Calgary

TC Energy inks deal for Indigenous ownership stake in Keystone XL pipeline

Social Shari

• Facebook

• Twitt

• Email

• Reddit

• LinkedIn

Agreement with five First Nations is expected to be completed later this year

The Canadian Press · Posted: Sep 29, 2020 

Pipe waiting to be used in construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Alberta in September 2020. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

Indigenous communities are being given a chance to pursue an ownership interest in the Keystone XL pipeline project, builder TC Energy Corp. announced on Tuesday.

The Calgary-based company says a memorandum of understanding has been signed with Natural Law Energy, which represents four First Nations in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan.

"Today's announcement is a testament to what we can accomplish when industry and Indigenous groups work together," said Nekaneet First Nation Chief Alvin Francis, president of Natural Law.

'Historic agreement'

"This historic agreement is an important step for our peoples and future generations to share in the energy wealth coming from our lands and traditional territories."

TC Energy says a final agreement with Natural Law is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, formalizing its participation in Keystone XL. It added it could participate in other potential related midstream and power projects.

"This MOU, which is one of the first of its kind for TC Energy with Indigenous communities, is a reflection of our commitment to working together to ensure Indigenous groups share the benefits of the Keystone XL Pipeline over the long-term as a valuable partner," said Keystone XL president Richard Prior.

In an interview, Prior wouldn't give specifics but said the deal will be for a minority interest in the pipeline and TC won't directly provide the funding.

In March, the company approved construction of the US$8-billion project to transport up to 830,000 barrels per day of oil from Alberta to Nebraska after the Alberta government agreed to invest about US$1.1 billion (C$1.5 billion) as equity and guarantee a US$4.2-billion project loan.

Biden would cancel pipeline's U.S. permit, if elected

Its future is still in doubt, however, as Democratic candidate Joe Biden has said he would cancel its vital presidential permit if he is elected president in November.

"This MOU affirms the shared importance Indigenous people and Alberta's government place on projects such as Keystone XL, which will bring the jobs and steady economic benefits to lift more people onto solid financial ground — now and for years to come," said Premier Jason Kenney in a statement.

"The full participation of Indigenous people in our entire economy is central to reconciliation. Likewise, Alberta's recovery depends on Indigenous communities participating in economic prosperity."

The five First Nations include the Nekaneet First Nation in Saskatchewan and the Ermineskin Cree Nation, Montana First Nation, Louis Bull Tribe and Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta.

• TC Energy net Q2 profits increase to $1.3B despite lower sales

The news comes alongside layoffs at TC Energy this week. The company would not confirm how many jobs had been cut, but said the organizational changes were being made to remain competitive and optimize operations. 

With files from CBC Calgary

Francis 'loses patience' in Vatican corruption fight

AFP

© Tiziana FABI Last week, the 83-year-old pontiff forced the resignation of Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a prominent member of the church hierarchy and close adviser to the prelate.

Pope Francis once likened sorting out the Vatican's tangled accounts to "cleaning the Sphinx of Egypt with a toothbrush".


By dismissing a close aide linked to a murky London property deal in a move described as "the most significant firing of his papacy", analysts say Francis has deployed a pressure washer to alleged in-house financial impropriety.

Last week, the 83-year-old pontiff forced the resignation of Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a prominent member of the church hierarchy and close adviser to the prelate.

The former No 2 at the Vatican's Secretariat of State, which manages the church's vast donations, has been accused of syphoning off funds destined for the poor to family members -- a charge he denies.

Becciu has been linked in particular to a controversial luxury property investment deal in London, with at least some of the money used reportedly coming from the annual Peter's Pence collection for the poor

.

© ANDREAS SOLARO The Holy See announced the resignation of Cardinal Angelo Becciu in a terse statement

It is not the only financial scandal to have dogged the Vatican in recent years: in 2017, the ex-head of a Vatican-run hospital was convicted of funnelling a fortune from a foundation to renovate a cardinal's apartment.

And the Vatican bank, known as the IOR, was for decades embroiled in numerous controversies, with one of its former presidents ordered to stand trial on charges of embezzlement and money laundering in 2018.

But Francis has upped the speed of his reforms recently, suggesting he is "losing patience" with moral persuasion and "is more inclined to make heads roll," said John Allen, Vatican expert for the Cruxnow.com religious news site.

"'Accountability,' in the full American sense of the word, is finally crossing the Tiber in the Pope Francis era," he said, describing it as "by far the most significant firing" of the pontiff's era.

The surprise decision to also strip Becciu of the rights associated with being a cardinal -- a very rare punishment -- was a clear signal ahead of an inspection Wednesday by Moneyval, the Council of Europe's anti-money-laundering monitoring body.

© Andreas SOLARO Pope Francis is seeking to streamline and make more transparent the finances of the Vatican

- Painstaking work -

Vatican expert Marco Politi described the pope's action on Becciu as "a Napoleonic gesture".

"With his iron fist, Francis wanted to show that sanctuaries do not exist, that no fiefdom is safe," he told AFP.

Soon after being elected leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics in 2013, Jorge Bergoglio vowed to continue efforts to fight corruption begun by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Around 5,000 suspect accounts were closed at the Vatican bank under Francis.

And in a bid to streamline the Holy See's administration, its finances are to be condensed into a single organisation, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), which currently manages thousands of Vatican properties.

The Italian bishop at the head of APSA, Nunzio Galantino, said that in future all operations must be "transparent" and "traceable".

"If the pope asks me 'Have we got the money to pay the salaries?', I must be able to give him a precise answer," Galantino told Corriere della Sera on Tuesday.

Each entity -- including the Secretariat of State -- will make a budget request, which will be decided by a Spanish Jesuit priest who took over the Secretariat for Economy in January and will oversee the funds centralised by APSA.

Exerting more centralised control has angered some rivals, said Honduran Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, coordinator of a group of six cardinals advising the pope on his economic reforms.

The biggest obstacles have been "internal enemies," he told La Stampa daily.

"Because when you delve into the funds and the department administrations you find things that aren't right, and this provokes very severe reactions," Maradiaga said.

- A lonely pope -

Various Vatican factions have remained silent as the pope has striven to shake up financial oversight, according to Vatican writer and journalist Politi.

Those include conservatives "happy that there are scandals" brought to light through Francis' actions, and therefore which damage his papacy, in their view.

But even the reformist front has not defended Francis' shakeup.

"In this earthquake you can see the loneliness of Francis," Politi said.

One message of support came from Australian Cardinal George Pell, who was due to arrive in Rome for the first time in three years after being acquitted in April in Australia of child sexual abuse charges.

"I hope that the cleaning of the stables will continue in the Vatican," Pell said.

Pell in 2015 hired external auditors to oversee the Vatican books, but his efforts were thwarted by Becciu, who cancelled the $3-million contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A Vatican source told AFP the Vatican judiciary will bring charges soon against Becciu, and six other Vatican employees.

cm-ams/ide/adp/txw

Opinion: The BREATHE Act is the policy change America needs


Opinion by Derrick Johnson and Gina Clayton-Johnson

© Provided by CNN gun violence black community police brutality 

The grand jury's decision to not charge the officers who killed Breonna Taylor was heartbreaking in its familiarity. From Eric Garner to Michael Brown to Sandra Bland and now Breonna Taylor, the murder of Black people by law enforcement in this country often seems not to be considered a crime. The grand jury in Kentucky played into this painful feedback loop, charging one officer out of three for wanton endangerment, but not for taking Breonna's life.


