Secret Belief Means Wagner’s Most Dangerous Men Won’t Back Down

Will McCurdy

The Daily Beast
Mon, September 4, 2023

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters

All eyes are on the Russian mercenary group Wagner in the aftermath of a mysterious plane crash that presumably killed the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and his right-hand man, Dmitry Utkin, last week. Angry over what many suspect was an assassination plot ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, many factions within the infamous mercenary group are now emerging with shadowy threats of vengeance and violence.

The “Rusich” Sabotage Assault Reconnaissance Group, a Wagner-linked unit of fighters that have received additional sanctions for “special cruelty" in battles in the Kharkiv region in Ukraine, has recently taken to Telegram to post one such ominous warning. “Let this be a lesson to all. Always go all the way,” the group said in a statement after the plane crash.

There’s good reason for Vladimir Putin to take threats from Rusich, and other like-minded Wagner fighters, seriously.

That’s because behind the headlines, many of the Wagner units most known for their violence—including the Rusich battalion, and even the now-deceased commander Dmitry Utkin—are fighting what they believe is a spiritual battle, taking religious and ideological inspiration from sources far removed from the Russian mainstream.


These soldiers are shunning Jesus, Mary, and the Russian Orthodox patriarchs, and instead booking to Gods such as Perun— the ancient Slavic god of thunder and lightning—for protection and inspiration.

Members of the far right Russian paramilitary unit Rusich take a walk in the Kremlin square during a break in their participation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
STR/NurPhoto/Getty

The “Rusich” battalion is formed almost entirely of adherents of a variant of Slavic neopaganism known as “Rodnovery,” according to former unit commander Alexei Milchakov’s interviews with local Russian media. Marat Gabidullin, who served in the Wagner group from 2015 to 2019 and rose to the rank of commander in Syria, also confirmed these reports to The Daily Beast.

Members of the Rusich group, which has been active in Ukraine’s Donbas region, Africa, and Syria since 2014, have often adorned their badges, tanks, and banners with images of what’s known as the ‘kolovrat’. This spinning wheel—one of the critical symbols of the pagan revivalist belief system—could be easily mistaken for a swastika by the untrained eye. Pagan symbols such as the ‘Valknut’ and ‘Black Sun’ have also frequently appeared on the groups’ uniforms and banners.

These pagan symbols have prompted disgust and confusion in several news outlets, in both Ukraine and Africa, due to the symbols bearing a distinct similarity to the SS imagery of Nazi Germany. Outside of the Rusich unit, these pagan beliefs are common among members of the Wagner Group, and the Russian military more widely, according to several sources who spoke to The Daily Beast.

‘Rodnovers’ practice polytheism, the belief in multiple gods, roughly seven, all said to be manifestations of the one true god Rod. These ideas began to take root in the ’90s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union and state atheism led to a revival of religious faiths of all kinds, including Christianity.

Men are hugely overrepresented in Rodnovery, particularly those involved in martial arts clubs and the heavy metal community, where its imagery often crops up. A core text of Rodnovery, “The Book of Veles” places the Slavs as a type of chosen people, with a unique destiny. Though texts like the above have proven likely to be 19th-century forgeries and much of the faith represents guesswork based on incomplete records from Medieval scholars, that hasn’t stopped these beliefs from slowly rising in popularity.

There are estimated to be between several 100,000 to several million Pagans in Russia, divided between different sects with quite diverse beliefs. The deity that receives the bulk of the attention, at least among male devotees, is Perun, a deity who in the Book of Veles engages in constant war against the forces of evil, not unlike the popular Norse god Thor. The belief in reincarnation is also common among believers.

Gabidullin, the ex-Wagner soldier, told The Daily Beast the practice of Rodoverny within the group as merely a type of “fashion hobby” for a marginalized community of soldiers.

The ex-mercenary says the popularity of these beliefs stems from the “laziness to study the scientific school of history” and the desire to find a justification “for self-aggrandizement in the past.” He terms the vision of the history of Rodverners in Wagner as an: “invented version with great ancestors and achievements.”

Expressing sympathy with Rodnovery may even get you promoted within the Wagner Group. A group of anonymous informants, who served in the Wagner group in Syria, told a Ukrainian publication Radio Liberty in 2018 “it is desirable to be a Rodnover” to progress in the Wagner group.

Hundreds of Wagner Men Vanish From Putin’s Designated Exile

Gabidullin, in a previous interview with a Russian language publication, has alleged that Dimitry Utkin, the group’s recently deceased commander, has Pagan beliefs of his own, alleging the general has multiple Rodnovery-inspired tattoos.

Portraits of Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin are seen at a makeshift memorial in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia August 27, 2023.
Anastasia Makarycheva/Reuters

The insider also alleged that there was “an ideological department within the Wagner PMC (private mercenary company),” formed back in 2019 that is promoting the movement, which he derides as merely a “disguised form of Nazi ideology.”

Denys Brylov, a Ukrainian scholar focused on religion in the Slavic world, believes that the actual specific religious practices of the Rodnovers serving in Wagner may come secondary to the wider ideological component it can provide for soldiers.

Brylov believes that for Wagnerites neo-paganism is attractive due to its ability to provide a spiritual justification for the “cult of force”. In these types of fringe, hardline interpretations of pagan beliefs, the very act of battle or the shedding of blood can be “considered as an act of sacrifice to the pagan patron deities of warriors and war.”

