Heavy rains and the melting of the snow have given new life to the reservoir. The Sea of Galilee supplies the inhabited centers and allows the irrigation of many crops. In the critical period it had dropped to 214 meters below sea level. The waters lap the Capernaum convent. The work of the friars committed to clearing the banks.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - The level of the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main source of fresh water, has been steadily rising for a few months, so much so that it has reached a height that has not been recorded for over 16 years. As the friars of the Custody confirm on terrasanta.net, this is information of primary importance for a water reserve of strategic importance, because it supplies the centers of the region and allows the irrigation of many crops.

Brother Luca Panza, Franciscan of the Custody of the Holy Land, guardian of the Capernaum convent, confirms "the abundant rains and the fact that the connecting dam has not been opened" with the Jordan River. He continues: "Days of heavy storms have damaged the banks, part of the work of this period is to bring new land and rebuild them. This year the level of the lake has increased by four meters, and we have to reckon with it. "

Located in Galilee, the basin is 160 km2 large and is a religious symbol for Christians and a place of pilgrimage for Jews. In recent years the waters had recorded a retreat, so much so that between 2017 and 2018 the "Sea of Galilee" touched the lowest point at minus 214 meters.

The agricultural production of bananas, which requires huge quantities of water, are among the causes of the decline. The crisis is compounded by the constant draining by Israeli authorities, which has touched 400 million cubic meters per year, and the low levels of precipitation over the past decade.

Population growth is also a factor, which has led to a decrease of one centimeter per day. The drop in water has alarmed environmentalists and experts, because it directly affects the natural environment and causes an increase in salinity, endangering flora and fauna.

Today the state of Israel has limited the drawdown to 40 million cubic meters per year. After all, water is a very precious asset and only a prudent management policy and a collaboration between entities and nations will be able to save the Middle East region, still at risk of crisis.

The last two rainy winters and the melting of the snow on the Golan peaks should contribute to raising the water levels even more which, for the first time since 1992, has exceeded less than 209 meters, with the water (in the photos) having reached the edges and banks.

The rising of the lake waters, however, puts at risk the sanctuaries of the Capernaum area, especially that of the primacy of Peter in Tabga (see photo), one of the most loved and visited places in the Holy Land seen in the past two years by an average of 5 thousand tourists a day, with peaks of 6500.

Today the place of worship is closed to visitors, in the context of the rules for the containment of the new coronavirus pandemic. Not having to deal with "the large numbers of pilgrims", underlines friar Luca, "our service is now to safeguard and protect the place". We are, however, continuing to work on improving the site. We will be ready - he concludes - for the arrival of new pilgrims, which we hope will happen soon ".

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HOLY LAND Levels of Sea of Galilee rise, a strategic water resource for the region - AsiaNews

Injured koalas and other native animals on the Gold Coast will receive enhanced care, thanks to new funding.

Nerang-based conservation group Watergum has received $13,000 from Landcare Australia's $300,000 Bushfire Recovery Grants program.

Fodder farms are plantations where displaced and injured wildlife can recover following medical treatment

Aim is to revegetate areas to provide links between pockets of koala habitats

Watergum calling on greater involvement in koala conservation efforts

Executive officer Rosalinde Brinkeman said the funding was "absolutely enormous" to their cause in helping native animals in the city.

"It's really important to be able to look after koalas and other native mammals," she said.

The money will be used to install a new fodder farm at Country Parkside Parklands, which will include planting 400 trees.

Watergum also works with other local councils and governments across Australia to spread awareness about the plight of injured and displaced animals.

"Our work involves a lot of community engagement through citizen science, revegetation and regeneration of natural areas ... so a whole lot of things," she said.

"This fodder farm will be perfect for our revegetation of areas."

"It is so important to provide leaf for overnight emergency care koalas and other native mammals as well as native mammals in care once they have been released from the wildlife hospitals," Ms Brinkeman said.

According to the group, more koalas and native animals are being displaced due to rapid development and deforestation.

"If you take out one big tree, it has multiple hollows in it which provides habitat for multiple animals at the same time," Ms Brinkeman said.

"You take out a lot of homes for a lot of animals and you can't just replace it (easily) by planting a new tree."

A tree may take up to 50 years or more to bring it to the same level and protection as the old tree it replaced.

However, Ms Brinkman said the topic of balancing rapid growth and conservation could be sensitive for some.

"We just need to make sure which areas need to be prioritized and which areas we need for our wildlife," she said.

"Most importantly, we need connectivity. We need reserves and parks to be connected to each other so animals can move around."

She urged all Gold Coast residents to do their part if they see an injured animal in their neighbourhood.

"Just look around you. If you walk around and see an injured animal, call the wildcare hotline so people can come and rescue those animals," she said.

The group also encourages people to enter submissions to new development projects if they're concerned about its environmental impact.

A spokesperson for the Gold Coast City Council said their Koala Conservation Plan recognised the importance of conserving the local population.

"We can help mitigate threats to koalas on the Gold Coast, monitor our local koala populations and engage with and empower our community to help protect koalas," she said.

Developers are required to meet conditions to manage land clearing and minimize impacts on the population.

"The city expects full compliance by developers in regards to those measures," she said.

Planting will begin once COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.

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Gold Coast fodder farm to help sick and injured koalas and other native wildlife - ABC Local

TobagoNewsday3 Days AgoWalkers Reserve, a sand-quarry rehabilitation site in Barbados fully rehabilitated with the establishment of an array of fruit crop and plant life. -

Dr Anjani Ganase has referred to the green economy and the blue economy as appropriate for small islands. Here, she explains the concepts.

The green economy is an economy that is aligned with the health of the environment. It is based on the deep understanding that human beings are fundamentally reliant on the environment for lives and livelihoods. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, our healthcare, are dependent on our natural ecosystems. Unfortunately, at the moment we do not budget environmental degradation carbon emissions, land clearing, chemical discharge into human activities. To our detriment, we bear the brunt of the impact; annually over three million people worldwide die from air pollution (WHO); and we are using way too much resources without replenishment. To shift to a green economy, we need to first reduce excessive or inefficient consumption of natural resources by instilling more sustainable practices and infrastructure through a better understanding of our planets ecosystems. For many who live on islands and coasts, this concept extends to the blue economy, which is the sustainable use of oceans and marine resources.

A member of the rehabilitation crew on Walker's Reserve. -

The transition to green and blue may seem overwhelming because we believe it requires a complete 180 degree change in our jobs and lifestyles. This is not the case. Rather, it requires national and global support for implementing policies for best practices in curbing environmental and health impact in the sectors of food and agriculture, energy, manufacturing, technology and transport, all sectors which extract from the natural world. In 2012, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reviewed the opportunities presented by the green economy. Lets focus on agriculture and forestry as the largest employer globally, yet it draws the lowest revenue. Let us also consider that the practices of modern agriculture make it a major emitter of greenhouse gases; it is also now extremely vulnerable to climate changes and the pressure of increased production as the population continues to increase.

Green agriculture and agroforestry

To feed the worlds billions, we need to work smarter. The agricultural industry is not green. It needs considerable revamp of regulations and the implementation of supporting green infrastructure to allow the farmer to work lands that are naturally enriched and supplied by stable water sources. Going green in agriculture means a shift from large-scale monocultures that utilise unsustainable clearing practices, including slash and burn, and improper soil management with a high dependency on fertilisers and pesticides. How do we make the shift?

Workers at Walker's Reserve plant trees to rehabilitate it. -

The ILO has identified techniques for developing green agriculture. Firstly, techniques in soil fertility/ plant nutrient management refer to the use of organic compostable plant and animal waste fertilisation and crop diversification where crops that input nutrients into the soil are grown with other crops instead of synthetic fertilisers. Let us start with understanding the micro-ecology of soils and develop the scientists to provide knowledge of soil composition and ecology. We need to appreciate the microbes and organisms that maintain soil structure to improve productivity of certain plants. Building on soil, we turn to efficient and sustainable water management through irrigation technology, improving rainfall collection but also determining crop suitability during times of drought or flood conditions, either through selective breeding of plants or landscaping.

Other avenues of opportunity include crop and livestock diversification, biological plant and animal health management and appropriate mechanisation. There are methods of permaculture or regenerative agriculture where an array of crops that complement each others environments are used, similar to what is seen in nature. For example, the inclusion of banana plants and rubber trees on cocoa estates to enrich the soil and shade the cocoa trees. Livestock integration encourages the farming of crops and livestock in synchrony; examples of methods include silvo-pastoral systems where animal grazing is carried out among trees fruit, nuts, and timber crops. Significantly, green agriculture encourages more efficient farming on smaller scales that have lower impact.

Walkers Reserve in Barbados at the beginning of the rehabilitation process installing irrigation systems and plants. -

Let us also consider agro-forestry. While the primary goal of forestry is the protection and management of our natural stocks, forestry can go beyond traditional conservation tactics, and include active rehabilitation and reforestation of retired agricultural lands, quarries and mines. These programmes can be funded through taxes on resource extraction and enforced by environmental law. Agroforestry can then be developed on rehabilitated lands for timber or orchards. Government must ensure proper management and certification processes. Other offshoot opportunities of a well-functioning forestry division include eco-tourism. Creating a national park for low-impact tourism hiking and camping permits can also contribute to forest health maintenance.