"Black Lives Matter" is not just a phrase for us. As organizers, civil rights advocates, and Black people, it is an affirmation of our humanity, and a rallying cry for policy change.

The BREATHE Act is that policy. Created by the Movement for Black Lives amidst this national reckoning on race, the BREATHE Act seeks to divest federal funds from the main programs and agencies that have been fueling mass incarceration at state and local levels. It would then invest these funds to build a new model of public safety that doesn't rely on jails, prisons, and punishment.

For decades, the United States has defunded real public safety infrastructure (such as access to housing, mental and physical health care, education, and living-wage jobs) in ways that have created dangerous conditions for Black lives. A report from the New York Times earlier this summer found that in Boston, Los Angeles and Milwaukee, about one in $10 dollars of local government spending goes to the police.

Programs that enable this approach, including the Department of Defense 1033 program, which distributes weapons of war like assault rifles, grenade launchers, and night-vision sniper scopes to local police departments, are largely funded by the federal government.

Our organizations, the NAACP and the Movement for Black Lives, see a future for
Black people in which access to health care, education, clean air, water, and housing is available for all. In the last months, we have agitated in the streets, built community-based infrastructure, made our case to elected officials, and crafted policy solutions -- and we've done it together. We are now moving to advance policy that is the surest and straightest path to the safety and well-being of Black communities.

The promise of the BREATHE Act is that it scales back what isn't working and lets us build something new. Today, police have become the one-stop shop for everything from social problems to annoyances. Despite a fervent mythology of "fighting crime," police departments in cities surveyed by the New York Times only spend 4% of their time responding to violent incidents. With large budgets and staffs, many police departments must justify their payrolls, and thus have strong incentives to make arrests.

In Los Angeles, for example, the most common type of police work is LAPD-initiated stops of drivers and pedestrians for perceived violations -- and Black drivers are stopped at five times their share of the city's population, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation. Across the country, the massive amount of taxpayer money spent in the name of public safety is creating an environment of harassment, surveillance, and danger for Black people.

We are disproportionately victimized by police and interpersonal violence. Black women in particular are killed at a rate of 4.4 per 100,000 people, about double the rate of women of any other race, and there is an epidemic of fatal violence against Black transgender people. Overly aggressive policing and mass incarceration have only contributed to this devastating reality.

Instead of this punishment paradigm, the BREATHE Act creates a new Community Public Safety Agency which will use grants to replace the harmful criminal legal systems locally with evidence-based public safety infrastructure. Importantly, the act moves the function of public safety out of the Department of Justice and into the Department of Health and Human Services -- signaling a dramatic shift in how our society would approach achieving community well-being.

The "defund the police" movement is about safety, not about punishing cops. It is about making a long overdue intervention in the racist project of criminalization.

An early model of today's exorbitant investment in law enforcement, the 1970s War on Drugs, was explicitly racist. According to John Ehrlichman, a former Richard Nixon administration presidential adviser and architect of the program: "We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the (Vietnam) war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities."

Widespread criminalization today works toward those same ends: to harm Black communities and undermine the progressive agenda. More than six million people are not allowed to vote today due to a felony conviction, something the BREATHE Act would immediately change if passed.

For generations, Black people have struggled to find safety despite the white supremacist orientation of every facet of our public safety institutions. The defund approach is rooted in the knowledge that de-escalation of violence and peacekeeping are best achieved through trained first responders without weapons.

The kinds of investments that the BREATHE Act outlines in education, healthcare, the environment, wealth generation for working class families, and housing, create public safety by supporting communities.

Our criminal legal system's failure to deliver justice is not new. Sixty-five years before the Louisville grand jury announced its decision, the men who brutally murdered Emmett Till were acquitted by their Mississippi peers. We can no longer afford to allow racist policies and animus to block out the call for change coming from every corner of this country. The BREATHE Act has the potential to make it possible for Black people and all communities to be safe and free. That can only happen if we choose it.

Plan to solve Florida's non-existent protest problem is pure 'mini-Trump'


Richard Luscombe in Miami THE GUARDIAN 

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

For many who heard Ron DeSantis outline his proposed “Combatting Violence, Disorder and Looting Act” it was a head-scratcher.

Why would Florida’s Republican governor suddenly be pushing severe penalties on protesters in a state that escaped the disorder of summer Black Lives Matter gatherings elsewhere? Why threaten to withhold state money from municipalities that defund police even as Florida cities including Miami and Tampa were actually increasing law enforcement spending?

Related: 'It’s a constant barrage of hate': how Trump sparks heated clashes in Florida's retirement resort

To Democrats, civil rights advocates, voters’ groups and others who have studied the behavior of a politician they see as a mini-Donald Trump, the governor’s solving of problems that appear not to exist was no mystery.

A strong law-and-order pitch to voters in the key swing state just weeks before a presidential election deflected attention from a botched response to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 14,000 in Florida, they say. And it echoed the fearmongering tactics employed on a national scale that Trump believes will win him a second term in the White House.

“He doesn’t want us to address his terrible track record so he’s using law and order as an election stunt to distract and scare voters,” said Anna Eskamani, a Democratic state representative for Orlando.

“It’s a complete act [and] Governor DeSantis is taking a page from Trump’s playbook.”

Eskamani and her colleagues see the DeSantis proposals, which the governor said he wants passed by the state legislature as early as November, as “fear-based legislation” and an assault on first amendment rights.

They include a six-month prison sentence for anybody striking or throwing objects at law enforcement officers and designate gatherings of seven or more people resulting in injury or property damage as unlawful. Additionally, any driver who injures or kills a person during such a gathering will not be held liable – raising the prospect of almost legalizing vehicular attacks on protests.

“We already have laws on the books against violent acts. And calls for racial justice in Florida have been overwhelmingly peaceful,” Eskamani said. “I know, I have marched in protest alongside others. Anyone who dares to hit someone or break property, they are arrested.”

The controversy came in a busy week for the election in Florida during which mail-in voting began and polls showed Trump virtually tied with his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, after trailing all year.

DeSantis drew criticism for announcing on Friday that he was removing most remaining coronavirus restrictions even though the state is still a hotspot. Also capturing attention was an escalating spat between DeSantis’s administration and Michael Bloomberg, the Democratic former presidential candidate who provided $16m to pay off court fees and fines of convicted felons so they could vote.© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP Governor Ron DeSantis is ‘taking a page from Trump’s playbook’, Democrats allege.

“Timing is everything in politics and they must have seen the same polling showing up in ABC that law and order was number three issue in this election after the economy and Covid,” said Susan MacManus, professor emeritus of political science at the University of South Florida.

“Older people don’t like unsettling times, the riots and the violence. On top of some of the other things that are happening, it could be just unsettling enough to cause some of those who were going to vote for Biden to come back home and vote for Trump,” she added.

© Provided by The Guardian Black Lives Matter protests in Florida this summer, such as this one in Fort Lauderdale in June, have been overwhelmingly peaceful. Photograph: JLN Photography/REX/Shutterstock

DeSantis himself acknowledged his manifesto was not built on anything that had taken place in the state.

“We have seen attacks on law enforcement, we’ve seen disorder and tumult in many cities. I will not allow this kind of violence to occur here in Florida,” he said during a press conference in Winter Haven, at which he was flanked by senior state Republicans and law enforcement officials.

Equality advocates are particularly outraged at the loosely defined clause removing criminal liability from drivers “fleeing for safety from a mob”.

