We’ve dedicated an entire special issue,SLAM’s TOP 75 NBA Teams of All Time, to ranking the best 75 individual season teams ever.This week, we’re unveiling which squads made it on our top 10. To find out who else made it on the list, read here.
8. 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers
Coach: Billy Cunningham
Record: 65-17
Roster: JJ Anderson, Maurice Cheeks, Earl Cureton, Franklin Edwards, Julius Erving, Marc Iavaroni, Clemon Johnson, Reggie Johnson, Bobby Jones, Moses Malone, Mark McNamara, Clint Richardson, Russ Schoene, Andrew Toney
The season after the Sixers lost the Finals to the Portland Trail Blazers, the team crafted a ticket sales pitch to fans informing them, “We owe you one.” The franchise didn’t pay up the next year. Or the one after that. In fact, the slogan became something of a punchline for the franchise that always had talent but couldn’t convert it to a title.
Philadelphia lost to the Lakers in the ’80 Finals and again in ’82. It seemed impossible that a team with Julius “Dr. J” Erving, one of the most exciting players in basketball history, would never hang a banner.
Then came Moses.
Not long before the start of the ’82-83 season, the Sixers executed a sign-and-trade for Houston center Moses Malone. All of a sudden the team of All-Stars had the final piece. With Malone handling the rough stuff in the middle—and sweating a ton in the process—Erving was free to soar over and around rivals all season. Meanwhile, the dynamic backcourt of point man Maurice Cheeks and clutch sharpshooter Andrew Toney provided ample trouble for opponents from the perimeter. And just when teams thought they had that quartet under some measure of control, Bobby Jones would come crashing through for a fastbreak dunk or to jam home a missed shot.
The Sixers took command of the Atlantic Division early and cruised past the Celtics. Their 65 wins were the best by far in the NBA, and as Philadelphia headed into the playoffs, Malone uttered the famous quotation, “Fo-fo-fo,” meaning the Sixers would win each of the three playoff series necessary to take the title in four games.
The Moses Doctrine looked pretty good after the first round, which the Sixers won over the Knicks in four. But Milwaukee won a game in the Eastern Finals, and Philadelphia had to settle for the five-game trip to the Finals.
Waiting there—fittingly—were the Lakers, who had many of the same players who had caused the Sixers trouble in previous Finals. However, L.A. would be without rookie James Worthy, who broke his leg late in the regular season. It likely wouldn’t have mattered. The Sixers were committed to rectifying their earlier shortcomings, and they blitzed the Lakers in four games, completing the sweep on the Forum floor where they had watched L.A. celebrate a year before.
When it was all over, the Sixers were able to put out another message:
It’s been over thirty years since Nintendo released its Power Glove, but the infamous controller hasn’t quite faded into oblivion yet. A YouTuber recently crafted a nifty new use for the glove: compatibility with the Switch.
In a new video, tech YouTuber Will It Work? shows off his newly modded Power Glove, which has been revived and now works with the Nintendo Switch (save for a bit of latency and a few remapping issues).
A History of Every Nintendo Direct in the Switch Era and Beyond
As explained in the video, two essential pieces of hardware made this impressive mod possible: the USB NES RetroPort, which turns devices like the Power Glove into USB game controllers; and the ConsoleTuner Titan One, which allows the Switch to recognize external devices like the Power Glove as controllers.
Thanks to these two pieces of hardware and a bit of tinkering, Will It Work was able to configure the Power Glove as a simplified Switch controller — hand movements correspond to joystick motions, thumb movements correspond to the A button, and index finger movements correspond to the B button.
He briefly dives into Pokemon Legends: Arceus to demonstrate the controller’s movement capabilities. Of course, the highlight is his brief foray into Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, though to get this game to work properly, he had to write a script to get the A button to hold to allow auto-acceleration as well.
“I love the Power Glove,” he states. “It’s so bad.”
“I can remember when he was a little boy—this is how obsessed he was,” recalls Brandy Cole, the mother of Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum. “I asked him, What do you want to be when you grow up? His first answer in life was, ‘Kobe.’”
Brandy tried to explain to her son: You can’t be Kobe. You can be an NBA player, like Kobe. But you can’t be Kobe.
Jayson refused to accept that. And when mom dared to suggest that he could one day be better than Kobe, her son damn near lost his mind.
“I was like, Can’t nobody be better than Kobe!” Tatum remembers. “It didn’t even make sense to me.”