Management of fisheries

An important sector of island ecosystems is fisheries. It is the resource that is most difficult to align with blue or green economic standards, considering that we have over-exploited most of our oceans for hundreds of years and we have limited control of fish stocks beyond our borders. Fisheries need to move beyond a purely extractive enterprise to stock management and farming. Fish stocks are primarily managed through the implementation of marine protected areas. If we implement similar harvest practices based on the knowledge of the life cycle of fish species, we can significantly improve the fishing industry. Fish farming in the simplest form, this means taking care of the nurseries for juvenile fish can subsidise the pressure on wild fish stocks.

Walkers Reserve, a sand-quarry rehabilitation site in Barbados before any rehabilitation was done. PHOTO COURTESY Rahaman-Noronha, Wa Samaki Ecosystems (walkersreserve.com)-

The development of green agriculture and blue fisheries is dependent on a supportive government policy framework to promote sustainable development and reduce ecologically harmful practices. The government will need to implement on land and sea, spatial planning and zonation, tax incentives, permitting and certifications, and recruit a skilled labour force. Skills range from research and development, ocean and environmental engineering, management and labour. The green and blue ventures are most suitable for our island ecosystem where there is limited space for agriculture that does not encroach on the many unique habitats we house.

Ready to change?

Apart from effects on our own health and well-being, the covid19 pandemic is signalling an end to business as we knew it. Shareholders in existing businesses should be anxious to formulate new strategic business plans for at least the next 18 months. How could existing investments buildings and people be speedily converted to catch the rising wave of new island economy. Yes, there will have to be renovations, conversions of existing buildings, retraining of loyal staff, recruitment of young enthusiasm. There will be expenditure and lower revenues for a while. There will be need for belt-tightening. But a vision for a future that is based on health and well-being for our island communities must be worth some effort.

References:

World Health Organization. (2016). Ambient air pollution: A global assessment of exposure and burden of disease.

International Labour Office. (2012). Working towards sustainable development: Opportunities for decent work and social inclusion in a green economy. International Labour Organization.

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The green and blue vision for Tobago - Trinidad News

With Russian flags now flying over abandoned U.S. military bases in Syria, and American soldiers still dying in combat with the Islamic State in Iraq, the terror groups strength may seem hard to gauge. Yet the Russian and American presidents have each suggested at different times that ISIS, as the group is also known, has been eliminated and that it was their respective militaries that had contributed the most to achieve that result. President Donald Trump, for example, effectively announced the groups defeat by U.S. troops on July 16, 2019: We did a great job with the [ISIS] caliphate. We have 100 percent of the caliphate and were rapidly pulling out of Syria, he said at a Cabinet meeting. President Vladimir Putin has made similar comments about the role of Russia and its soldiers. In early December 2017, a few days after the Defense Ministry officially told him that all ISIS gangs on Syrian territory have been destroyed and the territory itself has been liberated, Putin travelled to Syria and addressed Russian troops at the Hmeimim military base, saying that, in a little more than two years, Russias Armed Forces, together with Syrias army, routed the most battleworthy group of international terrorists [there was].

These claims of victory raise at least two important questions: First, to what extent has ISIS been defeated and, second, which country, the United States or Russia, deserves credit for contributing the most to this cause? The short answer would be this: The U.S.-led coalition did far more to clear ISIS out of Iraq and Syria than Russia and its allies; however, even though the terror group no longer controls significant territory in these countries, its fighters continue to carry out deadly attacks there, waging what the Institute for the Study of War recently called a capable insurgency with a global finance network, showing that any purported victory over ISISwhether claimed by Washington or Moscowis extremely fragile.1

While there is little doubt that ISIS had by the summer of 2019 lost control over most, if not all, of its territorial caliphate, it is also clear that the group has not been fully defeated, strategically or militarily. In the past two years we have seen ISIS once again become an insurgency group engaged in hit-and-run tactics and brutal terrorist attacks not only around the globe but also in areas supposedly liberated by U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria. Between the summer of 2018 and late March 2019, ISIS carried out at least 250 attacks in areas outside its control in Syria, according to a New York Times estimate. In Iraq, the numbers seem to be much higher: Research by the Combating Terrorism Center identified 1,271 attacks there by ISIS in the first months of 2018 alone, including a twin suicide bombing in Baghdad that left 38 dead and over 100 wounded. Other notable attacks in Iraq in the past two years have included a bombing at the funeral of anti-ISIS militiamen, which killed 16, a mortar attack on a soccer field near Kirkuk, which killed six, and a minibus bombing last September, which killed 12. This year ISIS fighters have continued the onslaught, killing three Iraqi soldiers with a roadside bomb in April and attacking two Iraqi security posts near the Syrian border in January. Inside Syria itself ISIS most prominent recent attacks include: a series of coordinated suicide bombings in the southwestern region of Suwayda in July 2018, which killed over 200 people; a January 2019 suicide attack at a restaurant frequented by U.S. military personnel in Manbij, which killed 19 people, including four Americans; and three near-simultaneous bombings in Hasakah province in July 2019. This February, according to one Syrian NGO cited by The Media Line news website, ISIS and other groups carried out 53 attacks in SDF territory in the countrys northeast, mostly targeted killings and home invasions in the regions of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa.

In addition to staging attacks, the terror groups fighters and supporters are dispersed across both countries, reconstituting key capabilities since late 2018, according to ISW; a recent Pentagon report concurred, saying that ISISalso known as ISIL and IShas now solidified its insurgent capabilities in Iraq and is also resurgent in Syria. ISIS fighters have taken refuge in Iraqs most forbidding terrain,2where government control is tenuous at best, including mountains and caves, remote desert, orchards, river groves and islands, as well as in destroyed and abandoned villages, according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group, or ICG.3(An attempt to clear ISIS militants out of one such area, a cave complex, in Iraq on March 8 led to this years first U.S. troop fatalities in the anti-ISIS battle.) Likewise, ISIS fighters are present in Syria: in the open expanses of its central Badiya desert, finding shelter in its rocky outcroppings and caves and launching regular attacks against exposed Syrian military positions, but also in Raqqa and Hasakah provinces, where ISIS is believed to have a sophisticated clandestine network and has conducted more complex and ambitious attacks.4According to the Institute for the Study of War,5as of 2019 ISIS had also established a rural network of support on the outskirts of Idlib province, now the last bastion of anti-regime forces in Syria, which Damascus has been trying to retake for months with Russian support. However, while many ISIS militants fled to the province after March 2019, the terror groups presence in Idlib has been low-key, in the words of one analyst, as Idlib is dominated by other jihadist groups, in particular an anti-ISIS coalition called Heiat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. Some of the rebel groups in Idlib have been supported by Turkey, whose intervention in northeastern Syria, coupled with the U.S.s partial withdrawal from the area, has only served to further strengthen ISIS capabilities in this Middle Eastern region, according to a recent Pentagon report.

The research laid out below leaves little doubt that the United States and its allies in the anti-ISIS coalitionkey among them Iraqi troops, Kurdish Peshmerga and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, as well as Syrian Arab fightersplayed a primary role in subduing ISIS, while Russia and its allies played an auxiliary role that contributed only marginally to the terrorist groups defeat. This follows from three factors: (1) that U.S.-led forces dislodged ISIS from more key strongholds and square miles of territory than did Russia; (2) that, despite a major Russian military deployment to Syria beginning in September 2015, Moscows campaigns against ISIS began in earnest only in 2017, when the group had already been severely weakened and was compelled to concentrate its forces on fighting the U.S.-backed SDF advance in eastern Syria; and (3) that, in the words of political analyst Vladimir Frolov, Moscows main goal had never been to fight ISIS but to suppress the armed opposition to [President] Bashar Assads regime, which by fall 2015 had lost control over 70 percent of the countrys territory and was on the verge of military defeat.6Frolovs assessment, likewise voiced by numerous U.S. experts, finds some reflection in the Russian Defense Ministrys own 2017 end-of-year statistics on its Syria campaign, which made no distinction between ISIS facilities/fighters and those of other terrorists and militants.

In terms of clearing territory, it is worth remembering that, at its height in late 2014, ISIS had succeeded in taking control of land in Syria and Iraq covering nearly 40,000 sq. miles with a population of 12 million, according to an estimate by the RAND Corporation. The U.S.-led coalition dislodged ISIS from all the areas the group controlled in Iraq, plus a vast triangle of land in eastern and northern Syriaincluding some of the biggest cities in ISIS grip, such as Mosul (where the groups then leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared the creation of the caliphate in June 2014), Fallujah, Ramadi, Tikrit and Raqqa, which eventually became ISIS capital and main military headquarters. Russia, on the other hand, did not engage militarily against ISIS in Iraq nor did it make other significant contributions to the anti-ISIS effort there, as far as the research for this paper was able to ascertain.7In Syria, however, it is clear that Russia together with its allies on the groundthe pro-government Syrian forces, Iranian-backed militias and Lebanons Hezbollahwrested at least half a dozen areas from ISIS control in the west and center of the country, contributing, albeit marginally, to ISIS defeat.