“[It] would protect individuals who injure protesters with their vehicles just three years after Heather Heyer, an anti-racism activist, was murdered when a white supremacist drove his vehicle into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia,” said Andrea Mercado, executive director of the political organising group New Florida Majority.

Some local government officials, meanwhile, decry the governor’s threat to hold back state money from municipalities perceived to have “defunded” police.

“It seeks to bully local governments from reallocating law enforcement budgets and seeking reforms like we’re trying to do,” said Sabrina Javellana, vice-mayor of Hallandale Beach.

“Sanctions only hurt the people he is purporting to help. Many crimes are committed out of poverty. If we can reduce poverty we can reduce crime.”

Shevrin Jones, a Democratic state senator-elect, said DeSantis was guilty of “blatant overreach” by seeking to criminalize protests.

“I am confident that all Floridians, white, black, brown, will see this for what it is, a desperate violation of our constitutional rights just ahead of a critical election in which every single vote counts,” he said.

“We’re going to fight this tooth and nail. You’ve just declared war on our civil rights. We’re prepared to strap up our boots and in the spirit of John Lewis get in some good trouble.”

Russia jails historian; who uncovered Stalin mass graves, for 13 years

© Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images In this file photo taken on April 05, 2018 Russian historian Yury Dmitriyev, who heads rights group Memorial's branch in Karelia, arrives for the verdict in his child pornography trial at a court in the city of Petrozavodsk in northwestern Russia.

A Russian court has sentenced a historian who helped uncover Stalin-era mass graves to 13 years in prison, abruptly increasing his sentence by 10 years, in a highly unusual step that rights groups said was revenge for his work and part of a broader campaign to whitewash the dark chapters of Russia’s Soviet history.


The case of Yury Dmitriyev attracted international criticism when he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison earlier this year on charges condemned by human rights organizations as fabricated.

He had, however, been due to be released within weeks because of time-served in pre-trial detention.

But on Tuesday, a higher court in the northern city of Petrozavodsk abruptly overturned the original ruling and sentenced Dmitriyev to 13 years in a prison colony.

Dmitriyev, 64, is a member of Memorial, a group that commemorates the victims of Soviet repression. He has faced criminal prosecution since 2016 based on shifting charges based around allegations he had taken pornographic photos of his young adopted daughter and abused her.

His supporters though say his imprisonment, in reality, is linked to his role in uncovering mass graves tied to the Soviet gulag prison system and say the charges are an attempt to smear a figure who has played a leading role in commemorating the mass murder conducted under Joseph Stalin.

Memorial on Tuesday condemned the ruling saying it was clearly “politically motivated.”

“Today’s sentence is the revenge of the system which is heir to the Soviet system and would like to consign to oblivion the names that Yury Dmitry has returned, having besmirched him himself, his work and his life,” it said in a statement.Russia convicts historian Yuri Dmitriyev who uncovered Stalin's mass graves

Human Rights Watch has previously called the charges against Dmitriyev “bogus.” The United States embassy in Moscow condemned the new sentence as “outrageous.”

The embassy’s spokeswoman Rebecca Ross wrote on Twitter it “is another step backwards for #humanrights and historical truths in #Russia.”

In the 1990s, Dmitriyev and others found a grave in his home region of Karelia in northern Russia in a place known as Sandarmokh close to the border with Finland. The site is believed to hold the bodies of at least 6,000 prisoners executed by Soviet secret police during what’s known as Stalin’s ‘Great Terror’ between 1937 and 1938.

But in recent years though, a state-backed nationalist conservative group has sought to alter the narrative around the grave.

Russian historian Yury Dmitriyev, who heads rights group Memorial's branch in Karelia, arrives for the verdict in his child pornography trial at a court in the city of Petrozavodsk in northwestern Russia.

The Military-Historical Society, whose membership includes many senior Russian government officials, has promoted a theory that the grave also holds Soviet soldiers killed by Finnish troops during World War II. The group has conducted digging at the grave and, in 2018, it exhumed 16 corpses that it said were Red Army soldiers in order to support the theory that not only the Soviets were killed at the site .

Critics have said it is part of a broader effort to downplay Soviet crimes under president Vladimir Putin. Putin does not deny the mass repression under Stalin, but has sought to shift the emphasis onto the dictator’s role in modernizing Russia and defeating Nazi Germany.

The case against Dmitriyev has shown repeated problems. He was acquitted on the charges of taking pornographic photos by a court in April 2018, but a higher court overturned the ruling and ordered further investigation. Police then brought the case once again and added a new charge alleging that Dmitriyev had violently sexually abused his daughter.

In July this year, a court convicted Dmitriyev of that charge and gave him the three and a half year sentence. Rights groups a condemned that as a travesty of justice but also celebrated it as a victory because the shorter sentence meant that because of his lengthy time spent in pre-trial detention Dmitriyev would be freed in November. The court also acquitted him of the original pornography charge.Russia jails 2nd ex-Marine Trevor Reed for 9 years in trial condemned by the U.S.

His supporters at the time said the verdict essentially amounted to an “acquittal” and his lawyers appealed to have the guilty verdict fully overturned.

Prosecutors, however, appealed the decision and the court on Tuesday satisfied their request to jail Dmitriyev for 13 years. It also overturned his acquittal on the pornography charge and sent it back for investigation.

Dmitriyev’s trial was held entirely behind closed doors and, at the hearing on Tuesday, his lawyer was not present because he was quarantining due to a suspected coronavirus infection. The court rejected a request to delay until his lawyer could attend and overruled his objection to be represented by a court appointed lawyer.

Memorial has faced frequent harassment in recent years, including a series of dubious criminal cases. The organization also campaigns against present day abuses and its offices have been raided and its members sometimes physically attacked.

Poorest countries face tough choice over G20 debt relief plan

By Marc Jones

© Reuters/MARCOS BRINDICCI FILE PHOTO: A man stands next to a board with the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers logo in Buenos Aires

By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - The world's poorest countries could soon be facing a tough decision -- double up on debt relief from the G20 with the caveat they must default on private creditors, or quit the programme to try to keep financial markets on side.

Rich countries on Friday backed an extension of the G20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), approved in April to help developing nations survive the coronavirus pandemic and which has seen 43 of a potential 73 eligible countries https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/debt/brief/covid-19-debt-service-suspension-initiative defer $5 billion in 'official sector' debt payments.

The European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), comprising 50 non-governmental organisations, estimates that extending that temporary freeze by six months would provide a further $6.4 billion of relief, rising to $11.4 billion if the extension runs to the end of 2021.

That would be just over a quarter of next year's combined debt payments for countries already signed up to the DSSI, and worth up to 4.3% of GDP for nations like Angola, according to Fitch Ratings.

But a significant string may be attached.

Amid warnings the pandemic could push 100 million people into extreme poverty, World Bank President David Malpass is calling for banks and investment funds that have lent to DSSI countries to be involved too.

"The relief so far is too shallow to provide light at the end of the debt tunnel," Malpass told the United Nations on Tuesday. "Commercial creditors are not participating in the moratorium, draining the financing provided by multilateral institutions."

Kevin Daly of Aberdeen Standard Investments, who is part of a joint-private sector response to the DSSI proposals, thinks views like Malpass's mean private sector involvement (PSI) -- writedowns for bondholders -- could become "mandatory" under the expected extension.

Such a change could be flagged at next month's IMF meetings.

Eurodad calculates DSSI countries are due to pay private sector bondholders $6.4 billion and other private lenders $7.1 billion next year -- a combined $13.5 billion that exceeds what the signed-up countries owe to G20 governments.

