AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

US archbishop says Catholic soldiers shouldn't have to get the COVID-19 vaccine, defying Pope Francis' advice
Bill Bostock

A member of the US Armed Forces administers a shot of the Pfizer vaccine at a FEMA community vaccination center in Philadelphia.

Mark Makela/Getty Images


US soldiers don't need to get vaccinated if it burdens their conscience, a US archbishop has said.

The US military said in August that all troops must be vaccinated, or apply for an exemption.

Many Catholics object to the vaccines as cells originally from an abortion were used in the development.

A US archbishop said Catholic soldiers don't have to get vaccinated against COVID-19, defying the wishes of Pope Francis.

On August 24, the Department of Defense announced that all 2.1 million US troops must be vaccinated. A number of personnel applied for exemptions on religious grounds, but several quit in protest.

Active-duty US Air Force personnel must be vaccinated by November 2, active-duty US Navy and Marine personnel by November 28, and active duty US Army personnel by December 15.

But in a statement released Tuesday, Timothy P. Broglio, the Archbishop for the Military Services, said that Catholic soldiers should not have to get vaccinated.

"No one should be forced to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if it would violate the sanctity of his or her conscience," Broglio wrote

As of October 10, hundreds of thousands of US troops remain unvaccinated, according to The Washington Post.

Opposition to the vaccine in the Catholic faith, as Broglio wrote, stems from the fact that a number used cells derived from aborted fetuses as part of their development.

No tissue related to fetal cells are present in any of the finished vaccines, and the use of cells in the development and production of medicines, including vaccines, is common in medicine.


Manufacturers and scientists use fetal cell lines — which is not the same as fetal tissue — from fetuses that were aborted decades ago and replicate for decades in laboratories.

Catholic leaders said they viewed the Pfizer and Moderna as acceptable, because the vaccines used the fetal cell lines in their development but not production.

But the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said in March that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is considered ethically questionable as the cells are used in its production.

"The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was developed, tested, and is produced, with abortion-derived cell lines. That vaccine is, therefore, more problematic," Broglio wrote.

Reuters reported that Johnson & Johnson used cells that originally came from an 18-week-old fetus that was aborted in 1985.

Broglio said it is acceptable for Catholic soldiers to pass on all vaccines, due to the issue of fetal cells.

Broglio's statement stands in stark contrast to Pope Francis' decision to urge all Catholics to get vaccinated in August. The Pope was first vaccinated in January.

Broglio said in his statement that it was important that troops who decline the vaccine embrace all "means to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through wearing face coverings, social distancing, undergoing routine testing, [and] quarantining."

Tooth analysis suggests earliest Native Americans came from Siberia, not Japan


A new analysis of ancient teeth reveals links between early Native American populations and those of ancient Siberia and Beringia, the land bridge that once connected Russia and Alaska. Image courtesy of U.S. National Park Service

Oct. 13 (UPI) -- While theories that Indigenous Americans are descended from people who migrated north from Japan, new research suggests that the earliest inhabitants of the Americas were descended from people in Siberia and Beringia.

Stone tools at several of the earliest known archaeological sites inhabited by North America's first peoples look a lot like those used 15,000 years ago by the Jomon people, early inhabitants of Japan.

Parallels between archaeological materials on both sides of the Pacific have inspired a few archaeologists to claim at least some of North America's earliest inhabitants migrated from Japan.

New research, however, has splashed cold water on the out-of-Japan hypothesis. According to the study, the earliest Native Americans and the Jomon people were biologically and genetically dissimilar.

RELATED Scientists discover oldest link between Native Americans, ancient Siberians

The new findings, published Wednesday in the journal PaleoAmerica, relied on biological distance analysis, the study of similarities and differences between biological traits among various groups of people, ancient and modern.

Comparing ancient teeth

For the new findings, scientists measured the form and structure -- called morphology -- of thousands of teeth collected from archaeological sites in the Americas, Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

RELATED Ancient Polynesians, Native Americans made contact before Europeans arrived

The measurements used for the study had been collected and organized, amassed over decades, but the survey utilized a new algorithm.

"It's a program that was developed by a doctoral student in Portugal," study lead author Richard Scott told UPI.

"It is basically a Bayesian algorithm designed to calculate the probability that an individual demonstrates the morphological characteristics of one of the five geno-geographic groups -- East Asian, American Arctic, non-Arctic American, Southeast Asian and Austral-Melanesian," said Scott, a professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada-Reno.

