Lion genetics study uncovers major consequences of habitat fragmentation

by Aubrey Bloom, Texas A&M University

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Over the course of only a century, humanity has made an observable impact on the genetic diversity of the lion population. That's the conclusion of a recently published study by Drs. Caitlin Curry and James Derr from the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.


By comparing the DNA of lions today to lions from 100 years ago, they found that there is clear genetic evidence of recent population fragmentation, which is when groups of a species are isolated from each other. This fragmentation could ultimately have a long-term impact on the genetic health of the iconic species. The research was published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

"I was surprised at what we found—surprised and disappointed, because it's not what I wanted to see," Derr said. "I really wanted to be able to tell everyone that the management we've been doing for the last 100 years is perfect and to keep doing what we've been doing and everything will be fine. But that's not the take-home lesson; unfortunately, that's not the story we can tell.

Curry and Derr started their study with one overarching question: Has the genetic structure of lion populations changed over the last 100 years?

There have been several studies on modern lions, so gathering data for the modern populations was straightforward. Curry pulled together DNA data from three previously published studies on lions that lived between 1990-2012.

The historical populations, against which they wanted to compare the modern lion DNA, provided more of a challenge. Fortunately, scientists have a way to turn back time. Many of those lion remains still reside perfectly preserved in collections around the world. Curry used DNA extracted from bones, teeth and hides of 143 lions that lived between 1880-1949 to create a historical population data set.

Both population data sets cover the same geographical range from India to Southern Africa where lions are found. Scientists call this type of analysis, comparing data from the same space at different times, a spatiotemporal study.

No Room To Roam

It has been understood for a long time that female lions tend to stay close to the pride in which they were born, while males travel great distances to find new prides. Therefore, males are almost exclusively responsible for the movement of genes in the population, which helps keep genetic diversity within the species high.


As the human population continues to rapidly grow across Africa and more and more barriers to lion movement have gone up in the form of cities, fences and farmland, male lions haven't been able to travel the distances they once could.

According to Curry, while lions are still genetically diverse right now, the results in the DNA were more pronounced than she expected.

"In the historical population, you couldn't easily identify where a lion was from based on its nuclear DNA. This is due to high historical levels of gene flow across the population," she said. "But in the modern population, you can determine the general area, or sub-population, for most of the lions. But, even with sub-populations being more isolated, the overall level of genetic diversity is still considered high across all lion populations."

Consequences Of Low Genetic Diversity

If lions are still generally genetically healthy today, then why does this matter?

"Over the last 100 years or so, we have restricted the natural movements of many species," Derr said. "This isolation leads to reduced gene flow and ultimately may result in reducing genetic diversity to a level that threatens the survival of local populations."

Perhaps the most well-known example of what happens with a lack of genetic diversity is another large cat, the African cheetah.

According to genetic analysis, scientists believe cheetahs have suffered two large bottleneck events, or events that lead to a rapid shrinking of the gene pool. When these events happen, it results in the breeding of closely related individuals in the population, or inbreeding, creating very low genetic diversity.

This has led to a current cheetah population that, even in the wild, struggles to fend off new diseases, has difficulty breeding, and faces other significant health problems.

A Story Of Hope

But that fate can still be avoided in lions, especially now that experts are armed with proof that lion populations have been significantly impacted by isolation and subdivision.

"This should not be a disheartening story but rather one of hope," Curry said. "Yes, we see a decrease in genetic diversity across lion populations over the past century. But, currently, compared with other mammalian species, lion genetic diversity is still considered high across all lion populations.

"With responsible management focused on giving prides enough space to breed and allowing males to move more freely between isolated pockets, it is possible to increase the genetic diversity and reduce population sub-division across lion populations."

There have been multiple reintroduction programs bringing lions back to areas where lions once roamed, and coexistence strategies are increasingly being integrated into wildlife conservation programs.

"The positive take-home message is now that we've documented this and we understand it, policies can be tailored to manage these populations differently," Derr said. "We know now that you can't treat all lions the same. Now we have the responsibility to manage these animals, and many other managed wildlife species, in ways that better reflects their current biology."


Explore further

New genetic study of lions may help to prevent them going extinct

More information: Caitlin J Curry et al, Spatiotemporal Genetic Diversity of Lions Reveals the Influence of Habitat Fragmentation across Africa, Molecular Biology and Evolution (2020). DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msaa174

Journal information: Molecular Biology and Evolution


Provided by Texas A&M University

Mammals have been 'cuddling' for longer than previously thought: 

Scientists discover 75 million-year-old burrow containing fossilised rodents snuggled-up together

Researchers found 22 fossils of the small, rodent-like 'Filikomys primaevus'

They were unearthed at 'Egg Mountain', a dinosaur nesting site in Montana 

The creatures were preserved together in small, multi-generational groups

It was thought mammals did not become social until after the dinosaurs died

By IAN RANDALL FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 3 November 2020

Cuddling may date back further than we thought, as scientists have unearthed the remains of a 75.5 million-year-old burrow containing the fossils of snuggling rodents.

US palaeontologists made the find — the oldest evidence of social behaviour among mammals — in a noted dinosaur nesting site called Egg Mountain, in Montana.