That said, Brylov feels that in many cases persons “inclined to cruelty” may simply gravitate to neo-pagan ideology to justify these instincts, rather than the beliefs themselves being inherently warlike.

Rusich commander Alexei Milchakov, for instance, went viral on VK—effectively Russia’s Facebook—for beheading and eating a puppy, while barely out of his teenage years, and well before he joined the army. He would later joke he respected canines' rights to be “1-tasty, 2-fried, 3-not have a lot of veins and bones.”

Neopaganism in the West, which started to first grow in the 1960s, has yet to shake lingering associations with flower power and the hippie movement, though this hasn’t always been the case. Norse Neopaganism, the revival of old Viking and Northern European religious traditions, has often been co-opted by the far right, both in Scandinavia and in the U.S. Popular heavy metal musicians such as the Norwegian Varg Vikernes, who has served a 15-year jail sentence for murder, employ long-winded, fairly academic descriptions of Nordic paganism as a justification for antisemitism and a protest of what they view as the corrupting influence of Anglo-American liberalism. In the U.S., Norse revivalist ideas have become popular in Neo-nazi or skinhead groups, and there are even seen Asatrú ministries—a type of revivalist Norse paganism—popping up in jails across the country.

Western neo-pagans, at least between the 1960s and early 1980s, generally but by no means always, leaned left, anti-war, and pro-environment, and were seeking a more earth-centric religious philosophy. Now, western neo-pagan movements have shifted to include large numbers of individuals from across the left and right of the political spectrum.

Still, there is a definite bent towards libertarianism, according to Adrian Ivakhiv, a professor at the University of Vermont who has conducted research into Ukrainian pagan revivalism, which includes 'Ridnoviry,’ among other overlapping traditions.

Rodnovery, in contrast, tends to be marginally more socially right-wing than Western forms of neo-paganism and may portray Western liberalism and consumerism as a corrupting influence.

Rodnovers, according to Ivakhiv, ‘definitely’ often have a streak of Western anti-liberalism, because they see liberalism as a secularizing force that threatens traditional social institutions such as families and communities.

Ivakhiv feels that Rodnovery, in some but certainly not all manifestations, can play into the vaguely esoteric, right-wing sort of spirituality you can find the world over, uniting the Steve Bannon wing of the American right with the “Alexander Dugin wing” of Russian conservative politics that is intensely anti-secular.

Alexander Dugin, a Russian far-right political philosopher, is primarily known for conspiratorial rhetoric. He promotes neo-imperialist viewpoints known as ‘Eurasianism’ and characterizes Western liberalism as a spiritual evil. His popular book, The Foundations of Geopolitics, has been attributed by some sources as having some influence on Russian foreign policy and Vladamir Putin, even being called “Putin’s Brain,” although these claims are heavily disputed.

According to Ivakhiv, you would find certain strains of this anti-western thinking in both Ukrainian and Russian pagans. Ivakhiv believes this is more common among Russian pagans than in Ukraine, and many Ukrainians still see Russians as fellow slavs and blame Putin’s regime, not Russians in general, for the war.

Ivakhiv admits it is difficult to generalize, but that Ukrainian Rodnovers will tend to see as much commonality with Polish, Czech, Slovak, and South Slavic pagans as with Russian or Belarusians.

No area better demonstrates the appeal of Rodnovery among young Russian males than combat sports. In fact, these beliefs are held by some of the most successful Russian athletes. Heavyweight boxer Alexander Povetkin, who at one time held the WBA belt and had a high-profile title bout against Vladamir Klitschko in 2014, is a self-admitted pagan. He regularly wears a necklace of the Axe of Perun on his chest and on his left shoulder, and he has a tattoo of the star of Rus, another popular symbol in Rodnovery.

Povetkin has expressed some of the nationalist views that are so often parceled up with Russian interpretations of Rodnovery, telling a Russian sports publication: “I am a person who loves his homeland and his people. Therefore, consider myself a nationalist.” Though he shoots down the idea that nationalism necessarily means fascism or Nazism.

Denis Aleksandrovich Lebedev, who was also a WBA champion and was ranked as the best cruiserweight in the world at one point in 2016, has also come out as a believer, though he may have pivoted back to the Russian Orthodox Church in recent years, at least in public. Alexander Pavlovich Shlemenko, who has successfully competed in the middleweight division of UFC-competitor Bellator, has expressed pagan sympathies to local sports media.

In a collection of photos posted on the Russian social network VK, we can see members of the popular Moscow MMA club “R.O.D.b.,” potentially named after the supreme deity Rod, celebrating the key pagan festival the ‘Day of Perun.’ The aforementioned world-famous boxers are pictured wearing Rodnover garments.

Though it may be an overstatement to call combat sports clubs a recruitment pipeline for the military, there is certainly a connection there. These clubs are popular targets for Russian military advertising due to their core demographics of young males. It’s also not uncommon for the coaches and founders to have served in the Russian military, as is the case with the founder of the ROD MMA club.

Ivakhiv feels that young men involved in fields such as boxing, MMA, and military service all might be attracted to Rodnovery in part because of its traditional representations of masculinity, such as the god Perun, because it can provide a source of inspiration for hard training, a type of intense motivation that seems rooted in traditional ‘martial arts.’

Magda, a practicing Slavic pagan from Poland, who is attempting to reconstruct pagan traditions as part of the Witia Project, has her own theories about why Rodnovery might be popular with young men.

