In 1991, the globally recognized anti-western Soviet propaganda machine collapsed and disappeared. Russia and SADC Member States have had long-standing and time-tested bilateral partnerships for nearly 30 years after the Soviet collapse. In this long-ranging interview, the Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community, Stergomena Lawrence Tax, discusses various aspects of SADC-Russia’s economic cooperation, some strategies, challenges and future perspectives with Kester Kenn Klomegah from Moscow.

Interview excerpts:

Russia and Africa mark nearly 30 years of bilateral relations after the Soviet collapse. What does this mean from the African perspectives?

Russia has a long history of bilateral engagements with the Southern African countries, which constitute the Southern African Development Community, a Regional Economic Community (REC). Russia, as part of the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), supported the concerted efforts of the Frontline States and the Liberation Movements to fight against apartheid and the existential threats posed by it.

The USSR, in this regard, provided technical and military support to most of the countries that were a part of the Frontline States in order to achieve total liberation in the region. Even after the break-up of the USSR, Russia has continued to play an important role in technical assistance, economics and military support to African countries, including SADC Member States – our relationship with Russia is therefore not new, it is very valuable, and need to be sustained.

The most recent visit (2018) of the Russian Foreign Minister H.E. Sergey Lavrov, to the Republics of Angola, Ethiopia, Namibia and Zimbabwe, (as we understand it) was largely focused on signing of economic cooperation agreements to attract Russian investments in key areas such as mining, aviation and energy sectors, as well as fostering military technical cooperation.

Southern African leaders are looking for investment in infrastructure, industry and trade. How would you characterize Russia’s role in Southern Africa, comparing it among BRICS?

Investment in infrastructure, industry and trade is seen as a catalyst for regional integration, economic growth, and sustainable development. In this regard, SADC welcomes investors from all over the world. It is worth noting that one of the BRICS countries, South Africa, is a SADC Member State. Any comparison will therefore be limited to the other BRICS countries – namely Brazil, India and China.

While Russia as part of the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) supported SADC Frontline States and the Liberation Movements, a few years ago, it has not been that visible in the region as compared to China, India or Brazil. It is encouraging that, of recent, Russia has positioned herself to be a major partner with Southern Africa and being part of the BRICS promotes her engagement with the region, particularly in investment in minerals, aviation, defense and energy sectors.

Russia has also launched an Africa business forum, aimed at improving direct trade with the continent/region beyond the traditional sectors like mining, seeking to invest in areas like agriculture, industrial production, high technology and transport. The upcoming Russia and SADC Investment Forum that is to take place on 23 October 2018 in Russia, also seeks to provide an opportunity for businesses and partnerships.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has reiterated during his last African tour that Russia’s preferred focus is on Russia-SADC in its diplomacy in Africa. Why is SADC region considered a strategic region for Russia?

We cannot obviously speak for Russia, but we could give you a general overview of why international partners and investors would consider SADC an attractive or strategic investment partner.

There are a number of inter-related factors for this, the first being peace and stability: The SADC region is peaceful and stable. A peaceful and stable environment is attractive to investors as it fosters confidence by assurance of longevity, property rights and fundamental freedoms, which underpin economic rights. Peace in SADC is sustained through cooperation between the 16 Member States of SADC as espoused in the SADC Treaty, and in particular, the Protocol on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation whose general objective is to promote peace and security in the Region.

The Founding Fathers of SADC had long recognized that the region could remain stable by fostering common political values, building legitimate democratic institutions and mechanisms to sustain peace as a pre-requisite for regional integration and prosperity.

Secondly, is the integrated market resulting from a combined population of approximately 327 million people, and a collective GDP of US$ 600 billion (2016), which is supported by generally favorable weather conditions in most parts of the region.

Thirdly, the region has abundant natural resources ranging from vast energy resources, arable land and forestry; to precious minerals such as diamonds, gold, platinum, copper, cobalt, oil, and natural gas to mention but a few. These are vital for the global economy and strategic partnership.

Notwithstanding, the above mentioned comparative advantages, the region has relatively under-developed human capabilities and infrastructure, which are essential for bolstering the region’s efforts to exploit and maximize benefits from these natural resources. Hence, the need for the region to cooperate with external partners, such as Russia, which has advanced technologies and capacities that could be transferred to the region. A peaceful and stable environment surely presents a ‘strategic’ imperative as well.

Russian Federation’s priorities are also in line with SADC priorities as evidenced by the priorities of the Foreign Economic Strategy in the region as indicated below:

• Prospecting, mining, oil, construction and mining, purchasing gas, oil, uranium, and bauxite assets (Angola, Namibia and South Africa);
• Construction of power facilities—hydroelectric power plants on the River Congo (Angola, Namibia and Zambia,) and nuclear power plants (South Africa);
• Creating a floating nuclear power plant, and South African participation in the international project to build a nuclear enrichment centre in Russia;
• Railway Construction (Angola);
• Creation of Russian trade houses for the promotion and maintenance of Russian engineering products (South Africa).
• Participation of Russian companies in the privatization of industrial assets, including those created with technical assistance from the former Soviet Union (Angola).

In your estimation, what is the level of Russia’s engagement with SADC region?

Russia and SADC Member States have had long-standing bilateral partnership for development for decades, providing substantial results in the priority areas of cooperation. Through such significant historical ties, the peoples of SADC and of Russia have strengthened friendship and mutual understanding for developing comprehensive, equitable and fruitful cooperation.

The ten (10) SADC Member States represented in the Russian Federation, namely: Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe provide an extensive representation for engagement.

At the regional level, SADC and Russia are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Basic Principles of Relations and Cooperation on 23rd October 2018, in the following areas, among others, Technical Cooperation and Assistance; Capacity Building; Peace, Security, Conflict Prevention and Resolution; Preventive Diplomacy; Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment; Infrastructure Development, and Energy; Information Communication Technology (ICT); Transport, Communications and Meteorology; Water, Agriculture, Ocean Economy, Food Security; Minerals, Natural Resources and Protection of the Environment; Education and Science; Healthcare; Technology and Innovation; and Culture, Tourism and Information Exchange.

In addition, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in the area of Military – Technical Cooperation, with the aim of promoting cooperation between the Parties in regional and international peace and security was signed in July, 2018.

Outcomes of Russian Foreign Minister’s March 2018 visit to some SADC Member States

In March 2018, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, visited the Southern Africa region where he held talks with the Presidents of Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. In his statement, the Minister noted that Russia together with Africa wanted to elevate trade, economic and investment relations to a level that would meet political and trust-based relations.

It is our considered view that the bilateral engagements served to strengthen the already existing ties, coming up with win–win bilateral cooperation between Russia and these Member States. This will be augmented by the two Memorandum of Understanding: MOU in the area of Military–Technical Cooperation, that is to promote cooperation between the Parties that was signed in July, 2018, and MoU on Basic Principles of Relations and Cooperation to be signed on 23rd October 2018.

What challenges and setbacks, in your view, still remain to get both parties (Russia and Southern Africa) towards result-oriented and effectively closer in their post-Soviet economic cooperation?

SADC works closely with the International Cooperating Partners (ICPs) in achieving its developmental results. As such, SADC’s cooperation with the ICPs is guided by the principles of partnership and commitments. Both SADC and Russia value their adherence to the aims and principles of the United Nations Charter, seeking to contribute to the establishment of a democratic and just world order and to strengthen regional and inter-regional ties to ensure peace, stability, socio-economic development, and mutual confidence.

In view of the above, the thrust for SADC-Russia Cooperation shall be aligned with global, continental, regional, and national policies. By so doing, both sides will be able to contribute and create favourable conditions for socio-economic development, cooperation, and mutual confidence.

