Over 10 million displaced 

by climate disasters in six months: report


FILE PHOTO: A lone tree stands near a water trough in a drought-effected paddock located on the outskirts of Walgett, in New South Wales, Australia,

Wed, March 17, 2021

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - About 10.3 million people were displaced by climate change-induced events such as flooding and droughts in the last six months, the majority of them in Asia, a humanitarian organisation said on Wednesday.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said about 2.3 million others were displaced by conflict in the same period, indicating the vast majority of internal displacements are now triggered by climate change.

Though the figures cover only a six-month period from September 2020 to February 2021, they highlight an accelerating global trend of climate-related displacement, said Helen Brunt, Asia Pacific Migration and Displacement Coordinator for the IFRC.

"Things are getting worse as climate change aggravates existing factors like poverty, conflict, and political instability," Brunt said. "The compounded impact makes recovery longer and more difficult: people barely have time to recover and they're slammed with another disaster."

Some 60% of climate-IDPs (internally displaced persons) in the last six months were in Asia, according to IFRC's report.

McKinsey & Co consulting firm has said that Asia "stands out as being more exposed to physical climate risks than other parts of the world in the absence of adaptation and mitigation".

Statistics from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) show that on average 22.7 million people are displaced every year. The figure includes displacements caused by geophysical phenomenon such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but the vast majority are displaced by weather-related events.

Globally, 17.2 million people were displaced in 2018 and 24.9 million in 2019. Full-year figures are not yet available for 2020, but IDMC's mid-year report showed there were 9.8 million displacements because of natural disasters in the first half of last year.

More than 1 billion people are expected to face forced migration by 2050 due to conflict and ecological factors, a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace found last year. https://reut.rs/3cyvw3i

Ancient leaves preserved under a mile of Greenland's ice – and lost in a freezer for years – hold lessons about climate change


Paul Bierman, Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment, 

Professor of Geology and Natural Resources, University of Vermont

and 

Andrew Christ, Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Geology, 

University of Vermont

Mon, March 15, 2021

Remnants of ancient Greenland tundra were preserved in soil beneath the ice sheet.

Andrew Christ and Dorothy Peteet, CC BY-ND

In 1963, inside a covert U.S. military base in northern Greenland, a team of scientists began drilling down through the Greenland ice sheet. Piece by piece, they extracted an ice core 4 inches across and nearly a mile long. At the very end, they pulled up something else – 12 feet of frozen soil.

The ice told a story of Earth’s climate history. The frozen soil was examined, set aside and then forgotten.

Half a century later, scientists rediscovered that soil in a Danish freezer. It is now revealing its secrets.

Using lab techniques unimaginable in the 1960s when the core was drilled, we and an international team of fellow scientists were able to show that Greenland’s massive ice sheet had melted to the ground there within the past million years. Radiocarbon dating shows that it would have happened more than 50,000 years ago. It most likely happened during times when the climate was warm and sea level was high, possibly 400,000 years ago.

And there was more. As we explored the soil under a microscope, we were stunned to discover the remnants of a tundra ecosystem – twigs, leaves and moss. We were looking at northern Greenland as it existed the last time the region was ice-free. Our peer-reviewed study was published on March 15 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Engineers pull up a section of the 4,560-foot-long ice core at Camp Century in the 1960s. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers


With no ice sheet, sunlight would have warmed the soil enough for tundra vegetation to cover the landscape. The oceans around the globe would have been more than 10 feet higher, and maybe even 20 feet. The land on which Boston, London and Shanghai sit today would have been under the ocean waves.

All of this happened before humans began warming the Earth’s climate. The atmosphere at that time contained far less carbon dioxide than it does today, and it wasn’t rising as quickly. The ice core and the soil below are something of a Rosetta Stone for understanding how durable the Greenland ice sheet has been during past warm periods – and how quickly it might melt again as the climate heats up.

Secret military bases and Danish freezers

The story of the ice core begins during the Cold War with a military mission dubbed Project Iceworm. Starting around 1959, the U.S. Army hauled hundreds of soldiers, heavy equipment and even a nuclear reactor across the ice sheet in northwest Greenland and dug a base of tunnels inside the ice. They called it Camp Century.