"We have already heard there is a strong possibility that this (PSI) can be the case," said Angola's secretary of state for budget and investment, Aia-Eza Silva, while adding that Angola's main focus remains bilateral creditors like China.

(Graphic: How much debt relief will DSSI provide countries - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xklpyqjbwpg/Pasted%20image%201601420726673.png)

LOSING ACCESS

Charity groups estimate that 121 low- and middle-income governments spent more last year servicing external debt than on public health systems that are now at breaking point, making a powerful moral case for relief.

There are other complicating factors, however.

Credit rating agencies S&P Global, Moody's and Fitch have warned that if countries do suspend or defer debt payments to the private sector it would almost certainly be classed as restructuring and default under their criteria.

Restructurings are complex and typically take far longer than stricken countries now have. It would also mean poorer nations that have battled to gain international market access over the last decade lose it just as they face huge challenges.

Moody's reckons they face a combined $40 billion funding gap this year. The Institute of International Finance estimates that external debt of DSSI countries has more than doubled since 2010 to over $750 billion and now averages nearly 50% of GDP -- high for their stage of development.

A total of 23 DSSI-eligible countries have sold Eurobonds, but only a few, like Honduras and Mongolia, have done so since the programme's launch in April. Pakistan wants to sell $1.5 billion of bonds but creditors would baulk if PSI was looming.

"It is hugely unlikely that any country that has been part of it (DSSI) this year would put their market access at risk," said Aberdeen's Kevin Daly. "I wouldn't think any of them would want to take part."

(Graphic: DSSI debt country bonds - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xklpyqlkrpg/Pasted%20image%201601460240507.png)

Poverty action groups say the private sector is overstating the issue, pointing to the speed with which Argentina sold a 100-year bond after one of its restructurings.

A potential 'carrot' for countries and their creditors could be Brady bond-style debt swaps, where investors write off some loans in return for new credit-enhanced bonds with full or part guarantees from the G20 or multilateral development banks.

J.P. Morgan's bond index arm fanned talk of such a plan when it announced this month that credit-enhanced debt would be eligible for its top emerging markets benchmark from mid-October, just after key IMF and G20 DSSI meetings.

Eurodad's Iolanda Fresnillo said debt swaps could be a solution for many countries although the hardest-hit nations would need more extreme measures.

"This is not just a liquidity crisis, we need to tackle debt sustainability and go for debt cancellation," Fresnillo said.

"By just postponing the payments you are not solving the problems these countries are facing."

(Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington and Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Berlin Film Festival Report Reveals Founding Director Alfred Bauer Furthered The Nazi Agenda


Jake Kanter
6 hrs ago


© Giehr/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images


The Berlin Film Festival has published research showing that its founding director Alfred Bauer contributed to the “functioning, stabilisation and legitimation” of the Nazi regime in Germany.

Bauer’s name was stripped from the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize in February after German newspaper Die Zeit published a story alleging that he held a previously unknown “high-ranking position in the Nazi film bureaucracy.”

Berlinale commissioned the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History to investigate the allegations, culminating in a research paper by PD Dr. Tobias Hof published today. Hof found that Bauer was an advisor to the Reichsfilmintendant, a Joseph Goebbels-created propaganda institution that controlled film production in the Nazi regime.

Summarising the findings, Berlinale said: “Alfred Bauer must have been aware of the important role of the Reichsfilmintendanz in the propaganda apparatus of the Nazi regime. His employment in the Reichsfilmintendanz contributed to the functioning, stabilisation and legitimation of the Nazi regime.”

The study also showed that he joined various National Socialist organizations from 1933, while after World War II he “tried to conceal his role in the Nazi regime through deliberately false statements, half-truths” and presented himself as an opponent of Hitler’s ideals.

Berlinale executive director Mariette Rissenbeek said: “The new and now scientifically researched findings about Alfred Bauer’s responsibilities in the Reichsfilmintendanz and his behaviour in the denazification process are startling. Nevertheless, they constitute an important element in the process of dealing with the Nazi past of cultural institutions which were founded after 1945.”

You can read Hof’s study for the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History study here.

Trump to far-right extremists: 'Stand back and stand by'

President Donald Trump on Tuesday didn’t condemn white supremacist groups and their role in violence in some American cities this summer, branding it solely a “left-wing” problem and telling one far-right extremist group to “stand back and stand by.”

“Almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing," said Trump, whose exchange with Democrat Joe Biden left the extremist group Proud Boys celebrating what some of its members saw as tacit approval.

He was responding to a question from debate moderator Chris Wallace, who asked the president if he would condemn white supremacist and militia groups that have showed up at some protests. Wallace specifically mentioned Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a white teenager was charged with killing two protesters during demonstrations over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. Trump has repeatedly blamed “antifa,” which stands for the anti-fascist movement.

“I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace," Trump said. “What do you want to call them? Give me a name."

“Proud Boys,” Democrat Joe Biden chimed in, referencing a far-right extremist group that has shown up at protests in the Pacific Northwest. The male-only group of neo-fascists describes themselves as “western chauvinists,” and they have been known to incite street violence.

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said. “But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray told a congressional panel last week, though, that white supremacists and anti-government extremists have been responsible for most of the recent deadly attacks by extremist groups within the U.S.

Trump, a Republican, has tried to tie incidents of violence that have accompanied largely peaceful protests to Biden and the Democrats, running on a “law and order" message that warns people won't be safe under a Democratic president. It's a message aimed squarely at white suburban voters, including women who voted for Trump in 2016 but may not do so again.

“What we saw was a dog whistle through a bullhorn,” California Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, said on MSNBC after the debate. “Donald Trump is not pretending to be anything other than what he is: Someone who will not condemn white supremacists.”

Proud Boys leaders and supporters later celebrated the president’s words on social media. A channel on Telegram, an instant messaging service, with more than 5,000 of the group’s members posted “Stand Back” and “Stand By” above and below the group’s logo.

Biden has said he decided to run for president after Trump said there were “very fine people" on both sides of a 2017 protest led by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counterprotester was killed.

Trump said Tuesday that Biden was afraid to say the words “law and order" and pressed him to give examples of law enforcement groups that back his campaign. Biden didn't name any, but said he's in favour of “law and order with justice, where people get treated fairly."

Biden called antifa “an idea, not an organization.” That’s similar to how Wray described it, though Trump has called on the federal government to characterize antifa as a terrorist organization.

At another point in the debate, when discussing a Trump administration move to end racial sensitivity training in the federal government, Biden directly called Trump a racist. He also accused him of trying to sow racist hatred and racist division in the country.

Kathleen Ronayne And Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

Proud Boys: Trump refuses to condemn White supremacists at presidential debate

By Maegan Vazquez and Paul LeBlanc, CNN 

© Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images US President Donald Trump speaks during the first presidential debate at the Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio on September 29, 2020.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday refused to condemn White supremacists for inciting violence at anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country, claiming instead during the presidential debate that violence was coming from "the left wing."

The stunning moment came when moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he was ready to condemn White supremacists and say they need to stand down during ongoing demonstrations across the country.

"Sure, I'm willing to (tell them to stand down), but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace," Trump said.

"Say it. Do it. Say it," Democratic nominee Joe Biden responded, encouraging Trump to condemn White supremacists.

"Who would you like me to condemn?" Trump asked Wallace. Biden could be heard twice saying, "Proud Boys."