Not too long ago, Jayson Tatum hated the Boston Celtics. As a kid growing up in St. Louis, MO—a city without a hometown NBA team—he fell in love with Kobe and the Lakers. That love, dating back to when Jayson was 4 years old, ran deep. It was an obsession.
He retreated to his bedroom and cried when Boston beat L.A. in the 2008 Finals. He was ecstatic when Kobe got his revenge in 2010, winning his fifth and final championship.
“From the beginning, [Kobe] was always my favorite player,” Tatum explains. “I wanted to be just like him. He was my biggest basketball inspiration.”
By the age of 6, Jayson was getting into heated arguments with Brandy about who was better, Kobe or Michael Jordan. She watched MJ and the Bulls rule the League in the ’90s. Jayson’s allegiance, of course, was always to the Mamba.
In every way possible, Jayson tried to emulate his idol. He was shooting turnaround, fadeaway jumpers by third grade. And it wasn’t like he’d just do it in a game. Brandy would peer out the window and see Jayson working on those moves in the backyard of their home in University City.
He rocked all the Kobe kicks and apparel he could get his hands on.
“My favorite Kobe shoes were the Kobe 3s,” Tatum says. “I had on the ‘What The’ Kobe 9s in the state championship game my senior year. Played in Kobe ‘Preludes,’ 5s and 6s, when I was on the EYBL circuit.”
“I can remember the first time I found out that Flight Club existed, he was entering his senior year and he wanted these shoes—’What The’ Kobes,” Brandy says. “They were already expensive to me. I looked high and low, and then I found Flight Club. Of course, the only place [that had them]. And I was like, You mean I got to pay more for these? [laughs] But he was like, ‘That’s all I want. It can be my Christmas gift and my birthday gift. That’s all I want.’”
In 2007, Jayson met Kobe for the first time at Quicken Loans Arena when the Cavaliers hosted the Lakers. He still has the picture they took in the hallway after the game. That same year, he went to All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas with Brandy. They didn’t have tickets to the events but made it to the NBA’s Jam Session—a giant activation geared toward kids. Tatum picked out a red Western Conference All-Star Kobe jacket. Brandy dug it up after Bryant’s passing and surprised Jayson with it.
Tatum’s fandom started as most fandoms do. He gravitated to the exciting showman playing on one of the League’s brightest stages. The Lakers regularly appeared on national TV. Bryant regularly appeared on SportCenter’s Top 10. Once Tatum discovered YouTube, he’d spend hours and hours going through highlights.
“One of my all-time favorite plays when I was younger was when they threw the full-court pass to him and he did the 180 when he went behind his back,” he says. “That shit was just, like, unbelievable to me when I first saw that.”
As he became older and found his own success in basketball, Jayson began to look up to Kobe for reasons far beyond a lob to Shaq or a poster over Dwight. He kept watching the highlights, only this time, he studied them differently.
“I remember my dad telling me, ‘Don’t just watch his buckets. Watch how hard he works to get open for the ball, his demeanor, how efficient he is with his body movements and his jab steps, his footwork. Don’t just watch the shot go in,’” Tatum says. “I really started to pay attention to the little things.”
“The little things” extended far beyond clips on YouTube. Jayson read stories of Kobe’s work ethic, drive and intensity. He listened to the Mamba speak about it himself—how he put all his eggs in one basket, how he chased his goal of making the NBA relentlessly, how he never had a backup plan. It became Tatum’s own mantra.
“He said the exact same words to me,” Brandy explains. “We would talk about work ethic and all of that. I would say, ‘OK, what’s your Plan B just in case [you don’t make the NBA]?’ He looked at me one day and he was like, ‘That’s the difference between me…’ and he named off all these other people. ‘They actually have a fallback plan, a Plan B.’ These were his exact words: ‘Mom, no. It’s this or die.’ And I responded, Um, no. Maybe there’s something else, like coaching. I was trying to get him to at least come up with something. There’s a small number of people that actually make the NBA, and as a lawyer, I’m always like, Do your due diligence, make sure you have all your bases covered. But he was emphatic. ‘It’s this or nothing.’”
As early as elementary school, Tatum embraced the Mamba Mentality. He’d tell teachers that his dream was to be an NBA player, and when they encouraged him to choose something more realistic, he remained steadfast.