It was part of a secret plan to hide nuclear weapons from the Soviets. The public knew it as an Arctic research laboratory. Walter Cronkite even paid a visit and filed a report.

Workers build the snow tunnels at the Camp Century research base in 1960. 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Camp Century didn’t last long. The snow and ice began slowly crushing the buildings inside the tunnels below, forcing the military to abandon it in 1966. During its short life, however, scientists were able to extract the ice core and begin analyzing Greenland’s climate history. As ice builds up year by year, it captures layers of volcanic ash and changes in precipitation over time, and it traps air bubbles that reveal the past composition of the atmosphere.

One of the original scientists, glaciologist Chester Langway, kept the core and soil samples frozen at the University at Buffalo for years, then he shipped them to a Danish archive in the 1990s, where the soil was soon forgotten.

A few years ago, our Danish colleagues found the soil samples in a box of glass cookie jars with faded labels: “Camp Century Sub-Ice.”

Geomorphologist Paul Bierman (right) and geochemist Joerg Schaefer of Columbia University examine the jars holding Camp Century sediment for the first time. They were in a Danish freezer set at -17 F. Paul Bierman, CC BY-ND

A surprise under the microscope

On a hot July day in 2019, two samples of soil arrived at our lab at the University of Vermont frozen solid. We began the painstaking process of splitting the precious few ounces of frozen mud and sand for different analyses.

First, we photographed the layering in the soil before it was lost forever. Then we chiseled off small bits to examine under the microscope. We melted the rest and saved the ancient water.

Then came the biggest surprise. While we were washing the soil, we spotted something floating in the rinse water. Paul grabbed a pipette and some filter paper, Drew grabbed tweezers and turned on the microscope. We were absolutely stunned as we looked down the eyepiece.

Staring back at us were leaves, twigs and mosses. This wasn’t just soil. This was an ancient ecosystem perfectly preserved in Greenland’s natural deep freeze.

Glacial geomorphologist Andrew Christ (right), with geology student Landon Williamson, holds up the first fossil twig spotted as they washed a sediment sample from Camp Century. Paul Bierman, CC BY-ND

Dating million-year-old moss

How old were these plants?

Over the last million years, Earth’s climate was punctuated by relatively short warm periods, typically lasting about 10,000 years, called interglacials, when there was less ice at the poles and sea level was higher. The Greenland ice sheet survived through all of human history during the Holocene, the present interglacial period of the last 12,000 years, and most of the interglacials in the last million years.

But our research shows that at least one of these interglacial periods was warm enough for a long enough period of time to melt large portions of the Greenland ice sheet, allowing a tundra ecosystem to emerge in northwestern Greenland.

We used two techniques to determine the age of the soil and the plants. First, we used clean room chemistry and a particle accelerator to count atoms that form in rocks and sediment when exposed to natural radiation that bombards Earth. Then, a colleague used an ultra-sensitive method for measuring light emitted from grains of sand to determine the last time they were exposed to sunlight.

Maps of Greenland Ice Sheet speed and bedrock elevation

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today is well beyond past levels determined from ice cores. On March 14, 2021, the CO2 level was about 417 ppm. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CC BY-NDMore

The million-year time frame is important. Previous work on another ice core, GISP2, extracted from central Greenland in the 1990s, showed that the ice had also been absent there within the last million years, perhaps about 400,000 years ago.

Lessons for a world facing rapid climate change

Losing the Greenland ice sheet would be catastrophic to humanity today. The melted ice would raise sea level by more than 20 feet. That would redraw coastlines worldwide.

About 40% of the global population lives within 60 miles of a coast, and 600 million people live within 30 feet of sea level. If warming continues, ice melt from Greenland and Antarctica will pour more water into the oceans. Communities will be forced to relocate, climate refugees will become more common, and costly infrastructure will be abandoned. Already, sea level rise has amplified flooding from coastal storms, causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage every year.

