MODI JAILS POLITICAL OPPONENT
Opposition disrupts Indian Parliament after Gandhi's ouster

The Canadian Press
Mon, March 27, 2023 



NEW DELHI (AP) — Members of opposition parties dressed in black disrupted India's Parliament on Monday and protested in the capital, New Delhi, after Rahul Gandhi, a key opposition leader and fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was expelled from the legislature last week.

Hundreds of supporters of Gandhi's Congress party demonstrated in the heart of New Delhi and dozens were detained by police. Lawmakers from 18 opposition parties also protested together outside Parliament, donning black clothes to symbolize mourning and waving posters that warned India's democracy is in danger.

Gandhi's expulsion on Friday came a day after a local court convicted him of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison for mocking Modi's surname in an election speech in 2019. The actions against Gandhi, the great-grandson of India's first prime minister, were widely denounced by opponents of Modi as assaults against democracy and free speech by a government seeking to quash dissent. His removal from Parliament also delivered a major blow to the Congress party ahead of national elections next year.

“The government wants to suppress the opposition and their voice,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Congress party.

Over the weekend, Gandhi said he is being targeted for raising questions about Modi's relationship to Gautam Adani, a coal tycoon who until recently was Asia's richest man.

Hindenburg Research, a U.S. financial research firm, accused the Adani Group in January of stock price manipulation and fraud running into billions of dollars. Since then, Gandhi has pushed for an investigation into Adani's sprawling businesses, whose market value has since plummeted by tens of billions of dollars. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party says he has no links to Adani.

The protesting opposition lawmakers backed Gandhi on Monday by renewing calls for a parliamentary probe into the Adani Group.

Gandhi said he was not bothered about losing his seat in Parliament. “My job is to defend the institutions of the country and the voice of people,” he said over the weekend.

A court in Modi’s home state of Gujarat convicted Gandhi last week over a 2019 speech in which he asked, “Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?” Gandhi then referred to three well-known and unrelated Modis: a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon, a cricket executive banned from the Indian Premier League tournament and the prime minister.

Under Indian law, a criminal conviction and prison sentence of two years or more are grounds for expulsion from Parliament. Gandhi was granted bail for 30 days to allow him to appeal the decision, which Gandhi says he will do.

Piyush Nagpal And Shonal Ganguly, The Associated Press

Indian opposition holds Gandhi-inspired protest calling Modi ‘a coward’

Story by Alisha Rahaman Sarkar • 

Members and supporters of India’s largest opposition party protested on Sunday against their leader’s disqualification from parliament in nationwide sit-ins inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.

India opposition leader Rahul Gandhi handed two-year prison sentence in ‘Modi surname’ defamation case   View on Watch

Rahul Gandhi, a senior member of the Congress party, lost his seat in the lower house after a court in Gujarat sentenced him to two years in prison over a 2019 joke about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname.

Mr Gandhi, 52, is part of the Gandhi political dynasty and one of the most high-profile opposition figures in India. His disqualification comes as a major blow just a year before general elections in which Mr Modi will seek a third term.

Senior Congress party leaders led the protest in New Delhi after being denied permission by the police, who said the request to protest was rejected due to law and order and traffic reasons.

Senior leader KC Venugopal said it has become a habit for the Modi government to disallow every opposition protest. “This will not deter us, our fight for truth against tyranny goes on,” he said.

General secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadras said: “India’s prime minister is a coward. He is arrogant. This country has a very old tradition of teaching a lesson to arrogant leaders.”

Mr Gandhi’s supporters, who oppose Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reacted strongly to his disqualification, calling it the “murder of democracy”


Police try to stop Congress supporters from carrying out a torch rally in New Delhi on Sunday (Reuters)© Provided by The Independent

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the sit-ins, or “satyagraha” was not just about the party or Rahul Gandhi but “about Indian democracy”.

In his first news conference since the conviction, Mr Gandhi said on Sunday he had been disqualified because Mr Modi was afraid about him raising questions about the prime minister’s connection with the chairman of Adani Group.

Gautam Adani is the founder and chair of the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate, and is said to be a close associate of Mr Modi.