The small mammals — dubbed 'Filikomys primaevus', which translates to 'youthful, friendly mouse' — represent a new genus of the so-called multituberculates.


Previously, it had been thought that social behaviour first appeared in mammals following the asteroid-induced mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs.

Furthermore, it was also assumed that it was largely confined to the Placentalia — the group in which mothers carry their foetus to a late stage before birth.

However, the find — of multigenerational group nesting and burrowing — expands our notion of how such sociality developed.


Cuddling may date back further than we thought, as scientists have unearthed the remains of a 75.5 million-year-old burrow containing the fossils of snuggling rodents. Pictured, an artist's impression of a social group of Filikomys primaevus nesting in their shared burrow

'These fossils are game changers,' said paper author Gregory Wilson Mantilla of the University of Washington and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

'As palaeontologists working to reconstruct the biology of mammals from this time period, we're usually stuck staring at individual teeth and maybe a jaw that rolled down a river,' he added.

'But here we have multiple, near complete skulls and skeletons preserved in the exact place where the animals lived.'

'We can now credibly look at how mammals really interacted with dinosaurs and other animals that lived at this time.'

In their study, Professor Wilson Mantilla and colleagues analysed the fossilised remains of 22 individuals of F. primaevus — the majority of which were found clustered together in groups of between two and five.

In fact, 13 of the specimens were found in one single 323 square feet (30 square metre) area of rock — and the groupings contained mixtures of both mature and young adults, suggesting the finds do not just represent parents and their young.

Based on the nature of the surrounding rock, the preservation of the fossils and their' powerful shoulders and elbows, the team concluded the mammals lived in burrows.

The remains represent the most complete mammal fossils ever from the Mesozoic — the time period spanning from 252–66 million years ago — of North America.


The small mammals — dubbed 'Filikomys primaevus', which translates to 'youthful, friendly mouse' — represent a new genus of the so-called multituberculates. Pictured, the fossilised remains of two adult and one juvenile Filikomys primaevus


'Multituberculates are one of the most ancient mammal groups, and they've been extinct for 35 million years, yet in the Late Cretaceous they were interacting in groups similar to what you would see in modern-day ground squirrels,' said Luke Weaver of the University of Washington

'It was crazy finishing up this paper right as the stay-at-home orders were going into effect,' commented paper author and biologist Luke Weaver, also of the University of Washington.

'Here we all are trying our best to socially distance and isolate, and I'm writing about how mammals were socially interacting way back when dinosaurs were still roaming the Earth,' he added.

'It is really powerful, I think, to see just how deeply rooted social interactions are in mammals.'

'Because humans are such social animals, we tend to think that sociality is somehow unique to us, or at least to our close evolutionary relatives, but now we can see that social behaviour goes way further back in the mammalian family tree.'

'Multituberculates are one of the most ancient mammal groups, and they've been extinct for 35 million years, yet in the Late Cretaceous they were interacting in groups similar to what you would see in modern-day ground squirrels.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

US palaeontologists made the find — the oldest evidence of social behaviour among mammals — in a famous dinosaur nesting site called Egg Mountain, in Montana

Read more:

Early mammalian social behaviour revealed by multituberculates from a dinosaur nesting site | Nature Ecology & Evolution

Palaeontology: 75 million-year-old burrow contains fossilised rodents snuggled-up together

Fossils reveal mammals mingled in age of dinosaurs

3-Nov-2020 11:55 AM EST, by Yale University

— The fossil remains of several small mammals discovered in tightly packed clusters in western Montana provide the earliest evidence of social behavior in mammals, according to a new study co-authored by a Yale scientist.

The fossils, which are about 75.5 million years old but exquisitely preserved, offer a rare glimpse into mammalian behavior during the Late Cretaceous Period when dinosaurs dominated, and indicate that mammals developed sociality much earlier than previously thought, said Eric Sargis, professor of anthropology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and a co-author of the study.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

"It's an exceptional set of fossils -- the most complete and well-preserved mammal specimens from the Mesozoic Era ever discovered in North America," said Sargis, curator of mammalogy and vertebrate paleontology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

"They provide a wealth of information about how these animals lived. They tell us that they burrowed and nested together. It's multiple mature adults and subadults congregating, which we'd never seen before from this period."

Excavated from Egg Mountain in Montana --a well-known dinosaur nesting site -- the fossils include skulls or skeletons of at least 22 individuals of Filikomys primaevus, a newly named genus of multituberculate. The small mammal, which was omnivorous or herbivorous, was as abundant in the Mesozoic Era as rodents are today. (The genus name translates to "neighborly mouse.") Multituberculates existed for more than 130 million years from the Middle Jurassic to the late Eocene epoch, the longest lineage of any mammal. The fossils were discovered in groups of two to five specimens. At least 13 of the specimens were located in the same rock layer within a 344 square-foot area, a space smaller than an average-sized studio apartment.

"These fossils are game changers," said Gregory Wilson Mantilla, professor of biology at the University of Washington, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture in Seattle, and the study's senior author. "As paleontologists working to reconstruct the biology of mammals from this time period, we're usually stuck staring at individual teeth and maybe a jaw that rolled down a river, but here we have multiple, near complete skulls and skeletons preserved in the exact place where the animals lived. We can now credibly look at how mammals really interacted with dinosaurs and other animals that lived at this time."