Soft power and public diplomacy are largely or significantly not in Russia’s engagement with Southern Africa. What are your objective views on these issues?

If you follow the history of Russia’s engagement with Africa, and Southern Africa in particular, from the days of the USSR to the present, one is likely to find that Public Diplomacy by Russia has encompassed many forms. These have included, educational programs, cultural exchanges, scholarly visitor programs, and of course, the use of media to cover and project issues on Africa from a Russian perspective. These are all instruments and forms of public diplomacy, which would ordinarily have the effect of reaching audiences on our continent and beyond, and impacting positively on what Russia has to offer the world. In the same vein, this can be seen as a form of “soft power” as its aim is to appeal and attract partners rather than coerce them into a relationship of one form or the other.

Arguably, do you think intermediaries will be required, for example, the private equity and commodity trading communities to play a supportive role in forging business links between Russia and Southern Africa?

Like most of the developing countries, Southern African countries have, over the years, largely relied on multilateral and regional development financial institutions to fund their development projects. However, given the huge demand for resources, policy makers have realised that these cannot be met solely from these traditional sources, and therefore, the need to explore alternative and innovative sources of funding. Private equity and commodity trading exchanges can play a critical role in mobilising resources mostly from the private sector to fund projects in the Southern African countries.

For the region to realise its enormous potential, it needs the support of the next generation of financial instruments and intermediaries to capitalise on opportunities, navigate challenges, and build the businesses and economies, that will enable the continent to thrive. Private equity could become a major force for accelerating growth in African countries. While regional penetration is low, smaller markets and modest penetration create significant potential for high risk-adjusted returns. Major growth sectors are: natural resources, transportation, energy, real estate, fintech, healthcare and hospitality. Many private equity funds are nurturing the requisite skills and experience to invest, grow and add value to portfolio/innovative companies.

Similarly, the establishment of commodity trading exchanges can play a critical role in boosting the region’s economic development. Successful securities exchanges all over the world are key to the economic development, providing the most efficient channel for savers (domestic and foreign) to channel funds into long-term productive enterprises, creating growth and increased prosperity. Since the region has a comparative advantage in the vast natural resources sector, and in line with SADC objective of developing and adding value and beneficiation concept, the setting of the commodities trading exchanges present attractive growth opportunities.

In this context, SADC has already undertaken initiatives to develop the interconnectivity project whereby the aim is to link the SADC stock exchanges, and to encourage cross border trading of shares/stocks. Efforts are also being made to improve the operational, regulatory and technical requirement underpinnings and capabilities of the region’s exchanges to make the securities markets more attractive to both regional and international investors.

The region remains a top destination for investment as its attractiveness to investment has risen dramatically over the last several years, and this should continue to present attractive growth opportunities for private equity for the foreseeable future. Private equity represents a new source of capital, complementing traditional sources and project finance, with private equity investors offering more than just funds, but also the needed skills. All said, there are positive directions in the relationship, we look for a bright future

Utah State University researchers Paul Rogers and Darren McAvoy have conducted the first complete assessment of the Pando aspen clone and the results show continuing deterioration of this ‘forest of one tree.’ While a portion of the famed grove is recovery nicely as a result of previous restoration, the majority of Pando (Latin for “I Spread”) is diminishing by attrition.

Rogers and McAvoy, in a PLOS ONE publication, show Pando, Utah’s massive, yet imperiled, aspen clone, is in grave need of forest triage. Early protection from fencing showed great promise in abating browser impacts, which have nearly eliminated recruitment of young aspen stems for decades now. However, follow-up fencing of a larger area (in combination with about half of Pando remaining unprotected by fencing) is currently failing according to this study. “After significant investment in protecting the iconic Pando clone, we were disappointed in this result. In particular, mule deer appear to be finding ways to enter through weak points in the fence or by jumping over the eight-foot barrier,” says Rogers, Director of the Western Aspen Alliance and Adjunct Faculty member in USU’s Wildland Resources Department. He further adds, “While Pando has likely existed for thousands of years–we have no method of firmly fixing its’ age–it is now collapsing on our watch. One clear lesson emerges here: we cannot independently manage wildlife and forests.”

In addition to presenting the first comprehensive analysis of forest conditions, the study offers a unique 72-year historical aerial photo sequence the visually chronicles the a steady thinning of the forest, past clear-cuts that remain deforested today, and continual intrusion of human development. Taken as a whole, objective analysis and the subjective photo chronology reveal a modern tragedy: the “trembling giant” that has lasted millennia may not survive a half-century of human meddling.

Pando is widely considered the world’s largest single organism weighing in at an estimated 13 million lbs. (5.9 million kg). Covering some 106 acres (43 ha) in south-central Utah’s Fishlake National Forest, the clonal colony consists of more than 47,000 genetically identical above-ground stems or “ramets” originating from a single underground parent clone. Quaking aspen, Pando’s iconic species, was named Utah’s State Tree in 2014 and, among numerous values, is considered a staple of scenic montane landscapes in the American West. Rogers sees trends found at Pando occurring across the western states, thus the Western Aspen Alliance serves as a clearinghouse of contemporary aspen sciences for professionals, scientists, and policymakers.

Rogers concludes, “In addition to ecological values, Pando serves as a symbol of nature-human connectedness and a harbinger of broader species losses. Here, regionally, and indeed internationally, aspen forests support great biodiversity. This work further argues for ‘mega-conservation’ as a departure from traditional individual species-habitat approaches. It would be shame to witness the significant reduction of this iconic forest when reversing this decline is realizable, should we demonstrate the will to do so.”

Since 2013, gifts and payments to doctors by pharmaceutical and medical device companies have been publicly reported. In addition, some medical centers, physician employers, such as Kaiser Permanente, and states have banned or restricted detailing visits, physician payments or gifts.

Some manufacturers have also changed their practices for certain gifts. In order to better understand the effects of these changes, a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and the American Board of Internal Medicine in Philadelphia conducted a national survey of internal medicine doctors.

The researchers randomly sampled 1,500 internists and internal medicine specialists, asking 10 yes-or-no questions about “drug, device, or other methodically related company” interactions in the last year: food inside or outside the workplace; free drug samples; pens, notepads, T-shirts; honoraria for speaking; payment for consulting services; payment for service on an advisory board; costs of personal expenses for attending meetings; free tickets to events; subsidized admission to meetings; or conferences for which Continuing Medical Education Credits (CME) were awarded.

About three-quarters (72%) of respondents reported any financial tie to industry. The most common benefits received were drug samples (55%) and food and beverage in (48%) or outside (30%) the workplace. Few doctors reported receiving small gifts (8%) or consulting (4%) or service on a specific advisory board (3%). In 2017 (the year surveyed), specialists reported more meals than internists both inside and outside work, as did male MDs than female MDs. The researchers note that these differences were similar to those found in a national physician survey in 2009 with similar questions and response rates.

Compared to 2009, fewer internal medicine doctors reported receiving all types of financial payments, with the greatest reductions related to food/beverage or tickets to sporting or cultural events (75% vs 42%) and speakers bureaus/consulting/advisory boards (18% vs 2%). Among cardiologists, the only significant differences were for drug samples (82% vs 60%) and speakers bureaus/consulting advisory boards (33% vs 8%).

“What the survey revealed is that while financial industry ties have fallen some over the past decade, a majority of doctors still reported them,” said Dartmouth Institute Professor Lisa Schwartz, MD, MS, a member of the research team. “This is particularly concerning when you consider that free samples, which are among the most common financial tie reported, have been linked to the prescribing of high-cost brand-name drugs over lower-cost generic alternatives.”

