Kurds call on British Foreign Minister for an 'urgent intervention against Turkish occupation'

Kurdish institutions, academics, trade unionists and writers in Britain wrote a letter to the new British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, calling on him to act about the invasion attacks of the Turkish state.


ANF
LONDON
Saturday, 20 July 2024, 09:55

The Labor Party came to power by a wide margin in the elections held on 4 July. David Lammy, the Member of Parliament for the Tottenham Region, a borough in London where many Kurds live, was named as the new British Foreign Minister.

Lammy is a politician that Kurdish voters have met with many times, especially to talk to him about the war crimes committed by the Turkish state against the Kurdish people. Lammy had attended many meetings at the Kurdish Community Center.

In a statement, Lammy said that the concerns of the Kurds were justified and that the conservative British government was also responsible for the Turkish state's policies towards the Kurds.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Kurdish People's Assembly, Kurdish institutions and Kurdish friends, including MPs, trade unionists, journalists, intellectuals and writers, sent a letter to the new Foreign Minister, calling on him to act about the Turkish state's occupation and genocidal attacks in South Kurdistan.

The letter said: "We, the concerned members of a UK-wide network of activists, trade unions, human rights activists, students, teachers, civil society organisations, and community groups, are writing to you in relation to an urgent matter regarding Turkey’s escalated military activity since 15 June in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, risking a broader war against the Kurdish people resident in the region. For many months, Turkey’s AKP government, led by Erdogan, has overtly made comments that the summer period would see an escalated war, the basis for which has consistently been to target PKK fighters in the region. However, we are concerned that the increased mobilisation of Turkish military personnel and equipment risks a war with greater humanitarian and environmental costs. In light of this grave concern, the Kurdish movement has made calls to the international community to challenge Erdogan’s war-oriented policies and advocate for peace and stability in a region already torn by decades of conflict."

The letter added: "Since the beginning of 2024, the Turkish Armed Forces have launched 1076 offensives in Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), of which: 526 offensives have occurred in Duhok, 405 offensives have occurred in Erbil, 135 offensives have occurred in Sulaymaniyah and 10 offensives have occurred in Ninova. In the last month alone, the Turkish Armed Forces have entered 30 km through the shared border and formed at least 45 known military bases. Over 300 military tanks have been mobilised into the territory, signalling broad preparations for a costly war in the region.

We also have knowledge that Turkey has supported the mobilisation of ISIS groups into the Kurdistan Region. We must remind your office that the Kurds led the brave fight for humanity against the reactionary so-called Islamic State in the last decade, and took upon themselves the humanitarian responsibility of safeguarding the Syrian and Iraqi territories from evil. Today, we are observing a major silence from the international community in the face of military and humanitarian threats from regional powers, including Turkey and Iraq, who remain solidly convinced that a war of this nature is necessary."

The letter continued: "We must state that a military mobilisation of this kind is an overt infringement of Iraqi sovereignty; Turkish military personnel and equipment have severely disrupted the day-to-day lives and livelihoods of common villagers and civilians in the region. Since 1991, Turkish war efforts against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region have resulted in 702 known civilian murders, 344 civilian casualties, the destruction of 162 villages, meanwhile 602 villages remain under threat of destruction. These statistics may merely reflect a proportion of the damage from this longtime conflict, and risk becoming greater in the event of a fresh escalation of war in the region.

As concerned UK citizens and advocates of peace and justice for the Kurdish and local peoples in the Kurdistan Region and the surrounding territories, we make this appeal to you, in your capacity as UK Foreign Secretary, to closely monitor the situation in the Kurdistan Region, and to raise this with your Turkish, Iraqi and foreign counterparts as a major humanitarian concern. In the case that leading democracies like the UK remain silent in the face of these overt preparations for war, we risk facing a severe humanitarian and environmental crisis in a region bruised by decades of unresolved conflict. With this letter, we also call on the international community and relevant international bodies to stand in solidarity with international calls for the resolution of the Kurdish issue in Turkey and the Middle East, through an immediate halt to conflict and a negotiations process for peace and justice to prevail."