“I think that men are really lost in modern times. I think that masculinity, nobody really knows what it is anymore. Men are just looking for something that will tell them how to be.”

Magda also believes that Rodnovery may also appeal to young men because, at least in comparison to the Russian Orthodox church, it is pro-sex and physicality.

“In Slavic Native Faith, there's absolutely no question that physical stuff is part of it.”

“During Kupała, the Slavic pagan celebration of summer solstice, you are supposed to be in couples. You have the whole tradition of going off into the forest, which is where the couples were intimate. Men likely find this appealing.”

Russian language message boards dedicated to paganism, blocked to Western IP addresses, generally contain conservative viewpoints on most social issues such as homosexuality, abortion, and women’s place in society. There is also a clearly anti-establishment bent, with a number of posts critical of the Russian military's abuses of power as well as government censorship of the populace.

“A part of the searching for their own identity was basically just making up stuff,” Magda said. “You have all these crazy people nowadays, mostly men, and they get it in their head that they are the sons of Perun. Whether they are these fighters or these warriors, they have to gain fame or honor on the battlefield.

“It is just crazy,” she added.

Though many within the movement may use Rodnovery as a way to justify Russian nationalist ideals, so do many followers of the Russian Orthodox Church. There are likely more Muslims serving in the Russian army than Pagans, and yet many more Christians or Atheists. The Orthodox Church has arguably provided just as much backing for Russian Nationalism as Rodovery ever has, with Patriarch Kirill even personally blessing the invasion of Ukraine.

Still, it’s not surprising that a faith based so much on guesswork surrounding a long forgotten way of life, and with no central hierarchy, can attract devotees of questionable morals. For those who go into with a pre-existing tendency to be violent, bigoted, or nefarious, it’s a blank slate that offers a justification to do what they please.

And considering the current instability within Wagner and the Russian military more widely—that spiritual justification could spell trouble ahead.

The Daily Beast.

UAW's clash with Big 3 automakers shows off a more confrontational union as strike deadline looms

TOM KRISHER
Updated Mon, September 4, 2023 













1 / 14

 United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain holds up a sign at a union rally held near a Stellantis factory Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, in Detroit. The demands that a more combative United Auto Workers union has made of General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — demands that even the UAW's president has called “audacious” — are edging it closer to a strike when its current contract ends Sept. 14. (AP Photo/Mike Householder, File)

DETROIT (AP) — A 46% pay raise. A 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay. A restoration of traditional pensions.

The demands that a more combative United Auto Workers union has pressed on General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — demands that even the UAW's own president calls “audacious” — are edging it closer to a strike when its contract ends Sept. 14.

The automakers, which are making billions in profits, have dismissed the UAW's wish list. They argue that its demands are unrealistic at a time of fierce competition from Tesla and lower-wage foreign automakers as the world shifts from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. The wide gulf between the sides could mean a strike against one or more of the automakers, which could send already-inflated vehicle prices even higher.

A potential strike by 146,000 UAW members comes against the backdrop of increasingly emboldened U.S. unions of all kinds. The number of strikes and threatened strikes is growing, involving Hollywood actors and writers, sizable settlements with railroads and major concessions by corporate giants like UPS.

Shawn Fain, who won the UAW’s presidency this spring in the first direct election by members, has set high expectations and assured union members that they can achieve significant gains if they are willing to walk picket lines.

In a speech to a Labor Day parade crowd in Detroit on Monday, Fain said that if the companies don’t come up with a fair contract, “come Sept. 14, we’re going to take action to get it by any means necessary.”

Fain has characterized the contract talks with Detroit automakers as a form of war between billionaires and ordinary middle-class workers. Last month, in an act of showmanship during a Facebook Live event, Fain condemned a contract proposal from Stellantis as “trash” — and tossed a copy of it into a wastebasket, “where it belongs,” he said.

Over the past decade, the Detroit Three have emerged as robust profit-makers. They've collectively posted net income of $164 billion over the past decade, $20 billion of it this year. The CEOs of all three major automakers earn multiple millions in annual compensation.

Speaking last month to Ford workers at a plant in Louisville, Kentucky, Fain complained about one standard for the corporate class and another for ordinary workers.

“They get out-of-control salaries," he said. "They get pensions they don’t even need. They get top-rate health care. They work whatever schedule they want. The majority of our members do not get a pension nowadays. It’s crazy. We get substandard health care. We don’t get to work remotely.”

UAW members have voted overwhelmingly to authorize its leaders to call a strike. So, too, have Canadian auto workers, whose contracts end four days later and who have designated Ford as their target.

The UAW hasn't said whether it will select one target automaker. It could strike all three, though doing so could deplete the union's strike fund in under three months.

On the other hand, if a strike lasted even just 10 days, it would cost the three automakers nearly a billion dollars, the Anderson Economic Group has calculated. During a 40-day UAW strike in 2019, GM alone lost $3.6 billion.

Last week, the union filed charges of unfair labor practices against Stellantis and GM, which it said have yet to offer counterproposals. As for Ford, Fain asserted that its response, by rejecting most of the union’s demands, “insults our very worth.”

All three automakers have countered that the union's charges are baseless and that they're seeking a fair deal that would allow them to invest in the future.

Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, suggested that the strong U.S. job market and the companies' outsize profits have given Fain leverage in negotiations. In addition, he noted, the automakers are poised to release a slew of new electric vehicles that would be delayed by a strike. And they have only a limited supply of vehicles to withstand a prolonged walkout.