The researchers found no evidence that the fossils had accumulated through some natural phenomena, such as by being transported by a river, or that they were deposited by predators. The specimens were extracted from suspected burrows where the animals had lived. The bones show no signs of bite marks from predation, and the skeletons are too complete and well-preserved to have been moved by water or accumulated on the surface, according to the study.

An analysis of the specimens' teeth -- the level of wear and whether they had fully erupted into the oral cavity -- and their skeletons -- the degree of fusion in cranial and long bones -- showed that the individuals were either mature adults or subadults, not nursing infants. The groupings of multiple mature adults and subadults strongly suggests social behavior, Sargis said.

Social behavior occurs in about half of today's placental mammals, which bear live young that are nourished in the mother's uterus into late stages of development. Some marsupials, such as kangaroos, also behave socially. The trait was thought to have evolved following the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction that killed off most dinosaur species about 66 million years ago, but the study shows that sociality occurred earlier than that, the researchers concluded.

"Because humans are such social animals, we tend to think that sociality is somehow unique to us, or at least to our close evolutionary relatives, but now we can see that social behavior goes way further back in the mammalian family tree," said Luke Weaver, the study's lead author and a graduate student in biology at the University of Washington in Seattle. "Multituberculates are one of the most ancient mammal groups, and they've been extinct for 35 million years, yet in the Late Cretaceous they were apparently interacting in groups similar to what you would see in modern-day ground squirrels."

The fossils also provide the earliest evidence of burrowing behavior in multituberculates, the study states. The skeletons indicate that F. primaevus could move its shoulders, elbows, and paws similarly to today's burrowing species, such as chipmunks. The researchers found that its hips and knees had flexibility adapted for maneuvering in tight, confined spaces, such as burrows, rather than running on open ground.

###

The study's other co-authors are David J. Varricchio and William J. Freimuth of Montana State University, and Meng Chen of Nanjing University and the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology in China.

 Rescuers save dozens of beached whales in Sri Lanka

Over 100 short-finned pilot whales were stranded on Panadura beach in Sri Lanka. Officials and local residents worked together to save the vast majority of the animals.

Nov. 3, 2020

#LAGRANGEPOINT5

Astronomers claim to have found the Moon's 'long-lost twin'

Astronomers find the Moon's 'long-lost twin': Large rock that broke off from our satellite four BILLION years ago is spotted hiding behind Mars

Researchers from Northern Ireland studied asteroids that trail behind Mars 

Found one asteroid has a composition that is 'strikingly similar' to the moon 

The asteroid measures 1km across and is believed to be four billion years old

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 3 November 2020

The long-lost twin of the moon has been spotted trailing behind Mars, according to a new study.

The 3,280-foot-wide asteroid called (101429) 1998 VF31 was first spotted 22 years ago, and new analysis reveals it is 'strikingly similar' to the moon.

Scientists from the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) in Northern Ireland used the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to study the space rock.

The lead author of the study, Dr Apostolos Christou from the AOP, believes it is possibly a chunk of moon that was dislodged by an enormous impact during the Solar System's formative years, around four billion years ago.

However, while the origin of this rock may be lunar, the research team say it is also possible it could have stemmed from the Martian surface.

Scroll down for video


The asteroid is a Mars Trojan which orbits the Sun while trailing behind the red planet at an angle of about 60 degrees relative to the Sun, in a so-called Lagrange point. These are locations in a planet's orbit where the gravity of the Sun and the planet balances out, allowing a rock to remain in a static location. L4 is ahead of Mars and L5, where VF31 is, sits behind Mars

Dr Christou studied the space rock with a technique called spectral matching.

'It's similar to the photo-IDing done by the police when chasing crooks, you try to match your data - the spectral profile - against the same type of data taken from other objects, for example other asteroids or meteorites,' he told MailOnline.

'None of these matches were particularly satisfactory until we included spectra of the Moon in our analysis. The similarity to parts of the lunar surface was striking.'

The asteroid is part of a group known as Mars Trojans, and their origin is a long-standing astronomical mystery.

They orbit the Sun while either trailing behind the red planet at an angle of about 60 degrees relative to the Sun, L5, or 60° in front of Mars, L4.

For example, if Mars reaches a point in its orbit deemed to be the same as 12 o'clock on a clock face, the Trojans will be at two o'clock.

They stay in this location because they are trapped at a Lagrange Point, a patch of space where the gravitational pull of various celestial bodies balances out.

As a result, they never go around Mars and always lurk behind it, following in the planet's wake.

The study, which was funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), reveals that VF31 is very different in composition to all the other Mars Trojans.

This, Dr Chrisotu told MailOnline, was surprising. None of the other Trojans had any resemblance to the moon, making this object unique.

The research team speculates that the moon may have been struck by an asteroid, called a planetesimal, causing VF31 to chip off the surface.

'The early solar system was very different from the place we see today,' Dr Christou says.

'The space between the newly-formed planets was full of debris and collisions were commonplace.

'Large asteroids – we call these planetesimals – were hitting the Moon and the other planets.