Tundra near the Greenland ice sheet today. Is this what Camp Century looked like before the ice came back sometime in the last million years? Paul Bierman, CC BY-ND

The story of Camp Century spans two critical moments in modern history. An Arctic military base built in response to the existential threat of nuclear war inadvertently led us to discover another threat from ice cores – the threat of sea level rise from human-caused climate change. Now, its legacy is helping scientists understand how the Earth responds to a changing climate.

This article was updated to correct the chart caption to 417 ppm.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Andrew Christ, University of Vermont and Paul Bierman, University of Vermont.

Read more:

Shrinking glaciers have created a new normal for Greenland’s ice sheet – consistent ice loss for the foreseeable future

The Arctic hasn’t been this warm for 3 million years – and that foreshadows big changes for the rest of the planet

Andrew Christ receives funding from the Gund Institute for Environment and the National Science Foundation.

Paul Bierman receives funding from the US National Science Foundation and UVM Gund Institute for Environment.

Guam delivered on its promise to gift 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene cookies after she falsely said the territory is a foreign country

Sarah Al-Arshani
Mon, March 15, 2021, 11:38 PM·2 min read

Guam representatives delivered on a promise to gift Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene cookies.

Guam's governor also offered to send her educational resources about the US territory.

They promised to give her cookies after she seemed to not know Guam was a US territory last month.


Guam Rep. Michael San Nicolas and members of the Guam National Guard delivered on a promise to gift Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene cookies after she claimed the territory was a foreign country on Monday.
-The Hill (@thehill) March 15, 2021

During the Conservative Political Action Conference, Greene seemed to not know where Guam was or that it was a US territory.

"I'm a regular person. And I wanted to take my regular-person, normal, everyday American values, which is, we love our country. We believe our hard-earned tax dollars should just go for America, not for what? China, Russia, the Middle East, Guam, whatever, wherever," she said in late February.

Last week, Nicholas promised to gift her cookies, and the office of Guam's governor, Lourdes Aflague Leon Guerrero, offered books on the history of the territory.

"Congresswoman Greene is a new member, and we will be paying a visit to her and delivering delicious Chamorro Chip Cookies as part of our ongoing outreach to new members to introduce them to our wonderful island of Guam," Nicholas told The Guam Daily Post.

On Monday, Nicholas delivered on that promise but the Congresswoman was not at her office when they visited, according to a video uploaded by The Hill.

They were met by an aide who thanked them.

"Thank you guys so much for all that you do. We really appreciate it. Thank you guys for keeping us safe," the aide said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Jared Kushner calls Israeli-Palestinian conflict a ‘real estate dispute’ in first comments since election

MR. KUSHNER IS A FAILED 

REAL ESTATE DEALER AND A

BANKRUPT NEWSPAPER OWNER

FROM NYC

Oliver O'Connell
Mon, March 15, 2021

Special adviser to the president Jared Kushner (L) and Ivanka Trump arrive to the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords on the South Lawn of the White House 15 September 2020 in Washington, DC ((Getty Images))More

Jared Kushner has claimed the world is witnessing the final stages of the Arab-Israeli conflict in his first published comments since the end of the Trump administration.

Mr Kushner, senior adviser to Donald Trump and married to the former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, played a prominent role in the Abraham Accord negotiations, an attempt to normalise relations between Israel and some Arab states.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Mr Kushner said: “We are witnessing the last vestiges of what has been known as the Arab-Israeli conflict,” claiming it had persisted for so long because of a “myth” that it could only be solved once the two sides had resolved their differences.


“That was never true,” he wrote. “The Abraham Accords exposed the conflict as nothing more than a real-estate dispute between Israelis and Palestinians that need not hold up Israel’s relations with the broader Arab world.


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House Democrats says they won’t co-operate with Republicans who made false election fraud claims


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Writing more broadly about US policy, Mr Kushner praised the Biden administration for making China a priority — a legacy, he claims of Donald Trump changing attitudes towards the country and its behaviour — but added it would be a mistake not to build on progress in the Middle East.