“They are vulnerable,” Masters said.

“The question really is," he said, "are the parties willing to move on some of these things at the table? That hasn't been evident yet.”

Even Fain has described the union's proposals as “audacious” in demanding the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires; an end to tiers of wages; pension increases for retirees; and — perhaps boldest of all — a 32-hour week for 40 hours of pay.

Currently, UAW workers who were hired after 2007 don't receive defined-benefit pensions. Their health benefits are less generous, too. For years, the union gave up general pay raises and lost cost-of-living wage increases to help the companies control costs. Though top-scale assembly workers earn $32.32 an hour, temporary workers start at just under $17. Still, full-time workers have received profit-sharing checks ranging this year from $9,716 at Ford to $14,760 at Stellantis.

At Detroit’s Labor Day Parade, workers said a strike appears likely now.

Jason Craig, a worker at a Stellantis parts warehouse near Detroit, said his company appears most likely to be the strike target, but he said the union might go to Ford because it seems more family-oriented. Fain reiterated Monday that all three companies remain strike targets.

Perhaps the biggest issue blocking a contract agreement is union representation at 10 EV battery plants that the companies have proposed. Most of these plants are joint ventures with South Korean battery makers, which want to pay less.

“These battery workers deserve the same wage and salary standards that generations of auto workers have fought for," Fain told members.

The union fears that because EVs are simpler to build, with fewer moving parts, fewer workers will be needed to assemble them. In addition, workers at combustion engine and transmission plants will likely lose jobs in the transition; they'll need a place to go.

Fain, a 54-year-old electrician who came out of a Chrysler factory in Kokomo, Indiana, is among several labor leaders across the economy who have been escalating their demands and flexing their muscles. So far this year, 247 strikes have occurred involving 341,000 workers — the most since Cornell University began tracking strikes in 2021, though still well below the numbers during the 1970s and 1980s.

Masters suggested that the automakers wouldn't be able to quickly replace striking workers. The tight job market, diminished interest in manufacturing jobs and comparatively modest wages would make it difficult to hire enough workers.

Some auto workers regard the UPS contract, with a $49-an-hour top wage for experienced drivers, as a benchmark for their negotiations. Others say they're just hoping to get near that figure.

But automakers say a generous settlement would stick them with costs far above their competitors' just as they start producing more EVs. The inability to bring Hyundai-Kia, Nissan, Volkswagen, Honda and Toyota factories into the union has weakened the UAW's leverage, said Harry Katz, a labor professor at Cornell.

If you include the value of their benefits, workers at the Detroit 3 automakers receive around $60 an hour. The corresponding figure at foreign-based automakers with U.S. factories is just $40 to $45, Katz said. Much of the disparity reflects pensions and health care.

If the Detroit companies end up with higher labor costs, they'll pass them on to consumers, making vehicles more expensive, said Sam Fiorani, an analyst with AutoForecast Solutions, a consulting firm.

“More than half of the vehicles built in the U.S. are in nonunion plants,” he said. “So if you raise the price to build a unionized vehicle, you could price yourself out of competition with vehicles already built in North America."

A strike of more than a couple of weeks would reduce still-tight supplies of vehicles on Detroit automakers' dealer lots. With demand still strong, prices would rise.

The UAW's members are “reminding management that management can’t operate those factories without a settlement,” Katz said.

Masters and Katz say there's still time to settle without a strike. Katz predicts a settlement short of UPS numbers, possibly with 3% general pay raises plus cost-of-living adjustments, increased company contributions to 401(k) accounts for newer workers and faster transitions to top pay.

That said, Katz suggested, Fain has to back up his tough talk: “He’s got to prove himself."

____

AP Writers Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Kentucky, and Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.

Mob attacks on Christian churches and homes in Pakistan set off by false implication, police say

ASIM TANVEER
Mon, September 4, 2023

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — Last month's mob attacks on churches and homes of Christians in eastern Pakistan erupted after three Christians threw the pages of Islam's holy book outside the house of two others to falsely implicate them in a blasphemy case due to a personal dispute, police said Monday.

The three detained suspects confessed to conspiring and throwing Quran pages outside Raja Amir’s house, three police officials said. Amir and his brother had been arrested after they were accused by Muslims of desecrating the Quran.

The suspected mastermind was Pervez Kodu, who thought Amir had an affair with his wife and knew Muslims would target Amir if Kodu had thrown the pages outside his house to give the impression Amir had desecrated the holy book, three police officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the record. They said the three men now face charges of causing violence and falsely implicating Amir and his brother in a blasphemy case.

Khalid Mukhtar, a local priest, said he had heard about the arrests of the three men and told The Associated Press that he was trying to get details about the investigations from the police.

At least 17 churches and nearly 100 homes were damaged in the Aug. 16 mob attacks in Jaranwala, a city in Punjab province. There were no casualties but it was one of the most destructive attacks on Christians in the country.

Since then, authorities have repaired most of the churches and handed out thousands of dollars to nearly 100 families whose homes were destroyed or damaged.

Police have also arrested nearly 200 Muslims over involvement in the attacks.

Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam can be sentenced to death. While authorities have yet to carry out capital punishment for blasphemy, often mere accusations can incite mobs to violence and lynching.

