Don’t look up! Bangkok’s slitherers keep snake catchers busy



In this image made from video, a firefighter tries to capture a python in the Benjasiri Park in Bangkok, Thailand on Thursday, July 15, 2021. Bangkok parkgoers looking for relief from renewed coronavirus restrictions got a slithering surprise Thursday when a python as long as two of the Thai capital's ubiquitous motorbikes was spotted in one of the popular green space. (AP Photo/Adam Schreck)

BANGKOK (AP) — Bangkok parkgoers looking for relief from renewed coronavirus restrictions got a slithering surprise Thursday when a python as long as two of the Thai capital’s ubiquitous motorbikes was spotted in one of the city’s most popular green spaces.

The reticulated python was only the latest big serpent to turn up in the dense center of Bangkok, where urban sprawl eating into natural habitats has been blamed for a rise in snake sightings in recent years.

This one was found in Benjasiri Park, which is flanked by towering hotels, apartment buildings and several high-end shopping malls now largely off limits due to restrictions put in place this week to stem a surge in virus cases. The curbs have shuttered non-essential businesses and limited restaurants to takeout only, leaving parks among the few public places still open.

As parents pushed strollers and joggers rounded a nearby running path, firefighters called in to corral the snake started by trying to capture it with a ladder from the ground up.

The python plotted its escape by heading out on a limb, bound for a building on the edge of the park that houses the World Fellowship of Buddhists.

Other firefighters were waiting for it on the roof of the building. While one used a stick to grab the python by the neck, another man tried to cut the branch it was on. They soon coaxed it into a sack, tied up the bag, and carried it away.

Firefighter Somchai Yoosabai said the snake measured 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) long and weighed about 35 kilograms (77 pounds).

Bangkok firefighters typically get thousands of snake-removal calls each year. Yoosabai said his department alone has caught a snake or two a day during the current rainy season, mostly in neighborhoods or houses with pets.

In this image made from video, firefighters display a reticulated python captured in Benjasiri Park in Bangkok, Thailand on Thursday, July 15, 2021. Bangkok parkgoers looking for relief from renewed coronavirus restrictions got a slithering surprise Thursday when a python as long as two of the Thai capital’s ubiquitous motorbikes was spotted in one of the popular green space. (AP Photo/Adam Schreck)

As coronavirus cases rise, so do the risks.

“If any houses ... have COVID-19 cases, we have to go to catch the snakes anyway,” he said. “Plus, wherever we go to catch a snake, the crowd is always there. We cannot avoid that.”

Thailand reported 9,186 new virus cases, including a record high 98 deaths, on Thursday.

Reticulated pythons are found throughout Southeast Asia, and are some of the largest snakes in the world. They hunt by coiling their body around their prey, typically small mammals and birds, thought they have been known to occasionally attack humans.

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Associated Press writer Chalida Ekvittayavechnukul contributed to this report.

Air cargo company that ditched plane off Hawaii is grounded

By The Associated Press

In this July 8, 2021 image from video provided by Sea Engineering, Inc. via the National Transportation Safety Board, the jet cabin from Transair Flight 810 rests on the Pacific Ocean floor off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii. The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday, July 16, that it will bar Rhoades Aviation of Honolulu from flying or doing maintenance inspections until it meets FAA regulations. The decision to ground the carrier, which operates as Transair, is separate from the investigation into the July 2 ditching of a Boeing 737, the FAA said. (Sea Engineering, Inc./NTSB via AP)

A cargo airline whose plane ditched into the ocean off Hawaii has been grounded after investigators looked into the company’s safety practices before the accident.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it will bar Rhoades Aviation of Honolulu from flying or doing maintenance inspections until it meets FAA regulations.

The agency did not detail Rhoades’ alleged shortcomings. The company did not immediately respond to phone and email messages for comment.

The decision to ground the carrier, which operates as Transair, is separate from the investigation into the July 2 ditching of a Boeing 737, the FAA said. Two pilots were rescued by the Coast Guard after the nighttime crash.

The company had one plane still in operation this week, a Boeing 737-200 like the one that crashed.

