Two months after a ratings-smashing return to television, ABC has canceled the sitcom ‘Roseanne,’ after the star Roseanne Barr fired off a racially-charged insult at a former Obama adviser.

In a now-deleted tweet, Barr described Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, as looking like the “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby.”

After the outrage that followed, ABC announced that it would cancel ‘Roseanne’. ABC President Channing Dungey said that Barr’s statement was “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”

Barr’s tweet immediately drew a tidal wave of disgusted reactions and accusations of racism.

Barr quickly apologized, and even declared that she would leave Twitter.

“I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans,” she said. “I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.”

For the foul-mouthed conservative comedienne, the apology did little to control the damage. Just an hour later, African-American comedy writer Wanda Sykes said that she would be resigning as producer on Roseanne’s show.

Barr regularly takes to Twitter to vent at liberals and shout her own conservative opinions. On Tuesday, she also targeted Hillary Clinton, who was recently seen at a Memorial Day parade in a bulky coat and scarf that may have concealed a back brace.

“Its a colostomy jug cuz full of sh**e,” Barr professed.

Barr also claimed that Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, was married into the family of liberal financier and political meddler George Soros.

Jarrett, who is African-American, was born in Iran to American parents. During her time in the Obama White House, she was plagued by unfounded rumors that she was secretly working to make America an Islamic nation.

This is not the first time Barr has been accused of racism. In 2013 she called Susan Rice, another African-American and Obama’s national security advisor at the time, “a man with big swinging ape b**ls.”

New research out of South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave led by anthropologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) shows that the climate of the interior of southern Africa almost two million years ago was like no modern African environment — it was much wetter.

In a paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, lead author Michaela Ecker, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology at U of T, alongside an international team of scientists that included Michael Chazan, director of U of T’s Archaeology Centre, recreated the environmental change in the interior of southern Africa over a span of almost two million years.

“The influence of climatic and environmental change on human evolution is largely understood from East African research,” said Ecker. “Our research constructed the first extensive paleoenvironmental sequence for the interior of southern Africa using a combination of methods for environmental reconstruction at Wonderwerk Cave.”

While East African research shows increasing aridity and the spread of grasslands, the study showed that during the same time period, southern Africa was significantly wetter and housed a plant community unlike any other in the modern African savanna — which means human ancestors were living in environments other than open, arid grasslands.

Using carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis on the teeth of herbivores excavated from the cave, Ecker and her team were able to reconstruct the vegetation from the time the animal was alive and gain valuable insight into the environmental conditions our human ancestors were living in.

“Understanding the environment humans evolved in is key to improving our knowledge of our species and its development,” said Ecker. “Our work at Wonderwerk Cave demonstrates how humankind existed in multiple environmental contexts in the past — contexts which are substantially different from the environments of today.”

This is the latest U of T research out of Wonderwerk Cave, a massive excavation site in the Kuruman Hills of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Chazan has previously discovered early evidence of fire by human ancestors, as well as the earliest evidence of cave-dwelling human ancestors, based on excavations carried out by South African archaeologist Peter Beaumont. Research to date has established a chronology for human occupation of the front of the cave stretching back two million years.

The findings are described in the study “The palaeoecological context of the Oldowan-Acheulean in southern Africa”, published this month in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Research funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the German Academic Exchange Service, the University of Oxford’s Boise Fund Trust and the Quaternary Research Association. Other team members include James Brink and Lloyd Rossouw of the National Museum, Bloemfontein, Liora Horwitz of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Julia Lee-Thorp of the University of Oxford.

Research at Wonderwerk Cave is carried out in collaboration with the McGregor Museum, Kimberley and under permit from the South African Heritage Resources Agency.

The first human corneas have been 3D printed by scientists at Newcastle University, UK.

It means the technique could be used in the future to ensure an unlimited supply of corneas.

As the outermost layer of the human eye, the cornea has an important role in focusing vision.

Yet there is a significant shortage of corneas available to transplant, with 10 million people worldwide requiring surgery to prevent corneal blindness as a result of diseases such as trachoma, an infectious eye disorder.

In addition, almost 5 million people suffer total blindness due to corneal scarring caused by burns, lacerations, abrasion or disease.

The proof-of-concept research, published today in Experimental Eye Research, reports how stem cells (human corneal stromal cells) from a healthy donor cornea were mixed together with alginate and collagen to create a solution that could be printed, a ‘bio-ink’.

Using a simple low-cost 3D bio-printer, the bio-ink was successfully extruded in concentric circles to form the shape of a human cornea. It took less than 10 minutes to print.

The stem cells were then shown to culture – or grow.

Che Connon, Professor of Tissue Engineering at Newcastle University, who led the work, said: “Many teams across the world have been chasing the ideal bio-ink to make this process feasible.

“Our unique gel – a combination of alginate and collagen – keeps the stem cells alive whilst producing a material which is stiff enough to hold its shape but soft enough to be squeezed out the nozzle of a 3D printer.

“This builds upon our previous work in which we kept cells alive for weeks at room temperature within a similar hydrogel. Now we have a ready to use bio-ink containing stem cells allowing users to start printing tissues without having to worry about growing the cells separately.”

The scientists, including first author and PhD student Ms Abigail Isaacson from the Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, also demonstrated that they could build a cornea to match a patient’s unique specifications.

The dimensions of the printed tissue were originally taken from an actual cornea. By scanning a patient’s eye, they could use the data to rapidly print a cornea which matched the size and shape.

Professor Connon added: “Our 3D printed corneas will now have to undergo further testing and it will be several years before we could be in the position where we are using them for transplants.

“However, what we have shown is that it is feasible to print corneas using coordinates taken from a patient eye and that this approach has potential to combat the world-wide shortage.”

Cape Town has come dangerously close to running out of water after three years of persistent drought.

Tight water usage restrictions have been successful in stalling ‘day zero’ – when the city’s taps will be turned off – until 2019, buying time for authorities to look for more ways to manage the crisis.

The JRC, with data from its Global Drought Observatory (GDO), provides analytical reports on the crisis as it develops.

Rainfall levels in April, May and June, during the wettest period of the year, can give some indication as to the likelihood and timescale for recovery.

But the roots of the current situation run much deeper. A new JRC technical report has found that the massive water shortage, while exceptional, is characteristic of longer-term weather patterns.

With climate change spurring more and more extreme weather events, severe shortages could become an increasingly regular occurrence in the future.

Water shortage and rising temperatures

JRC scientists looked at precipitation in Southern Africa over the past 36 years and found that there exists a strong probability of 50-70% monthly precipitation deficit every 5 years (more moisture lost through evaporation and transpiration than is gained through rainfall).

In the Western Cape, the deficit could reach as high as 70-80% every 10 years.

The scientists also analysed the occurrence of warm weather events in the region over the same period.

They found an increasing number of moderate to extreme heatwaves in Southern Africa over the last decade.

These two factors combined – the repeated occurrence of high precipitation deficit and more frequent heatwaves – exacerbate water shortages and could lead to more frequent crises in the future.

And with Cape Town’s 4 million inhabitants expected to grow by 5% over the next 5 years, the demand for water will only increase.

Preparing for the future

But it’s not all bad news. Establishing the return period of these recurring instances of high precipitation deficit adds an element of predictability.

Understanding the current situation from this perspective can help policymakers to better plan actions to minimise the impact of water shortages.

The scientists suggest that short term measures such as water restrictions must be combined with more structural medium to long-term measures, including:

• Exploring the diversification of food production towards more drought-resistant crop varieties;
• Investing in climate resilience and early actions with more appropriate infrastructures and information systems to help policy makers.

