Turkish miners at a loss to describe disaster that killed 41

Mourners attend the funeral Saturday for Ridvan Acet, one of the miners who died after an explosion the day before in a coal mine in Amasra, Turkey. | AFP-JIJI

BY FULYA OZERKAN
AFP-JIJI
Oct 16, 2022

AMASRA, TURKEY – Their soot-stained faces drained with exhaustion, Turkish miners are at a loss to describe the disaster that killed their friends in Friday’s coal mine explosion.

“Words are not enough,” said Erdogan Yanardag, who was on a day shift at the moment when the blast ripped through the mine near the small mining town of Amasra on Turkey’s Black Sea coast shortly before sunset.

The 43-year-old rushed to the scene to help the rescue effort, working through the night to stretcher survivors pulled out of the mine.

The coal stains on his clothes testified to hours of nonstop effort.

“Everyone grabbed the stretchers, some at the back, some in the middle and some at the front,” he said.

No matter where in the world it occurs, it is impossible for families to remain indifferent in the face of a disaster such as this, Yanardag said.

“Anyone who heard about the explosion — the miners’ families, neighbors and relatives — rushed here,” he added.

Such (accidents) are “in the DNA of mining.”

Yanardag and others were struck with grief over the death of the miners — 41 in total.

Preliminary findings indicate a build-up of methane gas underground may have been to blame, authorities said.

Adem Usluoglu, who works for another mine in the region, heard the news on his way home from work and ran to help the rescue effort.

“People were burned to death or seriously wounded by the force of the explosion. It’s a huge disaster,” he said.

“I am in great pain. … We are at a point where words are not enough. Our throats gets stuck and our tongues are unable to get around the words,” he said.

“We don’t want to experience this kind of suffering again. I can’t find anything more to say.”

Around 600 workers are believed to work in the Amasra mine, which produces 300,000 to 400,000 metric tons of coal per year.

Ilyas Borekci, deputy head of the neighboring Hattat energy and mining company, a few meters from the blast scene, sent three special rescue teams to pull survivors out.

“Our friends went down the mine and stayed there four, five hours and they had to have a break after that because the methane level increased,” he said.

“The methane level was constantly monitored. The friends who went down the mine to rescue the miners had mobile devices in their hands, special breathing devices.

“Otherwise it’s not possible to go down there,” he added.

Then the rescue teams tried to contain the fire and stop it spreading.

The only way to survive such a huge explosion is to get out immediately, Borekci explained. Respirators and ventilators are only enough for about 45 minutes. Inhale too much carbon monoxide and it kills you.

“There are no pocket rooms in the mine, no life rooms,” he said.

“The best thing to do is to be able to get out as fast as possible.”

When his teams went back down the mine again, in the early hours of Saturday morning, they were faced with the tragic sight of dead bodies.

Borekci was in tears describing the scene.

The survivors, not in a position to talk, were taken to hospital. The local public prosecutor’s office has said it is treating the explosion as an accident and has launched a formal investigation.

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/10/miners-trapped-underground-after-deadly.html

China 'threat', Confucius Institutes, Xinjiang solar panels

A Beijing to Britain briefing
15 hr ago


Hello,

On Friday, Britain’s Prime Minister, Liz Truss, fired her closest ally, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, whom she had put in place to implement her economic vision. His crime? Implementing her economic vision. As Truss’s hallmark economic campaign falls apart through a series of u-turns, it’s only natural that eyes turn to her other strategies. What does a Prime Minister with no political capital, an inability to communicate genuinely useful change, and an economy in disarray now mean for Global Britain, and specifically China?

First, it means minimal bandwidth for foreign policy as a whole. It does not take a political savant to understand that strong foreign policy requires the foundations of solid governance combined with a stable economic policy. Truss has neither, and will be working with her new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to try and bring about both.

With minimal bandwidth remaining, Truss has committed to hardening the language around China. The easy option here would be to default into letting the loudest China hawks set the terms for the UK’s China Strategy, and follow the lead of the Americans. In the case of the former, the hawk’s pressure to go further on China, combined with growing anti-China public sentiment, will make it tempting to throw out red meat to shore up support. But it’s worth reflecting that few in this caucus have provided any coherent strategic policies or insights as to what they want the next chapter of the relationship to look like. Instead, an atmosphere of intolerance has built up, which has ironically created the unfortunate consequence of stifling discussion and creating self-censorship. Creating policy by playing off fear is the mark of a demagogue.

When it comes to the American approach to China, Truss has inadvertently ended up rhetorically placing the UK in an even more hawkish position towards Beijing than Washington. Her promise to classify China as a threat is more extreme than the Biden Administration’s own “challenger” classification, despite the United Kingdom not being anywhere near the level of a superpower. However, Truss may have the harsher rhetoric, but when it comes to looking at substantive action, Britain lags far behind.

A quick look at how China is being discussed in Parliament

24 mentions of China/Chinese, no mention of Xi Jinping, 2 mentions of Hong Kong, no mentions of CCP, 1 mention of Taiwan, no mention of Tibet, 1 mention of Xinjiang

589 out of 650 MPs (90.6%) have a Twitter account.

