Prosecutor Seeks Jail Terms Over Banksy Work Theft From Paris Attack Site


By AFP News
06/10/22 

French prosecutors on Friday sought prison terms for eight men accused of stealing a Banksy artwork painted on the door of the Bataclan concert venue in Paris to honour 90 people killed in the 2015 terror attacks.

The seven French defendants and one Italian are suspected of removing the metal door from the building before dawn in January 2019 and transporting it to Italy.

It was decorated in 2018 with the stencil of a mournful young woman by the anonymous British street artist, giving it an estimated value of up to one million euros ($1.1 million).

Prosecutor Valerie Cadignan told the court Friday that the three men who had confessed to the theft should be given three or four years.

She said the suspected mastermind of the heist, Mehdi Meftah, should be sentenced to three years in prison with an additional three-year suspended sentence, and fined 150,000 euros.

The prosecutor recommended 18-month prison sentences or more for the others.
"The theft of the door sparked much emotion and great disruption of public order," the prosecutor told the court.

She acknowledged that the perpetrators had not sought to debase the memory of the attack victims, but "being aware of the priceless value of the door were looking to make a profit".

The work was found in an abandoned farmhouse in Italy

 Photo: AFP / Filippo MONTEFORTE

She said the thieves "acted like vultures, like people who steal objects without any respect for what they might represent".

A white van with concealed numberplates was seen stopping on January 26 in an alleyway running alongside the Bataclan in central Paris.

Many concertgoers fled via the same alley when the Bataclan became the focal point of France's worst ever attacks since World War II, as Islamic State group jihadists in November 2015 killed 130 people at a string of sites across the capital.

Three of those on trial, in their 30s, confessed to the theft when they were arrested, though two said they were only carrying out the orders of Meftah who was not present when the door was removed.

On the morning of the theft, three masked men climbed out of the van, cut the hinges with angle grinders powered by a generator and left within 10 minutes, in what an investigating judge called a "meticulously prepared" heist.

Investigators pieced together the door's route across France and into Italy, where it was found in June 2020 on a farm in Sant'Omero, near the Adriatic coast.

Closing defence statements are expected for later Friday, and the court is to hand down its verdict on June 23.

Meanwhile the sole surviving member of the November 2015 attack team, Salah Abdeslam, is risking a life term in prison at an ongoing marathon trial, with the verdict to be pronounced on June 29.

Scientists make ‘slightly sweaty’ robot finger with living skin

Japanese innovation thought to have potential to ‘build a new relationship between humans and robots’

The robotic finger, covered in living skin, can self-heal when covered in a collagen bandage. Photograph: Shoji Takeuchi

Hannah Devlin 

Science correspondent

THE GUARDIAN

Thu 9 Jun 2022

Japanese scientists have developed a “slightly sweaty” robotic finger covered in living skin in an advance they say brings truly human-like robots a step closer.

The finger, which was shown to be able to heal itself, is seen as an impressive technical feat that blurs the line between living flesh and machine. But scientists were divided on whether people would warm to its lifelike anatomy or find it creepy.

“We are surprised by how well the skin tissue conforms to the robot’s surface,” said Shoji Takeuchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo, who led the work. “But this work is just the first step toward creating robots covered with living skin.”

The team argue that more lifelike humanoids would be able to interact with people more naturally in a range of roles, including in nursing care and the service industry.

“I think living skin is the ultimate solution to give robots the look and touch of living creatures since it is exactly the same material that covers animal bodies,” Takeuchi said. He added that such advances had the potential to “build a new relationship between humans and robots”.

The human-like appearance of the mechanical finger may trigger a sense of revulsion known as the ‘uncanny valley’ effect, say experts. Photograph: Shoji Takeuchi

Scientists have previously produced skin grafts – sheets of skin that can be stitched together in reconstructive surgery, for instance – but have struggled to create living skin on three-dimensional, dynamic objects.

In the latest work, the team first submerged the robotic finger in a cylinder filled with a solution of collagen and human dermal fibroblasts, the two main components that make up the skin’s connective tissues. These coated the surface like a paint primer, providing a seamless layer for the next coat of cells – human epidermal keratinocytes – to stick to. Bending the finger back and forth caused natural-looking wrinkles to develop on the knuckles and when wounded, the crafted skin could self-heal like humans’ with the help of a collagen bandage and, according to the scientists, feels like normal skin.

The finger is a work in progress: its skin is much weaker than natural skin and has to be kept moist as without a circulatory system the cells would die if they dried out. Its movements are also distinctly mechanical.

“The finger looks slightly sweaty straight out of the culture medium,” said Takeuchi. “Since the finger is driven by an electric motor, it is also interesting to hear the clicking sounds of the motor in harmony with a finger that looks just like a real one.”

However, experts say that it is this combination of very lifelike and mechanical that can trigger a sense of revulsion, known as the “uncanny valley” effect.

Dr Burcu Ürgen, of Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, said: “It is possible that the human-like appearance [of some robots] induces certain expectations but when they do not meet those expectations, they are found eerie or creepy.”

Prof Fabian Grabenhorst, a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford who also studies the so-called uncanny valley effect, said: “It seems like a fantastic technological innovation.”