Pakistani premier claims US military equipment left behind in Afghanistan is now in militant hands

MUNIR AHMED
Mon, September 4, 2023 

In this photo released by Pakistan's President Office, President Arif Alvi, right, administrates oath from Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar as caretaker Prime Minister during a ceremony, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023. Kakar was sworn in as the country's prime minister to head a caretaker national government that will oversee parliamentary elections amid one of the worst economic crises the Islamic nation has faced, officials said. 

(Pakistan President Office vis AP) 

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's caretaker prime minister claimed on Monday that U.S. military equipment left behind during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan has fallen into militant hands and ultimately made its way to the Pakistani Taliban.

The equipment — which includes a wide variety of items, from night vision goggles to firearms — is now “emerging as a new challenge” for Islamabad as it has enhanced the fighting capabilities of the Pakistani Taliban, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, have over the past months intensified attacks on Pakistan's security forces. They are a separate militant group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban.

The Taliban overran Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the last weeks of their chaotic pullout from the country after 20 years of war. In the face of the Taliban sweep, the U.S.-backed and trained Afghan military crumbled.

There is no definite information on how much U.S. equipment was left behind — but the Taliban seized U.S.-supplied firepower, recovering guns, ammunition, helicopters and other modern military equipment from Afghan forces who surrendered it. Though no one knows the exact value, U.S. defense officials have confirmed it is significant.

Speaking to a select group of journalists at his office Monday in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Kakar did not provide any evidence to support his allegation or directly link the Afghan Taliban and the TTP. He said there was a need to adopt a “coordinated approach” to tackling the challenge of the leftover equipment.

Kakar also did not criticize the Afghan Taliban — Islamabad has tried to reach out and act as an interlocutor between the international community and the new rulers in Kabul, who have been ostracized for the harsh edicts they imposed since their takeover.

However, two security officials in Islamabad told The Associated Press that the TTP either bought the equipment from the Afghan Taliban, or was given it as an ally. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the subject.

The Pakistani Taliban have also released statements and video clips in recent months, claiming they possess, for example, guns with laser and thermal sighting systems.

TTP fighters now target Pakistani troops from a distance, while before their only weapons were AK-47 assault rifles, one of the officials said, without elaborating.

Still, Pakistani security forces will continue to fight militants "to defend our home, children, mosques and places of worship,” Kakar said.

Kakar, 52, was sworn in last month as Pakistan's youngest prime minister to head a caretaker government. His Cabinet will run day-to-day affairs until the next parliamentary elections. The vote, which was to be held in October or November, is likely to be delayed until at least January 2024 as Pakistan's elections oversight body says it needs time to redraw constituencies to reflect the latest census results.

Kakar ruled out any talks between the government and the TTP since the militants unilaterally broke off a cease-fire last November.

Since the Taliban takeover next door, Islamabad says TTP fighters have increasingly been given shelter by the Afghan Taliban, straining relations between Islamabad and Kabul.

Pakistan became a key ally of Washington in its war against terror after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. This majority Muslim country is currently facing one of the worst economic crises even as its political turmoil deepens.

At his news conference, Kakar also stressed that all political parties — including the Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf opposition party of now imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan — would be allowed to participate in the upcoming elections.

“We are here just to assist electoral process,” Kakar said.

He did not directly mention Khan, who is not eligible to run in the elections as he is serving a three-year prison term for corruption. Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022, remains the country’s leading opposition figure.

Protesters in southern Syria smash statue as they mark 2015 assassination of anti-government leader

Associated Press
Mon, September 4, 2023 



In this photo released by Suwayda24, a man holds an Arabic placard reading, 'Only in Syria the citizens feel safe when the security agents are absent,' during a protest in the southern city of Sweida, Syria, Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The protests in the Druze-majority city have been ongoing for more then two weeks, initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country's spiraling economy but later widening to calls for the fall of the Assad government. 

(Suwayda24 via AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of angry protesters in southern Syria smashed the statue of Syria’s late president on Monday as they they marked the 2015 assassination of a prominent anti-government Druze leader.

The protests in the province of Sweida, where the Druze community represents the majority of the population, have entered their third week. The demonstrations were initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country’s spiraling economy but quickly shifted focus, with marchers calling for the fall of President Bashar Assad's government.

Monday's protest took place in the provincial capital, also called Sweida, where angry men and woman called for the downfall of Assad’s government. Some smashed the statue of Assad’s late father and predecessor, Hafez Assad.

Several demonstrators marched up to the building of the local branch of the social security and tore down a giant poster of Bashar Assad, according to videos circulated on social media and opposition activists.

Monday marked the eighth anniversary of the assassination of cleric Sheik Wahid Balous, a prominent critic of Assad. He had called on the youth in Sweida to refuse to serve in the military.

Balous, a strong supporter of rebels trying to topple Assad, died in one of two bomb explosions on Sept. 4, 2015, that also also killed 25 others. Some have blamed the government for the killing.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the protesters initially went into the Swedia municipality building and removed Hafez Assad’s statue from the yard, carried it to a nearby street and smashed it there.

Some demonstrators angrily kicked chunks of the statue as it lay on the ground.

Sweida province has largely stayed out of the fighting in Syria’s 12-year civil war that has killed half a million people, wounded hundreds of thousands and left parts of the country destroyed. The conflict has displaced half the country’s prewar population of 23 million, including more than 5 million who are refugees outside the country.

A 10th century offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Druze make up about 5% of Syria’s prewar population, and are split between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad.

In late August, angry protesters raided the local offices of the ruling Baath party in Sweida while others blocked a highway that links the province with the capital of Damascus.