9 MPs’ tweets containing the term ‘China/Chinese’, none on ‘Hong Kong’, none on ‘Tibet’, two on ‘Taiwan’

SPY VS SPY

How the British used the 1896 Bombay Plague as the excuse to advance their interests in Iran

The British sent a medical mission to Sistan province to help them gather intelligence.

John Hayhurst

George Washington Brazier-Creagh. | Walter Stoneman, National Portrait Gallery

On the morning of the June 30, 1897, in the Iranian province of Sistan, two men entered the camp of Lieutenant-Colonel George Washington Brazier-Creagh. They were kadkhodas, leaders from nearby villages, come to reassure the touring medical officer that they intended to ignore the Deputy Governor of Sistan’s orders not to provide his British party with supplies. Shortly afterwards, four Baluchi merchants arrived with similar assurances, their cooperation reciprocated warmly but with characteristic formality.

Such pledges notwithstanding, Brazier-Creagh was angered by Mīr Ma‘ṣūm Khān’s attempts to hinder him and he wrote to the Deputy Governor a few days later, expressing his astonishment at being treated in such a way when it was the “combined orders of the Persian and Supreme [British Indian] Governments” that had brought them into the country “to protect it from plague” and demanding that the order be countermanded. Mīr Ma‘ṣūm’s reply, sent two days later, was brief and to the point.
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Explaining that he had no objection to supplying the British party if they had any further orders from their government, he thanked God “that there is no disease in the country” and advised that Brazier-Creagh now return to India, or his government “will object to…your remaining in the country and

 visiting towns”

.

Brazier-Creagh’s report on his mission to Sistan. Credit: British Library

The Deputy Governor’s response speaks of the wider story underlying Brazier-Creagh’s presence in Sistan at that time. It is true that the Persian government had requested that the British send a medical officer to investigate Russian claims of plague outbreaks in the region, and to take measures to contain the disease should the claims be true.

However, Mīr Ma‘ṣūm will also have been aware that no cases of plague had been found in Sistan by the British party, and his orders not to supply them will have been driven by his suspicions about their continued presence in the province. While remaining cordial, he deftly leaves Brazier-Creagh the choice of either leaving the country or admitting to having ulterior reasons for being there.

In truth, the outbreak of plague in Mumbai in September 1896 provided a convenient excuse for both the Russians and the British to make political gains in east Persia. Described by Brazier-Creagh as a “complete blind”, the plague scare became the pretext for Russian agents and Cossacks to move into the province of Khorasan.

Quarantine posts were established along the border with Afghanistan and the roads leading into Khorasan from Sistan. In addition, the Russians were successful in getting the Persian government to close the border along the newly-revived trade route into Sistan from India, a move as much about damaging British prestige as it was about preventing the spread of disease.

'Bombay plague observation camp: spraying detainee with disinfectant'. 

Photographed by Captain C. Moss, 1896-'97. Credit: British Library.

The British, too, made good use of the opportunity to gather intelligence and establish themselves more firmly in Sistan. The province had long been viewed as being of great strategic importance, both for its economic potential and its proximity to their Indian empire. Concern over Russian advances on India’s north-western frontier had been growing for half a century. Development of the ancient trade route from Quetta to Sistan was aimed at increasing British influence in the region. The plan to extend the rail network in the same direction was to help facilitate this, but also to allow for the rapid mobilisation of military resources should they be required to defend the Empire.

In the introductory letter to his report on the mission to Sistan, Brazier-Creagh makes clear his awareness of “other duties more important and intricate, and that my primary duty would be equalled, if not surpassed, by political ones in watching British interests”.

What is striking about the report is its hypocrisy and contradictions. Brazier-Creagh complains throughout of Russian intrigue and duplicity, while at the same time documenting his own underhand activities. To both the Russians and the Persians he doggedly maintains the fiction that he was not there “for political purpose”. It truly gives a sense of the confrontation being the “Great Game” it was to be popularly referred to as.

Map of parts of Sistan produced by Brazier-Creagh from his survey work carried out there during his 1897 mission. Credit: British Library

So it was that Brazier-Creagh refused to leave the country at the Deputy Governor’s request, claiming that he had been ordered to stay “and take all precautions it seems desirable to me to protect the country from the possibility of plague getting into and decimating the country”. This refusal, and his attitude towards the Persian authorities in general, caused offence in the country and complaints would later be made to the government of India. He remained in Sistan several weeks more, however, allowing him to travel “every acre of the country” and to “compile very complete statistics on resources, revenues, and other subjects of special interest, both political and strategical, as well as a thorough survey”.

It is a stark example of matters of health and epidemiology being hijacked and manipulated for political ends. An entanglement that remains pertinent today.

This article first appeared on the British Library’s Asian and African studies blog.

 FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Chair of the NATO Military Committee highlights strategic importance of the Arctic

• 14 Oct. 2022 - 15 Oct. 2022
• |
• Last updated: 16 Oct. 2022 10:02

On 14 and 15 October 2022, the Chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Bauer was in Iceland, where he attended the Arctic Circle Assembly and met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir, the Chief of Defence, Mr Jonas Allansson and former President of Iceland Mr Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson.

Admiral Bauer speaks at the Arctic Circle Assembly

Admiral Bauer started his visit by meeting the new Chief of Defence, Mr Jonas Allansson and congratulated him on his recent appointment. “You join us at a challenging time for our security. The rules-based order has been uprooted and NATO is responding by implementing measures to strengthen our collective defence. We will surely benefit from your experience at the United Nations and as an Arctic specialist”, highlighted the Chair. They were joined by Mr Njall Trausti Fridbertsson, the head of the Icelandic Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and Mr Garðar Forberg, NATO Military Representative for Iceland. 

Meeting with Ms Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir, the Icelandic Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former President of Iceland Mr Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Admiral Bauer reiterated the key role Iceland plays in the region, as a NATO Ally but also as a member of the Arctic Council. He also highlighted that when Finland and Sweden join our Alliance, seven of the eight members of the Arctic Council will be NATO Allies. “With this level of integration, we will be able to better determine NATO’s role in the High North as well as benefit from more assets in the region”. 

Admiral Bauer then joined the Arctic Circle Assembly to share his view on the current security environment and its impact on the Arctic. “At this pivotal moment for global security, NATO will do what it has done best for the last 73 years: unite and adapt. With strength and unity, we will continue to deter aggression, protect our values and interests, and keep our people safe. The Arctic has always had a strategic relevance for NATO as the obvious gateway to the North Atlantic, hosting vital trade and communications links between North America and Europe. As such NATO will do everything it can to make sure the Arctic remains free and open”, he emphasised. 
 

Deep impact: How science fiction became science fact when Nasa nudged an asteroid off course

The idea sounds so far-fetched it could be the plotline of a doomsday movie or computer game – to blast a tiny craft on an 11-month voyage through space with the aim of crashing it headlong into a big rock seven million miles away, knocking it off its original direction of travel.

By Ilona Amos

An artist's impression of Nasa's Dart ( double asteroid redirection test) craft. Picture: Nasa

But that’s exactly what has just been successfully achieved in a historic ‘planetary defence’ mission led by US space agency Nasa.

Science fiction has become science fact.

The Dart (double asteroid redirection test) project has been years in the planning, conceived to discover whether humans could change the path of a celestial body that was heading on a collision course towards earth.

The 535ft-wide asteroid Dimorphos – a small moon of the larger, 2,560ft-wide asteroid Didymos – was not a danger to the earth.

It was chosen as a target because its short orbit time would allow experts to quickly assess whether a direct hit by the craft had altered its course.

Live footage was broadcast from Dart, a craft the size of a vending machine, showing its final approach towards the asteroid and the moment of impact – in the early hours of 27 September UK time.

Travelling at 14,000mph, the unmanned spacecraft was destroyed when it slammed into the surface of Dimorphos.

The moonlet Dimorphos, as seen by the Dart spacecraft 11 seconds before impact. While this asteroid posed no threat to Earth, the aim of the mission was to demonstrate that dangerous incoming rocks can be deflected by deliberately smashing into them. Picture: Nasa/Johns Hopkins APL

This week Nasa announced the experiment had been a success, confirming that the hit had altered Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, shortening it from 11 hours and 55 minutes to 11 hours and 23 minutes.

At a briefing at the organisation’s Washington headquarters, Nasa administrator Bill Nelson described it as “a watershed moment for planetary defence and all of humanity”.

He said: “All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet. After all, it’s the only one we have.

“This mission shows that Nasa is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us.”

   

The last complete image of asteroid Dimorphos, taken from seven miles off the surface -- two seconds before the Dart spacecraft crashed into the moonlet. Picture: Nasa/Johns Hopkins APL

Lori Glaze, director of the agency’s Planetary Science Division, added: “This result is one important step toward understanding the full effect of Dart’s impact with its target asteroid.

“As new data come in each day, astronomers will be able to better assess whether, and how, a mission like Dart could be used in the future to help protect earth from a collision with an asteroid if we ever discover one headed our way.”

The investigation team is still gathering information from observatories and other facilities around the globe and updating results to improve precision.

Professor Colin Snodgrass, an astronomer and planetary scientist at the University of Edinburgh’s school of Physics and Astronomy, is part of the international team working on the world-first project and helping to gather information.

The goal of the Dart mission, which launched in November 2021, was to hit an asteroid with a spacecraft to slightly alter its trajectory. Picture: Jim Warson/AFP via Getty Images

He heads up a squad of scientists who have been manning telescopes in strategic locations, watching the mission unfold and documenting the aftermath.

He was back in Scotland on “impact night” but in constant contact with colleagues on the ground in Chile and Kenya and watching Nasa’s live feed.

But despite being alone in his home office in Edinburgh, he found it an unforgettable experience.

“It was all very exciting,” he said.

“It was great.”

