It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
MAD AS A HATTER Eric Clapton Claims People Who Receive Covid-19 Vaccines Are Under 'Mass Hypnosis'
The rocker and known vaccine sceptic embraced the widely debunked theory and slammed the media in a bizarre interview. By Curtis M. Wong 25/01/2022
Eric Clapton is doubling down on his criticisms of Covid-19 safety protocols, arguing that those who are getting vaccinated are victims of “subliminal advertising” by pharmaceutical companies on social media.
The 17-time Grammy winner made the eyebrow-raising claim in a video interview with The Real Music Observer that first appeared on YouTube last week. In it, he was asked about his decision to team up with Van Morrison, another vaccine skeptic, on the 2020 single Stand and Deliver, which compared Covid-19 lockdowns to slavery. “Whatever the memo was, it hadn’t reached me,” Clapton said. “Then I realised there really was a memo — a guy, Mattias Desmet, has talked about it. It’s great, you know, the theory of mass hypnosis formation. And I could see it, once I kind of started to look for it.”
“I saw it everywhere,” he continued. “And then I remembered seeing little things on YouTube, which were like subliminal advertising. It’s been going on for a long time — that thing of ‘you will own nothing and you will be happy.’”
Clapton appeared to be referring to a concept promoted by Desmet, a professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University in Belgium. Desmet’s widely discredited theory suggests people have been “hypnotised” into believing mainstream ideas about Covid-19 such as testing procedures and vaccinations.
The term gained momentum after it was discussed by Dr. Robert Malone, another vocal skeptic of Covid-19 vaccines, in an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast that aired last month.
Later in the interview, Clapton criticised the media for perpetuating what he described as “completely one-way traffic about following orders and obedience” and implied he’d channeled his frustrations into music. In addition to “Stand and Deliver,” he released an anti-vaccination anthem, “This Has Gotta Stop,” in August of last year.
“These guys that were in power really started to piss me [off] ... but I had a tool,” he explained. “I had a calling and I can make use of that, so I set about it and started writing.”
Clapton, 76, has criticised Covid-19 vaccines after outlining what he described as “disastrous” health consequences upon receiving the AstraZeneca jab last year.
He later vowed never to perform at music venues that require proof of vaccinations, but seemingly backtracked on that pledge by taking the stage at New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center ― where attendees were required to show vaccination cards or test negative for Covid-19 before entering ― in September.
Exhibition Mäccmõš, maccâm, máhccan – The Homecoming celebrates the repatriation of Sámi artefacts to the Sámi homeland
25 JANUARY 2022 A piece by Outi Pieski, 47 Most Wanted Foremothers, shown in the background, contains images of ládjogahpir headgear from the collections of various European museums. The piece is part of an art and research project by Pieski and researcher Eeva-Kristiina Nylander, Máttaráhku ládjogahpir – Foremother´s Hat of Pride.
In autumn 2021, the National Museum of Finland repatriated its Sámi collection, over 2,000, artefacts, to the Sámi Museum Siida 2021 as a result of several years of collaboration. As part of it the National Museum of Finland, the Sámi Museum Siida and representatives of the Sámi community have in collaboration created an exhibition at the National Museum titled Mäccmõš, maccâm, máhccan – The Homecoming, which is open until 27 Feb 2022.
Requests to have the National Museum’s Sámi collection returned had been made before, but the negotiations did not begin properly until the Sámi jubilee year of 2017 when Director General Elina Anttila from the National Museum of Finland and the then Director of the Finnish Heritage Agency, Juhani Kostet, took part in the celebration held in Trondheim as part of Bååstede, a similar repatriation project in Norway.
‘Repatriation is currently a hot topic in the museum sector around the world and challenges us to rethink the role of museums and the power that they wield. While the focus has shifted to cultural diversity, people’s and population groups’ ability to determine their own cultural heritage and decide on its use has become increasingly important. It was easy to engage in the discussions initiated by Sámi Museum Siida’s Museum Director, Sari Valkonen. This required an in-depth review of the Sámi collection of the National Museum of Finland and all aspects that needed to be considered if it were to be repatriated,’ says Director General Elina Anttila from the National Museum of Finland.
The Sámi collection consists of some two thousand artefacts and was assembled over a 170-year period beginning in the 1830s. A memorandum of understanding on the repatriation of the Sámi artefacts was signed in April 2017 at an event held at the National Museum of Finland in Helsinki.
‘The repatriation process has increased Sámi communities’ interest towards museum collections and made our work as the Sámi’s own museum more visible. Soon, we will see all the positive effects that this repatriation will bring,’ says Sámi Museum Siida’s Museum Director, Sari Valkonen.
On 26 August 2021, the National Museum of Finland received the Finnish Government’s approval to return approximately 2,200 objects from the Sámi collection to the Sámi Museum Siida. The artefacts were carried to Inari, Sápmi, to Sámi Museum Siida in September 2021.
