Big countries should build capabilities that help workers rather than hold competitors down: Tharman

Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that countries should not sacrifice absolute economic performance to secure relative performance. 

PHOTO: CHATHAM HOUSE

Goh Yan Han
Political Correspondent

SINGAPORE - Countries should not seek to establish a relative lead over each other internationally by protectionist means, because doing so would compromise their own “absolute performance” and ability to maximise their people’s opportunities so that ordinary working people can benefit, said Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Tuesday evening.

Speaking at a dialogue in London organised by Chatham House on strategies for a more resilient world, he described how, for example in the context of United States-China relations, strategies should not sacrifice absolute economic performance – which is what matters for ordinary workers – just to secure a relative edge over each other.

He pointed out that while protectionist strategies can achieve the latter, they hurt the former.


“If we go for a system that is protectionist, that imposes restrictions on competitors, or where your actions domestically have negative spillovers on the rest of the world, you might be able to preserve relative superiority, at least for some period of time,” said Mr Tharman.

“But it is almost certainly at the cost of absolute performance everywhere. Most economists would agree on that.”

He added that the ordinary worker depends on absolute performance – through the growth of an economy, jobs being created, the quality of jobs being created, and opportunities for social mobility.

“It’s not about how well this economy is doing relative to another economy somewhere else in the world. That doesn’t improve the life of ordinary workers... absolute performance and the international game in which if I win, you don’t need to lose, should be the way forward,” he added.

When asked about how a government should go about making its country attractive amid an era of rapid change, Mr Tharman described how to best carry out social policies and also ensure economic competitiveness.

He noted that many advanced countries have essentially run out of fiscal space to fund benefits for everyone at the same time.

“They have to face the task of targeting spending to help those more in need.”

He added that this was especially because governments could not avoid increased spending on healthcare, which was the biggest fiscal challenge in the advanced world because of ageing.

Singapore has utilised a strategy that is progressive, by supporting the poor more, and ensuring that the upper-middle-income and the rich pay for their share in healthcare costs.

“Either you do that, or you have to ration healthcare by having very long queues or having some people go abroad for treatment, which is not fair and not progressive,” he said.

He added that insurance was needed to pool healthcare risks. “But if you go for the ultimate insurer being government – the government simply paying for all costs, you end up with an ever-increasing bill that has to be met by taxing everyone more.”

This ties in with economic competitiveness as well, he said. In looking to improve absolute performance for one’s country rather than holding others down so as to stay ahead, countries should spend 90 per cent of their efforts building up the capabilities of their people, and 10 per cent making sure that no one else is abusing their position in the global system.

“Right now, we’re very far from that mix. There’s very little effort being made to develop the capabilities of domestic populations, starting from the earliest years of life, where the gaps once entrenched last all the way through life.”

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Employers are also not investing enough in ordinary working people through their careers. This cannot be left to the market, which always has a short-term lens as an employer is mainly interested in what a worker could do today, rather than prepare the worker for a new technology or job with another employer, he added.

“There is a basic market failure. The state has to step in, and this has to be an opportunity for the state, private sector, unions and people themselves to collaborate to invest in people regularly through their working lives, so as to keep upskilling, reskilling and making sure that the quality of jobs that are available to them goes up,” he added.

“It’s a most neglected element of public policy in too many countries.”

Countries should start thinking about domestic capabilities, skills, and human potential as fundamental to both social and economic policies, including economic competitiveness, rather than thinking about what they can do to hold adversaries down, he said.

“Focus first and foremost on what we can do to maximise our own capabilities.”

Mr Tharman also spoke on how the real challenge in getting governments to change their policy approaches lies in re-creating a robust “politics of the centre”.

“That is a challenge for both those who are left of centre and right of centre, but not far left and far right. We’ve got to find a way… (to) address the needs of the working class and avoid the extreme right taking over,” he said.

“It has fundamentally been a failure of the left, to address the needs of ordinary working people, and has allowed the far right in many advanced countries to win them over... Likewise, the right of centre needs to have a strategy that’s not just about free markets and keeping taxes low, or talking about individual responsibility.”

He added: “It’s not as if societies have weakened because of an upsurge in individual irresponsibility. People haven’t become suddenly more irresponsible. We face challenges now that require a more active role for the state.”

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President meant to preserve integrity of system

Mr Tharman also clarified the role of the President in response to moderator Bronwen Maddox, chief executive of Chatham House.

She had, in her introduction, mentioned that he had recently announced his plans to run as a candidate in the upcoming Presidential Election.

She said the role of the President in Singapore was a “crucial non-party-affiliated role in Singapore, a position that allows that person to challenge the Government on behalf of the people”.

Mr Tharman clarified that the role of the President is not to challenge the Government on behalf of the people.

Rather, “the President is elected directly by the people in order to preserve the integrity of the Singapore system, financial integrity as well as the integrity of key appointments of the public service”, he said.

“It’s a very important innovation in our democratic system that we embarked on a few decades ago, and one that I’m offering to put myself forward.” He added that he did not wish to say more about the matter beyond clarifying this.

Singapore’s Tharman urges US, China to abandon ‘hubris’ of viewing own system as superior

Tharman says there are ‘no saints’ in US-China relations and calls on the superpowers to cooperate in areas of common ground, such as ensuring fair trade

US politics since 2016 had occasioned a ‘step change’ in how China is increasingly viewed as a threat and such ‘politics of pessimism and grievance’ must be redressed, Tharman adds

Bhavan Jaipragas
13 Jun, 2023
SCMP


Singapore’s Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Chatham House dialogue session on June 13, 2023. Photo: Handout


The United States and China should abandon the “hubris” of claiming superiority of their respective political systems and instead should focus on collaborating to advance their self-interests, top Singapore minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has said.


Speaking at the Chatham House think tank in London on Tuesday, the senior minister echoed calls made by other regional leaders for the superpowers to cooperate in areas where they had common ground.


Tharman, who is Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, is among a handful of senior Singapore ministers whose views on US-China ties are parsed by international observers as a means to understand the prevalent middle-ground view about the superpowers in Southeast Asia.