Though Washington did have one costly CIA program supporting anti-Assad rebels in the civil war, by the fall of 2014 the Obama administration had publicly adopted an ISIL-first strategy, focusing Americas military might on fighting the terror group. Confronted with the threat posed by ISIS victories in Syria and Iraqboth to the stability of the Middle East and to the well-being of citizens regionally as well as globallythe United States built a broad coalition in 2014 to defeat the terrorist organization. Western partners included traditional allies like the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Canada and Australia, as well as many other, minor contributors. (Russia did not take part.) Led by the U.S., this coalition engaged primarily in direct airstrikes against ISIS military targets and strategic bases in Iraq and Syria. It also provided training, intelligence and military assistance to allied forces fighting ISIS on the ground. Several forcesfunded, trained and equipped by the United States and its alliesdid most of the fighting.8In Iraq, these included the countrys official counterterrorism service (also known as the Golden Division), regular armed forces and police, as well as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters of the Kurdistan regional government, or KRG, which operated primarily in northern Iraq. Several Shia militias supported by Iran also helped the Iraqi government fight ISIS on the ground, but they received neither training nor support from the U.S.-led coalition. In Syria, the U.S. and its allies relied on the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces and U.S.-trained Syrian Arab fighters belonging to the Free Syrian Army. The anti-ISIS coalition also involved other countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, which primarily provided airpower support to help defeat ISIS but whose efforts were not determinant.

U.S.-led operations against ISIS began in the autumn of 2014 and achieved their first successes in 2015. In January of that year, U.S.-trained Iraqi forces restored control over the Diyala province in the countrys east, while in April the central Iraqi town of Tikrit was returned to government hands through the efforts of a 30,000-strong coalition of Iraqi government troops, Sunni tribal fighters and Shia militias closely advised by Iranian military commanders (including Qassem Soleimani, the powerful general assassinated by the U.S. in January). Again, the United States did not provide airpower to support these operations, as Washington refused to help the Iranian-backed militias fighting in Iraq.

Only in the autumn of 2015 did the U.S. begin significantly increasing the intensity and range of its airstrikes in Iraq, engaging in systematic attacks against ISIS facilities, command posts, leadership targets and income-generating installations, according to the Defense Departmentan escalation that significantly weakened ISIS and threatened its logistics, allowing major advances against ISIS on the ground. In mid-October 2015, Iraqi forces and Shia militias reportedly seized the Baiji refinery, Iraqs largest, from ISIS control in the countrys north. In November 2015, Iraqi Kurdish forces, backed by U.S. air strikes, took control of the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, one of ISIS gateways to Syria where the terrorist organization had perpetrated a massacre against the predominantly Yazidi inhabitants in August 2014. A month later, in December 2015, the Iraqi counterterrorism service together with the Iraqi army made a major advance toward capturing the city of Ramadi, though fighting would last for another month until the city fell. This helped to break the back of ISIS resistance in Iraqs Anbar province, according to the U.S. military, and opened the way for the capture of Fallujah a few months later. At the same time, in northern Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters delivered several military blows to ISIS fighters, relieving the pressure around Erbil and along the disputed KRG border, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.9

The efforts in Syria also started showing signs of success in early 2015, when a coalition of U.S.-backed forcesincluding Syrian Kurdish fighters from the Peoples Protection Units, or YPG, Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and Syrian Arab fighters of the Free Syrian Armybegan slowly moving south from the Turkish-Syrian border. Their first symbolic victory occurred in January of that year, when YPG forces and FSA fighters restored control over the border town of Kobani after a brutal four-month military campaign that relied on massive U.S. bombing. From Kobani, Syrian Kurdish fighters and their Syrian Arab allies pushed southward and eastward, slowly conquering territory from ISIS with the support of U.S. and coalition airstrikes. In April 2015, they managed to dislodge ISIS fighters from almost all the villages they had captured in the surrounding Kobani province. On June 16, 2015, they took full control of the strategic Syrian town of Tal Abyad, further extending Kurdish control over territory running along the Syrian-Turkish border. A few days later, on June 22, 2015, Kurdish-led forces, aided by U.S.-led airstrikes and smaller Syrian Arab rebel groups, captured a military base near the town of Ain-Issa, some 30 miles north of Raqqa, advancing deeper into ISIS territory.

After the victories of 2015, it took U.S. coalition forces about a year to score a major victory in Iraq. In late June 2016, after a five-week fight, the ISIS stronghold of Fallujah finally fell to Iraqi counterterrorism troops, local police forces and Shia militias supported by a massive campaign of U.S. and coalition airstrikes.10In August and September 2016, as Iraqi government forces advanced further north, ISIS lost control over what Iraqi officials called its last revenue-generating oil fields in the country, to the south of Mosul and in areas neighboring Kirkuk. In July 2017, after a nine-month fight, the large and symbolically important city of Mosul in northern Iraq was finally recaptured by Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, with the support of U.S./coalition airstrikes and U.S. special forces on the ground. The neighboring city of Tal Afar returned to Iraqi hands a month later. In October 2017, Iraqi forces captured the city of Hawija, ISIS last stronghold in northern Iraq, leaving ISIS fighters holed up in pockets of land by the Syrian border. Finally, in September-November 2017, Iraqi forces launched a successful offensive in Anbar province that allowed them to retake the last patch of Iraqi territory under ISIS control, in the border areas near Syria.11By the end of 2017, though ISIS fighters were hiding in some remote areas in Iraq, the group controlled no territory there.

The fighting in Syria also progressed in the U.S. coalitions favor in 2016-2017, with interventions not only by Russia but by Turkey as well. In May 2016, Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters, now grouped under the umbrella of the SDF, launched a first offensive against Raqqa, intended primarily to test ISIS resistance capabilities. Thereafter, SDF forces tried to encircle Raqqa and cut off all lines of communication to the city. In June 2016, the Kurdish-led SDF also spearheaded a successful attack on the ISIS-occupied city of Manbij near the Turkish border, taking control of it in early August. Worried about Kurdish advances, Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield on Aug. 24, mostly to prevent Kurdish forces in Manbij from linking up with the Kurdish provinces they held in the northwestern tip of Syria, but also in response to a massive attack by ISIS in Turkey several days earlier.12Euphrates Shield proved quite successful: Within a few days, Turkish forces and U.S.-backed Syrian rebels dislodged ISIS from the border town of Jarablus and a stretch of land on the Syrian-Turkish border. In December 2016, Turkish troops would liberate the neighboring city of al-Bab from ISIS control, while in November Turkish-backed FSA rebels took control of Dabiq, a town with strong symbolic value for ISIS as the terror group claimed it would be the site of the final apocalyptic battle with Christian forces leading to the ultimate victory of the caliphate.

Also in November 2016, the SDF launched a major offensive to seize Raqqa, approaching it from various directions, with the U.S./coalition providing key air support, including a massive bombing campaign that would last for several months until the citys fall to Kurdish and Syrian forces in October 2017. In early March 2017, the SDF reached the Euphrates River in northern Deir ez-Zor Province, severing ISIS lines of communication between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. A few weeks later, the SDF seized the Tabqah airbase in western Raqqa province, cutting off ISIS lines of contact between Raqqa and Aleppo. In August, SDF forces linked their western and eastern axes of advance in southern Raqqa, and in early September the old city of Raqqa came under their control. Then the SDF units moved further south along the Euphrates and, in September, they consolidated control over most of Deir ez-Zor province, taking over the Conoco gas field, the town of Suwar and the big Jafrah oilfield. The Omar oilfield, the largest in Syria, was seized by the SDF from ISIS on Oct. 22, 2017, two days after the entire city of Raqqa fell to the SDF and U.S.-led coalition, symbolizing the defeat of ISIS self-proclaimed caliphate.