’It brings our past closer to us Sámi and enables us to study and reconnect to our cultural heritage in our own terms. It is a symbolic gesture of recognising Sámi people’s right to manage their own cultural heritage’, Curator Anni Guttorm from the Sámi Museum Siida says.
Co-produced exhibition illustrates the importance of controlling cultural heritage
The exhibition Mäccmõš, maccâm, máhccan – The Homecoming that opened in November 2021 illustrates the vibrant Sámi culture and provokes thoughts about the importance, value and ownership of cultural heritage. The exhibition is part of a repatriation process and celebrates the return of cultural heritage, large in scale even at a global level.
‘During the process of putting together this exhibition, all parties have had the opportunity to learn from one another. Since becoming familiar with each other and learning to work together, the process has given us a lot. It has been a great pleasure to witness and be able to share the depth of the exhibition working group’s understanding of how the collection was created, how meaningful it is, and what the emotions and opportunities connected to the repatriation are,’ says Curator Anni Guttorm from the Sámi Museum Siida, one of the working group’s members.
In Mäccmõš, maccâm, máhccan – The Homecoming, works by Sámi crafters and pieces by contemporary artists interact with 140 artefacts selected for the exhibition. In addition to that, the exhibition includes numerous texts and stories by Sámi storytellers, stories told by artefacts and archive material, such as photographs and yoik singing. The exhibition texts are in 6 languages from which 3 of them are Sámi languages spoken in Finland.
‘Cultural heritage has a key role in dealing with a problematic history’
The exhibition provokes thoughts about the value of objects, traditions and history. It illustrates the importance of controlling and having ownership of cultural heritage and does not shy away from critical examination of historical sore points.
‘We hope that the cooperation between the National Museum of Finland and the Sámi Museum Siida can show the way ahead around the world. Cultural heritage has a key role in dealing with a problematic history. At its best, repatriation is a process that allows us to take responsibility of our past mistakes in a constructive way,’ says Director General Elina Anttila from the National Museum of Finland.
The National Museum of Finland has worked actively to highlight the importance of the museum's collections not only in terms of the right to cultural heritage, but also as part of the sustainability of culture. In 2020, the museum repatriated the remains of Pueblo Indian ancestors with associated funerary objects from the 13th century to a coalition of Native American tribes. They were part of Mesa Verde collection created by the Swedish geologist Gustaf Nordenskiöld in the 1890s.
Its report from January 21 read: ‘While the BA.1 lineage has previously been the most dominant, recent trends from India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Denmark suggest that BA.2 is increasing in proportion.
‘Drivers of transmission and other properties of BA.2 are under investigation but remain unclear to date.’
A number of separate lineages of the Omicron Covid variant have developed since it first emerged (Picture: PA)
It was stressed the new sub-variants pose no further threat to health or vaccines (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The differences are found in the receptor binding domain – the part of the virus that plays a key part in infection leading it to be faster spreading.
Some 426 cases of BA.2 have been found in England since December 6, with 146 of them being recorded in London.
The UK Health Security Agency is also keeping the strain under investigation while it undertakes further analysis.
‘It is the nature of viruses to evolve and mutate, so it’s to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge,’ said Dr Meera Chand, incident director at the UKHSA.
Other than the genetic make up of BA.2, there has been some evidence the strain is spreading faste
Tom Peacock, a virologist from the Imperial College of London, tweeted: ‘BA.2 appears to be the major Omicron lineage in [part of] India and the Philippines and there is evidence it is growing compared to BA.1 in Denmark, the UK and Germany.
‘Consistent growth across multiple countries is evidence BA.2 may be some degree more transmissible than BA.1. This is the main reason BA.2 is currently in the news.’
The emergence of new strains is not unexpected and as most are similar to the original variant, they pose no further threat to health or vaccines.
The Omicron variant replaced the Delta variant as the dominant COVID-19 variant in the world, starting from late 2021 to early 2022. But, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant caused less severe disease than Delta, although it was better at escaping immune protection by vaccinations and previous infections.
The reasons for this have so far remained elusive. A new study, published in the journal, 'Cell Research', has shed some light on this topic.
The study, by a research team with scientists from the University of Kent and the Goethe-University Frankfurt showed that Omicron variant viruses are particularly sensitive to inhibition by the so-called interferon response, an unspecific immune response that is present in all body cells. This provided the first explanation of why COVID-19 patients infected with the Omicron variant are less likely to experience severe disease.
The cell culture study also showed that Omicron viruses remained sensitive to eight of the most important antiviral drugs and drug candidates for the treatment of COVID-19. This included EIDD-1931 (active metabolite of molnupiravir), ribavirin, remdesivir, favipravir, PF-07321332 (nirmatrelvir, active ingredient of paxlovid), nafamostat, camostat, and aprotinin.
Prof Martin Michaelis, School of Bioscience, University of Kent, said: "Our study provides for the first time an explanation, why Omicron infections are less likely to cause severe disease. This is due to Omicron, in contrast to Delta, does not effectively inhibit the host cell interferon immune response."