The 5 and 10 years return periods established in the technical report can also help inform policymakers as they make strategic decisions on:

• Building infrastructure to ensure water supply and sanitation is maintained against high precipitation deficits;
• Targeting development projects – such as water supply, energy structures or agricultural development – and deciding whether they should be allowed to proceed in a risk area.

The JRC and disaster risk management

The JRC provides scientific support to the European Commission’s department for civil protection and humanitarian aid operations (DG ECHO) on a number of hazards, as well as to the department for international cooperation and development (DG DEVCO) on water management in developing countries.

The most commonly consumed vitamin and mineral supplements provide no consistent health benefit or harm, suggests a new study led by researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto.

Published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the systematic review of existing data and single randomized control trials published in English from January 2012 to October 2017 found that multivitamins, vitamin D, calcium and vitamin C – the most common supplements – showed no advantage or added risk in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke or premature death. Generally, vitamin and mineral supplements are taken to add to nutrients that are found in food.

“We were surprised to find so few positive effects of the most common supplements that people consume,” said Dr. David Jenkins*, the study’s lead author. “Our review found that if you want to use multivitamins, vitamin D, calcium or vitamin C, it does no harm – but there is no apparent advantage either.”

The study found folic acid alone and B-vitamins with folic acid may reduce cardiovascular disease and stroke. Meanwhile, niacin and antioxidants showed a very small effect that might signify an increased risk of death from any cause.

“These findings suggest that people should be conscious of the supplements they’re taking and ensure they’re applicable to the specific vitamin or mineral deficiencies they have been advised of by their healthcare provider,” Dr. Jenkins said.

His team reviewed supplement data that included A, B1, B2, B3 (niacin), B6, B9 (folic acid), C, D and E; and β-carotene; calcium; iron; zinc; magnesium; and selenium. The term ‘multivitamin’ in this review was used to describe supplements that include most vitamins and minerals, rather than a select few.

“In the absence of significant positive data – apart from folic acid’s potential reduction in the risk of stroke and heart disease – it’s most beneficial to rely on a healthy diet to get your fill of vitamins and minerals,” Dr. Jenkins said. “So far, no research on supplements has shown us anything better than healthy servings of less processed plant foods including vegetables, fruits and nuts.”

Zombie ants clamp on to aerial vegetation and hang for months spewing the spores of their parasitic fungi, but researchers noticed that they do not always clamp on to the same part of the plant. Now the researchers know that the choice of leaves or twigs is related to climate and that climate change forced the fungi to adapt to local conditions.

“In tropical areas, zombie ants bite onto leaves, but in temperate areas, they bite twigs or bark,” said David P. Hughes, associate professor of entomology and biology, Penn State.

Zombie ants are actually various species of carpenter ants that are infected with a parasitic fungus. About half the species of carpenter ants can be infected and each species has its own fungus. The zombie ant phenomena currently occurs around the globe on all continents except Europe. However, a fossil zombie ant was found in Germany, so they did once exist in Europe as well.

“They are probably not in Europe because the forests there are so managed,” said Hughes. “They likely went locally extinct there.”

Zombie ant spores fall on ants from above and the fungus multiplies in the ant body using it as a source of nutrition. Eventually, the fungus manipulates the ant to climb high into the branches and clamp on by biting. If an infected ant dies in the colony or on the ground it has zero chance of infecting another ant, so positioning the ant bodies where fungi can be widely distributed is essential for these fungi.

“In the late summer and early fall there are both leaves and twigs everywhere the ants reside,” said Raquel G. Loreto, postdoctoral scholar in entomology, Penn State. “But in temperate areas the trees are deciduous and lose their leaves in the fall. There, the ants bite onto twigs.”

Tropical forests are almost completely evergreen, remaining in leaf year round. Many temperate forest trees drop all their leaves in the fall.

The German fossil, which dates to around 47 million years ago, shows the ant biting into a leaf. During that era, wet evergreen forests ranged from the equator nearly to the North and South poles. Because all the forests were evergreen, all the zombie ants would have chosen to bite into leaves.

As the climate cooled, temperate forests grew in the northernmost and southernmost areas worldwide. Zombie ants in those areas that bit on leaves would have quickly ended up on the ground when the leaves fell. The fungal species that manipulated its host onto leaves would not successfully reproduce. This implies there was a strong force of natural selection acting on where the ant host was manipulated. Over time, the fungi evolved so that in temperate areas, zombie ants are manipulated to bite onto twigs or bark.

“Some of the ants do not simply bite the twigs, but wrap their back legs around the twig and hold on,” said Loreto. “They probably do this because biting twigs in not enough to hold them on.”

This manipulative behavior developed in temperate areas around the globe. The researchers report the results of their study in the current issue of Evolution.

They looked at three separate areas. First they determined that tropical zombie ants always bite leaves and temperate zombie ants always bite twigs and bark and that 90 percent of the dead temperate ants found have their legs wrapped around the twigs.

They then determined that leaf biting, rather than twig biting, was the ancestral trait — the approach originally used when the world was much warmer. They also determined that the twig biting behavior evolved at different times in different places, making it a convergently evolved trait in temperate areas arising independently in different locations — in this case North America and Japan.

Much of the work involved looking at samples of zombie ants wherever they could be found — museums, other collections, photographs, and previously compiled datasets.

“We had a great asset here who is Kim Fleming,” said Hughes. “Kim is a citizen scientist whose property in South Carolina is festooned with zombie ants hanging on trees. As both an excellent photographer and natural historian, Kim was able to collect detailed data for us on the zombie ants over 18 months by taking continual images of samples on her land. This was precious data that would have been very hard to collect.

“Kim is an author of this paper, but perhaps the greatest recognition of her importance is that the fungal species infecting carpenter ants in South Carolina is now named after her, Ophiocordyceps kimflemingiae.”

The researchers also looked at the phylogenetic relationship of the various fungi by examining extracted DNA from as many samples as possible. They found that genetically, twig biting and leg wrapping developed independently to adapt the fungi to temperate vegetation.

“We can estimate that these changes occurred between 40 and 20 million years ago,” said Hughes. “However, because of the scarcity of zombie ant fossils, we can’t be any more specific than that at the moment.”

Whenever climates change — getting either warmer or colder, wetter or dryer — plants and animals either adapt or die out. Zombie ant fungi also adapted well to the changing environment around them and their manipulation of carpenter ants ensured their survival up to today.

“What is remarkable here is that we have shown that the complex manipulation of an animal by microbe has responded to selection pressure the climate imposes on animals and plants,” said Hughes. “That was a cool finding that really excited us.”

The cost of building new nuclear power plants is nearly 20 percent higher than expected due to delays, a new analysis has found.

A new analysis of the history of nuclear power plant projects shows since 2010 delays have contributed 18 percent the costs.

These delays – which can run into years or even decades – increase the cost compared with older projects and are often overlooked when new projects are planned. The authors say that these extra costs need to be properly assessed when considering new nuclear projects.

They say nuclear projects are more like ‘mega-projects’, such as large dams, which require more rigorous financial assessments due to their high uncertainty and risk.

In the study, published today in the journal Energy Policy, the authors also suggest that because these delay costs make nuclear projects high risk, decision makers might instead focus on more low-risk low-carbon technologies such as wind or solar power.

When assessing the cost of new nuclear projects, decision makers often use ‘overnight construction costs’, which assume the project is built on time, usually within five years. However, the ‘lead-time’ – the time between initiation of the project and completion – can cause significant extra costs.

The research team, from Imperial College London, the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and the University of Minho, looked at total costs of nuclear projects between 1955-2016, including delay costs.