By the end of October 2017, therefore, with the support of the U.S. and its allies, ISIS had been cleared from most of the land that it had occupied in Syria to the east of the Euphrates. Only a small patch along Syrias southeastern border remained under ISIS control, and this area would be cleared by SDF-led forces in March 2019, after a one-and-a-half-month battle to take the village of Baghuz, marking the last nail in the caliphates coffin. In sum, ISIS was defeated in a vast triangle of land in eastern Syriafrom Kobani in the northwest, to Deir ez-Zor in the southeast, to the borders with Iraq in the east and Turkey in the north. During their entire land campaign, SDF units benefited from massive U.S./coalition airstrikes against ISIS command and control positions, its military infrastructure, its leadership and its energy resources, according to the U.S. military.This proved determinant to ensure the SDFs victory over ISIS; the U.S. and several of its allies also dispatched special-operation forces, which helped to recruit and train SDF fighters and in many instances also took part in military operations on the ground. As Frolov aptly summed it up: The main role in routing ISIS was played by the U.S.-led international coalition: First, it stopped the ISIS offensive in Iraq in summer 2014 and saved Syrian Kurds from complete annihilation, and thenwithout direct help from Russia (except aircraft supplies to the Iraqi Air Force)freed Iraq, including Mosul with its population of several million. In 2017, after thorough preparations, [the coalition] routed ISIS in its capital, Raqqa and cleared terrorists from the entire eastern bank of the Euphrates, as well as southwestern Syria. While the U.S. was fighting ISIS, Russia was left free to do away with Assads main enemies.13

Perhaps in a testament to the terror groups resilience, American anti-ISIS efforts have not ceased. As of late March, the U.S. had more than 5,000 troops in Iraq, most of them working to train and advise Iraqi security forces in the mission against the Islamic State, according to the New York Times. In Syria, meanwhile, despite Trumps December 2018 announcement that the U.S. would pull all of its troops out of the country, an American force of less than 1,000 is arrayed on small, exposed bases across the countrys oil-producing east, The Washington Post wrote on March 7, in part to keep revenue-generating oil wells out of ISIS hands. (A February news report had put the number of U.S. troops in Syria at 500.)

In contrast to U.S.-led anti-ISIS forces, Russia concentrated most of its military efforts on helping the Assad regime regain strength after suffering major losses in Syrias civil war, which broke out in 2011-2012. Between 2012 and the autumn of 2015, Russia provided military support in the form of equipment, training and advice to help Assadits longtime allyfight the insurgency together with Lebanese and Iranian militias. The opposition fighting against Assad consisted of an eclectic mix of groups, some of which were trained and equipped by the United States and its allies, while others included units directly affiliated with al Qaeda, such as Jabhat al Nusra.14Russias military assistance, however, did not prove sufficient to prevent the Assad regime from continuing to lose control over parts of Syrian territory to the Sunni rebels in 2013-2014. By the summer of 2015, the regime seemed on the verge of collapse. This negative predicament prompted Russia to become fully engaged militarily in the conflict. In September 2015, Russian deployed a significant military contingent to Syria, including 12 Su-24 attack aircraft, 12 Su-25 air support aircraft, several Su-30 and Su-35 fighters, as well as at least 12 Mi-24 helicopters, two naval frigates, one cruiser and one destroyer. Soon thereafter, the Russian aircraft began a massive campaign of airstrikes, targeted primarily against opposition fighters who challenged the Assad regime in western Syria. Although the Kremlin claimed that its forces were hitting ISIS targets, most of the Russian airstrikes in the autumn of 2015 were instead carried out against Western-backed rebel groups and jihadist fighters linked to al Qaeda in the provinces of Idlib and Hama. During that period and throughout 2016, Russia focused most of its military efforts on combating opposition fighters entrenched in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs and southern Damascusas these were the forces that posed the most direct threat to the Assad regime. This is clearly reflected in the pattern of Russias airstrikes, most of which were conducted in these areas rather than against ISIS positions in Syria.

Russian military forces only began fighting the Islamic State in earnest in 2017,15on the western banks of the Euphrates. The two significant exceptions were, first, the successful efforts carried out by pro-regime forces, with Russian support, to retake the ancient city of Palmyra from ISIS in March 2016 (the city, however, was again lost to ISIS in December 2016) and, second, Russias attempts to weaken ISIS positions in the strategic area of Deir ez-Zor where significant oil resources were located. At regular intervals in 2016, Russian aircraft bombed ISIS positionsand occasionally also SDF fightersin and around the city of Deir ez-Zor, in order to break the siege of the town. Yet it was only once that Assads government forces had gained sufficient strengthsucceeding in occupying eastern Aleppo in December 2016/January 2017that they began advancing, with Russian air support, further into Syrias eastern countryside in order to retake lands occupied by ISIS. By then, the extremist group had been severely weakened. It had been dislodged from most of the lands it had occupied in Iraq through the efforts of U.S.-trained Iraqi forces, Shia militias and Kurdish units, and was also losing ground in Syria. By March 2017, the U.S.-backed SDF had liberated most of northern and northwestern Syria and was starting its offensive against ISIS capital, Raqqa. In short, Assads advances were facilitated, to a great extent, by the partial withdrawal of ISIS forces from western Syria and their redeployment on the eastern bank of the Euphrates to counter a major U.S.-led SDF offensive. It is not possible, therefore, to argue that Russia played the primary role in defeating ISIS by comparison with the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition.

Nevertheless, pro-regime forces, backed by Russian and Syrian air support, did help speed the defeat of ISIS in 2017 by dislodging it from western, southwestern and central Syria west of the Euphrates. On March 2, 2017, pro-regime forces supported by Russian air strikes, Iranian militias and Hezbollah fighters managed to recapture Palmyra from ISIS. A few days later, Assads forces and the Iranian and Lebanese militias supporting them seized the Jirah airbase and the Khafsa water treatment plant from ISIS, as well as dozens of towns in eastern Aleppo province, before pushing further eastward toward the banks of the Euphrates. On March 7, 2017, they took control over ISIS-occupied villages near the strategic border town of Manbij (itself liberated by the Kurdish-dominated SDF in August 2016), in order to stop a potential Turkish attack. Also in March 2017, Assads forces advanced southward, occupying ISIS-conquered villages and positions in the tri-border region of Daraa, Rif Dimashq and Suwayda provinces in southwestern Syria. All these advances were facilitated by air support from Russian and Syrian armed forces whose planes pounded rural and urban areas. (Russia likewise reportedly agreed to set up a training base for anti-ISIS Kurdish fighters near the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin, presumably to further help Assad counter Turkish incursions by strengthening the Kurdish forces there; however, Turkey would eventually push Kurdish troops out of the Afrin region in a special operation (dubbed Olive Branch) in January-March 2018, launched with what one analyst called Russias grudging acquiescence.)

Between the spring of 2017 and years end, pro-Assad forces with significant Russian support from the air managed a number of successes against ISIS: pushing its fighters out of Aleppo province; tightening the regimes hold on a large swath of territory under rebel control to the west of Raqqa, ISIS Syrian capital; breaking the terror groups three-year siege of Deir ez-Zor city; and taking control of the last remaining foothold of ISIS in Deir ez-Zor province. The rapid advances against ISIS in the last months of 2017 were facilitated by the terrorist groups decision to deliberately surrender almost all of its territory on the western banks of the EuphratesDeir ez-Zor, Mayadeen and Abu Kamal on the Syrian-Iraqi borderto pro-Assad forces in October 2017 as its fighters concentrated their defences against the U.S. and the SDF on the rivers eastern bank.16The milestones in this period, region by region, include the following:

Aleppo Province:

Raqqa Province:

Deir ez-Zor Region:

Hama and Homs Provinces:

Southwestern Syria:

The last of these offensives coincided with efforts by President Putin to find a negotiated political resolution of the conflictinvolving the Syrian government, the opposition, Iran and Turkeyand culminated in his Dec. 11, 2017, announcement of the end of Russias military operations and the start of the withdrawal of its forces from Syria. Yet ISIS had not been fully defeated then, as now, and therefore Russia not only continued to provide Assad with air power but decided to keep a force of some 5,000 servicemen deployed in Syria17to help the regime keep fighting what was left of ISIS, but, above all, to defeat the other rebel groups concentrated in Idlib and Aleppo, including those affiliated with al Qaeda. In 2018 Syrian government offensives, supported by Russia and Iran, continued targeting ISIS, as did the U.S.-backed coalition. In May, Assads forces launched a massive attack to kick ISIS out of the Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp on the southern fringes of Damascus, and in July they routed ISIS in areas close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. In July-August 2018, Syrian government forces, supported by an intensive Russian bombing campaign, finally took full control of the Yarmouk basin in southwestern Syria, clearing the region of ISIS. By mid-November 2018, the government had dislodged ISIS fighters from all the southwestern regions of Syria. By years end, therefore, the groups territorial control had been eliminated in most if not all of western and central Syria west of the Euphrates. And although Russia had withdrawn some of its aircraft and helicopters in the summer of 2018, including the new Mi-28 and K-52 attack helicopters, it had left a force of roughly 30 aircraft,18which continued to provide crucial support to pro-regime forces. Moreover, Russian special forces reportedly supported Assads efforts to dislodge jihadist and other rebel forces in several areas of northwestern Syria, including, possibly, in Idlib and Hama in the summer of 2019 (although Russian officials deny this).19In August 2018, Russias defense minister said more than 63,000 Russian servicemen had rotated through Syria in the previous three years; however, Russias troop presence there has been estimated at no more than 4,000-6,000 ground troops at any given time, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and recent estimates have placed the number at several thousand, including Russian military police with air support in eastern Syria.

