Women authors from across continents dominate Booker Prize 2024 shortlist

American writer Percival Everett is the only male among this year’s finalists announced in London this week for his Mark Twain ode ‘James’

PTI London Published 18.09.24, 


(From Left-Right): Samantha Harvey, Charlotte Wood, Rachel KushnerTTO Graphics

For the first time in the 55-year history of the Booker Prize, the shortlist has a strong feminine flavour with five out of the six authors in the running for the prestigious GBP 50,000 literary award being women.

British writer Samantha Harvey has been shortlisted for her space set novel ‘Orbital’, American Rachel Kushner for spy thriller ‘Creation Lake’, Canadian Anne Michaels for her familial tale ‘Held’, Australian Charlotte Wood for her philosophical ‘Stone Yard Devotional’ and Yael van der Wouden, the first Dutch author to be shortlisted, for her debut novel ‘The Safekeep’. American writer Percival Everett is the only male among this year’s finalists announced in London this week for his Mark Twain ode ‘James’.

“I am enormously proud of this shortlist of six books that have lived with us. We have spent months sifting, challenging, questioning – stopped in our tracks by the power of the contemporary fiction that we have been privileged to read,” said Edmund de Waal, chair of the 2024 judging panel.

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“The six books on the shortlist bring a diversity of perspective, style and subject matter, from those that hold the reader close to those that take the reader for a spin. It’s a pleasure to bring new authors to the Booker library and welcome back those who have been here before, and I can’t wait for even more readers to immerse themselves in the worlds created by all of this year’s cohort,” said Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation.

Last year, there were two women on the shortlist, including British Indian Chetna Maroo for her tennis allegory ‘Western Lane’ and Canadian author Sarah Bernstein for ‘Study of Obedience’. The Booker Prize was last won by a woman in 2019, when it was shared by Bernardine Evaristo for ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ and Margaret Atwood for ‘The Testaments’, and in 1997, Indian author Arundhati Roy won the literary prize for her semi-autobiographical novel 'The God of Small Things'.

This year’s shortlist is made up of stories which transport readers around the world and beyond the Earth’s atmosphere: from the battlefields of the First World War to a spiritual retreat in rural Australia; from America’s Deep South in the 19th century to a remote Dutch house in the 1960s; from the International Space Station to a cave network beneath the French countryside; exploring the gravitational pull of home and family; the contested nature of truth and history; and the extent to which we reveal our real selves to others.

“My copies of these novels are dog-eared, scribbled in. They have been carried everywhere – surely the necessary measure of a seriously good novel. Our final meeting to choose this shortlist together was punctuated by delight at them. They are books that made us want to keep on reading, to ring up friends and tell them about them, novels that inspired us to write, to score music, and even – in my case – to go back to my wheel and make pots,” added De Waal.

The Booker Prize 2024 ceremony will take place on November 12 at Old Billingsgate in London, with the winner receiving GBP 50,000 and a trophy named Iris after Booker winner Iris Murdoch. Each of the shortlisted authors will receive GBP 2,500 and a bespoke bound edition of their book.

Which countries still use pagers and why?

Thousands of pagers used by members of the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah exploded on September 17, killing nine people and injuring nearly 3,000. Pagers are obsolete devices but were used by Hezbollah to evade detection by Israeli agencies. However, several countries across the world still use pagers. Here's why.


Then US President Bill Clinton with a pager. Pagers were at their peak in the US in the 1990s and 2000s. 

Priyanjali Narayan
New Delhi,

UPDATED: Sep 18, 2024 

In Short

Hezbollah was using pagers, considered obsolete, to hoodwink Israeli spy agencies

But pagers are still used in varied sectors in the US, Japan, New Zealand and Germany

Pagers used by healthcare providers, firefighters, hospitality services among others


Nine people were killed after pagers used by the Lebanon-based terror group, Hezbollah, exploded on September 17. The explosion wounded around 3,000 others. Experts say the supply chain was intruded into to rig the devices with explosives and explosions were triggered remotely. Pagers were used by Hezbollah to bypass the Israeli intelligence agencies that were allegedly snooping on its fighters through their cellphones.
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Though considered an obsolete communication device, pagers are still used for several purposes across the world.

WHAT ARE PAGERS?

Pagers are small and portable communication devices which receive and display messages. They came prior to the spread of smartphones across the world. They function on radio frequencies, making them the more efficient choice in areas with poor networks. They also have a long battery life.

WHEN PAGERS ENTERED INDIA RIDING ON LIBERALISATION

India had a short era of pagers. At the stroke of the hour of economic liberalisation, in 1991, the pager found its way to the Indian market.

In the West, it was used primarily by people working in courier services. But in India, it was a marker of wealth.

The pager was a momentary link as India transitioned from the land phone to the cellphone. Mobile phones came close on the heels of pagers and made the one-way communication device obsolete.

However, there are several countries where pagers are still being used.

WHERE PAGERS ARE STILL BEING USED

1. Japan: Pocket bells or pagers are used in Japan in hospitals and areas with poor cell reception. In an emergency, they are considered more reliable than smartphones, according to The Japan Times.

It is also used in various industrial settings, especially in manufacturing and construction services.

The use of the pager is still prevalent in Japan. It is used for healthcare services and industrial settings. (Image: AFP)

2. New Zealand: Pagers have been used for decades and are still used by the nursing staff at the bedside and medical experts who are responsible for providing advice, according to the National Library of Medicine.

3. United States: Pagers have been mainstream in the US. From Gilmore Girls to FRIENDS and many other popular shows from the 90s show the use of pagers by their main characters.

A scene from Gilmore Girls where Rory is seen using a pager. (Image: X)

Now, pagers are used in hospitals. They are also used in hospitality services to improve customer experience, sometimes even informing guests when their table is notified without facing an overcrowded waiting area, reports QSR Magazine.

They are also used by the elderly to reduce accidents and to be tracked by their caregivers in assisted living, according to Healthcare Pro.

Fire services also use pagers for sending an immediate alert, and they ensure all personnel reach quickly, according to Firehouse.

