Google and Amazon workers want companies to end contracts with Israeli military

"We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – actions that have prompted war crime investigations by the international criminal court."

BY MICHAEL ARRIA

MONDOWEISS

OCTOBER 13, 2021 0

AMAZON WAREHOUSE IN MARYLAND (WIKIMEDIA)

Hundreds of workers at Google and Amazon are demanding that both companies stop providing cloud services to the Israeli military.

In May Israel carried out deadly attacks on Gaza, killing almost 250 people and more than 60 children. That same week the Israeli government signed a contract with Amazon Web Services and Google for over $1 billion. That contract secured a four phase project called “Nimbus”, which will provide cloud services to the Israeli government and military.

In an open letter, published in The Guardian, nearly 400 Google and Amazon workers condemned the contract and called on the companies to sever ties with Israel.

“We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – actions that have prompted war crime investigations by the international criminal court,” reads the letter.

“We envision a future where technology brings people together and makes life better for everyone. To build that brighter future, the companies we work for need to stop contracting with any and all militarized organizations in the US and beyond. These contracts harm the communities of technology workers and users alike. While we publicly promise to uplift and assist our users, contracts such as these secretly facilitate the surveillance and targeting of those same users.”

The letter was published on the same day that Irish author Sally Rooney put out a statement embracing BDS and rejecting a request to have her latest novel translated by an Israeli publisher.

In response to the letter more than 40 human rights organizations have launched a #NoTechforApartheid campaign, highlighting the workers’ demands. “Following in the footsteps of those who fought to divest from apartheid South Africa and won, it’s our responsibility to rise up in support of Palestinian freedom,” reads the campaign’s website. “The Amazon and Google execs who signed this contract can still choose to be on the right side of history.”

Amazon, Google employees urge their companies to cut contracts with Israel

Google and Amazon employees are speaking out against their companies’ new contracts with the Israeli government and its military, known as Project Nimbus

The New Arab Staff
12 October, 2021

More than 300 Amazon and nearly 100 Google employees said they felt "morally obligated" to speak out against contracts with Israel [Getty]

In a historic campaign, Google and Amazon employees have urged their respective companies to pull out of contracts with the Israeli government and its military, which they said contributed to the "systematic discrimination" and "displacement" of Palestinians.

In a Guardian column on Tuesday, more than 300 Amazon and nearly 100 Google employees said they felt "morally obligated" to speak out against contracts with Israel, known as Project Nimbus.

The workers, who referred to themselves as "employees of conscience from diverse backgrounds", described the contracts as "[selling] dangerous technology to the Israeli military and government".

"This contract was signed the same week that the Israeli military attacked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – killing nearly 250 people, including more than 60 children," the workers wrote.

"The technology our companies have contracted to build will make the systematic discrimination and displacement carried out by the Israeli military and government even crueller and deadlier for Palestinians," they added.

RELATED

Big tech's secretive Israeli investments are whitewashing the occupation

Voices

Muhammad Shehada

22 April, 2021

The cloud services will help Israel illegally collect data on Palestinians, the workers said, that will be used to further policies that US-based NGO Human Rights Watch says constitute crimes of apartheid.

A deal was signed between Google and Amazon with Israel in May to set up cloud-based regional data centres in Israel.

Israeli officials said the agreement will ensure continuity of service even if the tech giants come under pressure from rights campaigners to boycott the country.

The announcement came as Jewish employees of Google asked managed to review the contract and corporate donations with "institutions that support Israeli violations of Palestinian rights".

Photos reveal brutal Israeli treatment of activists, farmers during olive harvest

Activists and local farmers said Palestinian activist Mohammed al-Khatib was violently beaten, kicked, and punched in the face by Israeli soldiers before he was thrown on the ground and dragged across the rugged terrain before he was stepped on, and eventually blindfolded and taken into custody.

BY YUMNA PATEL

MONDOWEISS

OCTOBER 13, 2021 0

ISRAELI SOLDIERS PREVENTING ACCESS FOR LOCALS AND ACTIVISTS FROM OLIVE GROVES DURING HARVEST SEASON IN SALFIT, THE WEST BANK ON OCT. 11, 2021. PALESTINIAN LAND ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE TOWN OF SALFIT WAS ANNEXED IN THE LAST YEAR TO A NEW JEWISH OUTPOST ALTHOUGH PALESTINIANS HOLD LAND DEEDS FOR THE LAND. DURING AN ATTEMPT TO BREAK THE WHITE LINE ZONING A CLOSED MILITARY ZONE IN THE GROVES, THE ARMY USED STUN GRENADES AND ARRESTED THREE ACTIVISTS. (PHOTO BY MATAN GOLAN/SIPA USA)


A photo of an armed Israeli soldier, surrounded by dozens of his fellow soldiers, standing on the back of a Palestinian man as he lie face down in the ground went viral on Palestinian social media this week.