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei criticized those who link every virtue to the Western civilization, saying transparency in politics which has come under the spotlight in recent years is among the teachings of Islam and Imam Ali (AS).

In remarks on October 15, Ayatollah Khamenei bemoaned the fact that some people have gotten used to linking any advantage in the Islamic community to the West.

Decrying the short-sightedness of pro-West eulogists, Ayatollah Khamenei said the issue of transparency in politics, which has attracted attention nowadays, originates from the teachings of the first Shiite imam, Imam Ali.

The Leader then explained that although Imam Ali has emphasized the importance of transparency, he has prohibited disclosing military issues and secrets of war.

There is no place for whistle-blowing or transparency when it comes to security and military issues, because the enemy would take advantage of such military information to deal a blow, the Leader underlined.

“Except in the military and security cases and issues relating to confrontation with the enemy, there must be transparency and the authorities must not hide any secret from the public,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday, reports media

The Saudi Crown Prince stressed the importance of Saudi-US strategic partnership and the future role of this partnership in accordance with the vision of the Kingdom 2030, according to Arab News.

Tony Sayegh, spokesman for the US Treasury stressed in a tweet on Monday that while Mnuchin cancelled his speaking engagement at the Saudi investment conference, the US secretary is in Saudi Arabia as part of six-country Middle East trip, and visiting the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center and having meetings in preparation for Iran sanctions.

“In his meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince, Mnuchin addressed combating terrorist financing, implementing Iran sanctions, Saudi economic issues and the Khashoggi investigation,” Sayegh said in a separate tweet.

U.S. media reports say CIA director Gina Haspel is traveling to Istanbul to meet with Turkish officials who are investigating the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Sources told news outlets that Haspel departed Monday for Turkey to work on the investigation into Khashoggi’s death.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he has “top intelligence people in Turkey,” but did not give further details. Trump said he is still not satisfied with the explanation he has heard about Khashoggi’s death, but said “we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

The president said he had spoken with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler — since Khashoggi’s death. He said he will know more about the death once U.S. teams investigating the killing return to Washington from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

In another development Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met Saudi Arabia’s embattled crown prince in Riyadh. The Saudi Foreign Ministry posted a photograph of the meeting on its Twitter account.

Mnuchin canceled his plans to attend a three-day investment conference hosted by Saudi Arabia beginning Tuesday, but said he would meet the Saudi crown prince to discuss counterterrorism efforts.

New surveillance video released Monday from Istanbul appears to show a Saudi agent wearing Khashoggi’s clothing and leaving Riyadh’s consulate on Oct. 2, an apparent attempt to cover up his killing by showing he had left the diplomatic outpost alive.

The video was taken by Turkish law enforcement and shown Monday on CNN, suggesting Saudi agents used a body double in an effort to conceal the killing.

The video surfaced as Saudi officials offered yet another explanation for the death of the 59-year-old Saudi journalist who had been living in the U.S. in self-imposed exile while he wrote columns for The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi crown prince and Riyadh’s involvement in the conflict in Yemen.

The Saudis at first said Khashoggi had left the consulate and that they did not know his whereabouts. Later, they said he died in a fistfight after an argument inside the consulate. Now, the Saudis are saying Khashoggi died in a chokehold to prevent him from leaving the consulate to call for help.

It is not known what happened to Khashoggi’s remains, although Turkish officials say he was tortured, decapitated and then dismembered. One Saudi official told ABC News that Khashoggi’s body was given to a “local cooperator” in Istanbul for disposal, but Saudi officials have said they do not know what happened to his remains.

In Washington, White House adviser Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, told CNN the U.S. is still in a “fact-finding” phase in trying to determine exactly what happened to Khashoggi.

“We’re getting facts in from multiple places,” Kushner said. He said that Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will then decide how to respond to Saudi Arabia, a long-time American ally.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is vowing to reveal details about the case in a Tuesday speech to his parliament.

US President Donald Trump threatned Russia and China that Washington intends to build up its nuclear arsenal until “people come to their senses.”

The president said his words were directed towards Moscow and Beijing, as he prepared to unilaterally leave the Intermediate Nuclear Forces in Europe (INF) treaty. The US president implied China should be part of any new nuclear arms control treaty.

“Russia has not adhered to the agreement,” neither in form or in spirit, Trump told reporters outside the White House on Monday, before departing for a campaign rally in Texas.

“Until people come to their senses, we will build it up,” he said, referring to the US nuclear arsenal. “When they do, we will all be smart and we’ll stop. Not only stop, but we’ll reduce, which I’d love to do.”

Asked if this should be taken as a threat, Trump said yes.

“It’s a threat to whoever you want. It includes China, it includes Russia.”

The US has “more money than anyone else by far,” Trump added, implying an arms race wouldn’t come as a burden. “You can’t play that game on me.”

The treaty, which went into effect in June 1988, was a major achievement of Cold War detente and helped defuse nuclear fears in Europe. If Trump goes ahead and withdraws from the INF, that would leave the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) as the last obstacle to uncontrolled nuclear proliferation. The treaty will expire in 2021, and Washington has not yet decided on renewing it, Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton said during his visit to Moscow.

Over the years, Moscow and Washington have repeatedly accused each other of violating the deal. While the US has alleged that Russia has developed missiles prohibited by the INF, Moscow has pointed out that the US anti-missile systems deployed in Eastern Europe can actually be used to launch intermediate-range cruise missiles. Those systems were deployed after Washington unilaterally left the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty in 2002.

In his impromptu press conference, Trump implied that China should be part of any new nuclear arms control treaty. He did not say how his administration intended to achieve that, given the current poor state of affairs between Beijing and Washington, propelled by a trade war and military tensions in the South China Sea.

Trump’s hardline approach to trade deals has worked, with Canada, Mexico and the EU quickly coming around to his point of view. His repudiation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, however, has not produced another nonproliferation agreement with Tehran.

By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed*

Since the start of the crisis over Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Iran has avoided making any official comment or taking an official position, although Iranian media has been focusing on the issue. Tehran has so far adopted a wait-and-see approach. Unlike the Turks, it has not been hostile to Saudi Arabia, leaving the door open for all options.

Nonetheless, having Saudi Arabia trapped in a corner serves Iran, especially in light of stringent US sanctions against the latter. Tehran sees the Khashoggi crisis and the Turkish attack against Saudi Arabia as a gift from heaven.

Tehran has been wishing for three things: That the US retracts its sanctions; that Riyadh stops supporting the Trump administration’s project against Iran, thus leaving it to fail; and that the Khashoggi crisis weakens Saudi Arabia and thus changes the regional balance of power, allowing Tehran to continue its hegemony in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia believes that its relationship with the US will always be strategic, regardless of differences or disputes, which have included Riyadh’s refusal to cooperate with the invasion of Iraq. Despite media claims, what the Kingdom is going through now is nothing but a storm in a teacup due to mutual Saudi-US interests.

Iran knows that Saudi Arabia has been pushed into a corner, but that it will eventually get out of it. So Tehran wants to gain from the crisis by using it in a different way than Turkey has done, by appearing to move closer either to Washington or Riyadh. But the Saudi-US relationship is strategic, and there is no trust whatsoever in Iran as a peaceful neighbor. However, there is room for maneuver without undermining higher interests.

Tehran may be interested in redressing its relations with Riyadh for reasons unrelated to the Khashoggi crisis. Iran has recently realized that while it has been trying to win in Syria, it may be about to lose in Iraq, as was clear in the latest election results.

Moreover, the war in Yemen has not given Tehran what it has gained in Gaza or southern Lebanon. So if Iran is looking for a desirable solution in Yemen, this may well be the right time, though it should not expect to achieve even half a victory. The solution may involve some political participation for the Houthis, Iran’s allies.