'A shard from such a collision could have reached the orbit of Mars when the planet was still forming and was trapped in its Trojan clouds.'

Although the researchers are unable to say conclusively that the space rock is a fragment of the moon, the evidence is convincing.

To test if it would even be possible for the asteroid, which is less than a kilometre in diameter, to have originated from the moon and end up in Martian orbit the researchers crunched the numbers.

Previous studies show that for a rock to escape the moon's gravity, it would have to be travelling at 2.4 km/s (5,368 mph).

For it to then enter an orbit around the Sun, it would have to be travelling at a minimum of 3.5 km/s (7,829 mph).

The researchers say it is possible for a rock fragment of around one kilometre in diameter to travel at this speed if the moon is hit by a projectile at least 125km (77 mils) in size, travelling at 10 km/s (22,369 mph).

Such a monumental collision would create a crater measuring 974 km (604 miles) across.


In order for a loose piece of rock from the lunar surface to escape the moon's gravity and enter a solar orbit it would require the moon to be hit with a projectile at least 125km (77 mils) in size, travelling at 10 km/s (22,369 mph). This would create a crater measuring 974 km (604 miles), much smaller than the Aitken crater (pictured) on the far side of the Moon, which is far bigger than this. This proves it is at least possible for the asteroid to have come from the moon

A 1km-wide asteroid called (101429) 1998 VF31 was first spotted 22 years ago and new analysis reveals it is 'strikingly similar' to the moon, astronomers say (stock)

'This is considerably smaller than the size of the largest lunar basin, therefore this scenario is at least plausible,' the researchers write in their study, published today in the journal Icarus.

While there has not been another asteroid discovered which could be an ancient remnant of the moon, the researchers believe there could well be more undiscovered lunar 'twins'.

'It is sensible to expect that if there is one there could be more,' Dr Christou says.

'However, to preserve those objects for 4 billion years until today they would need to have been trapped early on in similar "safe havens" along the orbits of nearby planets, Mars or the Earth.

'Perhaps there is some other asteroid out there that looks exactly like this one; so far we haven't found it. But we will keep looking.'

WHAT IS A LAGRANGE POINT?

A Lagrange point is a spot in space where the combined gravitational forces of two large bodies are equivalent to the centrifugal force of another body.

The way the forces interact creates a net directional force of zero and allows an object to stay stationary in space.

These points are named after Joseph-Louis Lagrange, an 18th-century mathematician who wrote about them in 1772.

major astronomical bodies have five points - labelled L1, L2, L3 L4 and L5.

L1, L2 and L3 are all unstable as they rely entirely on a fragile equilibrium.

L4 and L5 are far more stable.

L1 - Between the two objects. This location between the sun and the Earth is currently occupied by SOHO - Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and the Deep Space Climate Observatory.

L2 - The second spot is a million miles beyond Earth and in the opposite direction to the sun. This is currently occupied by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and will be the target area for the upcoming James Web telescope.

L3 - This spot lies behind the sun and away from Earth. This spot remains, as of yet, unoccupied.

L4 and L5 - They lie along Earth's orbit at 60 degrees ahead of and behind Earth.

Nasa has created the four concepts and has said they will likely be positioned at L2 - an astronomical position a million miles beyond Earth and in the opposite direction to the sun

Read more:
Composition and origin of L5 Trojan asteroids of Mars: Insights from spectroscopy - ScienceDirect

Horses DON'T form attachment bonds with their owners despite what equine enthusiasts might think - but they do regard humans as 'safe havens'

Humans have a long history with horses and it is often one of love and affection

Researchers from Sweden set out to find out if horses can form emotional bonds
They found that horses see humans as 'safe havens' rather than forming a bond

The animal is calmer when with humans but it doesn't matter which humans

By RYAN MORRISON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 3 November 2020 

Horses think of humans as 'safe havens' but don't form attachment bonds with their owners - despite what equine enthusiasts might think, a new study reveals.

Humans have a long and storied history with horses, from workers to companions, and this relationship is often one of love and affection - at least on the human side.

Researchers from Linköping University, Sweden, set out to examine whether horses were actually capable of forming attachment bonds and reciprocating their owners’ affection.


They worked with 26 horses and their humans to assess the owners' training techniques, and monitored the animals in a range of different interaction scenarios.

Horses exhibit higher heart rates when separated from a human, but don't show any preference for their owners over complete strangers, the team discovered.

+5



Horses think of humans as a 'safe haven' but don't form attachment bonds with their owners - despite what equine enthusiasts might think, study reveals. Stock image

Swedish researchers started their work with the theory that positive reinforcement training on a horse was more likely to lead to them forming a strong attachment.

To find out if this was the case, or even if it was possible for them to form an attachment, they monitored horses as they spent time with their owners, time with a complete stranger and time with both.

The results showed that, regardless of who the human was, the horses were more relaxed around people than when alone.

Horses trained with positive reinforcement did spend more time with humans in the experiment – but still didn’t show a preference for their owner.

The study’s lead author, Paulina Lundberg said horses demonstrate some attachment-like behaviours with humans.

+5



Humans have a long and storied history with horses, from workers to companions, and this relationship is often one of love and affection - at least on the human side. Stock image

However, this wasn't enough to 'fulfil all criteria for an attachment bond such as we see between dogs and their owners, or children and parents'.

