#Rumor has it Putin has fled the city

[haveievermentioned]

It's an Oligarch's PMC doing it.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Surging global food prices (Washington Post) A year of coronavirus pandemic saw a pot of jollof rice grow steadily more expensive in the Nigerian suburb of Nyanya. At Nyanya Market, near Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the price of the rice that forms the base for the dish went up by 10 percent. A small tin of tomatoes? Twenty-nine percent costlier. And the onions? Their price jumped by a third, according to a Nigerian research firm. Surging consumer food prices are a local problem—and a global one. In Russia, an increase in pasta prices left President Vladimir Putin boiling. In India, it’s cooking oil, and in Lebanon, bread. In meat-loving Argentina, the cost of some cuts of beef has doubled, and beef consumption is at an all-time low. The issue has made headlines the world over, including in the United States, where inflation has climbed to 5 percent, the highest level in 13 years. “Even relatively well-off people complain about how food prices are seemingly on an unstoppable tear,” said Feyi Fawehinmi, a Nigerian author and analyst based in Britain.

Hackers demand $70 million to unlock businesses hit by sprawling ransomware attack (Washington Post) A hacking group that experts said was behind the sprawling ransomware attack that hit hours before the beginning of the July Fourth holiday weekend is demanding $70 million to unlock the thousands of businesses affected by the hack. REvil, the group that was behind the attack on meat processor JBS, posted the demand on a dark-Web site associated with the group. The group wants the funds in bitcoin, a popular cryptocurrency, and said if it receives the money it will publish a “decryptor key,” or a computer code that will unlock the victims’ files. The attack was carried out through software that helps businesses manage their computer systems, made by Miami-based firm Kaseya. On its website, the company said “fewer than 1,500 downstream businesses,” had been affected.

20 years after 9/11, lawsuit against Saudis hits key moment (AP) As the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approaches, victims’ relatives are pressing the courts to answer what they see as lingering questions about the Saudi government’s role in the attacks. A lawsuit that accuses Saudi Arabia of being complicit took a major step forward this year with the questioning under oath of former Saudi officials, but those depositions remain under seal and the U.S. has withheld a trove of other documents as too sensitive for disclosure. The information vacuum has exasperated families who for years have tried to make the case that the Saudi government facilitated the attacks. Past investigations have outlined ties between Saudi nationals and some of the airplane hijackers, but have not established the government was directly involved. The Saudi government has denied any connection to the attacks. But the question has long vexed investigators and is at the heart of a long-running lawsuit in Manhattan on behalf of thousands of victims. The issue gained traction not only because 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi—as was Osama bin Laden, the mastermind—but also because of suspicions they must have had help navigating Western society given their minimal experience in the U.S.

Grasshopper Population Jump (Guardian) Deep drought, excessive heat, and wildfires aren’t all that’s threatening lives and livelihoods in the American West. Sweltering conditions are ideal for grasshopper survival, from hatching eggs to adulthood. The ravenous insects are proliferating, arriving in swarms so dense it seems the earth is moving. They’re covering roads and fields, pelting ATV riders, and steadily devouring grains and grass to the torment of farmers and ranchers. They compete with cattle for tough-to-find wild forage, and cost tens of thousands of dollars in lost crops and associated costs. One cattle rancher in a small community in southern Oregon recalled seeing grasshopper bands eat 1,000 acres a day and cover the ground like snow. “I can only describe grasshoppers in expletives,” he said. “They are a scourge of the Earth … They just destroy the land, destroy the crops. They are just a bad, bad predator.” When grasshoppers hatch, they’re so tiny about 50 can fit on a coin the size of a quarter. They’re susceptible to pathogens, brutal winters, and starvation while young, so normally, most would die off before reaching adulthood. But thanks to warmer and drier winters that favored survival, grasshopper populations began ballooning in spring 2020. “The biggest biomass consumer in the country are not cattle, are not bison. They are grasshoppers,” said an entomologist and agricultural scientist who works for Oregon’s department of agriculture. “They eat and eat from the day they get born until the day they die. That’s all they do.”

Four-day week 'an overwhelming success' in Iceland (BBC) Trials of a four-day week in Iceland were an "overwhelming success" and led to many workers moving to shorter hours, researchers have said. The trials, in which workers were paid the same amount for shorter hours, took place between 2015 and 2019. Productivity remained the same or improved in the majority of workplaces, researchers said. A number of other trials are now being run across the world, including in Spain and by Unilever in New Zealand. In Iceland, the trials run by Reykjavík City Council and the national government eventually included more than 2,500 workers, which amounts to about 1% of Iceland's working population. A range of workplaces took part, including preschools, offices, social service providers, and hospitals. Many of them moved from a 40 hour week to a 35 or 36 hour week, researchers said.