In politics, crises often create opportunities. Iran, which is currently besieged, is quite aware of this. It took advantage of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait to get closer to Saudi Arabia, but this time the Kingdom’s distress is temporary.

• Abdulrahman Al-Rashed is a veteran columnist. He is the former general manager of Al Arabiya news channel, and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat.

Donald Trump says the midterm elections are a “referendum about me.” Of course they are. Everything is about him.

Anyone who still believes the political divide runs between Republicans and Democrats hasn’t been paying attention. There’s no longer a Republican Party. The GOP is now just pro-Trump.

Meanwhile Trump is doing all he can to make the Democratic Party the anti-Trump Party. “Democrats,” he declares, are “too dangerous to govern.” They’re “an angry left-wing mob,”leading an “assault on our country.”

Never before has a president of the United States been so determined not to be president of all Americans. He’s president of his supporters.

Tyrants create cults of personality. Trump is beyond that. He equates America with himself, and disloyalty to him with insufficient patriotism. In his mind, a giant “Trump” sign hangs over the nation. “We” are his supporters, acolytes, and toadies. “They” are the rest of us.

When everything and everyone is either pro- or anti-Trump, there’s no room for neutral expertise, professional norms, good public policy, or the rule of law.

Trump is reportedly on the brink of firing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, whom Trump suspects “might be a Democrat.” Mattis’s real sin has been to believe the military should be neutral and professional. To Trump that smacks of disloyalty.

Trump calls military generals “my” generals. He expects the FBI director, the Attorney General, and the Justice Department to be “his.” He proudly points to “his” judges and justices.

Republican members of Congress are part of “his” government – unless, like Jeff Flake and the late John McCain, they’re not.

He believes the nation’s press is either for him or against him. Fox News is indubitably for him – now a virtual propaganda arm of the White House. The rest are against him even when they merely report the news.

We’re all being taken in by this Trumpian dichotomy – even those of us in the anti-Trump camp.

When Trump is the defining issue in America, he gets to set the national agenda. All major debate in this country revolves around him, his goals, and the objects of his vilification.

The Trumpification of America hardly ends if Democrats take over the House or possibly the Senate. Trump will blame them for everything that goes wrong. He’ll make up problems they’re supposedly responsible for. He’ll ridicule them and call them traitors.

He’ll do the same to anyone who shows serious interest in running for president against him in 2020.

Naturally, Democrats will want to defend themselves. Naturally, they’ll also want to attack Trump.

If they flip the House they’ll use their subpoena power to dredge up whatever dirt on him they can find – summoning his tax records, Robert Mueller, Mueller’s investigative findings – and perhaps even beginning impeachment proceedings.

Trump and his Republican enablers will fight back, condemning Democrats for weakening America, engaging in fishing expeditions and witch hunts. Trump and his lawyers will tie up the subpoenas in court, claiming executive privilege.

Aspiring Democratic candidates for president will join in the brawl.

Op-ed writers, editorial boards, and pundits will argue over the best ways for Democrats to proceed against Trump – going low or going high. Pollsters will tell us which Democratic candidate is seen as being most effective against him.

But all of this is a giant trap. It accepts and enforces Trump’s worldview – that nothing is more important than Donald Trump, that he embodies all that’s good (or bad) about America, and that our most significant choice is to be for him or against him.

It allows Trump to continue to dominate the news and occupy the center of the nation’s attention.

We’d talk about nothing else for two years. We won’t be discussing how to restore wage growth, get health insurance to all Americans, reverse climate change, or get big money out of politics.

We won’t be envisioning how a new America can widen opportunity, expand voting rights, end racism, reduce poverty, and work constructively with the rest of the world.

We won’t be aspiring to be more than we were before Trump. We’ll debate and dissect the damage done since Trump.

Of course Democrats have to fight him. But they also have to lift America beyond him.

The central question shouldn’t be whether we’re pro- or anti-Trump, or whether we go low or high in fighting him.

The question is where America should go – and what we, together, can become.

Despite the fact that Ukraine’s Orthodox church is about to be granted autocephaly and ever more people in Belarus are expressing hope that their country will be the next to escape from under the yoke of the Moscow Patriarchate, few have paid attention to another Orthodox country where the subordination of Orthodoxy is very much in play.

According to the 2004 census in Moldova, 93.3 percent of that country’s population are Orthodox. They are divided between the Moldovan Orthodox Church, which, although autonomous, is under the control of Moscow and the Orthodox Church of Bessarabia, also autonomous but under the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Tensions between the two churches, always high because of the political orientations they embody, the first toward Moscow and the second toward the West, are rising, with Moldova’s pro-Russian president Igor Dodon saying that Romania has tried to block a visit by Moscow Patriarch Kirill (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2018/10/20/igor_dodon_rol_patriarha_ochen_vazhna/).

That visit albeit shortened to only two days will now begin five days from now During the visit, Kirill is scheduled to visit the northern and southern regions of Moldova as well as meet with Dodon and other officials in Chisinau, Moscow’s Russian Orthodox Russkaya Liniya portal says.

The Metropolitanate of Moldova, a self-administrating part of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was founded in 1813 and currently has “more than 1200 parishes,” the Russian portal says. The Romanian church, it says, appeared on Moldovan territory only after 1991. (In fact, it has a much longer history.)

In the 1990s, the Moldovan government, fearing a church schism, refused to register the latter church, but in 2001, the European Court for Human Rights insisted that it do so, and since that time, there have been two registered Orthodox hierarchies in Moldova, each very much hostile to the other.

There are in fact rumors that people connected with the Bessarabian church plan to organize protests during Kirill’s visit.

Those are especially likely because of an event now slated to take place on Thursday, the day before Kirill arrives in Moldova. On that date, Bartholemew, the Universal Patriarch, will be in Bucharest to dedicate a new Orthodox cathedral. Some expect he will also declare that only the Bessarabian church has the right to the canonical territory of Moldova.

If that happens, such a declaration could lead to a religious and political explosion in Moldova with Moscow seeking to defend its position by relying on the Gagauz, a Turkic but Russian Orthodox nation, and on the hierarchy of the pro-Russian church there and Romania weighing in for the Universal Patriarch and Moldova autocephaly.

The Saudi version of the disappearance and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi seems to change every day or so. The latest is the Saudi government claim that the opposition journalist was killed in a “botched interrogation” at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Or was it a fist-fight? What is laughable is that the Saudi king has placed Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, a prime suspect, in charge of the investigation of Khashoggi’s murder!

Though the official story keeps changing, what is unlikely to change is Washington’s continued relationship with Saudi Arabia. It is a partnership that is in no way beneficial to Americans or the US national interest.

President Trump has promised “severe punishment” if the Saudi government is found to have been involved in Khashoggi’s murder, but he also took off the table any reduction in arms sales to prop up the murderous Saudi war on Yemen. It’s all about jobs, said President Trump. So the Saudi killing of thousands in Yemen can go on. Some murders are more important than others, obviously.

The killing of Khashoggi puts the Trump Administration is in a difficult situation. President Trump views Iran as designated enemy number one. Next month the US Administration intends to impose a new round of sanctions designed to make it impossible for Iran to sell its oil on the international market. To keep US fuel prices from spiking over this move Trump is relying on other countries, especially Saudi Arabia, to pump more and make up the difference. But the Saudis have threatened $400 a barrel oil if President Trump follows through with his promise of “severe punishment” over the killing of Khashoggi.

The Saudis have also threatened to look for friendship in Moscow or even Tehran if Washington insists on “punishing” the regime in Riyadh. For a super-power, the US doesn’t seem to have many options.