RELATED Humans arrived in Americas earlier than thought, new Idaho artifacts suggest

The analysis showed the teeth of ancient Jomon people and those of the earliest known inhabitants of North America were not very alike. Instead, the data revealed affinities between the teeth of ancient Siberian populations and those of the Indigenous Americans

"Our work pretty much falls in line with the Beringian Standstill hypothesis," Scott said.

The Beringian Standstill theory posits that a group of people from Siberian Asia arrived in Beringia about 25,000 years ago.

Beringia is the name for the massive land bridge that connected what now is Alaska and Russia during the Last Glacial Maximum, when sea levels were significantly lower than they are today.

As the theory goes, the people of Beringia began to migrate south, populating the Americas, about 15,000 years ago.

But while the latest analysis reinforced the links between the ancient peoples of Siberia, Beringia and North America, Scott's findings also showed that the earliest Native Americans were a lot more like one another than people of Asia.

2,000 years of isolation

"The Native American samples stood alone. What seems to have happened is these populations got isolated up in Beringia and differentiated from each other for 8,000 to 10,000 years," Scott said. "All of the Americans shared a common ancestor."

Of course, the Beringian Standstill isn't the only explanation for the peopling the Americas, and teeth aren't the only biological materials available for analysis.

Supporters of the out-of-Japan hypothesis and other alternative explanations for the peopling of the Americas have sometimes used craniometric analyses, the study of skull morphologies, to support their theories. However, craniometric surveys have also produced divergent conclusions.

"Fundamentally, cranial morphology is a very complex, multifactorial character with many sources of variation, e.g., underlying genetic variation, multiple environmental sources of variation, different developmental patterns, etc.," study co-author Dennis O'Rourke, professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, told UPI in an email.

Scott prefers the insights provided by teeth.

"Teeth are much more conservative, they don't change much over time," Scott said. "They change some, but not a lot.""The skull is getting shorter and rounder, we don't see that in teeth," he said. "I can't help but think that changes in subsistence, changes in food preparation, changes in economy have inspired significant changes in cranial morphology."

In other words, the teeth of ancestral populations are a lot more like those of their descendants than their skulls.

Scott, who calls himself a specialist -- "I'm a tooth guy" -- said that the best theories are those supported by multiple lines of evidence.

Questions remain

In the newly published paper, genomic surveys showing strong genetic links between the ancient populations of Siberia and Indigenous Americans corroborate Scott's findings.

O'Rourke and his fellow geneticists found no overlap between the maternal and paternal lineages of early Jomon and American populations.

Though the Beringian Standstill hypothesis continues to gain momentum, the theory isn't ironclad. Just last month, scientists published an analysis of ancient footprints found in New Mexico that suggested humans were in North America at least 23,000 years ago.

"There are many unresolved questions, including: When did people first arrive in the Western Hemisphere? What route did the first people take to move south beyond the ice sheets of the Last Glacial Maximum and how rapidly did they disperse into the continents?" O'Rourke said.

"None of these are particularly new and have been the focus of research for some time. New discoveries in archaeology and genomic analyses refine the way in which we continue to address such questions," he said.

Native Americans are where they are

While questions about the peopling of the Americas continue to befuddle and inspire both archaeologists and anthropologists, Scott said leaders and scholars among Native American groups are uninterested in pursuing questions about where Indigenous Americans came from.

"They all have their own origin stories," Scott said.

As far as most Native Americans are concerned, they've always been where they are.

"The peopling of the Americas is a white person's problem, because indigenous people already understand it," Charles Riggs, an anthropologist at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, told UPI.

"That's not suggest that indigenous peoples are anti-science. They appreciate being brought into the process, but they don't appreciate being told things about their past by people that have oppressed them for hundreds of years," Riggs said.

Riggs, who wasn't involved in the newly published research, said it's not correct that indigenous people are uninterested in archaeology. In fact, native groups and scholars are increasingly involved in archaeological investigations.

"But it's a very different kind of community-based archaeology, asserting their rights to land and water -- reinforcing that connection to place," Riggs said.

"I think at some point we just have to accept that questions about the peopling of the Americas are our questions and our questions alone, and you just aren't going to get buy-in."

WHAT HAPPENS TO HAIR IMPLANTS IN SPACE
Capt. Kirk’s William Shatner on cusp of blasting into space

This undated photo made available by Blue Origin in October 2021 shows, from left, Chris Boshuizen, William Shatner, Audrey Powers and Glen de Vries. Their launch scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021 will be Blue Origin’s second passenger flight, using the same capsule and rocket that Jeff Bezos used for his own trup three months earlier. (Blue Origin via AP)

VAN HORN, Texas (AP) — Actor William Shatner counted down Wednesday to his wildest role yet: riding a rocket into space, courtesy of “Star Trek” fan Jeff Bezos.