Prof. Jindrich Cinatl, Institute of Medical Virology at the Goethe-University, added: "Although cell culture experiments do not exactly reflect the more complex situation in a patient, our data provide encouraging evidence that the available antiviral COVID-19 drugs are also effective against Omicron."
Source: ANI
UK
London hospitals workers to strike over ‘BAME staff pay’
Three hospitals including Royal London Hospital will go on strike from Jan 31. (iStock Image)
By: Alastair Lockhart
HUNDREDS of workers at three East London hospitals will strike for two weeks over a pay dispute with their employers.
Staff at the Royal London Hospital, St Bartholmew’s Hospital and Whipps Cross Hospital plan to take action from Monday, January 31 as they try to push Barts Health NHS Trust and employers Serco to increase their pay.
Those involved are all members of the Unite union and work for Serco at the hospitals, both run by Barts Health Trust.
No figures are available for how many of the workforce are involved.
Unite claims staff at the three hospitals, which it says are predominantly black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) employees, are paid 15 per cent less than those employed directly by the NHS.
The union accused Serco and Barts Health of “exploiting” the caterers, cleaners, porters and other staff employed by Serco at Royal London, St Bart’s and Whipps Cross.
Contractors Serco said it had recently increased its offer of a pay rise to three per cent for staff to address their concerns.
However, Unite could not reach an agreement with the employer, arguing that far more was needed to match the 7.5 per cent inflation rate.
Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, was highly critical of the hospitals’ and Serco’s pay to their workers.
She said: “These workers face the same risks as NHS-employed staff but they are paid significantly worse and treated disgracefully.
“Barts Health NHS Trust has a golden opportunity to bring these workers, employed by Serco and not the NHS, back into NHS employment.
“It’s time to end the injustice of a two-tier workforce. Unite is 100 per cent behind our members’ battle against low pay and exploitation.”
Serco responded by criticising the strike and calling for further talks.
The company’s contract director for Barts Health, Taddy McAuely, said: “We are extremely disappointed with the notification of strike action from Unite as we recently increased the pay offer for our employees to a total of three per cent, backdated to April 2021.
“This is the same percentage increase as that being received by people directly employed by the NHS.
“Serco also recently announced a £100 ex-gratia payment for all of our 52,000 front line employees around the world including all our colleagues at Barts Health.
“We look forward to further discussions with Unite and hope to work together to find a resolution that avoids the need for this unnecessary strike action.”
Shane DeGaris, deputy group chief executive at Barts Health NHS Trust said: “Over the next 13 months we will be considering future arrangements of the facilities management contract, which could include bringing some services back in house.
“We are hopeful that this matter can be resolved but are working with Serco to put the appropriate measures in place and ensure hospital services are supported if strike action does go ahead.”
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)
NHS pay rise: Health workers back unions’ call for inflation-proof deal and warn they are at ‘breaking point’
‘Staff are burning out … a lot of them are exhibiting what are recognisable symptoms of trauma’
Unions have called on Boris Johnson’s Government to take action on pay (Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty)
Healthcare workers have backed union calls for an inflation-proof pay rise for NHS staff, warning the health service is at “breaking point”.
Fourteen unions, representing 1.2 million health staff in England, have called on the Government to raise NHS pay and raised fears of a “growing exodus of exhausted staff”.
Dr Yaso Browne, a Hampshire-based GP speaking on behalf of the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK), told i: “People were encouraged to ‘protect the NHS’, but the people of the NHS need protecting from unfair freezes on their pay.
“For years NHS staff have been offered wage increases below or barely meeting the cost of living, in real terms. They have gone and are still going above and beyond to keep the NHS running. Their pay needs to reflect the value the Government proclaimed it held for the NHS throughout the pandemic, and still claims it holds.
“Paying people a fair wage is a much-needed reality if we have any chance of retaining highly trained staff.”
Joan Pons Laplana, a former intensive care nurse who is now a senior manager for Health Education England, which co-ordinates training and education of NHS staff, said the spiralling cost of living and years of below-inflation pay rises had seen workers hit hard.
Mr Laplana, who left his frontline nursing role after developing PTSD during the second Covid-19 wave last February, said the most recent three per cent pay offer had been the “most generous for years” but was still “well below inflation”.
He told i: “This has been going on for the last 10 years. Our pay rise year after year has been zero or, at the most, 1 per cent. From 10 years ago I am earning £4,000 less than I am supposed to earn because of the cost of living.
“It’s around 16 per cent of my salary – that is not sustainable. When I came to this country 25 years ago it was a fantastic salary. Now, not so much.
“I completely agree with the unions. We cannot lose any more nurses. It’s at breaking point, the NHS.”
London has a “massive problem” with the retention of cleaning staff as the cost of living continues to rocket, with workers choosing jobs in supermarkets instead, Mr Laplana said.
Hundreds of hospital staff in the capital including porters, cleaners and catering staff, are to go on strike in a dispute over pay.