The photo was taken in the midst of a brutal Israeli crackdown on activists as they attempted to escort a group of Palestinian farmers to their land in order to harvest their olive trees in the al-Ras area west of Salfit, in the northern occupied West Bank.

Activists and local farmers who were at the scene told Mondoweiss that the man in the photo, Palestinian activist Mohammed al-Khatib, was violently beaten, kicked, and punched in the face by Israeli soldiers before he was thrown on the ground and dragged across the rugged terrain before he was stepped on, and eventually blindfolded and taken into custody.

“The soldiers attacked us all in an extremely aggressive manner,” Munther Amira, a Palestinian activist with the Popular Resistance Committee in the West Bank, who was at the scene on Monday, told Mondoweiss.

“We tried to reason with them and tell them we were just trying to help the farmers reach their land so they could pick the olives, but they refused,” Amira said.

According to Amira, al-Khatib was one of several activists who attempted to move past the soldiers and arrive at the olive groves nearby. When he did that, the soldiers attacked.

“They started attacking people everywhere, throwing tear gas, and beating anyone who tried to move closer to the olive groves,” he recounted, noting that two Israeli activists were also detained in the process, and a Palestinian journalist was also beaten.

“The photos speak for themselves, and tell you everything you need to know,” Amira said, adding that when he and other activists tried to step in and help al-Khatib, they were also beaten and pushed around.


By Wednesday afternoon, al-Khatib and the other activists had been released, but the farmers from Salfit had still not been able to access their land.

“This is all part of the intimidation tactics of the occupation, to prevent the farmers from going back to the area and harvesting their olives,” Amira said. “But we will not abandon the farmers, because this is Palestinian land, and belongs to us.”

“The olive harvest season is a blessed time for Palestinians. But for the settlers and soldiers it is a time of destruction, blood and violence.”

Settlers in, Palestinians out

For generations the people of Salfit have enjoyed al-Ras, a mountainous area on the western outskirts of the city, for its rolling olive groves, and views of the Mediterranean coastline just beyond the wall.

Dr. Dheeb Shtayyeh, a university professor and farmer from Salfit, told Mondoweiss that he and his family have been using the land at al-Ras for generations.

“I used to come here with my father as a boy and pick olives with him,” Shtayyeh said. “And when I got older, I started to bring my children here to play, and would come with my family here for picnics year round.”

Shtayyeh’s family is one of a dozen Palestinian families who own land on al-Ras, but have been unable to access their land since December 2020, when an Israeli settler showed up and established an illegal outpost on the mountaintop.

“All of a sudden, whenever we would try to go to al-Ras, soldiers would show up and kick us out,” he said. “The moment the settler would see us, he would call the soldiers, and they would be there within minutes, telling us it was a closed military zone, and we were not allowed to be there.”

PALESTINIAN ACTIVISTS RAISE THE FLAGS OF NATIONS THAT OPPOSE ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS AT THE NEWLY ERECTED CAMP DUBBED THE UNITED NATIONS CAMP, NEAR THE ISRAELI SETTLEMENT OF ARIEL, WEST OF WEST BANK TOWN OF SALFIT ON SEPTEMBER 20, 2021. (PHOTO: STRINGER/APA IMAGES)

Over the past year, Shtayyeh, along with dozens of other families from Salfit and activists around the West Bank have been staging weekly demonstrations and peaceful actions in protest of the establishment of the outpost on their land.

He says they are nearly always met with tear gas and violence on part of the Israeli military, which maintains a now permanent presence in the area to protect the outpost.

In July, Israeli forces violently suppressed one of the protests with tear gas, causing some of the olive trees to catch fire.

“That is when we really started to worry about the trees, especially because the harvest is coming up,” he said.

Once the olive harvest began in October, as it does every year, Shtayyeh and his fellow farmers’ fears were confirmed when they attempted to reach their groves in order to pick their olives, but were swiftly turned around by the soldiers, who said they “needed permission” to be in that area and to harvest the olives.

“We have the papers that are more than 200 years old, proving that this land belongs to us and belonged to our grandfathers,” Shtayyeh remarked. “So why would we need permission from the occupation to pick our olives?”

Following the brutal attack on the activists and farmers on Monday, Shtayyeh said that the families are fearful of what will become of this year’s harvest, which many of the families rely on financially for the coming year.

“This is the first time in generations that we have not been able to harvest our olives,” he said. “We wait all year for the harvest. We not only depend on it for our lives, but also for our culture, and to teach our children about our heritage.”

Despite his fears, Shtayyeh said that he doesn’t plan on giving up or abandoning his land.

“We will never give up this land, no matter the cost,” he said. “They prevent us from accessing our land, they attack us with all their weapons and power, they arrest us, and kill us, but we will not give up.”