4. Germany: Pagers are used in logistics companies to ensure quick communication where mobile signals are weak, according to German media outlet Deutsche Welle.

5. Brazil: In Brazil, pagers are used by first responders. They prefer its use to its connectivity and network in all areas.

Privacy, simplicity and urgency are all provided by pagers and, therefore, they have not completely become a thing of history.

"As simple as pagers are, they rarely suffer from congestion as cellphone networks. Recent events have shown that pagers work even in times of natural disasters, as opposed to cellphones that ring busy, dead air or all circuits are busy, and pagers have a unique facility in Group Calling where large numbers of pagers can be paged simultaneously," reads the website of Pagers Direct, which sells pagers.
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It also mentions how pagers do not come with the risk of "robo calls" or AI-generated calls, which now bothers many cellphone users. Although recent research across the world has questioned its use and discussed its limitations, this does not stop many crucial sectors from using it.

While pagers have been used to wound and kill several people in Lebanon, they have also been used to save lives of hundreds and thousands of people across the world. From Japan to the US, pagers, which are considered obsolete, are being used for efficiency.

State of shock, disbelief in Lebanon following Israeli-linked pager blasts

The intelligence breach shown by the attack, and the scale of it, were unfathomable to a population grappling with crisis after crisis.


Suzanne Abou Said
Lebanon
18 September, 2024

Families across Lebanon spent the night in discussions about what happened, how it happened, and what happens to them next. [Getty]

A day after a chain of explosive pager devices injured over 2,500 people and killed at least 12 across Lebanon, the country is in utter shock. Two of the dead were children, and four were medical personnel, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government point to Israel as the culprit behind the indiscriminate attack.

It was a sleepless night for many. The intelligence breach shown by the attack, and the scale of it, were unfathomable to a population grappling with a years-long economic crisis and an unwavering fear of a full-fledged war with Israel. Families across Lebanon spent the night in discussions about what happened, how it happened, and what happens to them next.

The state of nationwide panic was mirrored by sirens of ambulances screeching across all the country throughout Tuesday, and continued Wednesday morning albeit at a slower rate, as the injured were ushered to 100 hospitals, with the majority sustaining eye injuries. A massive turn-up of people queued at blood donation centres to show solidarity to the wounded, but also to a debilitated healthcare sector worn out by recurring crises.

They also showed up to hear what everyone else was thinking.

"This is as much an attack on civilians as it is on the resistance cadre, because the result of this aggression goes beyond the zones of conflict, but rather targets people in their homes and behind the lines of military engagement," political analyst Ali Hammadi told The New Arab.

Following the late August assassination of senior Hezbollah member Fouad Shukr by an Israeli attack, the beleaguered Lebanese population has been braced for an all out war. At least 120,000 Lebanese people were already internally displaced, and government entities as well as non-profits were gearing up for the escalation both sides vowed to ignite.

Since then, the tension quietened down, despite ongoing trade of fire at the border between the two warring entities, and people grew more hopeful that the vows of escalation were overblown.

But this attack reignited people's fears.

"This is a qualitative shift in terms of the conflict and the scene, and what comes after it is certainly different from what preceded it. This is a violation of the rules of engagement, and therefore there will be a response that is proportionate to this aggression," he explained. "The Zionist enemy attacked a wide segment, in a vast geographical area that extended from southern Lebanon to It's far north, east and west, reaching Syria."

Hezbollah has already vowed to retaliate for the attack that has injured hundreds of its members and allies, including Iran's ambassador to Beirut.

"Politically and militarily, it is a transformation that requires a high-level response, which could happen at any time, perhaps today, tomorrow, or in a week, according to the circumstances of the battlefield," explained the analyst, noting that Hezbollah's approach had been to avoid a full scale military engagement but to offer support to Hamas' resistance against Israel by dividing their military power on multiple fronts.

"But since the enemy carried out an aggression that is this dangerous, and broken red lines, the response needs to be equivalent to it," he concluded.
Next day in Beirut

Since early Wednesday morning, Beirut's streets seemed calmer than normal. According to a bank teller in the capital, it took her half the time to get to her work today. "People are in shock. This is an attack like no other, and everyone is trying to make sense of it," said the young woman, asking not to be named. "Perhaps the only upside is the unity it has created".

On social media and in real life conversations, people across the country's wide political spectrum have strongly condoned the attacks, and expressed concern for the security and future of their country.

Shops that have opened in the capital's boulevards were largely vacant.

Unlike in previous scares, several interviewees said they're no longer hoarding goods and essential items. One man, who asked not to be named, said, "We don't have the money for this any more. And we've been through so many of these scares that we've grown indifferent."

Ali Monzer, a resident of Al-Dahya which has a strong Hezbollah presence, said he hopes for an escalation to take place. "This needs to blow up once and for all. And we're aware that a war has one of two results: either victory or martyrdom. And we're happy with both," said the mobile phones' shop owner, who ruled out—from his own expertise—that the blasts were the result of lithium batteries overheating, as is speculated by many.

"This is a security and intelligence breach. There is no doubt about it," he said.

This piece is published in collaboration with Egab.

Acid condoms, sunglass-case bombs, and the story of Israel's worst intelligence failure

Israel's famed intelligence agencies are synonymous with slick executions, under-the-radar operations, and a legendary spy network. But even Israel messes up sometimes. Like Egypt 1954.


Former Israeli Defence Minister Pinhas Lavon (L) is known for Israel's worst intelligence failure, in Egypt, during the reign of Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser. Photos: Getty Images


Ananya Bhattacharya
New Delhi,

UPDATED: Sep 18, 2024 

In Short

Israel's intelligence agencies are famous for their impeccable operations

The Hezbollah pager explosions have a strong Mossad signature, for example

However, even Israeli intelligence messes up bad


Bungling bad is not what you associate with Israel's famed intelligence agencies. The Mossad, Aman and Shin Bet are usually synonymous with slick executions, impeccable operations, and a spy network that is the stuff of legends now. The Hezbollah pager explosions have Mossad signature all over, but don't bet on an acknowledgement from Israel. That's just the way they do things. Under the radar, in secret, an example for spy agencies all over the world. But even Israel messes up. Sometimes, bad.