He agreed that people might have an initial negative reaction to the mixture of human and robot features, but said research showed this response could shift depending on interactions with a robot. “Initially people might find it weird, but through positive experiences that might help people overcome these feelings.”

The team now plans to incorporate more sophisticated functional structures within the skin, such as sensory neurons, hair follicles, nails and sweat glands. They are also working on a skin-covered robotic face. The advance is described in the journal Matter.

 

Somalia to lift Kenyan khat ban as ties improve

Hillary ORINDE
Fri, June 10, 2022


Somalia has agreed to lift a two-year ban on air shipments of khat from Kenya as part of a new trade deal, a Kenyan minister announced Friday, a further sign of rekindled ties after several years of tensions.

The move comes after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta attended the inauguration of Somalia's newly elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Thursday, signalling a shift away from the frosty relations under the previous government in Mogadishu.

Ties have been dogged by a long-running maritime border dispute as well as Somali accusations of Kenyan meddling in its affairs, while Nairobi has accused Mogadishu of using it as a scapegoat for its own political and security problems

Kenyan Agriculture Minister Peter Munya announced that Nairobi would resume exports of khat or miraa, a mildly narcotic leaf popular in Somalia, while its Indian Ocean neighbour was looking to sell fish and other products to Kenya.

He said the agreements would be signed within two weeks.

The ban imposed in March 2020 led to a loss of more than 50 tonnes of Kenyan khat a day valued at around six million shillings ($50,000), according to Kimathi Munjuri, chairman of the Nyambene Miraa Traders Association in central Kenya.

The two countries will also complete an aviation agreement on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Nairobi on Tuesday, Munya said.

- 'Prosper together' -

Somalia severed diplomatic ties with Kenya in December 2020 after Nairobi hosted the political leadership of Somaliland, a breakaway region not recognised by the central government in Mogadishu.

They agreed to reset relations when Somalia's Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble held talks with Kenyatta in August 2021.

"A peaceful and prosperous Federal Republic of Somalia is the dream of every Kenyan," Kenyatta said at Mohamud's inauguration.

"Your brothers and sisters in Kenya look forward to working with you so that we can all benefit economically and prosper together."

Kenyan exports to Somalia of 13 billion shillings (over $110 million) accounted for nearly five percent of its total exports to African countries in 2021, according to government data released last month.

Imports from Somalia meanwhile were just 106 million shillings ($905,000) last year, the data showed.

Kenya and Somalia share a 680-kilometre (420-mile) land border and have been locked in a dispute for years over a potentially oil-and-gas rich chunk of the Indian Ocean.

In October 2021, the UN's top court handed control of most of the area to Somalia but Kenya rejected the ruling.

Kenya is a major contributor of troops to the African Union military operation against the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab fighters waging a violent insurgency across Somalia.

txw-ho/amu/ri

Khat drug profile

https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/drug-profiles/khat_en

Khat (also known as qat or chat) comprises the leaves and fresh shoots of Catha edulis Forsk, a flowering evergreen shrub cultivated in East Africa and the ...

Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology of Khat (Catha Edulis) 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905534

Khat is a natural stimulant from the Catha edulis plant that is cultivated in the Republic of Yemen and most of the countries of East Africa. Its young buds and ...

Khat - Uses, Side Effects, and More - WebMD

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-536/khat

Khat is a plant. The leaves and stem have been traditionally chewed by people in East African countries as a recreational drug to elevate mood (as a ...

170,000 join in Tel Aviv Pride Parade

DPA -

Tens of thousands participated in the Gay Pride Parade in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Friday.

The parade in support of equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community drew a crowd of around 170,000 people, according to the organizers.

In advance of the event, organizers had hoped for up to 250,000 participants, which would have been a return to the numbers seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Even unvaccinated tourists can travel to Israel again, whereas last year only a limited number of vaccinated tourists were allowed to enter the country to attend the parade.

In 2020, it was cancelled altogether due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the motto "Back to Pride," people danced to music and waved the rainbow flags symbolic of the LGBT movement in 30-degree heat.

According to the city administration, Australian rapper Iggy Azalea and DJs, including Boris from the famous Berlin techno club Berghain, will perform at the closing party.


© DPA

Police officers secure the annual Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv. 

Ilia Yefimovich/dpa




© DPA

Participants take part in the annual Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv. 

Ilia Yefimovich/dpa

Over 170,000 Israelis march in Tel Aviv 2022 Pride Parade

By TAMAR URIEL-BEERI AND JERUSALEM POST STAFF - 
© (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

Tel Aviv Pride Parade 2022 kicked off with a bang on Friday morning with hundreds of thousands in attendance, donned in rainbows and glitter.

Several warnings were issued prior to the event as the heat in Tel Aviv reached new heights, with serious concern that attendees would overheat or become dehydrated.

Nevertheless, some 170,000 in attendance dressed to impress, with drag queens as tall as the heavens left and right and proud couples marching hand-in-hand.

The parade began near the Sporteque on Rokach Boulevard, where flags, hats, stickers and more were distributed.

Then, the parade began, making its way down Rokach to a massive performance area in Ganei Yehoshua within Yarkon Park.


© Provided by The Jerusalem Post

Tel Aviv Pride Parade 2022. 

(credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

This is not the traditional parade route; throughout the past decade, the event began at Gan Meir and made its way down to the famed Tel Aviv beach.

"For the first time in 20 years, the Pride March route is running through here; there is nothing more exciting than that," said Transportation Minister and Labor head Merav Michaeli.

A spokesperson for the Tel Aviv mayor's office estimated over 170,000 people participated. Attendance in 2019 was around 250,000, while last year saw some 100,000 revellers, in the city's first Pride event since the Covid-19 pandemic 

RONALDO SCHEMIDT AFP

"But," she added, "as happy as we are here today, it's important to remember those who are not here, because they are being silenced into fear. We will not allow them!"

Michaeli pointed to the drones above the crowd, noting the transportation ministry's dedication to public protection and leading position in public drone use.

Revellers in colourful outfits celebrated in the sweltering heat, waving rainbow flags and dancing to electronic music as floats slowly drove through the streets of Tel Aviv RONALDO SCHEMIDT AFP

"As the sitting leader of the Labor party, I am telling you: Labor is your home! Labor knows that equality is a non-negotiable right that applies to everyone."

Some of the artists performing on the main stage at the huge party are Agam Buhbut, Anna Zak, Harel Skaat, Zehava Ben, Jasmin Moallem, Raviv Kanner Liran Daninno and more.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

Climate: Africa's energy future on a knife's edge


Marlowe HOOD
Fri, June 10, 2022



With more than half its population lacking mains electricity and still using charcoal and other damaging sources for cooking, Africa's energy future –- torn between fossil fuels and renewables -- is up for grabs.

As nations discuss the climate crisis at the UN's mid-year negotiations in Bonn, AFP spoke to Mohamed Adow, founder of think tank Power Shift Africa, about the forces pulling the continent in opposing directions.

The stakes, he warns, are global.

Q. You have said rich nations owe the rest of the world a climate debt

"The prosperity they enjoy was, in effect, subsidised by the rest of the world because they polluted without paying the cost for doing so.

"Africa is home to 17 percent of Earth's population but accounts for less than four percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions and only half-a-percent of historic emissions. The continent emits less than 1 tonne of CO2 per person, compared to seven in Europe or China, and more than 15 in the United States.

"If the least-developed continent on our planet is going to leapfrog fossil fuels to renewables, rich nations must pay the climate debt they owe."

Q. How will Africa's energy choices impact the rest of the world?

"My continent is at a crossroads with two possible futures. Africa can become a clean energy leader with decentralised renewables powering a more inclusive society and a greener economy, or it can become a large polluter that is burdened with stranded assets and economic instability.

"We have the opportunity to make a difference for Africa and for the world."

Q. US envoy John Kerry says climate change in Africa could see "hundreds of millions of people looking for a place to live." Is he right?

"Absolutely. It is important to acknowledge that climate-induced migration is a threat. As climate impacts increase, people in Africa -- where almost all agriculture is rain-fed -- will be forcefully displaced from their land.

"In wealthy nations, that is seen mostly as a security issue. But this is a humanitarian disaster in which people are already losing lives, homes and livelihoods.

"The only way to prevent climate-induced migration in the long-run is to reduce carbon pollution at the scale needed."

Q. Is the war in Ukraine affecting energy development in Africa?

"To attain energy security after Russia's invasion, Europe is effectively pushing Africa to pour its limited financial resources into developing its fossil gas extraction and export industry, primarily for consumers in Europe."

"Last month German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, during a three-day tour of Senegal, said his country wants to 'intensively pursue' projects to develop and import Senegal's huge gas reserves. Germany, of course, has been especially dependent on Russian gas.

"So now Europe wants to shackle Africa with new fossil fuel infrastructure that we know will be redundant within a few years, not to mention self-harming for the continent. And lest we forget: gas from Africa will emit the same amount of emissions as gas from Russia."

Q. What is the balance of power in Africa between fossil-fuel interests and those striving to leapfrog to renewables?

"Last month, the Sustainable Energy for All summit in (Rwandan capital) Kigali issued a communique supporting 'Africa in the deployment of gas as a transition fuel'. But only 10 out of 54 African countries signed that statement.

"I think the majority of African nations recognise the tremendous opportunity that renewables present for job creation, innovation, reduced air pollution and sustainable industrialisation. But this majority is a silent majority -- they have not yet leveraged their moral voice to make a case for a cleaner, sustainable Africa.

"There are some leaders. My country, Kenya, is currently powered by 90-percent renewable energy and has set a target of 100 percent by 2030."

Q. The trillions needed to engineer a rapid transition to renewables will not come from public sources alone. How do you mobilise private capital?

"We need to think about long-term investment security in Africa. This is the most expensive continent for securing loans or credit. We need to introduce payment guarantee schemes that are backed by international finance to facilitate safe investment in renewable energy.

"But you still need public money to leverage international investment and finance. We also have to unlock Africa's domestic sources -- public funds, sovereign wealth funds. And then there's debt. If we could swap some foreign debt for the kinds of investment Africa needs, it could make a big difference."

mh/klm/ri

WW3.0

China will 'not hesitate to start war' if Taiwan declares independence, Beijing says

AFTER BIDEN FAUX PAS

Beijing will "not hesitate to start a war" if Taiwan declares independence, China's defence minister warned his US counterpart Friday, the latest salvo between the superpowers over the island.

