Bulletins and News Discussion from March 17th to March 23rd, 2025 - The Kafue River Dies - COTW: Zambia

Image is of the breach in the tailings dam near Kitwe.

On February 18th, 50 million liters of acidic waste from a copper mine was accidentally released into the Kafue River after a tailings dam collapsed. The Kafue River stretches for a thousand miles across Zambia and a majority of the country - millions of people - rely on it, for both the economy and drinking water.

The results have already been catastrophic. The water supply for the city of Kitwe, home to 700,000 people, was completely shut off. As the wave of contamination moved downstream, a wave of death accompanied it as dead fish dotted the river surface. The government is dropping lime into the river to try and counteract the acid with an alkali and neutralize the water, but the tailings also contain toxic heavy metals that will undoubtably seep into the nearby environment and affect the area for years to come.

A considerable portion of the media attention to the accident has been devoted to the fact that the mine was Chinese-owned, as well as China's broader influence and investment in the region. Western anti-China propaganda aside, it has been clear to those in the know that these mines have been badly managed and needlessly dangerous for years now, and it is disappointing - to say the least - to see disasters of this magnitude occur from Chinese businesses. Hopefully this prompts a wave of investigations into China-owned mine managers all around the continent, who will then hopefully face real consequences for their actions.

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Georgetown scholar detained over American wife’s Palestinian ties, lawyer says
::: spoiler Article ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A Georgetown University researcher who is married to a Palestinian American was detained by immigration agents who told him his visa had been revoked, prompting another high-profile legal fight over deportation proceedings against foreign-born visa holders authorized to live in the U.S.
Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University and citizen of India, was arrested Monday night outside of his Virginia home by officers who identified themselves as Department of Homeland Security agents, according to a legal filing by Suri’s lawyer.
Hassan Ahmad, Suri’s Virginia-based attorney, wrote in a court filing that Suri was targeted because of his wife’s “identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.”
Suri was later taken to a detention facility in Louisiana, according to a government website. His lawyers are seeking his immediate release and to halt deportation proceedings through their habeas motion filed Tuesday against the Trump administration.
“The Trump Administration has openly expressed its intention to weaponize immigration law to punish noncitizens whose views are deemed critical of U.S. policy as it relates to Israel,” Suri’s attorney wrote.
Suri’s detention more than 1,000 miles (about 1,600 kilometers) away from his family and attorney is “plainly intended as retaliation and punishment for Mr. Suri’s protected speech,” his attorney added.
The deportation effort comes amid legal fights over cases involving a Columbia University international affairs graduate student and a doctor from Lebanon.
Suri was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and determined to be deportable by the Secretary of State’s office, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter. Suri’s case was first reported by Politico.
The filing by Suri’s lawyer said that federal authorities have provided no evidence that he’s committed any crimes and that his detention violates his free speech and due process rights. Suri, who has no criminal record, holds a visa authorizing him to be in the U.S. as a visiting scholar, and his wife is a U.S. citizen, according to the motion.
His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an messages seeking further comment Thursday.
Suri’s lawyers say he’s currently teaching a course at Georgetown and hopes to become a university professor. A Georgetown webpage identifies Suri as a postdoctoral fellow at Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the university. The university said his areas of interest include religion, violence and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. The bio said that he earned a doctorate in India while studying efforts to introduce democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, and he has traveled extensively in conflict zones in several countries.
The university said in a statement Thursday that Suri is an Indian national who was “duly granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention,” the school said. “We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”
The U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement detainee locator website lists Suri as being in the custody of immigration officials at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana.
Separately, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was detained earlier this month over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. And Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported over the weekend despite having a U.S. visa
: :
- Cold comfort, resorting to lawfare and repression means that they lost the plot.
  As the law professor Ardi Imseis said: "When I was younger, we (Palestinians) needed to debate to defend our position and our rights and the settler colonialism nature of Israel. Today, they don't bother to show up because you must be delusional to argue Israel is not an apartheid settler colonial state, you will get laugh out of university's debate"
  Zionists can kill all the Sparrows, but Spring will still come.
- they're just openly black-bagging people

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