There are intelligence failures and then there is Egypt 1954. This is the story of Israel's worst intelligence failure.

Storm in the Prime Minister's Office

It was 1954, and David Ben-Gurion had just retired and left the Prime Minister's office to Moshe Sharett. Sharett found himself in a fix. He was unable to exert his authority over the Defence Minister, Pinhas Lavon, who was quite the union boss adept at industry tactics. Military intricacies, however, were another matter.

Former Israeli Defence Minister Pinhas Lavon. Photo: Getty Images

Enter two young, ambitious men: the Chief of Staff at the Defence Ministry, Moshe Dayan; and the Director, Shimon Peres. Dayan and Peres were itching to make their mark and were keener on consulting Ben-Gurion than the new Prime Minister.

At this juncture, Aman had the ear of the government. Mossad, the other intelligence agency in Israel, was sidelined when Lavon came to power. Israel originally had laid down that Mossad had to be involved in all special operations in enemy territory, but Lavon threw the arrangement out of the window. Aman was an aggressive beast that had just been handed powers whose consequences no one foresaw.
Tsunami in the Suez

Neighbour Egypt was going through its own turmoil. King Farouk was overthrown. The new man in Cairo, Gamal Abdel Nasser, had ambitions of becoming the leader of the Arab world. This Arab socialist dictator's first priority was gaining control over the Suez Canal and getting rid of the British military presence in the Canal Zone.

An Anglo-French company controlled the Suez at the time. Col Nasser's agenda meant bad news for Israel. The British out of the Suez Canal would open Sinai up to a probable Egyptian attack. The new state of Israel couldn't afford that headache; neither could it deal with a tightened Arab blockade against them.

The West's attitude to the guy in Cairo was anathema to Israel. Israel was getting desperate. The final trigger came in the summer of 1954, when the Aman chanced upon a plan by the British to evacuate the Suez bases. "Something must be done," was the refrain in the defence corridors.

The 'something' that was eventually done, went on to become Israel's worst bungle on foreign land.

Israel planned to set up a terrorist network within Egypt, pretending to be an Arab one. The targets were British and American. The British Council and American Information Center in Cairo were both to be attacked, for which, the Israelis hoped, Egyptians would be blamed. They hoped Colonel Nasser would go up against his old enemies, the Moslem Brothers, and the Anglo-Saxons would begin to doubt his regime in Cairo.

If Morgan Freeman were to narrate this, he would have said it wasn't a great idea. Well, anyone narrating this would call it a disaster with a Capital D that no one quite knew how Israel went ahead with.

Something, something

The 'something' was named 'Operation Suzanna'.

Israel dialled up Colonel Mordechai Ben-Tsur to get together a motley group of Egyptian Jews who were to be trained to carry out the attacks. Mossad and Shin Bet, Israel's General Security Service, were both involved in Operation Suzanna.
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The group of Egyptian Jews in charge of the operation were all cosmopolitan and charming, but none quite tough or experienced as is quintessentially Israel. They were also extremely enthusiastic about the operation and began having meetings in public places or one of their homes. They barely knew how to operate the radio sets given to them by Israel. They were, anyway, looked at with suspicion by Egyptian intelligence. The operation threatened to put all of the Egyptian Jews at risk.
Acid condoms and glass-case bombs

The operatives of Operation Suzanna had to fall back on their wit and bare-bones training. They improvised 'bombs' - condoms filled with acid, and spectacle cases filled with explosives - and waited for orders from the homeland.

In July 1954, a bizarre order arrived, writes author Ronald Payne in the book Mossad: Israel's Most Secret Service: "Begin immediate action to prevent or postpone the Anglo-Egyptian agreement. The targets are, one, cultural and informational institutions. Two, economic institutions. Three, cars, British representatives and other British citizens. Four, anything else that might complicate diplomatic relations. Inform us of the possibility of action in the Canal Zone. Listen in to us daily at seven o'clock on waveband G."

Some small explosives went off at the post office in Alexandria. The group then contrived to place similar small explosives in sunglass cases in the libraries of the US Information Service in Alexandria and Cairo. They pieced together makeshift bombs to place at cinemas and railway stations across Cairo to mark the anniversary of Colonel Nasser's revolution, you know, to fake an Egyptian hand behind it all. All of these bombs turned out to be damp squibs. But the worst was yet to come.
Amateur guy, premature explosion

In Alexandria, 19-year-old Philip Nathanson waited in a cinema queue with a spectacle case in his pocket. He wanted to get it in, when the case exploded in his pocket. Nathanson was saved by the special branch of Egyptian police, but the ruse was off. They realised what caused the explosion. Within hours, the Israeli network collapsed like a pack of cards.

The Egyptians also caught hold of Max Bennett, a top Mossad agent, who was on business in the neighbouring country. His radio malfunctioned. He had to get in touch with the amateur Egyptian Jew network when the Egyptians swooped in on him. This was a massive blow to the Mossad, who realised that Bennett's capture left them with no other spy in Egypt. It was a time when they most needed their intelligence operatives in Egypt.

'A bloody Zionist gang' is caught

Within four days of the Cairo cinema mess, the Egyptians went to town boasting about the arrest of ten men and a woman, 'a bloody Zionist gang'. Two cell leaders were hanged in Cairo in January 1955. Max Bennett, meanwhile, used a rusty nail in prison to open up his veins and kill himself. He was a trained spy, after all, unlike the amateurs hanged in Cairo.

Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, the second President of Egypt. Photo: Getty Images

The other agents that Egypt caught received long prison sentences. The sole woman, Victorine Ninio, tried to kill herself twice, unsuccessfully. Finally, in 1968, a prisoner exchange got her home to Israel, where she received the welcome fitting of a national heroine. Her wedding three years later was attended by Golda Meir and top intelligence officers.

Who let the Aman out?

Israel wasn't happy. The government wasn't happy. The public needed answers. How could Israel make this bad a mess in enemy territory?