© Chiang Ying-ying, AP

The warning from Wei Fenghe came as he held his first face-to-face meeting with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore.

Beijing views democratic, self-ruled Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to one day seize the island, by force if necessary, and US-China tensions over the issue have soared in recent months.

Wei warned Austin that "if anyone dares to split Taiwan from China, the Chinese army will definitely not hesitate to start a war no matter the cost", defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian quoted the minister as saying during the meeting.

The Chinese minister vowed that Beijing would "smash to smithereens any 'Taiwan independence' plot and resolutely uphold the unification of the motherland", according to the Chinese defence ministry.

He "stressed that Taiwan is China's Taiwan... Using Taiwan to contain China will never prevail", the ministry said.

Austin "reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the (Taiwan) Strait, opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo, and called on (China) to refrain from further destabilising actions toward Taiwan", according to the US Department of Defense.

Tensions over Taiwan have escalated in particular due to increasing Chinese aircraft incursions into the island's air defence identification zone (ADIZ).

US President Joe Biden, during a visit to Japan last month, appeared to break decades of US policy when, in response to a question, he said Washington would defend Taiwan militarily if it is attacked by China.

The White House has since insisted its policy of "strategic ambiguity" over whether or not it would intervene has not changed.

Japan PM issues warning

With concerns mounting over China-Taiwan tensions, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida issued a stark warning at the summit: "Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow".

The world must be "prepared for the emergence of an entity that tramples on the peace and security of other countries by force or threat without honouring the rules," he said.

He did not mention China by name in his address, but repeatedly called for the "rules-based international order" to be upheld.

Austin is the latest senior US official to visit Asia as Washington seeks to shift its foreign policy focus back to the region from the Ukraine war.

As well as on Taiwan, China and the United States have been locked in a range of other disputes.

They have been at loggerheads over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Washington accusing Beijing of providing tacit support for Moscow.

China has called for talks to end the war, but has stopped short of condemning Russia's actions and has repeatedly criticised American arms donations to Ukraine.

China's expansive claims in the South China Sea have also stoked tensions with Washington.

Beijing claims almost all of the resource-rich sea, through which trillions of dollars in shipping trade passes annually, with competing claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Austin arrived in Singapore late Thursday, and held a series of meetings with his counterparts on Friday.

At a meeting with Southeast Asian defence ministers, he spoke about Washington's "strategy in maintaining an open, inclusive and rules-based regional security environment", according to a statement from the Singapore government.

His comments were a veiled reference to countering China's increasing assertiveness in the region.

Austin will deliver a speech at the forum on Saturday, followed by Wei on Sunday. The summit runs from June 10 to 12 and is taking place for the first time since 2019 after twice being postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

(AFP)

China Tells Japan To Stop Playing With Fire Over Taiwan

By Panos Mourdoukoutas Ph.D.
06/09/22 

China has a few harsh words for every country that tries to tame its ambitions to dominate the South China Sea and reunite with what it calls Taipei, its breakaway prefecture.

So one day, the strong words targeted the Philippines over sovereign rights, followed by a few strong words against Vietnam the next day and against Japan, the old enemy, the third day.

In two Global Times editorials posted last week, China told Japan to stop "playing with fire on its reckless moves over [the] Taiwan question" and that Tokyo needs a "head blow to wake up."

Beijing's harsh words against Tokyo came after reports in the Japanese media that Japan is planning to step up its intelligence-gathering operation in Taiwan by having an incumbent official with the Japanese Ministry of Defense stationed in Taipei this summer.

The editorials quoted Chinese military expert and TV commentator Song Zhongping saying that "no matter the status of the Japanese military officer stationed in Taiwan, it is clear that Tokyo keeps making more and more reckless moves over the Taiwan question."

Zhongping warned Tokyo that "if it dares to provoke China and interfere in China's internal affairs, particularly the Taiwan question, it had better get ready to suffer a blow from China."

While the editorials didn't specify what kind of actions Beijing could take, it isn't hard to guess. Japan has an extensive presence in the Chinese market, both as a seller and local manufacturer of consumer and capital goods, which could be targeted by Beijing. It happened before when relations between the two countries soured, and it will happen again. And it's something Tokyo doesn't need as it tries to shake off its three decades of stagnation.

"The fundamental problem is that China has become such a big, strong, influential country in recent years, and no country could ignore its existence," Tenpao Lee, economist and professor emeritus at Niagara University, said. "They were forced to make adjustments to compete and deal with challenges created by China."

Lee thinks it is a bad idea for Japan and its allies to try to contain China by playing the Taiwan card.

"We need to excel ourselves rather than ask China to slow down. Nor do we wish for confrontations among China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet. The sanctions on Russia have demonstrated an ineffective policy to a larger country with its strengths in the global economy. Plus, China is the second-largest economy in the world, with nuclear capabilities," he explained.

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U.S. And China Likely To Trade Blows At Asian Security Meeting

What's the alternative?

"We need to acknowledge China as a partner and work with China to make the world better, peacefully," he added. "We must realize that an unstable China will make the world 10 times worse than the Russia-Ukraine war has."