“I can remember vividly, he was in the fourth grade playing AAU Nationals in New Orleans,” Brandy says. “We would go on trips and there was a rule that you couldn’t swim or couldn’t have fries and ice cream and stuff like that, because you couldn’t swim all day in the sun and then go play and compete. We lost, and a bunch of other kids on the team were like, Yay, now we can go swim. We get back to the hotel and they all can’t wait to get into their swimsuits and go to the pool. I go in our room and Jayson’s sitting on the floor with his back against the wall in tears. You’re not going swimming? He said, ‘No, I don’t understand. We lost. There’s nothing to be happy about.’ He was just so upset. There was always something different about him.”
That continued into high school, when Jayson was up at 5 am every morning and off to the gym before Brandy even got out of bed. He paid attention to the details and never took shortcuts. He mastered Bryant’s jab step by training for an entire week without a basketball, just replicating the motion over and over again. During his four years at Chaminade, head coach Frank Bennett insists he took just two days off—the two days following their state championship victory his senior season.
All of that stemmed from Bryant and a desire to follow in his footsteps. It seemed to come full circle when, amid Boston’s 2018 playoff run, Kobe dedicated a segment of his ESPN show Detail to breaking down Tatum’s game and how it could improve. Then a rookie, Tatum had been helping to lead an injury-riddled Celtics team through the Eastern Conference. After years of analyzing Bryant’s every move, the roles had suddenly reversed. Jayson watched the episode on repeat.
“I started to talk to him during the playoffs. He told me when I get to L.A. to contact him. If I wanted to get in the gym, just let him know,” Tatum says. “And then when we did, I remember I was sweating on the way to the gym. My heart was beating fast. I remember I walked in and I was like, Yo, this shit…Kobe is here and I’m about to…like, it was…”
He struggles to find the words to describe the moment exactly. Here he was, having just turned 20, about to play basketball with his hero.
“I remember I would do a drill and he would show me how to do something or tell me what to do next, and I was just sitting there and in my mind I’m like, Yo, I’m working out with fucking Kobe Bryant.”
“It’s right up there with him getting drafted,” says Brandy, of that first workout between her son and Bryant. “It’s watching your kid’s dreams come true.”
“He’s iconic,” says Jayson. “He accomplished so much. I think it was just the way he went about it. The way he did things and his demeanor. He was different. That’s the best way to put it. He was just different. He was unlike anybody else. He did it his own way. And you could see when he passed away, so many people my age and even older guys in the NBA, they attribute him [with] being the reason they work so hard and started playing basketball.”
The news of Kobe’s death left Tatum heartbroken. He continued to honor his idol on the court, being named to his first All-Star team in late January. The seeds of that accomplishment were planted nearly two decades ago, when a young, awestruck Jayson first saw the Black Mamba dominate. Kobe was the reason he picked up a basketball. Kobe was the one who inspired him to strive for feats like this.
“No matter if it was during the regular season, postseason, All-Star—everything he’s always done, he’s always followed and wanted to emulate Kobe,” Brandy emphasizes. “Whether it was on the court, life accomplishments, USA [Basketball], All-Star.
“I think it’s a little bittersweet [making his first All-Star Game],” she continues. “I’m sure Kobe would’ve been there. I’m sure Jayson probably would’ve gotten a text or a phone call congratulating him. I think he would have been glad to see that Kobe was proud of him. It’s bittersweet, for sure, but I know that he knows Kobe is proud of him and that this is one of many. And if he keeps that Mamba Mentality, he’ll be a perennial All-Star, MVP candidate, all of that.”
That’s Plan A. And for Jayson Tatum, there aren’t any backup plans.
In May 2017, the then 14-year-old was arrested on charges of robbery and murder. Despite having an alibi, and based on a confession extracted under torture and other ill-treatment, he was convicted, and recently sentenced to death for a second time after his original conviction was overturned by the Saudi Supreme Court last year.
“We are alarmed by the confirmation of the death sentence against Mr. Al-Howaiti, on 2 March 2022, without initiating any investigation into the allegations of torture or determining the veracity of the coerced confession of guilt,” the experts said.
If the Court of Appeal confirms the conviction, Mr. Al-Howaiti will be at an imminent risk of execution.
Trial errors
From failing to consider an alibi, to dismissing allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and admitting torture-tainted confessions as incriminating evidence without properly investigating, the experts were dismayed by the conviction after a trial marred with such due process irregularities.
“We would like to remind the Saudi authorities of their obligation to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation wherever there are reasonable grounds to believe that torture has been committed, and to exclude any evidence obtained through torture and coercion from judicial proceedings,” the experts said.
Abolish capital punishment
The experts also urged the Saudi Government/authorities to adopt measures towards abolishing the death penalty for children, including in relation to offenses punished under qisas and hudad.