Usually, as technologies mature and experience is gained in construction, costs come down. However, the team found that for nuclear, there has been a blip in the learning curve, with costs currently increasing, especially for projects since 2010.

Lead author Dr Joana Portugal Pereira, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial, said: “Nuclear projects are actually becoming more complex to carry out, inducing delays and higher costs. Safety and regulatory considerations play heavily into this, particularly in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident in Japan.”

The analysis is one of the first to assess full financial costs of building nuclear projects throughout time, and not just the ‘overnight’ costs. It also looked at projects around the world, including newer nuclear builders like China, India, and the UAE, rather than just the traditional builders in Europe, the USA and Japan.

They say that while nuclear projects can help bridge the gap between fossil fuels and renewable energy, they could hinder progress if projects stall.

Dr Portugal Pereira said: “If we want to decarbonise our energy system, nuclear may not be the best choice for a primary strategy. Nuclear power is better late than never, but to really address climate change, it would be best if they were not late at all, as technologies like wind and solar rarely are.”

The missile command of Yemen’s army and Popular Committees fired several ballistic missiles at Saudi mercenaries’ positions in the Arabian Peninsula country’s west coast region, local reports said.

A military source said the missile command pounded military bases of the Saudi aggressors and their mercenaries in the west coast region with several ballistic missiles, Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah TV reported on Tuesday.

He added that the missiles hit the targets with high accuracy and inflicted heavy casualties on the Saudi-backed militants, according to the report.

On Sunday, the missile command of the Yemeni army and Popular Committees had fired a domestically made ballistic missile dubbed “Qaher M2” at a gathering of Saudi mercenaries in Taiz on the western coast.

The attacks against the Saudi forces came in retaliation for the continued massacre of civilians and destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure by the coalition led by the Riyadh regime.

Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition for more than three years but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Over 14,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

Many farmers grow corn and soybean in rotation to avoid the continuous corn yield penalty, but now there’s another reason to rotate. Scientists at the University of Illinois have provided further evidence that rotating crops increases yield and lowers greenhouse gas emissions compared to continuous corn or soybean.

“I think farmers in today’s world are looking for reasons to avoid growing in a monoculture. They’re looking to diversify and rotate their systems. If they’re doing that partially out of a concern for the environment, well, it lowers greenhouse gasses. And it could potentially result in a substantial yield increase,” said Gevan Behnke, research specialist and doctoral candidate in Maria Villamil’s research group in the Department of Crop Sciences at U of I.

There are other studies out there looking at the link between crop rotation and greenhouse gas emissions, but Behnke’s study is unique in a couple of ways. First and most significantly, he sampled greenhouse gas emissions from fields that had been maintained as continuous corn, continuous soybean, rotated corn-soybean, or rotated corn-soybean-wheat, under tillage and no-till management, for 20 years.

“These long-term plots are very stable systems. Sometimes you don’t see the impacts of rotation or tillage for years after those practices are imposed. That’s one of the highlights of this study,” Behnke said.

Comparing the corn phase of a corn-soybean rotation to continuous corn showed an average yield benefit of more than 20 percent and a cumulative reduction in nitrous oxide emissions of approximately 35 percent.

Nitrous oxide is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential–how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere–almost 300 times higher than carbon dioxide. It is a byproduct of the process of denitrification, during which bacteria in the soil break nitrate down into inert nitrogen gas. Not surprisingly, nitrous oxide emissions are tied to the rate and timing of nitrogen fertilizer application.

“Nitrous oxide levels were high at the beginning of the season and lower at the end. Farmers usually apply fertilizer in the spring and it gets taken up by the crop throughout the season,” Behnke said. “A typical farmer would expect these results.”

For soybean, which doesn’t get fertilized, rotation did not affect nitrous oxide emissions compared to continuous soybean. Rotation did increase soybean yield by about 7 percent, however.

Tillage did not impact greenhouse gas emissions, but the practice gave corn an edge of about 15 bushels per acre over corn in no-till management. Behnke says that effect may not apply to farms outside the study area, however. That’s because of the other unique aspect of the research: the location.

The study was conducted at the Northwestern Illinois Agricultural Research and Demonstration Center near Monmouth. With some of the most productive soils in the world, Behnke says corn yields are higher there than almost anywhere else. And greater yields mean more surface residue.

“If you talk to people that work at the Monmouth research center, they’ll say it’s sometimes difficult to plant into the long-term no-till. It’s like planting into thick mulch,” Behnke said. “Other places aren’t as blessed when it comes to biomass and organic matter return to the soil.” He added that other studies comparing tillage and no-till management in corn don’t typically show large differences in terms of yield.

The United Nations knew of charity workers offering refugees food in exchange for sexual favours for more than a decade, it has been revealed.

An 84-page report on ‘food-for-sex’ practices in West African refugee camps was compiled and handed over to the UN in 2002, but was never published.

It claims that workers at more than 40 aid organisations, of which 15 are major international charities including Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières, sexually exploited young refugees.

The 2002 research document allege that ‘food, oil, access to education and plastic sheeting for shelters’ were exchanged for sex, according to The Times.

The newspaper, which has been given access to the report, reveal that families living in refugee camps in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia allegedly offered charity workers their teenage daughter for sex ‘to make ends meet’.

According to The Sun, charity workers in a camp in Guinea would tell women ‘a kilo of flour for sex’.

‘In this community no one can get corn soy blend [a fortified pre-cooked flour] without having sex first.’

Despite the report resulting in a list of 67 charity workers accused of sexually exploiting refugee children begin handed over to senior officials at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), none were prosecuted.

The Times reports that the people were dismissed, but the findings remained confidential.

It comes after revelations that Oxfam covered up that several of its senior aid workers had been paying survivors of the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake for sex.

Three Oxfam employees were allowed to resign and four were sacked for gross misconduct after an internal investigation found some workers had used prostitutes in the war-torn region. Questions had been raised whether the women may have been under-age, but this could not be ascertained.

In early August 2011, it was reported a ‘small number’ of employees were being investigated over allegations of gross misconduct, however there was no mention of potential sexual crimes involving minors.

Original source

In a statement Tuesday, Bolivian bishop and Cardinal-elect Toribio Ticona strongly denounced rumors that he has a wife and children.

“As a result of the false accusation which is being spread in the media regarding my private life, it is my duty to declare and emphatically make clear that its content does not correspond to the truth,” Bishop Ticona said in a statement released by the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference.

The bishop said he interprets the rumors as an attack not only against himself, but against Pope Francis, who recently chose him to be elevated to the position of cardinal.

“If these accusations persist, I will have no problem filing a libel lawsuit against those promoting or propagating this,” he said.

Ticona said that similar rumors surfaced in 2011, but “ended up being simple calumny.”

“Personally, I am happy that these accusations should come out at this time, in order to definitively close the case,” he added.

Earlier this week, the blog Adelante la Fe reported that “It is a well-known fact that while (Ticona) was serving his office in Corocoro, he was living (as husband and wife) with a lady in Oruro’s chancery. She and her children are proud to be called wife and children of the Patacamaya bishop, as Bishop Toribio Ticona is also known.”

However, in a May 29 article in Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, journalist Franca Giansoldati reported that the Vatican has carried out “deep investigations” of the claims, which found that “nothing is true” regarding the rumors.

The Vatican has not yet responded publicly to the claims.

Earlier this month, Pope Francis announced that he would be holding a June consistory to create 14 new cardinals who express the “universality” of the Church. Francis made particular note of his election of Bishop Ticona along with two other bishops, saying that they “have distinguished themselves for their service to the Church.”