What whole mess reveals is just how wise our Founding Fathers were to warn us against entangling alliances. For too many decades the US has been in an unhealthy relationship with the Saudi kingdom, providing the Saudis with a US security guarantee in exchange for “cheap” oil and the laundering of oil profits through the US military-industrial complex by the purchase of billions of dollars in weapons.

This entangling relationship with Saudi Arabia should end. It is unfortunate that the tens of thousands of civilians dead from Yemen to Syria due to Saudi aggression don’t matter as much as the murder of one establishment journalist like Khashoggi, but as one Clinton flack once said, we should not let this current crisis go to waste.

This is not about demanding that the Saudis change their ways, reform their society on the lines of a liberal democracy, or allow more women to drive. The problem with our relationship with Saudi Arabia is not about Saudi Arabia. It is about us. The United States should not be in the business of selling security guarantees overseas to the highest bidder. We are constantly told that the US military guarantees our own safety and so it should be.

No, this is about returning to a foreign policy that seeks friendship and trade with all nations who seek the same, but that heeds the warning of George Washington in his Farewell Address that “a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.” If we care about the United States we must heed this warning. No more passionate attachments overseas. Friendship and trade over all.

This article was published by RonPaul Institute.

By Felix Imonti

As Mao Zedong saw his control over the Communist Party challenged, he unleashed the Cultural Revolution. The Great Leap Forward and other failed economic policies were of little importance. Only his continued leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the survival of the Party as the sole source of power and thought was what Mao considered to be the essence of Chinese society. The Communist Party was the brain and the soul of the people; the state was the muscle.

Watching the violence of the swarming teenagers was the thirteen-year-old Xi Jinping. Today, Xi is applying the lessons learned during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976 to a society known only in the imaginations of George Orwell in 1984 and Aldous Huxley in Brave New World.

XI Jinping has spent forty years working his way from obscurity to the chairmanship of the Chinese Communist Party. What he learned from the past was that the CCP would have to maintain its hold on society in an inflexible ideological vice. That idea is now taking the form of the Social Credit program, which was introduced in 2013 and is to be fully implemented by 2020. Not only is the system intended to hold people in a technical trap, it is also designed to have those who subscribe unquestioningly to the program embrace their prison. Some 1.4 billion people of China are thus advised to pursue their wealth and enjoy their prosperity while ignoring that they are the silent servants of the God Emperor, Xi Jinping.

Xi did not have to invent the means to control the masses. There was a model already designed and tested in the West in the form of Equifax and the other credit rating firms. The Western credit rating forces everyone to comply with standards of financial behavior. Failure to meet these standards can block someone from acquiring a credit card or a loan that will allow for the purchase a car or a house.

Xi Jinping is taking it one vital step further. The person being rated must also fit social standards that apply more directly to political stability. Every aspect of one’s conduct is measured through the flow of data from private and official sources. If one has associates who are not approved by the authorities, their character is applied to everyone connected to the group. Spend too much time playing computer games or out at the local bar and the rating drops. Fail to fulfill one’s obligations at the company or government agency and ratings are slashed.

Failures require punishment to correct undesirable behavior. Access to airline or railway seats can be denied. The higher ranked hotels or restaurants may not want a deadbeat. In the end, it could even cost one a job or deny their children access to a high-ranked school. Maintain a high score and it could enable two high scorers on select web dating sites to find happiness forever more.

What Xi is creating is a society of rigid structures, and he’s extending the system beyond previous frontiers. Chinese students abroad are being forced to join Communist Party cells at their universities, where they are subjected to continued indoctrination and policing. Chinese companies outside of the country must follow Party guidelines, and that is also true for foreign businesses operating in China.  Businesses that ignore the Party dictates could find regulations more harshly enforced and access to vital resources blocked.

Everything describes a leader obsessed with order. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank, and the revived Silk Road that intend to tie China to countries near and far are all based upon similarly rigid structures.  Whether at home or abroad, Chinese cannot forget that Xi is the leader of the party, the party is the ruler of China, and China will dominate the world with the ancient civilization returning to its former prominence as the Middle Kingdom.

Fulfilling Xi Jinping’s dream of a restored China does depend upon maintaining discipline among one billion and four hundred million diverse people. In 2005, there had been concern within the Party ranks about the spread of corruption in a growing sea of riches and the breakdown of central authority. The Party needed an organization man and Xi was the one chosen.

The imposition of the imprisoning net cannot be managed without the cooperation of businesses that collect data on everyone. Furthermore, a critical mechanism for the control is the establishment of a cashless society, a process that is well underway. Five hundred million people are already using their mobile devices to make payments amounting to an estimated ten trillion dollars per annum.

All of the financial activities of the clients of Tencent or Alibaba are available to the government as a part of the social credit system. As these financial giants expand offshore they are creating a conduit into the lives of millions of foreigners. The millions of Chinese living outside of China will find that they are still linked to home through their wallets. Beijing can use that leverage over offshore citizens to promote Chinese interests.

A less subtle extension of power over the people comes in the form of re-education centers that the government calls ‘vocational training centers.’ The UN is reporting that a million Uighurs in mainly Xinjiang Province have been imprisoned for intensive re-education. The U.S. State Department’s 2016 International Religious Freedom Report estimates that there are 650 million Chinese religious believers, which means about half of the population. The Chinese Communist Party has ninety million members who are prohibited from joining any religious group. The Party holds that a citizen cannot be loyal to two masters, and only the Party will lead the nation. There has been an intensification of government attacks on religious institutions.

All of this expansion of control is a sign that the Party is frightened about the possibility that other centers of power will rise in the country. Selecting Xi Jinping as the autocratic ruler is a sign that the Communist Party of China is afraid of the Chinese people.

The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the authors are theirs alone and don’t reflect the official position of Geopoliticalmonitor.com or any other institution.

By Michael Lelyveld

China has eased its winter smog rules as the country faces threats from natural gas shortages and economic pressures, signaling that the push for better air quality may take a back seat to production growth.

On Sept. 27, the newly-named Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued a revised air quality plan for the region surrounding Beijing during the winter, when pollution from coal-fired factories has traditionally combined with emissions from heating systems to produce smog.

Officials have been trying to avoid the mistakes that stirred public anger last winter after the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) banned coal-fired heating in 28 northern cities. The deadlines were set before gas and electricity projects were completed, leaving homes and schools in the cold.

The top planning agency was forced to backtrack last December and lift the coal ban, but not before gas demand soared and prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) hit record highs.

The NDRC vowed it would not repeat the “shortcomings” of last winter’s gas crisis. In August, Vice Minister of Finance Liu Wei said that attempts to convert coal-fired boilers to gas must secure a “matching supply source” from now on.

Last week, Vice Premier Han Zheng repeated the warning, telling local officials it is “absolutely forbidden” to leave residents without heat.

The attempts to control coal use last winter created a long list of consequences.

Seasonal production curbs on steel, along with cement and other high energy users, led to more problems as the market reacted to fears of supply limits by raising prices, providing an incentive to boost production outside the restricted zone.

In July, the cabinet-level State Council said it would expand the smog fight with production limits in 82 cities.

But the new rules for the coming winter suggest that enforcement will not be as strict.

The plan released jointly by central government agencies and six provincial-level regions will turn implementation over to local authorities, who have been told “to avoid the ‘one-size-fits-all’ method when it comes to curtailing the output of polluting industries,” the official Xinhua news agency said.

The rules call for emissions limits to “be strictly implemented on heavily-polluting sectors including thermal power, steel, petrochemicals and cement.”

‘A differentiated approach’

But the plan also urges “a differentiated approach, with companies excelling in pollution control to be exempt from output restrictions.”

The plan does not define emissions that may be considered as “excelling,” leaving the door open to local discretion and production growth.