The FAA said it began investigating Rhoades Aviation’s maintenance and safety practices last fall and told the company about two weeks before the crash that it planned to revoke its authority to do maintenance inspections. The company did not appeal the FAA’s decision within the 30 days as required if it wanted the case reconsidered, the FAA said.

The pilots attempted to turn back to Honolulu after telling an air traffic controller that they had lost power in one engine and feared that the other engine on the 46-year-old plane would also fail. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board found the wreckage of the plane but have not yet recovered the data recorders that could hold clues about what caused the plane to go down.

ADDS ADDITIONAL SOURCE INFORMATION - In this Wednesday, July 7, 2021, image from video provided by Sea Engineering, Inc. via the National Transportation Safety Board, the jet body from Transair Flight 810 rests on the Pacific Ocean floor off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii. The NTSB located the aircraft on the Pacific Ocean floor approximately 2 miles from Ewa Beach. The fuselage split into 2 sections, breaking just forward of the wings. On July 2, the pilots of the Transair Flight 810 reported engine trouble and were attempting to return to Honolulu when they were forced to land the Boeing 737 in the water, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. (Sea Engineering, Inc./NTSB via AP)

Leaving the church in Germany:

 'A liberation'

Every year in Germany there are hundreds of thousands of people who withdraw from official church membership. Religious leaders are concerned. But what does it mean to leave a church after over 50 years?


German Churches have seen their congregations dwindle

"I thought about it for a long time. And when I finally did it, it was a huge relief."

That is how 53-year-old social worker Doris Bauer from Cologne describes her decision to leave the Catholic Church last year. She had been an active member of her community for years. She took part in the reform movement Maria 2.0 which works towards more gender equality in the church.

But now she is one of 441,000 Christians in Germany who opted out of their respective church last year. Some 221,390 people left the Catholic Church in 2020 — a reduction on the year before but still significantly higher than most years in the past few decades.

Doris Bauer found leaving the Church to be a huge relief

German church tax

Germany has very distinctive guidelines for leaving the church and for the documentation of the number of renegades. Those who want to opt-out must register that with a civil entity — the district court — which in turn reports this to the respective parish.

This is important because it is linked to the church tax in Germany: All church members have to pay church tax which is deducted from the income by the local tax authority every month and passed on to the church. When someone leaves the church, they no longer pay the tax.

Each year when the latest numbers are published, church officials speculate about the motivations.

"Many have lost faith in the church and want to signal that there is a need for reform," said the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference Georg Bätzing at this year's presentation of the latest figures. "The church should confront criticism with an open mind."

The chairman of the Council of Protestant Churches, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm stressed that every single case should prompt the church to think about "what can be done to convince church members that it makes sense to stay."

Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki has been criticized for his handling of reports of abuse

Sexual abuse cases drive people away

Doris Bauer can pinpoint exactly what prompted her to leave: The way Catholic bishops dealt with the survey about abuse cases within the church. The study was conducted in 2018 by independent researchers who probed the individual cases, the structural context and produced a comprehensive scientific document.

"But Church leaders did not give any indication that they intended to take responsibility, or that they intended to draw conclusions and implement any changes," Doris Bauer says. "Those in power were not interested in reform. And they do not want to see gender equality."

She is convinced that the Church in its current form is obsolete. "The Church sells itself as a moral authority. But it does not live by its own standards and values," she says.

There are 27 dioceses in Germany. The Archdiocese of Cologne, whose archbishop cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki has come under attack for his handling of abuse cases, has seen a particularly massive exodus. But the archdiocese in Munich has seen even higher numbers, as have the dioceses of Freiburg and Berlin.

Maria 2.0 is a womens' reform movement in the Catholic Church

A mix of anger, sadness and confidence

This Wednesday, the day after the latest statistics were published, Andreas Niessen from Cologne booked his appointment to formally leave the Catholic Church.

The 56-year-old teacher has, by his own admission, a church background. With his wife, he chose to have their now grown-up children baptized and confirmed.

"They learned a lot of Christian values," he said. And yet now he's leaving. Niessen says he is angry and sad, but feels content and courageous about what he is doing.