In addition to peace agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and Kosovo, Mr Kushner cites the elimination of the ISIS caliphate and the brokering of the end of the conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia as Trump administration successes.

He also noted that normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia is now within sight allowing for a united front to challenge Iran.

Mr Kushner writes that while many were troubled by the Biden team’s opening offer to work with Europe and rejoin the Iran deal, he saw it as a smart diplomatic move.

“The Biden administration called Iran’s bluff. It revealed to the Europeans that the [Iran deal] is dead and only a new framework can bring stability for the future. When Iran asked for a reward merely for initiating negotiations, President Biden did the right thing and refused,” said Kushner.

He argued that Iran is feigning strength and that America should be patient and insist that any deal include real nuclear inspections and an end to Iran’s funding of foreign militias.

Congratulating his father-in-law’s administration, and his own role in the negotiations between Israel and the Arab states, Mr Kushner argues that they have handed Joe Biden a success on which he can build upon.

“The table is set. If it is smart, the Biden administration will seize this historic opportunity to unleash the Middle East’s potential, keep America safe, and help the region turn the page on a generation of conflict and instability,” he wrote. “It is time to begin a new chapter of partnership, prosperity and peace.”

Opioid epidemic: Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers shouldn't get off without paying more

Maura Healey
Tue, March 16, 2021

Purdue Pharma, the criminal company that made billions off the opioid epidemic, has filed its plan to emerge from bankruptcy. But this is no ordinary bankruptcy. The harm inflicted by Purdue’s OxyContin business and its billionaire owners, the Sackler family, is so vast that communities across America are creditors in the case. Sometime soon, almost every city and state will be asked to decide whether to accept Purdue’s offer, or make Purdue amend its plan to do better.

They must do better. Together with Attorneys General from across the nation, I’m demanding that Purdue amend its plan and file a new one that holds the perpetrators accountable. Here’s why:

Purdue’s plan gives the Sacklers a free pass to keep billions they made by breaking the law.

Purdue is guilty

Purdue has admitted it committed felonies to sell OxyContin, including paying illegal kickbacks and defrauding the DEA. Now, Purdue wants the court to give the Sacklers immunity from lawsuits by states, cities and everyone they hurt in exchange for a “contribution” of $4.275 billion paid over 9 years: an amount that is too small and paid over so many years that the Sacklers will walk away richer than they are today. The Sacklers pocketed so many billions from OxyContin that they can sit back while their money makes money, with investment returns of hundreds of millions each year. Purdue wants to let the Sacklers buy immunity for less than those investment returns, so their OxyContin fortune will just keep growing.

How can anyone justify that? Purdue says the public should accept the Sacklers’ price because we need their money to fix the crisis the Sacklers caused. They want to use the disaster they created as leverage to buy immunity at a bargain price. That’s an insult to the survivors, advocates, families, nonprofits, cities, and states that have made countless sacrifices to respond to this crisis for decades. The public demands that lawbreakers be held accountable.

OxyContin pills on Feb. 19, 2012, in Montpelier, Vermont.

Purdue is still trying to cover up the facts.

The law requires a bankrupt company to disclose information that creditors need to make an informed judgment before a plan is approved. But Purdue says it will show the evidence to the public after the Sacklers get immunity. That’s backwards.

The nation deserves to know how Purdue and the Sacklers caused the opioid epidemic. My team uncovered the Sacklers’ illegal conduct. We worked with prosecutors from across the country to question the Sacklers and their accomplices under oath. But Purdue and the Sacklers claimed their testimony was confidential. That testimony should be released now, before anyone lets the Sacklers off the hook. And Purdue’s amended plan should require and fund a public repository of every document that investigators got from Purdue and the Sacklers in this case.

SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH, PRIVATE PROFIT, PUBLIC TAXED
Purdue wants the government to take over its OxyContin business.

To give the Sacklers a family legacy, Purdue proposed that the government take over the OxyContin business after the bankruptcy and run it as a public trust. That’s perverse. Massachusetts sued Purdue for killing our residents. We do not want to own an opioid company — least of all the company at the heart of this national tragedy. We want a prompt and orderly wind-down of this disgraced business.