Members of Unite employed by outsourcing company Serco at London hospitals St Barts, the Royal London and Whipps Cross, will walk out for two weeks from 31 January. Unite said the staff, mainly from black, Asian and other ethnic minoritties, are paid up to 15 per cent less than directly employed NHS workers.
Serco said it had recently increased its pay offer to a total of 3 per cent, backdated to last April, adding it was the same as that being received by people directly employed by the NHS.
Mr Laplana said: “We are a team, and at the moment they deserve to earn more. If they go on strike I will support them. Porters, cleaners, catering and everything they are very important.
“Without them the rate of infection in the hospitals and the waiting lists would be even longer and higher.”
Dr Rachel Sumner, a psychologist and a researcher on the CV19 Heroes project which tracks frontline worker well-being during the pandemic, said NHS participants in the study believed an inflation-proof pay increase was “long overdue”.
Dr Sumner, based at Cardiff Metropolitan University, told i: “Our participants have mentioned on many occasions in the almost two years since we started doing this project that the pay award is a very serious issue of concern in terms of their being able to stay in their current roles, particularly given he challenges they are having to continue to undertake at the moment.
“The question about the pay – when it was questioned in the summer of 2020 and eventually turned down for nurses – some of our participants referred to it as a kick in the teeth.
“At the moment what we are seeing is, over time, a gradual decrease in the welfare and general well-being of these workers for a variety of reasons.
“The pay factor is one [reason]. The fact they are burning out [is another]. A lot of them are exhibiting what are recognisable symptoms of trauma in the way that they speak and the way they recount things to us in our survey.”
She added: “There is an acknowledgement from our frontline workers that we came into the pandemic – particularly in the NHS – in a poor state and that has only got worse. And if we start seeing people leaving their roles we are going to be in serious trouble, in my opinion.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “NHS staff, from doctors and nurses to paramedics and porters, have rightly received a 3 per cent pay rise this year, which has increased nurses’ pay by £1,000 on average. We will consider the pay review bodies reports carefully when we receive them.”
Canadian academic Hassan Diab goes to trial next year in French terrorism case
France’s case against Ottawa academic Hassan Diab in connection with a bombing outside a Paris synagogue 40 years ago will go to trial in 2023 — more than five years after he was set free due to a lack of evidence.
Last year, France’s court of appeal overturned a lower court decision to release Diab and allow him to return to Canada. France’s top court later rejected Diab’s appeal and ordered him to stand trial. That trial is set to start on April 3, 2023.
French authorities have not yet requested Diab’s extradition to France to stand trial in person. Diab’s lawyers have said he could be tried in absentia.
Diab’s lawyer in France, Amélie Lefebvre, declined to comment on the latest developments. “It is way too soon to discuss them,” she said in an email.
French prosecutors have persisted in their attempts to bring Diab to trial — despite problems with the physical evidence central to their case and the discovery by French investigators that Diab wasn’t even in Paris on the day of the bombing, but was in Lebanon writing university exams.
Diab’s supporters say France’s dismissal of his alibi and the weak case against him amounts to a travesty of justice.
A group of his supporters will hold a news conference tomorrow to demand that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speak out in Diab’s defence. They want Trudeau to publicly declare that Canada will not entertain a second extradition request from France.
During Diab’s most recent appeal hearing, France’s advocate general — a senior officer of the law who offers advice in the French legal system — sided with Diab’s defence team and argued for his release.
But Diab’s release has been opposed by more than 20 civil society groups in France — including groups representing victims of terrorism and pro-Israel organizations.
Diab’s Canadian lawyer Don Bayne said pressure from those groups played a role in the decision to send Diab to trial.
“The travesty of justice continues despite clear evidence of Hassan’s innocence,” he said last year.
“This shows how political pressure trumps justice. We call upon Prime Minister Trudeau to put an end to this miscarriage of justice.”
The Ottawa university lecturer was accused by authorities of involvement in the 1980 Rue Copernic bombing, which killed four people and injured more than 40.
He was arrested by the RCMP in November 2008 and placed under strict bail conditions until he was extradited to France in 2014. He spent more than three years in prison in France before the case against him collapsed.
He was released in January 2018 after two French judges ruled the evidence against him wasn’t strong enough to take to trial. He was never formally charged.
French prosecutors appealed Diab’s release promptly — pursuing it after the last remaining piece of physical evidence linking Diab to the bombing had been discredited by France’s own experts.
The case moved slowly as prosecutors sought to find new evidence against Diab and as court proceedings were delayed by the pandemic.
The key physical evidence Canada relied on in extraditing Diab to France was handwriting analysis linking Diab’s handwriting to that of the suspected bomber. Canadian government lawyers acting on France’s behalf called it a “smoking gun” in the extradition hearing.
But in 2009, Diab’s legal team produced contrary reports from four international handwriting experts. These experts questioned the methods and conclusions of the French experts. They also proved that some of the handwriting samples used by the French analysts belonged not to Diab but to his ex-wife.