Ticona, 81, is Bishop Emeritus of the Cora Cora Prelature in Bolivia, and has been described as a charismatic figure and an advocate for the poor.

Upon being named a cardinal by Pope Francis, Ticona said it was “a great surprise” and that he thanked God for the honor.

Ticona was born to a poor Bolivian family in 1937, and worked as a shoe shiner, newspaper vendor and a mayor. Influenced heavily by the Belgian priests at his home parish, Ticona entered San Cristóbal seminary in 1960 and on January 29, 1967 was ordained a priest.

He was named Auxiliary Bishop of Potosí in 1986, and in 1992 was made the Prelature of Cora Cora in La Paz.

After learning of his election as a cardinal, the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference said that “Bishop Toribio embodies the vocation of a humble priest who serves. Our Church joins in giving thanks to the Lord for this gift.”

By T.K. Devasia

The murder of a socially poor Dalit Catholic man who had married a woman belonging to an upper-caste Syrian Christian family has fueled protests across India’s southern state of Kerala.

Kevin P. Joseph, 26, a member of Vijayapuram Diocese, was murdered on May 28, five days after he married 20-year-old Neenu Chacko of an affluent Christian family in Kollam district against the wishes of her family.

The man was dragged out of his house in Kottayam district with his cousin and taken away by a gang allegedly hired by the girl’s family, police told media. His body was later found in a stream in Thenmala in Kollam district. His cousin was released.

The victim’s father and wife told media that they had approached police soon after he was kidnapped but officers refused to entertain them, saying they were busy arranging security for a visit by Pinaryi Vijayan, the state’s chief minister.

Neenu named her brother Shanu Chacko and 11 people as responsible for the crime. Most gang members belong to the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), a youth wing associated with Kerala’s ruling communist alliance.

“Had the police acted in time, a life could have been saved and criminals could have been arrested promptly,” Lathika Subhash, leader of the women’s wing of the opposition Congress party, told a protest gathering.

The crime comes amid allegations that Communist Party of India leaders use police to meet their ends.

However, police have arrested some DYFI members in connection with the murder.

The government is to suspend local police officers including Kottayam district police chief V.M. Mohammad Rafik.

Congress and the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for a dawn-to-dusk shutdown in Kottayam district to protest police inaction after the crime was reported.

The murder, dubbed a so-called honor killing, has triggered a debate in Kerala about discrimination against Christians of lower-caste origin by upper-caste Christians who claim to be descendants of the priestly caste of Brahmins converted by St. Thomas the Apostle in 52 A.D.

Widespread protests have been held by Dalit Christian groups in the state recently against the discrimination they face from upper-caste Christians, commonly known as Syrian Christians because of their ancient link with the Syrian Church and its liturgy.

A Syrian Christian bishop recently rattled the community by saying that discrimination against Dalit Christians was due to the “myth” that their forefathers were upper-caste Brahmins.

Dalits formed just 2.6 percent of the 6.14 million Christians in Kerala in 2011, according to a study by K.C. Zacharia of the Center for Development Studies in state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Catholics dominated the Christian population with 3.7 million. Syrian Christians, now split into seven churches, are the majority and a politically influential group in the state.

Women’s activist and lawyer T.B. Mini told ucanews.com that honor killings should be seen as the result of a resurgence of dormant caste feelings in Kerala society.

“Caste feelings have aggravated in Kerala after left-wing parties, which worked as a bulwark against untouchability and caste discrimination, started pursuing power politics,” Mini said.

Recalling that communist parties were at the forefront of fighting caste discrimination and attracting lower castes to the party, she said that “if the current trend goes unchecked, peace will be threatened” in the state.

For the last month, commentators in Russia and elsewhere have debated whether the Armenian events that led to the ouster of Serzh Sargsyan who tried to retain power as Vladimir Putin did earlier by downgrading the presidency and elevating the prime minister’s office are a revolution or merely a domestic political crisis.

But there is one thing no one can dispute, and Armenian analyst Tigran Khzmalyan points to it in a commentary today on the Kasparov.ru portal; and this is this: the new prime minister in Yerevan has brought to power a new, younger and less Russian-oriented generation than the one it replaced (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5B0C192D4795A).

If the average age of the ministers in Sargsyan’s regime was in the 50s and 60s, “the new government [has] an average age of about 33. There are ministers who are 28 and 29,” and Nikol Pashinyan, the new head of government in Armenia is only 42. And that generational change is already having significant effects.

Those born 60 years ago were adults when the Karabakh war began and the Soviet Union disintegrated. Those born 33 years ago were three-year-olds when the fighting with Azerbaijan started in earnest and six when the USSR ceased to exist. They thus have very different biographies and points of reference.

Khzmalyan points out that “the young ministers happily are dispensing with the privileges of their positions” that their predecessors accepted as a matter of course; and more important, these new officials are revealing ever more about the corrupt relations of their predecessors including with Russian officials.

According to the Armenian analyst, Armenians have stopped watching entertainment programs on television and focused instead on the news. There has been a sharp decline in emigration from the country and a rise in housing prices. And he suggests that by fall, there will be growth in the number of Armenians coming home, from Russia in the first instance.

Political prisoners are being freed, and their cases are calling attention to what the previous regime was about and sparking demands for opening investigations into the corruption of those who illegitimately put other Armenians into jail. People are respecting one another in small ways and large, and there is a growing sense of solidarity especially among the young.

As corruption has been limited, prices have fallen, creating another bonus for Armenians and also generating more support for the new government. When elections are held in the fall, “it is not difficult to predict radical changes in the party balance in Armenia” with the pro-Russian party of the past losing to the pro-European parties of the future.

Pashinyan is being cautious, more cautious than some would like, Khzmalyan continues. “But each anti-corruption process, each cadre appointment from ‘the new wave,’ and each succeeding free election will weaken the path of centuries old dependency and allow Armenia to become closer to Europe.”

That doesn’t mean that geography has been repealed, but one generation which looks to Europe is replacing a generation that has always looked toward Moscow. And that ultimately sets the stage for radical changes. “In any case,” Khzmalyan says, “the first weeks of the new authorities point in that direction.”

By Hadi Azmi

Malaysia’s new government says it wants to renegotiate terms for a China-backed multibillion-dollar rail link project and has scrapped a planned high-speed rail link to Singapore, citing “huge” costs and a lack of return on investment.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who pulled off a stunning electoral victory this month, said his government’s decision to cancel plans to build a bullet-train line between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore was final.

“It’s not beneficial,” Mahathir, 92, told reporters Monday. “It’s going to cost us a huge sum of money, we’ll make no money at all from this operation.”

And, in a weekend interview, Mahathir said his government would renegotiate terms of a $14 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) – one of the signature projects of his predecessor, former Prime Najib Razak – which would span 688 km (430 miles) and connect the South China Sea at the Thai border in the east with strategic shipping routes of the Straits of Malacca in the west.

Those moves, he said, would cut about a fifth of Malaysia’s national debt and liabilities.

“We are renegotiating the terms,” Mahathir told the business and investment weekly The Edge, explaining that doing away with mega projects could reduce the country’s national debts by $50 billion. “The terms are very damaging to our economy.”

The country’s new leader made the twin moves days after the new finance minister, Lim Guan Eng, said Kuala Lumpur’s liabilities had ballooned to 1 trillion ringgit (U.S. $251.7 billion), or more than 80 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

Najib’s former economics minister, Rahman Dahlan, on Tuesday slammed Mahathir’s decision to discard the bullet-train project, known as High Speed Rail (HSR), as “short-sighted,” saying it would deny the country of 209 billion ringgit (U.S. $50 billion) in gross national income and the opportunity to generate some 70,000 jobs.