India’s Congress party leaders take part in Sankalp Satyagraha at Raj Ghat in New Delhi (AFP via Getty Images)© Provided by The Independent

“I have been disqualified because the prime minister is scared of my next speech, he is scared of the next speech that is going to come on Adani,” Mr Gandhi said.

“So he is terrified about the next speech that is going to come, and they don’t want that speech to be in the parliament,” he said, referring to the prime minister.

Mr Gandhi and the other opposition party leaders have demanded a joint parliamentary committee investigation following a report by Hindenburg Research, a US financial research company, that accuses the Adani Group of stock-price manipulation and fraud running into billions of dollars. The Adani Group has denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Gandhi was convicted on Thursday in a case filed by a BJP member claiming the Congress party member had defamed the entire Modi community during his election speech in 2019.

“Why all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi in their names,” Gandhi allegedly said during the rally in the southern state of Karnataka. He was referring to fugitive business tycoon Nirav Modi and former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi.

The court granted him bail and suspended his jail sentence for 30 days, allowing him to appeal.

From news to politics, travel to sport, culture to climate – The Independent has a host of free newsletters to suit your interests. To find the stories you want to read, and more, in your inbox, click here.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM 

Elizabeth Warren running for 3rd US Senate term in 2024

The Canadian Press
Mon, March 27, 2023 


BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced Monday that she will seek a third term in 2024.

Warren, a prominent voice for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party and a failed 2020 presidential contender, said she's running for reelection to end corruption in Washington, make the economy work for the middle class and protect democracy.

“I first ran for Senate because I saw how the system is rigged for the rich and powerful and against everyone else. I won because Massachusetts voters know it, too. And now I’m running for Senate again because there’s a lot more we’ve got to do,” Warren said in a campaign video released Monday.

Warren, 73, had more than $2.3 million in her campaign account at the end of 2022, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Warren first won election to the seat in 2012, defeating incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who was elected to fill out the term of Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died in 2009.

With the win, the then-Harvard Law School professor became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.

In 2018, Warren won a second term, easily defeating Republican candidate Geoff Diehl, before quickly setting her sights on the presidency.

While popular among some Democratic voters for her blunt rhetoric, Warren was unable to break away from the party's pack of contenders and dropped out after failing to win any of the states that voted on Super Tuesday, including coming in third in the Democratic primary in her home state.

During the campaign against Brown and again during her bid for the presidency, Warren was dogged by past claims of Native American heritage and her inability to provide documentation of that ancestry.

That led then-President Donald Trump to go after her early in the presidential campaign, derisively labeling her “Pocahontas." Warren had said she learned of her family ties to Cherokee and Delaware tribes from stories told by her parents.

After the 2020 loss, Warren continued her focus on the financial sector.

Warren recently joined California Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat, to push a proposal to repeal a 2018 rollback of certain aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act, enacted after the financial crisis a decade earlier.

The bill, part of discussions in Congress following the recent abrupt failure of two banks, is unlikely to advance.

In her campaign video, Warren ticked off a series of priorities from passing a wealth tax and putting stricter rules on banks to making child care more affordable, protecting coastal communities and building what she called “a 21st century transportation system across all of Massachusetts."

It's unclear who might challenge Warren for the Senate seat. Many Democrats appeared to be waiting until Warren or fellow Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, also a Democrat, decided not to seek reelection. Markey in 2020 fended off a primary challenge from then-Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy.

The state's Republican Party is trying to rebuild after losing the governor's office last year when Republican Gov. Charlie Baker opted not to seek a third term and Democrat Maura Healey handily defeated GOP candidate Geoff Diehl.

Warren already has the backing of many high-profile Massachusetts Democrats including U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Markey.

Warren serves on several congressional committees including the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the Committee on Finance and the Committee on Armed Services.

Steve Leblanc, The Associated Press

UK

Wind farm turbines given green light to grow again

BBC
Mon, March 27, 2023 

The wind farm was originally approved four years ago

A bid to increase the size of the turbines at a south of Scotland wind farm has been approved by the Scottish government.

The project at Glenshimmeroch near St John's Town of Dalry was approved in 2019.