Trump continued: "Proud Boys -- stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. Somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem."

Members of the Proud Boys, a far-right collective that the Southern Poverty Law Center says is a hate group, have been seen in their black and yellow polo shirt uniform at multiple 2020 Trump campaign rallies. Founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, the group is known for its anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric and describes members as "Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world."

The group's site argues its allure stems from the fact that young American men and women are "finished" with "apology culture" but disavows links to the alt-right or to White supremacists. McInnes is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center for designating the organization a hate group.

The President's pointed refusal to denounce White supremacists and his mention of the group, specifically, drew immediate celebration from members of the Proud Boys. Images of an updated Proud Boys logo featuring the President's "stand by" remark in the group's signature yellow and black swiftly circulated online.

Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley attempted to clarify Trump's remarks Wednesday morning, falsely suggesting that Trump strongly rejected the group at the debate.

"He wants them to not do the things they say they want to do. This is a reprehensible group," Gidley told CNN's John Berman on "New Day." "The President, in the clip you just played, when asked by Chris Wallace if he would condemn these groups, he said 'sure.' He said it many times just not last night, in the past as well."

Although Trump has reluctantly condemned the KKK and White supremacists in the past, he memorably said "both sides" were to blame for racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, has frequently downplayed the threat from White supremacists during his term in office and has made stoking racial tensions a key part of his reelection strategy. In contrast, the Trump administration has portrayed Antifa and anarchists as a top threat to the US equivalent to that of the KKK, recently making a campaign promise to prosecute both the KKK and Antifa as terrorist organizations.

In reality, White supremacists will remain the most "persistent and lethal threat" in the United States through 2021, according to Department of Homeland Security draft documents.

The most recent draft report predicts an "elevated threat environment at least through" early next year, concluding that some US-based violent extremists have capitalized on increased social and political tensions in 2020.

Asked about Trump's remarks after the debate Tuesday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris told CNN's Jake Tapper, "I heard what we all heard."

"The President of the United States, in the year of our lord 2020, refuses to condemn White supremacists," she said.

"People talk about, 'Is he dog-whistling?' Dog-whistling through a bull horn is what he's doing," she added.

Hindu nationalists acquitted over deadly India mosque demolition


AFP

© DOUGLAS E. CURRAN Hindu fundamentalists attacking the wall of the 16th Century Babri Masjid Mosque with iron rods in Ayodhya in December, 1992

An Indian court Wednesday acquitted top ruling party leaders of conspiracy related to the mob demolition of a mosque decades ago that sparked communal riots which left more than 2,000 dead.

Tens of thousands of supporters of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other Hindu groups, armed with pick-axes and spades, tore down the 16th-century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992, to pave the way for a temple.

Many Hindus say the small patch of land where it stood is the birthplace of their revered god Ram, and the site has become a symbol of India's Hindu-Muslim divide.

The mob was allegedly led by top BJP leaders, including India's former deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani, former party president Murli Manohar Joshi, and Uma Bharti.

They were later accused of conspiring to destroy the mosque, with more than 30 BJP leaders facing charges of criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity and inciting the mob.

But a special court sitting in the northern city of Lucknow said Wednesday the prosecution had failed to prove their guilt.

"Anti-social elements brought down the structure. The accused leaders tried to stop these people," the judge said as he announced the verdict.

"The audio of the speeches were also not clear. All accused are acquitted."

Seventeen accused died during the case and trial, which spanned nearly three decades.

Devout Hindus believe Lord Ram, the warrior god, was born in Ayodhya some 7,000 years ago but that the mosque -- built during the time of Mughal ruler Babar -- was constructed on top of his birthplace.

In the late 1980s, the BJP -- currently led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- launched a nationwide campaign to garner support for the construction of a temple for Lord Ram.

Advani, now 92, led tens of thousands of supporters on a months-long street agitation across the country before the mob targeted the mosque.

The razing of the religious structure sparked India's worst sectarian riots and a protracted court case over the site.

-'Hail Lord Ram'-

Last year the Supreme Court awarded the land to a trust, clearing the way for the construction of a temple -- a key victory for Modi and BJP supporters.

Modi, once a close confidant of Advani, laid the foundation stone for the temple in August. The building of the temple was central to the platform of the BJP and the party's electoral fortunes rose following the agitation.

The top court had termed the demolition "unlawful", years after it upheld that the accused should be tried for conspiracy.

Advani, who watched the judgement via video link, previously termed the demolition the "saddest day of his life".

But on Wednesday, the nonagenarian "wholeheartedly welcomed" the ruling, declaring "Jai Sri Ram (Hail Lord Ram)".

"The judgement vindicates my personal and BJP's belief and commitment toward the Ram Janmabhoomi movement (Ram temple construction movement)," he told reporters.

Opposition parties and Muslim groups criticised the acquittals.

The main opposition Congress party said the judgement was contrary to the Supreme Court's earlier stance and that the BJP had planned to "destroy the country's communal amity".

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, which represents Muslim social and political groups, said it would challenge the acquittal in a higher court, calling it "far from justice".

SEE HINDUISM IS FASCISM 

UK trials hydrogen-powered train in latest step forward for transport innovation

Technology and innovation are changing the way public transport is powered. 

September has seen several interesting developments in the arena of hydrogen-powered transport.

Anmar Frangoul

© Provided by CNBC

Trials of a hydrogen-powered train are underway in the U.K. with an initial journey successfully completed between the locations of Long Marston and Evesham in the West Midlands region of England.

The HydroFLEX train — which has been developed by a team from the University of Birmingham and Porterbrook, a rolling stock firm — uses a fuel-cell which combines hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity, heat and water.

The train has been fitted with a range of kit inside one of its carriages. This tech includes a hydrogen fuel tank, the aforementioned fuel-cell and lithium ion batteries for storage. It's hoped that the technology will be available to retrofit trains already in use by the year 2023.

A statement issued Wednesday, published on the website of both the University of Birmingham and U.K. government, said the university was also, "developing a hydrogen and battery powered module that can be fitted underneath the train." The idea behind this modification is that it will create more room in the carriage to host passengers.

In its own announcement, Porterbrook described the train being used in the trials as a "demonstrator unit." Citing customer demand, the firm also said it planned to put the HydroFLEX into production. This version of the train, it added, would "be configured for operation using both overhead-electric-wires and hydrogen for non-electrified routes."

The trials have been backed by a grant of £750,000 (around $962,362) from the U.K.'s Department of Transport, while over £1 million has already been invested in the project by the University of Birmingham and Porterbrook.

Wednesday's news comes at the end of a month that's seen several interesting developments in the arena of hydrogen-powered transport.

Last week, in airspace over England, a hydrogen fuel-cell plane capable of carrying passengers completed its maiden flight. A few days earlier, Airbus released details of three hydrogen-fueled concept planes, saying they could enter service by the year 2035.

Earlier in the month ÖBB, the Austrian Federal Railways, said a hydrogen-powered train would commence a passenger service trial in southern areas of Lower Austria.

Built by European transport firm Alstom, the Coradia iLint deployed in Austria also harnesses fuel-cell technology to turn oxygen and hydrogen into electricity. According to the company, it can reach speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour, is low-noise and "emits only steam and water."

The train has already carried passengers in parts of Germany and underwent ten days of testing on a 65 kilometer stretch of railway in the Netherlands earlier this year.

#CRYPTID
Nessie sceptic saw something fishy during Loch Ness walk!
By Louise Glen- louise.glen@hnmedia.co.uk
26 September 20

Corey Sturrock on the banks of Loch Ness where he observed a large eel shape in the water...Picture: Gary Anthony..