US left Afghan airfield at night, didn’t tell new commander (AP) The U.S. left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base’s new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said. “We (heard) some rumor that the Americans had left Bagram ... and finally by seven o’clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram,” Gen. Mir Asadullah Kohistani, Bagram’s new commander said. Kohistani insisted the Afghan National Security and Defense Force could hold on to the heavily fortified base despite a string of Taliban wins on the battlefield. Meanwhile, in northern Afghanistan, district after district has fallen to the Taliban. In just the last two days hundreds of Afghan soldiers fled across the border into Tajikistan rather than fight the insurgents. On display on Monday during was a massive facility, the size of a small city, that had been exclusively used by the U.S. and NATO. The sheer size is extraordinary, with roadways weaving through barracks and past hangar-like buildings. There are two runways and over 100 parking spots for fighter jets known as revetments because of the blast walls that protect each aircraft. One of the two runways is 12,000 feet (3,660 meters) long and was built in 2006. There’s a passenger lounge, a 50-bed hospital and giant hangar size tents filled with supplies such as furniture. Kohistani said the U.S. left behind 3.5 million items, all itemized by the departing U.S. military. They include tens of thousands of bottles of water, energy drinks and military ready made meals, known as MRE’s.

Debris from missing plane found on Russian Far East Kamchatka peninsula (BBC) Debris from a passenger plane carrying 28 people which went missing in the Russian Far East on Tuesday has been found, officials say. The An-26 aircraft lost contact with air traffic control shortly before it was due to land in the settlement of Palana, in the north of the remote Kamchatka peninsula. It is thought unlikely that anyone survived the crash. Unconfirmed reports say it hit a rock as it was coming in to land. It is thought that it then crashed on the coast.

In Myanmar, the military and police declare war on medics (AP) The clandestine clinic was under fire, and the medics inside were in tears. Hidden away in a Myanmar monastery, this safe haven had sprung up for those injured while protesting the military’s overthrow of the government. But now security forces had discovered its location. In Myanmar, the military has declared war on health care—and on doctors themselves, who were early and fierce opponents of the takeover in February. Security forces are arresting, attacking and killing medical workers, dubbing them enemies of the state. With medics driven underground amid a global pandemic, the country’s already fragile healthcare system is crumbling. “The junta is purposely targeting the whole healthcare system as a weapon of war,” says one Yangon doctor on the run for months, whose colleagues at an underground clinic were arrested during a raid. “We believe that treating patients, doing our humanitarian job, is a moral job….I didn’t think that it would be accused as a crime.” Myanmar is now one of the most dangerous places on earth for healthcare workers, with 240 attacks this year—nearly half of the 508 globally tracked by the World Health Organization. That’s by far the highest of any country.

HK leader says ‘ideologies’ pose security risk, teenagers need to be monitored (Reuters) Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday “ideologies” posed risks to national security and urged parents, teachers and religious leaders to observe the behaviour of teenagers and report those who break the law to the authorities. The financial hub has taken a swift authoritarian turn since China’s imposition of a sweeping national security law last year and changes to its political system to reduce democratic participation and oust people deemed disloyal to Beijing. “For a long time, citizens have been exposed to wrong ideas, such as achieving justice through illegal means,” Lam told reporters, adding that national security risks stemmed not only from “public order” acts, but also from ideology. About an hour after Lam spoke, police said they had arrested nine people, including six secondary students, on suspicion of terrorist activities. The city has been polarised since protesters took to the streets in 2019 demanding greater democracy and accountability for what activists called police violence. Authorities have said the protests were fuelled by foreign forces and exposed risks to national security. Since the security law was introduced, the most prominent government opponents have been jailed or fled abroad. Critics say the legislation has crushed the city’s wide-ranging rights and freedoms, while supporters say it has restored stability.

The Great Escape (Guardian) An Australian woman has been fined $2,500 after kicking down a door and scaling two hotel balconies in order to get out of quarantine. Claiming she simply wanted to go to her mother’s house in Cairns, the 22-year-old pleaded guilty before a Queensland court for failing to comply with the public health mandate. The woman initially tested negative for Covid-19 when she entered quarantine, but the results of her second test are not yet known. The court ordered her to pay a $2,500 fine and return to hotel quarantine on Tuesday.

Smugglers are partly behind Lebanon’s energy crisis (Washington Post) The Lebanese armed forces have lately stepped up their border patrols amid rising public fury over the smuggling of fuel to Syria in the middle of what is Lebanon’s most severe fuel crisis in its history. Lebanon’s worsening financial meltdown has been accompanied by a dire shortage of imported fuel. Roads in cities like Beirut and Tripoli are now lined with cars queuing for hours to get their allotted amount of gasoline, at most a third of a tank. The waits are so long that people order food delivered to cars. Tensions are so high that scuffles have become normal. At least six shootings have taken place at gas stations over the past two weeks. Taxis and Ubers are disappearing. Warnings abound of valet attendants siphoning fuel from cars they park. Yet smugglers have discovered there’s good money to be made by buying gasoline in Lebanon at the heavily subsidized price and then selling it on the black market in Syria, which has a debilitating fuel crisis of its own. Smuggling across the 250-mile border is not new, with an active illegal trade in both directions that includes arms, drugs, cigarettes, foodstuffs and people. The heightened campaign to stem the flow of gasoline across the border is proving no more successful than earlier efforts to stop other types of smuggling.