"The gap between Christian values and the actions of the official church and those in power was widening," Niessen explains. For him, dealing with the issue of abuse is "just the tip of the iceberg." This, too, is about institutional power.

"This moral difference between consecrated people and the rest of the world — that is from a different era," he emphasizes.

And there is something else that is important to him: the church does not respect societal diversity. That includes the topic of homosexuality.

Waiting list to leave the church

Niessen had to wait for an appointment to leave the church. In Cologne, there is a waiting list, and in neighboring Bonn, the local court specifically increased the staff to be able to deal with the growing number of people wanting to leave.

For most, it is a subdued, administrative step. But Doris Bauer did not want to be subdued: "It was important to me to leave loudly and not be silent." She gave interviews and explained why she was making the step to many people in her community.

Now she says she doesn't want to be a part of any denomination, because every denomination has its own version of the truth, separating it from the others. Depending on convenience, she now switches between attending Protestant and Catholic services.


Old Catholic Church Bishop Matthias Ring has seen his congregation grow
Old Catholics an 'anomaly'

Others formally join another church: One of those who also want to leave this church now has his appointment for September. He says that he then wants to join the Old Catholic Church, a group of churches independent of Rome, right away.

And he is not the only one. The Old Catholic Church was born nearly 150 years ago out of the controversy over the First Vatican Council's (1870-71) emphasis on the role of the papacy.

Matthias Ring, the Old Catholic bishop in Germany, calls his church's current membership a "statistical anomaly." He says his nationwide diocese registered as many accessions from January to May 2021 as in the entire year before, 180. That is not a large number. But for a church to which a total of about 15,000 Christians belong in Germany, it is quite striking.

But according to the bishop, this is not a nationwide phenomenon; It is concentrated in Cologne and Bonn. And he hears from his clergy that the type of people joining the Old Catholic Church has changed.

"There are also people coming to us who were part of the core in their Roman Catholic Church and were active there."

This article has been translated from German.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society, with an eye toward understanding this year's elections and beyond. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era.

BLM activists question equal exercise of Florida protest law

Associated Press

July 14, 2021


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Demonstrators confront police as they try to get onto the Palmetto Expressway, Tuesday, July 13, 2021, in Miami. Demonstrators are protesting in solidarity with the thousands of Cubans who waged a rare weekend of protests around their island nation against the communist regime. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)


MIAMI (AP) — Some Black Lives Matters activists say a double standard is being used as people blocked busy roadways in Florida this week in support of antigovernment demonstrations in Cuba, with limited action taken by law enforcement despite a new law enhancing penalties against disruptions by protesters.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into Florida law a measure earlier this year that boosts penalties against demonstrators who turn violent and creates new criminal penalties for those who organize demonstrations that get out of hand. Provisions of the law also make it a felony to block some roadways and give immunity to people who drive through protesters blocking a road.

The bill was introduced after last summer’s protests for racial justice during which some Black Lives Matter protesters were met by police with tear gas and arrests when they took to the streets for days at a time.

Demonstrators on Tuesday in Miami, Tampa and Orlando temporarily blocked busy roads, chanting support for the Cubans who had taken to the streets in the communist nation Sunday to air grievances about poor economic conditions and other issues.

“When they protest for regime change, which aligns with the governor’s political viewpoint ... you see no enforcement from law enforcement,” said Michael Sampson, who co-founded the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, one of many groups that sprung up under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I think it’s just downright hypocrisy we’re seeing from the governor, and even law enforcement in how they’re applying this law. It goes to show how our fears that we had earlier … that it will be used against Black people fighting for equal rights,” he added.

On Wednesday, the ACLU of Florida filed a motion in federal court in Tallahassee to block the law immediately, asserting that it could criminalize peaceful protests and shield people who injure protesters in roadways from civil penalties, as well as cast a chilling effect on peaceable protests.

The ACLU had filed a lawsuit on behalf of several Black-led organizations in May seeking to overturn the new law on grounds it violates the First Amendment and targets certain racial justice advocacy groups.

