With U.S. shale oil boom over, can world production climb?

By Kurt Cobb, originally published by Resource Insights

December 11, 2022


Prior to the pandemic-induced downturn in world oil production, U.S. oil production growth was responsible for 98 percent of the increase in world production in 2018 (as reported in 2019). Almost all of that growth resulted from rapid increases in shale oil production which accounted for 64 percent of U.S. production (as of 2021).

Fast forward to today when OilPrice.com has declared that “The U.S. Shale Boom Is Officially Over.” The reasons cited mostly have to do with management “discipline” regarding capital expenditure in favor of shareholder payouts and complaints about “anti-oil rhetoric” and “regulatory uncertainty.”

But there might just be another reason for the slowdown in shale oil production in the United States: There isn’t as much accessible and economical shale oil underground as advertised. Earth scientist David Hughes laid out his case for this view in his “Shale Reality Check 2021.” (For a summary of Hughes’ report, see my piece from December 2021 entitled, “U.S. shale oil and gas forecast: Too good to be true?”)

There may be other sources of oil worldwide that will somehow make up for the significantly lower growth in U.S. shale oil production. But no other source seems set to provide the kind of growth U.S. shale oil provided, that is, 73.2 percent of the global increase in oil production from 2008 through 2018.

The world has actually been getting along with less oil for some time now. World oil production proper (crude oil including lease condensate) peaked on a monthly basis in November 2018 at 84.58 million barrels per day (mbpd). In August 2022 production was 81.44 mbpd. That’s after a pandemic-induced shock that saw production fall to 70.28 mbpd in June 2020.

Neither the U.S. shale oil companies nor OPEC seem ready to increase production significantly (assuming that they can). Russia, among the world’s top three producers, is under heavy sanction and may not be able to produce more oil for export anytime soon. (Again, it is not certain that Russia can significantly increase production. Except for the pandemic-induced drop Russia has long been on a production plateau of between 10 and 11 mbpd.)

No doubt some new oil savior will be announced soon whether credible or not. In the meantime, the world economy will be faced with limited oil supplies that do not simply grow to meet our fantasies of what we want. The result will be high prices, that is, higher than has been historically the case. A recession won’t change this dynamic and, in fact, may reinforce it as oil companies are likely to reduce drilling activity when demand for oil slumps. That will make it doubly difficult for those companies to supply growing demand coming out of the next recession.

This is the way things might very well be for a long time if not indefinitely. Many of us who foresaw this day said that we would only see peak world oil production in the rearview mirror. It may take a few more years to determine if November 2018 marked the all-time peak.

Photo: Oil shale mine in Estonia (2019). “Geological fieldworks, underground in the Estonian oilshale mine to study the variable mineralogical and chemical compostion and microsturcture in the different layers of the oil shale profile” by Peeter paaver. via Wikimedia Commons

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oilshale_mine_01.jpg

Teenage leukemia patient in remission after world-first treatment in the UK
CGTN

Great Ormond Street Hospital said 13-year-old Alyssa was the first patient known to have been given base-edited T cells. /Great Ormond Street Hospital

Doctors in the UK have hailed a pioneering treatment for an aggressive form of leukemia, after a teenager became the first patient to be given a new therapy and went into remission.

The 13-year-old girl, Alyssa, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2021.

But her blood cancer did not respond to conventional treatment, including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.

She was enrolled on a clinical trial of a new treatment at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) using genetically engineered immune cells from a healthy volunteer.

In 28 days, her cancer was in remission, allowing her to receive a second bone marrow transplant to restore her immune system.

Six months on, she is "doing well" back home in Leicester, central England, and receiving follow-up care.

'Quite remarkable' turnaround

"Without this experimental treatment, Alyssa's only option was palliative care," the hospital said in a statement.

Robert Chiesa, a GOSH consultant, said her turnaround had been "quite remarkable", although the results still needed to be monitored and confirmed in the next few months.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common kind of cancer in children and affects cells in the immune system, known as B cells and T cells, which fight and protect against viruses.

GOSH said Alyssa was the first patient known to have been given base-edited T cells, which involves chemically converting single nucleotide bases - letters of the DNA code - which carry instructions for a specific protein.