French investigative judges dismissed the handwriting evidence as unreliable when they ordered Diab’s release in January 2018.
While considering the appeal of Diab’s release, another French judge ordered an independent review of the contentious handwriting evidence.
Diab’s lawyers said this latest review delivered “a scathing critique and rebuke” of the original handwriting analysis “that mirror[s] the critique by the defence during the extradition hearing 10 years ago.”
The French investigative judges who released Diab also found he had an alibi for the day of the Paris bombing. Using university records and interviews with Diab’s classmates, the investigative judges determined he was “probably in Lebanon” writing exams when the bombing outside the synagogue took place.
“It is likely that Hassan Diab was in Lebanon during September and October 1980 … and it is therefore unlikely that he is the man … who then laid the bomb on Rue Copernic on October 3rd, 1980,” they wrote.
In 2018, CBC News confirmed that France was aware of — and had failed to disclose — fingerprint evidence that ended up playing a critical role in Diab’s release.
Since his release, Diab has been living with his wife and two children in Ottawa. He has resumed work as a part-time lecturer.
SOHR: Syrian-Kurdish forces storm prison where IS militants hold nearly 850 children hostage
On Jan 24, 2022
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have stormed a prison in Hasakeh province in northeast Syria, where Islamic State group militants have taken nearly 850 children hostage, the latest stage of a five-day-long prison break attempt by the extremists.
Rights groups warned that the children, some as young as 12-years-old, were at “serious risk” of harm and called on the SDF to exercise the utmost care in trying to rescue them.
An SDF spokesperson told The New Arab: “Full control of the situation is just around the corner.”
They added that the “terrorists are still taking [minors] as human shields, but our anti-terror forces are trained and capable of dealing with the situation”.
IS fighters attacked the Ghwayran prison late on Thursday in a coordinated assault, with fighters detonating car bombs near prison walls and prisoners attacking guards.
The group has since occupied the north wing of the jail and taken prison staff and children hostage.
In the surrounding city, IS fighters who escaped the prison have reportedly hidden in homes.
SDF and IS engaged in firefights throughout the weekends.
The US-led International Coalition Defeat Daesh also conducted airstrikes on the prison and shot from helicopters in an effort to dislodge the prisoners on Sunday. Authorities imposed a curfew on the local area.
The attack is the most high-profile, high casualty operation carried out by IS in Syria and Iraq since the SDF and International Coalition routed the last remains of the IS “caliphate” in March 2019.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that at least 154 people have been killed in the last five days, though SDF sources allege the death toll is lower. A wave of displacement was also triggered by the fighting, with over 6,000 people fleeing the areas surrounding the prison according to the UN.
The SDF houses thousands of alleged former IS fighters in camps and prisons across the swathes of northeast Syria it controls. Many of the detention centres are makeshift, converted from old warehouses and schools. Prison riots happen sporadically, with prisoners complaining of poor conditions and a lack of clarity over when they will be released, if ever.
The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political wing of the SDF, accused foreign countries of “abandoning their responsibility” in dealing with the IS fighters held in northeast Syria. It also claimed that Turkey was helping foment IS activity in the area, and that it was “obvious that the operation to target” the prison was planned in Turkish-occupied territories.
Turkey has denied any link to IS and fought a campaign against the group since 2016.
Since 2019, the Kurdish-led force has been housing about 3,000 foreign fighters held in northeast Syria, in addition to about 9,000 Syrian and Iraqi alleged fighters.
With few exceptions, foreign countries have dragged their feet in repatriating their nationals, despite calls by the SDF and aid groups for the international community to assist.
IS has generally carried out low-tempo, guerilla-style attacks in Syria over the last three years. The group mainly focused its efforts on Syrian regime soldiers and infrastructure in the Syrian central desert, where IS weapon stashes are located and the terrain makes hit-and-run style attacks easier.
Thursday’s attack was seen by many analysts as a break from the prevailing tactics, and as a warning sign that IS has grown in strength since its supposed death knell in 2019.
“The past nine days have seen an increase in IS attacks in both [Iraq and Syria]. These attacks and several before in the past few months… are bigger in the number of fighters and they are not carried out anymore in rural desert areas, but in city centres and against army posts,” Suhail Al-Ghazi, a Syrian researcher with the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies (ORSAM), told The New Arab.
Bazad Amou, a local media activist living in the Jazira region of northeast Syria, said: “Detention of the most prominent leaders of the organizations in the prisons of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria [AANES] prompted [IS] cells to try to smuggle the organisation’s members and leaders from prisons.”
He added that “the issue of IS” is not just the SDF’s responsibility, but is rather that of the international community.
“The region must not be left to suffer the danger of IS’s return alone,” Amou said.
Turkey accused of masterminding the Islamic State attack on prison in northern Syria
Turkey was accused of masterminding the massive Isis attack on a prison in northern Syria today as Kurdish-led forces regained control after days of intense fighting.