At that time the maximum height of the 10 turbines was limited to 150m (490ft).

That was subsequently increased to 180m (590ft) and has now been raised again to 200m (650ft).

Energiekontor has taken the case to the Scottish government on numerous occasions due to Dumfries and Galloway Council's failure to issue a decision within the required timescales.

That was how the original application was approved four years ago.

The same method has now been used to successfully increase the size of the turbines on two occasions.

A reporter concluded that the change would not obviously result in greater landscape or visual damage from the development.

UK

Outrage at public contract for firm behind P&O sackings

Noor Nanji - Business reporter, BBC News
Mon, March 27, 2023 

P&O Ferries

A decision to award the owner of P&O Ferries a major public contract has sparked outrage, after the firm sacked 800 workers without notice last year.

DP World has been approved to co-run the Thames Freeport in Essex, as part of Rishi Sunak's freeports plan.

The Trades Union Congress said it was an "appalling decision", enabling other employers "to act with impunity".

The government said the new freeport would "help to grow the economy".

P&O Ferries sacked hundreds of seafarers in March 2022 and replaced them with foreign agency workers paid less than the minimum wage.

The move sparked outrage and led to calls for P&O's boss Peter Hebblethwaite to resign.

A week afterwards, Mr Hebblethwaite admitted to MPs that the decision had broken employment law.

At the time, the government called the workers' treatment "wholly unacceptable".

Outrage and no ferries after mass P&O sackings


Not consulting on cuts broke law, P&O boss admits

Grant Shapps, who was then transport secretary, said the law would be changed to stop companies firing staff on-the-spot.

The government also cancelled a contract with P&O Ferries in May, a decision it said was in response to the sackings.

But on Monday, the government confirmed plans for the Thames Freeport had recently been approved, and it would be run by a partnership between DP World, carmaker Ford and Forth Ports.

The port will receive £25m in government funding, as it works to attract £4.6bn more in public and private investment.

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said ministers should have "stripped the company of all its public contracts and severed commercial ties" after the P&O sackings.

"But the government has chosen instead to reward DP World with another bumper deal. This is giving a green light to other rogue employers to act with impunity."

A spokesperson for Thames Freeport said that DP World and its partners had invested heavily in port and logistics infrastructure over the past decade.

They added that the new port would benefit the "levelling up of the region", with more than 21,000 direct and indirect jobs created.

The government said the project would lead to "much needed" investment in the area.

Local authorities will administer the government funding "to benefit the entire region", it added, while the freeport will receive "potentially hundreds of millions in locally-retained business rates".

Freeports aim to create economic activity - like trade, investment and jobs - near shipping ports or airports. Goods imported into freeports are exempt from taxes, called tariffs, that are normally paid to the government.

Eight freeports have already been set up in England, with more in the pipeline.

The Thames Freeport will be made up of three sites - the London Gateway in Thurrock, the Port of Tilbury near Southend-on-Sea, and Ford's Dagenham car plant.

Union Pacific 2nd railroad to drop push for one-person crews


Sun, March 26, 2023 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific has become the second major freight railroad in the past week to back away from the industry's longstanding push to cut train crews down to one person as lawmakers and regulators increasingly focus on rail safety following last month's fiery derailment in Ohio.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad said in a statement Saturday that it had reached an agreement with the union that represents conductors to drop its proposal to take those workers out of the cabs of locomotives just months after it was pressing to test out the idea of stationing conductors in trucks in parts of its 23-state network. Norfolk Southern made a similar announcement several days earlier.

The Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train that forced the evacuation of roughly half the town of East Palestine near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border after officials released and burned toxic chemicals is what sparked the renewed interest in railroad safety. A bipartisan bill that's gaining support in Congress would require railroads to maintain two-person crews and make several other changes designed to reduce the chances of future derailments. And regulators, who are also pushing railroads to make reforms, were already considering a rule that would require two-person crews.

The major freight railroads have long argued that technological advances — particularly the automatic braking system they were required to install in recent years — had made it unnecessary to have a second person in every locomotive. And railroad executives had said they believed that moving conductors off of trains would improve their quality of life by giving them more predictable schedules and keeping them from going on the road.