Qisas is an Islamic term interpreted to mean “eye for an eye.” It is used as a category of retributive justice for murder in Saudi Arabia and allows victims’ families to demand the death sentence, compensation or offer a pardon.
Hudud refers to Islamic penal law or Quranic punishments for offences including theft, brigandage, adultery and apostasy.
The death penalty on children is absolutely prohibited under international law without exception or derogation under any circumstances, according to the UN experts.
“We urge the Saudi Government to adopt without delay the necessary legislative measures to abolish the imposition of the death penalty for children for all crimes, including in relation to offences punished under qisas and hudud,” the experts said.
Deprivation of life
The UN experts have previously expressed their concerns regarding this case to the Government of Saudi Arabia.
They reiterated their request to the authorities to take immediate measures to protect the moral and physical integrity of Mr. Al-Howaiti, considering his age and vulnerability.
“Prolonged incommunicado detention can facilitate the perpetration of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and can in itself constitute a form of such treatment,” underscored the UN experts said.
The death penalty against juvenile offenders in Saudi Arabia is the arbitrary deprivation of life, the UN experts said.
More on experts
Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.
The experts in this case included the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Chair-Rapporteur Miriam Estrada-Castillo,Vice-Chair Mumba Malila and members Elina Steinerte, Matthew Gillett, and Priya Gopalan along with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz.
LONDON, May 31 (IPS) – At this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos which ended last week, the attention of the world’s financial and economic elite was captured by the war in Ukraine whose president Volodimir Zelensky used his address to call to “complete withdrawal of foreign businesses from the Russian market”, despite 380 of the largest multinational companies still operating in Russia.
Many companies still present in Russia were sitting in the audience while Zelensky spoke including HSBC that still maintains operations for existing clients, and Credit Suisse that is scaling them back without signalling that it would pull out of Russia due to the invasion. This is especially troubling given the leaked data in Suisse Secrets about how Credit Suisse oiled the wheels of many oligarchs prior to the Russian Invasion in Ukraine.
The banks at Davos are likely to hold assets of many of the over 6,163 sanctioned Russian individuals and entities despite anti-money laundering efforts to trace these funds hidden behind shell companies. This money in turn is often held in accounts in banks participating at the annual Davos meetings and their assets may never even be revealed due to the lack of stricter banking and financial transparency laws.
Ironically, even talking about these secretive accounts, and the leaks related to these is a criminal offence in Davos under draconian Swiss banking secrecy laws, so raising the issue could get you arrested and fined. Credit Suisse only committed itself to “stop new business in Russia while meaningfully cutting exposure by 56%.” The imbalance is striking, and none of the panels at Davos addressed this uncomfortable issue.
Alarmingly, this signals a business-as-usual approach by many of the top companies represented in Davos, not only failing to tackle Russian oligarchs but more broadly ignoring the issue of offshore funds held by powerful individuals and politicians from the global South.
The debt crisis should also have been on the Davos agenda, as on the eve of the opening of Davos on 19 May we saw Sri Lanka descend into a balance of payment and debt crisis as their 30-day grace period to make debt payments to its creditors expired. The dues are mainly due to private creditors who form the largest single creditor group to Sri Lanka, many of whom again such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs were sitting in the audience at Davos, unwilling to commit to debt restructuring of private creditor debt.
Some of these issues were picked up by the annual Global Risk Report, where the key global risks that are identified in the next two years include extreme weather and livelihood crisis, followed by risk of not tackling climate change. Debt ranks as the 8th greatest risk, not something picked up by many of the respondents to the annual survey – of whom 63% were male, and 41% were from the business sector, largely overall represented by Europeans with 44% of all respondents drawn from the region, with only 6% from South Asia.
Why then the media focus on a Davos meeting that fail to deliver anything meaningful? It is a symbol of our age, and a place where the corporate elite get together and offer their view of the world – and where a few critics get to express their opinion about how it is failing to deliver each year. Given the mounting crises we are currently facing, and the role of responsible big business should take, this is plainly not enough.
Matti Kohonen is the director of the Financial Transparency Coalition and previously worked at Christian Aid as the Principal Advisor on the Private Sector, working to ensure that the private sector is a responsible and accountable actor in global development.
Jamie Lee Curtis could not contain her excitement after her youngest daughter, Ruby, tied the knot.
Over the weekend, the Halloween Kills star shared a few photos on Instagram from inside her 26-year-old daughter’s cosplay wedding with her new wife Kynthia. In the May 29 post, captioned “WIFE IS SWEET,” Jamie shared an image of herself posing in between the newlyweds as they were all decked out in costumes. In another post, she wrote, “YES THEY DO AND DID! MARRIED!” alongside a photo of the brides leaning in to share a kiss in front of the guests.