A hasty hysterical resignation by defence minister Pinhas Lavon confirmed it for all. The departure of Lavon led to a colossal crisis in the government that could be solved only when David Ben-Gurion had to be called back from exile to take on the reins of the defence ministry once again. Back in kibbutz clothes, from his Negev retreat, Ben-Gurion appeared in the Knesset to take control of the situation after the 'Lavon Affair'.
No answer is the best answer

Operation Suzanna poisoned Israel politics for many years. A series of secret hearings by the investigation committee found intelligence and government folks at each other's necks. While the military officers claimed that defence minister Lavon signed off the Egyptian bombing campaign, the latter pinned the blame on Aman. Israel never answered in public who was responsible for the Egypt fiasco. A vague, open-ended statement was the best it did, regretting that they were 'unable to answer the question put to us by the Prime Minister'.

Former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Photo: Getty Images

"We can only say that we were not convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the senior officer did not receive orders from the minister of defence. We are equally uncertain that the minister of defence did, in fact, give the orders attributed to him," read the statement, writes Ronald Payne in his book, Mossad: Israel's Most Secret Service.

Operation Suzanna also set the protocol for any intelligence failures that Israel encountered in the following years. Whenever a 'security mishap' happened, they put out statements that claimed that it would be best not to dig further, since it was a question of the security of the country.

True to it, till date, Israel has always shrugged off embarrassing affairs, refusing to confirm or deny any hand of its intelligence. But sometimes the signs are a little too strong to ignore. Like the exploding pagers in Lebanon.

Published By:
ananya bhattacharya
Published On:
Sep 18, 2024

Google wins legal bid to overturn 1.5 billion euro antitrust fine in EU digital ad case

Exhibitors work on laptop computers in front of an illuminated sign of the Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany. 

(AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)

By Kelvin Chan - Associated Press - Wednesday, September 18, 2024


LONDON (AP) — Google won a court challenge on Wednesday against a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) European Union antitrust fine imposed five years ago that targeted its online advertising business.

The EU’s General Court said it was throwing out the 2019 penalty imposed by the European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer.

The commission’s ruling applied to a narrow portion of Google’s ad business: ads that the U.S. tech giant sold next to Google search results on third-party websites.

Regulators had accused Google of inserting exclusivity clauses in its contracts that barred these websites from running similarly placed ads sold by Google’s rivals. The commission said when it issued the penalty that Google’s behavior resulted in advertisers and website owners having less choice and likely facing higher prices that would be passed on to consumers.

But the General Court said the commission “committed errors” when it assessed those clauses. The commission failed to demonstrate that Google’s contracts deterred innovation, harmed consumers or helped the company hold on to and strengthen its dominant position in national online search advertising markets, it said.

The ruling can be appealed, but only on points of law, to the Court of Justice, the bloc’s top court.

The commission said in a brief statement that it “will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.”

Google said it changed its contracts in 2016 to remove the provisions in question, even before the commission imposed its decision.

“We are pleased that the court has recognised errors in the original decision and annulled the fine,” Google said in a statement. “We will review the full decision closely.”

The company’s legal victory comes a week after it lost a final challenge against a separate EU antitrust case for its shopping comparison service that also involved a hefty fine.

They were among three antitrust penalties totaling about 8 billion euros that the commission punished Google with in the previous decade. The penalties marked the beginning of an era of intensifying scrutiny for Big Tech companies.

Since then, Google has faced escalating pressure on both sides of the Atlantic over its digital ad business. It’s currently battling the Justice Department in a U.S. federal court over allegations that its dominance over the technology that controls the sale of billions of internet display ads constitutes an illegal monopoly.

British competition regulators this month accused the company of abusing its dominance in the country’s digital ad market and giving preference to its own services.

EU antitrust enforcers carrying out their own investigation suggested last year that breaking up the company was the only way to satisfy competition concerns about its digital ad business.

ST Explains: What’s a Sumatra squall?
Trees were uprooted in Choa Chu Kang Grove after a heavy storm battered Singapore on the night of Sept 17.
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN


Fatimah Mujibah
Sep 18, 2024,


SINGAPORE – The storm that swept into Singapore on Sept 17 lasted barely an hour, but left its mark across the island.

From Tampines in the east to Mount Faber in the south and Yishun in the north, netizens took to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to document felled trees and broken branches strewn over roads.

There were also other unusual instances, such as a pair of trousers seen flying among high-rise buildings, pool furniture flying across and landing in the pool and various tableware pieces flying at an outdoor restaurant as patrons attempted to enjoy their meal.

Elsewhere in the region, Malaysia and Brunei were also affected by the extreme winds and rainfall. The Malaysian island of Penang had more than 200 toppled trees over two days from Sept 15, while Brunei’s fire and rescue department personnel attended to 72 emergency calls over fallen trees and 20 calls over roofs blown off on Sept 17.

Dr Matthias Roth, a professor of urban climatology at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Geography, said the severe weather “had many of the characteristics of a typical Sumatra squall, which is usually accompanied by a sudden increase in wind speed, gustiness and heavy rainfall”.

Just a day earlier, the National Environment Agency’s Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) had warned that the Republic might experience the effects of such squalls, with widespread thundery showers and gusty winds on a few days in the next two weeks, and more rainfall expected at the end of the month

The Straits Times looks at what Sumatra squalls are, how this weather phenomenon affects Singapore and the rest of South-east Asia and if Singapore can expect to see more of such weather in the upcoming months.




What are Sumatra squalls and what causes them?

Sumatra squalls are a common and vigorous line of thunderstorms travelling rapidly towards the South China Sea.

“The causes of this phenomenon are complex and include convection, which is an upward transport of heat from the surface into the atmosphere, over the warm waters of the Malacca Strait, and converging land breezes passing between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula,” said Prof Roth.

“Besides intense convection, Sumatra squalls also possess strong vertical wind shear – a variation in wind speed at a height which, in combination, results in heavy rainfall and strong winds.”

Sumatra squalls typically last for a few hours after forming early in the morning or at night and may occur at any time of the year, resulting in heavy rainfall. The squalls are most common during inter- and South-west monsoon seasons, such as April to May, and October to November.

Prof Roth added that squalls affect Singapore a few days every month during this period, occurring overnight or in the morning.

During this period, severe flooding, fallen trees, damage to objects and properties and power outages can happen.