But the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union and the other rail unions have long refused to agree to reducing the size of train crews because they believe train conductors play a crucial safety role and they want to preserve jobs.

The unions say conductors help monitor track conditions and radio communications while ensuring that engineers remain alert and respond to any emergencies or mechanical problems on the train. In the case of a derailment or collision, conductors are the first ones to respond before any additional help can arrive and they provide emergency responders key details about what a train is hauling.

Union Pacific Executive Vice President Beth Whited said the railroad will now focus on other ways to address the concerns about demanding schedules that workers expressed during last fall's difficult contract negotiations. The rail industry reached the brink of a strike that could have crippled the economy before Congress intervened in December and imposed a contract to prevent a walkout.

“We are pleased that Union Pacific is focusing on quality of life for our conductor workforce,” said Jeremy Ferguson, president of SMART-TD.

Railroads have also been under pressure over the past year to improve their service because they were struggling to handle all the shipments companies want them to deliver. And the industry has been defending its safety record after eliminating nearly one-third of all railroad jobs over the past six years as railroads overhauled their operations. Unions say all those cuts have left workers spread too thin and made it more difficult to keep up with all the inspections and maintenance that are needed.

The railroads maintain that they remain the safest way to transport hazardous chemicals and all kinds of other cargo across land because nearly every shipment arrives intact, but the East Palestine derailment reinforced just how devastating even one derailment involving dangerous chemicals can be.

Josh Funk, The Associated Press

'ALL NATURAL, ORGANIC' BIOWARFARE

Satellite images show breadth of massive seaweed belt stretching across the Atlantic Ocean

Large piles of sargassum seaweed could prove problematic for coastal destinations

By Greg Wehner | Fox News

Florida red tide washes up hundreds of dead fish
A video shared by Suzanne Stoker shows dead fish washed up on the beach Tuesday in Fort Myers Beach.

Satellite images show a train of sargassum seaweed stretching from the west coast of Africa to Florida, stretching as far as 5,000 miles.

With a width of nearly twice that of the U.S., the seaweed is expected to move toward Florida and the Caribbean, ultimately piling up along some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

Seagulls lay in the sand as Monica Madrigal finds her way to the ocean through a thick raft of Sargassum seaweed that washed up on the seashore by the 71st Street area in Miami Beach in 2020. ((Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, Sargassum is a large brown seaweed that "floats in island-like masses," yet never attaches to the bed of the sea.

GIANT BLOB OF SEAWEED TWICE THE WIDTH OF US TAKING AIM AT FLORIDA, SCIENTISTS SAY

Images on the University of South Florida College of Marine Science Optical Oceanography Laboratory website shows the massive size of the bloom.

The Sargassum Watch System, or SaWS, uses satellite data and models to track sargassum in "near-real time.

Satellite image showing how far the sargassum seaweed belt stretches

 (University of South Florida / NOAA)

While sargassum offers a great habitat for marine animals because of its source of food, shade and shelter, it also can be used to protect sand dunes by fertilizing and strengthening the grassroots.

CLIMATE ACTIVISTS, DEMS TURN ON BIDEN OVER LIKELY ALASKAN OIL DRILLING PROJECT: ‘AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT’

But when copious amounts of sargassum piles up on the beaches, it has the potential of causing many problems.

The university website says when sargassum decomposes, it can create a bad stench that attracts bugs and can smother turtle nests, among other things.

The bugs and the smell can also hurt tourism, impacting economics of tropical locations.

Rafts of brown seaweed, Sargassum sp., pile up on the shore of Miami Beach, Florida, USA. (Andre Seale/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Many times, the sargassum, when piled up in enormous amounts, must physically be removed from the beaches.

MASSIVE SMELLY ALGAE BLOOM NEARING FLORIDA WILL IMPACT HEALTH OF RESIDENTS

As the bloom moves toward the coast, some Floridians have complained about burning eyes and breathing problems. Dead fish have washed up and a beachside festival scheduled a month away was canceled.

The southwest coast of Florida experienced a toxic red tide algae earlier this month, sparking concerns it could stick around for a while.