More than 500 prisoners from Ghwayran jail in Hasakah province have surrendered to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
But sporadic fighting continued in the northern part of the complex, which holds more than 3,000 Isis fighters captured on the battlefields of the area known by Kurds as Rojava.
SDF spokesman Ferhat Shami said that progress was slow as “we are more interested in liberating hostages and protecting our people than eliminating mercenaries.”
The region’s autonomous administration said that the attack, which started last Thursday, was “part of a well-organised plan.”
More than 200 Isis fighters were involved in the attempt to liberate fanatics housed in the jail while jihadist cells inside started fires and overpowered prison guards.
Thousands of local residents were forced out of their homes, while the US provided air support for the SDF against what is the biggest attack launched by Isis for a number of years.
British special forces were also involved in combating the Isis attackers, sources on the ground told the Morning Star.
Officials of the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria said today that the assault had “a broader purpose” than merely freeing the jihadists.
“The Turkish state is trying to resurrect Isis in a bid to destroy the security of the region and the gains achieved,” a statement said, claiming to have documentary evidence.
Turkey has long struggled to shake off allegations that it supports Isis, including claims that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan runs a family business that trades oil with the jihadists from both Iraq and Syria.
At one stage, Turkey granted a monopoly to Powertrans to transport oil from Iraqi Kurdistan, much of it allegedly bought from Isis.
The Turkish state and its intelligence services have also been accused of sending weapons to jihadist groups in Syria via shady private security company Sadat, whose founder Adnan Tanriverdi is an adviser to Mr Erdogan.
Inside Turkey, forces from Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party were accused in a European Union intelligence report of commissioning Isis to carry out a 2015 bombing in Ankara that killed which more than 100 people.
On Sunday, the SDF circulated picture of a weapon marked in Turkish as Nato stock, which it claims to have captured from an Isis fighter.
Want to offset diesel consumption by solar power in the N.W.T.? There's a cap for that
Communities in the N.W.T. that rely on diesel generators for power could handle up to 45 per cent of their electricity coming from renewable energy sources, according to a new study, and now it's up to the government to decide whether to make the change.
Right now, the cap is at 20 per cent.
Robert Sexton, the territory's director of energy, said the limit was set back in 2014 to make sure power grids remained stable and to keep electricity prices down. It reflected an amount of renewable energy that would allow diesel generators — which many communities rely on for power — to keep running efficiently, he explained.
However, in response to communities' growing interest in creating their own renewable power, Sexton said the territory commissioned a study to re-examine that cap. It became publicly available last month.
CIMA+, the engineering company hired to do the research, studied infrastructure in Fort Liard, Fort Simpson, Tulita, Łútselk'e and Inuvik. It concluded all diesel communities in the territory could handle up to 45 per cent of their power coming from renewable sources — such as solar panels, wind turbines or hydropower — without compromising the reliability and consistency of their power.
"We were surprised it was that high," said Sexton. Renewable power a 'good thing' in communities
The acting manager of the PolarGrizz Hotel in Sachs Harbour, Sharan Green, said it would be a "good thing" if the territory allowed her community to create more renewable energy.
Even though the hamlet has no daylight in the winter, she said the hotel saves money because of its solar panels. Green knows more people in the community who are interested in panels too — but haven't been able to get them because Sachs Harbour has already hit the 20 per cent cap.
"More is better," she said. "We're saving on the power bill. It helps us. It takes time, but it helps us."
An increase would also be welcome news for a renewable energy project that's underway in Łútselk'e, according to Haroon Bhatti, the innovations manager for Denesoline Corporation.
The corporation is helping build a clean-energy power plant, made up of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries, that aims to wean Łútselk'e off its diesel generator by 2026.
"That ultimately means that we can sell more energy back to the grid, which of course, is a good thing," he explained.
Bhatti said renewable power that can't be sold to the grid will be stored in the batteries, where homes in the community would still be able to access it.
"I appreciate that people are thinking about increasing those sorts of caps so that the renewable energy sector can grow. And ultimately, that's what we would like to do."
Łútselk'e became the first independent power producer in all three territories in 2016, after building a $350,000 solar array. Sexton said if they were able to double the amount of renewable they sell, they could double their revenue. A balancing act
Increasing the cap, however, is more complicated than it may sound. Sexton said the change would happen gradually, if at all, and the territory would need to find a way to keep electricity prices down for other customers.
"Utilities incur costs to produce the electricity that they sell… [And] they pay for that through the electricity they sell," he said.
Whenever someone installs a solar panel on their home, for example, they buy less electricity. But the cost to the utility — for the energy infrastructure and its maintenance — stays the same. That forces the utility to raise the price of electricity for its remaining customers.
"No decision has been made as to whether or not to do this, because there's a competing issue there where if you allow more self-generation, you also end up increasing electricity rates."
The territory's 2030 energy strategy says turning diesel into electricity in communities that aren't connected to hydroelectric grids creates 72 kilotonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year. That's the equivalent of consuming 596,475 barrels of oil, according to Canada's greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator.