Singapore’s Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam says China is deeply inserted in the liberal economic order and has a deep interest in its preservation. Photo: Handout

The 66-year-old last week announced he was stepping down from the long-dominant People’s Action Party (PAP) to run for the largely ceremonial position of president – a role he said he would use to “project Singapore’s interests and voice of reason in an increasingly turbulent world”.

Asked during a question-and-answer session on what advice he would give to the leaders of China and the US, said “there were no saints” in the relationship between the superpowers.

“Both of them need to make adjustments. Both of them need to avoid a sense of hubris with regard to the superiority of their own systems,” Tharman said.

“And both of them need to recognise that there’s actually a great deal in common in the way they go about trying to improve lives and grow incomes,” the minister said, noting that China, unlike the erstwhile Soviet Union, was “deeply inserted in the liberal economic order and has a deep interest in its preservation”.

“Those are huge grounds for seeing eye to eye and developing rules to make sure that trade is fair, investment is fair and intellectual property is protected. These are rules that can be developed,” Tharman said.

The absence of a strategy of interdependence would not necessarily mean that China “gradually withers away”, he said.

“It eventually rises anyway … but when it finally gets there it will know who made it extremely difficult for it to get there. That makes for a dangerous world,” he said.

There are “huge grounds” for the US and China work together to fuel their self-interests, says Singapore’s Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Photo: AP

The minister did not directly mention former US President Donald Trump in his remarks, but noted that there was a “step change” in the threat perception about China in the US in 2016 – when the nationalist ex-president was elected – even though there had been a gradual move of sentiment in that direction for some time.

“I don’t think that step change in the curve was occasioned by any new strategy on the part of China or any new development in China’s market share or China’s actions in any regard. It was domestic politics,” Tharman said. “Politics matters, and I think we are trundling down a road where we are in the politics of pessimism and grievance and it has to be redressed.”

Asked whether mainland China under President Xi Jinping had fuelled the West’s concerns about it through actions and rhetoric, including on Taiwan, Tharman suggested serious observers of Asia’s biggest economy had a more nuanced view.

First, these observers noted that “China doesn’t yet feel it is ready to be an equal with the US at the centre stage” but wanted to play a more major role in rule setting in the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, in trade and other areas, Tharman said.

On Taiwan, Tharman said “no serious observer, including those who are very close observers and who are engaged in this believes that China wants war with Taiwan”.

“Neither does the US. And it’s extremely important to preserve prior understandings on Taiwan, and preserve the constructive ambiguity on Taiwan that has lasted for decades on the part of both the US and China,” he said.

Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland – by force if necessary – and has steadily ramped up military pressure on the self-ruled island.

US, China have ‘irreconcilable differences’ but can coexist: Singapore minister
25 May 2023


The US, like most countries, does not officially recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state, but opposes any attempt to change the status quo by force and is legally bound to help the island defend itself.

In a speech before he fielded questions during Tuesday’s dialogue session, Tharman – a former central bank chief – took aim at what he said was a rising trend in many countries of formulating industrial and foreign policy on protectionist terms that prioritised “relative superiority” rather than “absolute performance of policies”.

“If we go for a system that is protectionist, that imposes restrictions … where your actions domestically have negative spillovers on the rest of the world, you might be able to preserve relative superiority, at least for some period of time,” Tharman said. “But it is almost certainly at a cost of absolute performance everywhere.”

SYRIAN KURDISTAN

Four months after the earthquake, people of Hatay still can’t access clean water

Four months after the earthquake, people in the southern province of Hatay still have difficulties accessing clean water.

ANF
HATAY
Tuesday, 13 Jun 2023, 13:39

With the earthquake on 6 February in the Turkish-Syrian border region, the drinking water supply has also collapsed in many affected areas. In the particularly hard-hit province of Hatay in southern Turkey, people are queuing for hours to get just 1.5 liters of clean water. This is because tap water is contaminated and even causes skin irritations and infections when washing. At the same time, the state has been collecting money for water and electricity supply again since 31 May and is also demanding back payments for the months immediately after the quake.

NGOs started to leave the city one by one

Seda Yüce is a member of Earthquake Solidarity in Hatay. Speaking to ANF about the current situation of the earthquake victims, she said that their problems have not changed. “It is true that the impression of the disaster was temporarily alleviated by the presence of aid organisations and non-governmental organisations on the ground. But this ended in April, when NGOs started to leave the city one by one. At the moment, local solidarity initiatives are practically shouldering the humanitarian work alone. In the first phase, aid came from many parts of Turkey. This continued for two months after the earthquake. Field kitchens, hospitals and pharmacies were set up and aid was organised. Since the end of April, however, there has not been the same level of activity on the ground as in the early days. Part of it was withdrawn because the aid could not be provided in this continuity. The problems are structural. Short-term or provisional solutions will not get you further than a certain point. No matter how hard civil organisations try, they cannot fill the gap left by the state. Official planning and mobilisation of large resources are needed for the next steps. Special laws need to be passed for these regions, special budgets set up and personnel allocated," Yüce said.

Queuing for two hours for 1.5 litres of water

Remarking that access to drinking water remains difficult, Yüce stated: “The CHP-run Hatay Municipality and other municipalities in the province are also not providing enough services. This threatens the health of the population. People are queuing for drinking water and unbelievable scenes are taking place. They queue for hours to get a 1.5 litre bottle of water. In these hot temperatures, they drink the water they get while queuing. There is no clean water from the mains, the pollution level of the water varies from region to region. People bathe and wash their clothes with tap water, but they get skin problems, itching, and the water causes infections. There are now extremely many mosquitoes and flies in the city. There are serious problems with rubbish collection and disposal. All these conditions increase the risk of epidemics. A government hospital has been opened in Defne and it is extremely overcrowded. Hospitals can hardly provide better services than health centres at the moment. Clinics are not able to conduct tests and examinations. Many women do not go to the hospital because the technical equipment is inadequate for gynecological diseases. We observe that people don't believe they will get proper treatment."

Water bills are issued

Yüce explained that residents of severely damaged and destroyed buildings were exempted from paying running costs. However, houses that were not destroyed and, although uninhabitable, were classified as slightly and moderately damaged, and received electricity and water bills. These bills even included the months after the earthquake when there was no supply at all.