After the epic festivities wrapped, Jamie—who also officiated the ceremony—shared an image of herself posing with something that her fans are used to seeing killer Michael Meyers carry in their infamous Halloween movies—a butcher knife. “YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP!” she wrote as she held the cake-covered knife in her hand. “The ONLY thing left over at the end of this entire BEAUTIFUL wedding, after everything was taken away was this f–king BUTCHER KNIFE they cut the tiramisu wedding cake with! WIFE IS SWEET!”
BAMAKO, Mali — On the last Sunday in March before Ramadan, thousands of merchants and villagers filled the market of Moura, in central Mali, trading cattle in a vast pen and stocking up on spices and vegetables in the town’s sandy alleys.
Suddenly, five low-flying helicopters thrummed overhead, some firing weapons and drawing gunfire in return. Villagers ran for their lives. But there was nowhere to escape: The helicopters were dropping soldiers on the town’s outskirts to block all the exits.
The soldiers were in pursuit of Islamist militants who have been operating in the region for years. Many of the soldiers were Malians, but they were accompanied by white foreigners wearing military fatigues and speaking a language that was neither English nor French, locals said.
The foreigners, according to diplomats, officials and human rights groups, belonged to the Russian paramilitary group known as Wagner.
Over the next five days in Moura, Malian soldiers and their Russian allies looted houses, held villagers captive in a dried-out riverbed and executed hundreds of men, according to eight witnesses from Moura and more than 20 Malian politicians and civil society activists, as well as Western military officials and diplomats.
Both Malian soldiers and foreign mercenaries killed captives at close range, often without interrogating them, based on their ethnicity or clothes, according to witnesses. The foreigners marauded through the town, indiscriminately killing people in houses, stealing jewelry and confiscating cellphones to eliminate any visual evidence.
However, using satellite imagery, The New York Times identified the sites of at least two mass graves, which matched the witnesses’ descriptions of where captives were executed and buried.
The Malian authorities and military did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Wagner Group refers to a network of operatives and companies that serve as what the U.S. Treasury Department has called a “proxy force” of Russia’s ministry of defense. Analysts describe the group as an extension of Russia’s foreign policy through deniable activities, including the use of mercenaries and disinformation campaigns.
Since it appeared in Ukraine in 2014, its operatives have been identified working in Libya, Syria and countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Sudan, and now Mali. They ally with embattled political and military leaders who can pay for their services in cash, or with lucrative mining concessions for precious minerals like gold, diamonds and uranium, according to interviews conducted in recent weeks with dozens of analysts, diplomats and military officials in Africa and Western countries.
The Malian authorities hailed the Moura attack as a major victory in their fight against extremist groups, claiming to have killed 203 fighters and arrested more than 50 others, but making no mention of civilian casualties. They have denied the presence of Wagner operatives, saying only that they have a contract with Russia to provide “instructors.”
However, Russian foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov said in May on Italian television that Wagner was present in Mali “on a commercial basis,” providing “security services.”
Witnesses and analysts say the death toll in Moura was between 300 and 400 by their most conservative estimates, with most of the victims civilians.
“From Monday to Thursday, the killings didn’t stop,” said Hamadoun, a tailor working near the market when the helicopters arrived. “The whites and the Malians killed together.”
Bara, a cattle trader from Moura, said, “They terminated all the youth of this area.”
The witnesses, fearing retribution, spoke to The Times on condition that they be identified only by their first names. They were interviewed after fleeing Moura and taking refuge elsewhere in Mali.
The death toll in Moura is the highest in a growing list of human rights abuses committed by the Malian military, which diplomats and Malian human rights observers say have increased since the military began conducting joint operations with the Wagner Group in January.
In central Mali, nearly 500 civilians have been killed in the joint operations, including in Moura, according to confidential reports from the U.N. mission in Mali seen by The Times and a database compiled by Héni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, or ACLED. Some abuses could amount to crimes against humanity, the U.N. said in one report.
On Monday, the U.N. mission said human rights violations committed by the Malian military against civilians had increased tenfold between the end of 2021 and the first quarter of this year. In Moura, the security forces “may have also raped, looted, arrested and arbitrarily detained many civilians,” according to the mission, which is preparing a report on the incident.