The disruptive weather system can affect up to 85 million people in the region, according to a study published in 2018.

When was the last time Singapore had storms like this?

The Republic faced its worst wind gust in Tengah on April 25, 1984 – at a speed of 144.4kmh.

In 2018, ST reported the record was almost broken as wind speed hit a high of 133.3kmh in Tengah on the afternoon of March 30, 2018. The storm, which brought widespread thundery showers, wreaked damage over places such as chicken farms and plant nurseries.

Heavy rainfall was detected over western parts of the island like Jurong and Choa Chu Kang, said the MSS at the time.

In 2010, there was another occurrence where wind speed hit a high of 90.7kmh on Nov 29.

How can I protect myself and my belongings from such wild weather?

During the inter-monsoon season, which is expected to take place from October to November, you can expect several rainy thunderstorms at any time of the day.

Members of the public can subscribe to an SMS alert service by the MSS which issues warnings on rising water levels in canals or drains and or/ heavy rain in Singapore.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in an advisory that residents can secure or move items placed outdoors, such as toys, bicycles, potted plants and heavy objects, indoors and away from the windows.

Remain indoors when the storm appears to have stopped as the winds may pick up again after a short period of calm.

When the storm is over, check the surroundings for broken glass, fallen trees, broken power cables and other hazards.

Cyprus, Lebanon Collaborate To Block Syrian Refugees From Reaching Europe, Report Shows

ANDREA LÓPEZ-TOMÀS
09/18/2024

Thousands of Syrian refugees continue to be denied safe asylum and face violations of their rights, with Human Rights Watch accusing Europe of complicity

(Beirut) Hassan has made up his mind. This young Syrian refugee wants to leave Lebanon. In the country where he has lived since the civil war broke out in his own country, there are no opportunities for him and racism has already turned into violence against those like him for months.

“I want to try again,” Hassan told The Media Line, showing videos of his previous attempts. He once reached the Italian coast, over 2,000 kilometers from where he set off. Another time, he made it to Cyprus, just 200 kilometers from Lebanon.

But, on both occasions, the sweet dream of a dignified future on the European continent lasted only a few minutes. Hassan and his fellow travelers were returned to Lebanon. Like them, there have been many others. Thousands of Syrian refugees have once again become victims of even more violations of their human rights.

In this case, the perpetrators are the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Cypriot authorities. A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) shows that agents from both countries work together to prevent refugees from reaching Europe and then deport them despite the danger they face in Syria. Caught between a home country at war and a host country mired in one of the worst economic crises in recent decades, some Syrian refugees choose to seek a better life in Europe.

But Europe, too, is unwelcoming. Cyprus, the nearest European shore to Lebanon, has seen hundreds of Syrians embark on overcrowded boats with anywhere from 17 to 200 people, according to refugees interviewed by HRW. Some of them are also desperate Lebanese and Palestinian citizens.

In its report, “I Can’t Go Home, Stay Here, or Leave: Pushbacks and Pullbacks of Syrian Refugees From Cyprus and Lebanon,” HRW states that many refugees are stopped before even reaching the sea. Lebanese Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces frequently raid boats and coastal departure points, blocking refugees from leaving.

These arbitrary arrests violate Syrian refugees’ right to leave. Even those who reach the sea aren’t safe. Some report being attacked by Lebanese and Cypriot forces while still in the water to prevent their arrival. Once they enter the European Union, their human rights violations continue.

In Cyprus, the authorities deny them the right to asylum procedures and they are forcibly returned to Lebanon with the risk of being expelled back to Syria

“In Cyprus, the authorities deny them the right to asylum procedures and they are forcibly returned to Lebanon with the risk of being expelled back to Syria,” Nadia Hardman, a refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW, told The Media Line. Refugees also report “‘cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” by Cypriot officials.

Authorities disregard refugees’ status and the dangers of deporting them to Syria. “The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has declared that Syria remains unsafe for Syrians to return to and has called on governments not to return their citizens there,” Hardman said.

Despite these recommendations, both Cypriot and Lebanese authorities ignore them. Expelled refugees report that Lebanese Army officers in Beirut hand them over to Syrian soldiers or unidentified armed men across the border. Neither Lebanese nor Cypriot authorities provide clear legal justification for their actions, and the refugees are denied access to international protection procedures.

In 2023, the UNHCR recorded 13,772 people either expelled from Lebanon or returned at the Syrian border, a violation of the principle of non-refoulement and the ban on collective expulsion of vulnerable groups like Syrians.

“Once in Syria, expelled refugees faced not only detention by the Syrian army, but also extortion by armed men for payment to be smuggled back to Lebanon,” the HRW report notes. The organization has documented cases of detained returning Syrians being persecuted, tortured, and even killed by Syrian government forces.


Once in Syria, expelled refugees faced not only detention by the Syrian army, but also extortion by armed men for payment to be smuggled back to Lebanon

In May, the European Union allocated a €1 billion aid package to Lebanon through 2026, including funds for the Lebanese Armed Forces and other security forces for border management and anti-smuggling efforts. Between 2020 and 2023, the EU and its member states provided up to €16.7 million to Lebanese security agencies for border management projects aimed primarily at reducing irregular migration.

“With all this funding, the EU is complicit in the abuses of the Lebanese Armed Forces against Syrian refugees,” Hardman said. “Despite the fact that this humiliating treatment is widely known, the European authorities have not implemented any monitoring mechanism for abuses or made funding for projects conditional on the actor receiving it violating human rights,” she added.

Like Hassan, the Syrian refugees interviewed have attempted to leave Lebanon by boat between three and five times. Many persist despite being stopped by Lebanese authorities or turned away by Cypriot officials.

Any kind of abusive migration control measures are not going to work, as they have been proven time and again to be ineffective

“This shows that any kind of abusive migration control measures are not going to work, as they have been proven time and again to be ineffective and do not stop them from trying to reach European shores; all they do is make the journeys more dangerous,” Hardman said.

According to Hardman, refugees like Hassan “have no legal avenues to leave, so they will always use irregular crossings by boat,” calling for “more resettlement avenues for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.” Hassan echoed this sentiment: “Here there is no life, only suffering; life in Europe is better,” he said.