Paying for solidarity

In particular, people who supplied others with electricity, as the electricity supply had partially collapsed or supplied salvage workers with electricity, are experiencing extreme hardship as a result. Yüce said that electricity bills reached up to 10,000 liras. "The houses in the neighbourhoods that had not collapsed, if they had electricity at all, supplied their neighbours and the tents with electricity. They shared their electricity so that people didn't have to freeze and sit in the dark. But it is not only the electricity used by a house that is billed. There is collective electricity use. These bills cannot be paid. People have no livelihood. They have no work. They are helpless. They try to develop their own methods. Nobody lives in the damaged houses. They only go to their houses from time to time to get supplies. When they come home, they find the bills. Some people also wait in front of their houses and try to prevent electricity invoicing. There must be an arrangement that the bills are not collected in the earthquake area. The municipalities, when challenged, claim that they have to invoice the electricity because they have not been informed of any other decision."

Conference at European Parliament: Europe should support the Kurdish cause

Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s isolation was denounced and the Kurdish people’s struggle praised during today’s conference at the European Parliament.

ANF
STRASBOURG
Tuesday, 13 Jun 2023

A conference titled “Rights and Freedoms in Turkey: Law, Prisons and the Kurdish Issue” organized by the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH) and the Association for Democracy and International Law (MAF-DAD) is taking place at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France in cooperation with the Left Party (Die Linke) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D).

The Co-Chair of the Left in the European Parliament, Martin Schirdewan, addressed the isolation of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan in the Imrali prison, the recent elections in Turkey and the attitude of the European states after the elections. He said: “We will not remain silent. We will denounce the hypocrisy of the European states and their leaders. We closely follow developments in Turkey. We know that judicial decisions are not fulfilled. The ECtHR decisions concerning Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş are procrastinated. We follow the developments in Turkey and Kurdistan. We support those who struggle there.”

The first session, titled “Judicialization of Politics in Turkey", was moderated by activist and lawyer Paula Martin Ponz, a member of IACTA and Feminist Cooperative. Lawyer Faik Özgür Erol from the Asrın Law Office, ELDH Executive Member from Catalonia, Prof. Louis Lemkow, Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project (TLSP) and Middlesex University Prof. Philip Leach and member of the European Parliament Fabio Massimo attended the session as speakers.

'Europe should support the Kurdish cause'

EP Greens Group member François Alfonsi said: “I am from Corsica; we are also fighting for our rights, just like you, the Kurds, who are fighting for their rights. Abdullah Öcalan has been living in isolation for years and denied visits from his family and lawyers. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) prevented a landslide victory of Erdogan in the last elections, which were not fair and democratic. A transition from democracy to dictatorship was completed. Europe should support the Kurdish cause.”

Co-Chair of ELDH, Prof. Bill Bowring, said: “I am a law professor and lawyer in London. The co-chair of our organization, Barbara Spinelli, cannot enter Turkey because she works for Kurdish rights. We observed many hearings in Turkey. We also visited prisons, including Imralı. I took part in many cases that concerned Turkey. We took part in the Özgür Gündem trial. These cases have become landmark cases on freedom of thought.”

‘The government in Turkey uses laws against its political rivals’

Heike Geisweid, Chair of MAF-DAD, said: “We founded MAF-DAD years ago. We established it to protect fundamental human rights and civil rights. As a result of our struggle, the state security courts (DGM) were abolished in Turkey. Currently, other courts also pose obstacles to the rule of law. Due to European criticism, the prison system in Turkey was changed and F-Type prisons were introduced. Alongside that, isolation has become an important issue.”

Geisweid continued: “Despite the ECtHR rulings, Abdullah Öcalan is exposed to human rights violations. He hasn't been allowed to meet his family and lawyers for years because of lame excuses by state authorities. The government in Turkey uses laws against its political rivals. In addition, after 2015, battles took place against the militants of organizations such as the PKK, TKP/ML and DHKP-C. From the 2015 autumn to the 2016 spring, there were serious human rights violations. Cities such as Cizre, Sur and Nusaybin were destroyed and 179 civilians were killed. In 2016, HDP co-chairs, hundreds of its members, and members of non-governmental organizations were arrested. Tens of thousands of them received long-term prison sentences because of an ambiguous legal definition of 'terrorism'.

In 2016, many lawyers were replaced by pro-government people. Afterwards, elected officials were dismissed and replaced by trustees. During the pandemic, a significant number of convicts were released while political prisoners were kept behind bars. The fundamental rights of political prisoners were not respected. It would be naive to think that the AKP will democratize the regime after the last election. I think that it is very important for European institutions to put pressure on Turkey.”

'Illegal practices started in Imralı and spread to the whole of Turkey'

Faik Özgür Erol from the Asrın Law Office said: “Unfortunately, the judiciary in Turkey is getting more and more politicized. In the past, there were the state security courts, but the political will that abolished those courts has created an even worse situation. There is no court that respects the European Court of Human Rights decisions anymore. For example, the ECtHR issued a decision for Demirtaş and Kavala but Turkey would not implement it. The AKP government has brought law and justice under its control. All norms and standards have been set aside for the survival of the state. They abuse the legal framework, lynching ethnic identities and other beliefs. The ruling AKP has used the judiciary to confront dissenting groups and circles.”

Erol added: “The occupied areas in Syria have become notorious places like Guantanamo. This is also the case in the Kurdish regions, especially during the 'curfews'. This is also true for refugees in the country. The AKP arbitrarily creates places without status. Refugees were arrested somewhere in the Aegean region a couple of days ago. They surrounded them with a fence and gave them food and drink from outside. There is no such thing in law. These notorious lawless scenes also spread to other regions, starting from Imrali.”

The case of Spain

Catalan Lawyer-Prof. Luis Lemkow said: “Like in Turkey, the judiciary has been politicized in Spain. The government fully controls the judiciary. Of course, this was done mostly during the Franco dictatorship. But it has continued. Especially after the independence referendum of Catalonia, they derailed the law and justice from their own course. They acted politically and took decisions based on political motives. The judiciary agreed to whatever the Spanish government wanted. They punished the leaders of the referendum with political decisions.”