A Nessie sceptic has been converted after spotting a giant creature rise out of the water while out for a walk.

Corey (23) and Lauren (22) Sturrock were walking at Dores on Saturday at around 3.40pm when they saw something the “size of a bus” emerge from the depths.

Mr Sturrock, who is a full-time carer for his wife, said he has always dismissed any talk of the Loch Ness monster, but after seeing the eel-like fish believes that there is something lurking in the waters that is quite unbelievable.

Mr Sturrock said he was reluctant to come forward in case people thought he was claiming to have seen Nessie.

But he said there were a number of people on the loch-side who saw the same thing.

He said: “I have been camping and walking on Loch Ness my whole life and I have never believed in the Loch Ness monster.

“But what my wife and I saw was something quite extraordinary and I would like to know if other people have seen the same.

“It was, what looked like to me and Lauren, like a massive eel. It was the size of a bus.

“It was massive.

“We saw the water rippling as if something was swelling, and that is what grabbed our attention.

“We then saw this thing, that looked like a massive eel rise from the water, and then go back under again.

“There was a large swell.

“Other people walking on the same path saw it as well.

“I reached for my phone – but it was all over in a matter of about 10 or 20 seconds – and it only showed itself for a few seconds. By the time I got my phone out it had gone underneath again.

“It didn’t look like all those Nessie drawings with the humps – it was just a large, or very large eel.

“After never believing there was anything in the loch, and no basis for belief in the Loch Ness monster, I would say that perhaps there are large eels in the water – and when they emerge they may look like a monster.

“Whatever it was it was some size.”

Not including Mr and Mrs Sturrock’s experience, seven Nessie sightings have been recorded in 2020 so far.

The latest in the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register was added on August 29 after photos were taken by tourist Mr Van-Schuerbeck.

A spokesman for the register

said he spotted an “unexplained phenomenon” when he looked back at photos taken near Point Clair.

A long-distance walker was also convinced earlier this month he captured the shadowy shape of the Loch Ness Monster while hiking between Fort Augustus and Invermoriston.

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/nessie-sceptic-saw-something-fishy-during-loch-ness-walk-213374/

A New Mass Extinction Event Has Been Discovered, And It Triggered The Rise of Dinosaurs


NASA's 3D portrait of methane in 2020. (NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio)

MICHAEL J. BENTON, THE CONVERSATION
25 SEPTEMBER 2020

Huge volcanic eruptions 233 million years ago pumped carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapour into the atmosphere. This series of violent explosions, on what we now know as the west coast of Canada, led to massive global warming.

Our new research has revealed that this was a planet-changing mass extinction event that killed off many of the dominant tetrapods and heralded the dawn of the dinosaurs.

The best known mass extinction happened at the end of the Cretaceous period, 66 million years ago. This is when dinosaurs, pterosaurs, marine reptiles and ammonites all died out.

This event was caused primarily by the impact of a giant asteroid that blacked out the light of the sun and caused darkness and freezing, followed by other massive perturbations of the oceans and atmosphere.

Geologists and palaeontologists agree on a roster of five such events, of which the end-Cretaceous mass extinction was the last. So our new discovery of a previously unknown mass extinction might seem unexpected.

And yet this event, termed the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE), seems to have killed as many species as the giant asteroid did. Ecosystems on land and sea were profoundly changed, as the planet got warmer and drier.

On land, this triggered profound changes in plants and herbivores. In turn, with the decline of the dominant plant-eating tetrapods, such as rhynchosaurs and dicynodonts, the dinosaurs were given their chance.


The dinosaurs had originated some 15 million years earlier and our new study shows that, as a result of the CPE, they expanded rapidly in the subsequent 10 million to 15 million years and became the dominant species in the terrestrial ecosystems. The CPE triggered the "age of the dinosaurs" which lasted for a further 165 million years.

It wasn't only the dinosaurs that were given a foothold. Many modern tetrapod groups, such as turtles, lizards, crocodiles and mammals date back to this newly discovered time of revolution.

A timeline of mass extinction events. (D. Bonadonna/MUSE, Trento/Author provided)
Following the clues

This event was first noticed independently back in the 1980s. But it was thought that it was restricted to Europe. First, geologists in Germany, Switzerland and Italy recognised a major turnover among marine faunas about 232 million years ago, termed the Rheingraben event.

Then in 1986, I recognised this independently as a global-scale turnover among tetrapods and ammonites. But at that time, the age dating was much weaker than now and it was impossible to be sure whether these were both the same event.


The jigsaw pieces started falling into place when an episode of about 1 million years of humid climates was recognised throughout the UK and parts of Europe by geologists Mike Simms and Alastair Ruffell. Then geologist Jacopo dal Corso spotted a coincidence in timing of the CPE with the peak of eruptions of the Wrangellia basalts.

Wrangellia is a term geologists give to a narrow tectonic plate that is attached to the west coast of the North American continent, north of Vancouver and Seattle.

Finally, in a review of the evidence from Triassic-aged rocks, the signature of the CPE was detected – not only in Europe, but also in South America, North America, Australia and Asia. This was far from being a Europe-only event. It was global.

The distribution of Wrangellia flood basalts in Alaska, Yukon and British Columbia. (University of British Columbia/EOAS)

Volcanic eruptions

The massive Wrangellia eruptions pumped carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour into the atmosphere, leading to global warming and an increase in rainfall worldwide. There were as many as five pulses of eruptions associated with warming peaks from 233 million years ago.

The eruptions led to acid rain as the volcanic gases mixed with rainwater to shower the Earth in dilute acid. Shallow oceans also became acidified.


The sharp warming drove plants and animals from the tropics and the acid rain killed plants on land, while ocean acidification attacked all marine organisms with carbonate skeletons. This stripped away the surfaces of the oceans and the land.

Life may have begun to recover, but when the eruptions ceased, temperatures remained high while the tropical rainfall ceased. This is what caused the subsequent drying of the land on which the dinosaurs flourished.

Most extraordinary was the re-casting of the marine carbonate factory. This is the global mechanism by which calcium carbonate forms great thicknesses of limestones and provides material for organisms like corals and molluscs to build their shells.

The CPE marked the start of modern coral reefs, as well as many of the modern groups of plankton, suggesting profound changes in ocean chemistry.

Before the CPE, the main source of carbonate in the oceans came from microbial ecosystems, such as limestone-dominated mud mounds, on continental shelves.

But after the CPE, it was driven by coral reefs and plankton, where new groups of micro-organisms, such as dinoflagellates, appeared and bloomed. This profound switch in fundamental chemical cycles in the oceans marked the beginning of modern marine ecosystems.

And there are going to be important lessons for how we help our planet recover from climate change. Geologists need to investigate the details of the Wrangellia volcanic activity and understand how these repeated eruptions drove the climate and changed the Earth's ecosystems.

There have been a number of volcanically-induced mass extinctions in the history of the Earth and the physical perturbations, such as global warming, acid rain and ocean acidification, are among the challenges we see today.

Palaeontologists will need to work more closely on the data from marine and continental fossil records. This will help us understand how the crisis played out in terms of the loss of biodiversity, but also to explore how the planet recovered.