Fight to hold Purdue responsible

Attorneys General, Senators, Representatives, advocates, doctors, and scholars have been crystal clear: A business that killed thousands of Americans should not be associated with government. As a coalition of advocates wrote: “For our government to prop up Purdue and give OxyContin a special public status is the opposite of justice.”

Here’s why this fight matters:

For more than 20 years, families have been calling for Purdue and the Sacklers to be held accountable. Those families are right.

Justice in this case matters to every person who has suffered in the opioid crisis, and it matters to me. I sued the Sacklers in order to enforce the law and deliver justice. Purdue asked the court to keep my lawsuit secret. My team fought back and revealed the results of our investigation to the world. Then, Purdue tried to get our suit dismissed. We defeated Purdue’s arguments, in a courtroom packed with families who had seen their loved ones injured or killed by Purdue’s drugs. So, the Sacklers put their company into bankruptcy, in a final ploy to avoid justice.

America divided: Why it's dangerous that public distrust in civic institutions is growing

Last year, Kathe Sackler testified before Congress and spelled out her lack of remorse. She said: “there’s nothing that I can find that I would have done differently.”

I’ll make it easy. Here’s what the Sacklers and Purdue should do differently: Pay up. Let the public see every document in this case. And keep the government out of the opioid business.

The people deserve justice, and it’s time to deliver it.

Maura Healey is the attorney general of Massachusetts and brought the first state suit against the Sackler family.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opioids: Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers need to be held responsible

OxyContin maker Purdue proposes

$10B plan to settle opioid lawsuits


Attorneys general in 23 states and Washington, D.C., have opposed Purdue's proposed settlement, arguing that it isn't sufficient punishment for a company that has profited so much from the opioid crisis. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

March 16 (UPI) -- Purdue Pharma, the company that makes the narcotic painkiller OxyContin, has proposed a $10 billion plan to exit bankruptcy -- which would also funnel billions of that money to fight the U.S. opioid crisis.

Purdue submitted its proposal on Monday night in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y. The Connecticut-based company filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and the strategy follows months of negotiations between the owning Sackler family and bankruptcy officials.

The exit plan is Purdue's official proposal to settle nearly 3,000 lawsuits from hospitals, state and local governments, Native American tribes and other parties.

"We're working toward a settlement that would deliver more than $10 billion in value and address the opioid crisis by, among other things, providing needed funds, as well as millions of doses of lifesaving opioid addiction treatment and overdose reversal medicines," the company wrote in a statement on its website.

RELATED Sackler cousins apologize for opioid crisis during tense House hearing

"The settlement is designed to speed the delivery of resources and vital medicines that communities can use to address and abate the opioid crisis."

Under the plan, Purdue would transfer 100% of its assets to a new company and see the Sacklers pay $4.275 billion into a bankruptcy estate. It would also make billions available to fight the opiate crisis via a National Opioid Abatement Trust.

The plan must be approved by most of Purdue's creditors and federal bankruptcy judge Robert Drain.

"Purdue has delivered a historic plan that can have a profoundly positive impact on public health by directing critically-needed resources to communities and individuals nationwide who have been affected by the opioid crisis," Purdue Chairman Steve Miller said in a statement.

Many parties involved in the lawsuits have supported the proposal. Nearly half of the state attorneys general in the United States, however, have opposed the settlement. The top officials in 23 states and Washington, D.C., responded that the proposal "falls short of the accountability that families and survivors deserve."

"The Sacklers became billionaires by causing a national tragedy. Now they're trying to get away with it," Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement.

"We're going to keep fighting for the accountability that families all across this country deserve."

Purdue began marketing OxyContin in the mid 1990s and the drug for years has been one of the most widely abused painkillers in the world.

In December, some members of the Sackler family appeared in Congress to testify about Purdue's role in the opioid crisis.