Prof. Philip Leach said: “Turkey also engages in corruption against the ECtHR decisions. The Kavala case confirms this. Osman Kavala was released in accordance with the ECtHR decisions. However, he was arrested in the scope of another case on the same day. This is an attempt to deceive the ECtHR and to reverse its decisions. But now the European Council can see it for itself. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe reviewed the situation recently and asked Turkey to immediately release Kavala and Demirtaş. The Demirtaş case sheds light on the politicization of the Turkish judiciary. This case was brought up by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe last week.”

The conference will continue with panels

The second panel of the conference is titled “Prisons, Isolation and Judiciary”. Lawyer Nahit Eren, President of Diyarbakır Bar Association, will speak about the penal system in Turkey. Lawyer Cengiz Yürekli from the Asrın Law Office will provide information about isolation and the situation in prisons over the Imrali experience. Lawyer Miriam Fieding, Member of the 2023 Prison Delegation, will convey the observations and recommendations of international delegations. Lawyer Renkin Ergül from the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) will evaluate the "right to hope" decision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

The third panel of the conference will be held under the title of "Democratic Perspective for Turkey", focusing on solutions. Declan Owens from the Socialist Lawyers’ Association of Ireland will make a presentation titled “Conflict resolution experiences and the role of law”. Caroline Stockford from PEN Norway will discuss the "Right to defence in Kurdish and oppression against Kurdish journalists and media". Giuliano Pisapia from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament will talk about the role of Europe in Turkey's democratization.

IRAQI KURDISTAN

KCK calls off unilateral ceasefire

The KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency announced that it has called off the unilateral ceasefire which was announced after the earthquake on 6 February and extended until after the elections, due to the attacks by the Turkish state.

ANF
NEWS DESK
Tuesday, 13 Jun 2023, 

In a statement on Tuesday, the KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency, emphasized that the attacks and killings by the Turkish state continued and the isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan was aggravated during the unilateral ceasefire declared on 6 February, after the earthquake that hit Kurdistan, Turkey and Syria.

Drawing attention to the murder of Hüseyin Arasan in Sulaymaniyah (Silêmanî), the statement said: "The AKP-MHP fascism has launched a new wave of attacks against our Movement and our people. Against this wave of fascist attacks, the need for active struggle has become inevitable. We declare that we have called off the unilateral ceasefire that we have taken as of today."

The statement continued: "As is known, two major earthquakes occurred on February 6, 2023 with epicenters in Elbistan and Pazarcık. As a movement, after the seriousness of the earthquake's impact became clear, we decided to stop any action until the humanitarian crisis was contained. We then publicly announced our decision, based on our humanitarian and moral responsibilities. We have called on all our forces, as well as the revolutionary-democratic forces beyond our structures, not to carry out any actions for this reason, especially in the cities. Our People's Defense Forces responded to this appeal with a statement announcing that they ceased their actions and would not undertake any further actions beyond self-defense during this period. The HPG and all military units associated with them have followed this decision of our movement."

The statement continued: "While the heavy impact of the earthquake was still continuing, Turkey entered an election process. During this election, which was considered important by both the people of Kurdistan and the society in Turkey, we decided to extend our halt of all military attacks until the end of the elections in order to eliminate the grounds for provocations by the fascist AKP-MHP government and to thus ensure that the election leads to results in favor of the peoples and the democratic forces. We then again shared this decision with the public. Undoubtedly, as a movement, we advocate and struggle for the democratic political solution to the Kurdish question and the democratization of Turkey. In this respect, our decision constituted a clear support for politics and the political process.

Undoubtedly, our people, patriotic and democratic Kurdish organizations, many personalities, the democratic forces of Turkey, many powers and institutions from the region and the international arena and the democratic public saw our decision positively and supported it. However, the Turkish state and AKP-MHP government have nullified our decision by increasing the invasion and genocidal attacks. The fascist AKP-MHP government never stopped its attacks throughout this period of inaction and continued its attacks on guerrilla areas, and the use of banned weapons. Apart from the guerrilla areas, it continued to increase its attacks and killings against Kurds in South Kurdistan, Shengal, Maxmur and Rojava. It has also increased its attacks on the people and democratic politics in Turkey and Bakur Kurdistan. It continued the isolation of Leader Apo by aggravating it.

In short, the fascist AKP-MHP government has deepened its attacks against our Movement and our people within the scope of the concept of liquidation and genocide, further deepening the isolation of Leader Apo. Despite the increasing attacks by the Turkish army throughout this process of inaction, the guerrillas kept in line with the decision we took, but the increasing attacks by the AKP-MHP government rendered this decision meaningless.

The opposition in Turkey has not taken an approach that will respond to this decision, which means contributing to the humanitarian, conscientious and political process, and has not been able to show its difference from the government by maintaining its nationalist and narrow approach.

Despite this decision – taken as a requirement of our humanitarian and moral responsibility in order to prevent provocations during the election process and to contribute to the development of a political foundation – the attacks and massacres against our forces and our people have continued and increased for more than four months now. In addition, the isolation of Leader Apo has been further aggravated. The recent murder of our revolutionary comrade Baran Avrêl (Hüseyin Arasan) in
Sulaymaniyah also makes clear that AKP-MHP fascism has launched a new wave of attacks against our movement and our people. Against this wave of fascist attacks, the need for an active struggle and for attacks on the enemy everywhere has become inevitable. For all these reasons, we hereby declare that we will end the halt of all military attacks as of today.

Today, everybody has understood more than ever that no progress can take place without the destruction of AKP-MHP fascism. Based on this reality, everyone, especially our people and all revolutionary democratic forces, must further increase the struggle against the fascist AKP-MHP government."

SYRIAN KURDISTAN

YPJ publishes booklet to mark 10th anniversary of its foundation

The YPJ Information and Documentation Office published a booklet to mark the 10th anniversary of the creation of the Women's Defense Units.

ANF
NEWS DESK
Monday, 12 Jun 2023, 10:54

The YPJ Information and Documentation Office published a booklet to mark the 10th anniversary of the creation of the Women's Defense Units.