Researchers at GOSH and University College London helped develop the use of genome-edited T cells to treat B-cell leukemia in 2015.

But to treat some other types of leukemia the team had to overcome the challenge that the T cells, designed to recognize and attack cancerous cells, had ended up killing each other during the manufacturing process.

'Most sophisticated cell engineering'

Multiple additional DNA changes were needed to the base-edited cells to allow them to target cancerous cells without damaging each other.

"This is a great demonstration of how, with expert teams and infrastructure, we can link cutting edge technologies in the lab with real results in the hospital for patients," said GOSH's consultant in Paediatric Immunology Waseem Qasim.

"It's our most sophisticated cell engineering so far and paves the way for other new treatments and ultimately better futures for sick children."

Alyssa said in the statement she was spurred to take part in the trial not just for herself but for other children.

"Hopefully this can prove the research works and they can offer it to more children," the teenager's mother added.

The researchers were presenting their findings this weekend at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Source(s): AFP

Girl leukaemia-free after world-first use of cell engineering therapy

Teenager from Leicester is first to benefit from new treatment at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

Alyssa during her treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital. PA.

Neil Murphy

Dec 11, 2022

Beta V.1.0 - Powered by automated translation

A 13-year-old girl is free of leukaemia after the world's first use of what scientists have described as the most sophisticated cell engineering to date.

The teenager, called Alyssa, said she felt that volunteering for the experimental new treatment for the disease would help others. “Of course I’m going to do it,” she said.

Scientists said that without the treatment, which came after chemotherapy and an initial bone marrow transplant failed to clear her cancer, her only alternative would have been palliative care.

READ MORE

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Speaking about the therapy, Alyssa said: “Once I do it, people will know what they need to do, one way or another, so doing this will help people.”

The teenager, from Leicester, received base-edited T-cells in the first ever use of a base-edited cell therapy at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

Pre-manufactured cells from a healthy volunteer donor were edited to enable them to hunt down and kill cancerous T-cells without attacking each other.

T-cells are white blood cells that move around the body, finding and destroying defective cells.

Alyssa, who was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, or T-All, in 2021, was given all the conventional treatments including chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant, but the disease returned.

She then became the first patient enrolled on to a new clinical trial, funded by the Medical Research Council, during which she was given universal Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cells that had been pre-manufactured from a healthy volunteer donor in May this year.

The researchers described base-editing as chemically converting letters of the DNA code that carry instructions for a specific protein.

The edited Car T-cells can be given to a patient so that they quickly find and destroy T-cells in the body, including cancerous ones, after which the person can have a bone-marrow transplant to restore their depleted immune system.

Twenty-eight days after being given the treatment, Alyssa was in remission, researchers said, and was able to have a second bone marrow transplant.

Alyssa, 13, is free of leukaemia after the pioneering treatment. PA

She is said to be “doing well at home” as she recovers and continues with follow-up monitoring at the hospital.

It is hoped the research, due to be presented for the first time at the American Society of Haematology annual meeting in New Orleans in the US, could lead to new treatments and “ultimately better futures for sick children”.

Scientists aim to recruit up to 10 patients who have T-cell leukaemia and have exhausted all conventional options for the clinical trial into the new treatment.

Medics at Great Ormond Street hope that if it is successful it can be offered to children earlier in their treatment when they are less sick and that it can be used for other types of leukaemia in future.

Potential patients for trials will be referred by NHS specialists.

Prof Waseem Qasim, consultant immunologist at Great Ormond Street, said: “This is a great demonstration of how, with expert teams and infrastructure, we can link cutting-edge technologies in the lab with real results in the hospital for patients. It’s our most sophisticated cell engineering so far and paves the way for other new treatments and ultimately better futures for sick children.

“We have a unique and special environment here that allows us to rapidly scale up new technologies and we’re looking forward to continuing our research and bringing it to the patients who need it most.”

Alyssa’s mother Kiona said the family were “on a strange cloud nine” and that it was “amazing to be home”.

She said: “Hopefully this can prove the research works and they can offer it to more children — all of this needs to have been for something.”