[newstfionline]

Turkey faces perilous mission in northern Syria—and possible disaster if it fails

By Erin Cunningham, Washington Post, September 22, 2018

ISTANBUL--As the chief backer of Syria’s embattled opposition, Turkey now faces a perilous task. It must disarm its rebel allies in Syria’s Idlib province, under a new agreement with Russia, and eliminate the hardcore jihadists in their midst.

If not, Syrian and allied Russian forces have threatened an all-out assault to retake the territory--a battle that aid agencies say would be the most devastating of the war. The cost to Turkey itself could be immense.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, announced an 11th-hour plan on Sept. 17 to avert the bloodshed, giving Turkey more time to persuade its proxies to disarm. Under the pact, Turkish and Russian troops would patrol a demilitarized zone--about nine to 12 miles deep and free of extremists and heavy weapons--and eventually open Idlib’s highways to traffic.

Idlib’s roughly 3 million residents may have a reprieve, but the fate of the province remains uncertain. It represents the opposition’s final stronghold in Syria after nearly eight years of conflict, and the stakes for Turkey are high because it borders the province and has troops stationed there.

“Turkey’s interests are enmeshed in Idlib’s in a way that makes Turkey exceptionally vulnerable,” said Sam Heller, a Beirut-based analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Turkey projects influence by helping keep Idlib in opposition hands, and this, Heller said, “secures Turkey more of a foothold in the running negotiations for Syria’s political future.” Turkey’s presence in the province also forces Russia, which is the dominant military power in Syria, to take heed of Ankara’s interests.

But Turkey is also dangerously exposed. “There are genuinely disastrous implications for Turkey if Idlib were to collapse,” Heller said.

A battle for Idlib could send millions of new refugees toward the border, which officials fear would stir social and political upheaval inside Turkey.

More than 3 million Syrian refugees already live in Turkey, and while “there are very few issues that unite most Turks, one of them is opposition to Syrian refugees,” said Soner Cagaptay, author of “The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey.”

As rumors of an offensive swirled in recent weeks, more than 30,000 people fled to different parts of Idlib, the United Nations said. Some of them returned home recently.

The Turkish government is also worried that an influx of displaced Syrians could be infiltrated by hardcore militants, leaving Turkish towns and cities--and even countries in Europe--vulnerable to extremist attacks.

There is the risk that “armed radical groups that resent Ankara’s mediation efforts will punish Turkey by launching terrorist attacks in Turkey,” Metin Gurcan, a former Turkish military adviser, wrote in a column for the online news portal Al-Monitor.

Turkey has long supported anti-government rebels in Syria and invested heavily in Idlib province with troops and military equipment.

Turkey has recently reinforced its observation posts in Idlib, established as part of an earlier agreement with Russia and Iran, deploying tanks, commandos and multiple rocket-launching systems, Gurcan said. The aim is to demonstrate Turkey’s commitment to Idlib and enhance its defense against militant attacks, Gurcan said.

The agreement reached last week, while short on specifics, “has bought more time so that diplomats, politicians, can still do their job and avert what still may be very bad developments for civilians,” a senior United Nations official, Jan Egeland, told reporters in Geneva.

“This is not a peace deal, this is an ‘aversion of whole-scale war’ deal,” he said. But the agreement halted what “seemed to be a relentless countdown” to conflict, he said, even if the message U.N. officials were receiving from both Turkey and Russia is that “we are still working, ourselves, on the details.”

Turkey now faces a tight--and some say unrealistic--deadline to demobilize allied rebels and persuade al-Qaeda-linked groups to give up the fight.

The document signed by Putin and Erdogan imposes an Oct. 10 deadline for all heavy weapons--including tanks, mortars and artillery systems--to be removed from the horseshoe-shaped zone. And by Oct. 15, all designated terrorist groups must be cleared from the area, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate and the largest armed faction in Idlib.

The agreement “puts hard dates” on Turkey to demobilize its partners and “handle HTS,” Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, wrote on Twitter. “The dates come fast.”

HTS, which has about 10,000 fighters, called the agreement an attempt to “weaken the mujahideen” by disarming their ranks.

“Where will the terrorists from Idlib go? What are they going to do there?” wrote veteran Turkish foreign affairs columnist Sami Kohen, questioning the deal’s wisdom in Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper Friday.

“Will they give up their actions and agree to be integrated into the Syrian society?” Kohen asked. “A more pessimistic possibility is that the terrorist groups refuse to abandon their weapons and positions and resist the Turkish soldiers.”

If Turkey fails to persuade its rebel allies to comply with the deal, they could become even more belligerent.

A spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Liberation Front, an opposition umbrella coalition in Idlib, said rebel groups remained on “high alert.”

“I don’t think that Turkey will give anything” to Russia in negotiations, the spokesman, Capt. Naji Mustafa, said. “Turkey has been supportive of the Syrian revolution since the beginning.”

But, he added, “Turkey knows that if a military operation took place, the people in Idlib would not go back to areas under regime control. They will try to go to Turkey. And Turkey does not want that.”