“I used to bring my son here every year to pick olives with me, but now I bring him to the protests, so he can learn and understand that this is our land, and that we will never give it up.”

UK

PRIVATIZED WATER COMPANIES
Thames Water boss brands performance ‘unacceptable’ during river quality inquiry

LUKE O'REILLY, PA

13 October 2021, 10:25 am

Thames Waters’ chief executive has branded her own company’s performance as “unacceptable” while taking questions from the river water quality inquiry.

The Environmental Committee (EAC) on Wednesday quizzed bosses from five of the largest water and sewerage companies in England on the issue of river contamination.

It comes following the committee’s inquiry into water quality in rivers, which heard reports of water companies discharging raw sewage into rivers in England more than 400,000 times last year.

The Thames has been badly impacted by wastewater, with millions of tonnes of raw sewage entering the river each year.

Engineers at the back of a boring machine excavating a section of the Thames Tideway Tunnel in London.

Under questioning from EAC chairman Philip Dunne MP, Thames Water chief executive Sarah Bentley admitted that her company’s performance is “unacceptable”.

“Thames (Water’s) performance is unacceptable, our customers find it unacceptable to contact us.

“Our ageing infrastructure, whether that’s on the water side with leakage, or on the sewage network in terms of the capacity we are treating, needs addressing.”

Ms Bentley said that Thames Water has a “broad range” of performance metrics that “need to change”.

“Since I joined 12 months ago I have been accelerating the money that we have got during this regulatory period”, she said.

“When I started I went out, I listened to our customers, I listened to environmental groups and members of this House, and of this committee, and it is clear that we have a broad range of performance metrics that we need to change”.

Ms Bentley also revealed that the new Thames Tideway Tunnel would not be able to eliminate the problem of rainwater spills into the Thames.

The 16-mile long tunnel is projected to cost £4.2bn and is set to be completed by 2025.

“Currently, when we get inundated with rain, up to 39 million tonnes of rainwater, which then gets contaminated with sewage, is discharged into the tidal Thames, which is clearly unacceptable”, she said.

“The Thames Tideway tunnel will eliminate the vast majority of that.

“Clearly, with extreme weather events, that are increasing, we need to look at that before it comes into operation in the next two and a half years.

“But when the original analysis was done 15 years ago, we would have needed a tunnel twice as big.”

Members of Surfers Against Sewage and Thames 21 clean the banks of the river Thames, near Battersea Bridge in south west London, as part of the Surfers Against Sewage 20th anniversary Beach Clean Tour, which has visited 20 major UK beaches and waterside locations (Dominic Lipinski/PA)More

She told the committee that, at its widest, the Thames Tideway tunnel is as wide as three double-decker buses.

“It would need to be twice as big to reduce it down to zero spills”, she said.

“It’s designed to take it from 39 million tonnes down to two and a half million tonnes.”

She said her company was spending £1.2bn over the next five years on improving its overall network to treat sewage and rain.

Ms Bentley said she understood why Thames Water’s customers find spills into the water unacceptable and said that her company’s position is also that they are unacceptable.

“I can understand why people are genuinely upset and concerned about the quality of the rivers and the situation with sewage discharge into those rivers,” she said.

“A number of my colleagues have suggested making sure that we transparently share information about when those spills are occurring.

“More importantly, what I have heard in the year that I have been running Thames is that our customers just find spills unacceptable, and we find them unacceptable and I’m really committed to finding out how we can eliminate storm discharges so that people can swim confidently in the river.”

Previously the EAC heard that just 14% of English rivers are currently rated an ecological status of ‘Good’, and that not one river in the country is rated ‘Good’ on its chemical status.

In a statement the EAC said that one of the main sources for this is sewage discharge from the water industry.

UK

Electric freight trains mothballed due to soaring energy prices

NEIL LANCEFIELD, PA TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT

13 October 2021


Rail freight operators have stopped using electric trains and switched to diesel locomotives due to soaring energy prices.

Firms cannot absorb the three-fold increase in the cost of electricity, according to trade body Rail Freight Group (RFG).

The decision to mothball electric freight trains, which result in lower CO2 emissions than diesel models, was made less than three weeks before the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow.

RFC said in a statement: “The current significant increase in the wholesale cost of electricity for haulage means that some operators have had to take the regrettable decision to temporarily move back to diesel locomotives.

“A 200% increase in electricity costs for each train cannot be absorbed by the operators, or customers, and so necessary action is being taken to ensure that trains can continue to operate delivering vital goods across the country.

“Our members are assuring us that this is a temporary measure and will be kept under constant review.”

The statement added that road freight emits 76% less CO2 than road freight “even with use of diesel locomotives”.