Best known for his role as Captain Kirk, the 90-year-old Shatner joined three other passengers for the planned launch from West Texas.

Bezos’ space travel company, Blue Origin, invited Shatner on the brief jaunt to the fringes of the final frontier, which will make him the oldest person in space.

It will be Blue Origin’s second passenger flight, using the same capsule and rocket that Bezos used for his own launch three months ago. The trip should last just 10 minutes, with the fully automated capsule reacing a maximum altitude of about 66 miles (106 kilometers) before parachuting back into the desert.

Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson kicked off the U.S.-based space tourism boom on July 11, riding his own rocketship to space. Bezos followed nine days later aboard his own capsule. Elon Musk stayed behind as his SpaceX company launched its first private flight last month, sending a billionaire, cancer survivor and two ticket winners into orbit.

And last week, the Russians sent an actor and film director to the International Space Station for movie-making.

“We’re just at the beginning, but how miraculous that beginning is. How extraordinary it is to be part of that beginning,” Shatner said in a Blue Origin video posted on the eve of his flight. “It looks like there’s a great deal of curiosity about this fictional character, Captain Kirk, going into space. So let’s go along with it and enjoy the ride.”

Rounding out the crew: a Blue Origin vice president and two entrepreneurs who bid unsuccessfully for a seat on the previous flight with Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Blue Origin did not divulge their ticket prices.

Bezos was at the expansive launch and landing site near Van Horn, Texas, to see the four off.

A RATEPAYERS FANTASTY COME TRUE

Bulgarian police, special agents storm energy commission over electricity price hike


By Krassen Nikolov 

| EURACTIV.bg


The energy regulator said it was fully cooperating with the investigation, which focused on electricity trading. 

Bulgarian police officers and employees of the special services (SANS) made a surprise inspection in the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC), trying to understand the reason for the high electricity prices on the energy exchange.

The energy regulator said it was fully cooperating with the investigation, which focused on electricity trading. EWRC licenses electricity and gas traders on the Bulgarian energy exchange and should investigate any signs of manipulation.

The four largest employers’ organisations in Bulgaria filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office in August over the two-fold increase in the price of electricity on the free market.

Although authorities did not take immediate action at the time, the country is now in the midst of an election campaign, and inflation is emerging as one of the primary debates in the EU’s poorest country.

On Tuesday, caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev announced that the government was preparing a package of urgent measures to counter inflation, which is also due to high electricity and fuel prices. The measures are expected to be announced by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

The PM recalled that the problem of rising fuel and electricity prices exists everywhere throughout the EU.

“We will make decisions, but this is a problem that exists all over Europe. All European politicians are worried about high electricity and are looking for non-standard solutions,” said the caretaker prime minister.

Earlier, former Prime Minister and current GERB leader Boyko Borissov attacked the caretaker cabinet for raising electricity prices. However, he resigned in February 2013 following large-scale protests across the country, which began over high electricity prices for households. In March 2013, SANS raided electricity distribution companies, but GERB was also accused of high prices.

Sep 24, 2021
(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)

HOW DO YOU DO THAT!

Greek state to lose majority of public electricity company

By Kostas Argyros | EURACTIV.gr

The capital share increase decided by PPC’s Board of Directors is evolving into informal privatisation, as the State, which currently holds 51% of the company’s shares, will not participate in the increase. [shutterstock/Rolf G Wackenberg]

In a surprise statement on Thursday, Greece’s Public Power Corporation (PPC) announced that it is proceeding with a €750 million capital share increase which will see the state lose its majority.

The state, which currently owns 51% of the company’s shares, will reduce its stake in a minority percentage (blocking minority), with the ultimate goal of “increasing the free dispersion in the share capital of the Company and placing individual institutional investors”.

The state’s share in the company is expected to amount to just 33%. The final approval will be given at the Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders scheduled for 19 October, which is also expected to decide on the separation of the distribution network of PPC.

According to PPC Governor G. Stassis, “the Share Capital Increase will give PCC the opportunity to complete the ambitious transformation plan launched in 2019.”

“It will also accelerate its transformation into an economically and environmentally sustainable, modern digital electricity company. With this move, PEC will be able to accelerate its investment plan in Renewable Energy Sources with the aim of significantly increasing the operating profitability of the Group,” he added.