“It is too simplistic for the prime minister to say that the project would not be beneficial because it’s going to cost our country a huge sum of money and it will make no money at all from the operation,” Rahman said in a statement.

Rahman quoted a Japanese-funded study showing that the bullet-train line would have delivered an annual 4 billion ringgit (U.S. $1 billion) economic gain for Malaysia.

He also questioned the 110 billion ringgit (U.S. $27.7 billion) figure cited by the prime minister for the project, arguing that it greatly differed from the 50 billion (U.S. $12.6 billion) to 70 billion ringgit (U.S. $17.7 billion) cost that the governments of Singapore and Malaysia had estimated in early 2018.

Responding to Rahman’s statement, Mahathir said the former minister should back up his statement with facts.

“Show me the proof. Do not just say it,” said Mahathir told reporters Tuesday night after performing prayers with officers at the Federal police headquarters.

Mahathir said Singapore would soon be formally informed of his decision about the 350-km (218-mile) bullet-train line, which was expected to slash travel time to 90 minutes from the current the five or more hours by road.

The project, signed on Dec. 13, 2016, was aimed at providing an alternative to the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur air route, which recorded 30,537 flights between the two cities in 2017, making it the world’s busiest, according to the World Economic Forum.

“With such large yearly passenger numbers, there would have been a strong case for the financial viability for the project,” Rahman said.

He said the train stations in between that were relatively less developed than Kuala Lumpur or Singapore would stand to gain from development, mimicking the economic advantages experienced by smaller towns in Taiwan and Japan when the two countries built bullet-train lines.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, Mahathir said that “the move was necessary to “avoid being declared bankrupt.”

“We need to do away with some of the unnecessary projects, for example the high-speed rail, which is going to cost us 110 billion ringgit (US$28 billion) and will not earn us a single cent. That will be dropped,” Mahathir said. .

Mahathir’s decision would impact construction companies from Japan, South Korea, Europe and China that have expressed interest in bidding for the project, which was targeted to begin operating in 2026.

Anthony Dass, chief economist at AmBank, told BenarNews he agreed with the government’s decision to scrap the project.

“How long would it take for this project to break even?” he said in a phone interview. “I think it will take a long term. And this had yet to take in other costs, such as maintenance.”

It is a fact not widely known globally: Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, doesn’t have Islam as the state religion.

Constitutionally, Indonesia deems itself a religiously tolerant state which officially recognizes six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Such religious tolerance has been one key to political stability in a geographically diverse country of 240 million, whose people have customarily chosen nationalism over faith. While the archipelago has suffered bloody ethnic-religious clashes in recent history, radical Islamic political parties have never won the upper hand.

But in recent years, Indonesia has witnessed fanatic attacks by terrorist groups affiliated to the self-styled Islamic State (IS). Islamic State or Daesh, is a Salafi/Wahhabi terrorist organization which gained prominence in 2014 when it captured Mosul and Sinjar in Iraq. Its policy is establishing a global caliphate.

While IS has been decimated by a formidable range of military players in the Middle East, it has also forged links with home-grown extremist groups in distant Indonesia.

Over the last 70 years, Indonesia has cherished the status of a secular Islamic country. But now, it is facing a grave threat from IS. While a January 2016 attack has been acknowledged as the first terrorist attack carried out by IS affiliates, IS in Indonesia dates back to the heyday of the movement, in 2014.

Immediately after the proclamation of Islamic State by al-Baghdadi in June 2014, two prominent militant leaders of Indonesia, Abu Wardah of Mujahideen Indonesia Timor and Abu Bakar Baashir of Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid pledged allegiance to IS.

The main commander of IS in Indonesia is Aman Abdurrahman. He has been in prison with Abu Bakar Bashir since 2010 for involvement in terrorist activities. It is believed that he pledged allegiance to IS online in 2014 and initiated the translation of Islamic State’s propaganda materials into the Indonesian language and circulated them from prison.

By 2015, Abdurrahman got backing from more than a dozen Indonesian terrorist outfits to strengthen the influence of IS in Indonesia. He formed a new organization, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, which has since carried out several terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the January 2016 Jakarta attack and the recent Surabaya attack.

Church attacks are not a new phenomenon in Indonesia.

In December 2000, on Christmas Eve, a series of explosions shook eight cities of Indonesia. Led by Jemaah Islamiyah, these attacks targeted dozens of churches and killed scores of people. In February 2018, a radical Islamist who had wanted to fight for IS in Syria ran amok with a sword and injured three clergymen in Yogyakarta. In the recent Surabaya church attacks, Indonesian officials have said that the family which carried out the explosions has links with Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, the strongest IS affiliate in Indonesia.

According to rough estimates by the Indonesian government, around 700 native fighters made their way to the Middle East to fight for IS over the last four years. Turkish authorities have arrested around 500 Indonesian fighters and deported more than 150 to Indonesia after putting them through de-radicalization programs.

Nevertheless, Indonesian fighters have appeared in IS  propaganda videos. Rumiyah, the official magazine of IS, in a 2017 editions, made special reference to strengthening IS influence in Indonesia.

Fortunately, the radicals remain a minority. In the latest study by the Pew Research Centre, about 92% of respondents from Indonesia said that suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam can never be justified. Roughly 79% of Indonesian Muslims have negative views about IS. Only 4% have sympathy towards the group.

But while this may looks small on paper, Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation. In real numbers that translates into some 10 million people. This is alarming. It calls for stringent action.

Some counter-terrorism experts fear that IS is becoming a dangerous challenger to the political sovereignty of Southeast Asian states. Evidence? Last year’s siege of Marawi in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, and the recent terrorist attacks in various cities of Indonesia. Closer security cooperation among Southeast Asian states is surely essential.

For Indonesia, IS is not only political, but also a cultural threat. While most Indonesians are religiously Muslim, culturally, they remain close to Hindus and bear Sanskritised names. The diversity implicit in Indonesian identity is one reason why IS has restricted influence in Indonesia. But their threat cannot be overlooked.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo needs to  review the 2003 Anti-Terrorism Law to authorize police to arrest and interrogate terror suspects without hindrances. Citizens seeking to travel abroad in order to join religious rebellions against secular governments must be halted.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has successfully taken on IS. Now, Widodo needs to step up.

*Abhishek Mohanty is studying M.A Politics: International and Area Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is a Junior Research Associate with the German Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance, Bangkok, and Research Intern at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Jakarta, and Center for Vietnam Studies, New Delhi. He is a member of the Kalinga-Lanka Foundation. Research interests include critical analysis of foreign policies and global issues of Indo-Pacific countries.

This article was published at Asia Times.

On May 21, within the framework of perpetual deployment of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet to Southeast Asia and the Northwest Pacific region, three Indian naval ships en route to Guam and Hawaii for the multilateral Malabar and RIMPAC naval exercises made a port call at Tien Sa Port in Danang for India’s first joint naval exercise with Vietnam.

To put this in perspective, this is analogous to the navies of China and Bangladesh exercising in the Bay of Bengal.

Before having a stopover in Vietnam, this cohort visited Singapore on May 6 and Malaysia and Thailand on May 13.

The three warships on the five-day visit to Vietnam comprised the Shivalik-class stealth multi-role frigate INS Sahyadri, Deepak-class fleet oil tanker INS Shakti and anti-submarine Kamorta-class stealth corvette INS Kamorta, which carried 913 commissioned officers, petty officers and seamen.

The naval squad was led by Rear Admiral Dinesh Tripathi, commander of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet. INS Kamorta and INS Shakti will only be participating in the Malabar exercise, whereas INS Sahyadri is scheduled to join in the prominent transnational naval Exercise RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific Exercise).