The main aim of this study was to investigate, from the horse’s perspective, whether there is a bond between the horse and its owner.

They discovered this by recording attachment-related behaviours - including whether the horse looks for the owner when they move away and whether they are prepared to walk further if the owner is nearby.

While also measuring their heart rate, the researchers performed the experiments with the owner, with a stranger and with nobody nearby.

'Our results showed that the horses spent most time in door proximity during separation and sought human proximity upon reunion, irrespective of whether it was the owner or the stranger,' the authors explained.

'Furthermore, the horses’ heart rates increased significantly when separated from the human followed by a decrease in heart rate during reunion.'

This suggests that horses were distressed when left alone, and that the presence of a human calmed them down when they were reunited.


+5

The main aim of this study was to investigate, from the horse’s perspective, whether there is a bond between the horse and its owner. Stock image

'In order to trigger attachment-related behaviours the individual needs to be stressed,' the team explained.

They simulated a potentially stressful event by placing the horse in an unfamiliar fenced off arena and leaving them alone in the strange environment.

'Since horses are social prey animals living in groups it is likely that the horses in this study would have perceived the separation as a slightly negative and stressful experience,' the authors wrote in the journal entry.

'Even if horses are trained to be alone they still respond with higher heart rate when socially separated from others, which was also reflected in the separation phase in our study by increased heart rates and high number of snores.'

Snores are short, raspy inhalation sounds associated with low alert situations and were, therefore, likely a response to the separation, they explained.

There are behaviours indicative of an attachment relationship between a child and its parent, and dogs have been shown to cover all of them, but not horses.

'Dogs become stressed during separation from their owner, and they seek proximity and comfort upon reunion, indicating a safe haven effect,' the authors wrote.

'In addition, dogs repeatedly reveal behaviours such as increased play and exploratory behaviour together with their owner indicating the secure base effect.

'To our knowledge, this has not been documented in horses.'

+5



While the horse did show a reduced heart rate and some attachment behaviours, similar to a dog, it was irrespective of the human - not just for their owner. Stock image

While the horse did show a reduced heart rate and some attachment behaviours, similar to a dog, it was irrespective of the human - not just for their owner.

Hence, what deviates from attachment theory is that both the owner and stranger attenuated the effect of the stressful event and were perceived as safe haven to the horse, the researchers explained.

'We would like to encourage more research in this under-explored area and emphasise that future studies should address the daily time owners spend with their horses and include information about training methods used,' the authors wrote.

They also say future work should look at 'the owner attachment style, and how much contact horses have to companions given the importance of touch both during horse training and conspecific bonding.'

The results have been published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.
Scientists introduce cloning technology to create 'super-horses'

HOW THE HORSE LOST ITS TOES


The evolution of horses has involved adapting to changing environments, predation and human domestication.

Ancestors of modern-day horses had a small body, short legs, three toes on its front feet and four toes on its back legs.

It is believed that a more exposed environment may have forced the horse to develop longer legs to run from predators and they increased in size to be harder to eat.

The loss of toes may have enabled horses to support a larger weight and move faster on their longer legs.

A single hoof better supports a horse's weight and allows it to swing its legs more efficiently to gallop at a much greater speed.

This is one of the crucial adaptations to allow horses to move as swiftly as they do today.

Horses are the only creature in the animal kingdom to have a single toe – the hoof, which first evolved around five million years ago.

Their side toes first shrunk in size, it appears, before disappearing altogether.


Ancient horse would moved relatively slowly with a small body, short legs, three toes on its front feet and four toes on its back legs. This 1905 artist's impression of an ancient horse was done by Charles Knight



Read more:
Does training style affect the human-horse relationship?

 Asking the horse in a separation–reunion experiment with the owner and a stranger - ScienceDirect

Share or comment on this article:
Horses DON'T form attachment bonds with their owners, study finds

Covid cover-up: HMRC refuses to reveal names of companies who benefited from £41billion furlough cash during first lockdown due to confidentiality laws

McDonald's, British Airways and Nissan were among the firms to use furlough

Rishi Sunak's wife's luxury clothing firm furloughed staff in London in March 

Firms using scheme now can be named, but not those who used it in first wave

By LUKE MAY FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED; 3 November 2020

HMRC has refused to name all of the companies who benefited from £41bn in furlough cash support during the first lockdown, citing confidentiality laws.

A Freedom of Information request to name each company to use the wage support scheme in the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic has been refused.

Business giants including McDonald's, British Airways, Nissan and Wetherspoons all signed up to the scheme, while others received millions of pounds in error.

Last week chancellor Rishi Sunak was accused of failing to declare his wife's Akshata's luxury clothing firm, which furloughed staff in London during the first months of the pandemic.

HMRC has said it will name companies who apply for Job Support Scheme seen as a follow up to the furlough scheme, which it will not share details of.

According to the latest data available, 38,700 employers were furloughing 115,700 employees on August 31.


HMRC has refused a Freedom of Information request to share the names of companies who used the Government's furlough scheme in the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic

There are calls for greater transparency from HMRC.

Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, told Press Gazette: 'I would like to see the government publish a list of the companies which received furlough money.