Local Chinese court argues cryptocurrency is property despite Beijing's crackdown


South China Morning Post
Mon, September 4, 2023 

A local Chinese court argued that cryptocurrency is legally protected as property in China, despite recent government policies that have sought to crack down on activities related to virtual assets.

Cryptocurrency should be treated as property and the ownership of it should be protected by law under China's current legal and policy framework, a court in the southeastern city of Xiamen wrote in an opinion article published on Friday in People's Court Daily, a newspaper run by the Supreme People's Court.

A cryptocurrency owner's property rights should be protected except when the virtual asset is used to commit crimes or was acquired through a crime, the court argued.

Beijing has intensified its crackdown on many cryptocurrency-related activities over the years. While its special administrative region of Hong Kong was recently given the nod to embrace virtual assets and open up trading for any retail investors, Beijing maintains a hostile stance towards cryptocurrencies on the mainland.

The legality of virtual assets, however, have been the subject of debate in China, and the Xiamen court's opinion piece highlights an increasing recognition among authorities in the country that the ownership of cryptocurrencies, which are deemed a type of virtual commodity, is protected.

The Xiamen court argued that cryptocurrency is property because it has "economic attributes" including usefulness and exchange value, which "exists objectively" as it circulates legally in overseas markets.

In September 2021, ten top government agencies in China escalated the country's crypto ban by declaring a broad range of cryptocurrency-related activities as illegal financial activities. But the notice focused on cryptocurrency businesses and did not determine that all cryptocurrency purchases or sales were illegal, the Xiamen court said.

In Hong Kong, a landmark ruling earlier this year also recognised cryptocurrency assets as property amid the city's push to develop the sector.

In a liquidation case in March involving now-defunct Hong Kong crypto exchange Gatecoin, Hong Kong's High Court ruled that cryptocurrencies constitute property that can be put into a trust.

The ruling, which put cryptocurrency on par with other intangible assets like stocks and bonds and brought Hong Kong in line with other common law jurisdictions, will be helpful for a range of cryptocurrency-related issues that arise in respect to property, lawyers said.

A shop advertising cryptocurrency learning in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. 

Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Local courts in mainland China are still divided on cryptocurrency-related rulings, and holders of the digital assets have sometimes been left with little room for recourse when issues occur.

Last year, a court in Shanghai ruled that a car sale made using virtual currency was "invalid" as it violated mandatory provisions of the law and administrative regulations. In 2021, northern Shandong province's High Court also said that "investing or trading cryptocurrency isn't protected by law".

Amid ongoing regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency-related activities, local prosecutors recently slapped four executives at a Filecoin mining firm with criminal charges that include organising and leading a pyramid scheme involving more than 600 million yuan (US$83 million).

Xiao Yi, a former senior provincial official who was sacked in 2021 for supporting a cryptocurrency mining firm, was recently handed a life sentence months after he was publicly named and shamed on a national television programme known for calling out people for misdeeds.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

China's auto workers bear the brunt of price war as fallout widens

Reuters
Mon, September 4, 2023 


 Auto Shanghai show


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - As Shanghai sweltered in a heatwave in June, the car factory where Mike Chen works switched production to night shifts and dialled down the air-conditioning.

For Chen, toiling through the early hours in his sweat-soaked uniform, it was the latest slap in the face after cuts in bonuses and overtime slashed his monthly pay this year to little more than a third of what he earned when he was hired in 2016.

Chen, 32, who works for a joint venture between China's state-owned car giant SAIC and Germany's Volkswagen, is far from alone. Millions of auto workers and suppliers in China are feeling the heat as an electric vehicle price war forces carmakers to shave costs anywhere they can.

"SAIC-VW used to be the best employer and I felt honoured to work here," said Chen. "Now I just feel angry and sad."

The price war triggered by Tesla has sucked in more than 40 brands, shifted demand away from older models and forced some automakers to curb production of both EVs and combustion-engine cars, or shut factories altogether.

Reuters interviews with 10 executives of carmakers and auto parts suppliers, as well as seven factory workers, point to a broader industry in distress, with penny-pinching on everything from components to electricity bills to wages - which is in turn hitting spending elsewhere in the economy.

Asked about the SAIC-VW plant where Chen works, which makes combustion-engine cars, VW said pay at joint ventures varied based on working hours and bonuses. It said making cars at night eased the burden on power grids and that healthy, good working conditions were a high priority. SAIC did not respond.

Economists warn that China's auto sector could even become a drag on economic growth because of the fallout from the price war, which would be a stark turnaround for a car industry that is by far the world's biggest.

The problem is that while there has been huge investment in production capacity, helped by large state subsidies, domestic demand for cars has stagnated and household incomes remain under pressure, economists say.

In the first seven months of 2023, China sold 11.4 million cars at home and exported 2 million, but growth came almost entirely from abroad. Exports leapt 81% but domestic sales only crept 1.7% higher - despite the widespread price cuts.

"The focus on production and supply is lopsided," said George Magnus, research associate at Oxford University's China Centre, adding that inadequate attention to demand ultimately leads to inventory overhang, price cuts and financial stress.

"China really has to learn to walk on two legs."

'GOOD OLD DAYS HAVE GONE'

Chinese plants already were far from running at full tilt when Tesla first cut prices in October last year and then again in January. CEO Elon Musk has since doubled-down on his strategy with more cuts announced last month.