The letter was signed by the following institutions and people:

Organisations:

Freedom Movement (Tevgera Azadî) UK Kurdistan Free Life Party UK (PJAK)
Eastern Kurdistan Women’s Union UK (KJAR) Jiyan Kurdish Women’s Assembly UK

Kongra Star Women’s Movement in Europe Syrian Democratic Council UK
Northwest Kurdish Community
Kurdish People’s Assembly in Scotland Kurdish Youth Movement UK

UK Kurdistan Solidarity Network
Scottish Solidarity with Kurdistan
UK Kurdish Inter-Society Platform (Kurdish Societies in 7 UK Universities) Solidarity Economy Association

Individuals:

Margaret Owen, Lawyer, Patron of Peace in Kurdistan UK
Dr. Nicholas S. M. Matheou, Lecturer, University of Edinburgh
Stephen Smellie, Unison National Executive Council
Katerina Vrablikova, Senior Lecturer, University of Bath
Lenka Vrablikova, Lecturer, Goldsmiths, University of London
Dr. Stefano Ba’, Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Sciences
Dr. Victoria Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies
Jacinta Kerketta, Writer, Poet, Independent Journalist, India
Felix Padel, Professor
Hilary Zhou, National Coordinator Zimbabwe People’s Land Rights Movement Philip Neale, Friends of Rojava Thanet
Beatrice Andrieu, Language Teacher
Eva Schonveld, Co-Convenor, Grassroots to Global
Anthony Kalu, Teacher
Dave Finch

NO SEA BED MINING

Japan extends continental shelf in search for rare minerals, drawing ire from China

Tokyo says existence of cobalt-rich crust, including rare metals, confirmed in Ogasawara Plateau region

Anadolu Staff |20.07.2024 -


ANKARA

Japan on Saturday extended its designation of its continental shelf east of a series of Pacific islands southeast of the country, despite opposition from China, local media reported.

The move came into effect with a revised Cabinet order, designating a significant portion of the Ogasawara Plateau maritime area as part of its continental shelf to launch research on extracting maritime natural resources, including rare earth minerals, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

Last month, Japan's Cabinet decided to issue decrees on the 120,000-square-kilometer (about 46,330-sq-mile) expansion in the plateau region, located on the east side of Father Island in the Ogasawara Islands.

However, the move triggered opposition from China and Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning denounced the decision, saying that it "contravenes the stipulations of UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and universal practice."

Last month, Japanese Minister for Ocean Policy Yoshifumi Matsumura said his country would be able to exercise its sovereign rights to explore the continental shelf and develop natural resources.

Tokyo also said it confirmed the region had a cobalt-rich crust that includes rare metals exists used in electric vehicle batteries.



*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid

Mongolian journalist jailed five years for illegally obtaining state secrets


Mongolian court sentenced a controversial journalist to almost five years in prison for illegally obtaining state secrets — Reuters pic

Saturday, 20 Jul 2024 

ULAANBAATAR, July 20— A Mongolian court sentenced a controversial journalist to almost five years in prison for illegally obtaining state secrets and a host of other crimes, in a case that critics say exposes a deepening crackdown on press freedom.

Naran Unurtsetseg became one of Mongolia’s best-known journalists by exposing abuse in a Buddhist boarding school, violence in the military, and by taking on some of the country’s most powerful people.

Her confrontational broadcasts with her outlet, Zarig, sparked controversy over her tactics but won her legions of fans in a country where corruption is deep-rooted and has sparked civil unrest.

On Friday, Unurtsetseg wrote on Facebook that a court in the capital Ulaanbaatar had sentenced her to four years and nine months of prison time following a closed-door trial.

”This is repression,” she wrote.

A court decision said she was found guilty of illegally obtaining state secrets, tax avoidance, disclosing personal information and defamation.

”This is the first time that Mongolia has punished a journalist since the early 2000s,” said Zagdsuren Borgilmaa, board member of the Confederation of Mongolian Journalists, the country’s main press NGO.

Democratic Mongolia boasts a vibrant media scene, with scores of outlets representing all shades of the political spectrum and confrontational debate commonplace.

But against a recent backdrop of what critics say is declining rule of law, it has plummeted in press freedom rankings.

Reporters Without Borders in 2024 ranked the country 109th in the world.

According to the Confederation of Mongolian Journalists, some 20 media workers are now under some kind of formal investigation for their reporting. — AFP

REST IN POWER

Sheila Jackson Lee: US rep. behind Juneteenth holiday dies

DW

July 20, 2024

Jackson Lee was affectionately known as "Congresswoman" by her Texas constituents. The Democrat was a leading voice in promoting legislation aimed at addressing social injustices.


Sheila Jackson Lee introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to make "Juneteenth" a public holidayImage: Patrick Semansky/AP/picture alliance

US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a progressive voice in the Democratic Party who was outspoken on Black people and women's rights, has died of pancreatic cancer, her family said in a statement late on Friday.

"Today, with incredible grief for our loss yet deep gratitude for the life she shared with us, we announce the passing of United States Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of the 18th Congressional District of Texas," her family said in a statement posted on X.