GB Railfreight, one of four major freight operators on Britain’s railways, told magazine International Railway Journal it had taken the “difficult decision” to replace their electric services with diesel locomotives “in order to maintain a cost-effective solution for transporting essential goods and supplies around the UK”.

Industry body the Rail Delivery Group said some train operators “may need to take short-term action to afford their bills”, but many firms join forces to buy electricity in bulk to protect themselves from sudden price rises.

The maximum price of approximately 80% of the total electricity used to power trains in Britain is fixed until around April 2024.

Office of Rail and Road figures show 422 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions were made by diesel locomotives in the year to March 2021.

Amazon could owe delivery drivers as much as £140m

Online retail giant Amazon may owe drivers as much as £140.0m, according to law firm Leigh Day.

Amazon drivers who deliver via the firm's "delivery service partners" category are classed as self-employed and, as a result, are not entitled to basic employee rights like paid holidays and minimum wage as they do not have an employment contract.

Leigh Day asserts that a minimum of 3,000 drivers are affected, and may very well be entitled to roughly of £10,500 in compensation for each year they have delivered for Amazon.

The law firm stated the drivers' work has been dictated by Amazon and believes they should be afforded more rights than they presently hold, leading it to launch a group claim on behalf of two delivery drivers as it looks for more to join the legal action.

Kate Robinson, a solicitor at the firm, said: "Amazon is short-changing drivers making deliveries on their behalf. This is disgraceful behaviour from a company that makes billions of pounds a year.

"For drivers, earning at least national minimum wage, getting holiday pay, and being under a proper employment contract could be life-changing."

Leigh Day previously represented over 2,000 Uber drivers in a landmark case against the rideshare firm, which it won.

Space, agriculture and Canadian climate change: a homecoming discussion

LONG READ

Elizabeth Howell October 6, 2021 

This map shows Earth’s average global temperature from 2013 to 2017, as compared to a baseline average from 1951 to 1980, according to an analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Yellows, oranges, and reds show regions warmer than the baseline. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

The role of space in helping combat climate change, along with in-situ examinations of plant response to global warming, came to the fore during a recent talk by Western University.

The one-hour livestreamed event was meant to highlight research with impact at Western, and took place during the virtual edition of the university’s homecoming Sept. 25. The featured speakers were:

Earth science professor Gordon “Oz” Osinski, interim director of the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration and director the Canadian Lunar Research Network;

Biology professor Danielle Way, associate professor and director of the Biotron Experimental Climate Change Research Centre.

Gordon Osinski: The Importance of Space

Osinski opened his talk by showing pictures of the International Space Station, the Apollo moon landings and research by the Hubble Space Telescope as common reference points as to how the public thinks of space. For him, however, he sees space as an interwoven network of different research points connecting aspects such as the ocean, the air and space – with space being “a natural progression of exploring our own planet.”

Osinski is well-known for running geology expeditions in the Canadian Arctic, often with the participation of Canadian Space Agency astronauts who are embarking on training related to future lunar surface missions, as Canada is a participant in NASA’s Artemis program that seeks to put people on the moon by 2024, if technological and funding progress allows. In preparing for these expeditions, Osinski read a lot of Arctic and Antarctic expedition literature to get into the mindset of the explorers who moved through these regions in the past century.

“We are still exploring, and trying to get to the poles of this planet,” he said. But in a century, he said, the technology has changed as we were moving into the air in the early 1900s, and now access to space is broadening. He cited the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission aboard a SpaceX spacecraft that just flew in September as one example. Next year, Canadian investor Mark Pathy will fly on the all-private Axiom Space mission that will visit the ISS, he added.

“These are totally, totally different times, where space is really opening up for non-governmental astronauts,” Osinski said. “One of the things I’m most excited about, [because] I am a geologist, we’re going to go back to the moon and hopefully it’s actually to go there to stay this time and perhaps eventually set up research stations – like we have in Antarctica – and keep learning about the moon.”

Osinski highlighted Artemis II as a seminal moment for Canada, as one of our government astronauts will be on board and circle around the moon with the crew – the first time any human has done so since 1972. Showing the iconic “Earthrise” image taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders during an orbital mission in 1968, Osinski said he is looking forward to a new version of that, “hopefully taken by a Canadian astronaut.”

A few weeks ago, Osinski travelled to northern Labrador, at the Mistastin Lake impact crater, with CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick. He characterized the crater as “an excellent analogue for the moon” and said he is looking forward to examining the samples they collected. For the two astronauts, both trained fighter pilots, Osinski said such experience shows them the value of collecting samples and allows them to start training on geology at a very early stage, before even being assigned to a mission.

While space sounds separated from Earth, Osinski argued the value in exploring is allowing spacefarers and satellites to look downward at our planet, particularly in monitoring changes on Earth such as global warming. He cited Canada’s Radarsat series of satellites as leading the effort in allowing our country to look at its own changes from orbit, to help with disaster relief and to assist with managing agriculture.