The main opposition Syriza party reacted strongly, saying the only goal of the conservative New Democracy government is to privatise everything. “In this way, Greek society and the economy remain unprotected in the midst of an energy crisis,” Syriza said.

Sep 24, 2021
(Kostas Argyros | EURACTIV.gr)

NGOs concerned about role of big business in preparations of French EU presidency

By Mathieu Pollet | EURACTIV.fr
Oct 12, 2021

"The only debate that we are opening, and which will be conducted in a transparent manner, is to know if, on specific issues, there can be material support," the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, told Mediapart last March. [OLIVIER HOSLET/EPA]

The Observatoire des multinationales and Corporate Europe Observatory published a new report on Tuesday 12 October. They criticised the French government for working too “closely” with big business in the run-up to its rotating presidency of the EU Council.

Once again, the issue of the intrusion of private interests in the exercise of a rotating presidency of the EU Council has entered the debate as France prepares to take on this responsibility in January.

In a new report, the Observatoire des multinationales and Corporate Europe Observatory have expressed their “growing concerns” about possible conflicts of interest between public authorities and industry.

They point to the list of lobbying appointments (the “Transparency Register”) of the French Permanent Representative in Brussels and his deputy, which has been kept up to date since 1 July in accordance with EU rules.

Beyond the interlocutors as such (which include notably EDF, “active in nuclear and fossil fuels” or “the arms and aeronautics company Dassault”, the report notes), the associations are concerned about a “worrying culture of secrecy and lack of transparency”. According to them, these exchanges should be made public.

“Within the European Council, the French government has systematically resisted efforts to strengthen the transparency of lobbying. Its presence is likely to further align European policy with the interests of big business, increase collusion between governments and the private sector, and reduce the democratic responsibilities of European decision-makers,” the NGOs said.

Contacted by EURACTIV, France’s Permanent Representation to the EU denied privileging its relations with big business and said it respects Brussels’s existing rules on transparency.

“These exchanges are part of the dialogue that the French Permanent Representation maintains with all stakeholders. They are in addition to the regular contacts the French Permanent Representation has with representatives of civil society, the student world, research and think tanks,” they told EURACTIV.

The Observatoire des multinationales and Corporate Europe Observatory also accuse France of giving pride of place to think tanks that “tend to present themselves as objective and impartial” while “many” of them “are funded by big companies […] or have corporate executives” running them.

Sponsorship vs patronage

The report does not ignore the issue of “sponsorship” either, which is much debated during each rotating presidency.

NGOs blame the government for not having completely closed the door on this practice, saying that Paris favours patronage over sponsorship. “The only debate that we are opening, and which will be conducted transparently, is to know if, on specific issues, there can be material support,” the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, told Mediapart last March.

He added: “I’ll take a very concrete example: a French car manufacturer lending electric cars for an event because this is also in line with our priorities for the climate. This is the maximum we would allow ourselves, in terms of involvement of the business world.”

When contacted by EURACTIV, the secretariat general of the French EU Presidency confirmed this commitment. France will allow itself to have recourse to sponsorship, in the form of material support, on condition that this is in line with the objective of limiting or reducing the EU presidency’s carbon footprint.

A public charter should also be drawn up to regulate the practice.

“We are still the French state. You’re going to make me believe that we are not capable of organising events without corporate support. If that’s the case, it means we’re bankrupt,” MEP Manon Aubry (GUE/NGL) had told EURACTIV at the time of a previous call by the same NGOs to refuse all sponsorship for the French presidency of the EU, as Germany did in 2020.

#ECOCIDE
Bulgaria announced the sinking of the ship with toxic urea cargo


By Krassen Nikolov |

  EURACTIV.bg
Oct 12, 2021

The Turkish ship Vera Su, which hit the shore near the protected area ‘Yailata’ in the northern part of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, has been declared sunk.

 [EPA-EFE / KRASIMIR DELCHEV]

The Turkish ship Vera Su, which hit the shore near the protected area ‘Yailata’ in the northern part of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, has sunk. It has 3,000 tons of urea on board, which could cause an ecological catastrophe in the Kaliakra Nature Reserve, home to many protected seabirds and endangered marine species.

“The engine compartment of the cargo ship is flooded. There are holes in the hull of the vessel. The ship can no longer be saved, but only to take action to remove the sunken property,” said Captain Ventsislav Ivanov, executive director of the Bulgarian Maritime Administration.

Earlier in the day, the ship was inspected by divers. They found it lodged in the seabed with little chance of being able to move it.