According to the government’s China.org.cn website, the interagency plan will be implemented in only the original 28 cities, leaving the State Council’s earlier decision on expansion to 82 cities in doubt.

The designated areas include Beijing, Tianjin and cities in Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan provinces, the official English-language China Daily said.

The revised plan targets a three-percent reduction in average concentrations of small smog-forming particulates known as PM2.5 and a similar decrease in the number of heavily polluted days over a six-month period compared with a year before.

The reductions are less burdensome than the five-percent cuts proposed in an earlier version of the plan seen by the South China Morning Post in August.

“In addition, the two targets are well below the cuts of ‘at least 15 percent’ set out in last year’s plan,” the paper said.

The heating season runs from Nov. 15 to March 15, but pollution reduction targets apply to the period lasting from Oct. 1 to March 31.

The government site stressed the tougher aspects of the new rule, saying that localities must formulate three-year action plans to reduce smog and standardize warning systems.

The cities were required to update their analyses of pollution sources by the end of September, and provincial forecasting centers were ordered to acquire seven-day forecasting capabilities.

But other reports pointed to looser requirements.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs, said that this year’s pollution reduction goals are “considerably lower than those of last year,” China Daily reported.

The paper cited last winter’s “hasty gas-for-coal conversion projects and the shutdown of enterprises, which have caused public outcries.”

“This year’s approach is much more gentle and targeted,” Ma said.

The leniency of the new plan is already having an effect on the steel market, which has suffered from years of excess capacity and overproduction. More steel production could trigger further responses from the United States, which slapped tariffs on steel imports from China in August.

“The fear is that China’s steel mills, already operating at elevated run rates, will keep churning out metal over a seasonally weak time for demand,” an analysis by Reuters said. “That risks flooding the domestic market, with the ensuing danger of more Chinese steel spilling out to the rest of the world.”

Cause for concern

Foreign steelmakers may have cause for concern that the smog plan will lead to a price slump, it said.

But the eased restrictions of the new smog rules appear to be driven by forces that the government will find hard to avoid.

The first is criticism of last year’s botched fuel-switching program after photos of freezing school children were posted online.

By shifting decision-making for conversions and factory cutbacks to local officials, the central government may limit the backlash against its own authority, whether the public complains about smog, gas shortages or production shutdowns.

Another reason for less rigid enforcement is the economy, which is already under pressure from the tariff war, whether higher steel production prompts more U.S. penalties or not.

Last week, the government reported economic figures that may heighten concerns.

Growth of gross domestic product fell to 6.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, down from second-quarter growth of 6.7 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported.

The quarterly growth was the lowest in nearly a decade, international news agencies said.

With the new smog-control policy, the central government is walking a tightrope, delicately balanced between cutting pollution and keeping economic growth from falling too far.

For the time being, policymakers appear to be leaning toward the growth side, but interpreting the government’s motives in formulating the final version of the winter plan may be a close call.

“Though concerns over economic growth may be there, I guess the government is trying to step back from the heavy-handed approach that resulted in disruption to energy supplies last year,” said Philip Andrews-Speed, a China energy expert at the National University of Singapore.

The ambitious fuel-switching plan for the last heating season pushed local governments to take “arbitrary short-term measures to meet targets,” Andrews-Speed said.

Whether growth concerns have driven the new policy or not, this year’s anti-smog effort will play out as economic pressures mount.

The latest NBS report suggests that softening in the manufacturing sector could accelerate if smog controls force factory shutdowns over the winter.

Industrial production growth dropped to 5.8 percent in September, dipping from 6.1 percent in August, the NBS said.

The most recent survey for the official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) found a slower rate of expansion in September with a reading of 50.8, down from 51.3 in August. Any figure below 50 would indicate contraction.

But so far, production of crude steel has kept rising through good times and bad, posting a string of monthly output figures over 80 million metric tons through September after topping the mark in May for the first time in history.

A softening of year-to-year growth rates with a 2.7-percent increase in August may even be in doubt, since a calculation based on year-earlier NBS figures shows a gain of 7.6 percent. The agency reported a 6.1-percent increase in production for the first nine months of the year.

Hard to maintain momentum

The momentum may be hard to maintain in the face of economic cooling, tariff pressures and pollution controls, but the transfer of decision-making to local authorities could turn this winter into an open season for industrial growth.

Still, there are signs that provinces are pressing steelmakers to clean up their act.

In Hebei province surrounding Beijing, environmental authorities are requiring all mills to meet stricter emission standards by 2020, Reuters said in a separate report.

The new standards call for PM2.5 emissions to be kept to within 10 micrograms per cubic meter. Concentrations in the province averaged 65 micrograms per cubic meter last year, but readings fell to a low of 31 micrograms in September, Reuters said.

This month, Beijing officials also reported an improvement in PM2.5 readings before the start of the heating season.

In the first three quarters of 2018, the average PM2.5 density declined 16.7 percent from a year earlier to 50 micrograms per cubic meter, the city’s environmental protection bureau said.

Despite the reported readings, smog has returned to Beijing and the surrounding region twice in the past week.

The first bout prompted the city to post a yellow alert, the third-highest in its color-coded warning system.

The second over the past weekend forced 10 cities in Hebei province to issue a second-level orange alert.

Under anti-smog rules, heavy industrial plants are required to lower production by at least 20 percent, Reuters said.

People of color are incarcerated at disproportionately higher rates than White people, and men of all races have higher rates of recidivism. A new study that estimated the effects of risk factors for Black and White men and women found that Black men were reincarcerated more often and more quickly than all others, despite having lower risk scores on nearly all of the variables on a standardized tool that assesses risk.

The study, by researchers at Florida State University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Iowa, appears in Justice Quarterly, a publication of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

“By looking solely at recidivism rates, we don’t consider the heterogeneity of the people released from jails or prisons,” explains Stephanie C. Kennedy, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Connecticut, who coauthored the study. “This view obscures the influence of race and gender on recidivism.”

“In our study, the most potent predictor of recidivism was being a Black male, even though Black men had less contact with the criminal justice system and few of the risk factors traditionally associated with recidivism,” Kennedy adds. “This suggests that beyond individual risk, other factors, including racism and implicit bias, as well as poverty and employment opportunities in the local community, are driving recidivism.”

The study estimated the effects of various risk factors on the time it took 21,462 Black men, White men, Black women, and White women released from North Carolina state prisons from 2000 to 2001 to return to prison. The risk factors included individual-level risk factors drawn from a standardized risk assessment tool used by most state correctional systems.

Risk factors included individuals’ prior convictions, financial situation, marital status, attitude (as provided by an officer’s subjective opinion of the offender’s motivation to change), history of drug addiction, employment in the past year and currently, high school completion or dropout, age of entry, and gender. The researchers removed the gender variable from their risk assessments and calculated the level of risk for recidivism, from minimal/low to high. The study also looked at the type of crime individuals had committed, the total number of offenses, alcohol problems, and mental health diagnoses, as well as whether individuals had children and the size of the county where they were released.

More than 58% of Black men in the study were reincarcerated in a North Carolina state prison within the 8-year follow-up period, compared to fewer than half of the White men and White women, and just over 41% of the Black women released during the same time frame. That occurred even though Black men were less likely to be identified as high risk and had lower scores on all but two risk factors that are thought to drive recidivism–age at intake and marital status.

Moreover, White women were more likely to be identified as high risk (the result of higher number of current offenses; lower rates of high school graduation, past and current employment, and financial self-sufficiency; a greater likelihood of having a history of drug addiction, alcohol problems, or to have been intoxicated at the time of arrest). But they had the lowest rates of recidivism and the longest time to reincarceration of any of the groups examined.