Docking of Indian naval ships in Vietnam is not a new phenomenon. Indian ships have visited Danang twice in the past – in June 2013 and October 2015. Other visits were to Haiphong in August 2014 and September 2017. In May 2016, Indian ships visited Cam Ranh International Port in south-central Khanh Hoa province. More recently, INS Sumedha docked at Ho Chi Minh City on January 12 this year.

However, all these visits were bereft of one imperative display of power that was accomplished in the recent visit.

The highlight of the recent visit was the first ever joint naval exercise by India and Vietnam, which has set a new benchmark not only in bilateral relations but also in India’s dynamic Act East Policy. The exercise aimed to boost military and maritime cooperation, increase mutual understanding between the two navies, to maintain security and stability in the region. The exercise also developed interoperability in communication as well as search and rescue procedures.

The naval exercise took place at the same time as the Chinese navy and coast guard were also performing their first joint patrol in the vicinity of the disputed Parcel Islands in the South China Sea. Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said Beijing’s recent moves were intended to be a “pre-emptive” warning against any challenge to China’s claims. According to the South China Morning Post, this tactical move was a warning to Vietnam, because of its recent engagements in the South China Sea.

Nevertheless, time and again Vietnam has defied China’s hegemonic interests in the region. There have been two armed skirmishes between China and Vietnam in the sea – one in 1974 and another in 1988.

Vietnam, like India, is cautious of China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region and has a huge incongruity with Beijing over several islands and exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea. Despite the recent armistice promises made by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi while meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart Phạm Bình Minh, China is still stretching its military bases over the South China Sea.

It was for this precise reason that India and Vietnam ramped up their defense cooperation to the level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2016 during the official state visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vietnam. Since then, Vietnam has expressed interest in procuring BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and the Akash surface-to-air missile defense systems. Vietnam has a very important role in India’s Act East Policy.

During Modi’s official visit to Hanoi in 2016, India acknowledged a US$500 million defense line of credit for Vietnam to simplify the acquisition of defense gadgets. India is also helping train Vietnamese fighter pilots to fly Su-30 jets and has been helping Vietnamese submariners operate Russian-origin Kilo-class submarines.

India has also serviced and upgraded more than 100 MiG fighter planes of the Vietnam Air Force and provided them with enhanced avionics and radar technology. The Indian Navy has had wide-ranging cooperation with Vietnam People’s Navy, predominantly in training, repairs, maintenance and logistics provision intended for capacity building.

The visit by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to India in January as one of the chief guests for Republic Day and for the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit and a state visit by President Tran Dai Quang in March were remarkable moments in two countries’ relations. Both leaders reiterated the pertinent role of India in the Indo-Pacific region and vowed support for the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” strategy.

The joint naval exercise was channeled just weeks in advance of Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s scheduled visit to Hanoi. Her visit will be reciprocated by the chief of general staff of the Vietnam People’s Army and the commander-in-chief of the Vietnam People’s Navy, who are scheduled to visit India this year. Both meetings will have a brainstorming deliberation over developing fresh strategies for strengthening bilateral defense cooperation.

India and Vietnam have been allies of shared prosperity since attaining independence from their colonial powers. Both countries have huge prospects of becoming two of the top economies in Asia in the forthcoming decade.

Before the recent naval exercise, armies of both countries had their first joint military exercise in Jabalpur, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, in January. Furthermore, in March, India steered the jumbo naval exercise “Milan” at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands together with prominent maritime powers in the region, including Vietnam.

India’s subtle outlook is that it vows a supportive, comprehensive and meticulous security framework that amplifies collective regional security and overall global stability. Many defense activities with Vietnam are gearing up that will be in the limelight in the coming months, which will not only set new benchmarks in bilateral relations but will also take India’s Act East Policy to grander statures.

*Abhishek Mohanty is studying M.A Politics: International and Area Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is a Junior Research Associate with the German Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance, Bangkok, and Research Intern at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Jakarta, and Center for Vietnam Studies, New Delhi. He is a member of the Kalinga-Lanka Foundation. Research interests include critical analysis of foreign policies and global issues of Indo-Pacific countries.

This article was published at Asia Times.

(Civil.Ge) — Tbilisi has decided to launch procedures for severing diplomatic relations with Syria, following Damascus’s recognition of independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Deputy Foreign Minister Davit Dondua, who convened a special press briefing on the matter, said “recognition of Georgia’s integral regions by the Syrian regime” was “illegal and in gross violation of fundamental norms and principles of international law.”

He also stressed the decision was “manipulated” by the Russian Federation.

“With its decision, the Assad regime has expressed its support to Russia’s military aggression against Georgia, its illegal occupation of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions and the ethnic cleansing that has been ongoing for years,” Dondua added.

The Deputy Minister then stressed that the country’s territorial integrity and its non-recognition policy enjoyed “unwavering” international support, and called on the international community to give a due assessment and take counter-measures to “the illegal decision of the Assad regime that was manipulated by the Russian Federation.”

Tengiz Pkhaladze, President Giorgi Margvelashvili’s Foreign Affairs Secretary, commented on the matter as well, saying it was not “the Syrian diplomacy, but the Russian diplomacy” challenging Georgia with the decision. Pkhaladze also stressed the Syrian recognition would have no international legal consequences, but added that “consistent and coordinated work” with the Arab League countries and the international community was crucial.

By Alexandra Brzozowski

(EurActiv) — Markets will persuade Italians not to vote for the two populist parties that have tried and failed to form a government this month, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the anti-migrant Euroskeptic League, the EU’s budget Commissioner said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Günther Oettinger made clear that he does not share the fear that the populist parties could become even stronger in possible new elections and that it could result in an exit of Italy from the eurozone or the EU itself.

On the contrary, the Commissioner raised the expectation that the markets and the Italian economic development would be a signal for the voters not to vote for populists from the left and right: “The negative development of the markets will lead Italians not to vote much longer for the populists.”

“We have confidence in the president of Italy, who points out to coalition partners of potential governments their rights and obligations, which result from the membership in the European Union and the euro area,” Oettinger said in the interview, expressing confidence in the new technocratic government.

The comments made in the interview created a buzz on the social media and provoked outrage from commentators, leaving the Commission with some explaining to do.

European Council President Donald Tusk slammed his Commission colleague, tweeting: “My appeal to all EU institutions: please respect the voters. We are there to serve them, not to lecture them.”

This came after an earlier translation of Oettinger’s comments suggested an even stronger wording, saying markets will “teach the Italians to vote for the right thing.”

The journalist subsequently deleted this translation, explaining he had mistakenly “misquoted” Oettinger.

The first version of the comments caused an immediate reaction by Italy’s Lega Nord leader, Matteo Salvini, who demanded that Oettinger should resign, accusing him of intervening in the country’ election procedure. “Can you imagine such disdain for democracy? … He should resign this afternoon,” Salvini wrote on Facebook.

In the interview, Oettinger at the same time voiced hope that Italy would continue to be a net contributor, as many Italian companies would benefit from the single market, while the EU has in recent times increased resources such as earthquake relief or border management, adjusting “the budget to the needs, also in the case of Italy.”

Oettinger defends conditionality clause in MFF proposal

The Commissioner noted that the citizen’s support for the EU is significantly increasing: “This has to do with Erdogan, with Trump and with Brexit. People indeed notice that one is able to act in the European team.”

Especially when it comes to a “foreseeable trade dispute” with the US, the advantages of being part of the community would be obvious: “What would a country like Italy, like Germany be on its own? But as a European single market, as a Union, we have the opportunity to react to Trump.”