Although Moscow and Washington have managed to keep their separate military campaigns in Syria deconflicted for the most part, U.S. officials told the New York Times in February that U.S. troops had been having increasingly frequent run-ins with Russian military personnel on highways in northeastern Syria and that Russian helicopters had been flying closer to American troops. One of the most dramatic collisions between Russian-backed forces and U.S. troops took place near Syrian oil fields in February 2018some months after both Russia and the U.S. had declared their respective victories against ISIS. In the confrontation, the U.S. military killed an estimated 200-300 pro-Assad fighters, including a significant number of Russian mercenaries, in a firefightthat the New York Times calledone of the single bloodiest battles the American military has faced in Syria since deploying to fight the Islamic Stateand certainly one that ratcheted up tensions between Moscow and Washington.

The worlds battle with ISIS may be far from over, but insofar as the terror group has been subdued, the United States and its allies, as noted above, played a bigger role than did Russia, and the numbers bear that out. According to the Pentagon, by late March 2019 the U.S.-led coalition had liberated about 42,000 square miles of territory and 7.7 million people from ISIS occupation. In October 2017, when the vast majority of land had been retaken from ISIS, the Pentagon claimed to have killed around 80,000 ISIS militants. Between August 2014 and October 2018, the U.S. and its allies conducted over 30,700 strikes as part of Operation Inherent Resolve and provided military assistance to allies on the ground. Russia, in turn, asserted in December 2017 that it had eliminated 60,318 militantsnot specifically identified as ISISas well as 8,000 units of military equipment, 718 weapons factories and workshops and about 400 oil production facilities belonging to rebel fighters. A top military commander publicly told Putin at the time that close to 26,000 square miles of territory [had been] liberated, including over 1,000 populated settlements, 78 oil and gas fields and two phosphate mines; he also said Russian forces had completed almost 7,000 military airplane raids and over 7,000 sorties by helicopters.

While it is difficult to determine the number of ISIS militants killed or captured by Russia, it is clear that together with its allies on the ground Moscow succeeded in returning to Syrian government hands most if not all of the areas in western and central Syria, to the west of the Euphrates River, that had fallen under ISIS control. These included the al-Hajar al-Aswad district south of Damascus, the besieged Yarmouk refugee camp, rural areas in the central territories of Homs and Hama provinces, as well as a series of villages to the east of Aleppo. Russian-backed coalition forces also twice freed the ancient city of Palmyra from ISIS (albeit, once more for show than substance), as well as Syrias southern districts in Daraa and Suwayda provinces. By early 2019, with Russian support, Assads forces had succeeded in recapturing a vast area of land running from Aleppo in the north, through Homs and Hama provinces in the center, to Damascus and Daraa province in the south, and from Palmyra in the center to Deir ez-Zor and Abu Kamal in the west. In October 2019, The Washington Post estimated that Assads regime controlled 57 percent of the country; more recent assessments, made since the U.S. partial pullout, in December and January, placed the Syrian governments control over territory at 70-73 percent, including major advances into former SDF-controlled areas.

The chief reason Russias contribution to the military rollback of ISIS was smaller than the United States, as described above, is that Moscows main goal was to support Assad against rebel groups directly challenging his hold of the country, and those included some groups backed by the U.S. Russia did not start fighting ISIS in earnest until 2017, when the group had already been severely weakened and was sending its remaining forces to the east of the country to face the U.S.-backed SDF advance. Once again Frolov summed it up well, after Russias triumphant so-called withdrawal from Syria in December 2017: Russia began to fight ISIS in earnest only at the final stage of the operation in eastern Syria, during the process of unblocking Deir ez-Zor and accessing the Euphrates. The retaking of Palmyra in 2016 was irrelevant from a military perspective. It is strange that Moscow is trying to challenge the U.S. and the coalitions role in routing ISIS. Its not that the U.S. is trying to capitalize on Russias victoryas claimed by the Russian Foreign Ministrys official spokespersonrather, Russia is trying to communize the U.S.-led coalitions victory.

As noted above, it is too early for anyone to claim victory over ISIS, as the terror group is rebuilding capacity and continuing to launch attacks. Moreover, in addition to ISIS, other jihadist groups continue to operate in the region, posing threats there and beyond. In northwestern Syria alone, these include: the powerful HTS coalition; the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front; the al-Qaeda-affiliated Hurras al-Din; and the Turkistan Islamic Party, or TIP, a jihadist group dominated by Chinese Uighurs.

RM special projects editor Natasha Yefimova-Trilling and RM student associate Daniel Shapiro contributed research for this article.

Photo by U.S.Sgt. Lisa Soy shared in the public domain as a U.S. government work.

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Who 'Defeated' ISIS? An Analysis of US and Russian Contributions - Russia Matters

Property owner Nina Adams in front of her Pioneer Street home burnt during the Dunns Road Fire. Clean-up by Laing ORourke began on Wednesday and was expected to be completed in two days.

Nina Adams, who lost her home in Batlow during the Dunns Road Fire in January, was finally able to see the clean-up process begin on Wednesday when contractors with Laing ORourke and Aboriginal Beata Terra began clearing the property. She said that this first step in the recovery and rebuilding process has provided her with a great deal of closure.

Mrs Adams home was first built in the 50sas a butchers, and the building has a rich history in Batlow and could beconsidered quite iconic. The January blaze burnt the home so badly that itunfortunately needed to be completely torn down, cleared and rebuilt.

When the Dunns Road Fire first hit andbegan developing, Mrs Adams said she and her family held off as long as theycould, evacuating only after a town meeting in which they were told everyoneneeded to leave.

We were seeing the glow in the sky andeverything, so we knew that it was time to go, she said.

We packed up and we headed over to Waggaand sat there and listened to the scanner and let it all unfold and waiteduntil we could come back.

Mrs Adams said that upon returning to herhome, she was absolutely horrified.

I didnt expect it to go, she admitted.I think a lot of people were like that, they just didnt expect their housesto burn. Its quite a shock.

Mrs Adams husband was in the army andunfortunately lost all of his memorabilia in the fires.

Despite losing her home, Mrs Adams hasnothing but the utmost of praise for the firefighters who battled the fires inBatlow tirelessly.

The firies were amazing. Once my place wasgoing up and they knew they couldnt save it, they put the water on [myneighbours] house as well, so it was good that they saved her house cause shehas a lot of memories there.

Theyve done an amazing job.

After the fires, Mrs Adams and her familystayed with her mother-in-law, and then with another woman in Batlow for a fewweeks. Eventually they wanted somewhere to call home again, and moved intotheir own place in Adelong.

When the clearing has been completed, MrsAdams plans to have a new house built on the land. She and her husband willremain in Adelong, most likely moving their mother-in-law into the new home.

Well keep the link here. Were still partof the community, she said.

Because of the fires, Mrs Adams lost herjob at the Batlow Hotel. However, she was extremely pleased to be offered a jobwith Laing ORourke in their office.

Im so grateful I got the opportunity todo it, she said.

When Im working in the office and I seeall the properties that were cleaning up and everything you just put itinto place, you know, okay were going to get this done and were going toclean up and rebuild and be our little town again.

James Stephens, a contractor withAboriginal Beata Terra involved with the clean up in Batlow, expressed howeye-opening yet rewarding the process has been, full of mixed emotions.

We were here approximately three weeks agolooking at the various properties, and looking at the damage that was done wasa real eye-opener for us, and were really trying to treat this with the utmostrespect especially for the people that have lost their houses, Mr Stephenssaid.

He said the project has been unlike anyother construction project he has been involved with in the past. Overall, ithas been far more rewarding.

Its rewarding in the fact that we arehere and helping people get on with their lives, he said.

Once their properties [are] cleared, atleast theyve got something to start from again.

With around 25 properties signed up so far,Mr Stephens said they hope to have completed the clean-up by June. There arestill a lot of variables that could affect this, particularly the rain weveexperienced recently, which can slow the process down.

More:
Clearing the rubble ahead of rebuild - Tumut and Adelong Times

Recently, Indias Environment Secretary CK Mishra sent a letter to the Ministryof Corporate Affairs (MoCA) to urge corporates to invest theirSocial Responsibility (CSR) funds in biodiversity protection in the country.To buttress his point, he cited the consensus among scientists that a rise in zoonotic diseases like Nipah, Avian Influenza, Zika and Coronavirus is linked to the loss of forests and biodiversity.

While reading the above news report, I recalled that the same central government set up a high-level committee of bureaucrats and judges under the chairmanship of former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian on 29 August 2014. The committee was supposed to amend the existing environmental regulations to pave the way for India to achieve rapid economic growth. Subsequently, the National Green Tribunal was reduced to an administrative body and the National Board for Wildlife was reconstituted, the Forest Rights Act was diluted, highways were allowed on forest land, the social impact assessment requirement for new development projects was removed and several green norms and clear rules for the industry were eased.

Ruthlessly silencing NGOs fighting for the environment, the destruction of forests was continued, ostensibly to usher in prosperity. The uncompromising victory march towards high speed development continues even when almost all government offices are shut at the peak of Indias nationwide coronavirus lockdown. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is busy clearing industrial and infrastructure projects. OnApril 7, the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), and on April 15 the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), held meetings through video conferencing, facilitated by Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar.