Militaries in the Sahel, the vast sub-Saharan region that cuts across Africa, have long been accused of killing their own people — including after training by Western instructors. But the particular human rights violations in Mali fit a pattern of abuses — including torture, beatings and summary executions — reported in other countries where Wagner mercenaries have been deployed.
The Wagner Group is believed to be led by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. In a written response to questions sent by The Times, Mr. Prigozhin praised Mali’s current leader, its military and its actions in Moura. But he denied the presence of Wagner contractors in Mali, calling it “a legend” that the group even exists.
He added, “Wherever there are Russian contractors, real or fictional, they never violate human rights.”
In December, the European Union imposed sanctions on eight people, though not Mr. Prigozhin, connected to the group, accusing it of looting natural resources, fueling violence and violating international law.
In Mali, about 1,000 Wagner mercenaries have been deployed to at least 15 military bases, security outposts and checkpoints, including former French bases and facilities funded by the European Union, according to a French military official and a senior diplomat based in Mali.
Sorcha MacLeod, chair of the U.N. working group on the use of mercenaries, said human rights abuses and war crimes increased wherever mercenaries were deployed. “They have no incentive to end the conflict, because they are financially motivated,” she said.
A Slow-Motion Massacre
A hard-to-reach town of mud brick buildings in the floodplain of the Inner Niger Delta, Moura is known for its “galbal,” or livestock market, which draws thousands of buyers and merchants every Sunday.
The region is home to many herders and farmers of the Fulani ethnic group, who are prime recruits for the militants, and often, victims of the violence too.
Since 2015, the Katibat Macina, a local affiliate of the terrorist group Al Qaeda, has had a grip on the area, collecting taxes and forcing men to grow their beards.
“They are the government in the region,” said Hamadou, a herder who was held by the soldiers.
On the day of the attack, armed Islamist militants were roaming Moura, their motorcycles parked nearby. When the helicopters approached the town, some villagers climbed on the roofs their houses to see what was happening. Some militants tried to flee on motorcycles, while others fired at the helicopters.
Malian soldiers rounded up captives and held them under guard at two sites: an area southwest of the town, not far from the galbal, and a dried riverbed east of the town, the villagers said in interviews.
The mass executions began on the Monday, and the victims were both civilians and unarmed militants, witnesses said. Soldiers picked out up to 15 people at a time, inspected their fingers and shoulders for the imprint left by regular use of weapons, and executed men yards away from captives.
Meanwhile, Russian mercenaries chased people in the streets and broke into houses. “The white soldiers were killing anyone trying to flee,” said Bara, the cattle trader, who was taken to the riverbed.
On Tuesday, Malian soldiers used the mosque’s loudspeakers to order everyone still hiding in houses to get out. Russian mercenaries made sure they did.
Modi, a 24-year-old resident, said two white men with guns shot through the door of his house, narrowly missing him. He ran to the riverbed, hoping he would be safer with the Malian soldiers.
When Hamadou, the herder, left his house on Tuesday, he said he discovered “cadavers everywhere.”
With the stench becoming unbearable, soldiers ordered those who had wheeled carts to collect bodies, and others to collect dry grass. The soldiers doused some of the bodies with fuel and set them on fire, in full view of the captives.
More interrogations followed on Wednesday, which women and children were ordered to witness. Soldiers pushed captives wearing the short pants or boots that could affiliate them with militants to walk around a house which they said contained a machine that could identify jihadists, eyewitnesses said, noting that this was likely a bluff. The soldiers executed a few men, and forced others into helicopters.
The soldiers and their Russian allies left on Thursday, after killing six last prisoners in retaliation for four who had escaped. A Malian soldier told a group of captives that the soldiers had killed “all the bad people,” said Hamadou.
The soldier apologized for the good people who “died by accident.”
All of the victims were Fulani, according to the survivors and testimonies collected by Human Rights Watch. Corinne Dukfa, the group’s Sahel director, said this would likely push more Fulani into the arms of Islamist groups.
Deadly Joint Operations
Since the military began conducting joint operations with Wagner mercenaries, “the distinction between civilians and fighters” — already barely respected — has “completely disappeared,” said Ousmane Diallo, a West Africa researcher with Amnesty International.
In early March, 30 charred bodies were discovered near the military base of Diabaly, where Malian soldiers and Wagner operatives have been deployed, weeks after a similarly sized group of men was abducted, according to U.N. peacekeepers in Mali and the French military.