Asked if was upset that leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán scold the EU back home but at the same time hold out their hand for money in Brussels, he answered: “We must take note of this. But it is unacceptable. Governments in all member states tend to nationalise successes and Europeanise problems, and that is an unfair division of labour.”

In this context, the German Commissioner defended the new conditionality regulation in the forthcoming EU budget, which aims to make rule of law compliance a condition for future allocation of EU funds:

“It is about the interests of the European taxpayer, we are investing billions and we need to be sure that the member states and their administrations properly manage the funds and then properly settle them.”

“To prevent fraud and corruption in the European budget, it may be necessary to go to court, which is why we need the guarantee that judges are independent, that no one can bend the third power, that justice is dispensed and judges do not depend on their government.”

United front against Trump

In the interview, Oettinger also made clear that despite the strained relations with the Trump administration, America remains Europe’s closest partner and friend.

However, he emphasised that if Trump should impose punitive tariffs on European goods, the Union ought to stay united: “If cars are affected, then everyone else must help – if Bordeaux is affected or if products from Italy are affected, then others must step in.”

“We must stand as a Union. If we leave somebody out in the rain, in the end all are disadvantaged,” the Commissioner concluded.

Over the past half-century, I have been engaged in research, lectured and worked with social movements and leftist governments in Latin America. I interviewed US officials and think tanks in Washington and New York. I have written scores of books, hundreds of professional articles and presented numerous papers at professional meetings.

In the course, of my activity I have discovered that many academics are frequently engage in what government officials dub ‘de-briefing’! Academics meet and discuss their field-work, data collection, research finding, observations and personal contacts over lunch at the Embassy with US government officials or in Washington with State Department officials.

US government officials look forward to these ‘debriefings”; the academic provided useful access to information which they otherwise could not obtain from paid, intelligence agents or local collaborators.
Not all academic informants are very well placed or competent investigators. However, many provide useful insights and information especially on leftist movements, parties and leaders who are real or potential anti-imperialist adversaries.

US empire builders whether engaged in political or military activities depend on information especially regarding who to back and who to subvert; who should receive diplomatic support and who to receive financial and to military resources.

De-briefed academics identify ‘moderate’ and ‘radical’ adversaries, as well as personal and political vulnerabilities. Officials frequently exploit health problems or family needs to ‘turn’ leftists into imperial stool pigeons.

US officials are especially interested in academic gate-keepers who exclude ‘anti- imperialist’ critics, activists, politicians and government officials.

At times, US State Department officials claim to be sympathetic ‘progressives’who oppose ‘Neanderthals’ in their institution, in order to elicit inside information from leftist academic informants.

Debriefing is a widespread practice and involves numerous academics from major universities and research centers, as well as non-governmental ‘activists’ and editors of academic journals and publications.

Academic participates in debriefing frequently do not publicize their reporting to the government. Most likely they share their reports with other academic informers. All claim they are merely sharing research and diffusing information for ‘science’ and to further ‘humane values’.

Academic informers always justify their collaboration as providing a clear and more balanced picture to ‘our’ policymakers, ignoring the predictable destructive outcomes likely to ensue.

Academics in the Service of Empire

Academic informants never study, collect research and publicize reports on US covert, overt and clandestine policies in defense of multi-nationals and Latin American elite which collaborate with empire builders.

US officials have no interest in ‘debriefing’ academics conducting anti-imperialist research.

US officials are keen to know any and all reports on ‘movements from below’: who they are, how much influence they have, their susceptibility to bribes, blackmail and invitations to the State Department, Disneyland, or the Wilson Center in D.C.

US officials fund academic research on militant trade unions , agrarian social movements , feminist and ethnic minorities engaged in class struggle ,and anti-imperialist activists and leaders, as they all serve as targets for imperial repression.

The officials are also keen on academic reports on so-called ‘moderate’ collaborators who can be funded, advised and recruited to defend the empire , undermine the class struggle and split movements.
Academic informants are especially useful in providing personal and political information on Latin American leftwing intellectuals, academics, journalists, writers and critics which allows US officials to isolate, slander and boycott anti-imperialists, as well as those intellectuals who can be recruited and seduced with foundation grants and invitations to the Kennedy Center at Harvard.

When US officials have a difficult time understanding the intricacies and consequences of ideological debates and factional divisions within leftist parties or regimes, ex-leftist academic informers, who collect documents and interviews , provide detailed explanations and provide officials with a political roadmap to exploit and exacerbate divisions and to guide repressive policies, which undermine adversaries engaged in anti-imperialist and class struggle.

The State Department works hand and glove with research centers and foundations in promoting journals which eschew all mention of imperialism and ruling class exploitation; they promote ‘special issues’ on ‘class-less’ identity politics, post- modern theorizing and ethnic-racial conflicts and conciliation.

In a study of the two leading political science and sociological journals over a period of fifty year they published less than .01% on class struggle and US imperialism.

Academic informants have never reported on US government links to narco- political rulers.

Academic informants do not research widespread long term Israeli collaboration with death squads in Colombia, Guatemala, Argentina and El Salvador, in cases because of their loyalties to Tel Aviv and in most cases because the State Department is not interested in debriefings which expose their allies and their joint complicity.

Academic Informants: What do they want and what do they get?

Academic informers engage in debriefing for various reasons. A few do so simply because they share the politics and ideology of the empire builders and feel it is their ‘duty’ to serve.

The great majority are established academics with ties to research centers who inform because it fattens their CV– which helps secure grants, prestigious appointments and awards.

Progressive academics who collaborates have a Janus face approach; they speak at Leftist public conferences , especially to students and in private they report to the State Department.

Many academics believe they can influence and change government policy. They seek to impress self-identified ‘progressive’ officials with their inside knowledge on how to ‘turn’ Latin critics into moderate collaborators. They invent innocuous academic categories and concepts to attract graduate students to further collaboration with imperial colleagues.

The Consequence of Academic Debriefing

Former leftist academic informers are frequenly cited by the mass media as a reliable and knowledgeable ‘expert’ in order to slander anti-imperialist governments, academics and critics.

Ex-leftist academics pressure rising scholars with a critical perspective to adopt ‘moderate’ reasonable critiques , to denounce and avoid anti-imperialist ‘extremists’ and to disparage them as ‘polemical ideologues’!

Academic informants in Chile helped the US Embassy identify neighborhood militants who were handed over to the secret police (DINA) during the Pinochet dictatorship.

US academic informants in Peru and Brazil provided the Embassy with research projects which identified nationalist military officials and leftist students who were subsequently purged, arrested and tortured.

In Colombia, US academic informers were active in providing reports on rural insurgent movements which led to massive repression. Academic collaborators provided detailed reports to the embassy in Venezuela on the grass roots movements and political divisions among Chavista government and military officials with command of troops.

The State Department financed academics working with NGO who identified and recruited middle class youth as street fighters, drug gangsters and the destitute to engage in violent struggles to overthrow the elected government by paralyzing the economy.

Academic reports on regime ‘violence’ and ‘authoritarianism’ served as propaganda fodder for the State Department to impose economic sanctions , impoverishing people, to foment a coup.US academic collaboraters enlisted their latin colleagues to sign petitions urging rightwing regimes in the region to boycott Venezuela.

When academic informers are confronted with the destructive consequences of imperial advances they argue that it was not their ‘intention’; that it was not their State Department contacts who carried out the regressive policies.The more cynical claim that the government was going to do their dirty work regardless of the debriefing.

Conclusion

What is clear in virtually all know experiences is that academic informers’ ‘de- briefings strengthened the empire-builders and complemented the deadly work of the paid professional operatives of the CIA, DEA and the National Security Agency.