“The title of this talk was something that I borrowed from this outreach initiative that we lead here at Western, called Space Matters. In this unit, we’re trying to bring home how really space in particular today pervades all aspects of our everyday life, and the importance of satellites,” he said.

Big questions that space will help to answer, he said in concluding, include the prevalence of life – including icy moons at Jupiter and Saturn and the ongoing sample return effort at Mars – and how to ensure long-term human survival, which likely involves the “need to get off this planet.” In Canada, he said space is an innovation driver, particularly through technologies such as the Canadarm series of robotic arms that have brought about advances in robotic surgery.

“We have a new economy, it’s perhaps surprising to think about that, but space is a new economy. The fact that you can buy a ticket now to fly into space means that we have an economy there,” Osinski said. He also noted that he would be glad to sign up for a few days in space, although a long-duration mission to Mars would not be as appealing.

Danielle Way: Plant resilience to global warming

Way opened her talk by citing the overwhelming evidence that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing due to fossil fuel burning and through land use change, such as deforestation. Accurate carbon dioxide measurements only arose starting in the late 1950s, she noted, and showed numbers from Hawaii where the air is “quite pristine, relatively speaking.”

In 1976, when Way was born, carbon dioxide was at about 330 parts per million and today’s figure 45 years later (2021) is around 420 parts per million, she noted. On the longer scale, carbon dioxide is 50 percent greater than it was before the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century at which fossil fuels were burned at a large scale.

Greenhouse gas emissions have already increased global temperatures by about one degree Celsius, and the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change is trying to keep that warming below 2 degrees or 2.5 degrees Celsius. “We’re already in a future warmer world,” she warned. “If we continue on the types of trajectory that we’re on, then this is what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts for the end of the century – the fact that globally, we would have warming of sort of three to four degrees Celsius.”

Such warming disproportionately affects places in high latitudes, including in the Canadian Arctic – where certain areas could be 11 degrees to 12 degrees warmer by the end of the century, she said. This in turn would affect the distribution and productivity of plant species, which is Way’s focus. She showed a figure with the distribution of aspen, a common boreal tree species. With current projections of global warming, aspen is expected to go as far north as the Arctic Ocean.

What is less well-known among the public, however, is that plants also affect the climate. Plants take up carbon dioxide and emit carbon dioxide, which students are often taught in elementary or high school. She showed a simplified version of the global carbon cycle, taking into account this plant process.

“Plants every year absorb 123 billion tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere; it’s by far the biggest drawdown, and the biggest absorption, of carbon that you get on a global scale – and this is just land plants,” she said. “Half of that is then remitted by plants back into the atmosphere. Animals and microbes and soil processes – just like us – breathing out also emit about another 60 billion tons of carbon every year on the planet. These numbers roughly balance out normally.”

However, the dynamic changes as humans emit carbon through industrial processes and land use change, she said. “That means that you’re accumulating in this scenario, about seven billion tons of carbon every year in the atmosphere. That’s that rising CO2 [carbon dioxide] that we just talked about. But the implication is also that if you move into a warmer, drier climate in the future, plants might not absorb as much carbon.”

In other words, she said, if plants are unable to absorb as much carbon, climate change may happen more rapidly due to global inequities in carbon absorption and production. “Understanding how plants absorb carbon and these sorts of processes – how much they grow, how much they can sequester – is really important for actually predicting where we’re going with our climate,” she added.

Way then featured her team’s research concerning climate change and how northern forests respond to future climates. They compare plants grown at current carbon dioxide levels, and future carbon dioxide levels. They also combine conditions with temperature changes, to see how the plants change, if they absorb more carbon and how well they survive.

Some of the group’s major findings include:
Studies of two major species of black spruce – the most common tree in the North American boreal forest – along with Tamarack, a deciduous tree, show that in warmer conditions they have less nitrogen available to absorb carbon dioxide. “In other words, as you warm the environment of the plant, the ability to fix CO2 – to continue to take CO2 out of the atmosphere – is suppressed,” she said.
Tamarack, however, can keep its absorption levels of CO2 the same up to a point by opening its stomata (tissue openings) a little wider. This process allows this species to “offset and minimize the effect of this suppression of the biochemistry inside their leaves,” she said. Black spruce does not demonstrate as much resilience, in comparison.
Accordingly, by the year 2060, the warming trend in the Canadian Arctic may produce a shift to deciduous forests and away from boreal forests. “You might also expect to see a transition from a boreal forest that’s dominated by spruce and pine trees and evergreen conifers into a forest that’s more dominated by things like birch and poplar,” Way noted. “That has enormous implications for the sort of the ecosystem processes, and what that environment is going to look like and how it’s going to function.”