In order to reach its goal of reducing overall emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, the territory has to reduce its emissions by another 283 kilotonnes. In the 2020-21 fiscal year, the territory reduced its emissions by just 3.6 kilotonnes.
Sexton said the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from diesel generators, the need to keep electricity as affordable as possible, and the need to let people offset their bills by generating their own renewable power is a "balancing act."
In an effort to figure out a way forward, Sexton said the territory also commissioned recent studies on electric vehicles and a net-metering program (which compensates people for adding renewable energy to the grid) so the territory can consider its power needs at the same time.
The current energy action plan expires at the end of March, he noted, and the upcoming action plan — to be released in 2023 — "will have some answers as to what we're going to do with all of this."
Canada's nuclear waste body ousted liaison for being 'too much on the side of the community,' lawsuit claims
Colin Butler
A former employee of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is suing the Canadian agency for $320,000, claiming he was "publicly humiliated" when he was constructively dismissed for being "too much on the side of the community."
The NWMO is a non-profit agency funded by the nuclear industry. Its goal is to find a willing host community for the country's growing stockpile of nuclear waste.
Currently, the agency is considering the Ontario communities of Ignace and South Bruce for a proposed deep geological repository, a sprawling $23-billion catacomb that would one day act as the tomb for Canada's 3.3 million bundles of spent nuclear fuel that are currently in interim storage.
In South Bruce, the agency has been accused by a citizens' group of using its financial might to groom the declining farm community into becoming a willing host for a nuclear waste storage site. The NWMO has told CBC News it only wants to leave "a positive legacy" in the community to make South Bruce a better place, regardless of its decision.
Now, in a lawsuit filed in a Toronto court in August, Paul Austin alleges he was constructively dismissed by the NWMO for being "too much on the side of the community."
None of the allegations have been tested in court. Exec says local leaders lacked 'capacity to understand' project
Austin, 62, was a relationship manager for the NWMO in South Bruce from May 2012 until he considered himself to be constructively dismissed in August 2021, according to court filings.
His job, says the statement of claim, was to be the "primary contact' with the NWMO in South Bruce, acting as a "trusted adviser, co-ordinator of resources" and "guide" to local town and band council officials "through the siting process."
Court filings for the plaintiff said senior leaders within the NWMO started to become "overly involved" on a local level in the summer of 2020, undermining Austin's work.
When community leaders in South Bruce complained, one executive told Austin he was "too much on the side of the community," that its leadership "lacked the capacity to understand" the nuclear waste site selection process and "were damaging their chances at being selected as host for the project," according to the lawsuit.
At one point, the statement of claim says, Austin was told by a senior executive that "if community leaders didn't change their ways, he would stop defending South Bruce to the NWMO president and other vice-presidents, and 'let the project go to Ignace.'" Austin could 'simply quit if he wanted to'
The NWMO also created a position for a new "site director" who would "basically be the face of the NWMO in the community" and would take over many of the responsibilities of a relationship manager, according to the statement of claim.
The agency further eroded Austin's responsibilities in the spring of 2021, the court documents allege, overriding and rejecting some of his decisions when it came to community engagement.
When Austin complained to his boss and human resources about the change in his role and responsibilities in July 2021, court documents said he was told by the NWMO that it felt no changes had occurred and he could "simply quit if he wanted to." Austin claims dismissal 'publicly humiliated' him
At the same time, community leaders in South Bruce began asking questions about why Austin had been sidelined from his roles and responsibilities in the community, court documents said.
When Austin reported the community feedback to his bosses, Austin was accused of being "arbitrary, discourteous and inaccurate in his accounting of the facts," the claim says.
In August 2021, Austin advised the NWMO through his lawyer "he considered himself constructively dismissed" effective Aug. 17 that year.
Austin claims the NWMO's actions were "harsh, vindictive, reprehensible and malicious," and the organization's actions have caused him to be "publicly humiliated" and and suffer "mental distress."
Court documents say Austin is asking for wrongful dismissal damages of $270,000, with another $50,000 in punitive and moral damages.
CBC News spoke with Austin's lawyer, Phillip White, on Friday.
"As this matter is currently before the courts, I am unable to comment," White said.
In its court filings, the NWMO denies the allegations, arguing the changes to Austin's role and responsibilities as relationship manager were part of the evolution of the site selection process, and he was told by the agency that his work was valued.
The organization argues that because Austin left his post voluntarily, he is not entitled to severance.
"While we fundamentally disagree with the allegations it would be inappropriate to comment on a matter before the courts," Michelle Dassinger, the NWMO's director of communications wrote in an email to CBC News Friday.
"As an organization we value fairness, honesty, integrity and respect and apply these values to everything we do."
‘Moderate’ Has Become The Most Meaningless Term In Politics
"Moderate" Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). (TPM Illustration/Getty Images)
News outlets trot out the term every time Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) make headlines: “moderates.”