Retired Vice Admiral Robert B. Murrett, professor of practice and deputy director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law, takes a different approach.

"It is difficult to overstate the critical importance of Japan with respect to security in East Asia and our overall allied posture with regard to China," he said. "Japan has gradually assumed a more vigorous posture in relations with China over the past few years, and this trend is likely to continue."

He thinks Tokyo is "unlikely to get rattled about statements from Beijing that they are 'playing with fire over Taiwan' — as they will continue to balance their economic interests with a firm policy stance on regional security issues."

Apple will let a state-owned firm control iCloud data in China. 

Photo: Daderot/Wikimedia Commons

I HAVE SAID THIS FOR YEARS

Putin compares himself to Peter the Great in quest to take back Russian lands

President draws parallel with tsar who waged war on Sweden and says campaign in Ukraine stems from ‘basic values’

01:10 Putin compares himself to Peter the Great in Russian territorial push

 – video

Andrew Roth and agencies

THE GUARDIAN

Fri 10 Jun 2022 

Vladimir Putin has compared himself to the 18th-century Russian tsar Peter the Great, drawing a parallel between what he portrayed as their twin historic quests to win back Russian lands.

“Peter the Great waged the great northern war for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He did not take anything from them, he returned [what was Russia’s],” the Russian president said on Thursday after a visiting an exhibition dedicated to the tsar.

After months of denials that Russia is driven by imperial ambitions in Ukraine, Putin appeared to embrace that mission, comparing Peter’s campaign with Russia’s current military actions.


Understanding Vladimir Putin, the man who fooled the world

“Apparently, it is also our lot to return [what is Russia’s] and strengthen [the country]. And if we proceed from the fact that these basic values form the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in solving the tasks that we face.”

Putin, now in his 23rd year in power, has repeatedly sought to justify Russia’s actions in Ukraine, where his forces have devastated cities, killed thousands and forced millions of people to flee, by propounding a view of history that asserts Ukraine has no real national identity or tradition of statehood.

A woman takes a selfie in front of a poster with an image of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg on Thursday, the 350th anniversary of his birth. Photograph: Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images

Critics said Putin’s remarks proved that his complaints about historical injustice, eastward Nato expansion, and other grievances with the west were all a facade for a traditional war of conquest.

An adviser to the Ukrainian government said the comments showed that attempts to negotiate with Putin or find an “off-ramp” from the conflict for Putin, as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has sought to do, were misguided.

“Putin’s confession of land seizures and comparing himself with Peter the Great prove: there was no ‘conflict’, only the country’s bloody seizure under contrived pretexts of people’s genocide,” said Mykhailo Podolyak. “We should not talk about [Russia] ‘saving face’, but about its immediate de-imperialisation.”

Carl Bildt, a former prime minister of Sweden, called Putin’s desire to take back lands claimed by Russia a “recipe for years of wars”.

Peter the Great, an autocratic moderniser admired by liberal and conservative Russians alike, ruled for 43 years and gave his name to a new capital, St Petersburg – Putin’s home town – that he ordered built on land he conquered from Sweden.

It was a project that cost the lives of tens of thousands of serfs, conscripted as forced labourers to build Peter’s “window to Europe” in the swamps of the Baltic Sea coast.

Before Putin’s visit to the exhibition, state television aired a documentary praising Peter the Great as a tough military leader, greatly expanding Russian territory at the expense of Sweden and the Ottoman empire with the modernised army and navy he built.

Putin denied that Russia was seeking to occupy new land in its Ukraine invasion, but the Kremlin’s actions show that is not true. Russia has steadily sought to integrate newly captured land in Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine.

Meduza, a Russian-language outlet, reported this week that the Kremlin was planning to combine all the lands into a new federal district that could be annexed by Russia as soon as this autumn. Amid rumours that new “referendums” could be held to rubber-stamp an annexation, the Kremlin has only said that it is up to those regions that are under military occupation to decide their future.

Vladimir Putin, centre, at the exhibition marking the 350th anniversary of the birth of the first Russian emperor, Peter the Great, in Moscow. Photograph: Sputnik/Reuters

In recent years, Putin’s interest in Russian history has loomed ever larger in his public appearances.

In April 2020, as Russia entered its first coronavirus lockdown, he drew bemusement in some quarters when, during a televised address to the nation, he compared the pandemic to ninth-century Turkic nomadic invasions of medieval Russia.

In July 2021, the Kremlin published an almost 7,000-word essay by Putin, entitled “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, in which he argued that Russia and Ukraine were one nation, artificially divided. It laid the groundwork for his deployment of troops to Ukraine in February.

The west’s calls for a total victory in Ukraine can lead only to ruinous escalation

Simon Jenkins

Moscow attempted to justify its war in Ukraine by saying it was sending troops over the border to disarm and “denazify” its neighbour, an unfounded claim.

In the run-up to the launch of what Russia calls its “special military operation”, Putin blamed Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, for creating Ukraine on what Putin said was historically Russian territory, and for planting the seed of the USSR’s eventual collapse.

By contrast, the Russian leader offered cautious praise for Joseph Stalin for creating “a tightly centralised and absolutely unitary state”, even as he acknowledged the Soviet dictator’s record of “totalitarian” repression.