Ethnonationalism and Myanmar’s future

The crisis in Myanmar is a fundamental struggle over the identity and structure of the nation-state. Underpinning this conflict are ethnonational politics that are driving war but also create avenues for peace.


A camp of the Kachin Independence Army, April 2014. Photo: David Brenner.

David Brenner - 18 Sep, 2024

Observers in the West have largely interpreted the devastating violence that has engulfed Myanmar following the February 2021 military coup as a “battle between democracy and authoritarianism”. This understanding has become commonplace amongst journalists, researchers, and policymakers describing the conflict. The struggle for democracy has indeed long served as the main analytical lens through which Myanmar’s troubled politics are interpreted in Washington, London, Brussels and Canberra. This emphasis on Myanmar’s political system, however, fails to account for the root causes and key dynamics of the crisis. The crisis is not merely a clash over governance models, but a fundamental struggle over the identity and structure of the nation-state itself.

More problematically, the “lens of democracy” renders these root causes of conflict invisible. It does so by viewing the nation-state as the natural form of political organising. But state formation in Myanmar has remained highly contested. It has also become inseparable from violence along ethnic lines: in a region where colonial modernity has imprinted questions of ethnicity into the trajectory of state-making, ethnonational politics shape Myanmar’s current crisis in a profound way. Shifting our focus to such ethnonational politics is therefore key to understanding the main drivers of the conflict, and by extension, how policy can support a more peaceful future in the country.
Rethinking the drivers of war

The biggest challenge to peace in Myanmar is the country’s military and its attempt to terrorise the population into submission. But while the generals are chiefly responsible for dragging the country towards the abyss, there is a need to reckon with the underlying structural features of Myanmar’s state, which have haunted the country since British colonial rule. Since an attempt to negotiate power between ethnic groups failed at the eve of independence in 1947, the state has not been able to address ethnic minority grievances or forge a unified national identity.

Ethnonational conflict has also long been exacerbated by the country’s leaders, who have sowed ethnic division and violence for decades. The military has maintained its longstanding stranglehold over the country precisely because generals have used the threat of ethnic separatism to portray themselves as the “guardians of the nation”. These generals have turned Myanmar into an ethnocratic state that discriminates against ethnic minorities, or ethnic nationalities, who make up about 40% of the population. Ethnic conflict has consequently remained a defining feature of the postcolonial state.


The military-controlled Ministry of Border Affairs in the Naga-Self Administered Zone, Nanyun, January 2018 (Photo: David Brenner)

Many ethnic nationalities have resisted institutional discrimination for decades, including by taking up arms against the central state. The military has responded with waging war against them, painting them as internal enemies of the nation. This strategy has become the military’s key means of state making, and it is why the military has long fuelled ethnic tensions with divide-and rule tactics. It continues to do so in the current war with devastating consequences. As a result of the military’s divisive tactics, a multitude of ethnonational rebel movements, known as Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs), have mobilised across the country. In addition to fighting for more autonomy for their respective constituents, EAOs have built de facto states within the state in territories that have never been exclusively controlled by the military.

EAOs have played a critical role in the current countrywide armed mobilisation, including the formation of People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) that have taken up arms against the junta. Some EAOs, such as those of the Karen, Chin, Karenni, and Kachin, aligned themselves with the Spring Revolution early on and have sheltered, trained, and organised armed resistance units on a large scale. But even EAOs who have kept a distance from the countrywide campaign for democracy, such as the Ta’ang, Kokang, Arakan, and Wa movements, have proven instrumental in the armed uprising across Myanmar. Their non-state territories and guerrilla logistics have helped to scale up the military capabilities of armed opposition forces countrywide.

The rapid unravelling of military control over large swathes of territory, including urban centres in the country’s borderlands since late 2023, is a direct consequence of unprecedented EAO offensives. Yet despite their recent coordination, EAOs follow different strategies. Indeed, the aforementioned escalation was spearheaded by EAOs that have remained sceptical about the Spring Revolution. Notwithstanding their positioning on the revolution, the main concern of all EAOs remains autonomy for their ethnic constituents. The key difference is that some EAOs seek to achieve this autonomy in closer cooperation with the countrywide revolution for federal democracy, while others seek to achieve it more independently.


AA commander Twan Mrat Naing in the group’s temporary Kachin State headquarters, March 2014 (Photo: David Brenner)

Twan Mrat Naing, commander of the Arakan Army (AA), one of the most powerful EAOs in the country, illuminated the latter position to journalists in 2022. Explaining why his movement did not join hands with the Spring Revolution after the coup he stated, “Our main objective is ‘Rakhita,’ to win back our lost sovereignty. The previous generations in Arakan wasted a lot of time in following and supporting the Burmese … Arakan was even involved in the 1988 movement to restore democracy, but failed to reap any benefits.” He continued, “After such experiences, we no longer want to follow the Burmese. We want to work towards our own objectives. It is our strategic position to remain at a distance from the ongoing struggle for democracy now in Burma.”

Importantly, though, these positions are not fixed, and continue to evolve with the rapidly developing situation. This is why EAOs cannot easily be divided into two camps. The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, for instance, voiced strong concerns against a closer alliance with the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) in late 2022. Since then, it has rapidly developed alliances with NUG-affiliated PDFs. The movement currently seeks to cooperate with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) to restore public services in the territory that it has captured in its offensives since last October. In a recent interview, the AA’s Twan Mrat Naing explained how evolving relations with other resistance forces has also shaped his outlook over the past two years. He stressed the need for building more alliances and partnerships and adopting a “holistic view that accounts for the entire union and our surrounding environment.” In his perspective, this is not inconsistent with “the confederation that Rakhine has been advocating” (rather than a federal union).
Finding avenues for peace

Ethnonational politics in Myanmar are not only a force of war—they have also long worked as one of the main determinants of local stability. As the state has never exclusively governed its territory, EAOs have been operating non-state administration for decades. These alternative political orders are especially sophisticated in Myanmar’s borderlands with China and Thailand, where organisations such as the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) have long remained influential governance actors. Their administrations are instrumental in delivering health and education to hundreds of thousands of conflict-affected people. They have also become important international partners, as demonstrated by their crucial role in humanitarian relief aid, refugee protection, and regional pandemic responses.