Michael J. Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of Bristol.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Phenomenon Shrinking Arctic Forests Linked to Legacy of Russia's Most Polluted City

(Ukususha/Getty Images)


CARLY CASSELLA
30 SEPTEMBER 2020

Rampant air pollution in northern Siberia is blocking sunlight and slowing the growth of boreal forests, new research suggests

The largest study of tree rings in Norilsk, Russia's most polluted city and the northernmost city in the world, has found air pollution from local mines and smelters are at least partly to blame for a phenomenon known as 'Arctic dimming'.

Similar to 'global dimming', this more regional effect occurs when tiny particulates – from air pollution, volcanic eruptions, and dust – gather in the atmosphere, where they partially absorb or scatter solar energy, messing with light availability, evaporation, and hydrology on the ground.

Long-term observations and satellite measurements have shown the amount of solar radiation reaching the Arctic's surface has decreased since the mid-century, but it wasn't clear if that was due to human pollution in the region.

Today, after nearly a century of heavy, unregulated mining, tree die-off near Norilsk has spread up to 100 kilometres, but this is one of the first studies to connect that shrinking forest with reduced sunlight.

"While the problem of sulphur emissions and forest dieback has been successfully addressed in much of Europe, for Siberia, we haven't been able to see what the impact has been, largely due to a lack of long-term monitoring data," says environmental systems analyst Ulf Büntgen from Cambridge University.

And yet, this region is one of the most heavily polluted in the world. So, by reading thousands of tree rings from living and dead conifers surrounding the city of Norilsk, researchers sought to reconstruct what happened to this once pristine forest.


Using wood and soil chemistry, they mapped the extent of Norilsk's uncontrolled environmental devastation over the course of nine decades.

"We can see that the trees near Norilsk started to die off massively in the 1960s due to rising pollution levels," says Büntgen.

Using solar radiation reaching the surface as a proxy for air pollution up in the atmosphere, the team's models provide "strong evidence" that Arctic dimming has substantially reduced tree growth since the '70s.

Today, the authors say, boreal forests in Eurasia and northern North America also have largely become a "dumping ground for large concentrations of anthropogenic air pollutants", and so the effects of Arctic dimming might be felt much more broadly outside the Norilsk region studied here.

Unfortunately, because of large-scale circulation patterns, we know that pollutants tend to accumulate in the Arctic atmosphere, and this means ecosystems up north may be especially vulnerable to global pollution as a whole.

Even knowing this, the authors were not prepared for the extent of the problem they uncovered.

"What surprised us is just how widespread the effects of industrial pollution are - the scale of the damage shows just how vulnerable and sensitive the boreal forest is," says Büntgen.


"Given the ecological importance of this biome, the pollution levels across the high-northern latitudes could have an enormous impact on the entire global carbon cycle."

Nor is pollution the only threat to these precious ecosystems, sometimes described as 'lungs' for our planet. Climate change looks as though it's also altering the diversity of boreal forests, while more intense and frequent wildfires are wiping out huge swathes of Siberia on an annual basis, contributing to further regional air pollution.

While some global warming models suggest tree growth will increase with climate change, the new research highlights that air pollution may outweigh this, meaning trees in the Arctic north will grow slower and weaker than before.

Further research should look at how air pollution could lead to reduced solar radiation, either through absorbing solar radiation directly or indirectly through its effects on clouds.

Given how important these boreal forests are as a carbon sink and how vulnerable they appear to be, the authors are calling for further insight into the long‐term effects of industrial emissions on the world's northernmost forests.

"This study appears particularly timely in the light of Norilsk's unprecedented release of more than 20,000 tons [of] diesel oil in 2020," they write, "an environmental disaster that emphasises the threat of Norilsk's industrial sector under rapid Arctic warming and permafrost thawing, and also stresses the ecological vulnerability of the high‐northern latitudes."

The study was published in Ecology Letters.

New Study of Neanderthal And Denisovan DNA Reveals a Surprising Link to Men Today


Neanderthal teeth from Spy 94a in Belgium.

 (I. Crevecoeur/Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)

MIKE MCRAE
30 SEPTEMBER 2020

Decades of teasing apart Neanderthal DNA has produced an archive of ancient genes that spell out a history of love affairs between estranged branches of humanity's family tree.


Until now, the story has been rather lopsided. For whatever reason, the most well preserved material has come from female remains, leaving an entire male genetic history in the dark.

Finally, however, Neanderthal (aka Neandertal) men now get to tell their side, thanks to a newly conducting sequencing of their Y chromosome.

Researchers from around the globe collaborated to successfully identify male-specific DNA sequences from the remains of three Neanderthals recovered from sites in modern Russia, Spain, and Belgium.

All lived roughly 38,000 to 53,000 years ago, in what's essentially the twilight years of the now extinct humans.

These were compared with similar genes in their more eastern cousin, the Denisovan, represented by two sets of Siberian remains from individuals who lived around 70,000 and 120,000 years ago.

If we didn't know any better, we might guess these Neanderthal and Denisovan men would have fairly similar chromosomes. After all, they split from the same stock that divorced modern humans around 800,000 years ago, only their own separation was much more recent – about 400,000 years ago.

That wasn't what the researchers found at all. Rather, the Y chromosome in the Neanderthals was a closer match for ours than it was the Denisovans'.


"This was quite a surprise to us," says evolutionary geneticist Martin Petr from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the study's lead author.

"We know from studying their autosomal DNA that Neandertals and Denisovans were closely related and that humans living today are their more distant evolutionary cousins. Before we first looked at the data, we expected that their Y chromosomes would show a similar picture."

This discrepancy implies a swap took place shortly after their separation, exchanging the Neanderthal's original Y chromosome for one more like ours.

Exactly why such an exchange took place isn't clear.

We know our ancestors couldn't keep their hands off one another (or pretty much any other human population), with frequent genetic mixing events leaving a legacy of DNA in our own genomes today.

But this isn't like leaving behind a small genetic recipe for coping with a disease or malnutrition. It's a whole recipe book that potentially affects a wide range of male sexual and non-sexual characteristics.

One possibility is that this version of the Y chromosome was simply doing a better job.


"We speculate that given the important role of the Y chromosome in reproduction and fertility, the lower evolutionary fitness of Neandertal Y chromosomes might have caused natural selection to favour the Y chromosomes from early modern humans, eventually leading to their replacement" says Petr.

Computer simulations showed that relatively small Neanderthal communities scattered across the continent could have easily amassed a bunch of problematic mutations through inbreeding.

A more robust version of a Y chromosome picked up from humans could have added a fertility boost, quickly gaining ground as it was passed from fathers to sons down the family line.

Whoever those chromosome donors were, they eventually petered out themselves. Though more closely related to our modern global community, their bloodlines were also a dead end.

Just getting this level of detail from ancient male bones was a task in itself. Jokes about fragile masculinity aside, the Y chromosome isn't exactly a solid piece of work.

In the study, the researchers put the early human Y chromosomes together by using modern Y sequences as a template for a special set of probes. Clinging to as much shared DNA as they could, the probes also dredged up enough unique sequences to build a complete picture.


It's technology we might be able to use to fill in even more of the missing chapters of the Neanderthal's past.

"If we can retrieve Y chromosome sequences from Neandertals that lived prior to this hypothesised early introgression event, such as the 430,000-year-old Neandertals from Sima de los Huesos in Spain, we predict that they would still have the original Neandertal Y chromosome and will therefore be more similar to Denisovans than to modern humans," says senior author Janet Kelso from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

It's certainly possible, but given how studies like this tend to deliver more twists than any modern reality show, we're sure there'll be a surprise or two waiting in just about any set of male Neanderthal genes we find.