Following the uprising of the so-called Arab Spring, the people of Rojava (Western Kurdistan, Northern Syria) took over the administration from the hands of the Syrian Regime and established a confederal, democratic self-administration. The Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) is an all-female military self-defense force that was founded in 2013, with the aim of protecting the people and women of Rojava and their right to self-administration.

Since then, YPJ has participated in all military operations, fighting different Islamist groups such as Al-Nusra and ISIS. In 2014, when the city of Kobane was besieged and attacked by ISIS, the fighters of YPJ – alongside our all-gendered People’s Protection Units (YPG) – played an active role in liberating the city. During this time, YPJ fighters gained international attention for their courage and resistance, becoming a role model for women around the world fighting for freedom, self-determination and gender equality.



Following the Battle of Kobane, YPJ became a founding part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military alliance that was founded in 2015, subsequently bringing together different groups fighting ISIS in North and East Syria. With the support of the International Coalition Against ISIS, the SDF led the fight on the ground against ISIS terrorism, liberating the women and people of areas such as Minbij, Raqqa, Deir az Zor and many more.

The YPJ soon became an ethnically diverse force, as women from Arab, Assyrian, Armenian and other origins joined our ranks. The civil self-administration of Rojava changed its name to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) to indicate the multi-ethnic character of the self-administration’s areas.

In 2018, when the so-called caliphate of ISIS was still in existence, the Turkish state started a brutal invasive war against our western canton of Afrin, using Islamist mercenaries as ground forces. Our fighters carried out a heroic resistance and hundreds of our fighters gave their lives to protect the people of Afrin. Nevertheless, the Turkish state occupied Afrin, creating a system based on torture, kidnapping, rape and murder. Assimilation politics and demographic change are continually used against the population, and human rights violations there are well-documented.

After the resistance of Afrin, our forces participated in the battle against the last territory of the so-called ISIS caliphate: the Battle of Baghoz. In March 2019, ISIS’ defeat was declared and thousands of their fighters and affiliates surrendered themselves to the SDF – among them, citizens from around the world that had come to Iraq and Syria to join the caliphate. The forces of YPG and YPJ paid for the defeat of ISIS with the lives of 11,000 martyrs. We paid this price knowing that we are not just protecting Syria and the Middle East, but the whole of humanity against the risks posed by ISIS’ ideology and organization.

In the same year of ISIS’ defeat, the Turkish state (together with its allied Islamist groups) launched another military operation against our territories, which led to the occupation of two of our cities: Serekaniye and Gire Spi. Thousands of civilians became refugees, and like in Afrin, many human rights are routinely violated. Furthermore, the Turkish State is using these occupied regions to give safe passage to ISIS members heading into the areas of the AANES.

PKK LEADER IN TURKISH JAIL

Asrın Law Office's lawyers apply to visit Abdullah Öcalan

Lawyers from the Asrın Law Office applied to Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and Imralı Prison Directorate with a request to meet with their client, Abdullah Öcalan.

ANF
ISTANBUL
Tuesday, 13 Jun 2023, 15:32

Asrın Law Office lawyers Rezan Sarıca, Raziye Öztürk, Mazlum Dinç and Faik Özgür Erol, applied to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and the Imralı Penitentiary Directorate to meet with their client Abdullah Öcalan, who is held under heavy isolation conditions in Imralı F Type High Security Prison. Lawyers also applied to both the prosecutor's office and the prison directorate to meet with other prisoners on Imrali; Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş.

Background

On March 14, 2021, rumours spread on social media claiming that Öcalan had died in prison. Immediately, protests were organised around the world demanding an urgent visit by the lawyers to Imrali.

On March 25, 2021, Öcalan was able to talk with his brother Mehmet Öcalan. The short phone conversation happened about a year after a previous call, on 27 April 2020, and it is the first time since then that Öcalan had actual contact with someone outside.

The phone conversation was held under the supervision of the Urfa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and was very short. The call was interrupted pretty soon. Likewise, the phone call by another prisoner on Imrali, Hamili Yıldırım, with his family was also abruptly interrupted. It was reported that the other two prisoners, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş, did not make the phone call they were offered to protest isolation.

Lawyers of Öcalan were able to meet their client on May 2-22, June 12-18 and August 7, 2019, for the first time in 8 years. Since August 7, 2019, all applications have gone unanswered.

After Öcalan’s lawyers applied to a Bursa court for an “urgent meeting” on November 22, it came out that two further bans had been issued against the Kurdish leader. The Bursa court rejected the application, citing a 6-month visitation dated October 12 as a reason.

The court also rejected the application of the families for a meeting with their relatives, citing a 3-month family visitation ban issued by the Disciplinary Board of the Imrali Penal Institution dated August 18, 2021.

The Imrali Delegation, which was able to hold talks with Öcalan within the framework of peace negotiations, has not been allowed to visit the prison island since April 2015. Since the last visit of the team of lawyers on August 7, 2019, the Turkish authorities have not responded to any of the continuous requests for visits.

The Turkish authorities use the "roadmap for negotiations" submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in 2009 as the justification for the ban on visits by Abdullah Öcalan's team of lawyers.

On the other hand, the investigation launched in 2012 against lawyers of Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan, Rezan Sarıca, Ali Maden, Baran Doğan, Cengiz Yürekli, İnan Akmeşe, Mahmut Taşçı and Mehmet Selim Okçuoğlu, was picked up again at the beginning of 2021.

The lawyers went to the prosecutor's office and gave a statement. After the statements were taken, the indictment prepared by the prosecutor's office was accepted by the Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court. Lawyers are accused, among other things, of "membership of a terrorist organization", and they are expected to appear in court in September.

In the indictment, where lawyer meetings with Öcalan were shown as a criminal element, the lawyers' refusal to accept the accusations against them was also cited as a criminal element. In addition, while lawyer Cengiz Yürekli's use of his right to remain silent was shown as an element of crime, phone calls made by detainees with their families due to their profession were also considered a crime.

The most interesting subject of accusation in the indictment was that statements such as "isolation is being applied to Öcalan" and "lawyers have not been allowed to see him for 300 days" were cited as criminal elements. These were sentences contained in statements made by the lawyers to the press.