Usually, these lawmakers are rating coverage and earning the moniker for bucking the party, or throwing some kind of obstacle in the path of their leaders’ agenda. Progressive politicians and Democratic constituents alike routinely bristle at the characterization of their party’s most obstinate members.
“Referring to the small handful of conservative Democrats working to block the president’s agenda as ‘moderates’ does grave harm to the English language and unfairly maligns my colleagues who are actually moderate yet by and large understand the stakes of this historic moment,” Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) said recently.
But it’s not just Democrats. Yes, “moderate” Democrats are simply the Democrats who most annoy their party, regardless of their policy prescriptions. But those Republicans described as “moderate” are simply those who annoy former President Trump, regardless of their political ideology. “Moderate” voters don’t seem to share any common set of characteristics either.
It is a term freighted with connotation, and savvy politicians and voters have each long grasped that rhetorical work it does well enough to describe themselves with it. But in both cases, the word itself has become hopelessly squishy and largely devoid of any substantive meaning. In 2021, it says much more about how our politicians and voters want to be perceived than it does about what they actually believe.
As the two major parties have become increasingly homogenous in terms of their members’ policy positions, “moderate” has become more of a relational term than a policy descriptor.
“It’s used by members who need some distance from their national party,” Francis Lee, professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University, told TPM.
For Manchin certainly, showing West Virginia voters that he’s not a rubber stamp for the Democratic agenda aligns with his political reality. The state voted for former President Donald Trump with a whopping 69 percent of the vote in 2020. Though it has a Democratic senator, it was second only to Wyoming in its near-complete loyalty to the Republican presidential candidate.
Unlike Manchin, Sinema lacks an obvious political rationale to routinely contradict her party. Hailing from a purple state that President Joe Biden won in 2020 — and contrasting sharply with a much more typical battleground state lawmaker in her fellow Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) — Sinema has still, for some reason, staked her political wellbeing on tacking very publicly to the party’s right.
Where the two align is in messaging: They both want to signal to their home-state voters that they are not loyal Democratic foot soldiers. But a clue to the substantive emptiness of the “moderate” descriptor they share is how little they have in common otherwise.
Over the past few months, both have used the veto power every Democratic senator has in the evenly-split chamber ruthlessly, and often — but rarely over the same policy issue. Manchin took an axe to major climate change programs; Sinema supports them. Sinema blocked the party from collecting more taxes from the very wealthy; Manchin is all for upping taxes on the rich.
Further proof of the term’s divorce from any policy meaning comes from the Republican party, which has been jerked sharply to the right under the Trump presidency.
There, the crop of “moderates” usually includes lawmakers like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY). They are people, in short, who are unfriendly to Trump, the leader of their party, and to much of the anti-democracy propaganda he peddles. But ideologically, they often hew closely to the basic beliefs that long comprised the Republican worldview.
“They are labeled as moderates even though a lot of them occupy a more conservative ideological space than Trump himself,” Alex Theodoridis, associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told TPM. “Trump is all over the place ideologically; people like Liz Cheney or Ben Sasse or Mitt Romney are not.”
Part of the reason that the word has come to describe lawmakers’ willingness to buck their parties rather than their ideology or stance on policy is that there is no cohesive moderate voting bloc for these politicians to represent.
Voters who call themselves moderates have as little in common as the politicians that do the same. Often, they only look moderate because they hold a cornucopia of policy positions plucked from both parties. But these policy positions are often quite extreme.
“When we took a survey, the most popular position on immigration was to militarize the border, a very extreme conservative position, and the most popular position on marijuana was to completely legalize it at the national level — a relatively strong liberal position,” Doug Ahler, assistant professor of political science at Florida State University, told TPM.
An example from Ahler’s coauthor David Broockman about how moderate labelling can be misleading. A person with one extreme conservative and extreme liberal view is a “moderate.” A person with two milder conservative views is “very conservative.”
Political science, Ahler said, hasn’t focused much on the extremity of each position voters hold in favor of capturing a comprehensive, and misleading picture. In his research, Ahler and coauthor David Broockman found that 71.3 percent of self-described moderates had at least one extreme policy position. Like moderate politicians, these voters don’t fit neatly into either party box. But that doesn’t mean they have much in common with each other, or a general coherent ideological philosophy a lawmaker could campaign to represent.
So the word “moderate” is not shorthand for policy positions or ideological beliefs or, really, anything at all. It’s simply a signal about how politicians and voters want to be perceived in relation to those around them. And for certain politicians, it does the extra work of painting them as independent from a party some of their base may distrust.
“It sounds kind of responsible,” Georgia State University political science professor Jennifer McCoy said. “If you’re moderate, you’re not extreme. It’s an attractive label that’s fairly meaningless in content.”
Kate Riga (@Kate_Riga24) is a D.C. reporter for TPM and a contributor to the Josh Marshall Podcast.
© Colin Butler/CBC News This bright yellow sign was erected by protesters in Teeswater, Ont., a small farming town in the municipality of South Bruce, one of two sites where the NWMO is considering storing Canada's stockpile of used nuclear fuel.
