could modulate this [fault slip] rate just a little bit," Hill says. "That's what we think maybe tipped the scales to cause the [fault] failure."

The overall effect of Lake Cahuilla drying up makes it harder for a fault to rupture in his model, pointing to its potential relevance for the recent quiet on the fault. But, Hill stresses, this influence pales in comparison to continent-scale tectonic forces. "As pore pressures decrease, technically, the bedrock gets stronger," he says. "But how strong it's getting is all relevant to tectonically driven slip rates. They're much, much stronger."

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Session no. 36 - T94. Induced and triggered earthquakes in the United States and Canada
Monday, 26 Oct.: 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. EDT
Presentation time: 6:05 to 6:20 p.m. EDT
Session Link: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2020AM/meetingapp.cgi/Session/50065
Paper 148-9: Can the lack of lake loading explain the earthquake drought on the southern San Andreas Fault?
Abstract Link: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2020AM/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/355082
Contact: Ryley Hill, University of California San Diego, California, USA; ryhill@ucsd.edu.

The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with 22,000 members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth-science education. https://www.geosociety.org

 

Aqueducts: How Ancient Rome Brought Water to Its People

The water supply for up to 1 million residents of ancient Rome relied on the city's 11 aqueducts. And many more across the Roman empire used the technology.

By Eric Betz October 26, 2020 3:10 PM

The Roman aqueduct Pont du Gard carried water through underground tunnels and over bridges like this one to reach the city of Nîmes, now part of modern France. (Credit: ER_09/Shutterstock

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Ancient Rome was a thirsty place. The city was adorned with lush gardens and dramatic fountains. Its citizens took steaming public baths and enjoyed running water delivered to their homes — and sewage carried away. Rome’s booming industries used vast amounts of water to power machinery and create goods for the city, which had a population of roughly half a million to 1 million people at its peak. 

None of this would have been possible without the 11 Roman aqueducts that supplied water to the capital from the surrounding countryside. The Roman aqueducts were a crowning technological achievement of the ancient world. Rome’s first aqueduct was built in 312 B.C., and many more would be built over the next five centuries.

They didn’t invent the idea of using aqueducts to move millions of gallons of freshwater, though. The Assyrians, Greeks, Egyptians and more had all used aqueducts to supply dry, thirsty cities. But the aqueducts of ancient Rome stand out thanks to their grand scale and breathtaking architecture, which often used elevated bridges to pass water across valleys and over urban areas. In fact, some carry water even now, some 2,000 years later. 

The Roman aqueduct in Segovia, Spain, is a popular tourist stop and a great example of the lifted structures that carried water across valleys and urban landscapes thousands of years ago. (Credit: Bernard Gagnon/Wikimedia Commons)

Roman Aqueducts: Ancient Technological Marvels

Aqueducts route water over long distances using gravity alone. For the concept to work, though, it needs to be built with staggering precision. Some Roman aqueducts slope just a foot or two per mile, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. And while their stunning, arched stone architecture may have made aqueducts famous, the vast majority of Roman aqueducts were actually built underground. Builders knew that by keeping them covered and protecting the water from sunlight, they’d avoid contaminants and stave off algae. 

Roman aqueducts didn’t only supply water to Rome, either. Over the centuries, the ancient Roman empire grew to conquer much of Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia. And as its military spread across the globe, Roman culture often replaced local traditions with its language, alphabet, calendar and technology. As a result, Roman aqueducts can still be visited across the ancient world. 

Roman builders constructed these monumental works of public infrastructure in far-off places like Great Britain and Morocco, where fast-growing civilizations also needed ample fresh water. There are dozens of known examples found in Europe, Africa and Asia.  

• In France, a first century A.D. Roman aqueduct called the Pont du Gard delivered water over dozens of miles to the then Roman city of Nîmes.

• In Spain, the Aqueduct of Segovia reaches nearly 100 feet tall on its highest bridge and dates to around the second century A.D. It provided water to the city from a river roughly 10 miles away.

• In Syria and Jordan, builders of the Roman empire spent more than a century constructing a monumental system of channels, tunnels and bridges called the Gadara Aqueduct. Just one section was 60-miles long. It carried water from a now-dry swamp to the booming league of 10 ancient cities called the Decapolis, creating an oasis in the desert.

• In Tunisia, the second century A.D. Zaghouan Aqueduct supplied the ancient city of Carthage with water from more than 80 miles away, making it among the longest Roman aqueducts. 

• In Turkey, the eastern Roman empire capital of Constantinople was supplied with water from the Aqueduct of Valens, which was constructed in the fourth century A.D. The city used it for centuries, and ruling governments maintained the aqueduct long after the Roman empire collapsed. 

The Roman era Gadara Aqueduct carried water from a swamp to 10 ancient cities in Syria and Jordan, creating an oasis in the desert. Ancient aqueducts like this mostly passed underground to protect water quality. (Credit: Pafnutius/Wikimedia Commons)

The Fall of the Roman Empire

Modern engineers still marvel at these feats, yet Rome’s emperors often had access to resources that, thankfully, aren’t common today. They wielded unilateral control of their nation and could utilize slave labor to marshal grand projects. In fact, that was part of the point. While the aqueducts may have served a practical purpose, they also doubled as a sign of Rome’s power abroad. 

And yet aqueduct construction sometimes faced familiar hurdles. For example, in 19 B.C, the Roman general and legendary builder, Agrippa, was constructing a new aqueduct, the Aqua Virgo, which approached the city from the east. But as the project reached the eastern suburbs, local property owners resisted in a form of 2,000 year old NIMBYism, according to the book Rome: An Urban History from Antiquity to the Present. Agrippa was forced to divert the aqueduct to the north on a much longer course and negotiate a mix of public and private land use. Rome even went as far as appointing a key landowner along the route as the city’s first water commissioner, perhaps in exchange for his allegiance. 

Construction of new aqueducts — and other projects — ultimately faded across the Roman empire in the centuries leading up to its collapse in A.D. 476. And in the centuries that followed, the aqueducts would repeatedly fall into neglect and disrepair, only to be saved by last-ditch repair efforts that kept clean water flowing to the city of Rome. 

In fact, the Aqua Virgo, the aqueduct that Agrippa so carefully orchestrated, still flows through the city today. It’s a reminder of humanity’s technological prowess even in antiquity. And it shows us what’s possible with enough planning and imagination — and a bit of careful negotiation.