Concerns over the situation of the Kurdish people's leader increased after the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited Turkey on September 20-29. In a statement on 3 October, the CPT announced that Imralı F Type High Security Prison was among the institutions it visited.

However, Asrın Law Office reported that the CPT had no meeting with Abdullah Öcalan. Asrın Law Office said on 29 November: “We have heard that Mr. Öcalan did not attend the visit during the CPT's visit to Imralı Island in September 2022.”

On 30 March, 2022, the CPT published its general report on its activities covering the year 2022. borders. In the course of 2022, the CPT organised 16 visits (totalling 140 days), including seven periodic visits and nine ad hoc visits. According to the report, CPT also visited the Imrali Island Prison, where Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan has been held since his arrest and handover to Turkey as a result of an international conspiracy in 1999. The report, however, did not provide any information on the conditions of the Kurdish leader who has been held in incommunicado detention in violation of domestic and international laws and standards since his imprisonment.

FOSSILS/DINOS

Giant Ancient Lizard Covered in Thick Armor and Spikes Found: 'Bizarre'

BY ARISTOS GEORGIOU 

ON 6/13/23 

Agiant ancient lizard covered in thick armor and spikes has been discovered by scientists in Australia.

The turtle-like creature is "one of the most bizarre lizards found in recent times," said the authors of a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The now-extinct species, which forms part of the skink family, lived in the Pleistocene, the geological epoch that lasted from around 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago.

Skinks, a group of lizards that are found all over the world, are commonly recognized for their shiny, overlapping scales. There are more than 1,700 known species of skink today.

An artist's reconstruction shows a pair of Tiliqua frangens, with a small garden skink measuring 4 inches long in the corner for scale. The new species is by far the largest skink recorded to date.

KATRINA KENNY

Most skinks weigh less than 2 grams (0.07 ounces) and measure less than 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) in length.

But the newly discovered species is by far the largest skink recorded to date. In fact, it would have been more than a thousand times heavier than a typical skink, weighing roughly 2.4 kilograms, or 5.2 pounds, the researchers said.

The "gigantic" skink was at least 60 centimeters (2 feet) in length, whereas the longest living skinks today reach only around 35 centimeters (1.1 feet) when measuring between the nose and the vent at the start of the tail.

The new species, named Tiliqua frangens, most closely resembles Australia's shingleback lizards, a species of blue-tongued skink. But T. frangens was more than twice as long and heavy as any of the largest living skinks today.

"The body size is huge compared to any other skink that we've ever known," Kailah Thorn, an author of the study who is affiliated with the Western Australian Museum, told Newsweek.

The fossils documented in the study show that the wide, heavy-set body of this creature was completely covered in "extremely thick, spikey armor," the authors said.

"The fossils preserve bones from within [the animal's] scales that acted as an external armor plating, and these bones have spikes on them," Thorn said.

She continued: "With the heavy armor plating, it's most likely that they foraged for plants out in the open during the day, much like living shingleback lizards in Australia and terrestrial tortoises in Africa and North America now. We can tell from the short and stocky limb bones that they moved slowly and had less maneuverability."

Compared with other groups, the fossil record of lizards and snakes has been poorly documented, even though there are more species of these animals than any other order of land vertebrates.

The identification of T. frangens as a new species, by contrast, was based on the fossils of many individuals, spanning babies to adults. As a result, the study's authors have been able to learn a lot about the creature's growth and development, ecology and evolutionary relationships.

The species had been described on two separate previous occasions as two different species. Each of those descriptions was based on a single bone, and the scientists involved could not match them to the one animal. So it was named twice—Aethesia frangens and Tiliqua laticephala.

But beginning in 2016, excavations conducted by the study's authors at the Wellington Caves in New South Wales, Australia—as well as investigations of museum collections—unearthed new fossil materials that enabled the team to re-describe T. frangens as a single new species.

"Now that we have so many more pieces, we know that they all fit together and represent one very unique animal," Thorn said.

The researchers found multiple pieces of this giant skink during the cave excavations. They also uncovered fossils belonging to the same species that were already stored in various museum collections but had not been described until now.

"The fossils are different pieces of the lizard's skeleton," Thorn said. "A lizard skull naturally breaks into multiple pieces, which makes them very difficult to reconstruct. All the material recovered from the new dig, as well as what I managed to find from the Queensland Museum, Australian Museum and Melbourne Museum paleontology collections, together represent most of the skull and some of the limbs and body of this species."


Given the number of different bones that the researchers found, the study's authors said that T. frangens is now the most completely known Australian fossil lizard.

"We can now recognize more parts of this animal than any other Australian fossil lizard," Thorn said.

The researchers have most of the head, the humerus (upper arm), the tibia (lower leg) and a few important back bones (from the neck and between the hips), she said, as well as chunks of the armor plating preserved.

"We also have bones from young individuals, so we can see how big these animals were when they were born—blue-tongues give birth to live young, they don't lay eggs—and how they changed shape as they grew," Thorn said.


The oldest T. frangens fossils that the researchers documented could be up to 2 million years old, she said. The youngest ones, meanwhile, have been dated to around 47,000 years before the present.

"This animal went extinct at the same time, and possibly for similar reasons, as the other Australian Pleistocene megafauna," Thorn said.

Looking at the palaeoclimate record, as well as examining other well-known fossil species from the same excavations, can yield information about the area in which these animals were living, according to Thorn.

"These lizards most likely lived in a temperate open woodland with patches of bluebush and saltbush plants—similar to modern shingleback habitat," she said.


The new findings highlight the fascinating ancient megafauna that once called this part of southeastern Australia home.

"Wellington Caves was the first site that Europeans uncovered megafauna fossils over 100 years ago, and we are still finding new giant fossil species there now," Thorn said. "There are other giant skink fossils in Australia, but we know very little about them because very few people work on fossil lizards here."

Small-Headed, Long-Necked Dinosaur That Weighs Same as Humans Discovered

BY ARISTOS GEORGIOU 

ON 6/13/23 AT 7:01 PM EDT

A new species of long-necked dinosaur has been discovered, and researchers say it is among the smallest known members of a family of giants.