A nurse prepares an anaesthetic in the KIO-operated hospital of Laiza. March 2014 (Photo: David Brenner)

Mainstream accounts in the literature on “rebel governance” fail to adequately capture the diverse functions of EAO administrations. EAO governance is not only an instrumental means to power, with which rebel groups deliver public services in return for local support and legitimacy. A purely regulative perspective that highlights the maintenance of public order is also insufficient. Rather, EAO governance is primarily about fostering national sovereignty in ethnic nationality communities. Put differently, EAO governance is about nation-building.

What does this mean for Myanmar’s future and potential avenues for peace? At a time when multiple EAOs are drastically expanding their territories, their governance apparatuses and nation-building ambitions are expanding, too. While most such claims precede the military coup, they have become more sensitive with the rapid expansion of EAOs. This presents an increased risk of inter-EAO conflict over territorial claims. (That said, northern Shan State, a place where inter-EAO relations have long been tense, also showcases that EAOs are mostly pragmatic in addressing such conflict with each other.)



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Justine Chambers & Nick Cheesman 09 September, 2024

More pressing are issues of inclusivity and accountability. EAOs govern over ethnically heterogeneous populations, and this heterogeneity has only increased with their current territorial gains. This becomes particularly worrisome in regions where communal conflict predates the current crisis. For instance, reports of the AA’s attacks on Rohingya communities, its inflammatory anti-Rohingya rhetoric, and intimidation of civil society rightfully raise alarm bells. However, we must not tar all EAOs with the same brush. EAOs are hugely diverse organisations, with a vast variety of ideological leanings, historical experiences, internal governance mechanisms, and material conditions.

Some EAOs have produced more accountable and inclusive relations with local communities than others. The KNU and the KIO, for instance, have a long tradition of engaging with civil society actors. These actors have played an important role in spearheading new forms of accountable governance, such as in the case of the Salween Peace Park, a land rights and conservation project led by Karen activists in collaboration with the KNU. The KNU and KIO also operate extensive non-state education systems that support ethnic diversity. While their curricula stresses mother-tongue based education, they both strive for more inclusivity in their education systems that partly operate in heterogeneous communities. The KIO has, for instance, just announced its support for other ethnic and religious groups setting up private schools in its territory.

A Karen National Police Force member of the KNU at the Salween Peace Park opening in Mutraw, December 2019 (Photo: David Brenner)

None of this is perfect, and how could it be, in the context of a decades-long war? But it clearly suggests promising possibilities for a more peaceful future. The key to such a future is bolstering initiatives that support inclusive and accountable EAO governance. Rather than shun all EAOs because of the actions of individual armed groups, donors and development agencies should step up their engagement with these groups, who will only grow in their role as governance actors in Myanmar. Similarly, as US policymakers seek to step up their support for Myanmar, the newfound Congressional Burma Caucus should work with rather than against the grain of EAO governance. Concretely, this means partnering with EAOs beyond humanitarian aid relief.

US lawmakers and government agencies should follow through on the pledges outlined in the BURMA Act of 2022 and step up the provision of non-lethal support for resistance actors in Myanmar. Other donors should do the same. Part of this aid should be used for supporting EAO governance in areas that foster cooperation and stability, such as education, health, justice, and land rights. To do so, donors should seek the partnership of local civil society actors from diverse ethnic nationality communities for this endeavour. These actors are key to ensuring that support goes to initiatives that strengthen inclusive and accountable forms of governance. This targeted approach to support is the best way to incentivise all EAOs to adopt governance practices that promote inclusivity and accountability, carving a sustainable path to peace in Myanmar.

Working with EAO governance can in turn serve as a useful impetus for rethinking international interventions in conflict-affected contexts more generally. To be sure, calling for closer engagement with local governance actors is nothing new in and of itself. On the contrary, the “local turn” has become the mainstay of critical peacebuilding research and practice. The bulk of this work, however, remains wedded to Eurocentric understandings of the state and “the local”—or at least those local actors whose politics are deemed worthy of support.

Unsurprisingly, ethnonational armed movements have hitherto not been viewed as local peacebuilding partners. And while we must not romanticise exclusionary tendencies of ethnonationalist ideologies, we need to contextualise them within the postcolonial politics of ethnocratic state formation in a context like Myanmar. Doing so produces a more differentiated understanding of the drivers of conflict and suggests new avenues for peace.

Author’s note: I am grateful to Jenna Marcus for her helpful feedback.

 New Mandala


About the Author
 

David Brenner
David Brenner is Senior Lecturer in Global Insecurities at the University of Sussex. He has researched ethnonational politics and EAOs in Myanmar since 2012, including for his PhD at the London School of Economics. He has published widely on the matter and is author of "Rebel Politics: A Political Sociology of Armed Struggle in Myanmar’s Borderlands" (Cornell University Press, 2019).

Kenya: Islanders upcycle washed up plastic waste into boats


Flipflopi, claimed to be the world’s first recycled plastic sailing dhow on the ocean off the island of Lamu, in eastern Kenya on Sept. 13, 2024.

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The Flipflopi Dhow — The Flipflopi

By Rédaction Africanews


Kenya

On the Lamu island, off Kenya's east coast, 47-year-old Usmail collects plastic which he then sells onto the Flipflopi Project.

The NGO was founded in 2016. It upcycles the waste into boats and furniture.

Lamu is contending with mounds of plastic waste - some washed up on its beaches, others genrated by its residents.

"We started collecting plastics a while ago," Usmail says.

"There used to be a lot of plastic waste in this area, Lamu. We collect the plastic waste and sell it to the organization at Ksh16 per-kilogram or about 16 cents in dollars, We do not have a job. That is where we get money to educate our children and also make a living."

The Flipflopi Project receives grants from other NGOs which they then use to buy plastic waste from locals.

The co-founder detailshow the process unfolds at this facility.

"We go to the community, and because we have some grant, we buy from the community," Ali Skanda starts.