"A fierce champion of the people, she was affectionately and simply known as 'Congresswoman' by her constituents in recognition of her near-ubiquitous presence and service to their daily lives for more than 30 years."

"A local, national, and international humanitarian, she was acknowledged worldwide for her courageous fights for racial justice, criminal justice, and human rights, with a special emphasis on women and children."



The woman behind 'Juneteenth'

Jackson Lee was a leading voice in promoting legislation aimed at addressing social justice, economic inequality and public health concerns.

She introduced legislation to the House of Representatives to make June 19 a federal holiday to mark the end of the enslavement of Black Americans. US President Joe Biden signed the bill in 2021 recognizing "Juneteenth" as a federal holiday.

The holiday is a memorial to the day in 1865 when a Union general informed a group of enslaved people in Texas that they had been made free two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.

Jackson Lee revealed last month she had pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment. The Democrat was 74 and had also previously recovered from breast cancer.

"She will be dearly missed, but her legacy will continue to inspire all who believe in freedom, justice, and democracy," the family statement concluded.

jsi/fb (AP, Reuters)

Welcome to the Mass Psychology of Violence American Style

BY HENRY GIROUX

 JULY 22, 2024
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Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

“There are days—this is one of them—when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it. …I’m terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country. These people have deluded themselves for so long that they … have become in themselves moral monsters.”

–  James Baldwin

The United States has slid into a form of political, economic, cultural, and social psychosis, evident in its cruel, neoliberal, democracy-hating policies unleashed since the 1970s. At the heart of its authoritarian and rogue state practices is a systemic war on workers, youth, Blacks, and immigrants, increasingly defined by the rise of mass violence and a punishing state both at home and abroad. The U.S. has morphed into an empire run by a callous, greedy, billionaire class that has destroyed all remnants of democracy, while embracing the fascistic ideology of white Christian nationalism and white supremacy. Fascism now wraps itself not only in the flag but the sordid embrace of the Christian cross. America has transitioned from the old-style celebration of unchecked individualism depicted by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged to the glorified greed advocated by Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street, and the inhumane, psychotic avarice of Patrick Bateman, dressed up in high fashion in American Psycho. This evolution of barbarity is further exemplified in the criminogenic images of right-wing Texas Christian preachers calling for gay people to “be shot in the back of the head.”[2] Welcome to Trump’s America.

With the death of the social contract emerged what Guy Debord called “a society of the spectacle,” characterized by death-dealing rituals, mass spectacles, and a psychotic infatuation with weapons of death. What is new here is a cultural sphere where irrationality functions as cultural glamour, and politics is dressed up in the ether of violence–a much-embraced ethical tranquilizer. The spectacle of the outrageous celebrates violence with a smirk. Remember those MAGA politicians wearing AR-15 pins after reports emerged of children’s bodies being blown apart in Uvalde, Texas.  This spectacularizing of weapons of death adorned in family and distorted religious values was evident when right-wing politicians recently posed with AR-style rifles for Christmas card portraits, and churches in conservative states gave them away in raffles.

An ideology of hardness and cruelty runs through American culture like an electric current, sapping the strength of social relations and individual character, moral compassion and collective action. Crimes against humanity now become fodder for video games and the Hollywood disimagination machine.  All of which creates an ecology of cruelty and sadism that promotes a “symbiosis of suffering and spectacle.”[3]

Reuters reports that conservatives are pushing a bill in Congress to designate the AR-15 style rifle as “the National Gun of the United States.” Recently, an image surfaced of four elderly women in a church holding AR-15 rifles as part of a blessing ceremony. The staunch of death and moral vacuity oozes from these narratives. Some of the deadliest mass shootings in American history took place with these assault rifles. Against this mass psychology of fascism and ethicide is a history of children’s bodies blown apart by these weapons: 20 children killed in Newtown, Connecticut; 19 children killed in Uvalde, Texas; 17 students and educators killed in Parkland, Florida; 58 people killed and over 500 wounded in Las Vegas with assault weapons. Rather than mourn the deaths of children and others, the right-wing celebrates the weapons that killed them.

Even the widely condemned assassination attempt on former President Trump was turned into a promotional gimmick by the MAGA crowd, who sold sneakers featuring an image from the incident. Additionally, mindless conservative pundits and the MAGA propaganda machine leveraged the assassination attempt to portray Trump, once again,  as a messianic figure, blending cultism, thoughtless loyalty and fanatical religious devotion into a toxic mix of fascist politics.