The standing committee of the NBWL considered 31 proposals in all, 16 of which related to highways, transmission lines and railway lines through national parks, sanctuaries and tiger corridors. And all 16 proposals were approved. Several other projects concerning nearly 3,000 acres of land located in eco-sensitive areas were also approved.The ministersubsequently tweetedthat the approvals will help develop tourism, infrastructure, employment and economic growth. Indias environment minister, who is also its industry minister, thus announced his commitment to developing the country, dismantling all roadblocks in the way.

Further, the Union environment ministrys Forest Advisory Committee (FAC)is deliberating granting forest clearance to the Etalin Hydro Project that will involvediversion of 1150.08 hectares of forest landand the devastation of an estimated 270,000 trees in the Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh.

On March 12, the MoEFCC put in the public domain a draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020, which is to replace the EIA notification 2006, and has sought views and comments from all stakeholders on it within 60 days. EIA regulates the environment clearance given by the national government for projects such as dams, mining, thermal power plants, infrastructure projects like highways, ports, airports and big construction projects.

The predominant thrust of the draft EIA notification 2020 is completely contrary to the principles of environment protection.It proposes to ease processes for businesses, does away with the need for public hearings for many projects, eases rules for expansion of projects, and so on. Environmentalists and researchers who analysed the draft point out that the draft EIA 2020 legitimises violations by those who start projects without environmental clearance, weakens the public consultation process and gives a lot of discretionary powers to authorities.

While the environment secretary is asking for financial assistance from corporates for biodiversity conservation, his minister is busy clearing projects at the cost of existing forests and biodiversity. But this is just one part of the contradictions that abound. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the 63rd episode of his 'Mann Ki Baat', claimed thatIndia is contributing towards creating a healthier planet.But is it possible to make the planet healthy by replacing our protected areas with industries, dams and roads?

We hear distressing stories of people getting stranded or dying on the streets in their attempt to reach hometowns duringthecoronaviruslockdown.One such is the story of a 12-year-old tribal girl, Jamalo Madkam, who died on April 18 due to electrolyte imbalance and exhaustion having walked over 100 kilometres as she made her way home in Aded in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh from a chilli farm in Telangana. Poor, innocent people in remote corners arehumiliated and beaten up if they step out occasionally to breathe some fresh air.

Villagers, tribals and many other vulnerable groups who scarcely have an opportunity to indulge in life are locked down due to some virus unknown to them. Germ-free air and water are their birthright, but are being destroyed wantonly in the name of development. Knee-jerk reactions and temporary solutions may bring fame for leaders.The prime ministers advice to people to make wearing masks a part of their lifestyle is not an easy option. Provide the country with clean drinking water, fresh air and balanced diet which are the basic requirements for immunity. On a healthy planet, why would people have to wear masks? Far-sighted leaders should strive to unfasten the mask and allow people to breathe in clean airand live on serene earth. Let people take pride in the nations natural wealth. Don't destroy our forests and invite new viruses in the name of development and economic growth.

(The writeris the initiator of Green Army, a student forum for conservation and adventure and the founder-director of Forest Watch, a watchdog for the wilderness of Wayanad)

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A mask wont hide the truth, nor save us from viruses - Deccan Herald

A significant battle is shaping up over a 200MW wind farm proposed for Tasmanias north-west, but its not the prospect of turbines or the renewable energy project, itself that is upsetting locals.

The point of contention for the UPCAAC Renewables Jims Plain project, which late last week got the green light from Tasmanias Environmental Protection Agency, is the new network infrastructure being built to connect the project to the island states main grid.

And the push-back from locals, concerned that major new transmission lines will impact valued landscapes and natural habitats, signals a new frontier for renewables growth in Australia a battle that, largely, will have to be fought by network companies. New links between the countrys state grids are a fundamental plank of the 20-year blueprint from the Australian Energy Market Operator.

In the case of Jims Plain, which UPCAC is developing alongside the 340MW (and potentially 1GW) Robbins Island project to the north, two transmission lines will be required to accommodate the projects on the local grid.

The first line, which is being developred by UPCAC, will link the Robbins Island project to Jims Plain and then extend from Jims Plain to Hampshire (see map below).

From Hampshire, another link needs to be built, due to the existing line from Smithton to Burnie already being overcommitted. That new major line, which is being built by TasNetworks, would link the north-west part of Tasmania to the network hub of Sheffield. And this is where things get a bit more complicated.

While UPCAC needs that second link from Hampshire to Sheffield to enable the energy generated by its wind farms to power Tasmania, this is by no means the sole motivation for the transmission line project.

TasNetworks, the government-owned distribution company, needs it too. The new line is considered an essential grid upgrade to accommodate other major renewable energy projects, as well as the new undersea cable proposed for construction between Tasmania and the mainland, the Marinus Link.

The Marinus Link is the centrepiece of Hydro Tasmanias Battery of the Nation aspirations and numerous proposed wind developments, all of whichsupport the Tasmanian governments recently ratcheted-up target of 200% renewables by 2040.

Of course, people living in the states Loongana Valley community had not bargained on having a 60-90 metre wide easement with 45-60 metre high transmission line towers as part of their view.

Local opposition, including from the Nietta Action Group, last year sent UPCAC back to the drawing board on its originally proposed design for TasNetworks link to Sheffield.

Since then, TasNetworks has essentially taken over that part of the new transmission line and is working hard to engage with the community and take on concerns over the proposed pathway for the link.

Meanwhile, a new action group has formed, this time called SOLVE (Save Our Loongana Valley Environment), with the stated mission of rejecting claims being made by the PR companies hired by TasNetworks to justify the transmission line route and sending the amended proposal back to the drawing board again.

The beautiful north-west Tasmanian Loongana Valley, and the community who live there, are under threat from UPC-TasNetworks proposed transmission line, which will see a 60-90 metre wide easement plough through the valley, and 45-60 metre high towers dominate the iconic views, including Black Bluff and the Leven Canyon, a media statement from the group said last week.

The transmission line will divide the narrow valley, 17 kilometres from Cradle Mountain, and cause widespread damage to critical habitat for threatened species, contaminate water supplies, increase fire risk, and harm local tourism and land values.

SOLVE says it is calling out failures of basic planning and the avoidance of genuine multi-sector consultation on the plan. It also paints a picture of TasNetworks acting on behalf of UPC and of UPC as an offshore renewables company with little interest in doing what is best for Tasmanians.

David Pollington, UPCACs chief operating officer, rejects these notions.

Yes, UPC will get the benefit of that connection and will have to contribute to the cost of the line, he told RenewEconomy in an interview last week. Were not the only one though. TasNetworks is developing this as part of the Marinus Link project, which supports many other wind farms.

UPCAC has investigated many options to connect the Jims Plains and Robbins Island projects to the network, including upgrading or duplicating the existing line from Burnie to Smithton, which is about 50 years old. Upgrading that transmission line route would be unacceptable to a lot of people, affecting high-value agricultural land, towns and cities.

The Marinus Link provides a fantastic opportunity for Tasmania to contribute to Australias reduction in emissions, develop new industry and create valuable export income for Tasmania.

Being a developer of large-scale wind projects, Pollington has a better understanding than most about the importance of community engagement.

No one wants a transmission line, and if there was another way to do it, of course wed be doing that. But weve been out to community and weve had very little negative feedback on our transmission line from Robbins through to Hampshire, Pollington told RE.

He says the company has held in excess of 20 community drop-in sessions in Tasmanias north-west about the projects.

We open these drop-in sessions for around three hours and we talk to everyone who wants to come along. along. The sessions are configured to allow people to explore issues briefly or in more detail with the team members developing the project, one on one or in small groups.

In addition to the drop in sessions we have conducted many presentations and information sessions to a wide range of stakeholders such as industry bodies, landowners, interest groups, contractors, councils and politicians. If people have asked to meet then we have happily arranged to meet whether it is at our offices a local caf or their homes, Pollington said.

The constant sniping at us as a multnational company is a little unfair. Robbins Island and Jims Plain are 25 per cent locally owned. This is similar to most of the opertational wind farms in Tasmania, which are majority foreign owned.

The whole UPCAC team is Australia-based and the CEO and myself are Tasmanian-based and proud to have headquartered the company in Tasmania.

For TasNetworks part, it is working to try to minimise the environmental impact of the new line by using mostly corporate forestry land for its route. It is also hoping to minimise the visual impact of the line by keeping all possible native vegetaion intact, and minimising land clearing along the length of the easement.

In an emailed statement to RenewEconomy, the company said that as the Transmission Network Service Provider (TNSP) for the electricity in Tasmania, it was required to respond to proponents, such as UPCAC, seeking to connect to its network.

TasNetworks operates within a range of regulatory frameworks, which requires it to find the most efficient solution for customers, whilst minimising potential impacts on the community and the environment, the statement said.

In its planning, TasNetworks has sought to identify transmission development corridors using robust criteria that cover a range of values and constraints including environmental, social, economic and cultural as well as considering cost and constructability.