The observers in Kenya could see the actual moment of impact through the telescope.

“They could see it was getting brighter in front of their eyes.

“It got bright pretty much instantly, which was a bit of a surprise.

“Most of us expected it would maybe take longer.

“We thought we would see some difference, some brightness change, but we wouldn’t see the sudden cloud of dust coming off the thing.

“They could see the cloud of dust forming live as they were watching – this initial cloud, which is the high-speed ejecta which had been thrown off in the impact.

“Then after that, they have been watching as the long tail of larger particles – the slower ejecta, formed over days and weeks – has been growing.
“At the moment of impact you see this sudden puff as it throws off high-speed stuff and you then get the longer process of growing this tail, which is now thousands of miles long and we can still see with the telescopes.”

Professor Snodgrass stressed the significance of the experiment.

“It’s a test of the technology,” he said.

“If we saw one of these things coming towards us, could we nudge it out of the way?

“And the test shows us, yes, we can, we can change its orbit if we need to.”

He was also quick to offer reassurance that the planet was not at imminent risk of being hit by a giant asteroid that could wipe out all life.

“All the really big asteroids, the mass extinction ones, we know where all of those are,” he said.

“Those are all big enough that we’ve been able to see them with telescopes for years.”

But he did admit there is “slight concern” over much smaller asteroids, because a strike could do a lot of damage – and scientists haven’t found them all yet.

“They’re the ones we think a bit more about,” Prof Snodgrass said.

“Didymos, this is the sort of scale where you wouldn’t want it falling on your city.

“It would have the equivalent energy of a nuclear bomb, so it would cause local, regional devastation.

“It’s not the sort of size that would cause mass extinction, kill off all the dinosaurs sort of thing – that one was a few miles across.

“We’re constantly searching, scanning the skies, and we’re finding more of these small ones all the time.

“But we’ve not yet found one that’s coming anywhere near us.

“Eventually, though, we will find one that’s heading in our direction and it’s likely to be of this kind of size, which is why this experiment is useful – it’s testing out the technology to move an asteroid of the sort of size that is realistically likely to arrive at some point.”

Experts expect we would have a bit of advance warning ahead of any potential strike, possibly decades, allowing time to take defensive action.

“It’s not likely that you spot one and go, right, it's coming next week,” he said.

“But if we do spot one that will be here next week, there’s probably not so much we can do about it.

“You would just have to move everybody out of that place and hope there was nothing there that you wanted to keep.”

As part of the Dart mission, the Edinburgh team took over all four telescopes at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, based in the Atacama desert of northern Chile.

They also set up a new observatory in Kenya, which will have a lasting legacy in the country.

The Scottish academics have been helping train a new generation of planetary scientists there and handed over the keys to the new observatory when they departed this week.

Prof Snodgrass said the Dart project has other benefits alongside protecting the earth.

“There’s a huge amount of science that comes out of it,” he said.

“The reason we are working on this and trying to study asteroids and comets is because we’re interested in them scientifically.

“The history of the solar system, how the planets formed, all that kind of thing – you get a lot of clues to that kind of stuff by studying asteroids, these little leftover bits from when the planets were made.

“And this experiment has told us an awful lot about the sort of physical properties of the asteroid, the internal structure, all these things you couldn’t do without this big experiment of blasting a hole in the side.

“So it’s scientifically very valuable as well as having the ‘planetary defence just in case we ever need it’ approach.

“The project has dual uses.

“And all this cool stuff about having a telescope in Kenya also has a dual use.

“The telescope is staying out there and we’re doing all this work with the local university, we’re training up astronomers in the country, which didn’t have many astronomers.

“Some Kenyan students are still out there now, operating the telescope after the Edinburgh team comes home.

“We’ve taught them how to use it, we’ve left them the keys and off they go.

“They’re really great, an enthusiastic bunch. It’s really nice to see that.

“It has been a nice positive extra coming out of the Dart project.”

The professor also admits he’s a secret fan of sci-fi movies such as Armageddon and Deep Impact, which both have plots echoing the dart mission’s objective.

“I love them, particularly the really terrible ones,” he said.

“You just have to disconnect your brain a little bit.

“You know it’s all nonsense but it’s good fun – it’s entertaining nonsense.”

HIP CAPITALI$M; YOGA FOR YAHOOS
Dubai's 'Yogi with a Lamborghini' on bridging the gap between money and spirituality 

By Laura Buckwell • Updated: 16/10/2022 - 11:24

Copyright euronews - Credit: Dubai

Master Sri Akarshana, better known as the Yogi with a Lamborghini, is an entrepreneur turned educational motivator who has reached 35 million people through his social media channels and live performances.

Master Sri Akarshana on Twitter

Born Eric Ho in the UK, the Dubai resident credits his father for helping him develop his entrepreneurial skills.

“My dad was an entrepreneur, so he had multiple restaurants, so I grew up learning about taking bank loans, then setting up a business and cash flow,” he told Euronews.


Master Sri Akarshana and his parents

He became a millionaire at the tender age of 25 years old after getting into steel and rubber recycling.