"I have asked myself over many years ... Is there anything that I could have done differently? Knowing what I knew [in the 1990s], not what I know now," Kathe Sackler told the House committee. "And I have to say that I can't."

"I want to express my family's deep sadness about the opioid crisis," added David Sackler, who was a member of Purdue's board for six years.

In November, Purdue agreed to pay more than $8 billion and formally pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges -- which include one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and two counts of conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The penalties were the largest ever imposed on a pharmaceutical company.

The Justice Department has said Purdue Pharma worsened the opioid crisis through its aggressive marketing of OxyContin and downplaying the risks of overdose and addiction. Purdue has made an estimated $35 billion in revenue from sales of the drug, which is a painkiller that releases a measured amount of oxycodone over time

THE REAL GREEN REVOLUTION
The Great Green Wall: A 5,000-mile living barrier to hold back the world's largest desert

The world's largest desert is growing. In the last century, the Sahara Desert expanded by more than 10%, now covering an area of more than 3.3 million square miles (8.6 million square kilometers) and spanning 11 countries in North Africa.

© Jane Hahn/Redux Koyly Alpha, Senegal- Assiatou Ba, part of the Women's Association of Koyly, pulls weeds from seedlings that will be planted in a parcel contributing the Great Green Wall Project in Koyly Alpha, Senegal on Friday, August 2, 2019. 

Two hundred women belong to the "Nanandiral Antent Koyly" (the Women's Association of Koyly) and care for tens of thousands of seedlings that will be planted over 5 hectares in the region. They are paid 55.000CFA per season and planted 71,650 seedlings this past season alone with a 42% survival rate. The Great Green Wall project is an $8 billion plan to plant drought resistant trees along 4,815 miles across the edge of the Sahara desert, an effort to combat the diminishing Sahel. Launched in 2007, the project not only hopes to combat decades of abuse and climate change related droughts, but to educate and employ those who are hardest hit.

The Sahel region, a semi-arid belt that acts as a buffer zone just south of the desert, is most affected. Water, already scarce, is becoming scarcer. Soil quality is deteriorating, and a lack of vegetation is leading to food insecurity. The UN estimates roughly 135 million people who depend on these degraded lands are at risk.

© Courtesy Make Waves As well as restoring land, the initiative hopes to provide employment and food security to local communities.

But an ambitious plan, launched by the African Union in 2007, could help to hold back the hot sands and protect the Sahel communities. Within the next decade, the Great Green Wall initiative hopes to restore 100 million hectares of land between Senegal in the west and Djibouti in the east, creating a 15-kilometer-wide (9 miles) and 8,000-kilometer-long (5,000 miles) mosaic of trees, vegetation, grasslands and plants

.

© Courtesy Make Waves Climate change could increase political instability in the already fragile Sahel region.

Having previously struggled with insufficient and unpredictable funding, the project received a major boost in January: $14 billion in new funding from France, the World Bank and other donors -- contributing nearly half of the $33 billion the UN estimates is needed to achieve the 2030 goal.

If completed in full, the wall will be more than three times the length of the Great Barrier Reef, currently the largest living structure on Earth.

Fresh shoots

Nine years away from its deadline, there is still a long way to go. So far, 4 million hectares of land has been restored -- just 4% of the overall goal -- though this rises to almost 20 million hectares when counting areas outside of the official Great Green Wall zones.

© Courtesy Make Waves Rather than a physical wall, the initiative aims to create a mosaic of trees, shrubs and grasses that will stretch across the entire continent.

Countries have tried a variety of conservation measures, such as reforestation, agroforestry, creating terraces, and dune fixing -- a technique that prevents the movement of sand long enough to let natural vegetation establish itself. They are also taking steps to protect water supplies, by drilling bore holes and building irrigation systems.

Ethiopia is reported to have restored the most so far, producing 5.5 billion plants and seedlings, and planting more than 150,000 hectares of reforested lands and 700,000 hectares of terraces -- which together make up an area more than five times the size of London.