Way’s group is also involved in a major Minnesota-based experiment called Spruce, run by the U.S. Department of Energy, studying spruce and Tamarack trees in both current and future carbon dioxide conditions, experiencing warming anywhere between zero and nine degrees Western. The results from Spruce are very similar to what Western is finding at its own facilities, she said.

While Canadians often think global warming “would not be so bad”, she noted that the warming temperatures are expected to have an adverse effect on both our forests and on the crop species that we rely on for food security. To meet food security needs as a planet by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent in part to accommodate a growing population and in part because more people will move out of poverty and shift to meat-based diets. “That challenge has to be met in the face of climate change,” she warned.

Western is also examining how to identify lines of crops, like wheat, that would be resilient to future climates – growing such crops at the university’s facilities in similar conditions to the trees mentioned earlier. Plants in high carbon dioxide conditions (such as wheat, rice, or maize) tend to see a suppression of micronutrients such as zinc or iron, along with less protein. “This is really a problem when you’re thinking about the nutritional status of the global population,” she said, especially because plants tend to produce extra sugar in these conditions, which dilutes nutrients.

Way said developing the land in the future will be “a really big challenge”, even though places like Southern Ontario have soils with an extraordinary ability to grow food. As food production moves north, many of those lands are quite rocky and with poorer soils. “So you’re not actually going to be able to grow food on them,” she said. And at this time, genetic modifications to plants are in such an early stage that the results cannot be widely replicated or used, she added.

About Elizabeth Howell

Is SpaceQ's Associate Editor as well as a business and science reporter, researcher and consultant. She recently received her Ph.D. from the University of North Dakota and is com

Chile opposition moves to impeach president over Pandora leaks

President Sebastian Pinera rejcts Pandora Papers report linking him to controversial 2010 sale of a mining company.

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera's second term, which began in 2018,

 is set to end next March [File: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters]
13 Oct 2021

Opposition lawmakers in Chile have launched impeachment proceedings against President Sebastian Pinera over the controversial sale of a mining company through a firm owned by his children, after new details emerged in the Pandora Papers leaks.

Pinera used “his office for personal business”, Congressman Tomas Hirsch said on Wednesday as he presented the accusation in the lower house of Congress, the first step in an impeachment process that could last for several weeks.

The move comes after Chile’s public prosecutor said this month it would open an investigation into possible bribery-related corruption charges, as well as tax violations related to the 2010 sale of the Dominga mine, which took place during Pinera’s first term in office.

The probe was prompted by the Pandora Papers leaks, a vast trove of reports on the hidden wealth of world leaders researched by the International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ).

The Pandora Papers linked Pinera to the sale of Dominga, a sprawling copper and iron project, through a company owned by his children, to businessman Carlos Delano – a close friend of the president – for $152m.

It said a large part of the operation was carried out in the British Virgin Islands.

In addition, it said a controversial clause was included that made the last payment of the business conditional on “not establishing an area of environmental protection in the area of operations of the mining company, as demanded by environmental groups”. That decision falls within the remit of the Chilean president.

Pinera, one of the richest people in Chile, has denied any wrongdoing, saying the sale had previously been examined and dismissed by courts in 2017. “As president of Chile, I have never, never carried out any action nor management related to Dominga Mining,” he said last week.

But another opposition Chilean legislator, Jaime Naranjo, one of the drivers of the impeachment proceeding, said Pinera had “openly infringed the Constitution … seriously compromising the honour of the nation”.

Now Chile’s Chamber of Deputies, controlled by the opposition, will have to decide whether to approve or reject the indictment. A vote that will take place the first week of November, congressional sources explained to the AFP news agency.

If it receives the go-ahead, the case would pass to the Senate, which would have to act as a jury to seal Pinera’s fate.

The controversy came in advance of presidential and legislative elections in November.

Pinera’s second term, which began in March 2018, is set to end next March. He will be leaving office deeply unpopular after his right-wing coalition suffered a shock defeat in an election in May for a constituent assembly tasked with re-writing the country’s constitution.

The impeachment push came a day after Pinera declared a state of emergency in two southern regions of Chile where a conflict with Indigenous Mapuche people – who are demanding the restoration of their ancestral lands and more autonomy – is intensifying.

“We have decided to call a state of exception” in four provinces of the southern regions of Biobio and Araucania, as well as deploy troops to help control “the serious disturbance of public order” there, the president said in a speech on Tuesday.

Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Santiago, said armed Mapuche groups “have become more and more bold” and have been “carrying out acts of arson, sabotage, [and] taking over land”.


“The president has been under tremendous pressure for months now from conservatives within his own party, and other groups including truck drivers, to call a stage of siege in the Araucania, but he has been reluctant to do so until now,” Newman said.

Chilean president declares state of emergency over Mapuche conflict

Demonstrators face off riot police during a protest march by Mapuche Indian activists against Columbus Day in downtown Santiago, Chile October 10, 2021. 