“One of the first deals we struck was for around $15 million. So, yeah, it just happened. We just took a chance and it worked out,” he said.

But despite his early success, Master Sri became disillusioned with money and “got a little bit lost chasing material [things], supercars, watches, houses, yachts.”

At a crossroads, a meeting with a Himalayan yogi from India changed his life and gave him what he describes as an ‘awakening’.

The Newcastle-born businessman underwent yoga training in the Himalayan mountains, eventually taking on the title of Master Sri Akarshana.

Grandmaster Akshar with Sri Akarshana

While yoga’s roots can be traced back thousands of years, Master Sri Akarshana decided to give the discipline a modern twist.

The viral name Yogi with a Lamborghini, therefore, was born of a desire to bridge the gap in society between those who are goal driven and those who are more spiritually inclined.

Yogi with a LamborghiniMaster Sri Akarshana

Master Sri explained, “It's not about one or the other. It's saying that, hey, we need to learn presence of mind and breath work and things like that and happiness fulfilment. But at the same time, we live in a material world, so money does matter.

“So to get that point across… I'm going to buy a Lamborghini and I'm going to continue to practise yoga and spirituality, because all the people who are chasing materials would see the Lamborghini and say, ‘hey, this is for me, I want to learn something’, and then all of the spiritual people would come on this channel saying, ‘Why is he driving a Lamborghini?’”

Now, Master Sri wants to bring the transformative power of yoga to more people, so he is opening a yoga centre in Dubai.

“It’s going to be the biggest yoga centre in Dubai, because Dubai likes everything to be the biggest, so we decided to do the same thing.... It's around 8,500 square foot unit, so we're going to be bringing a lot of people along this journey, building the community here, helping with health and wellbeing and mental health as well” he said.

However, this project is intertwined with his latest foray into the world of blockchain and digital art.



Master Sri launched three NFT collections with Super Creators this year, a market which has grown enormously since 2020, and has linked the collection with his yoga business.

“Aside from just selling let's say pixelated artwork that a lot of people are doing, ours has a real utility to it, where everybody who holds the NFT will be able to get free access to the yoga centre and all the training” he said.

Palestinian dies from Israeli gunshot in West Bank raid

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the dead man was 30-year-old Mujahed Daoud. He died from a gunshot wound in the chest

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
16 October, 2022

More than 120 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year

 [Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty]

A man died early Snday from a gunshot wound he suffered during confrontations with Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

It was the latest death connected to clashes during Israeli raids in the Palestinian territory, which the Israeli military says target wanted Palestinians involved in planning or taking part in recent attacks on Israelis.

The ministry identified the dead man as 30-year-old Mujahed Daoud. He was among five Palestinians wounded Saturday by live fire during clashes in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan. Daoud was shot in the chest, the report said.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, said fighting broke out when Israeli forces entered the town and tried to seize agricultural machinery from farmers working off their land.

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Also early Sunday, the Israeli military said its troops shot a Palestinian who hurled a Molotov cocktail at a bus near Hebron. The army gave no other details, including the man's condition.

More than 120 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2015.

Israel says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.

Palestinians mourn doctor killed by Israeli occupation

[16/October/2022]

JERUSALEM October 16.2022 (Saba) - Hundreds of Palestinian mourners on Friday participated in the funeral procession of Palestinian doctor Abdullah Abu Al-Teen, 43, who was killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank city of Jenin.

According to Wafa agency, The Palestinian doctor was severely injured by Israeli occupation forces while trying to rescue wounded Palestinians in front of Jenin Government Hospital.

Dr Abu Al-Teen was pronounced dead shortly after being shot, the Palestinian Health Ministry shared.

During the funeral, Palestinians raised flags and chanted anti-Israel slogans, calling for the Palestinian resistance to take revenge for killing the Palestinian doctor.

Police neglect to probe Jewish mob attack of Palestinian in east Jerusalem, family says

A group of Jewish youths came towards the man and hit his head with an iron rod, causing fractured skull requiring surgery; daughter says despite injuries, no member of police interviewed victim or witnesses

Einav Halabi|

Published: 10.16.22

Jerusalem police have yet to investigate an attack on Hajj Mohamad Zahran, A 53-year-old Palestinian man living in east Jerusalem, who was attacked by a Jewish mob on Thursday.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter

Zahran left his house to check on his car, which his neighbors told him, had been damaged, when a group of Jewish youths came towards him.

Hajj Mohamad Zahran

(Photo: Twitter)

One of the group’s members hit his head with an iron bar, causing him to lost consciousness.

“Everything went dark,” Zahran told Ynet about the incident. “I was certain they’d kill me, the rod was sharp and you could kill someone with it easily," he said.

Zharan was evacuated to the Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Karem, where doctors told him he had a fractured skull and had to be operated on.

His daughter said that the police did not take testimonies from her or her father, and have yet to arrest any of the perpetrators. The police has not commented on her claims.