Putin has a history of praising leaders sharing his own conservative views, including tsar Alexander III and pre-revolutionary prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, both of whom have had monuments in their honour erected across the country.

Meanwhile, leaders seen as antithetical to a strong, unitary Russian state – including Lenin and Nikita Khrushchev – have seen their contributions played down.

“Putin, celebrating the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great’s birth, is confused about history again,” wrote Andrei Kolesnikov, a Russian political analyst. “Peter the Great has opened a window to Europe, Putin is hammering it up with rotten planks from the time of Ivan the Terrible.”

Reuters contributed to this report

Putin undermined his own rationale for invading Ukraine, admitting that the war is to expand Russian territory

Bill Bostock

Fri, June 10, 2022,

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.MIKHAIL METZEL/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images

• Putin said on Thursday that the Ukraine invasion is about expanding Russian territory.

• Until now Putin had insisted that Russia was freeing Ukraine from so-called Nazis and preventing genocide.

• Putin said it was his destiny to "return and reinforce" Russia as the 17th-century ruler Peter the Great did.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said publicly for the first time Thursday that his invasion of Ukraine is about expanding Russian territory, as Western leaders have long maintained.

To date, Putin has justified the invasion by saying, baselessly, that he is preventing Ukraine and what he described as a neo-Nazi government from committing genocide against ethnic Russians. He has also said that NATO's eastward expansion threatens Russia's national security.

Speaking to students Thursday after visiting an exhibition about Peter the Great, Russia's first emperor credited with making the country a major power in the early 18th century, Putin compared himself to the ruler and said they were both destined to expand Russia.

"Clearly, it fell to our lot to return and reinforce [Russia] as well. And if we operate on the premise that these basic values constitute the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in achieving our goals," he said.

As well as seizing territory in a 21-year war with Sweden in the late 17th century, Peter also captured the territory of Azov from Crimean Tatars, who were aligned with Turkey, in 1696, and seized territory on the Caspian Sea from Persia in 1723.

"On the face of it, he was at war with Sweden taking something away from it," Putin said of Peter. "He was returning and reinforcing, that is what he was doing."

In a tweet Friday, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Putin's comments prove his "contrived pretexts of people's genocide" in Ukraine were false and demanded "immediate de-imperialization" of Russia.

Putin's attempts to expand Russian territory started long before his invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Putin invaded Georgia in 2008 and is currently backing pro-Kremlin factions there. In 2014, it annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and invaded the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine via proxies that same year.

Just two days before invading Ukraine, Putin said claims he wanted to restore the Russian empire were false.

However, Western leaders have long maintained that this was not the case.

"He has much larger ambitions than Ukraine. He wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union. That's what this is about," President Joe Biden said on February 24, the first day of the invasion.

Ukraine war sparks debate over Finland’s ‘Achilles heel’

The region's unique status is the object of intense debate since the Russian invasion of Ukraine - Copyright AFP/File TIMOTHY A. CLARY

Elias HUUHTANEN

By AFP
Published June 10, 2022

Sprayed between Sweden and Finland, the autonomous Aland Islands are a picturesque archipelago once part of Russia and demilitarised since 1856.

But the region’s unique status is the object of intense debate since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rattled neighbouring Finland into applying for NATO membership in May.

Under international treaties signed after the Crimean War, no troops or fortifications can be placed on the strategic Baltic Sea islands.

“It is the Achilles’ heel of Finland’s defence,” Alpo Rusi, a professor and former presidential advisor, told AFP.

Home to about 30,000 mostly Swedish-speaking Finns, the area is characterised by rocky islands, lush green forests, old stone churches and wooden architecture — all under the watchful eye of a Russian consulate.

“We have always thought, ‘Who would want to attack us when we have nothing worth taking?’,” 81-year-old Ulf Grussner told AFP.

“But that has changed with Putin’s war on Ukraine”, said the pensioner, one of many here who want Aland to remain demilitarised.

In June, a poll showed 58 percent of Finns would approve of a military presence on Aland, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of its autonomy on Thursday.

“There is concern over whether Finland could react fast enough militarily in the event of a sudden intrusion on Aland,” Rusi said.

Armies wrestled for control of the archipelago in both World Wars.

“Why should we trust the idea … that troops would not rush to control Aland as fast as possible,” said Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.

– Aland rejects troops –

Alanders, on the other hand, are keen to protect their special status and have so far firmly rejected the idea of ending the demilitarisation.

“Why should we change it? I think it’s a stabilising factor in the Baltic Sea area that we are demilitarised,” Veronica Thornroos, 59, premier of the Aland government, told AFP.

Besides, if the archipelago were attacked, Finland would defend it “very quickly”, she said.

The Finnish government has said it has no intention of touching Aland’s special status.

Sia Spiliopoulou Akermark, director of the Aland Peace Institute, meanwhile noted that the “Aland regime” of autonomy, cultural guarantees and demilitarisation is a “complex knot” that should be considered as a whole.

– Russian presence –

Like the rest of Finland, Aland was part of the Russian empire from 1809 to 1917.

At the time, the archipelago was viewed as an important outpost in the defence of Saint Petersburg and control of the Baltic Sea.

Finland gained independence from Russia in 1917, and was granted sovereignty over Aland in 1921 despite protests from the islands’ Swedish-speaking majority.