TasNetworks is still working through the process to reach a final route for the Hampshire to Staverton section of the proposed North West Tasmanian transmission developments and is committed to going back to communities and landowners with the outcomes of this analysis around the middle of the year.

And it isnt the only Australian energy network company navigating this tricky new terrain. The bid to find the best and most economically feasible solution to accommodate multiple major new renewable energy projects while taking into account competing values and trade-offs will be a major focus on the mainland, too, with links being proposed for construction between the National Electricity Market states, and within them, between designated renewable energy zones.

In Western Australia, the massive Asian Renewable Energy Hub will require four high voltage direct current (HVDC) cables offshore, and onshore overhead and underground transmission line, with up to 50 metre tall pylons spaced every 450 metres along the transmission corridor.

Overseas, Germany has faced similar problems with the planned expansion of its power grid lagging behind the European nations ambitious renewables roll-out due to citizen protests and planning difficulties.

As Clean Energy Wire reported last year, Germany will need another 1,600km of transmission lines and upgrades on a further 2,900km by 2030, according to recommendations by the four transmission grid operators.

At a German grid conference at the beginning of this year, experts warned that power grid expansion would become the German energy transitions next big object of hate if it wasnt handled very carefully.

Christian Schorn of transmission system operator TransnetBW told the conference TSOs were already experiencing opposition from citizens groups at every step of the grid planning process, Clean Energy Wire reports. He said following resistance against the Suedlink power highway, it was decided to use underground cables in a new planning process.

Back in Tasmania, there is still time to learn from others mistakes and make the process as painless and beneficial as possible for all parties.

There are a range of significant renewable energy generation and storage opportunities in the States North West, including wind and pumped hydro projects, TasNetorks told RenewEconomy.

We aim to develop a network that facilitates these future developments, including Battery of the Nation and Marinus Link.

These developments can provide significant local jobs, economic growth and investment attraction opportunities spanning years, and support the NEM to transition for low cost, reliable and clean energy.

RenewEconomy and its sister sites One Step Off The Grid and The Driven will continue to publish throughout the Covid-19 crisis, posting good news about technology and project development, and holding government, regulators and business to account. But as the conference market evaporates, and some advertisers pull in their budgets, readers can help by making a voluntary donation here to help ensure we can continue to offer the service free of charge and to as wide an audience as possible. Thank you for your support.

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Tangled wires: Are transmission lines the new battle front for renewables? - RenewEconomy

The number of foreign workers living in dormitories who test positive for the coronavirus daily continues to be high in part because of an "active and aggressive testing regime" that sees more workers being tested each day, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong.

"We expect to still see these numbers for a few more weeks before they stabilise, but our strategy is working and we are making progress day by day in clearing these dormitories," he told a press conference yesterday.

While the coronavirus situation in larger purpose-built foreign worker dormitories is stabilising, Mr Wong said it will take time to clear other smaller dorms, such as factory-converted ones.

Several cases of Covid-19 were recently detected among healthcare workers and other support staff working in dormitories and community care facilities like the one at Singapore Expo. "We already have precautions in these settings but we are doing more now by also testing the workers who are working in these settings," Mr Wong said.

He added that these workers will be tested not just once but periodically to ensure they can do their work in a safe environment.

The Health Ministry's director of medical services Kenneth Mak said the ministry is very concerned about the number of staff involved in dormitory operations who have been diagnosed with Covid-19.

"We want to make sure that they were properly trained in the use of their personal protective equipment and masks, and that they were obeying and respecting the infection control measures to make sure that they were properly protected," said Associate Professor Mak. "If needed, we will work with the inter-agency task force on refresher training, as well as having staff carry out inspections to watch over each other and make sure that everyone is doing the right thing."

Prof Mak also said the Health Ministry decides whether or not to attribute the death of a patient to Covid-19 based on the advice of medical authorities such as a doctor who attended to the patient or a coroner.

"Our approach really is first to ask ourselves, is this directly attributable to Covid-19 infection or complications related to Covid-19 infection? If they are, we will report them as such," he said.

"This comes out in our press statement every day. We are quite transparent in announcing and reporting all the deaths that we have."

He said that if a death is determined not to be due to Covid-19, it will still be reported but not attributed to the virus.

Read the rest here:
Clearing smaller dorms of coronavirus will take time, says Lawrence Wong - The Straits Times

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New Delhi: Now that the Narendra Modi government has begun repatriating Indians stuck abroad, the countrys rich have begun sending in applications to return using private jets, ThePrint has learnt.

According to sources, in the last one month, the Ministry of Home Affairs has received over 20 applications from private charter operators, requesting clearances to fly back to India from various international and domestic locations.

The pending applications include those from Sahara India chief Subrata Roy, Bharti Airtel head Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Essel Group/Zee Media chairman Subhash Chandra. While Roys son is said to be stuck in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a family member of Chandra is stranded in Dubai, sources in the home ministry said.

ThePrint reached the spokespersons of Roy, Mittal and Chandra through calls and messages.

While Mittals spokesperson refused to comment, Chandras and Roys teams did not respond to the query. The report will be updated when they respond.

The Modi government had, in an advisory issued on 16 March, prohibited travel from member countries of the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey and the United Kingdom to India, with effect from 18 March. Then, on 22 March, the ban was extended to all countries as the government prohibited all international commercial flights from landing in India.

The rules laid down by the MHA are very strict and are being followed strictly. We cannot allow any chartered flight to land, unless they have permission from MHA, a government official said.

A second government source said the operation of these chartered flights are not allowed because the government is reluctant as people coming from abroad could be carriers. But with international flights now starting to repatriate Indians, the government may reconsider its decision, the source added.

Now we have started the flights to repatriate Indians stuck abroad but that too we are doing with extra caution. The private jets could be allowed in the near future (in phases) once we are ready to deal with the traffic. No decision has, however, been taken till now, he said.

Also read: Why Air Force wont be a part of Indias massive Covid evacuation for now

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has also received several requests from private chartered plane operators, but none of them has been cleared until now.

The DGCA is not clearing any such flights at the moment. The applications are scrutinised, and if it is an emergency situation, the MHA gives the approval directly, the second source said.

Private charter operators are constantly enquiring whether it is permitted, this source said, adding: For now, air travel has only been allowed to inter-ministerial teams, doctors, air ambulances and paramedics. No non-essential travel has been allowed.

Last week, an Indian businessman, Rajnish Gupta, chartered a plane from Zambia and reached India with his cook, Suresh Kumar Baheliya. However, they were not allowed to de-board, and were eventually sent back.

They came to India without any clearance or permission, and so were sent back as we are strictly adhering to the guidelines issued by the government, said the first official quoted above.

Also read: India plans to expand repatriation from 15 May to bring back citizens from more countries

The cost of travel by a private jet can be as high as $200,000 (over Rs 1.5 crore), depending on where it is coming from, but that has not deterred those willing to return home.

The ride can cost anywhere between $50,000 (approximately Rs 38 lakh) for a four- to five-hour flight and $200,000 (approximately Rs 1.5 crore) for a longer flight, say from the USA. If someone is coming from London, then it will cost around $1,50,000 (approximately Rs 1 crore), said Kanika Tekriwal, founder of New Delhi based JetSetGo, a private jet operator.

It indeed is expensive, but people are still booking their slots on these planes and sending us requests, the second source quoted above said.

Many of these plane operators are also demanding such high amounts as so many clearances are required, and the demand is only for flying one-way, the source added.

Tekriwal, however, said the rates are constant. Covid or no Cobid, these rates are constant.

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Original post:
Indias super rich ready to pay to return home on private jets, but govt not ready to allow it - ThePrint

By the time the already-fractious Allies had agreed on the form, timing and signing details of Germanys unconditionalsurrender at the end of the World War II, Berlin had been under the complete control of the Soviet Red Army for almost a week.

Adolf Hitler, terrified of the prospect of being captured alive or being held accountable for millions of murders,had married his partner Eva Braun and then the two died by suicide shortlybefore the Battle of Berlin was decided. Their newlywed corpses were burned and the ashes scattered near the so-called Fhrerbunker, Hitlers base of operations later in the war. He didnt even want his corpse to fall into enemy hands.

The Allies eventually agreed that combat would officially cease as of 11:01 p.m., Berlin time, on May 8, 1945. The strangely specific timingwas no accident. It assured that in Moscow, one hour ahead of Berlin, the clocks would have ticked over to May 9, allowing the Soviets their own day on which to recall victory inwhat was known in the USSR as the Great Patriotic War.

Field Marshall Keitel signs the capitulation shortly after midnight local time on May 9

It was the Allied leaders who delivered triumphant speechesto their people. Winston Churchill stood atop the roof of the Health Ministry in London before cheering crowds and proclaimed: This is your victory! It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land. In all ourlong history, we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone has tried. The exiled former and future French leader, Charles de Gaulle, also spoke of victory in his radio address, noting that Francesmilitary command was present for the signing of the capitulation.