The Bulgarian authorities hope to enter the cargo hold to remove the urea, but the operation is complicated by bad weather. Authorities expect the shipowner to announce whether he is abandoning it or will continue to operate.

The government says there is no delay in the rescue operation. Vera Su got stuck on the rocky shore on 20 September in good weather. The prosecution’s version of the accident is that the watchman fell asleep. For six days, institutions did not make any rescue attempts despite risks to the environment.

Greenpeace expressed its anger at the negligence of the Bulgarian authorities and warned about the possible irreversible consequences for the environment.

When released into the sea in high concentration, urea causes a rapid flowering of phytoplankton, which produces a toxin hazardous to marine life, including seabirds. When it accumulates, it can also endanger human life when consuming fish or seafood.

(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)

IT'S ALL ABOUT GREENING CAPITALI$M

EU launches world’s largest green bond issuance to date


By Janos Ammann | EURACTIV.com
Oct 12, 2021 

The Berlaymont building lit in green to mark European Green Deal [audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/phot…]

The European Commission on Tuesday (12 Octobre) issued €12 billion worth of green bonds on financial markets to finance the green parts of its €800 billion coronavirus recovery fund. This represents the world’s largest green bond issuance to date.

The issuance of the 15-year bond was more than eleven times oversubscribed, indicating a big appetite for EU green bonds in financial markets.

Green bonds are tradeable loans that are used to finance sustainable investments and projects. Along with other financial instruments, green bonds are deemed an important tool for financial markets to invest in the green transition.

“Our future is green and it is extremely important that we seize the opportunity to clearly show to investors that their funds will be used to finance a sustainable European recovery,” said Johannes Hahn, the EU’s budget and administration commissioner.

In total, the EU plans to issue up to €250 billion in green bonds to finance the Next Generation EU programme that aims to drive the bloc’s recovery after the pandemic. According to the Commission, the total amount of Next Generation EU green bonds will make the EU the world’s largest green bond issuer by far.

The entire Next Generation EU programme amounts to €800 billion, most of which is allocated to the recovery and resilience facility (RRF). Under the rules of the RRF, every member state has to dedicate at least 37% of their national recovery plans to climate-relevant investments and reforms.

EU agrees to set aside 37% of recovery fund for green transition

Negotiations between the European Parliament and EU member states on the bloc’s coronavirus recovery fund concluded early on Friday morning (18 December), unlocking €265 billion of the total €672.5 available for the green transition in EU countries.

EU green bond standard in the making

In July of this year, the EU Commission proposed a European green bond standard. It is aimed at ensuring that what is marketed as a “green bond” actually has a positive impact on the environment.

The Commission’s proposal for this regulation is yet to be discussed and approved by the EU parliament and member states. Nevertheless, the Commission already uses a similar framework to guide its own green bond implementation.

According to the Commission, nine categories of projects and investments can be considered green, for example research and innovation supporting the green transition, investments in energy efficiency, but also investments to adapt to climate change.

Tuesday’s issuance is the fifth bond issuance to finance the Next Generation EU programme since the first one in June 2021.

In each issuance, financial actors from the UK were the most important buyers of EU debt. On Tuesday, 29% of the financing came from the UK financial markets, a reminder of the prevailing importance of the UK as a financial center for Europe.

Commissioner Hahn, however, stressed his satisfaction with the fact that a lot of the financing also came from the Nordics and the Benelux regions.

Until the end of the year, the EU Commission plans to have issued a total of €80 billion to finance the Next Generation EU programme.

POSTMODERN BABA YAGA HOUSE
Bosnian builds rotating house so that his wife has diversified view


Video by:FRANCE 24

Issued on: 12/10/2021 - 

Seeking to please his wife who had wished for a more diversified view from their family house, a Bosnian self-taught innovator has built a rotating house, allowing her to watch a rising sun in one moment and passers-by in the next.

Journalist Captures The Taliban's Tension With Women And The Media In Just One Photo

"A picture is worth a thousand words."


By Kate Nicholson

NEWS
12/10/2021 

Journalist Clarissa Ward shared a photograph of her time in Afghanistan on Twitter which neatly sums up her relationship with the Taliban.

Ward, chief international correspondent for the US broadcaster CNN, has been providing eye-opening coverage of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan for months.

On Tuesday she tweeted an image of a senior figure in the Taliban government Mawlavi Abdullah Mohammad.

Her caption read: “A picture is worth a thousand words.

“You don’t have to zoom in to see how the Taliban’s head of the ministry for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice in Ghazni feels about sitting down with me.”