'Where taxpayers' money is being used, transparency should be a given. HMRC must act now to minimise fraud and error and ensure that taxpayers do not pay time and time again in the years to come.'

HMRC said it cannot name companies that used the scheme under Section 23(1) of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005.


Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata's luxury clothing company, which supplies Eton, furloughed staff in London at the start of the pandemic


British Airways furloughed thousands of staff as the coronavirus pandemic grounded flights earlier this year. HMRC says it will name any companies that use the furlough scheme over the next month, but cannot name previous users

The legislation makes it a criminal offence to wrongfully disclose the revenue and customs of any companies, trusts and charities.

The Campaign for Freedom of Information's Maurice Hinkel told the website: 'On the whole it isn't a matter of great tax confidentiality and there is a strong public interest in knowing how the provisions are being applied at the moment but the way in which the FoI Act and the statutory provisions are drafted just rules that out.'

Figures released by HMRC in September revealed more than 80,000 employers returned around £215million to the Government in furlough payments they either no longer needed or received in error.

Some of the money was returned, while other companies simply claimed smaller payouts the next time they were given furlough cash.

Housebuilders Redrow, Barratt and Taylor Wimpey have both said they returned all the furlough money they had claimed.

They were joined by Bunzl, Ikea and many others.

But many of the country's biggest employers took advantage of the scheme, which saw the Government subsidise 80 per cent of staff salaries.


Some companies, including Ikea, have given furlough payments back to the Government after they received them in error. Figures from September revealed revealed more than 80,000 employers returned around £215million

McDonald's, British Airways, Wetherspoons, and Topshop owner Arcadia furloughed 135,000, 30,000, 43,000 and 14,500 staff respectively, as lockdown hit High Streets and the aviation industry hard.

News that many companies who used the scheme earlier this will not be released, comes amid mounting economic pressure on the Government.

Former Tory Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft is set to release Going For Broke: The Rise Of Rishi Sunak later this month.

The book details how Mr Sunak is coping with the devastating impact lockdown has had on Britain's economy.


The Treasury and Cabinet Office backed Mr Sunak as a new book raised questions over his failure to publicly declare that his wife is a director of a luxury clothing store which received furlough payments earlier this year

It left the Chancellor of the Exchequer facing questions over his failure to publicly declare the fact that his wife is a director of a luxury clothing store which received money under the Treasury’s multi-billion-pound furlough scheme.

The Treasury said Mr Sunak had followed ministerial code 'to the letter'.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister’s independent adviser on ministerial interests has confirmed that he is completely satisfied with the propriety of arrangements and that appropriate measures have been put in place where necessary to avoid any conflict of interest.’

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

£45m deal for NHS masks collapses amid fraud claims

Exclusive: millions of respirators missing as medical company sues its supplier in US

Mark Harris and David Pegg
Tue 3 Nov 2020 

 

FFP3 respirator masks were supposed to have been flown in to Birmingham airport by June. Photograph: Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS


Millions of medical masks purchased by the British government for £45m are missing after a major PPE deal collapsed amid accusations of fraud, the Guardian can reveal.

The Department of Health and Social Care paid its supplier Purple Surgical upfront for 5m FFP3 respirator masks, which were supposed to have been flown into Birmingham international airport by June.

But Purple Surgical, a Hertfordshire-based company that has signed deals worth almost £250m with the DHSC since the pandemic began, has been unable to supply the masks.

Purple Surgical has filed papers in California alleging fraud by its own supplier, a company in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

The legal battle in San Francisco lays bare how the DHSC became embroiled in a global market for PPE reliant upon chains of suppliers and subcontractors, in this case stretching from the Caribbean to Hong Kong and South Korea.

Purple Surgical’s case in California is against Win Billion Investment Group, a BVI company that had promised to supply the respirators.

In April the government agreed a contract with Purple Surgical for £45m worth of 3M Aura 9332+ FFP3 masks, a medical-grade respirator, to be delivered in mid-May.

Purple Surgical then signed its own $27m (£21m) deal with Win Billion for 5m of the respirators. A chain of emails submitted as evidence to the California court by Purple Surgical reveals that the deal began to falter almost immediately.

In early June, Win Billion said it had received a first payment of 35% of the funds and that the goods were awaiting inspection. The next day, however, the company said documents relating to the order would be ready “within five days”.

After a further delay on 8 June, Purple Surgical’s chief executive, Robert Sharpe, warned Win Billion: “I MUST have this information by midday tomorrow as I have a call with the UK Govt at 1.00pm and they are expecting hard information.”

According to court documents Purple Surgical requested updates on the respirators throughout June, only to be advised of further delays.

One delay in early June was “due to some banking delay on the transfer for the down payment”, while another said Win Billion’s distributor had been affected by “a shortage of the raw materials and … overwhelming orders due to the Covid-19”.

Win Billion’s Hong Kong-based chief executive, Ric Wu, also provided Purple Surgical with emails purporting to show explanations for the delays sent from 3M to Win Billion’s distributor. The first, dated 18 June, read: “I am glad to inform you that your shipment to UK will be ready on the 25th this month and reach Birmingham airport before the 30th, we will forward you all the document once its available, again we sincerely apologise for the delay.”