Red tide naturally occurs in the Gulf of Mexico and is oftentimes made worse by humans because of the presence of nutrients like nitrogen in the water.

People are advised to not swim in red tide waters because of respiratory issues as well as skin irritation, rashes and sore eyes.

Bradford Betz of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.

Revealed: Jobs most at risk from artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT


Sami Quadri
Sun, 26 March 2023 

Around 80 per cent of US workers could see their jobs impacted by artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, a study found.

ChatGPT is a free AI “chatbot” which can be used to do anything from writing essays to creating diet plans and helping users to apply for jobs.

Spectators have hailed it as one of the biggest technological advances since the invention of the computer or the internet.

OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed tech firm that created the software, claims that 80 per cent of the US workforce could have at least 10 per cent of their work impacted by the technology.

Their research also found that 19 per cent of workers could see as much as 50 per cent of their tasks impacted.

The study adds: “Our analysis indicates that the impacts of LLMs (large-language models) like GPT-4, are likely to be pervasive.”

In addition, researchers found that jobs with higher wages—which can involve the worker performing many software-based tasks—could face more exposure to potential disruption from AI-powered chatbots.

“We discover that roles heavily reliant on science and critical thinking skills show a negative correlation with exposure, while programming and writing skills are positively associated with LLM exposure,” the study says.

OpenAI researchers cataloged which professions could see the most disruption using various measurement rubrics. The most affected professions included interpreters and translators, poets, lyricists and creative writers, public relations specialists, writers and authors, mathematicians, blockchain engineers, accountants and auditors, along with journalists.

The paper also breaks down the ChatGPT impact by industry. Sectors including data processing hosting, publishing industries, and security commodity contracts, saw the most potential exposure to disruption.

In contrast, industries known for manual labour—food services, forestry and logging, social assistance, and food manufacturing—saw the least potential impact.

The paper, titled “An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”, can be found on the OpenAI website.

It comes after Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates warned that artificial intelligence will radically change people’s lives as much as computers, the internet and mobile phones.

He said he believes AI will revolutionise the world of work, learning, travel, healthcare, and communication.

Writing in his blog, Gates described how he was left stunned by ChatGPT after challenging OpenAI to train an artificial intelligence to pass an advanced biology exam last year.

"I thought [that] would keep them busy for two or three years. They finished it in a few months," Gates said. "I watched in awe as they asked GPT 60 multiple-choice questions from the AP Bio exam and it got 59 of them right.

"Once it had aced the test, we asked it ‘What do you say to a father with a sick child?’ It wrote a thoughtful answer that was probably better than most of us in the room would have given. I knew I had just seen the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface [the early version of a computer operating system]."

POLICE PEDOPHILIA

UK Police strip searching children as young as eight, damning report finds

Joe Middleton
Sun, 26 March 2023

More than a quarter of children strip-searched were aged between 10 and 15 

Police stopped and strip-searched more than 2,800 children in four years - with the youngest only 8-years-old, a damning new report has revealed.

Using data for forces across England Wales, Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza found that nearly a quarter of children strip-searched were aged between 10 and 15.

More than a third (38%) of those strip-searched were black, and with black children making up 5.9% of the population that makes them more than six times more likely to be targeted.


Overall, 2,847 strip-searches took place between 2018 and mid-2022 of children aged between eight and 17.

The report will be published on Monday and comes after the Child Q scandal which came to light last March.

The 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched by police without another adult present and while on her period after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at school. No drugs were found, her parents were not told of the search and she was later sent home by taxi.

A safeguarding report into the incident said that racism was “likely” to have been a factor in the search and that it should never have happened.

After the scandal data revealed that Met Police officers strip-searched 650 children between the ages of 10-17 between 2018 and 2020, with 58% of those searched were black children.

Speaking a day before the publication of the report, Dame Rachel told the Sunday Times the findings had “kept her awake at night” and has called on police chiefs to limit strip-searching of children for only “life or death” situations.

Dame Rachel de Souza is England’s Children’s Commissioner (UK government)

“The police really need to get their act together on this,” she told the newspaper. “We’ve had a report on the Met but the data that I’m going to share tomorrow I think is almost more shocking.