This research was published in Science.

Vast Majority of Reptiles Sold Online Have No Protection Under Law, Study Finds

(kozorog/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

TANYA WYATT, THE CONVERSATION
30 SEPTEMBER 2020

Rhinos, tigers, pangolins – we're used to hearing about the mammals that are snatched from the wild so that their body parts can be sold. But did you know that you can buy and sell 36 percent of all known reptile species over the internet?

That's more than one in three species, including the endangered speckled tortoise (the world's smallest species of tortoise) and the Seychelles tiger chameleon.

Reptiles are consistently overlooked by trade regulations. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is the world's mechanism for protecting wildlife in global markets.

This global agreement is supposed to regulate the trade of species to prevent them being overexploited, but a new study has revealed that more than 75 percent of reptiles traded online are species that are not covered by CITES. And as the online trade has grown, even reptiles protected by CITES are being taken from their natural habitats and sold to buyers around the world.

Reptiles are mostly traded for two reasons. In the fashion industry, their skins are made into leather. Reptile skins are what CITES mostly records, as this trade happens on a commercial scale. Thousands of skins of crocodiles, in particular, but lizards and snakes too, are shipped around the world to make boots, purses, and watch straps among other things.

Much less well documented, according to the new study, which I have also found in my own research, is the smaller scale trade in individual reptiles for "personal" use, like the pet trade.

Many are flown thousands of miles to be mistreated. (reggie35/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)
Scaling back the trade

At first, it may not seem that the sale of one reptile here and there presents a problem. But the wildlife trade is a global phenomenon.

The tens, if not hundreds of thousands of individual sales of reptiles taking place around the world every year add up. The result is that small populations of reptiles – some of which only live in one particular place – are threatened with extinction.


The demand for rare and unique companion animals helps fuel this.

Farming reptiles, or breeding them in captivity, is often touted as a solution, but this approach has its own problems.

Captive breeding has been a source of illegal activity in the past. Businesses that were supposedly breeding reptiles in large quantities to meet demand were found to likely have been taking them from the wild instead.

This kind of laundering is difficult to control unless there are robust practices in place to trace reptiles all the way from source to final purchase.

Captive breeding in the reptile trade also has horrible consequences for animal welfare. As colleagues and I have argued, the reptile leather industry is extraordinarily cruel. Animals are often kept in unhygienic conditions and slaughter is usually done while the reptile is conscious. That means many animals are skinned while still alive.

The pet industry is little better. Reptiles are crammed into small boxes and flown as cargo all over the world, enduring days without food and water and in fluctuating temperatures. There is no guarantee that they will be better kept once they arrive at their new home.


The biggest demand for pet reptiles is in Europe and North America. This is an important and often overlooked point: advertising the harm that the exotic pet trade causes could help reduce demand where it is greatest.

The new research illuminates some of the areas where our understanding is most limited. We known that many reptiles are sold as ingredients in medicines for example, but we know almost nothing about the scale of this trade.

This requires investigation, as does the role of social media – including Facebook and WhatsApp – in supporting the buying and selling of reptiles and other wildlife.

The new study also raises an alternative to the way the wildlife trade is currently regulated. What if no trade was the default starting point?

Trade would only take place if there was sufficient evidence to show that it would not harm the survival of the species. This precautionary approach would address the lack of data for many species and also potentially simplify customs checks.

It's time to rethink how this trade is regulated, and our relationship to wildlife altogether.

Tanya Wyatt, Professor of Criminology, Northumbria University, Newcastle.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Huge Haul of Dinosaur Teeth Reveal The Spinosaurus Really Was a River Monster


Artistic reconstruction of new Spinosaurus description. (Gustavo Monroy-Becerril)
NATURE


CARLY CASSELLA
26 SEPTEMBER 2020

The discovery of more than a thousand fossilised teeth in a prehistoric river bed is eating away at our current definition of dinosaurs.

Today, palaeontologists generally consider this extinct group of reptiles to be solely land-based, but one enormous species simply won't stay dry.


The species, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, with its giant fin-like tail, has been causing waves in recent years, and some scientists are sure this dinosaur was a swimmer - the first known example among dinosaurs.

Now, hundreds of this creature's teeth, nearly half of the enormous haul found in Morocco, have this group more convinced than ever.

Spinosaurus teeth. (Beevor et al., Cretaceous Research, 2020)

"From this research we are able to confirm this location as the place where this gigantic dinosaur not only lived but also died," says palaeobiologist David Martill from the University of Portsmouth.

"The results are fully consistent with the idea of a truly water-dwelling 'river monster.'"

The massive haul of teeth belongs to both dinosaurs and some aquatic animals. Counting up over 1,200 fossils, researchers found just under half were from the Spinosaurus.

The sheer abundance of spinosaur teeth - relative to other dinosaurs - in the riverbed location is a reflection of their aquatic lifestyle, the team argues.

Artistic reconstruction of new Spinosaurus description. (Gustavo Monroy-Becerril)

"An animal living much of its life in water is much more likely to contribute teeth to the river deposit than those dinosaurs that perhaps only visited the river for drinking and feeding along its banks," they write.

In 2014, palaeontologist Nizar Ibrahim first made the case for a semi-aquatic Spinosaurus. Others who examined the fossils disagreed, arguing the dinosaur was a topsy-turvy floater at best, driven into the water by hunger for fish. Its skeleton, they said, was unsinkable.


Then, earlier this year, Ibrahim and his colleagues found a fossilised Spinosaurus tail - what some scientists have called a 'game-changer'.

The discovery added far more weight to the idea that this giant predator (famous for its cameo in Jurassic Park) spent at least some time swimming in the water (as it did in the film). So much so, the team declared its tail the first "unambiguous evidence for an aquatic propulsive structure in a dinosaur".

The new find in Morocco erases even more doubt. Ibrahim and his colleagues are now arguing the spinosaur was not just semi-aquatic but "largely aquatic" and spent "much of its life in water", where its teeth were shed at what is speculated to be a similar rate to modern crocodiles.

While many other Spinosaurus fossils have been obtained commercially, with unknown origins, these teeth come from the prehistoric Kem Kem river system, which once flowed from Morocco all the way to Algeria.

The ancient waterway, now long gone, was home to Cretaceous creatures like the sawfish, crocodiles, flying reptiles and, along its banks, dinosaurs.


During reconnaissance field work in the south east of Morocco, scientists discovered a sandstone bed of bone absolutely ridden with Cretaceous fossils.

Just over a kilometre away, the team met several miners in action, and they bought all the fossils the workers had found in the ancient river bank.

Spinosaur teeth have particular features that make them easy to identify, allowing the researchers to focus on them; the team found hundreds of fragments from the Spinosaurus - far more than any other dinosaur, or fish for that matter.

The authors admit the teeth might have gathered here from the Spinosaurus wading along the banks of the river, snatching its prey from the safety of the shore. But while the reptile's long neck might match up with that theory, its hind limbs aren't anything like those of modern wading birds, which are closely related to dinosaurs.

In fact, the authors say the short hindlimbs of spinosaurs are only consistent with one form of avian locomotion: active swimming.

And then there's simply the sheer number of teeth. Other dinosaurs were known to shed their teeth and wade on the shores of this river, too, so why are Spinosaurus fossils everywhere?

"With such an abundance of Spinosaurus teeth, it is highly likely that this animal was living mostly within the river rather than along its banks," argues University of Portsmouth palaeontologist Thomas Beevor.

The study was published in Cretaceous Research.