The Nordic country went on to fight two bloody wars against the Soviet Union during World War II.

As part of their peace deal, the demilitarisation of Aland was to be monitored by a Soviet consulate in the archipelago’s main town of Mariehamn.

The consulate still exists to this day, although it is now run by Russia.

A group of locals gather every day outside the high metal fence protecting the consulate, to protest Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“They have no business being here. Russia is always a threat”, one of the protestors, Mosse Wallen, 71, told AFP.

– Putin’s property –

Russia also owns a seaside property north of Mariehamn in Saltvik, which was acquired in the 1947 peace deal.

“They gave my mother three days to move out”, said Ulf Grussner, whose idyllic childhood home is now fenced in by the consulate.

Grussner’s father was a German geologist, and the peace deal stipulated that all German possessions in Finland were to be ceded to the Soviets.

In 2009, ownership of a piece of the property was transferred to the Russian presidency.

Concern has mounted in Finland in recent years over Russian property deals across the country.

Grussner feared that Russia might intend to use his family’s property and the demilitarisation as a “pretext” to increase its presence in the area.

“It is far-fetched, but on the other hand it’s not impossible,” he said.

POPULAR FRONT REDUX
French left seeks comeback against Macron in parliamentary polls

Issued on: 10/06/2022 - 

Jean-Luc Melenchon narrowly missed out on the second round of the April presidential vote but now leads the broad left-wing coalition NUPES 

Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT AFP

Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois (France) (AFP) – France's first left-wing alliance in 25 years is on a mission to block centrist President Emmanuel Macron's plans for pro-business reforms by winning a big chunk of seats in this month's parliamentary polls.

Hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon narrowly missed out on the second round of the April presidential vote, but is determined for a rematch as he leads the freshly-formed New Ecological and Social Popular Union (NUPES) coalition into battle.

Comprising Melenchon's France Unbowed (LFI) party, as well as the Greens, Communists, and Socialists, the alliance deal hopes to thwart Macron's domestic agenda, in particular the plan to raise the retirement age to 65.

"Nothing was decided (in the presidential elections)," Melenchon told around 100 supporters at Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, a small town to the south of Paris, on Tuesday.

Macron beat far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the second round with 58.55 percent of the vote, but Melenchon and his allies argue many voters backed Macron in the second round just to stop the far-right from acceding to power.

Immediately after the second round, Melenchon asked voters to elect him prime minister by handing him a majority in the parliamentary polls, a two-round election on June 12 and 19.

A majority of seats for NUPES would force a clunky "cohabitation" -- where the prime minister and president hail from different factions.

For the past two decades, elected presidents have avoided such a scenario and been rewarded with a majority of the 577 seats in the lower-house National Assembly.

-'End hell'-

But an opinion poll published Thursday shows Macron's alliance Ensemble (Together) winning between 260 and 300 seats, potentially falling short of an absolute majority, for which 289 seats are needed.

According to the Ipsos Sopra Steria poll, NUPES may win between 175 and 215, turning the left coalition into the main force of opposition to Macron.

"There is a need for change," said a Socialist city councillor who asked not to be named at the meeting in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

"The NUPES in power would bring a breath of fresh air -- the voice of working class areas, of young people," she added.

Held in a park surrounded by social housing, the meeting with Melenchon in Essonne aimed to whip up support for NUPES candidates in a department where the parties now part of the coalition failed to win any constituencies in 2017.

"He (Melenchon) speaks with the heart, he goes straight to the point," Ali, 52, who asked for his last name not to be used, told AFP. He lives in the area and defines himself as "an immigrant but also French".

"What we offer is another vision of the world, of society," Melenchon told supporters in Paris last week.

"I'm not saying we will create a paradise from one day to the next, but I guarantee we will immediately put an end to hell," he added.

-'Gaul Chavez'-

The French perceive Melenchon as having "all the criteria of a populist candidate: a discourse that speaks to them tinged with demagogy," said head of studies for the Paris-based think tank Jean Jaures Foundation Jeremie Peltier in a report.

"Jean-Luc Melenchon is a Gaul Chavez," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire recently told French daily Le Figaro, referring to Venezuela's since deceased leader Hugo Chavez.

The NUPES left-wing coalition is made up of Melenchon's France Unbowed party, the Greens, Communists and Socialists 

Sameer Al-DOUMY AFP/File

The former Marxist came under fire this week for tweeting "the police kill", after officers shot a woman dead in a car in northern Paris Saturday after the vehicle failed to stop when summoned by officers.

But Melenchon defended his comments and congratulated himself for sparking debate on the use of force by the police in France through what he said was a deliberately provocative tweet.

Criticism of Melenchon also emanates from the left, in particular from some of his former Socialist colleagues -- despite the presence of the Socialist Party (PS) in the coalition.

Melenchon left the PS in 2008 to form his own movement, the Left Party, and his rise on the left has been a bitter pill to swallow for some in his former party, attached to a left-of-centre politics at odds with Melenchon's radical brand.

In the context of a "low intensity campaign", abstention will play a crucial role in the vote, said political sociologist Vincent Tiberj from Sciences Po Bordeaux University.