“My hope was that Child Q was the only child that this would have ever happened to in a school. But the data I am about to release smashed that to smithereens.

“There is this one case where a boy was strip-searched four times and four times his mother picked him up from the police station but nobody told her, including him, that he had been strip-searched.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Strip-search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police. No-one should be subject to strip-search on the basis of race or ethnicity and safeguards exist to prevent this.

“Any child subject to a strip search should be accompanied by an appropriate adult unless there is an urgent risk of serious harm, or where the child specifically requests otherwise and the appropriate adult agrees. Such searches must be carried out by an officer of the same sex as the child.

“We take the concerns raised about children’s safeguarding extremely seriously. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is currently investigating several high-profile incidents of strip-search of children and it is vital that we await their findings.”

2 high schoolers say they've found proof for the Pythagorean theorem, which mathematicians thought was impossible


Explanation of the Pythagorean theorem drawn on a blackboard.

Getty Images

Isobel van Hagen
Sat, March 25, 2023 

Two US high schoolers believe they have cracked a mathematical mystery left unproven for centuries.

Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson looked at the Pythagorean theorem, foundational to trigonometry.

The American Mathematical Society said the teenagers should submit their findings to a journal.

Two high school seniors from New Orleans think they have managed to prove a 2,000-year-old theorem that has stumped mathematicians for centuries.

Their work got Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson far enough to present their findings to researchers, per an interview with local TV earlier this week.

Their work was on the Pythagorean theorem, a staple of high school math lessons which defines the relationship between the three sides of a right-angled triangle, expressed with the formula a2+b2=c2

Although the theory holds true in every plausible example, no mathematician has been able to establish its truth from first principles, even though the theorem has been around since ancient Greek times.

Because the theorem underpins trigonometry, experts have thought it impossible to prove, since you can't use trigonometry without already accepting that the theorem is correct.

In the abstract presented by Johnson and Jackson last week, the two teenagers gestured to this, noting the book "The Pythagorean Proposition" "flatly states" that there are no trigonometric proofs because they are "based upon the truth of the Pythagorean Theorem."

They countered in their work that the claim "isn't quite true." The two claimed they were able to prove the theorem using the Law of Sines, which did not rely on circular trigonometry.

When the American Mathematical Society met in Georgia last week, Johnson and Jackson were the only high schoolers at the meeting, according to New Orleans television news station WWL.

Their claim has not gone through the rigorous academic peer-review process — or been confirmed by other experts in the field.

Catherine Roberts, executive director for the American Mathematical Society, encouraged the young mathematicians to submit their findings to a journal where it can be assessed.

She said the society "celebrates these early career mathematicians for sharing their work," The Guardian reported.

"Members of our community can examine their results to determine whether their proof is a correct contribution to the mathematics literature," Roberts said.

In an interview with WWL, the students said they were excited just to be a part of the process.

"There's just nothing like being able to do something that people don't think young people can do," Johnson said, "A lot of times you see this stuff, you don't see kids like us doing it."

Read the original article on Insider

Violence in Greece over efforts to preserve ancient heritage of Mykonos

Story by Helena Smith in Athens • 

Under cover of darkness in an Athens side street earlier this month, Manolis Psarros, an archaeologist, was attacked as he walked toward his car. It was 8.30pm, later than usual for the state employee to return home from his office in a neo-classical culture ministry building beneath the Acropolis.



“There was a general strike the next day and I needed to get through my files on Mykonos,” said Psarros, who has oversight of the Cycladic isle. “I can remember approaching the car but after that it’s a blur,” he told the Observer. “All I know is that I was struck on the head from behind with such force I lost consciousness.”

When the soft-spoken Greek came round in a hospital bed on 8 March he had broken ribs, a broken nose and eyes that had been so severely bruised his vision remains impaired.

For doctors they were wounds that spoke: Psarros clearly had been kicked and punched in an assault that bore all the hallmarks of a professional hit. The 52-year-old was lucky to be alive.

Almost three weeks later the ramifications of an attack that might otherwise have gone unnoticed are being felt across Greece.