© Ivan Alvarado, REUTERS

Text by:NEWS WIRES
Issued on: 13/10/2021 - 

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Tuesday announced a state of emergency and deployed troops to two southern regions where clashes have broken out between Mapuche indigenous people and security forces.

The Mapuche are demanding the restoration of their ancestral lands and self-determination.

"We have decided to call a state of exception" in four provinces of the southern regions of Biobio and Araucania and the deployment of troops to help control "the serious disturbance of public order" there, Pinera said in a speech.

The billionaire right-wing president addressed the nation on a controversial national holiday that marks the "discovery" of the Americas by Christopher Columbus.

It is a day in history that is viewed as a disaster by many indigenous peoples throughout the Americas due to the colonisation that followed.

A protester is detained by police during a protest for Mapuche self-determination in Santiago on October 10, 2021 - Copyright AFP AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

Pinera, 71, said that the four provinces in question have seen "repeated acts of violence linked to drug-trafficking, terrorism and organised crime committed by armed groups," and that innocent civilians and police officers have been killed in the violence.

The state of exception is initially due to last two weeks in the provinces of Biobio and Arauco in the Biobio region, and in Malleco and Cautin in La Araucania.

The Mapuche are Chile's largest indigenous group numbering 1.7 million out of the country's 19 million population and live mostly in the south.

Their leaders are demanding that land currently owned by farms and logging companies be restored to them.

The lack of a solution to Mapuche demands has prompted radical groups to carry out attacks on trucks and private property over the last decade.

One person was killed and 17 injured on Sunday when clashes broke out in Santiago between security forces and protesters marching for Mapuche autonomy.

Possible escalation

Political analyst Lucía Dammert criticized Pinera's decision, saying that the deployment of troops could further intensify the Mapuche conflict.

"The government has been unable to generate an effective and fair policy to solve the problems that exist in Araucania," Dammert, a professor at the University of Santiago, told AFP. She added that sending troops to the region could lead to "an escalation of violence."

But Luciano Rivas, the ruling party's governor of Araucania, backed the deployment saying there is "a very deep security crisis" in the region.

"Today we are living in a very complex situation where the police are overwhelmed by groups with heavy caliber weapons," Rivas told CNN Chile.

(AFP)

Olympics VP says China human rights 'not within' IOC remit


By AFP

October 13, 2021


A senior member of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday swatted aside suggestions China should be challenged over its human rights record ahead of the Beijing Winter Games.

When asked about the treatment of the Uyghur minority in China, IOC Vice President John Coates said the body has no mandate to act.

“We are not a world government. We have to respect the sovereignty of the countries who are hosting the games,” Coates told an event in his native Australia.

Rights groups believe at least one million Uyghurs and members of other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in the northwestern Xinjiang region, and Beijing has also been accused of squeezing human rights in Hong Kong.

“We have no ability to go into a country and tell them what to do… it’s not our remit.”

The IOC and its members choose who hosts the Games and help run the event.

The body styles itself as the “guardian” of the Olympics and vows to “build a better world through sport”.

The Beijing Winter Olympics take place next February, but there have been calls for sponsors and others to boycott them or to find a way to protest the state of human rights in China.

The United States Congress has grilled five major sponsors — including Visa and Airbnb — accusing them of supporting the alleged genocide of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

In response, Beijing has accused US politicians of “politicising sports” and of slandering China.

China has been ruled by the Communist Party since 1949 and has hosted the Olympics once before — the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.

That event was widely viewed as a showcase for China’s growing wealth and status as a rising power.

This time around, foreign fans will be banned due to coronavirus restrictions and the Winter Games will take place after several crackdowns — including in Hong Kong — designed to consolidate President Xi Jinping’s power.

FOSSIL FUEL STATES WANT INDEPENDENCE

Nigeria tax spat reignites federalism debate

By AFP
October 13, 2021

A legal battle between Nigeria’s government and states over sales tax is fueling fierce debate about federalism in Africa’s most populous country as politicians jockey for position before 2023 elections.

The spat –- whether federal or state governments have the right to collect value-added tax (VAT) –- may be about money, and the sum at stake runs into billions of dollars.

But the squabble also reflects long-standing questions about how Nigeria is governed and how wealth is shared in the continent’s top oil producer.

How the dispute ends may open up more state autonomy, analysts say, as wealthier southern regions test federal management of issues from oil resources and security policing to cattle grazing rights.

In August, a court in southern Rivers State, Nigeria’s petroleum heartland, ruled states should be responsible for collecting VAT and not the Federal Inland Revenue Service or FIRS.

Rivers State Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, a staunch opposition Peoples Democratic Party leader, pushed through a law authorising local collection of VAT, warning FIRS against any “sabotage.”