A planned China and Russia-led show of support for Iran at next month’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit is likely to be primarily symbolic unless the group opts to honour the Islamic republic’s bid to be upgraded from observer to full member.

Yet, even a symbolic SCO gesture at its June 9-10 gathering in the Chinese city of Qingdao that would denounce the US withdrawal from the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran and imposition of harsh sanctions could prove tricky.

The meeting is expected to be attended by the presidents of China, Russia, Iran India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It will come a day after the leaders of G-7 that groups the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, Britain, France and Germany are unlikely to find common ground on Iran at their summit in Quebec.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will presumably not look kindly at solidarity at a time that the underlying motto of US and Saudi policy towards Iran appears to be isolation and regime change.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE moreover fear that membership in the SCO, which groups four Central Asian nations as well as Pakistan and India alongside China and Russia, would grant Iran a veto over their potential association with the grouping. With Israel and others interested in joining the SCO, that may be the reason why the group has so far dragged its feet on Iranian membership.

China and Russia, like Europe are signatories of the nuclear agreement, but less concerned than Britain, France and Germany about the threat of US sanctions against their own companies who do business in Iran. At least officially, they have so far not factored in a potential Saudi and UAE response to efforts to defeat the sanctions and salvage the agreement.

As a result, Chinese and Russian state-backed companies are manoeuvring to profit from European firms like French oil company Total that are leaving Iran in the belief that the European Union will not be able to shield them from US retaliation.

Swiss lender Banque de Commerce et de Placements (BCP) said on Tuesday that it had suspended new transactions with Iran and was winding down Iran-related activities. Earlier, Germany’s second biggest lender, DZ Bank, said it would halt financial transactions with Iran in July.

For its part, India, despite being dependent on energy from the Gulf, has vowed to keep trading with Iran irrespective of the fallout from US sanctions. “India follows only UN sanctions, and not unilateral sanctions by any country,” said Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Pakistan could find itself in the most difficult situation given its close political, military and cultural ties to Saudi Arabia and the UAE and its 700-kilometre long border with Iran.

The degree to which SCO members could find themselves between a rock and a hard place will depend on what strategy the United States and Saudi Arabia adopt in possible attempts to change the Iranian regime.

So far, the Trump administration appears to see economic pressure that would fuel already widespread discontent in Iran as its best bet. That could change however if efforts by SCO members as well as Europe succeed in countering US sanctions and salvaging the nuclear deal.

Complicating the debate about how best to confront Iran is the fact that senior aides to President Donald J. Trump have close ties to a controversial Iranian exile group, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) or Holy Warriors of the People, seeking the overthrow of the government in Tehran that also enjoys Saudi support.

The group, believed to be responsible for the killing of several American military personnel and contractors in Iran in the 1970s, was designated by the US Treasury in 1997 and delisted in 2012, a year after a host of former US and British officials, came out publicly in support of the group.

Many of the officials have attended and addressed MEK rallies, allegedly in exchange for handsome fees and all-expenses paid trip. MEK, which first gained recognition for its opposition to the Shah of Iran, has denied paying for speaking engagements.

Mr. Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton and Richard Giuliani, one of his top lawyers, were among the speakers.

“The declared policy of the United States of America should be the overthrow of the mullah’s regime in Iran. Before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran,” Mr. Bolton told an MEK rally less than a year before his appointment by Mr. Trump.

“The regime is evil, and it must go. Free Iran,” added Mr. Giuliani.

Others who have backed the group include former FBI director Louis Freer, former British home secretary Lord Waddington, former US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, three former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two former directors of the CIA, former commander of NATO Wesley K. Clark, two former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations., former national security advisers Fran Townsend and General James Jones, and 93 members of Congress.

US officials said at the time that the group had been delisted after it had renounced violence and cooperated in closing a paramilitary base in Iraq from where it was operating since declaring its support in 1983 for Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war.

“As far as the MEK is concerned, their guy is in the White House. They’re tied in this together. John Bolton is the MEK’s guy in the White House,” said Joanne Stocker, a journalist who has tracked the group for almost a decade,

The group also has the backing of Saudi Arabia, which has developed plans and invested in building blocks for potential covert operations to destabilize Iran.

A Syrian opposition news website reported this week that Saudi Arabia was funding and providing logistical support to the US-backed Democratic Union Party (PYD), a battle-hardened Syrian Kurdish group that has proven its mettle in fighting the Islamic State.

The public face of the kingdom’s backing of the MEK is former Saudi intelligence chief and ex-ambassador to Britain and the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal.

“Your legitimate struggle against the (Iranian) regime will achieve its goal, sooner or later. I, too, want the fall of the regime,” Prince Turki, echoing the statements by Messrs. Bolton and Giuliani, told an MEK rally in Paris in 2017.

One-time MEK National Liberation Army commander and security chief, Massoud Khodabandeh, who turned against the group in the second half of the 1990s, says that “I personally have brought money and gold from Saudi Arabia to Iraq for the Mujahedeen… It was three trucks of gold… I would say about a ton each.”

A 2012 report by the Library of Congress identified Mr. Khodabandeh and his wife as Iranian intelligence agents. The report said the couple had agreed to cooperate with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security after it threatened to kill Mr. Khodabandeh’s brother and confiscate extensive real estate holdings in Tehran owned by his mother.

More recently, MSNBC’s Richard Engel reported that Gulf states had funded construction of an MEK military base in Albania.

The MEK has denied receiving any foreign assistance, insisting that it is wholly funded by members and supporters.

The MEK is widely believed to have been responsible for a series of bombings in Iran in the immediate aftermath of the 1979 toppling of the Shah. that killed scores of post-revolution leaders.

Dutch media reports suggested last week that an Iranian exile killed in Amsterdam in 2015 was an MEK operative who had been sentenced to death in Iran for bombing a gathering of officials in Teheran in 1981.

Seventy-three people were killed in the attack, including Ayatollah Mohammed Beheshti, the second most powerful cleric at the time after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as well as four ministers and numbers of members of parliament.

It’s unclear what degree of support the MEK enjoys in Iran today with many analysts convinced that the group lost sympathy when it sided with Iraq against Iran. Groups associated with the MEK have claimed credit for protests in recent years in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, that has a significant ethnic Arab population. Iranian Arab activists deny the groups’ assertions.

Saudi backing of groups like the MEK and PYD as well as ultra-conservative, anti-Shiite, anti-Iranian forces in the troubled Pakistani province of Balochistan that borders on Iran could potentially pose a serious problem for the leaders of the SCO.

Heightened tension in Balochistan could threaten China’s $50 billion plus infrastructure and energy investment in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a crown jewel of the People’s Republic’s Belt and Road initiative.

So far, China is in good company with much of the international community opposed to abrogation of the Iranian nuclear agreement and, at least in word, determined to defeat US efforts to bring Iran to its knees with sanctions.

Yet, like many in the international community with Europe in the lead, China may find that putting its money where its mouth is could prove in the final analysis problematic.

Similarly, Russia has much at stake after having forged close cooperation with Saudi Arabia in managing world oil prices while attempting to ensure that Iran’s presence in Syria does not escalate into a war with Israel.

If Europe’s Achilles Heel is obstacles to putting credible mechanisms in place to protect its companies against US sanctions, China’s weak spot is its ruthless campaign to tame Islam in China, particularly among Uighurs in the strategic northwest province of Xinjiang.

So far, it has been able to do so with little international response because Saudi Arabia and other Islamic states have looked the other way. The question is whether an effective Chinese countering of US sanctions that would significantly weaken the impact on Iran may prompt Saudi Arabia and others to revisit the issue.