Police at Sheikh Jarrah

(Photo: Police Spokesperson)

Violent clashes between Jewish and Palestinians began late on Thursday, when stones were hurled into a Jewish owned home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. One of the stones hit a resident of the house, causing him moderate injuries.

Rioting further increased between the Jewish and Palestinian residents, including when far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir arrived on the scene with his personal guards, and pulled out a gun to threaten Palestinians.

Far right Itamar Ben Gvir pulls a gun in east Jerusalem during clashes

(Photo: News of the World)

Confrontations continued throughout the night, and damaged were caused to an Arab vehicle and coffee shop when stones were thrown at them.

Police forces entered one of Jewish houses on the neighborhood after its owner, Tal Yoshvaiev, where some of the Jewish rioters had been hiding. Police detained the men inside, and later released Yoshvaiev.

“Large forces of police and Border Police acted in Sheikh Jarrah to stop rioting and violence on Thursday," the police said in a statement. "Some11 suspects who took part of the confrontations were arrested. Undercover forces were also on the scene, and arrested many of the suspects who took part in the riots," the statement read

"Officers prevented further violence, which could have caused a great number of casualties. We will continue to make arrests of those involved and bring them, and all who participate in any sort of violence and rioting, to justice,” the police said.

20 years after Iraq War vote, Barbara Lee is fighting to end the War on Terror


Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald via shutterstock.com

In an exclusive interview, the anti-war Democrat breaks down her efforts to rein in the president’s ability to wage war.

OCTOBER 16, 2022
Written by
Connor Echols

Twenty years ago today, President George W. Bush signed into law the authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) in Iraq. The measure, which allowed the president to defend the United States against “the continuing threat posed by Iraq,” had just sailed through both houses of Congress with a supermajority in each chamber.

“Either the Iraqi regime will give up its weapons of mass destruction, or, for the sake of peace, the United States will lead a global coalition to disarm that regime,” Bush said in a signing ceremony.

Five months later, a U.S.-led coalition stormed into Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein’s government. Peace, as we now know, never came.

American foreign policy has lived under the shadow of this fateful decision ever since. Though Washington’s attention has largely turned away from the Middle East, American troops are still deployed throughout the region.

When asked to justify these deployments, consecutive administrations have pointed to the 2002 AUMF and its broader predecessor from 2001, which gave the executive broad powers to respond to the 9/11 attacks. President Donald Trump even defended the 2020 killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani on the grounds that it was covered under the 2002 AUMF.

Now, Congress finally seems poised to repeal the Iraq authorization. The House has already signed off on the decision, and a bipartisan majority of lawmakers have sponsored a corresponding bill in the Senate. Perhaps most importantly, President Joe Biden has already pledged that he would sign the bill if it reached his desk.

In order to better understand what this means for American policy, Responsible Statecraft spoke with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) — the only member of Congress who voted against both AUMFs, and a tireless leader in the fight to repeal them.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Responsible Statecraft: You were the only member of Congress who opposed both AUMFs at the time. Can you walk through the thinking behind those decisions?

Lee: In 2001, that was during a horrific time when we had been attacked. People were killed, communities destroyed in many ways. The country was in mourning. My Chief of Staff’s cousin, Wanda Green, was on Flight 93 and was from the Bay Area, and I was sitting on the Capitol and had to evacuate. So the trauma of it was very personal for me.

When the resolution came, I knew that a response was warranted, but I knew that we had to think it through and make some determinations as to what the best approach and the best response would be — but not three days after these horrific attacks. But the administration came forward with this authorization. I think they brought it forth once or twice and tried to narrow it a bit, but it was still overly broad. It was 60 words and basically [said] that any President can use force whenever. It took away Congress’s responsibility and our duty to uphold the Constitution and to authorize the use of force whenever that was warranted.

It was a very difficult decision, but I knew that I couldn’t vote for that. And also I knew that, based on my background in psychology, you don’t make hard decisions when you’re upset, when you’re in mourning. You have to think through the implications of any type of major decision. And then I was concerned about the issue of forever wars. It set the stage, and I knew it was going to do that. The military option could be the first option before we tried any other option to settle disputes, to respond to terrorist attacks.

By the time Iraq came forward… First, I knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I was in all of the briefings. The [International Atomic Energy Agency] was conducting its work [to ensure Iraq did not possess WMDs]. I knew that Saddam Hussein was a bad man, but I also knew the premise upon which the President wanted to use force was that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That was a lie, and I knew that.

During the markup, I offered an amendment that said to let the IAEA at least complete its investigations and to not do anything until we have the report back from the IAEA. The Rules Committee put it on the floor, and we debated it. I believe I got 72 votes for it, and that was it. And then, of course, the authorization passed.

So [the Iraq War] started before the inspectors could conduct their inspection, which was outrageous. By then, there were several other members who said, “you’re right. We can’t do this again.” So there were about 130 members of Congress who voted against the Iraq resolution.

Lo and behold, there were no weapons of mass destruction there. Finally, the public knew what we knew, but that was when it was too late.