Southern Lagos State, the nation’s economic powerhouse including the commercial capital Lagos, quickly followed with its own law to collect VAT.

After a federal government appeal, the dispute is caught up in competing demands, with Abuja considering a Supreme Court challenge.

Attorney General Abubakar Malami last week told reporters that only the national assembly could legislate on how VAT is levied.

“The federal government is looking at all options at its disposal, including the possibility of involving the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court,” he said.

Under Nigeria’s system, FIRS collects VAT centrally and the resources are distributed across federal, state and local governments.

VAT receipts in 2020 were 1.5 trillion naira or $3.6 billion. Under the current system the federal government gets 15 percent, with the rest split between states and local governments.

But richer southern states like Lagos and Rivers — Lagos alone produces around half of Nigeria’s VAT — have long complained they end up paying for poorer states mostly in the agricultural north but also some southern ones.

They want more “fiscal federalism,” meaning getting a bigger share of the VAT they collect and more responsiblity to manage their own affairs.

“What we are after is to ensure that this money is used for the people of Lagos State, and that is exactly what we have achieved,” Setonji David, a Lagos assembly lawmaker, told Channels TV.



– ‘Restructuring’ Nigeria –



The “restructuring” debate often resurfaces during election times in Nigeria, which became a single entity under British colonial rule in 1914 when the mainly Muslim north was joined with the mostly Christian south.

Regional identities for Nigeria’s major ethnic groups are often fiercely guarded — sometimes with separatist rhetoric — even as the federal government promotes national unity.

“We will see more of these scenarios, where different constituent entities will try to assert more control economically using political means over what is extracted or generated from their territories,” SBM Intelligence analyst Tunde Ajileye said of the VAT fallout.

The tax debate is especially sensitive after the coronavirus pandemic that battered Nigeria’s oil revenues and pushed Africa’s largest economy into its second recession in five years.

During the pandemic, the federal government increased VAT from five percent to 7.5 percent, providing much-needed revenue.

Eurasia Group’s Amaka Anku said decentralisation of tax management is unlikely, as most states lack expertise or willingness.

“Outside Lagos and the federal capital territory (Abuja), states are likely to be negatively affected by a decentralization of VAT collection, making the proposition politically unfeasible.”

But the VAT fight also plays into the heated tones before the 2023 election to replace President Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim in power since 2015.



– Election tensions –



Critics of Buhari say since he came to power he has favoured northeners in a way that has intensified calls for more autonomy for states and even calls for separatism by some southern agitators.

Officials of the All Progressives Congress’ ruling party dismiss such claims and point to government investments across north or south.

But mass kidnappings, attacks and insecurity have also prompted calls from some southern leaders to have control over their own security forces.

VAT has joined a list of disputes where southern and northern leaders appear to be digging in on rival sides.

One of those is “zoning” — an unofficial power-sharing deal that rotates the presidency between candidates from the north and the south.

After two terms with northern Buhari, many southern leaders want a president from their region. Many leaders from the north disagree.

But despite the squabbling, analysts say a compromise on VAT is the likely outcome.

“The good thing about this is there has not been a use of violence or rhetoric, it is more the use of the court process,” said SBM’s Ajileye.

“I expect there will be some political settlement ultimately.”

STATE SANCTIONED MURDERS

Sri Lanka drops charges against admiral over killings


ByAFP
October 13, 2021


Sri Lankan Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda (R) with the country's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa - Copyright AFP Lakruwan WANNIARACHCHI

Sri Lankan authorities have dropped charges, including conspiracy to murder, against a former navy chief linked to 11 killings that drew international condemnation, the country’s attorney general announced Wednesday.

The investigation against Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda was part of a case that cast a spotlight on extrajudicial killings during Sri Lanka’s 37-year ethnic war that ended in 2009.

Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam told the Court of Appeal that the state will not pursue charges against Karannagoda, who was first indicted in 2019.

A court official told AFP that a lower court would soon discharge Karannagoda, one of 14 people accused of abducting the teenaged children of wealthy families in 2008 and 2009 and killing them after extorting money.

Four charges had been laid against Karannagoda including conspiracy to murder, which carries the death penalty.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International urged Sri Lankan authorities to explain why they dropped the case.

The killing of the 11 youths has been raised at the UN Human Rights Council which has called for independent investigations into atrocities during the separatist war.

Police told a court in 2019 that the 11 victims were killed while in the illegal custody of the navy, although their bodies have never been found.

Investigators believe the true number of victims from the abductions and killings to be at least three times higher.

Police said the victims were not linked to ethnic Tamil separatist rebels and were kidnapped purely to extort money from families. Some were killed even after cash was handed over.

Military figures have been widely accused of extrajudicial killings during the war.

The final days of the offensive against the Tamils were marked by serious abuses, according to rights groups. A UN panel has said 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final stages of the conflict.