The ways that race and gender influenced each other served as an independent risk factor for Black men, in a way that was not reflected among other groups. The effects of all other risk factors included in the models were statistically insignificant but marginal, suggesting that these risk factors did little to meaningfully predict the likelihood of recidivism.

“In light of our findings, we need to look beyond individual-level risk and begin to explore the individual, community, and policy-level factors–including pervasive racism and increased surveillance–that result in reincarceration for people of color, and specifically for Black men,” suggests Katie Ropes Berry, doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work at Florida State University, who led the study.

“As we move work to end mass incarceration, we need to offer anti-racism training at every level of the criminal justice system as a vehicle for destabilizing deeply ingrained implicit and explicit racial biases. And we need to work toward an equitable system that honors human dignity and ensures public safety.”

Colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence rates across Europe in adults aged 20 to 39 years increased by 6% every year between 2008 and 2016, new research has shown.

Data from 20* European national cancer registries was used to analyse trends in incidence rates of young adults with CRC across Europe over the last 25 years. For colon cancer, incidence rates increased by 1.5% per year between 1990-2008 and, more substantially, by 7.4% annually between 2008-2016. For rectal cancer, incidence rates increased by 1.8% per year from 1990-2016.

In adults aged 40 to 49 years, overall CRC incidence rates increased by 1.4% every year from 2005.

Presenting the research for the first time at UEG Week Vienna 2018, Dr Fanny Vuik explained, “We are aware of investigations in the North American population that demonstrates that colorectal cancer is increasing in young adults. In Europe, however, information until now has been limited and it’s worrying to see the startling rates at which colorectal cancer is increasing in the young.”

Traditionally considered a disease that affects people over the age of 50, CRC is the second most common cancer across Europe, with approximately 500,000 new cases every year and incidence rates higher in men than women. Studies have found that young-onset CRC is often more aggressive and more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage than CRC in older populations.

“The cause for this upward trend is still unknown, although it may be related to increasingly sedentary lifestyles, obesity and poor diets, all of which are known colorectal cancer risk factors”, added Dr Vuik. “Increased awareness and further research to elucidate causes for this trend are needed and may help to set up screening strategies to prevent and detect these cancers at an early and curable stage.”

Strong evidence supports that screening for CRC reduces incidence and mortality rates, although many CRC screening programmes in Europe commence at the ages of 50 and 55. Inequalities in the type of screening offered, as well as participation and detection rates, are currently present throughout the continent. Dr Vuik adds, “The highest increase in incidence was found in adults between 20-29 years of age. Therefore, identifying those young adults at high risk of CRC is essential to ensuring early diagnosis and optimal patient outcomes.”

* The countries included in the research were; Belgium, Catalonia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Computer scientists at the University of California San Diego have developed a new technology that can encode, transform and edit video faster–several orders of magnitude faster–than the current state of the art.

They presented their work at the ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing, Oct. 11 to 13 in Carlsbad, Calif.

The system, called Sprocket, was made possible by an innovative process that breaks down video files into extremely small pieces and then moves these pieces between thousands of servers every few thousands of a second for processing. All this happens in the cloud and allows researchers to harness a large amount of computing power in a very short amount of time. Sprocket was developed and written by CSE graduate students Lixiang Ao and Liz Izhikevich (now a PhD student at Stanford).

SPROCKET doesn’t just cut down the amount of time needed to process video, it is also extremely cheap. For example, two hours of video can be processed in 30 seconds with the system, instead of tens of minutes with other methods, for a cost of less than $1.

“Before, you could get access to a server for a few hours. Now, with cloud computing, anyone can have access to thousands of servers, for fractions of a second, for just a few dollars,” said George Porter, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering here at UC San Diego and one of the lead researchers on the project, as well as computer science professor Geoff Voelker.

This type of parallel computing in the cloud is offered by several big companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

SPROCKET is particularly well suited for image searches within videos. For example, a user could edit three hours of video from their summer vacation in just a few seconds to only include a video that features a certain person.

(An early demo of the technology consisted of editing down the “Infinity War” trailer so it would only feature Thor.)

SPROCKET can do this because it is extremely efficient at moving tiny fractions of video between servers and making sure they’re processed right away. It also makes sure that algorithms have enough context to process each specific video frame.

Child marriage, a recurring phenomenon in Malaysia that permits parents to marry off their offspring with the consent of authorities, is no longer to be allowed under any circumstances, the government has ruled.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has issued a directive to all state authorities that the legal minimum marriage age is now set at 18 for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

It comes after a national outcry following the exposure of a marriage between a 41-year-old Malaysian Muslim man and an 11-year-old Thai girl in June.

Until now, the minimum legal marriage age for Muslims was 18 for men and 16 for women. For non-Muslims, it was 18 for both men and women.

While Muslims and non-Muslims in the multicultural country are governed by different marriage laws, child marriage had been permitted under special circumstances under both civil and Islamic laws. As Muslim marriages are governed by Islamic laws enacted to fit social norms in each state, different versions of the law were practiced around the country.

Child marriage required the approval of a Sharia court judge for Muslims or the chief minister of the state for non-Muslims. Marriage of non-Muslims below 16 years was banned but Muslims were exempt until now.

According to studies, child marriage is not a fringe issue in Malaysia. Government statistics revealed that nearly 15,000 marriages involving underage children were reported from 2007 to 2017, consisting of 10,000 cases involving Muslims and 4,999 cases involving non-Muslims, according to Hannah Yeoh, a deputy minister.

The government figures, though not comprehensive, revealed that of the child marriages that occurred between 2013 and 2017, Sarawak recorded the highest number at 918, followed by Sabah and Kelantan at 793.

The outcry over the 11-year-old’s marriage led Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, the head of Islam in Selangor, one of Malaysia’s most developed states, to decree that the marriageable age for Muslim males and females in the state would be raised from 16 to 18.

While it is the prerogative of each of Malaysia’s 13 state governments to process the directive, the decree of the sultan, one of the guardians of Islam, is influential.

The swift move by the government to address the issue follows a visit last month by Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, U.N. special rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, when she urged the authorities to protect the rights of minors, particularly young girls.

Married underage girls were at higher risk of domestic violence and were often denied the chance to pursue an education, she told reporters.

“By marrying them, you are denying these girls their basic human rights,” de Boer-Buquicchio said.

The lack of protection for children in Malaysia is also seen in the number of sex abuse cases, deputy minister Yeoh said when advocating for transparency in data and statistics.

“We are dealing with a generation of cases swept under the carpet,” she said while warning that victims could be desensitized to crimes without counseling and intervention.

She said the government is holding discussions with stakeholders including doctors and childcare operators to draft standard guidelines and regulations on offenses against children and also to build a registry of offenders.

Some conservative Islamic leaders have argued that early marriage provides an answer to social ills like premarital sex and pregnancies out of wedlock.

By Dennis Jay Santos and Ahmad Syamsudin

The ASEAN bloc and its dialogue partners wrapped up defense talks in Singapore at the weekend by agreeing to establish guidelines against unplanned air encounters and to boost anti-terror cooperation, officials said Monday.

Meanwhile on Monday, about 1,000 naval personnel from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) embarked on their first joint maritime training exercises with the Chinese military off China’s southern coast and far from disputed areas in the South China Sea, news reports said.

During meetings in Singapore that ended on Saturday, the 10-nation regional bloc adopted an Indonesia-driven initiative dubbed “Our Eyes,” a platform to share intelligence in countering violent extremism across Southeast Asia, according to Jakarta’s defense ministry.