Meanwhile, the man who briefly succeeded Hitler that May, Admiral Karl Dnitz, issued a radio broadcast lasting barely 30 seconds. He alluded to his previous broadcast, onMay 1, when he had announced Hitlers death and saidhis first priority would be to save the lives of German people. To that end, he said, hed asked the armed forces to agree to unconditional surrender.

On May 8, at 23:01, the guns will fall silent, Dnitz said. His next major public stage would be the Nuremberg Trials and his conviction for war crimes in 1946. He served just 10 years in prison.

The rubble women

The dominant international view was and remains that the role of Germans in the war was that of the perpetrators, not the victims, after their country set in motion a global war that went on to claim an estimated 60 million lives and its forces exterminated six million Jews in the Holocaust.

On the ground especially after more than a decade of wall-to-wall propaganda from the schoolyard up, distorting the image of Hitlers Germany this reality was not as immediately obvious.

Many German cities lay in rubble, either firebombed by western Allies (most notably Dresden and Hamburg) or overrun by the Soviets (Berlin). Occupying soldiers are estimated to have raped more than one million German women. Rushing into this wasteland was an exodus of as many as 14 million ethnic Germans refugees who either fled or were driven out of territory far to the east of todays borders.

Many young men were either dead, wounded, captured or traumatised, often by war crimes theyd committed themselves or had seen in the field. Meanwhile, the true extent of the Holocausts horror, which did not feature in Josef Goebbels anti-Semitic propaganda, was coming to light. The immediate postwar desolation became known colloquially as Stunde Null: zero hour.

Florian HuberPromise Me Youll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans, 1945Penguin (July 2019)

Florian Huber has written extensively about the misery in defeated Germany in 1945

First of all Germans had to accept the defeat, which in itself was very hard for many of them, the historian Florian Huber told DW. His two most recent books focus on the immediate postwar months and years for ordinary Germans. His look at the wave of suicides in Germany at that time, Promise Me Youll Shoot Yourself, has also enjoyed success in English. For those who kept going, Huber said, simply securing food and income was the top priority.

The biggest problemwas how to get along with daily life when the man was imprisoned in the prisoner of war camps while children and families tried to get along with a situation that was very extreme, Huber said, and nobody could really say when it would end.

This did allow women to take a more active role. Obsessed with preserving traditional gender roles, Hitler had not called on women to volunteer to take up work in factories and other facilities to aid the war effort as the US and UK had; Nazi Germanys wartime economy had been propped up by the labour of enslaved people a mixture of civilian and military prisoners.

In the postwar years, a new German compound noun was coined for the women who took the lead in clearing the debris from city streets. They were venerated as the Trmmerfrauen, or the rubble women.

Also read: Promise me Youll Shoot Yourself: Nazi Germanys Suicide Wave

A divided land

Initially, Germany was divided into four zones, one administered by each of the Allies to whom it had formally surrendered: the UK, the US, the Soviet Union and France. But the tensions between these allies of necessity had been apparent even before Germanys capitulation, and had resurfaced at precisely thePotsdam conferencewhere the countrys ultimate postwar fate was decided.

Nevertheless, in a marked change of strategy after the punitive peace terms following World War I, the Allies opted for a lighter touch, gradually ushering Germany back into the international community. Reparations would still have to be paid, but nothing like to the extent of those demanded at Versailles in 1919.

The broader transition from global conflictto the Cold War would soon lead to a longerdivision of the country with the Soviet-occupied zone becoming East Germany, or the GDR, and the other three areas making up West Germany, or the Federal Republic. Paradoxically, this fresh threat and division might have smoothed the rocky path to democracy for West Germany.

I am quite convinced that the Cold War experience made it easier, especially for West German society, to accept being part of the Western world, Huber said. It also made it easier for them to adopt, voluntarily, a new democratic constitution, which we have to this day.

The Marshall Plan a major investment program launched by the US in 1948 to rebuild Western Europe after the war and prepare it for the long standoff between capitalism and Soviet communism added a financial incentive to welcome a new world order in the face of the familiar perceived threat from perhaps Hitlers fiercest foes: Stalin and the USSR.

East and West

West German foreign policy rapidly strove for outward reconciliation and reparation. A new and purely defensiveBundeswehr was formed, and no foreign military deployments whatsoever were approved until 1990. To this day, any missions abroad require regularly renewed parliamentary approval.

When Germany does participate in overseas operations, it is typically providing logistical support for allies hitting the targets, such as in the coalition against the Islamic State, or performing peacekeeping and defensive operations in territorythat has been secured by NATO or other friendly forces (with Afghanistan being the largest and longest-running example).

West Germany, and later the reunified country, led the push for the formation and then the expansion of what is now the European Union. The government in Berlin also anchored a historical responsibility for the Holocaust and the defence of Israels existence as part of the nations raison detre.

Especially in the early decades after the war, a spectre overshadowed such advances: the number of former senior Nazis still occupying positions of power in governments, courts, newspapers and society as a whole.

It took an extraordinarily long time for West Germany to make any serious attempt to face the Nazi past, said Susan Neiman, a philosopher and American Jewwho has spent much of her career in Germany,writing several books exploring the countrysrelationship to the Holocaust, and is currently with the Einstein Forum in Potsdam.

Its often the case that foreigners dont quite appreciate how true this was, because the iconic picture of postwar Germany was [Chancellor] Willy Brandt on his knees at the Warsaw Ghetto memorial [in 1970]. That is the picture we expected and we wanted to see. What most foreigners dont realise and it took me decades to realize it myself is that many West Germans hated that gesture of Brandts. They thought it was wrong; they attacked Brandt for having left the country during the war. The much more common view in West Germany was not atonement or repentance for having been a perpetrator, but self-pity for having been a victim.

Also read: When Hitler Realised the End of the War Was Upon Him

Real movement came in Germany with the next generation: the youngsters who were university students around the time of Brandts 1969-74 tenure, and who often grew up asking their own parents searching questions about the Nazi era. Both Neiman and Huber point to a speech by Richard von Weizscker in 1985, the 40th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day,when he declared May 8 one of liberation for Germany, not defeat.

East Germany was rather different, Neiman said.East Germany was anti-fascist from the start because the first victims of Nazis were not Jews, they were Communists and Social Democrats. So the leaders of East Germany were mostly in exile or concentration campsand they were genuinely opposed to the Nazis. Did they abuse their anti-fascist stance ideologically? Of course they did! But was it clear in one side of Germany that the Nazis were evil, and that defeating them was good? Yes.

The GDRs anti-fascism was very much top-down, as Neiman puts it: It was state ideology. So, though the GDRs political class could accurately claim to have never harboured any support for Nazism, this was rather less true for ordinary citizens many of whom would spend decades listening to fresh propaganda that reassured them that Nazism and capitalism went hand in glove and any responsibility for World War II lay west of the Berlin Wall.

Neimans 2019 book, Learning From the Germans, is an exploration of what lessons the US South could take from the progress made in Germany from examining the nationalpast. It was recently published in German.

When I told German friends and colleagues about the book, they either laughed at me or shouted at me because its part of being a good German that you dont believe Germany has any lessons to teach anyone else [on such matters], Neiman said. And my answer was always: Thats an admirable attitude to hold, but its also rather provincial. If you look at other national histories, I think you have to acknowledge that Germany as a whole has gone further in changingits view of itself from a victim to a perpetrator than any other country with remotely comparable history.

A new front

Could the progress made be at risk as the number of survivors of World War II dwindles? Young Germans, in particular, score increasingly poorly in surveys exploring their knowledge of the Nazi era.

By the numbers, the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) isone of the least successful populist far-right movements in Europe, yet it has still established what many analysts deemed impossible for years: a viable political party clearly to the right of the Christian Democrats with seats in the Bundestag and all stateparliaments.

The AfDs heavy hitters and more controversial figures dont tend to talk that much about World War II or the Nazis, although when they do, they will often breach postwar taboos, especially by questioning the culture of remembrance. Alexander Gauland, who weighed in this week arguing against making May 8 a public holiday in Germany, once described Hitler and the Nazi regime as a speck of bird sh*t on over 1,000 successful years of German history.

The partys chairman in the state of Thuringia, Bjrn Hcke, described Berlins Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as a memorial of shame in January 2017.

Also read: The Beer Hall Putsch of November 9, 1923 Germanys Own 9/11

I think we must be aware that the AfD doesrepresent a considerable part of German society today, Huber said. So, yes, they are here to stay. And we certainly will witness a hard and long fight between those who still insist on keeping alive our lessons from the past and those who want to close this chapter of our history, once and for all.

This doesnt seem to have escaped Chancellor Angela Merkel either. In December last year, having already made it clear her time in office was winding down, she visited Auschwitz for the first time on the 75th anniversary of its liberation.We can never forget, Merkel said at the concentration camp, which was built in Nazi-occupied Poland and is arguably the site most symbolic of the Holocaust on the planet. We can never draw a line under this or seek to relativize it.

According to surveys, the vast majority of Germans agree and feel a moral responsibility for the darkest chapter of their countrys history.

The article was originally published onDW.You can read ithere.

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May 8, 1945: Germany's 'Zero Hour' - The Wire