During a visit to Miami on Tuesday, DeSantis said the demonstrations in South Florida were “fundamentally different than what we saw last summer.”

The governor’s spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, took to her personal Twitter account Wednesday bashing “the Left and aligned corporate media,” asserting that they “love authoritarianism.”

“Therefore, they are FURIOUS that the Governor of Florida didn’t personally drive 500 miles down the state to arrest people for protesting (not rioting) against the communist regime in Cuba,” she tweeted.

In an email to The Associated Press, Pushaw said the governor had signed the law to empower law enforcement to protect and serve the people of Florida.

“The legislation protects First Amendment freedoms, while ensuring that law enforcement professionals are empowered to use their discretion to maintain public safety,” Pushaw said. “The Governor has always urged all Floridians exercising their right to protest, to make their voices heard peacefully and lawfully.”

Pushaw pointed out that blocking roadways without a permit was illegal long before the new law, and law enforcement agencies around the state have discretion to enforce the law in a way to ensure public safety.

Waving Cuban flags, hundreds of protesters on Wednesday demonstrated at a busy intersection outside one of Miami’s most famous Cuban restaurants, Versailles. Miami spokesman John Heffernan confirmed that the city approved a permit to close down five blocks along Calle Ocho in the Little Havana neighborhood Wednesday. Many of the protesters dispersed, though, when it started raining at the start of the demonstration.

Greenland halts oil exploration, mining due to effects of climate change


A large iceberg is seen near the village of Innaarsuit, in Avannaata municipality, northwestern Greenland, on July 12, 2018. File Photo by Magnus Kristensen/EPA-EFE

July 16 (UPI) -- The government of Greenland has announced that there won't be any new oil exploration now or in the future on the Arctic island -- a step officials say is a response to worsening climate change.

In announcing the ban, the Naalakkersuisut government said "business activities must take nature and the environment into account."

"Naalakkersuisut takes climate change seriously," agriculture minister Kalistat Lund said in a statement. "We can see the consequences in our country every day, and we are ready to contribute to global solutions to counter climate change.

"The decision to stop new exploration for oil will contribute to place Greenland as the country where sustainable investments are taken seriously."

RELATED Extreme melt events can permanently alter structure of an ice sheet

Uranium mining in Greenland is included in the new ban, officials said. No oil has been found around Greenland, but experts have noted the potential for large deposits in its area of the world.

The socialist Inuit Ataqatigiit party took over Greenland's government in April after running on a climate platform.

The island, which has a population of 57,000, is semi-autonomous under Denmark, which provides an annual subsidy worth about $540 million.

RELATED Thick sea ice accelerates warming in Greenland's fjords, study says


The government said it intends to focus on other areas of the economy apart from oil and mining.

"This step has been taken for the sake of our nature, for the sake of our fisheries, for the sake of our tourism industry, and to focus our business on sustainable potentials," the government said in a statement.

"International investments in the energy sector in recent years are moving away from oil and gas and into renewable energy," business minister Pele Broberg said in a statement.

RELATED Melting ice sheets triggered 60 feet of sea level rise 14,600 years ago

"It is therefore natural that we emphasize business on the opportunities of the future and not on the solutions of the past."

A recent study noted that a heat wave in 2012 made lasting changes to the ice sheet that covers much of Greenland. Scientists say the area has been warming at twice the rate of other areas of the world.

US Senate confirms Seema Nanda as solicitor for labour department
Shubham
16 July, 2021

Seema Nanda (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Yahoo Finance)

By: ShubhamGhosh

THE United States Senate on Wednesday (14) confirmed Indian-American civil rights lawyer Seema Nanda as the solicitor for the country’s department of labour. Nanda, a former chief executive officer of the Democratic National Committee who also served in the labour department in the Barack Obama administration, was confirmed by the upper chamber of the US Congress by 53-46 votes.

Congressional Asian pacific American Caucus chair Judy Chu welcomed the Senate voting result to say, “I am thrilled to congratulate Seema Nanda on her confirmation to serve as Solicitor for the Department of Labour. Whether it’s risks from coronavirus, rising temperatures from climate change, or unscrupulous employers, workers continue to face difficult challenges every day.” She said these challenges said all the more why choosing somebody like Nanda as the solicitor of labour was significant.