Writing for CNN, Ward and fellow journalist Brent Swails explained: “The Taliban have turned Ghazni’s pink-walled Ministry of Women building into the new headquarters of the Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.”

The Ministry of Women was established in 2001 after the Taliban were pushed out of power and soon had 90% female staff – it protected the country’s women and girls and ran safe houses for women.

Most women lost their jobs under the new Taliban regime, too.

There are no women in the new Taliban government and girls are forbidden from going to secondary school.

CNN also explained how Ward came to be interacting with Mohammad, even though Taliban fighters have beaten Afghan journalists in recent weeks.

The Taliban have been keener to interact with the international press because Afghanistan depends on foreign aid to stay afloat.

Mohammad was speaking to Ward and unpacking the purpose of the Taliban’s new “religious police” who implore the public to follow Sharia Law.

One of these new commanders was overheard telling an Afghan crowd: “Treat your women according to Islamic law and make sure they cover themselves.”



CNN noted that when its camera crew was around, the religious police were ”on a charm offensive, more intent on shaking hands and introducing themselves” to the locals – but away from the media, beatings and punishments are still commonplace.

U.N. and Bangladesh sign deal to aid Rohingya relocated to island in Bay of Bengal

October 11, 2021
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Dec. 29, 2020, file photo, Rohingya refugees wait on naval ships to be transported to an isolated island in the Bay of Bengal, in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP

DHAKA,Bangladesh — The United Nations and Bangladesh's government have signed an agreement to work together to help Rohingya refugees on an island in the Bay of Bengal where thousands have been relocated from crammed camps near the Myanmar border.

More than 19,000 Rohingya have already been moved to the Bhasan Char island by the government, and the U.N. said one of the key reasons to sign the agreement was to start serving that population.

Bangladesh plans to relocate 100,000 Rohingya to the island in phases from the crowded refugee camps in Cox's Bazar district.

The agreement came as a paradigm shift after the U.N. and humanitarian groups criticized the relocation, saying the 30-year-old island regularly submerged by monsoon rains was not fit for habitation. But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has spent more than $112 million on development, adding sea walls, hospitals, schools and mosques, and insists it is no more a vulnerable area.

After Saturday's agreement, authorities said another 81,000 refugees would be relocated to the island over next three months.

A U.N. team's visit to the island in March preceded the world body's changed view.

In a statement, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the agreement was a further expression of the Bangladesh's "generosity and support toward the Rohingya population until they can return safely and sustainably to Myanmar."

The agreement allows for close cooperation between the government and the U.N. on services and activities to benefit the island's residents. The U.N. also said it had discussions with Rohingya living in Cox's Bazar as well as those already living on Bhasan Char island, prior to signing of the agreement.

"These cover key areas of protection, education, skills-training, livelihoods and health, which will help support the refugees to lead decent lives on the island and better prepare them for sustainable return to Myanmar in the future," according to the statement.

Johannes Van Der Klaauw, representative at the UNHCR, said the organization has seen the island and believes Bangladesh's government has added "significant infrastructure" to offset environmental hazards. The agreement also allows refugees to move back and forth between the island and the main camps in Cox's Bazar, he said.

Refugees will also have a chance to earn a living through odd jobs that will be accessible once aid organizations set up on the island. Klaauw also noted that movement to Bhasan Char would be on an informed and voluntary basis.

But most Rohingya refugees say they don't want to relocate.

A woman who had moved to the island with her family earlier this year said many escaped on boats back to the camp because life on the island is hard for the refugees.

"If people stay there for a couple of years, all of them might start having mental issues," she said, adding that medical and other aid facilities were not very well set up on the island. She was unwilling to be named, fearing retribution.

Amir Hamza, 63, another refugee said he won't relocate to the island.

"I will go to the country where I was born, my father and grandfather were born. I have love for that country, and I agree to go to that country. I don't agree to go to another country, island, or any place, even if I am offered milk and rice on a golden plate. I am ready and happy to go to my country, land, and to my home."

Bangladesh has been sheltering 1.1 million Rohingya from Myanmar, including more than 700,000 who fled a harsh military crackdown on the Muslim ethnic group in August 2017 following an attack by insurgents. Hasina says her administration will not force them to return.

The Rohingya are not recognized as citizens in Myanmar, rendering them stateless, and face other forms of state-sanctioned discrimination.

A U.N.-sponsored investigation in 2018 recommended the prosecution of Myanmar's top military commanders on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for the violence against the Rohingya.