"It took us more than a decade to set up the countries and all the strategies," says Elvis Paul Tangem, coordinator of the Great Green Wall initiative at the African Union Commission. "But now we have laid the groundwork, we have seen what has worked and what has not worked, and we are on the highway to achieve our objectives."

Among the biggest lessons learned is the importance of community collaboration, says Tangem. "We went back to the frontline communities and looked exactly at their needs and the indigenous knowledge and practices that have been going on for centuries," he says.

Community value

Sarah Toumi, a French-Tunisian environmentalist involved in the initiative's recent fundraising push, agrees that such an ambitious project will only be possible if local residents are fully behind it.

"It's very easy to plant a tree, but it's not easy to grow one," she tells CNN. "It's expensive in arid areas: you have to water it, you have to take care of it, you have to prevent animals from eating it."

Toumi speaks from her own experience after founding an organization called Acacias for All, which aims to restore land affected by desertification in Tunisia. The organization has planted more than 700,000 acacia trees in the region, she says.

Bringing communities into the initiative and demonstrating the value of restoration has been vital to the sustainability of the project. Toumi's organization helps to teach farmers how to harvest the leaves, fruits and gum of the plant so that they can make a living from it

In addition to the Great Green Wall's target for land restoration, there is also the goal to create 10 million jobs in rural areas. So far, 335,000 have been created and growing fruit and forest products has earned $90 million, according to the UN.

"It's about creating sustainable livelihoods for people ... so that they can live peacefully in their ecosystems and preserve their traditions and preserve their landscapes," says Toumi.

Promoting peace

As the population grows rapidly in the region, land restoration combined with job creation is becoming all the more urgent. Across the African continent, more than half of the 375 million young people entering the job market in the next 15 years will be living in rural areas.

If there is no job for someone in their community due to desertification and land degradation, they are likely to migrate -- which could trigger political instability across the world, says Monique Barbut, former executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and special envoy for biodiversity to the French President.

By involving 11 countries, the initiative could help to unite African leaders, she adds, "(bringing) life back to that region of the world, which will help us stabilize that part of Africa on political grounds."

Tangem agrees, noting "the strong link between natural resource management and political stability in the region." Once complete, the Great Green Wall could help provide a nature-based solution with a global impact.

South Korea's ruling party objects to 

cost-sharing deal for U.S. troops


South Korean Democratic Party lawmakers said they are not happy with a new defense-burden sharing deal with the United States after an agreement was reached earlier this month. File Photo by Yonhap

March 16 (UPI) -- South Korea is defending the terms reached in its cost-sharing deal for U.S. troops from critics in the ruling Democratic Party, who say they may not pass the legislation at the National Assembly, citing increasing costs that "unfairly" target the country, a key U.S. ally.

South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook said Tuesday the 13.9% increase in Seoul's share of the defense burden was acceptable and a hard-won deal, Newsis and Korea Economic Daily reported.

In 2019 and 2020, tensions peaked between Seoul and Washington amid Trump's demand Seoul pay nearly $5 billion annually for 28,500 U.S. troops. The new multi-year deal reached on March 7 with the Biden administration is for about $1 billion.

"While there are some disappointments, the agreement was reached by following principles and settled at a reasonable level than in the Trump era," Suh said at a meeting of the National Assembly's defense committee. "In our own way we made efforts while following principles. It was negotiations with a partner, and we also had to demonstrate the spirit of the alliance."

South Korean lawmakers, including Rep. Hong Young-pyo, said Tuesday at the meeting the cost increase, which is in line with Seoul's original offer to the former Trump administration, was "undesirable." Hong suggested he may not vote for the deal at the National Assembly.

Hong, who did not publicly raise objections against Trump's demands last year, said the U.S.-South Korea alliance should "no longer be referred to as a value alliance."

"How much has [South Korea] invested in the transition of wartime operational control including the [U.S.] headquarters in Pyeongtaek?" Hong said, referring to South Korea's shouldering of building costs of the largest U.S. overseas military base in 2018.
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"The National Assembly is not a rubber-stamp parliament."

Hong's colleagues in the Democratic Party aired grievances about increased payments, citing U.S. dealings with Japan for comparison.