Dr Robert Chiesa, consultant in bone marrow transplant and Car T-cell therapy at the hospital, said: “Since Alyssa got sick with her leukaemia in May last year, she never achieved a complete remission — not with chemotherapy and not after her first bone marrow transplant. Only after she received her CD7 Car-T cell therapy and a second bone marrow transplant has she become leukaemia-free.”

He described the outcome as “quite remarkable” but cautioned that it must be monitored and confirmed over the next few months.

When ‘Spreading the Word’ About Chinese Protests Is Dangerous | NO FACES, PLEASE


VICE News
An entire generation of Chinese people have gone into the streets for the first time; but the world looks very different from how it did during 1989 at Tiananmen Square. Surveillance has made protesting risky - but it’s not just China that is dealing with this problem. …

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

In UK, migrants receive criminal-like treatment with constant surveillance using hi-tech ankle tags

Rights groups call the move dehumanising and an invasion of people’s privacy.

Lin Taylor, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Yesterday ·

Ben Stansall/AFP

After two years being held in a British immigration detention centre, Mimi was so desperate to be released that she agreed to wear an electronic ankle tag. But her sense of freedom was short-lived.

Two months later, she said she attempted suicide because of the stress of being monitored while wearing the tag.

“I couldn’t do anything because I didn’t want to have this tag showing. It was horrific,” said Mimi, asked to be identified by a pseudonym as she awaits a decision on her asylum claim almost a decade later.

“I was already beyond stressed; this was just throwing me over the edge. One day, it all became way too much for me.”

Mimi, who is in her 40s, said she believes her parents came to Britain from the Caribbean after World War Two but she has been unable to prove her nationality and is officially stateless.

“I know nothing about my background. I was abandoned in sexual exploitation and modern slavery from a very young age,” she told Context in a video interview.

Britain has ramped up its use of electronic tags on people detained over their immigration status as it seeks to fulfil a long-standing pledge to cut immigration, one of the drivers behind the country’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union.

Migration hit a record high of 5,04,000 this year, with a surge in international students and arrivals from Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. This figure does not include those arriving irregularly on small boats across the English Channel.

“People find it incredibly degrading and stigmatising,” said Rudy Schulkind, research and policy manager at Bail for Immigration Detainees, which provides free legal representation to people held in detention across Britain.

“Having to walk down the street and have people notice that they’re wearing a tag, seeing them as a dangerous or violent person, (it’s an) incredibly painful thing to go through.”
Dehumanising

As the numbers of people fleeing war, poverty, climate disasters and other events reach record levels worldwide, states are turning to digital technologies including ankle tags and biometric data to toughen borders and monitor migrants.

Amid an increase in anti-immigration rhetoric in Britain, it became mandatory in 2016 to tag all foreign nationals facing deportation – a move that rights groups say is dehumanising and infringes on people’s privacy.

Electronic tags have traditionally been fitted on individuals involved in the criminal justice system so that the police and courts can monitor their location and compliance with orders and to deter them from absconding.

Under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, people who knowingly arrive in Britain without permission can face up to four years in jail – unfairly criminalising migrants seeking asylum as refugees, rights campaigners say.

“Our government has for the last couple of years just repeated that refugees are illegal immigrants, that they arrive illegally, that they will be treated as criminals,” said Clare Moseley, founder of migrant charity Care4Calais.

“Many of these people are innocent victims of wars and persecution.”
Monitored with tags

In August 2021, the prison service extended the use of global positioning system monitoring to people on immigration bail, which means they have been freed from detention while their application to remain in Britain is assessed.

As a result, the number of migrants being tagged on immigration bail almost doubled between January and September to over 2,100 people – or 16% of all individuals being monitored with tags, the latest government data shows.

“We’re seeing an increased watching of migrant communities,” said Zehrah Hasan, advocacy director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, which campaigns for reform of the immigration system.

“We’re seeing this expansive system that limits people’s freedoms and their right to dignity and respect by either incarcerating them and monitoring them within the detention estate, or monitoring them in their communities.”

Hasan previously worked as an immigration and asylum barrister and said some of her clients felt they had no choice but to be tagged.

“It’s an oppressive kind of system where people are subject to that as a price for their freedom – but it’s not full freedom, really, if they’re still being monitored,” she said.