When scientists analyzed a fossil limb bone found in South Africa, they determined that it represented a mature, previously unknown sauropod that lived around 200 million years ago.

The sauropod group of dinosaurs includes the largest land-dwelling animals ever to walk the Earth, with some species estimated to have weighed more than 90 metric tons. But in contrast to these giants, the new sauropod described in the study is thought to have had a body mass of only around 75 kilograms (165 pounds)—about the same as some humans—according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

The new sauropod's limb bone is shown, along with a cross section as seen under a microscope. The dinosaur is the smallest known sauropod from the Jurassic Period, according to researchers.

CHAPELLE ET AL./ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE

This places it among the smallest known sauropodomorphs—the group that contains sauropods and their ancestors—ever to roam our planet. It is also the smallest sauropod ever reported from the Jurassic—the geologic period extending from around 201 million to 145 million years ago.

"Up until now, we knew that sauropodomorphs appeared in the Triassic, some 233 million years ago. At that time, they were very small, about 10 kilograms [22 pounds]," Kimberley Chapelle, an author of the study, told Newsweek. "But as soon as we get to the Jurassic, they already weigh several hundred kilograms and keep increasing in size until they reached multiple [metric tons].

"That's what sauropods are known for, being the largest land animals to ever roam the Earth," said Chapelle, who is affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. "But now we know that there were still some small ones in the Jurassic. This is the first sauropodomorph under 100 kilograms in the entire Jurassic."

The latest discovery helps scientists to better understand the ecosystems at the time, as well as the evolution of this group of dinosaurs, according to Chapelle.

The new dinosaur was a plant eater that walked on two legs. It also had a long neck and a small head.

"The most surprising thing about the dinosaur is that it is really small—approximately 75 kilograms [165 pounds], which is about as heavy as an impala," Chapelle said. "We also know for a fact that it is an adult and wouldn't grow much bigger."

To place the new dinosaur's size into context, the Jurassic sauropodomorph that is the next step up in size is already 50 percent bigger. And most of the sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the time had a body mass of several hundred pounds.

The area in which the dinosaur once lived would have been a warmer environment than today, with fewer plants and braided rivers running through the landscape, according to Chapelle.

A diagram shows the smallest adult Jurassic sauropodomorph in orange, compared with other relatives in the group and a human. The orange sauropod is thought to have weighed around 165 pounds.

MODIFIED FROM SCOTT HARTMAN AND ANDREW KNIGHT UNDER CC BY 3.0 LICENSE

The fossil limb bone that the study is based on was originally found by James Kitching in 1978 in the eastern part of South Africa's Free State province. Since then, the fossil has been kept at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Johannesburg's Wits University.

Initially, the fossil was thought to represent Massospondylus—Southern Africa's most abundant dinosaur. But it was never really examined on its own until the latest study, which found that it represented a new species—an early ancestor of well-known giants like Diplodocus.

Because the study's authors were able to examine only this one fossil bone for their research, they have not yet named the new species.

"There may be a more complete fossil of it in a museum somewhere or in the field that will allow us to learn more about it and name it," Chapelle said.

"Now that we know it exists, we can go back and look at collections in museums, and there may be another one hiding in there. We also still excavate dinosaurs every year, so we may find one," she said.

UN: Climate Change Has Significantly Affected Yemen’s Agriculture

A project on improving food security in Yemen. 

Photo: Official media
Aden: Mohammed Nasser
14:13-13 June 2023 

AD ـ 24 Thul-Qi’dah 1444 AH

Drastic climate changes in Yemen have significantly affected the country’s agriculture, a vital sector that employs a large number of workers and serves as Yemen’s primary source of domestic food production, the United Nations Development Program said this week.

“Malnutrition rates among women and children in Yemen are among the highest in the world: some 1.3 million pregnant and nursing women and 2.2 million children under the age of five require treatment for acute malnutrition,” it said.

In response to Yemen’s food crisis, UNDP, with funding from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), is working with the Social Fund for Development (SFD) and Public Works Project (PWP) to implement the Food Security Response and Resilience Project (FSRRP) in Yemen.

In total, 47 agricultural districts – all ranked low on the Food Security Index – will benefit from interventions aimed at rehabilitating and protecting their agricultural infrastructure and promoting climate-resilient agricultural practices to help communities maintain the sustainability of food production into the future.

These interventions contribute directly and indirectly to improving households’ food security by restoring degrading lands, developing irrigation systems and improving farmers' access to markets through road rehabilitation.

The project also gives locals the chance to earn a wage as they work on these projects through cash-for-work schemes – all while building valuable assets for their own communities.

Effects of Ugandan Anti-LGBT law: Emptying HIV clinics

Members of the South African LGBT community take part in the annual Gay Pride Parade, during Durban Pride Festival, on June 29, 2019. -

Copyright © africanews

RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP or licensors

By Rédaction Africanews
with Reuters Last updated: 12/06 - 

In the Ugandan capital of Kampala, the usually buzzing HIV/AIDS treatment center is almost empty days after parliament enacted a controversial anti-gay law. According to staff, the usual daily influx of approximately 50 patients has dried up, antiretroviral drugs pile up unused.

A resident medical officer at a US-funded clinic, warned that new waves of HIV infections were forming as vulnerable people stayed away from treatment centers, afraid of being identified and arrested under the new laws.

"The LGBT community in Uganda is on lockdown now," he said. "They don't have preventive services. They cannot access condoms ... they cannot access ARTS (antiretroviral)."

Under the bill, which President Yoweri Museveni signed into law last week, gay sex is punishable by life in prison while "aggravated homosexuality", including the transmission of HIV, is punishable by death.

Until this year, the Kampala clinic had been a beacon of success for the fight against HIV in Uganda, where 1.4 million people live with the virus and 17,000 die a year as a result of its ravages, according to the Uganda AIDS Commission.

Now, when patients do come in, it's often out of absolute necessity. The HIV cases presenting has thus become more severe as people skip treatments.

A US official suggested that the law would reverse the country's advancements in fighting HIV/AIDS.



