Ancient Siberia was home to previously unknown humans, say scientists

The Guardian

DNA analysis reveals hardy group genetically distinct from Eurasians and East Asians

It was cold, remote and involved picking fights with woolly mammoths – but it seems ancient Siberia 30,000 years ago was home to a hardy and previously unknown group of humans. Scientists say the discovery could help solve longstanding mysteries about the ancestors of native North Americans.

While it is commonly believed the ancestors of native North Americans arrived from Eurasia via a now submerged land bridge called Beringia, exactly which groups crossed and gave rise to native North American populations has been difficult to unpick.

Now scientists say they might have found some answers to the conundrums.

Writing in the journal Nature, Eske Willerslev and colleagues reveal how they drew on existing data from modern populations as well as analysing ancient DNA from the remains of 34 individuals obtained from sites around north-eastern Siberia, dating from more than 31,000 years ago up to 600 years ago.

While it had previously been thought that these remains might be from the ancestors of native North Americans, the DNA data suggests otherwise.

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More Countries Start Exploring Alternatives to the US World Order

Federico Pieraccini
Strategic Culture.org 

There are two countries that more than others show how the Western world order is undergoing a profound change. Japan and Turkey occupy two distinct and diverse geographical areas, yet they share many of the same strategic choices about their future. Their geopolitical trajectory is increasingly drifting away from Washington and moving closer to China, Russia, India and Iran. 

Both Japan and Turkey are two important states in the US’s strategy for controlling the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Both countries have economies that are competitive in comparison to their neighbors, and both often conveniently find themselves allied to countries within Washington’s orbit. Japan has a good relationship with South Korea, and Turkey (until a few years ago) had a privileged relationship with Saudi Arabia and Israel. Keeping in mind that the US aims to prolong and consolidate its regional dominance, Washington has always tried to have excellent relations with these two countries as a way of ensuring its constant presence in regional affairs.

Japan and Turkey have perfectly fulfilled America’s role for them in military, financial and economic terms. Ankara, for example, is a key part of NATO and offers military bases like the Incirlik Air Base, allowing for US military influence in the Middle East. Qatar, for example, is a satellite of Turkey, thanks to the shared religious bonds of the Muslim Brotherhood. Not by coincidence, one of the most important US air bases is located in Qatar, helping further lock in America’s regional presence. The goal, of course, is geopolitical, highlighting America’s ongoing confrontation with Iran, Russia and China. The United States tends to control certain geographical areas because of its military and economic power that is expressed directly or indirectly through compliant allies like Turkey and Japan. 

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Mattis: Putin Is Trying To “Undermine America’s Moral Authority”

Caitline Johnstone
caitlinejohnstone.com

At a graduation ceremony for the US Naval War College (barf), US Secretary of Defense James Mattis asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “aims to diminish the appeal of the western democratic model and attempts to undermine America’s moral authority,” and that “his actions are designed not to challenge our arms at this point but to undercut and compromise our belief in our ideals.”

This would be the same James Mattis who’s been overseeing the war crimes committed by America’s armed forces during their illegal occupation of Syria. This would be the same United States of America that was born of the genocide of indigenous tribes and the labor of African slaves, which slaughtered millions in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Libya and Syria for no legitimate reason, which is partnered with Ukrainian Nazis, jihadist factions in Syria and Iranian terror cultists, which supports 73 percent of the world’s dictators, which interferes constantly in the electoral processes of other countries as a matter of policy, which stages coups around the world, which has encircled the globe with military bases, whose FBI still targets black civil rights activists for persecution to this very day, which routinely enters into undeclared wars of aggression against noncompliant governments to advance plutocratic interests, which remains the only country ever to use nuclear weapons on human beings after doing so completely needlessly in Japan, and which is functionally a corporatist oligarchy with no meaningful “democratic model” in place at all. 

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Trump And Kim Sign Declaration of Peace in Singapore (Because The Alternative is Too Expensive)

Comment: Much to the intense frustration of the neocons...

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Niall Bradley
Sott.net

So Rocket Man and The Dotard have met. After last year's epic mud-slinging, US President Donald Trump now says he and Chairman Kim Jong-un of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have a "special bond". The 'optics' of the summit reflect well on both leaders, who were cordial and without any of the hysterics and tantrums that had 'analysts' forecasting nuclear conflagration just last year.