“People are almost compelled to accept these very stringent and intrusive conditions because of the horrors of immigration detention,” she said, referring to the prison-like centres that nearly 25,000 people pass through each year.

Last year, the Home Office switched from using radio frequency tags, that log when a person is at home, to global positioning system devices which track the wearer’s location constantly.

Adding to their repertoire of tracking systems, the Home Office in May awarded a six-million-pound ($7 million) contract to Buddi, a British tech company selling wearable devices that can record biometric data such as fingerprints.

In emailed comments, the Home Office said only foreign national offenders awaiting deportation would be monitored this way to ensure they do not abscond.

Buddi did not respond to requests for comment.

Lucie Audibert, a legal officer at digital rights group Privacy International, said these tracking devices generate “troves of data” and are a huge intrusion of privacy.

“There’s this massive expansion of surveillance that is creating troves of data. The necessity and proportionality of such an intrusive tracking measure is really the problem here.”
Small boats

With the promise that Brexit would enable Britain to take back control of its borders, the government is under pressure to deal with a surge in migrants making dangerous journeys across the English Channel from France, with dozens drowning en route.

Over 40,000 irregular migrants crossed the English Channel on small boats so far this year, government data shows.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson had hoped to deport those arriving illegally to Rwanda. But the first planned deportation flight in June was blocked by an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights and is now under judicial review.

In June, the Home Office launched a 12-month pilot scheme to expand electronic tagging to 600 asylum seekers who have arrived via “unnecessary and dangerous routes”, in particular “aimed at deterring arrivals by small boats”.

The Home Office said the scheme will test whether monitoring helps to improve regular contact with migrants to progress their asylum claims.

It will also track the rate of absconding and examine whether tagging helps restore contact or locate asylum seekers for deportation or detention, it said.

A freedom of information request by Brian Dikoff of the campaign group Migrants Organise found that only 3% of people who were released from detention absconded in 2019, and 1% in 2020.

“We think it’s vastly disproportionate,” said Schulkind of Bail for Immigration Detainees.

“They’ve never committed any offences, they’ve never absconded, so it doesn’t seem necessary to tag people. They’re still going to stay in touch and they’re not going to run away because that would jeopardise their asylum claim.”

This article first appeared on Context, powered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Journalist Wilder Alfredo Córdoba shot and killed in southern Colombia

Colombia|Attacks

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

11 December 2022



Rescuers secure a bus from falling down a ravine after an accident on the Pan-American Highway, near the city of Pasto, department of Nariño, Colombia, 15, October 2022; Córdoba had recently criticized unfinished public works projects and the poor state of local roads. LEONARDO CASTRO/AFP via Getty Images

Authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Wilder Alfredo Córdoba. Local journalists covering corruption in Colombia’s small cities and towns too often face deadly retaliation for their reporting.

This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 30 November 2022.

Colombian authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Wilder Alfredo Córdoba, determine if he was targeted for his work, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On Monday, November 28, two unidentified men on a motorcycle shot and killed Córdoba while he was on a reporting trip in the village of El Salado, in the southern Colombian department of Nariño, according to news reports.

Córdoba, director of the independent online news outlet Unión Televisión in the town of La Unión, was shot three times, according to those reports, which said that police had ruled out robbery as a motive for the attack because none of the journalist’s belongings had been taken.

“Colombian authorities must immediately open a thorough and transparent investigation into the killing of journalist Wilder Alfredo Córdoba, determine if he was targeted for his reporting, and bring those responsible to justice,” said CPJ Latin America and the Caribbean Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. “Local journalists covering corruption in Colombia’s small cities and towns too often face deadly retaliation for their reporting, and officials must act to ensure they can continue informing their communities safely.”

Córdoba often posted news and commentary about local political corruption and crime on Unión Televisión’s Facebook page and on his personal account, and had recently criticized unfinished public works projects and the poor state of local roads, according to the Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).

FLIP Director Jonathan Bock told CPJ via messaging app that the journalist had received several threats on social media warning that he would “get into trouble” if he continued publishing his stories. Bock said a FLIP team planned to travel to La Unión to gather more information.

On Tuesday, Unión Television posted a video showing Córdoba’s grieving colleagues gathered around his casket that had been placed inside the TV studio.