"And we have our transport agents who bring the plastic to us. After pre-sorting, we have our sorters, and they categorize into different type and colours. After the separation, we send them to the shredding point where we break them into flakes, into small particles. Then we get some lumbers of different shapes, round, square, like a piece of wood, and then from those lumbers of different colours, is when now we pick it and we make furniture."

The NGO also conducts research on what to do with plastic.

Indeed, Skanda says recycling also comes with challenges.

He says nowadays, plastic manufacturers are adding additives into plastics, which makes it more difficult to recycle.

Elsewhere, some plastics may be degraded by the sun and lose quality.

In principle, almost all plastic can be recycled. But items with different types of plastic for example and plasticcontaminated by substances can hardly be recycled.

Since 2019, the NGO has been sailing Flipflopi, claimed to be the world’s first recycled plastic sailing daʊ

It notably sailed from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria.

Two boats were launched subsequently.

UK calls for “ambition” on COP29 climate finance goal but won’t talk numbers

Published on 17/09/2024

The UK’s new foreign minister, David Lammy, says Global North rhetoric on climate action must be matched by funding but stays silent on the size of a new global finance goal

David Lammy makes his speech at Kew Gardens on September 17, 2024 (Photos: Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office/Ben Dance)

By Joe Lo


Britain’s new foreign minister has called on governments to set an “ambitious” new goal for climate finance to help developing countries at the COP29 UN climate summit, but declined to discuss how much it should be.

In his first major speech in government, after the Labour Party won power in July, Foreign Secretary David Lammy told journalists, diplomats and green campaigners at London’s Kew botanical gardens that, at COP29, the UK will “push for the ambition needed to keep 1.5 alive”. That refers to a global warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius agreed by governments, which is set to be exceeded unless climate action is ramped up dramatically.

However, when asked by Climate Home, Lammy declined to say how high the UK government thinks the new global finance goal should be – or when it will put forward its proposal. “I can’t make announcements here because if I did, I’d go back to a storm with [UK finance minister] Rachel Reeves,” he said.



The new collective quantified goal (NCQG) will determine how much finance should be mobilised for developing countries each year starting from 2025. It is the main outcome expected from COP29 in Baku in November. The current goal of $100 billion per year is widely viewed as inadequate and was only met two years late in 2022.

Developing-country negotiators have complained that rich nations are refusing to discuss the size (or quantum) of the NCQG. Developed countries have instead pushed to expand the list of contributors to the goal to include wealthier, higher-emitting developing countries like China and Saudi Arabia.

Developing-country “frustration”

“It’s been frustrating for most of the developing-country negotiators,” Kenyan climate finance negotiator Julius Mbatia told journalists on Monday. He accused developed countries of trying to “dodge” their mandates and responsibilities and “avoid committing to a scale that they are actually not committed to deliver politically”. “It’s a tactic,” Mbatia said. “Unfortunately, it’s being played at the worst moment when we are talking about meeting the needs and priorities of vulnerable countries.”

Melanie Robinson, global climate director at the World Resources Institute, said on Tuesday the context has changed since the current finance goal was set 15 years ago, as the impacts of climate change have worsened. All countries now need to get onto a net-zero, climate-resilient economic development pathway that benefits everyone and restores nature, she said.

“We know just how huge that challenge is for all countries,” she added. “But while developed countries and China can probably find the finance to make that transition themselves, we know that developing countries will need international finance.”

Slow progress in Baku risks derailing talks on new climate finance goal at COP29

Asked about developing countries’ frustrations, Lammy said: “I recognise the disjunct between rhetoric sometimes in the Global North and the real pressing needs that exist in the Global South as they look to see is that rhetoric going to be actually matched with funds.”

He said his government would deliver on the promise made by the former UK government to provide £11.6bn ($14.7bn) in climate finance between 2021 and 2026, despite inheriting from the Conservatives a £22bn ($29bn) “black hole” in Britain’s annual budget and a “tough fiscal environment”.

The previous government cut the UK’s overseas aid target from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income. The new one has repeated the Conservatives’ pledge to reverse this when “fiscal circumstances allow”. Lammy said on Tuesday he wants to restore it “as quickly as possible, and of course that’s a discussion that I’m continuing to have with colleagues in the [finance ministry]”.

He added that the UK government will propose to Parliament a guarantee for the Asian Development Bank which will “unlock $1.2 billion in climate finance for developing countries in the region”. He repeated the previous government’s support for a capital increase for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development “subject to reforms”.

Clean Power Alliance

In addition, Lammy announced that the UK will appoint two new envoys for climate and nature, reporting to climate minister Ed Miliband and environment minister Steve Reed respectively. It will also launch a Clean Power Alliance that aims to help countries leapfrog fossil fuels and transition to energy systems based on clean power. The UK itself aims to get all its electricity from clean sources by 2030.

“Of course, there are different obstacles from different countries but, despite several other valuable initiatives pushing forward the energy transition, there is no equivalent grouping of countries at the vanguard of the transition,” Lammy said.

He added that the alliance would “focus on diversifying the production and supply of copper, cobalt, lithium and nickel – the lifeblood of the new economy”. These minerals are key to the global energy transition because they are needed for things like electric cables and batteries – and their processing is largely dominated by China, something that is a concern for Western politicians.

Lammy stressed the need to “bring these commodities to market faster while avoiding the mistakes of the past”, and said the UK would help developing countries “secure economic benefits while promoting the highest environmental standards for mineral extraction”.

Human rights must be “at the core” of mining for transition minerals, UN panel says

Climate Home has reported on how mining of these minerals has hurt local communities in Indonesia and Argentina – and may fail to bring fair benefits to local communities in Zimbabwe. A United Nations panel said last week that supply chains for critical minerals should not harm the local environment or human rights.

Lammy said the UK would restore its international credibility on climate action – after perceived indifference from former Conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak – by ending new licenses for oil and gas production and overturning an effective ban on onshore wind power.

“We’re bringing an end to our climate diplomacy of being ‘do as I say, not as I do’,” he said.

(Reporting by Joe Lo; editing by Megan Rowling)