That statement was rebuked by Ugandan prime minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero, who responded that the government would ensure that prevention programs would remain accessible to those that needed them.



Nonetheless, the trend of HIV patients staying away from treatment centers is being mirrored on a national level, according to Mary Borgman, country director for the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which funds the Kampala clinic and about 80 other drop-in centers across Uganda.

She said fear had increasingly been deterring people from coming in for treatment ever since the anti-gay bill was introduced in parliament in March.

The people living with the virus are not the only ones afraid of repercussions. Many medical officials are reluctant to provide services to gay patients, as they fear being accused of defending and promoting homosexuality.

Reporting gay activity

Lillian Mworeko, the East African regional coordinator for the International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS, said some providers feared that offering medical services to LGBTQ patients could be classed as "promoting" homosexuality, an offense punishable by 20 years in prison under the new law.

The Ugandan bill toughened up an existing British colonial-era law, under which gay sex was already illegal. Proponents say the new legislation is needed to counter what they allege are efforts by LGBTQ Ugandans to recruit children into homosexuality.

The amended version signed by Museveni didn't criminalize merely identifying as LGBTQ, as a previous version did, and revised a measure that required people to report gay activity to only oblige reporting when a child was involved.

Though acclaimed nationally by public opinion and seen as a clear statement against the propagation of "corrupt western mores" in African societies, local activists have denounced the backwardness of the law, pointing out that homosexuality existed in precolonial Africa, was accepted in most cultures than others and was not considered unnatural or a sin.

"The majority of these people, like transgender or queer people, have gone through a lot already," shared a medical officer.

At the Kampala clinic, run by local charity Icebreakers Uganda, one of the medical officers said he understood the fears of LGBTQ people in Uganda who often endured painful lives, featuring rejection by their families and arrests.

Oil producers say tech will soon handle climate-wrecking fumes. US envoy Kerry says be skeptical



UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. climate envoy John Kerry on Tuesday urged the world to be “very skeptical” about claims from oil and gas producers that emerging technology soon will allow people to adequately capture the climate-wrecking fumes emitted by their cars, planes and businesses.

It’s “one big question mark,” Kerry told The Associated Press of the future viability of carbon-capture technology, a debate at the heart of global negotiations on cutting emissions to stave off the most disastrous scenarios of global warming.

The International Energy Agency and increasing numbers of scientists, governments and global leaders and advocates are saying the only way to rein in climate change fast enough is to immediately stop drilling new oil and gas wells and sharply phase down existing drilling.

Many oil companies and oil states are fighting the calls for production cuts, saying that still-emerging carbon-capture technology will come to the rescue. The burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of global warming, and techniques to capture enough of the fumes to make a difference, affordably and efficiently, have yet to be developed.

“Let’s be very skeptical about this unless it’s proven to work,” Kerry told the AP after delivering a statement at a U.N. Security Council meeting. “We can’t afford to play games anymore with the amount of fossil carbon that’s going up in the atmosphere,” along with methane and other climate-damaging gases from the oil and gas industry.

That doesn’t mean that government, corporations and oil and gas producers shouldn’t keep pushing for breakthroughs in the technology, he said. “If it could work, fine, you know. … But we heard for 30 years about clean coal, and how did that work out?”

Kerry told the U.N. Security Council that “it’s now indisputable – indisputable – that the climate crisis is one of the top security threats, not just to the developed world but to the entire planet, to life on the planet itself.”

He said it already costs countries billions of dollars every year “just to clean up the mess, and most importantly, it costs the world millions of lives,” including 7 million a year who die from greenhouse gas pollution.

Kerry stressed that 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa account for 0.55% of global emissions and 20 countries account for 76%. He said they all pledged nearly 10 years ago to cut emissions fast enough to keep the rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a threshold scientists say is about to be crossed, “but we're not all doing it.”

He said he wasn’t at the U.N. to point fingers but to urge all countries to start working together to tackle the crisis. He called for an immediate end to the permitting of new unabated coal plants.


WION  Energy giants turn to humble tech startups to remove emission | WION Climate Tracker
2:26

“No country should be bringing online new sources of pollution wherever it comes from, knowing what we know about this crisis," Kerry said.

Globally, no major oil and gas producer is known to be seriously considering phasing down its production, said Hanna Fekete, a researcher with the German-based NewClimate Institute. The U.S., the world's biggest producer, is among those scaling up production, despite the Biden administration's climate commitments.

American consumers would need to cut their dependence on fossil fuels dramatically if the U.S. is to meet its climate goals, Fekete said.

The United Arab Emirates, the host for U.N.-sponsored climate talks later this year, is also among the nations aiming to ramp up production, not reduce it.

Kerry called the stepped-up U.S. production a “momentary bubble” as a result of bumps in the global energy market from the war in Ukraine. Increased U.S. demand for electric vehicles and a move to cleaner forms of power would help take care of that, he said.

“So, we’re in a transition. The word transition is very key to what we’re trying to do,” Kerry said.

China would have to step up as well, Kerry said. The country is currently the top emitter of fossil fuels, owing partly to continued operation and building of dirty-burning coal-fired power plants.

President Xi Jinping's government has resisted pressure to rapidly phase out coal plants, arguing that China is still a developing nation and should not be held to the same climate standards as the U.S. and other big Western economies.

“Well, first of all, China is not a poor nation,” Kerry said. “So let’s understand that the second-largest economy in the world is exactly that, the second-largest economy in the world, and they’ve spent huge amounts of money around the world in various countries.”

Kerry also made clear that he will not go to China for face-to-face talks with his climate counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Beijing. He is expected in China soon.

Kerry, who was invited to Beijing by Xie, noted concerns about the health of the Chinese official, who has been a key part of U.S-China climate negotiations that have led to some past climate breakthroughs.

“He’s had a difficult period in the last months, and we wish him well,” Kerry said. “He is a very, very important interlocutor and he’s very reliable and trustworthy in terms of his commitment, seriousness. So we hope the Chinese-U.S. track will begin to get on.”

—-

Knickmeyer contributed from Washington and Jordans from Berlin.

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Edith M. Lederer, Ellen Knickmeyer And Frank Jordans, The Associated Press