The Colombian attorney general’s office said on Twitter that a special team of prosecutors was investigating the attack. CPJ called and messaged the La Unión mayor’s office, the local police department, and Unión Televisión for comment, but did not receive any replies.

Why we should boycott the FIFA World cup

On this podcast episode of Europe Talks Back, host Alexander Damiano Ricci talks to Eliot Dickinson, Chief of staff at Bulle Media and huge football fan who is boycotting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, as well as to Chiara Jaumann, copywriter at Heimat Berlin, the creative agency who, together with Boycott Qatar 2022 and Laut Gegen Nazis, ideated the Football Blackout for Human Rights campaign.

Published on 11 December 2022 

Alexander Damiano Ricci - Europod (Brussels)
 

Hamzeh Hajjaj | Cartoon Movement


The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar has been making the headlines for weeks now. Just, not really or only for the rolling ball and iconic football stars on the pitch. From allegations of corruption in the process leading up to the awarding of the competition, to accusations of breaches of human rights in the build up of the stadiums hosting the competition: little has been left uncovered by the press.

For these and many other reasons, a relevant share of staunch football fans across Europe are boycotting the competition. But what does it take to organise a boycott? And how are football fans living this peculiar moment in the history of sports?
More : World cup, Olympics, Asian games. The absurdity of climate-killing global sporting events

On this podcast episode of Europe Talks Back, host Alexander Damiano Ricci talks to Eliot Dickinson, Chief of staff at Bulle Media and huge football fan who is boycotting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, as well as to Chiara Jaumann, copywriter at Heimat Berlin, the creative agency who, together with Boycott Qatar 2022 and Laut Gegen Nazis, ideated the Football Blackout for Human Rights campaign.

Gaza authorities discover over 60 Roman era graves


1 of 5

A Palestinian excavation team works in a newly discovered Roman era cemetery in the Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022. Hamas authorities in Gaza announced the discovery of over 60 tombs in the ancient burial site. Work crews have been excavating the site since it was discovered last January during preparations for an Egyptian-funded housing project. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas authorities in Gaza on Sunday announced the discovery of over 60 tombs in an ancient burial site dating back to the Roman era.

Work crews have been excavating the site since it was discovered last January during preparations for an Egyptian-funded housing project.

Hiyam al-Bitar, a researcher from the Hamas-run Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, said a total of 63 graves have been identified and that a set of bones and artifacts from one tomb was dated back to the second century.

She said the ministry is working with a team of French experts to learn more about the site. On Sunday, workers sifted through the soil and removed piles of dirt in wheelbarrows.

Although the ancient cemetery is now blocked off from the public, construction on the housing project has continued and the site is surrounded by apartment buildings. Local media reported looting when the site was first discovered, with people using donkey-drawn carts to haul away items like a covered casket and inscribed bricks.

Gaza, a coastal enclave home to more than 2 million people, is known for its rich history stemming from its location on ancient trade routes between Egypt and the Levant. But Israeli occupation, a blockade, conflicts and rapid urban growth in the crowded, narrow territory are among the reasons most of Gaza’s archeological treasures have not been protected.

CHURCH OF THE PHALANGE

Maronite Patriarch calls for ‘internationalizing’ Lebanese cause

Lebanese lawmakers failed for 9th time to elect new president

Naim Berjawi |11.12.2022


BEIRUT, Lebanon

Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch, Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, on Sunday called for internationalizing the Lebanese cause.

"There is no escape from the internationalization of the Lebanese issue after the failure of internal solutions," he said in his Sunday sermon.

"Those who fail in internal solutions are those who refuse internationalization, and when the internal solution is disrupted and internationalization is rejected, this means that these parties do not want any solution to the Lebanese issue," he added.

The Lebanese patriarch, however, did not name these parties.

On Thursday, Lebanese lawmakers failed for the ninth time to elect a new president to succeed President Michel Aoun, whose term ended on Oct. 31.

"How do the deputies judge themselves when they meet nine times and do not elect a president,” the patriarch asked. “This means that they do not want to elect a president or are not qualified to elect a president.”

Since 2019, Lebanon has been facing a crippling economic crisis that, according to the World Bank, is one of the worst the world has seen in modern times.