“Her office will play a central role in fighting legal battles and challenges. With experience as the deputy solicitor and chief of staff at the Department of Labour under Secretary Tom Perez, I know that Seema will be a champion for workers’ rights and vulnerable communities from the very start,” Chu added.

In the past, Nanda has worked as the chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and deputy solicitor of the labour department when Obama was the president and current president Joe Biden was his deputy. She has more than 15 years of experience in various roles as a labour and employment attorney, mostly in government service.

Nanda was in charge of the now named Office of Immigration and Employee Rights Section of the US justice department’s civil rights division. There, she was a supervisor attorney in the division of advice at the National Labour Relations Board and worked as an associate in private practice in Seattle in the western US state of Washington.

After the Obama era came to an end, Nanda led the DNC as the CEO and also as the chief operating officer and executive vice president at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She is currently a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Labour and Worklife Programme. Nanda grew up in the southeast American state of Connecticut and is a graduate of Brown University and Boston College Law School.

Erdogan sacks embattled university rector after months of protests

Melih Bulu, the unpopular political appointee to the top post of Turkey’s prestigious Bogazici University, has finally been fired.

Protesters chant slogans as they walk through the streets during a protest against the appointment of new Bogazici University rector Melih Bulu in the Kadikoy district on Feb. 2, 2021, in Istanbul, Turkey. - Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Nazlan Ertan
@NazlanEr
July 15, 2021


In an unexpected overnight move right before the fifth anniversary of the failed 2016 putsch, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan removed Melih Bulu from his contested post as rector at Istanbul’s Bogazici University, one of Turkey’s most prestigious higher education institutions.

The sacking, interpreted as backpedaling by Erdogan, comes after months of protests by Bogazici students and academics as well as their supporters across Turkey against the political appointee.   

That the man who was installed in the coveted post by an overnight decree was removed by another was not lost on Turkey’s political and academic circles. “Gone as he has come,” tweeted Faik Oztrak, the spokesman of the opposition Republican People’s Party. Others have posted a poem: “Roses are red, violets are blue, after 192 days of protests, Bogazici got rid of Melih Bulu.”

“Bulu said that the protests against him would be over in six months; instead, it is his term in office that has ended,” Biray Kolluoglu, a sociology professor and former dean of student affairs at the Bogazici University, told Al-Monitor. “This, of course, is quite a success for the university’s students and academics who have stood for academic freedoms despite all the suppression.”

A member of the ruling party whose academic reputation is tarnished by accusations of plagiarism, Bulu was catapulted to the post on Jan. 1, spurring one of the largest and longest demonstrations since the 2013 Gezi Park protests. 

Angered that the university senate’s vote to choose its own rector was brushed aside, the community greeted the rector by turning their back to the rectorate every day for the entire academic term. On July 15, most of the faculty and students returned to the spot to see off the unpopular rector with the song, “No one is a sultan.” 

The farewell comes after protests turned the picturesque campus overlooking the Bosporus into a battlefield. In the first days of the protests, the metal doors of the south campus were blocked by handcuffs to prevent protesting students from entering. Later metal barriers and armed police blocked the way to parts of the campus. Snipers were placed on the rooftops, tear gas was used against the students and some 600 students were taken into custody during a major protest in February alone.

Erdogan said that the protests were the work of “terrorists,” not students, and his political ally Devlet Bahceli called the protesters “venomous snakes.” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu alternated between calling demonstrators “far-left terrorists” and “LGBT degenerates.”

The university placed dozens of students under disciplinary investigation for “insulting campus security personnel” and “organizing unauthorized protests on campus," charges that could result in temporary or permanent expulsion from the university or losing scholarships.

As a final straw in July, Bulu closed off the campus, citing health and security reasons. Education insiders in Ankara told Al-Monitor this last move was “a desperate show of force” on the part of Bulu, whose ousting had been in the cards for at least a month. A former bureaucrat told Al-Monitor that circles close to the president said that the political appointee had proven to be “too weak” to establish his authority at Bogazici, the only Turkish university on the top 200 universities list of the US-based magazine US News and World Report in 2020. 