But that's all ancient history now. The signed document - a declaration, not a 'deal', 'roadmap' or anything more - is brief: 

Convinced that the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:

1. The United States and the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

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The Great War For Eurasia

J.C. Collins
Philosophy of Metrics

Nothing you have been told is true.

The 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles which President Trump fired at Syria on April 6, 2017 has left most supporters either surprised or confused. In some cases both. The rampant propaganda which has bookended this event is even more unbelievable than that which accompanied the media onslaught in the lead up to the Iraq invasion of 2003.

The emotional illogic contagion which spreads when we are fighting “for the children” is the most effective of the propaganda tactics. It taps into our deepest and most human characteristic. The need to protect our children and those who are innocent is something which no one could argue with, lest they be labeled a monster.

The alleged sarin gas attack on the Syrian people by President Bashar al-Assad fits this profile and brings back memories of Iraqi soldiers taking Kuwait babies out of incubators and throwing them on the floor. These fabricated events manufacture the required support to rally mass populations behind a cause and war which they otherwise may not agree with. Humans are emotion based and can be conditioned with relative ease on most issues.

The complex nature of world events and challenges would require intense explanations and a broad knowledge base to understand. This is not to suggest that people do not deserve the truth and that a high percentage of the population could not comprehend and manage a working understanding of how the world functions. It simple acknowledges the factual data of the intelligence bell curve within demographics and the disproportionate ability of people to process and transfer information and knowledge with any consistent level of accuracy.

The truths around the developing events in Syria are about so much more than sarin gas and innocent children. The gas attack itself is in serious question as Assad had zero motive to commit such an attack. Previous accusations of Assad gassing his own people turned out to be fabrications and propaganda, or the acts of the Western supported rebels and terrorists organizations operating in the country for the purpose of removing Russian ally Assad from power.

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The Swamp Strikes Back

Pepe Escobar
Sputnik

The tawdry Michael Flynn soap opera boils down to the CIA hemorrhaging leaks to the company town newspaper, leading to the desired endgame: a resounding victory for hardcore neocon/neoliberalcon US Deep State factions in one particular battle. But the war is not over; in fact it's just beginning.

Even before Flynn's fall, Russian analysts had been avidly discussing whether President Trump is the new Viktor Yanukovych — who failed to stop a color revolution at his doorstep. The Made in USA color revolution by the axis of Deep State neocons, Democratic neoliberalcons and corporate media will be pursued, relentlessly, 24/7. But more than Yanukovych, Trump might actually be remixing Little Helmsman Deng Xiaoping: "crossing the river while feeling the stones". Rather, crossing the swamp while feeling the crocs. Flynn out may be interpreted as a Trump tactical retreat. After all Flynn may be back — in the shade, much as Roger Stone. If current deputy national security advisor K T McFarland gets the top job - which is what powerful Trump backers are aiming at - the shadowplay Kissinger balance of power, in its 21st century remix, is even strengthened; after all McFarland is a Kissinger asset.

This call won't self-destruct in five seconds

Flynn worked with Special Forces; was head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA); handled highly classified top secret information 24/7. He obviously knew all his conversations on an open, unsecure line were monitored. So he had to have morphed into a compound incarnation of the Three Stooges had he positioned himself to be blackmailed by Moscow. What Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak certainly discussed was cooperation in the fight against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, and what Moscow might expect in return: the lifting of sanctions. US corporate media didn't even flinch when US intel admitted they have a transcript of the multiple phone calls between Flynn and Kislyak. So why not release them? Imagine the inter-galactic scandal if these calls were about Russian intel monitoring the US ambassador in Moscow. 

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Turkey's Shift Towards Russia & the Grand Chessboard

Jay Dyer 

 

As with so many CIA-backed leaders, tyrants and despots, once your usefulness to Washington and Langley expires or your policies go off script, a coup or regime change magically emerges.  With Turkey's Erdogan, we have seen these familiar patterns as NATO and its globalist backers are more and more revealed to be aggressors against Eurasian interests.  Indeed, it was Brzezinski himself who wrote in his Grand Chessboard that control of Eurasia is key to control of the globe:

"... But in the meantime, it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book.” (p. xiv)

"In that context, how America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania (Australia) geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources." (p.31)

And,

“The momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea." (p.125)

Indeed, the pipeline projects through these regions dictate much of the geopolitical kerfuffle. Turkey's pivot away from NATO towards Russia is precisely the reason for the coup, as the CIA and Hillary Clinton-connected charter school mastermind, Fethullah Gulen.  The Gulenists and their western backers, formerly allied with Erdogan and the Kemalists, now oppose the AKP and sought, through apparent U.S. aid, to enact a regime change before Turkish second thoughts on NATO. 