In August Purple Surgical launched legal action against Win Billion, citing non-delivery of the masks. The company also claimed that, despite an agreement that the remaining 65% of the money would be held back until the masks had been inspected, it had since been informed that only $1m remained in the escrow account.

Jody Wong, the California lawyer hired as an escrow agent to transfer the money between the two companies in stages as the order progressed, denied any wrongdoing and said funds had only ever been disbursed from the account to secure production of the respirators. “To me it’s just a business transaction and they’re waiting for the goods,” he said.

He added he had not yet received any fee for his role. “I don’t know the reasons why it took so long,” he said. “I feel bad for everybody, because they should get their masks.”

Win Billion’s South Korean distributor denied involvement, though it subsequently claimed to have also been the victim of a fraud by yet another company.

3M said it had had no involvement in the transaction as described in Purple Surgical’s legal papers.

“References to 3M as part of the underlying transaction in the matter you described are entirely fraudulent,” said Jennifer Ehrlich, a spokesperson for the company. “None of the distributors and principals you mentioned have a relationship with 3M or are authorised distributors of 3M products.”

Ehrlich said more than 7,700 cases of fraud involving fake 3M PPE had been reported to the company during the pandemic. She said 3M had advised the British government in June that this particular order was unlikely to be legitimate.

Sharpe said Purple Surgical still intended to fulfil the DHSC’s order, but would repay the full value of the contract if unable to do so.

“We are deeply distressed by the suspected fraud that has been committed against Purple Surgical and, by extension, the NHS,” he said. He added that the company had fulfilled 95% of its UK government contracts despite the unprecedented pressures of the pandemic.


A DHSC spokesperson said: “We have been working tirelessly to deliver PPE to protect our health and social care staff throughout the pandemic, and proper due diligence is carried out for all government contracts and we take these checks extremely seriously.

“We cannot comment directly on individual allegations of fraud, but we take all allegations seriously and explore every available option to bring those who commit fraud to account.”

Win Billion has filed a motion for Purple Surgical’s case to be dismissed. However, the company’s lawyer said his client would formally deny the allegations should the case proceed. “Win Billion Investment Group Limited and Wu Yun Fai Rick [Ric Wu] deny any fraudulent intent at any time in this transaction,” he said.

BILL MORNEAU'S NEW JOB

OECD Announces Candidates For Next Secretary-General

Tuesday, 3 November 2020
Press Release: OECD

The OECD today issued an official list of candidates nominated by member countries for the position of Secretary-General of the Organisation. The OECD Council will select a candidate to succeed the current Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, for a five-year term that will begin on 1 June 2021.

The list of nominated candidates (in alphabetical order) is as follows:
Mathias Cormann (Australia)
Anna Diamantopoulou (Greece)
Vladimir Dlouhý (Czech Republic)
Philipp Hildebrand (Switzerland)
Kersti Kaljulaid (Estonia)
Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen (Denmark)
Michal Kurtyka (Poland)
Christopher Liddell (United States)
Cecilia Malmström (Sweden)
William Morneau (Canada)

In the coming weeks, the Chair of the Selection Committee, Dean of the OECD Council, Ambassador Christopher Sharrock, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, will invite each candidate to be interviewed by member countries at meetings of Heads of Delegations. Following the interviews, the Chair will carry out confidential consultations with individual members, in order to narrow the field of candidates and ultimately identify the candidate around whom consensus can be built for appointment as the Secretary-General.

Further details regarding the interview process will be announced in due course.


© Scoop Media

 

Biodiversity: Where The World Is Making Progress – And Where It’s Not

Friday, 2 October 2020, 5:46 am
Article: The Conversation

Biodiversity: where the world is making progress – and where it's not

Vlad61/Shutterstock

Tom Oliver, University of Reading

The future of biodiversity hangs in the balance. World leaders are gathering to review international targets and make new pledges for action to stem wildlife declines. Depending on whether you are a glass half-full or half-empty person, you’re likely to have different views on their progress so far.

More than 175 countries agreed to 20 targets under the banner of the Convention for Biological Diversity, which was signed in 1992. The most recent plan, published in 2010, was to halt the extinction of species and populations by 2020 to prevent the destruction of global ecosystems and to staunch the loss of genetic diversity – the variety within the DNA of species’ populations, which helps them adapt to a changing environment.

But the targets were missed. An optimist might say that’s because they were laudably ambitious, and we’re making good progress nonetheless. The protection of land particularly rich in biodiversity has increased from 29% to 44% in just a decade, which is a huge policy achievement. On the other hand, we failed to halt global biodiversity loss during a previous round of global targets ending in 2010 and, a decade later, we are still far behind where we need to be.

A recent UN report compiled detailed assessments of the world’s progress towards each of the 20 targets. It highlights some small victories, and where the greatest gulfs exist between present action and necessary ambition.

---

Read more:
How to reverse global wildlife declines by 2050

---

The good news

The international community has made progress on several goals. We have improved our global capacity to assess biodiversity trends, and funding for conservation roughly doubled over the previous decade to USD$78-91 billion annually.

There is now an international protocol governing the fair sharing of genetic resources discovered in nature, so they cannot be plundered by companies from rich countries. This gives countries added incentives to protect their biodiversity, which might lead to new medicines or technologies for use in food production.