When the ax fell in the early hours of July 15, Bulu appeared more surprised than anyone else. He first dismissed the news as false on Instagram, joking, “How come I do not know about it? Forget it guys, just go to sleep.” Shortly afterward, he deleted the post and his account.

But it might be too early to call Bulu’s sacking a victory for the students. A few hours after the dismissal, the Board of Higher Education announced that professor Naci Ince, the second-in-command appointed by Bulu, would become the acting rector. 

“Inci has supported and upheld the faulty policies of Bulu. Continuing with him as the rector would be a mistake,” Kolluoglu said.

“Our resistance was not against the person of Bulu but the undemocratic way he was appointed,” Ebru Batur, a member of the Bogazici Dayanisma, the student’s solidarity group, told Al-Monitor. The group has a 10-point list of requests that includes the removal of Bulu, Ince and all other government-appointed administrators, closing the new departments that Bulu agreed to establish while in office, dropping legal charges against protesters and the selection of a new rector through a new election in which all faculty members, students and employees can vote.

The Bogazici LGBTI Studies Club also said that it would not back down until a new rector is democratically elected and the club, “illegally closed down by Bulu,” is reopened.

“I am happy because this was a victory for us, but we have to look ahead. Our demand from day one was to have a democratic process for selecting rectors and beyond. It was for democracy and freedoms in Bogazici and in Turkey,” Ugur Unal, a Bogazici graduate and co-founder of Bogazici TV, told cameras as he arrived on campus early on July 15. 

It is unclear at this stage whether Inci would replace Bulu altogether or whether the president will appoint someone new. The Board of Higher Education has announced a vacancy for the rector post at Bogazici University, inviting interested academics to apply by Aug. 2. Under the present Turkish legislation, in place since 2016, the board makes a short list and submits it to the president, who may appoint someone on list or yet another candidate.

Bogazici University, on the other hand, insists on maintaining its own decades-long tradition of choosing one of its own faculty members for the post by a vote at the university senate and expects the choice to be approved by the president. As much as Erdogan and his party would like to woo young votes in the next elections, it is unlikely that the iron-fisted president would go so far as allowing Bogazici to choose its own rector at this point, much less grant the rest of the students' demands.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/07/erdogan-sacks-embattled-university-rector-after-months-protests#ixzz70lrAYP4c

Reports highlight crackdowns on press in Kurdistan Region

The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government has rejected the charges, citing the independence of courts and media partnerships.

A screenshot taken on July 9, 2021, show the Rojnews logo on Facebook. - Facebook/RojNews

Al-Monitor Staff
July 9, 2021

A journalism watchdog group has criticized the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq for sentencing a journalist to prison in a secret trial.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement June 28 saying the KRG should release photojournalist Qaraman Shukri from detention.

Last month a report by Amnesty International highlighted concerns over increased crackdowns on journalists, activists and protesters over the past year by authorities in the region.

Shukri, who has reported on Turkish attacks on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, contributed to the Kurdish news outlet Rojnews, which is affiliated with the PKK.

On June 28, the KRG coordinator for international advocacy, Dindar Zebari, rejected the accusations and tweeted that the government does not interfere in the courts.

“We call on local & foreign entities to respect the impartiality of the courts,” he said.

Zebari has called KRG courts “independent” and said in a tweet that “judges are able to distinguish between cases related to journalism & actions that damage public good.”

A May report from the United Nations said freedom of expression decreased in the Kurdistan Region during 2020 and at the start of 2021, following “positive progress” in this area in previous years.

In a response to the UN report, Zebari cited a range of KRG partnerships to strengthen media freedom, including invitations to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and European Union member states to improve the legal process.

“It is important that all parties’ understanding of the situation in Kurdistan is based on engagement with journalist rights organizations on the ground, and on rigorous analysis and assessment of the information they receive,” Zebari’s office wrote.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/07/reports-highlight-crackdowns-press-kurdistan-region#ixzz70loaqJtI

KURDISH AUTONOMOUS ZONE IN IRAQ

Talabani family feud at center of power struggle in Iraqi Kurdistan party

The apparent takeover of the Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party by Bafel Talabani is more family affair than policy dispute.