A culture that celebrates not just violence but the weapons that support it has lost its hold on humanity and celebrates itself through the rituals of barbarism. Violence is all that seems left for a large segment of society to feel anything, whether it be a sense of community or the weak pulse in the collective corpse-like body.  In a society that turns AR-15 weapons into icons of violent masculinity and the adoration of death, all that is left are the screams of children and others who have embraced symbols of the bloodlust of a dark fascist present and future.

Violence is once again in the news with the assassination attempt on Trump. But rather than provoke a national conversation about violence as the most important mode of communication, commodification, and national identity, it is removed from the pathology of state-sponsored violence, a cultural mode of entertainment, a valued commodity, and any sense of responsibility or social and ethical consequences.

In light of the assassination attempt on Trump, the term “assassination” blazes across the front pages of the mainstream press and social media, serving more as a political ad and tool of propaganda than as a warning about a society mired in violence. What seems to have gone unnoticed in the mainstream media is a certain irony surrounding the attempt on Trump’s life, given his repeated false claims that the Feds and Biden were trying to assassinate him. In this case, politically motivated, hollow talk about falsely alleged assassination attempts on Trump moved from the spectacularized realm of fear-mongering and fictional victimhood to a potentially deadly reality. Make no mistake the visceral and dangerous reality of such violence—unadorned by lies and political opportunism–has taught Trump nothing. Trump has a long history of mocking violence against others, such as the near-fatal attack against Nancy Pelosi’s husband by a deranged right-winger. As a target of such violence, Trump reworks the language of violence into a “narcissistic public performance” of victimhood and the enduring strongman.

The horror here is unbelievable, wrapped in an arrogant blend of economic, political, and religious fundamentalism that does not merely cover up violence but is complicit in it. Violence and the AR-15 assault rifle have become the new symbols of this true assassination, emblematic of a culture of predatory carnage and cruelty reminiscent of the horrors of a fascist past. This is a violence that has more cultural currency than justice, compassion, care, and the radical values of a true democracy. It is a violence wedded to the celebration of the death of historical consciousness, the assassination of truth, an indifference if not emotional investment in the suffering and death of millions of children from poverty, war, and disease.

The clickbait image of the day shouldn’t be Trump raising his hand defiantly after an assassination attempt. Instead, it should be a powerful visual of the American flag and the Constitution, both riddled with bullet holes.

Notes.

[1] The title highlights  Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980). The U.S. government prohibited their sale and the sale of all of Reich’s books including The Mass Psychology of Fascism. He was imprisoned in a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania where he died in 1957.

[2] Minyvonne Burke, “Texas pastor says gay people should be ‘shot in the back of the head’ in shocking sermon,” NBC News (June 9, 2022). Online: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/texas-pastor-says-gay-people-shot-back-head-shocking-sermon-rcna32748

[3] Mark Reinhardt and Holly Edwards, “Traffic in Pain,” in Beautiful Suffering: Photography and the Traffic in Pain, ed. Mark Reinhardt, Holly Edwards, and Erina Duganne (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), p. 9.

Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. His most recent books include: The Terror of the Unforeseen (Los Angeles Review of books, 2019), On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd edition (Bloomsbury, 2020); Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis (Bloomsbury 2021); Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance (Bloomsbury 2022) and Insurrections: Education in the Age of Counter-Revolutionary Politics (Bloomsbury, 2023), and coauthored with Anthony DiMaggio, Fascism on Trial: Education and the Possibility of Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2025). Giroux is also a member of Truthout’s board of directors.

An HIV patient is in remission after a unique stem cell transplant. Why it could be a path to a cure

German man's experience could open stem cell donor pool, have promising implications for future HIV cure

Amina Zafar · CBC News · Posted: Jul 20, 2024 

HIV virions are shown under a scanning electron microscopic. Researchers announced Thursday that an HIV patient is in remission following a stem cell transplant from a donor with genes that are partially resistant to HIV, news that could widen the donor pool and have implications for future cure strategies. (C. Goldsmith, P. Feorino, E. L. Palmer, W. R. McManus/CDC/Reuters)

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A German HIV patient who is in remission following a stem cell transplant from a donor with genes that are partially resistant to the disease is giving researchers new hope that more people could benefit from the treatment.

The first step in a stem cell transplant for people with cancer involves wiping out a patient's immune cells with chemotherapy. When patients also have HIV, these cells can be replaced with transplanted stem cells from rare individuals carrying genes that essentially make them immune to the virus that causes AIDS. Only a handful of people around the world are eligible for this procedure because they must have both HIV and cancer.