Including factories making combustion-engine cars, China had the capacity to produce 43 million vehicles a year at the end of 2022, but the plant utilisation rate was 54.5%, down from 66.6% in 2017, China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) data show.

At the same time, pay cuts and lay-offs in the auto industry and its suppliers - which employ an estimated 30 million people according to Chinese state media - are hitting living standards at a time when Beijing desperately wants to lift consumer confidence from near record lows.

Cutting salaries is illegal in China, but complex pay structures offer ways around this.

SAIC-VW, for example, was able to reduce Mike Chen's take-home pay by reducing working hours and cutting bonuses, without tinkering with his base pay, which typically covers up to half the compensation workers expect when they join.

BYD, China's largest EV maker, advertised a position in August at its Shenzhen factory with an estimated monthly income of 5,000-7,000 yuan, but the base salary was 2,360 yuan ($324).

The average monthly wage in China was 11,300 yuan in June, according to government data.

A Reuters analysis of the estimated income included in recent job adverts from 30 auto firms showed hourly salaries of 14 yuan ($1.93) to 31 yuan ($4.27), with Tesla, SAIC-GM, Li Auto and Xpeng at the higher end.

Auto worker Liu, 35, said he quit Changan Automobile's plant in Hefei in July after earning 4,000 yuan in both May and June, rather than the 7,000 he expected each month. Based on his past experiences, Liu was confident he would quickly find another auto job, but the market had turned.

"The good old days are gone," said Liu, speaking on condition of partial anonymity to protect his job prospects.

Changan Automobile said working hours and pay varied from worker to worker.

Several automakers including Mitsubishi Motors and Toyota have laid off thousands in China after sales slumped. Others such as Tesla and battery maker CATL have slowed hiring as they delayed expansions. Hyundai and its Chinese partner, meanwhile, are trying to sell a plant in Chongqing.

After being rejected by Li Auto and Xpeng, Liu almost got a job at Chery's plant in the eastern port of Qingdao through a labour agent, but he refused to pay him a 32,000 yuan commission to secure the position.

"Some factories exhaust you and are willing to pay you more. Some factories exhaust you, but are stingy. Some factories don't exhaust you, but starve you as salaries are too low," Liu said.

"Maybe I'd be better off as a security worker in some office building."

CUT THROUGH THE MESS

It has been a similarly brutal environment for auto suppliers in China as car prices have continued to fall, with the weighted average transaction price of EVs and hybrids in June down 15% from January at 185,100 yuan.

SAIC-VW, for example, offered over half a billion dollars in cash subsidies for car buyers in March and a discount of just over $5,100 on its ID.3 electric hatchback for a period in July.

State-run China Automotive News estimates there are over 100,000 auto suppliers in the country. In a March survey of nearly 2,000 by auto parts trading platform Gasgoo, 74% said automakers had asked them to reduce costs.

More than half were asked for reductions of 5% to 10%, higher than the 3% to 5% targets of previous years. Nine out of 10 companies expected more such requests this year.

Suppliers typically negotiate prices once a year, but many have been pressed to lower prices on a quarterly basis in 2023, two senior executives at auto suppliers said.

Before it kicked off the price war, Tesla sent emails to its direct suppliers, encouraging them to lower costs by 10% this year, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

And in June, a group of small suppliers wrote to state-owned Changan Automobile to push back against 10% price reductions.

The EV battery market has also turned, with suppliers cutting prices for automakers. CATL, which counts Tesla as its biggest client, offered smaller domestic EV makers discounted batteries in February.

Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, the type used by Tesla in China, were 21% cheaper in August than five months ago, while nickel-cobalt batteries were 9% to 18% cheaper, RealLi Research data show.

When Chen Yudong, head of Bosch's China operations visited one of his biggest customers in March, he received an unusual present, a chopping knife with a message engraved on its sheath: "Cut decisively through the mess."

Three months later, he told Reuters that price cuts had been more aggressive in 2023 than in previous years.

"They've been keeping me awake at night."

($1 = 7.2951 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Zhang Yan, Brenda Goh and Shanghai Newsroom; Graphics by Kripa Jayaram; Editing by Marius Zaharia and David Clarke)

2,100-year-old shoe of a child worker unearthed in salt mine in Austria, photos show

Aspen Pflughoeft
Mon, September 4, 2023

Deep underground, an ancient child toiled away in a salt mine. Perhaps their job was to shovel up discarded rocks. Or perhaps they carried precious materials to the surface. Maybe they had a different job entirely.

The only clue they left behind was a 2,100-year-old shoe.

Archaeologists were excavating a tunnel of an Iron Age salt mine in Dürrnberg, Austria, when they found the child’s shoe, according to an Aug. 31 news release from the German Mining Museum.

The small shoe was incredibly well-preserved, photo show. The worn, brown material is open down the center with a series of U-shaped hooks. It almost looks like a modern-day ballet slipper.

The 2,100-year-old child’s shoe was incredibly well-preserved.

The shoe still had remnants of flax or linen laces, the release said. Based on its lace-up pattern and design, archaeologists identified the footwear as being made in the second century B.C.

Archaeologists said the shoe roughly corresponds to a modern European size 30 shoe. In U.S. sizing, this ranges from a kid’s 11 to 12 shoe size, according to conversion charts from Kiwi Sizing and SizeGuide.net. Although these modern sizes are commonly worn by 5-year-old to 6-year-old children, archaeologists did not indicate the child miner’s age.