Cousins Bafel Talabani (L) and Lahur Talabani are engaged in a power struggle for control of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. - Twitter/Bafel Talabani (L) / Wikipedia/Lawen Azad (R)

Amberin Zaman
@amberinzaman

July 14, 2021


The power struggle within Iraqi Kurdish Talabani dynasty sharply escalated late Tuesday as dozens of gunmen stormed the offices of a fledgling media outlet owned by Lahur Sheikh Jangi Talabani, the embattled co-leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), prompting fears of protracted instability, and potentially conflict, in Iraqi Kurdistan, a critical ally of the United States.

Nearly 50 armed men in masks and military garb broke equipment and shut down the offices of iPLUS in Sulaimaniyah, the administrative capital of the PUK, iPLUS said in a statement.

The PUK is the second-largest party in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and shares power with its chief rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Zhyan News, another media outlet affiliated with Talabani, was also raided. Zhyan called it a “coup” against its owner in a tweet.

The raid came as PUK co-leader Bafel Talabani initiated a series of moves aimed at toppling his cousin and grabbing full control of the party. The PUK was founded by Bafel Talabani's father, Jalal Talabani, the charismatic former president of Iraq who along with KDP chief Massoud Barzani long were the main leaders of Iraq’s Kurdish nationalist movement. Jalal Talabani died four years ago.

Bafel Talabani claimed earlier that a poisonous substance used in an attempt on his life — he did not say when or where — was found at the headquarters of the intelligence service. He offered no further details of the alleged plot. But he was clearly pointing fingers at Lahur Talabani and setting the stage for his overthrow.

Over the past week, and allegedly with the KDP’s encouragement, Bafel Talabani ousted the heads of the PUK’s counterterrorism and intelligence forces, both led by Lahur Talabani, and installed loyalists in their stead. Bafel Talabani's younger brother, Qubad, who serves as deputy prime minister in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), overtly backed the move. Several key PUK veterans, including Kosrat Rasoul Ali and Mala Bakhtiar — who once vied for power themselves — rallied around Bafel Talabani as well.

Bafel Talabani, 48, is seen as mercurial and unpredictable, whilst Lahur Talabani, 45, is viewed as a pragmatist who enjoys good relations with Iran and the United States alike. The pair are believed to have butted heads over power and money, with Lahur Talabani and his siblings allegedly monopolizing the spoils of smuggling and other commercial activities in PUK-controlled territory, which shares a long border with Iran.

The power play unleashed a flurry of speculation that Iran, the most influential foreign actor in PUK-run territory, and Turkey, which holds greater sway in KDP-run land to the north, were somehow involved. This was spurred in part by unsubstantiated claims that Lahur Talabani’s operatives helped the Trump administration kill Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qasem Soleimani in January 2020. However, it would not be in Iran’s interests to see Bafel Talabani grow too strong either.

Ankara’s aversion to Lahur Talabani stems from his close relations with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants fighting Turkey and with Turkish leaders' other bete noir, Mazlum Kobane, the commander in chief of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Turkey blames Lahur Talabani for the abduction of two senior members of its intelligence services by the PKK near Sulaimaniyah in August 2017.

However, sources familiar with the dynamics of the Talabani family say the claims of foreign involvement are vastly exaggerated. “It’s an internal family fight,” one of the sources, speaking not for attribution because of the sensitive nature of the quarrel, told Al-Monitor.

The source, like many others, said it was too early to rule out a counterattack by Lahur Talabani and that a violent showdown, though unlikely, could not be discounted either.

The source added that Lahur Talabani had helped precipitate his downfall through his verbal assaults on Barzani. “Massoud Barzani is a red line, yet he went after him as if they were equals,” one of the sources said. His salvos against Ankara did not help either, the source added.

Ultimately, though, the fight “is the direct result of the lack of institutions in Iraqi Kurdistan where everyone has their own group,” the source said.