Two of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss are habitat destruction and invasive species. Through scientific research and monitoring programmes, scientists are now better at identifying the pathways by which invasive species colonise vulnerable habitats. Protected areas have expanded across the globe too. Achim Steiner, leader of the UN Development Programme, stated that the world is on track to achieve protection of 17% of land and 10% of marine areas identified under the programme by the end of 2020.

All this has had a tangible effect. Up to four times as many birds and mammals likely would have become extinct in the past three decades without such actions.

California condors were saved from extinction by humans. There were just 27 left in 1989; today, there are nearly 500.
FRAYN/Shutterstock

The bad news

So far, so good. But all these successes are partial and ambiguous. Yes, we have increased funding for biodiversity, but this is still swamped by more than £500 billion in environmentally harmful subsidies, such as aid for the fossil fuel industry. Although we have identified more of the ways in which invasive species spread, there has been limited progress in actually controlling them. Though a significant area of the world is now designated as “protected”, management within these areas is still often inadequate.

What’s more, for many of the other targets, things have actually got worse. The loss and fragmentation of the world’s forests continues, depriving biodiversity of habitat and exacerbating climate change. Deforestation rates are only one-third lower in 2020 compared to 2010, and may be accelerating again in some areas.

Essential ecosystem services – such as the provision of clean water, soil for farming and pollinating insects – continue to deteriorate, affecting women, indigenous communities, and the poor and vulnerable more than others. We are still unable to even track changes in the genetic diversity of wild species, meaning we cannot assess these hidden changes in biodiversity which are important for the long-term resilience of a species.

The fundamental problem is that we have failed to address the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss. Targets for reducing pollution, habitat loss and climate change all show negative progress. We have achieved several easy wins, but the tougher challenges remain. Overcoming these will mean stopping the activities that are at the root of biodiversity loss.

Only drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect habitats will improve conditions for wildlife.
Aaron Kohr/Shutterstock

We need better regulation of harmful chemicals which pollute the environment. Of the over 100,000 chemicals used in Europe today, only a small fraction are thoroughly evaluated or regulated by authorities, despite many causing harm to health and the environment. We need strong trade policies that prevent the destruction of primary rainforest for products such as palm oil and soy. Perhaps most of all, we need radical action on climate change, which is expected to overtake other drivers to be the number one cause of biodiversity loss in coming years.

These systemic changes require action from states and industries. But we can also take action as citizens and consumers. We need fundamental changes in the way we live – how we invest our money, the food we eat and how we travel. Each of us, making internet orders at the click of a button, has hidden power to influence the state of the planet. What we choose to buy, or not to buy, can help decide whether wild species flourish across the globe.

If world leaders fail to regulate unsustainable markets, then we need to be even more savvy about potentially harmful connections to the natural world that lie behind our purchases. Perhaps then we can start to be both optimistic and realistic about the state of our planet’s biodiversity.

Tom Oliver, Professor of Applied Ecology, University of Reading

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

© Scoop Media

NZ ELECTION 2020

Four Year Term Self-Serving Power Grab By National & Labour

Thursday, 1 October 2020, 5:40 am
Press Release: Social Credit Party

LIKE ALBERTA THERE STILL IS A SOCIAL CREDIT PARTY IN NZ

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SOCIAL+CREDIT+

Suggestions by the two J’s on the Leader’s Debate that they both favour a four year parliamentary term are simply a self serving attempt to further entrench the two party dominance of New Zealand’s political scene.

This is a classic example of the two old parties working together in an effort to keep other parties out of the political game.

Just as in the 1992 Tamaki by-election when Labour turned its entire canvassing data over to National when polls showed that the Alliance was likely to take the formerly safe seat off National.

At National’s election night celebration at the Tamaki Yacht Club, Labour Leader Helen Clark and Labour’s Tamaki candidate Verna Smith were welcomed as “our friends from the Labour Party”.

They also both dragged their heels on a change from the First Past the Post electoral system to MMP, to maintain their grip on power, despite promising to hold a referendum on the issue.

Labour’s own history proves that a three year term is plenty long enough to make major changes to the country’s direction if there is the commitment to do so.

Elected in 1935 Labour’s greatest Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage, had nationalised the Reserve Bank, commenced building thousands of state houses, introduced a 40-hour working week, instituted a large public works programme, put in place the foundations of the Welfare State, and much more in its first three years.

The Fourth Labour government, under Finance Minister Roger Douglas, floated the New Zealand dollar, removed agricultural subsidies, introduced GST, corporatised state owned enterprises, established the Department of Conservation, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Womens Affairs and turned NZ into an anti-nuclear nation.

ROGER DOUGLAS GOVERNMENT / POLICIES HAD A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON PRIVATIZATION IN ALBERTA UNDER THE KLEIN CONSERVATIVES

The current government has achieved more in the last 7 months with its response to Covid-19 than in the rest of its three year term, but it has also trampled on individual rights and is moving to centralise control of education, health and local council assets.

We strongly oppose any attempt to extend the parliamentary term to four years and would work with other parties and the public to ensure further reductions in democracy are not allowed to take place.

© Scoop Media