In early April, Malian security forces and Russian mercenaries executed seven young children near the town of Bandiagara, according to the French military. In mid-April, the Malian military said it killed 18 Islamist militants and rounded up hundreds of others at a livestock market in the town of Hombori. But among those injured and taken to a clinic were older people, women and children, according to witnesses. At least one of those killed was also a civilian.
Investigators from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali have so far been denied access to Moura. Russia and China blocked a vote at the U.N. Security Council on an independent investigation.
Some Malians in these regions are losing trust in the government.
“We thought the white soldiers would free us from jihadists, but they are more dangerous,” said Oumar, who said his brother was among the 18 victims in Hombori. “At least jihadists don’t fire at anyone moving.”
Ten days after the siege ended, two government ministers brought food and donations to Moura, claiming that the army had brought peace and security. On Malian television, local officials praised the military operation.
Soon after, the militants returned and kidnapped the deputy mayor. He hasn’t been heard from since.
As villagers were at worship one evening in late April, said Bara, the trader, three militants arrived and announced that anyone who valued their lives should leave the village before 6 a.m. the next day. It has since emptied out.
“We had a home,” Bara said, “but we’re now strangers in our own country.”
Elian Peltier reported from Bamako, Mali; Mady Camara from Dakar, Senegal; and Christiaan Triebert from Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Declan Walsh contributed reporting from Nairobi, Kenya, and Christoph Koettl from New York.
Microsoft has announced that June 2022’s Games with Gold are Aven Colony, Project Highrise: Architect’s Edition, Super Meat Boy, and Raskulls.
As revealed on Xbox Wire, the four Games with Gold offerings will be available to anyone with Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with Aven Colony and Super Meat Boy available starting on May 1.
Also available on June 1 but only until June 15 is Super Meat Boy, a chaotic platformer known best for its fast-paced and addictive gameplay loop. IGN said it was amazing in our review 9/10 review, as “Super Meat Boy is one of the best modern platformers around. It’s infuriating, exasperating, and arduous, but it’s also delightful, thrilling, and hilarious.”
In our 7/10 review of the base game, IGN said Project Highrise is “a compelling management sim with strong systems, but few customization options make for a visually bland experience.”
Last but not least, Raskulls is available on the same day but only available for two weeks until June 30. This 2010 puzzle game was originally released on the Xbox 360 and features an extensive single player campaign alongside multiplayer modes. Players must work their way through each level by smashing the environment and reaching the end in the most efficient way possible.
First deputy governor of the Russian central bank Ksenia Yudayeva stated Tuesday that the bank is open to using cryptocurrency for international payments, Reuters reported, along with Russian media, which added that the bank was reconsidering its position on crypto mining as well. Yudaeva was quoted as saying:
“We have changed our position on mining, and also permit the use of cryptocurrency in foreign trade and outside the country,”
The bank official’s statement, sandwiched into announcements about domestic bank regulation, seems to be a concession to the legislators preparing a new version of the law “On Digital Currency.” Business newspaper Vedomosti reports that the Finance Ministry unveiled the draft of the law at a discussion hosted by the United Russia Party on Frida.
At that discussion, Anton Gorelkin, a member of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, mentioned the need for the central bank to weigh in. The input of numerous state agencies and ministries has already been considered in the draft.
The provision to allow international trade in cryptocurrency is an innovation in the law. Adding it into the existing law was a matter of expediency, Economic Development Ministry official Anatoly Dyubanov said at the United Russia event, Vedomosti reports.
Russia’s purpose in expanding the use of cryptocurrency internationally is unclear, as the use of digital assets does not affect the terms of the sanctions affecting the country, nor the risks involved for sanction breakers.
Opinion by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Anis Chowdhury (sydney and kuala lumpur)
Inter Press Service
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 (IPS) – US and allied economic sanctions against Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine have not achieved their declared objectives. Instead, they are worsening economic stagnation and inflation worldwide. Worse, they are exacerbating hunger, especially in Africa.
Sanctions cut both ways
Unless approved by the UN Security Council (UNSC), sanctions are not authorized by international law. With Russia’s veto in the UNSC, unilateral sanctions by the US and its allies have surged following the Ukraine invasion.
During 1950-2016, ‘comprehensive’ trade sanctions have cut bilateral trade between sanctioning countries and their victims by 77% on average. The US has imposed more sanctions regimes, and for longer periods, than any other country.
The US has increased using sanctions since 2016, imposing them on more than 1,000 entities or individuals yearly, on average, from 2016 to 2020 – nearly 80% more than in 2008-2015. The one-term Trump administration raised the US share of all new sanctions to almost half from a third before.