We lost so many people in both of these wars, our brave troops. But also we lost [more than that]. You look at the refugees. You look at the numbers of people who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. You look at the collateral damage. You look at what took place as a result of these wars.

Fast forward to today, I’m still trying to repeal both of them, and we’re getting close. The Biden administration has said he would sign the 2002 repeal if it gets to his desk. Well, it’s been in the Senate for a while now, and I’ve been able to pass it in the House several times with bipartisan support. So we’re going to keep going until both of these authorizations are repealed.

RS: Can you tell me more about why it’s important for these laws to be removed from the books?

Lee: First of all, people elect their members of Congress, and you’re taking away the people’s rights. When you take away Congress’ ability to do their job based on what the Constitution requires, you’re really fundamentally acting in an undemocratic fashion. We need to debate and provide an authorization to the President if we think that that is necessary. That’s how it should work based on the constitutional requirements, and it’s not working that way.

Every president since then, they’ve used both authorizations over 40 times in countries all over the world, and even in assassination attempts. They’ve used it in ways that have nothing to do with 9/11 nor weapons of mass destruction. So you can see how it can spiral out of control and how Congress loses its ability to do its job. That’s very dangerous because we have a system of checks and balances, and we have certain requirements that we’re required to adhere to.

RS: What do you think it’ll take for the repeal effort to succeed? I know that you’re getting closer on the 2002 AUMF, but the 2001 one seems further off.

Lee: We’re negotiating the language. Most Democrats now are on board, but we have a very diverse Democratic caucus. Some felt that it would take away the president’s ability to respond in an emergency, which it doesn’t because he always has international law and the Constitution, [which allow him] to use force in case of an imminent attack or threat.

My repeal of the 2001 AUMF gives the President eight months to come up with a new one. Now you can’t tell me that if the President needs to go to war or use force, eight months is not enough time for Congress to debate and authorize a new authorization. We passed the 2001 AUMF in three days, so you can’t tell me that Congress can’t come up with something if the President needs it and if the debate determines that the President needs that authorization.

So we’re getting close. We’ve had input from many members of Congress from different caucuses, and I think we’re gonna get that done. The chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee [Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.)], he’s on board and helping us figure out a path forward. So it’s a little harder on the 2001 one, but we’re going to get there.

RS: I also wanted to ask about your advocacy over the years to cut the top line of the Pentagon budget. I know that you proposed earlier this year, if I remember correctly, a $100 billion cut to the budget. Why should Americans support those efforts? What are the trade-offs when we spend so much on defense?

Lee: Well, the trade-offs are that, one, we don’t have the resources here in our own country in terms of the domestic requirements and needs. We see that each and every day by the lack of adequate housing, health care, and economic opportunities. The military budget is so out of whack. It’s pathetic. We need to have more resources in our domestic spending.

Secondly, we need to be in the business of preventing wars, and you prevent wars by dealing with the underlying reasons for wars. Again, the military option is going to always be on the table when you have a $750 billion military budget. [Editor’s note: the defense authorization that the House passed earlier this year would give the military $840 billion for FY 2023.] I chair the Subcommittee on Appropriations that deals with the other two things, development and diplomacy. My budget is $64 billion. That’s totally out of whack. We need to maintain our leadership in the world on so many issues that really could help with global peace and security, and we could never get there with a military budget that’s so excessive.

And you have to look at the waste, fraud, and abuse. We have over $100 billion [of waste] that needs to be cut. Secondly, we know that a lot of these contractors have just really taken advantage of the American public. The military budget is out of control, and we’ve got to rein it in.

I’ve been working on this for years. Now, I’m really happy to see that other members are more engaged with this in our defense spending reduction caucus. But that’s a big issue that we’ve got to help the public understand. It’s not gonna go away. [We need to figure out] how we use their tax dollars in a way that’s going to benefit our own country and the American people [and help the U.S.] be leaders in the world on climate change, be leaders on global health, on trade, on poverty and women’s issues. We need to make sure that people throughout the world see the United States as a partner in their efforts. That has to happen, and it can’t happen if you have a military budget that is going to continue to soar.
Written by
Connor Echols

STATEMENT

“Where is the sense of urgency?”

Civil society coalition calls out delays in justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia

16 Oct 2022 BY INDEX ON CENSORSHIP

Daphne Caruana Galizia

Five years ago today, investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally assassinated in a car bomb attack in Malta. Our thoughts are with her family, friends and colleagues. Together with them, we continue to fight for justice.

It is deeply saddening that we have issued a similar statement every year since Caruana Galizia’s murder. Today should be a day to remember and celebrate her fearless journalism, the far-reaching impact of her incisive writing on financial crime, abuses of power and deep-seated corruption, and her unwavering commitment to uncovering the truth and serving the public’s right to information.

Instead, we must yet again note that progress in criminal investigations and prosecutions has been minimal and intolerably slow. Impunity serves to embolden those who use violence to silence critical journalism and it ends only when all those responsible for the heinous murder have been prosecuted to the full extent of the law: the assassins, intermediaries and the mastermind must be brought to justice without further delay.