The country has also been without a fully functioning government since May, with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his Cabinet having limited powers in their current caretaker status.


* Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report

Solidarity with Kurdistan at European Left Congress in Vienna

A congress of the Party of the European Left is taking place in Vienna this weekend. 

HDP MP Feleknas Uca, KNK representative Sinan Önal and Mustafa Dillice and Lorin Şahan from the Kurdish federation FEYKOM are taking part as guests.

ANF
VIENNA
Sunday, 11 Dec 2022, 16:53

The Party of the European Left is holding its 7th Congress in Vienna from 9 to 11 December. 26 member parties and 21 observer parties from many European countries as well as numerous parties and speakers from the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and Asia are taking part in the three-day congress. Under the slogan "Peace, Bread and Roses", delegates discussed building a peace movement against the Russia-Ukraine-NATO war, the right to life of the oppressed and the working class against neoliberal monopoly, and organising resistance networks against authoritarian regimes and rising racism.

Guests include delegations from Palestine, Western Sahara, Senegal, Chile, Cuba and a Kurdish delegation from the Austrian Federation for Kurdish Democratic Culture (FEYKOM) and the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK). The foreign policy spokesperson of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Feleknas Uca, also takes part in the congress.

In a speech, FEYKOM's foreign affairs spokespersons Mustafa Dillice and Lorin Şahan stressed the importance of the Kurdish freedom movement's experience of democratic confederalism in the Middle East, with a special focus on Rojava, and the need to protect it and show solidarity with it.

HDP MP Feleknas Uca said that the HDP is the leading party of the anti-war struggle in Turkey and continues its democratic resistance against the AKP/MHP government. She called for solidarity with the HDP and explained that her party is under a ban procedure and the decision is expected in the coming months.

On behalf of the KNK, Sinan Önal called for sensitivity towards a possible invasion of north-eastern Syria and stressed the importance of the democratic experience. He stated that the Kurdish question can only be solved peacefully by releasing Abdullah Öcalan and negotiating with him, as was the case between 2013 and 2015. Öcalan is completely isolated in Turkish custody and there has been no sign of life from him since March 2021.

Many speeches at the congress condemned the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish state against the PKK guerrillas, and also addressed the removal of the PKK from the list of terrorist organisations and the revolution in Iran led by women with the slogan "Jin, Jiyan, Azadî" (Woman, Life, Freedom).

Maurizio Acerbo from the Communist Party for the Re-foundation of Italy pulled out a PKK flag at the end of his speech and said that the European left parties should work for the removal of the PKK from the "terrorist list" and for the immediate liberation of Abdullah Öcalan, which was applauded for a long time by those present.

The Communist Party of Austria, the Left Party of Finland and the Communist Parties of Italy and France protested against the blackmail of Turkey in connection with the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO and called for intensified work by the Left on this issue.

The congress continues today, with new committees and chairpersons being elected at the end.

PKK

Demo in Athens against the isolation of Öcalan


March in Athens protested the aggravated isolation regime imposed on Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan by the Turkish state.


ANF
ATHENS
Sunday, 11 Dec 2022,

Kurdish people are demanding clarity about the situation of Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK founder who has been imprisoned on the Turkish prison island of Imrali since 1999. The protests are prompted by the complete silence surrounding the 73-year-old and the demand that the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) ensure contact with him and his fellow prisoners.

Since the Asrin Law Office stated at the end of November that the CPT probably had no personal contact with Öcalan during its last visit to Turkey in September, concern for the life and safety of the Kurdish leader has increased. Kurdish society is demanding clarification about the CPT's visit to Imrali and information about the condition of the prisoners.

The Democratic Kurdish Cultural Center in Athens and Revolutionary Youth Movement (TJŞ) organized a march in the Greek capital Athens on Sunday. The march was attended by Kurds as well as revolutionary organizations from Turkey, anarchist, leftist and socialist groups from Greece.

Activists displayed banners denouncing the isolation regime imposed on the Kurdish leader. The march ended in front of the Kurdish Cultural Center in Athens under the slogans "Bê Serok Jiyan Nabe" [No Life Without the Leader] and "Bijî Berxwedana PKK" [Long Live the PKK Resistance].