"When an election fails to mobilise people, it affects those who only vote occasionally -- such as the working classes and the young -- and thus voters of the far-right National Rally and NUPES," he added.

© 2022 AFP

Lost photos from Spanish civil war reveal daily life behind anti-fascist lines

Rediscovered work by two Jewish women has gone on display in Madrid for first time

Anarchist Fighters Aragón, March 1937

. Photograph: Kati Horna / IISH / Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica

by Guy Lane
Fri 10 Jun 2022

Photographs by two Jewish female photographers who worked behind anti-fascist lines during the Spanish civil war have gone on display in Madrid after 80 years. For decades the negatives and prints, many of which have never been published, were believed to be lost or destroyed. They are now on show in the capital for the first time.

As the Spanish civil war neared a conclusion in 1939, anarchists of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo and Federación Anarquista Ibérica (CNT-FAI) fighting in Barcelona took steps to preserve records of their struggle and achievements. Apprehensive of the war’s outcome, they sealed documents and 2,300 photographs, 5,000 negatives and almost 300 photographic plates in 48 wooden crates, which they smuggled out of the city away from the fascist bombardment, destined for the safe haven of the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam.


Barcelona, 1936. 

Photograph: Margaret Michaelis / IISH / National Gallery of Australia

Years later, having travelled via Paris, Harrogate and Oxford, the crates, known as the Amsterdam boxes, duly arrived. They remained sealed while the anarchists pursued undercover lives during the decades of the Franco regime. When they were finally opened in the 1980s the records and documents inside were inventoried but the photographic material was overlooked.

One of the Amsterdam boxes on display in Madrid

Now, thanks to the detective work of the art historian and curator Almudena Rubio, who has been researching the IISH archive since 2015, it has become possible to identify the output of two foreign photographers, both Jewish women, who travelled to Spain to take sides in the war: Margaret Michaelis, of Polish-Austrian descent, and Kati Horna, from Hungary and a friend of the photojournalist Robert Capa, a compatriot.

Anarchist fighters. Photograph: Margaret Michaelis / IISH / National Gallery of Australia

Michaelis had studied photography in Vienna in the 1920s and went on to work in Berlin until she and her husband, a prominent anarchist, were arrested on separate occasions by the Nazis.

After his release, the couple moved to Barcelona in 1933, where she established her own studio and worked as a portraitist and advertising and architecture photographer.

CNT-FAI street activity in Barcelona, 1936

Photograph: Margaret Michaelis / IISH / National Gallery of Australia

After the outbreak of the civil war Michaelis worked for the foreign propaganda office of the anarchists and contributed pictures to the newly established propaganda commissariat of Catalunya, which sought to maintain morale while encouraging anti-fascist action.

Emma Goldman visits Albalate de Cinca in Aragón. 

Photograph: Margaret Michaelis / IISH / National Gallery of Australia

Among Michaelis’s newly published pictures, all shot with a Leica, are scenes of street actions in Barcelona by anarchist militants; views of daily life in Albalate de Cinca and Valencia; reportage from a visit to L’Alcora, a village that had abolished the use of money; rare photographs of the veteran anarchist Emma Goldman (memorably branded by J Edgar Hoover “the most dangerous woman in America”); and the arrival of the British Red Cross in Portbou.

A collectivised church in Aragón converted into a carpentry workshop. 

Photograph: Kati Horna / IISH / Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. 

Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica

As Michaelis left Spain, Horna arrived in January 1937. She, too, was a trained photographer, and had left Germany in 1933. On arrival in Spain after four years in Paris, she committed herself to the social revolution, working for the foreign propaganda office of the anarchists.
 

Anarchist vehicles of the CNT-FAI in Barcelona, 1937.

Children in Barcelona, 1937. 

Photographs: Kati Horna / IISH / Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. 

Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica

She soon established herself as the official photographer of the SPA, an anarchist photo agency, and her pictures were published in such anarchist titles as Umbral, Mujeres Libres and Tierra y libertad.

Horna’s work, like Michaelis’s, was designed to support the social revolution and counteract Francoist propaganda that attempted to discredit the anti-fascist movement. Rolleiflex in hand, she visited a camp set up to look after children removed from the war zone; she recorded humane and sanitary conditions in a prison in Modelo; she pictured a collectivised church in Aragón converted into a carpentry workshop; she saw villagers having free haircuts at a collectivised barbershop; she scrambled through a trench on the Aragón front.

Rubio, whose painstaking research has unearthed the photographs, has no doubts about their importance. “The legacy of the work of Michaelis and Horna is unique, precisely because it shows us the rearguard revolutionary experience, neglected by official historiography, that was instigated by the anarchists of the CNT-FAI. At the same time, it allows us to reconstruct in more detail the life of the two photographers during the civil war, and better to appreciate their work in antifascist Spain.”

In the trenches on the Aragón front,fighters on the Aragón front, 1937. 

Photographs: Kati Horna / IISH / Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica

Both photographers believed their work had been lost or destroyed in the ruins of Franco’s bombs. Now, for the first time, the pictures are seeing the light of day.

The Amsterdam Boxes: Kati Horna and Margaret Michaelis in the Civil War is at the Calcografía Nacional in Madrid as part of PhotoEspaña until 27 July. The exhibition will travel to Huesca (Aragón) and Barcelona