Similarly, we must point out the unacceptable lack of implementation of the recommendations made by the landmark Public Inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s assassination and the exclusion of structured public consultation, including with our organisations, on proposed legal amendments relating to the safety of journalists and SLAPPs, which in the latter case fail to meet international standards. The process provides a historic opportunity for the Government of Malta to implement its obligations under international and European legal and policy frameworks to create an enabling environment for journalism and to protect journalists.

The lack of political will to initiate the effective and systemic reform that is needed casts doubt on whether Malta’s political class has drawn any lessons from Caruana Galizia’s assassination. Where is the sense of urgency to fix the rotten power structures and dangerous conditions for journalists who report on them, violently exposed by the blast five years ago?

Signed by:Access Info Europe
Access to Information Programme (AIP)
ARTICLE 19 Europe
Association of European Journalists-Belgium
Civic Alliance (CA) Montenegro
Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Corporate Europe Observatory
English PEN
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
European Integrity Academy – AntiCorruption Youth Greece
Free Press Unlimited (FPU)
Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD)
IFEX
Index on Censorship
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
International Institute for Regional Media and Information (IRMI) Ukraine
International Media Support (IMS)
International Press Institute (IPI)
Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann
Kosova Democratic Institute
Legal Human Academy
Media Diversity Institute
OBC Transeuropa (OBCT)
Oživení, z.s. (CZ)
Partners Albania for Change and Development
PEN International
PEN Malta
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Scottish PEN
Society of Journalists, Warsaw
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)
Syri i Vizionit
Transparency International EU
Wales PEN Cymru

Teens tackle 21st-century challenges at robotics contest

By Jamey Keaten | AP
October 16, 2022

Robots from different teams compete during the 6th edition of the First Global Robotics Challenge in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. 

(Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)

GENEVA — For their first trip to a celebrated robotics contest for high school students from scores of countries, a team of Ukrainian teens had a problem.

With shipments of goods to Ukraine uncertain, and Ukrainian customs officers careful about incoming merchandise, the group only received a base kit of gadgetry on the day they were set to leave for the event in Geneva.

That set off a mad scramble to assemble their robot for the latest edition of the “First Global” contest, a three-day affair that opened Friday, in-person for the first time since the pandemic. Nearly all the 180-odd teams, from countries across the world, had had months to prepare their robots.

“We couldn’t back down because we were really determined to compete here and to give our country a good result — because it really needs it right now,” said Danylo Gladkyi, a member of Ukraine’s team. He and his teammates are too young to be eligible for Ukraine’s national call-up of all men over 18 to take part in the war effort.

Gladkyi said an international package delivery company wasn’t delivering into Ukraine, and reliance on a smaller private company to ship the kit from Poland into Ukraine got tangled up with customs officials. That logjam got cleared last Sunday, forcing the team to dash to get their robot ready with adaptations they had planned — only days before the contest began.

The event, launched in 2017 with backing from American innovator Dean Kamen, encourages young people from all corners of the globe to put their technical smarts and mechanical knowhow to challenges that represent symbolic solutions to global problems.

This year’s theme is carbon capture, a nascent technology in which excess heat-trapping CO2 in the atmosphere is sucked out of the skies and sequestered, often underground, to help fight global warming

Teams use game controllers like those attached to consoles in millions of households worldwide to direct their self-designed robots to zip around pits, or “fields,” to scoop up hollow plastic balls with holes in them that symbolically represent carbon. Each round starts by emptying a clear rectangular box filled with the balls into the field, prompting a whirring, hissing scramble to pick them up.

The initial goal is to fill a tower topped by a funnel in the center of the field with as many balls as possible. Teams can do that in one of two ways: either by directing the robots to feed the balls into corner pockets, where team members can pluck them out and toss them by hand into the funnel or by having the robots catapult the balls up into the funnels themselves

Every team has an interest in filling the funnel: the more collected, the more everyone benefits.

But in the final 30 seconds of each session, after the frenetic quest to collect the balls, a second, cutthroat challenge awaits: Along the stem of each tower are short branches, or bars, at varying levels that the teams — choosing the mechanism of their choice such as hooks, winches or extendable arms — try to direct their robots to ascend.

The higher the level reached, the greater the “multiplier” of the total point value of the balls they will receive. Success is getting as high as possible, and with six teams on the field, it’s a dash for the highest perch.

By meshing competition with common interest, the “First Global” initiative aims to offer a tonic to a troubled world, where kids look past politics to help solve problems that face everybody.

The opening-day ceremony had an Olympic vibe, with teams parading in behind their national flags, and short bars of national anthems playing, but the young people made it clear this was about a new kind of global high school sport, in an industrial domain that promises to leave a large footprint in the 21st century

The competition takes many minds off troubles in the world, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the fallout from Syria’s lingering war, to famine in the Horn of Africa, and recent upheaval in Iran.

While most of the world’s countries were taking part, some were not: Russia, in particular, has been left out.

Past winners of such robotics competitions include “Team Hope” — refugees and stateless others — and a team of Afghan girls.