According to a study presented by Christian Gaebler of Charité — Berlin University's medical school — the German HIV patient was treated for acute myeloid leukemia with a stem cell transplant in 2015. He stopped taking antiretroviral drugs in 2018 and the virus remains in remission. He's one of just seven people who went into remission from HIV between 2007 and 2023. 

In most of these cases, the stem cell donors naturally inherited two copies of the gene called CCR5 delta 32, which confers resistance to HIV. The German patient is the first case where the stem cell donor inherited just one copy of the CCR5 delta 32 gene, according to Gaebler and his co-authors. The research is not yet peer reviewed.

Researchers hope Thursday's virtual announcement at the 25th International AIDS conference in Munich, Germany, could open the door to treatment being offered to more people and have promising implications for future HIV cure strategies.

"Hope is, to me, that a cure is possible, and that's what these cases demonstrate," Sharon Lewin, president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), told reporters. 

But the reality, she noted, is that it's rare.

Christian Gaebler, a professor at Charité, Berlin University's medical school, says the German HIV patient went into long-term remission after a stem cell transplant from a donor who inherited just one copy of a gene that confers HIV resistance. (@c_gaebler/X )

Case could help develop new treatments

Come September, the German HIV patient will have been in remission for six years, according to Gaebler, a length of time that gives the researchers confidence in what they're seeing.

"A healthy person has many wishes, a sick person only one," the anonymous patient said in a statement from IAS on Thursday. 

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Dr. Marina Klein, a professor of medicine based at Montreal's McGill University, said the man's case could inform how new treatments are developed.

"This case shows that you don't actually need 100 per cent of your cells to be completely resistant," said Klein, who was not involved in the study. 

WATCH | HIV advocates concerned as federal funding for self-testing kits runs out: 

Federal funding for free HIV self-testing to end

4 months ago

Duration2:02

HIV advocates are concerned people newly infected with HIV will not get the care they need because federal funding for self-testing kits runs out at the end of March.

Research suggests that about 1 per cent of Caucasians were measured to have two copies of the resistance gene, while about 20 per cent have one copy. According to experts who study HIV, in individuals with one copy of the gene, the virus progresses slowly if they don't receive antiretroviral treatment, while those with two copies seem to be able to hold the virus at bay altogether. 

Lewin, the IAS president, says the German patient's experience "suggests that we can broaden the donor pool for these kinds of cases." 

Researchers also hope it could have promising implications for future, more scalable HIV cure strategies.

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Klein, who heads up a Canadian clinical trials network for HIV, noted that HIV diagnoses rose almost 25 per cent between 2021 and 2022. She says that makes it more difficult to reach the goal of eliminating the disease.

"People sometimes get impatient, but these incremental bits of learning really are what takes us to the path to cure ultimately," she said.

Eric Arts, a Western University professor who studies ways to control HIV, says that in order to really deal with the HIV pandemic, a cure needs to be available to everyone. (Western University)

Questions about availability, cost-effectiveness

Eric Arts, a professor in microbiology and immunology at Western University, studies ways to control HIV.

Though he finds it encouraging that the patient no longer needs to take medications to control HIV, Arts says scaling up the approach so it can be used on other patients has its challenges.

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"The actual solution that they're using to really treat leukemia in the first place is not a solution for HIV," Arts said. "To really deal with the [HIV] pandemic overall, it's got to be available to everyone."

 When people with HIV take antiretroviral treatment, they're able to live a normal life, Arts said. For them, the low survival rate from a stem cell transplant and cost can't be justified, compared to people with leukemia who have no other option. 

WATCH | HIV rates rise across Canada: 

HIV cases on the rise across Canada, with Quebec above national average

5 months ago

Duration4:28

Réjean Thomas, and HIV specialist and the co-founder of the medical clinic l'Actuel, says people had less access to doctors during the pandemic, which may explain why there is an increase in the number of HIV cases.

 As someone who lives with HIV, Jean-Paul Michael manages the disease with antiretrovirals. But when he was first diagnosed, he couldn't afford the medication. 

He had been injecting crystal meth for years, but when he began receiving treatment for AIDS-related pneumonia in intensive care eight years ago, a housing stabilization worker offered him affordable housing and tools to rebuild his life.

Jean-Paul Michael lives with HIV and wants antiretroviral medications to be accessible to everyone. (Turgut Yeter/CBC)

Stigma around HIV is still very prevalent, says Michael, noting that there's "a lot of recoil when people hear." He now works as an addiction case manager in the emergency department at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.

Both Michael and Klein called for antiretroviral medications to be accessible to everyone.

"If we could get to a point where we could actually teach the immune system to handle this virus in a way that didn't need medications … it would be a major advance," Klein said.