“Today, the region recognizes that international cooperation, especially in terms of exchange and information sharing, is an important element in combating terrorism,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The increasing threat from an IS nucleus in the Philippines, along with the threat of foreign combatants returning from the theatre in the Middle East, Africa and Asia has led to the need to work together in the fields of defense, military, law enforcement and intelligence to be far more important than ever,” it said, using the acronym for the extremist group that calls itself Islamic State.

The United States, New Zealand and Japan have expressed interest in officially joining the “Our Eyes” initiative, and have pledged assistance in developing it.

The Indonesian foreign ministry said the initiative was meant to “revolutionize” counter-terrorist efforts by Southeast Asian countries. The joint effort is envisioned to increase cooperation among intelligence branches of each country, as well as block militant-recruitment efforts.

Already, joint patrols involving the Philippine and Indonesian navies have lowered the terror threat in the region, the ministry said.

“There will be challenges to work together, but the desire of government leaders to overcome traditional barriers and expand international cooperation has the potential to change the counter-terrorism landscape in Asia, by preventing incidents like Marawi from happening again,” the statement said.

Last year, pro-IS militants led by Filipino Isnilon Hapilon laid siege to the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines, provoking a five-month battle that left an estimated 1,200 people dead, mostly militants.

Faced with seemingly unending enemy firepower, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte accepted help from the United States and Australia, which provided intelligence data that proved vital to winning the battle of Marawi. It was officially declared over on Oct. 23, 2017.

But dozens of enemy fighters escaped the city and, according to Philippine intelligence officials, they have been recruiting younger fighters in remote areas of the south.

Air guidelines

In Singapore, the ASEAN defense ministers as well as their counterparts from other countries agreed in principle to adopt what is perhaps the world’s first multilateral set of “guidelines for air military encounters,” according to a joint statement issued Saturday.

All the countries “agreed to explore the collective application” of these guidelines, which are meant to enhance aviation safety “in light of increased congestion in the air,” the statement said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Wei Fenghe, were among eight defense chiefs from outside ASEAN to back the guidelines “in principle,” a joint ministerial statement said.

Ng Eng Hen, Singapore’s defense minister, said the new guidelines were aimed at preventing any escalation of confrontations in the South China Sea.

“You can have a gung-ho pilot who switches off everything and decides, ‘I’m going to intimidate,’” Eng told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse. “That would be a disaster.”

The agreement is the latest effort to avoid military confrontations in the South China Sea, amid concerns over Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the maritime region.

China had agreed earlier with ASEAN to a draft “code of conduct” to govern actions in the region, regarded as a positive development by many despite Beijing’s ongoing militarization efforts in the sea, where China and some other countries have contending territorial claims.

These developments have worried the United States, which has recently conducted freedom of navigation flights and sailing in the South China Sea, a major trade route where more than U.S. $5 trillion moves through each year.

Joint drills

On Saturday, meanwhile, China kicked off a 10-day trilateral training exercise with Thailand and Malaysia in the Strait of Malacca off Malaysia, marking the first time the three nations held military drills together at the gateway to the Indian Ocean.

According to a statement from Malaysia’s defense ministry, Malaysian participants in the drills on Monday demonstrated survival skills and shared their experience about trapping wild animals. Participants also went through sniper training, it said.

The Strait of Malacca is a chokepoint between the southern Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. An official in Indonesia, whose Sumatra island borders the Strait of Malacca, said authorities were aware of the trilateral exercise.

At the same time on Monday, the Singaporean Navy and the People’s Liberation Army Navy co-hosted the first-ever naval drills between China and all 10 ASEAN countries that kicked off near the Chinese port city of Zhanjiang, according to reports.

The exercises off China will go on till Oct. 27 and involve more than 1,000 personnel from the Chinese navy and navies of all ASEAN states, the Singaporean Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

The exercises would “enhance friendship and confidence between ASEAN member states’ navies and the People’s Liberation Army Navy and the U.S. Navy,” the defense ministers of the regional bloc said in a joint statement, according to the Associated Press.

Zam Yusa in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.

The Trump administration is considering reshaping some federal policies to define gender according to a person’s biology and genitalia, according to a new memo from the Department of Health and Human Services.

The department is seeking a definition based “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.”

If adopted, the changed definition would clarify the application of Title IX, the 1972 civil rights law prohibiting gender-based discrimination in educational programs that receive government funding.

This change would be a departure from practices developed during the Obama administration, which recognize a person’s gender based on their own interpretation or identity rather than their chromosomal makeup or birth sex.

A 2010 “Dear Colleague” letter from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights noted that “gender based harassment” could include harassment based upon the “actual or perceived” “gender identity” of a person. A question-and-answer document from the same office, issued in 2014, stated that sex-based discrimination under Title IX extended to discrimination based on “gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.”

If the proposed changes come into effect, sex would be defined as “a person’s status as male or female based on the immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.”

The sex on a person’s original birth certificate would serve as “definitive proof” of their sex, with exceptions for those who can provide “reliable genetic evidence” that states otherwise.

Approximately 1 out of every 1,500 to 2,000 births have abnormal sex chromosomes other than the typical XX for females and XY for males. The most common of these is Klinefelter Syndrome, which means that a male has two X chromosomes in addition to a Y chromosome. Many men with Klinefelter Syndrome are unaware they have the condition.

In the United States, an estimated 1.4 million people identify as “transgender,” self-identifying as a gender other than the one recorded at birth. Some such people have undergone surgery or hormonal treatments to physically resemble their gender of self-identification.

Critics of the proposed changes have argued that they would exclude those identifying as “transgender” from protection by Title IX and other anti-discrimination measures. Supporters of the proposal contend that it merely ensures such laws are applied to the whole population based on objective criteria and not subjective self-identification.

The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to present a version of the new policy to the Department of Justice before the end of the year. If the Justice Department considers the revised definition legally viable and enforceable, HHS can then approve and implement it as policy across a range of government agencies involved with Title IX enforcement.

People who need to make a good impression on dates or in job interviews should concentrate on communicating the hard work and effort behind their success, rather than just emphasising their talent, new research from Cass Business School has found.

In Impression (Mis) Management When Communicating Success, published in Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Dr Janina Steinmetz investigated how people attribute their success on dates and job interviews, and whether these attributions were successful with their audiences.

She found – contrary to what many of us think – that success alone may not be enough to make a positive impression. Instead, she suggests that people should ensure they talk about the struggle behind their story to appear more likeable.

Dr Steinmetz conducted three experiments with participants from the United States and the Netherlands, with people from all age ranges (18-75) and with an even gender balance between male and female. Two of the experiments emulated job interviews (using working adults) and one emulated a date (using students). Participants were asked to imagine themselves in the role of the impression manager (interviewee or ‘sharer’ on a date) or the receiver (interviewer or ‘listener’ on a date).

The ‘impression manager’ was asked to speak about themselves in in a positive way and feedback was given by the receiver detailing what they wanted to hear more about – the talent and success, or the hard work and effort behind it.

All three experiments found the impression managers overemphasised their talents and successes and did not share the effort and hard work behind them – something that the receivers wanted to hear about.

Dr Steinmetz said it was clear that communicating success and talent in job interviews or on dates is important but it is just as important to tell the story of the hard work and effort behind it to create a warmer, positive, more relatable first impression.

“A success story isn’t complete without the hard work and explanation of why we were successful. Did the success come easy, thanks to one’s talents, or was it attained through hard work? Both of these attributions can be part of successful self-promotion, but my research shows that emphasising effort is more likely to garner a positive impression and people really want to know the story behind your success.

“For example, if you’re on a date and talking about a marathon that you recently ran, perhaps talk about all the training that helped you to cross the finish line. Or, if you’re in a job interview and are talking about a successful project that you led to completion, include a few details about the challenges along the way, and how you overcame them.”