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Drug routes expanding in Asian region

ANN

Drug syndicates are expanding regionally, hence countries should hold discussions with each other to tackle drug-related issues, said Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau Director Ng Ser Long on Wednesday.

“One of the big trends we have seen in the past, is the movement of drugs from the Golden Triangle to other parts of the world. Now we are seeing drugs from other parts of the world moving to our (Asean) region,” he told The Brunei Times.

Ng led a six-member delegation from Singapore to Brunei for the 6th Bilateral Meeting between Brunei’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

Ng believes the drug movement trend is a reflection of the region’s economic growth.

“Countries in the region are doing well, their economies are growing, therefore there is larger consumption. So in some way, you see drug movement increasing in the region. The way forward for all of us is good cooperation and sharing of intelligence,” he said.

“At one point, we were all worried about a certain African drug gang making use of local ladies as drug mules/couriers. Three countries (Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia) organised joint operations and shared intelligence, and through that, we managed to bring them (the gang) down,” he said.

Brunei and Singapore have a long history of bilateral cooperation.

The CNB team also visited Al-Islah Rehabilitation Centre in Kg Kupang, Tutong, which began operations on Feb 1, 2010.

The director lauded the centre’s success, and said that knowledge gained from their visit will be used to increase their own standards of quality.

NCB Director Hj Jasmin Hj Jamudin described the working visit as beneficial for both parties, noting the CNB’s legal and investigative aspects as key areas of interest for Brunei.

“Brunei and Singapore share similarities in our approaches and practises in curbing drug abuse. We are also looking forward to implementing some of the new technology used by Singapore (such as using hair to test for drug abuse),” he said.

Concerns over border control at immigration posts was also among the issue brought up during the meeting.

Why are so many elderly Asians killing themselves?

 

Chinese police remove an elderly man who climbed up an advertising billboard to kill himself by jumping to the ground, in Beijing on May 17, 2011. The suicide rate among the elderly living in China's urban areas has become alarmingly high.

Global Post

SINGAPORE — It is a question that has puzzled mental health experts in Asia for some time: Why are so many elderly Asians committing suicide?
The past decade has seen astonishing spikes in the rate of Asians over 65 choosing to end their lives early, particularly in the region’s economically successful countries.

• In South Korea, for example, suicides in that age group have risen more than fivefold, from 14 per 100,000 in 1990 to 77 per 100,000 in 2009, according to Hallym University's Institute of Aging.  

• In Taiwan, seniors took their lives more than twice as often as any other age group, at a rate of 35.8 per 100,000 in 2010, versus 17.6 for the national average.

• Suicides among city dwellers in China aged 70 to 74 surged to 33.76 per 100,000 in the mid-2000s, up from 13.39 in the 1990s.

And these numbers are expected to rise.

A 2011 report found that mental well-being would likely worsen over the next two decades in Asia, with suicide rates expected to continue climbing.

The World Health Organization found higher-than-average suicide rates among the elderly in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore. The irony: Wealth and economic growth over the past quarter-century has given families greater financial resources to take care of their elderly.
By contrast, the rate remains both stable and far lower in less-developed countries, such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

(Experts stress that government data concerning elderly suicides in Asia is considered to be of poor quality, due to unreported cases. So rates could be even higher.)

The trend contrasts with what is happening in the world’s most developed countries.

Among nations belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a grouping of 30-odd wealthy nations, the average overall suicide rate fell from 16.17 per 100,000 in 1990 to 13.29 in 2010. In the United States, elderly suicides accounted for 14.3 per 100,000 in 2007.

In Asia, experts blame the rapid social and economic changes across the region and scarce mental health services. In some Asian countries a disproportionate number of suicides among elderly has followed financial or health crises, but experts are now looking at the social pressures being placed on the elderly by industrialization and population growth.

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Arab Spring a Western Ploy to Control Eurasia