During January-May 2022, 75 countries implemented 19,268 restrictive trade measures. Such measures on food and fertilizers (85%) greatly exceed those on raw materials and fuels (15%). Unsurprisingly, the world now faces less supplies and higher prices for fuel and food.
Monetary authorities have been raising interest rates to curb inflation, but such efforts do not address the main causes of higher prices now. Worse, they are likely to deepen and prolong stagnation, increasing the likelihood of ‘stagflation’.
Sanctions were supposed to bring Russia to its knees. But less than three months after the rouble plunged, its exchange rate is back to pre-war levels, rising from the ‘rouble rubble’ promised by Western economic warmongers. With enough public support, the Russian regime is in no hurry to submit to sanctions.
Sanctions pushing up food prices
War and sanctions are now the main drivers of increased food insecurity. Russia and Ukraine produce almost a third of world wheat exports, nearly 20% of corn (maize) exports and close to 80% of sunflower seed products, including oil. Related Black Sea shipping blockades have helped keep Russian exports down.
The World Bank’s April 2022 Commodity Markets Outlook notes the war has changed world production, trade and consumption. It expects prices to be historically high, at least through 2024, worsening food insecurity and inflation.
Western bans on Russian oil have sharply increased energy prices. Both Russia and its ally, Belarus – also hit by economic sanctions – are major suppliers of agricultural fertilizers – including 38% of potassic fertilizers, 17% of compound fertilizers, and 15% of nitrogenous fertilizers.
Fertilizer prices surged in March, up nearly 20% from two months before, and almost three times higher than in March 2021! Less supplies at higher prices will set back agricultural production for years.
With food agriculture less sustainable, e.g., due to global warming, sanctions are further reducing output and incomes, besides raising food prices in the short and longer term.
Sanctions hurt poor most
Even when supposedly targeted, sanctions are blunt instruments, often generating unintended consequences, sometimes contrary to those intended. Hence, sanctions typically fail to achieve their stated objectives.
Many poor and food insecure countries are major wheat importers from Russia and Ukraine. The duo provided 90% of Somalia’s imports, 80% of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s, and about 40% of both Yemen’s and Ethiopia’s.
It appears the financial blockade on Russia has hurt its smaller and more vulnerable Central Asian neighbours more: 4.5 million from Uzbekistan, 2.4 million from Tajikistan, and almost a million from Kyrgyzstan work in Russia. Difficulties sending remittances cause much hardship to their families at home.
Although not their declared intent, US measures during 1982–2011 hurt the poor more. Poverty levels in sanctioned countries have been 3.8 percentage points higher than in similar countries.
Sanctions also hurt children and other disadvantaged groups much more. Research in 69 countries found sanctions lowered infant weight and increased the likelihood of death before age three. Unsurprisingly, economic sanctions violate the UN Convention on the Rights of Children.
A study of 98 less developed and newly industrialized countries found life expectancy in affected countries reduced by about 3.5 months for every additional year under UNSC sanctions. Thus, an average five-year episode of UNSC approved sanctions reduced life expectancy by 1.2–1.4 years.
World hunger rising
As polemical recriminations between Russia and the US-led coalition intensify over rising food and fuel prices, the world is racing to an “apocalyptic” human “catastrophe”. Higher prices, prolonged shortages and recessions may trigger political upheavals, or worse.
The UN Secretary-General has emphasized, “We need to ensure a steady flow in food and energies through open markets by lifting all unnecessary export restrictions, directing surpluses and reserves to those in need and keeping a lead on food prices to curb market volatility”.
With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, OXFAM warned, the “hunger virus” could prove even more deadly. The pandemic has since pushed tens of millions into food insecurity.
In 2021, before the Ukraine war, 193 million people in 53 countries were deemed to be facing ‘food crisis or worse’. With the war and sanctions, 83 million – or 43% – more are expected to be victims by the end of 2022.
Source: 2022 Global Report on Food Crises; 2022: projected
Economic sanctions are the modern equivalent of ancient sieges, trying to starve populations into submission. The devastating impacts of sieges on access to food, health and other basic services are well-known.
Sieges are illegal under international humanitarian law. The UNSC has unanimously adopted resolutions demanding the immediate lifting of sieges, e.g., its 2014 Resolution 2139 against civilian populations in Syria.
But veto-wielding permanent Council members are responsible for invading Ukraine and unilaterally imposing sanctions. Hence, the UNSC will typically not act on the impact of sanctions on billions of innocent civilians. No one seems likely to protect them against sanctions, today’s weapons of mass starvation.
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