As police intensify their investigation, the focus of inquiry has fallen, firmly, on Europe’s most famous party island where a building frenzy has put the archaeological service, entrusted with protecting Mykonos’s rich cultural heritage, on a war footing with developers.

For the past decade Psarros has headed the division that issues construction permits on the Aegean hotspot.

“Everything about this attack is indicative of how out-of-control the situation in Mykonos has become,” says Despoina Koutsoumba, who presides over the Association of Greek Archaeologists. “It’s clear, as there are no other motives, that this was a Mafiosi-style hit executed by people who followed Manolis from work. It’s about huge business interests and was aimed at striking fear into the hearts of archaeologists.”

Euronews
Greece welcomes Vatican's return of Parthenon fragments to Acropolis
View on Watch  Duration 0:35

WIONGreece: Three ancient artefacts return, fragments belong to Parthenon temple in Athens
3:00

The Associated PressGreece welcomes back ancient art held at Vatican
1:06

WIONGreece envoy Dimitrios Ioannou says, 'India has become global voice for the South'
3:42


Greece’s centre-right Greek government appears to agree. From the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to law enforcers and local officials, there was consensus last week that the anomie underpinning illegal construction on one of Greece’s most popular destinations was linked to a crime for which perpetrators have yet to be found.

For years, Mykonos has been an international trailblazer as a playground for the rich; its bars, eateries and beaches, venues that have increasingly turned gargantuan profits.

But the brutal attack on Psarros has also exposed a darker side: of an island hijacked by interests that have come to see the rocky outcrop in a twilight zone beyond the reach of central government and the long arm of the law.

On Wednesday, as Mitsotakis convened a meeting of senior cabinet ministers to discuss the affair, officials were openly describing Mykonos as a “state within a state”.” Giving voice to those concerns, the Greek prime minister warned that public order measures would be enforced. In the coming days the first of 100 extra security personnel, including police officers, financial crime investigators, environment and building inspectors are expected to fly in. A crack down on illegal construction in rural areas, both on Mykonos and neighbouring islands in the Aegean archipelago, will also intensify.

Related: Pope Francis returns three fragments of Parthenon to Greece

“There is no such thing as an island where some people think they are above the law,” said Mitsotakis. “This is a situation that will be faced decisively.”

Greece’s community of archaeologists, a group no bigger than a 1000-strong, have long been regarded as the custodians of the nation’s extraordinary historical legacy. For many the hardy band of dedicated excavators and researchers are the last bulwark against depredations increasingly associated with tourism.

But with the industry accounting for 25% of GDP – and by far the biggest engine of the Greek economy – it is a delicate balancing act, one that ensures acknowledging the need for visitors with preserving the natural beauty that also lures them to the country.

The dramatic comeback of tourism post-pandemic had not helped. With Greece slated for another record season – last year it was the third most visited place on earth – the concerns of archaeologists forced to navigate a notoriously slow-moving bureaucracy matter little to investors. Fines slapped on offenders for building villas, hotels and beach bars close to, or on, ancient sites, “are nothing” compared with profits to be made, say locals who also lament the unruly development of an island that has left many unable to enjoy, or afford it. In recent years, as Mykonos has headed into a stratosphere of its own, investors from the Middle East have also moved in announcing controversial plans to construct a tourist village with a port capable of mooring superyachts.

“We want the state to be an ally to protect our island,” Mykonos’s mayor, Konstantinos Koukas, said last week. “We want mechanisms of control to be bolstered and of course we decry any threat against state employees. Today it is archaeologists. Tomorrow it will be us.”

Psarros also wants to return to work as soon as he recovers “because to do otherwise, or if I were to be removed from the post, would send the wrong message to my assailants”.

Time, says Koutsoumba, is of the essence: last week a female colleague on Mykonos was also targeted with threatening text messages. “If the government means what it says it will have to start demolishing illegal buildings,” said the archaeological association head who will participate in a protest rally outside Koukas’s town hall office on Tuesday.

“Right now it’s Mykonos, but later it will be some other island. The time has come for action and that means bulldozers being sent in. It’s the only language anyone will understand. An example needs to be set, and it needs to be set now.”