During previous excavations in the Dürrnberg salt mine, archaeologists found several leather shoes, the release said. Still, children’s shoes are considered special finds because they prove that Iron Age children were present underground.


Archaeologists excavate a tunnel of the ancient salt mine.

Near the shoe in the Georgenberg tunnel, archaeologists found half of a wooden shovel blade and some fur with lacing. The material was likely part of a fur hood, the release said. Archaeologists did not specify if or how these artifacts were connected to the shoe.

Organic material — such as those used in the shoe and fur hood — usually decompose over time, head archaeologist Thomas Stoellner said in the release. At the Dürrnberg mine, the natural preserving effect of the salt helps save fabric artifacts that typically don’t survive in other environments.

Excavations in the Georgenberg tunnel are part of a long-term research project in Dürrnberg, the release said. Archaeologists will continue excavating the salt mine to better understand the Iron Age people who once worked there.

.Dürrnberg is about 190 miles west of Vienna and along the Austria-Germany border.

Japan's top court orders Okinawa to allow a divisive government plan to build US military runways

MARI YAMAGUCHI
Updated Mon, September 4, 2023 









A person walks along a a maritime area at Henoko in Nago, Okinawa prefecture, southern Japan Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, where the Japanese government plans to relocate a U.S. air base from one area of the prefecture to another. Japan’s Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Okinawa's rejection of a central government plan to build U.S. Marine Corps runways on the island and ordered the prefecture to approve it despite protests by locals who oppose the American troops' presence. 

(Kyodo News via AP)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Okinawa's rejection of a central government plan to build U.S. Marine Corps runways on the island and ordered the prefecture to approve it despite protests by locals who oppose the American troops' presence.

Monday's ruling upheld a high court ruling in March that the central government's plan and its instruction for Okinawa's approval are valid. It will move forward the suspended construction at a time Okinawa's strategic role is seen increasingly important for the Japan-U.S. military alliance in the face of growing tensions with China.

Japan's central government began the reclamation work at the Henoko area on the eastern coast of Okinawa's main island in 2018 to pave the way for the relocation of the Marine Corps Futenma air station from a crowded neighborhood on the island.

The government later found out about 70% of the reclamation site is on soft ground, and submitted a revision to the original plan with additional land improvement. The Okinawa prefectural government rejected the revision as insufficient and suspended the reclamation work.

The ground improvement plan requires tens of thousands of pillars and massive amounts of soil, which opponents say would damage the environment.

Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki has called for a significant reduction of the U.S. military in Okinawa, the immediate closure of the Futenma base and the scrapping of the base construction in Henoko.

Tamaki said said he will not back down and continue with the demands despite the ruling. The Okinawa government will carefully examine the ruing to decide on a next step, he added.

“The ruling is extremely disappointing because we had expected a fair and neutral judgement based on respect for the local government autonomy,” Tamaki told a news conference. The ruling nullifies an independent municipal decision and could even disregard their constitutional right to local autonomy, Tamaki said. “It deeply concerns me.”

The Japanese and U.S. governments initially agreed in 1996 to close the Futenma air station, a year after the rape of a schoolgirl by three U.S. military personnel led to a massive anti-base movement. But persistent protests and lawsuits between Okinawa and Tokyo have held up the plan for nearly 30 years.

Tokyo and Washington say the relocation within Okinawa, instead of moving it elsewhere as demanded by many Okinawans, is the only solution.

Okinawa, which accounts for only 0.6% of Japanese land, is burdened with the majority of the 50,000 American troops based in the country under a bilateral security pact, and 70% of U.S. military facilities are in Okinawa.

The Japanese government in recent years has increasingly stepped up its own defenses to deal with China's growing assertiveness, triggering fear among Okinawan residents that they will be the first to be embroiled in a potential conflict.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno welcomed the ruling and said the government hopes to achieve the complete reversion to Japan of the Futenma airfield and relieve Okinawa of the burden of shouldering U.S. military bases while providing a thorough explanation to the local community.

TOXIC ECOCIDE
Gaza landfill fire rages for days, officials appeal for help

Nidal al-Mughrabi
Mon, September 4, 2023

Palestinian fireman extinguishes a fire at a garbage dumping site in Juhr al-Deek, southeast of Gaza

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Authorities in Gaza have appealed for help to put out a fire that has been burning for days in a waste landfill site, sending foul-smelling smoke spiralling across the blockaded enclave which already suffers from severe environmental problems.

"We are working day and night, but unfortunately fires may go on for at least till the end of the week," said municipality spokesperson Hosni Mhana.

Boosted by a severe heatwave, the fire, southeast of Gaza City, close to the separation fence with Israel, has been burning in an area of roughly 50,000 square metres (539,000 sq. ft) of a landfill site which has swollen in the absence of recycling facilities.

"We have been unable to tolerate the smell of the fires for three days, it is not normal, you can't breathe," said Salem Abeid, 64, who lives around 1 km (0.6 mile) away from the landfill.

Citing security concerns, Israel and Egypt have enforced a blockade of Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the densely-populated coastal enclave in 2007, restricting the movement of people and goods.

Palestinians say these restrictions have severely impeded their ability to respond to emergencies.

Mhana said the lack of ways to recycle the garbage made the problem chronic, and the landfill only got bigger and bigger over the years.

"The environmental impact is huge because while some materials degrade, some other materials such as plastic do not and they stay in the soil," he said.

(Reporting by Nidal Almughrabi; Editing by Susan Fenton)