On Monday, the PUK’s social media accounts switched Bafel Talabani’s title from “co-president” to “president.” Lahur Talabani’s webpages remained unchanged.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an expert on Kurdish affairs and the co-author of the recently published “The Kurds of Northern Syria: Governance, Diversity and Conflicts,” said the changes might affect the alliance between the PUK and the opposition Gorran, or Change, movement for nationwide elections in Iraq scheduled for October, “unless Bafel Talabani continues the alliance with Gorran.”

A battle for the succession has been quietly brewing since Jalal Talabani's death in October 2017, a week after the KRG held a referendum on independence from Baghdad that was fiercely opposed by Turkey, Iran and the United States, but also by Bafel Talabani and Lahur Talabani on the grounds that it was premature. The pair were subsequently accused of treason by Barzani over their alleged complicity in the overrunning of Kirkuk by Iraqi government forces. The oil-rich province claimed by the Kurds and Baghdad alike is crucial for the viability of any future Kurdish state.

The rivalry between the cousins was initially papered over by a power-sharing agreement that was struck in 2020 under which both were elected as “co-chairs” of the party. They had together quashed other potential contenders for the top post in the PUK who weren’t members of the Talabani clan. The PUK has long prided itself on not being “tribal” like its longtime rival, the KDP, which is dominated by the Barzanis.

Ramzy Mardini, an associate at the University of Chicago's Pearson Institute who studies conflict resolution, told Al-Monitor, “PUK isn’t meant to be a tribal structure, and yet here we are with the Talabani offspring ruling the party.” He said the timing of the purge could help shed light on some of the dynamics at play. “It’s either based on preemption of prevention. Either the Talabani brothers had reason to believe that Lahur was on the verge of making a move against them, or they had reason to believe Lahur’s ascension to the top was a possibility in the future and the window of opportunity to prevent that from happening was closing,” Mardini observed. This could be connected to the steadily worsening health of the Talabani brothers' mother, Herro, a formidable political operator in her own right.

“It could be that if she passed away, maybe the Talabani brothers would not have the clout to consolidate power. But I imagine with her alive, even if out of the commission, it still helps the brothers’ standing in the party,” Mardini said.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/07/talabani-family-feud-center-power-struggle-iraqi-kurdistan-party#ixzz70lnI7Nv4

WHITE RIOT

Euro 2020 Was The Worst Football Tournament On Record For Crime, Police Confirm

BY : CAMERON FREW ON : 15 JUL 2021 

PA Images

Euro 2020 has officially become England’s worst football tournament on record for crime, police have confirmed.

Over the course of the month-long tournament and in the aftermath of England’s defeat against Italy, there’s been more than 2,300 police incidents linked to the Euros, with 875 during the final alone. At least 622 people have been arrested so far across England and Wales, with reports of stabbings, fights and assaults on officers.

Figures are still being collated, but the volume of crime during the Euros has already surpassed the 2018 World Cup, with ‘significant disorder all around the country’.

PA Images

Cheshire Constabulary Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the national lead for football policing, confirmed to The Independent: ‘The 2018 World Cup in Russia was the worst we had seen, but sadly this tournament surpassed that. The levels of violence shown against officers has been completely unacceptable.’

‘We have seen random attacks on Italians… Italians celebrating the win have been attacked. We haven’t seen massive numbers but there have been far too many. We do see these incidents when England get knocked out of tournaments in terms of the targeting of foreign nationals,’ he added.

Ticketless fans broke into Wembley on the day of the final, causing injuries among stewards and police officers as they charged through.



Roberts also spoke about the ‘significant’ level of drug and alcohol consumption. ‘Sunday was a coming together of a series of factors which exacerbated what is happening generally. It’s sad because so much of it has been positive and the hope was that the weekend would be a showcase for England,’ he said.

‘The result was disappointing but that’s sport. Some of the other stuff around it has been a lot more disappointing,’ Roberts added.

UEFA has opened disciplinary hearings against England’s Football Association following the violent scenes at the final, while the FA is conducting an investigation into how ‘yobs’ broke into Wembley stadium.

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