Rep. Kim Min-ki said while South Korea's defense costs for U.S. troops have steadily increased, Japan has not been asked to undertake a greater financial burden.

In 2020 under pressure from the Trump administration South Korea said it could agree to a maximum 13% increase from the previous Special Measures Agreement signed a year earlier, according to The Korea Times last year.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are to arrive in Seoul on Wednesday.

upi.com/7082111

Sen. Whitehouse calls for review of FBI's 'fake' Kavanaugh investigation

DO YOU LIKE BEER SENATOR?

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the FBI's investigation into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, pictured, may have been "politically constrained and perhaps fake" in a letter to the Justice Department. File Photo by Andrew Harnik/UPI | License Photo

March 16 (UPI) -- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., on Tuesday called for a congressional review of the FBI's investigation into sexual assault and misconduct allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, saying the probe appears to have been "politically constrained and perhaps fake."

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Whitehouse asked for the Justice Department to support a Senate review of the FBI investigation process. He said the agency failed to follow through on leads related to the allegations and did not provide transparency about the information it received through a "tip line" set up to aid the investigation.

"If standard procedures were violated and the bureau conducted a fake investigation rather than a sincere, thorough and professional one, that in my view merits congressional oversight to understand how, why and at whose behest and with whose knowledge or connivance this was done," wrote Whitehouse.

Prior to being confirmed in a 50-48 vote in 2018, Kavanaugh faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate that he sexually assaulted her at a party when they were in high school.

Whitehouse said that while Kavanaugh disputed her accusations, Ford's testimony and other allegations "justified further investigation to seek corroborating or inconsistent evidence."

He said the FBI failed to interview Max Stier, the president of the Partnership for Public Service and a college classmate of Kavanaugh's, who offered corroborating evidence while members of Congress were made aware of allegations from witnesses who "tried in vain to reach the FBI on their own" but found no one willing to accept testimony.

"When members made inquiries we faced the same experience: the FBI had assigned no person to accept or gather evidence," he said.

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Whitehouse noted the FBI ultimately opened up a tip line to receive additional allegations or corroborating evidence but said Congress received "no explanation" of how or whether the allegations were processed and evaluated outside of 1-hour windows to review the materials gathered.

He added, however, that it did not appear the FBI had taken any measure to review the information that was sent through the tip line.

"This 'tip line' appears to have operated more like a garbage chute, with everything that came down the chute consigned without review to the figurative dumpster," he said.

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Whitehouse cited July 2019 testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray before the Senate judiciary committee in which he assured the FBI's investigation was consistent with the agency's practices but refused to answer further questions, accusing the FBI of "stonewalling" lawmakers.

"It cannot and should not be the policy of the FBI to not follow up on serious allegations of misconduct during background check investigations," he said.

Study: U.S. COVID-19 cases underestimated by half, antibody testing suggests


Twice as many people may have been infected with COVID-19 than previously estimated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a new study suggests. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

March 16 (UPI) -- Up to 16 million people in the United States may have had undiagnosed, asymptomatic COVID-19 as of September 2020 -- twice as many as previously estimated -- an analysis published Tuesday by JAMA Network Open reported.

Just under 7% of about 62,000 people in the United States with no symptoms of infection tested in the study had antibodies against the virus, the data showed.

Antibodies are cells produced by the immune system to fight off infection, and their presence in blood suggests that people either are battling the virus or were recently.

The nearly 16 million asymptomatic cases is more than twice the number of confirmed cases -- about 7.5 million -- reported in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the end of September.

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"As of September, the scope of the pandemic was about double the number of reported cases," study co-author Dr. Robert L. Stout told UPI in an email.

"The primary means of transmission of this virus is the asymptomatic population -- the patient [who] is unaware of their infectious status and is therefore at risk of unknowing spreading the virus," said Stout, a researcher with Lenexa, Kansas-based Clinical Reference Laboratory. The company that specializes in health testing for life insurance applicants.

Since the start of the pandemic last March, public health officials and researchers have suggested that the number of cases and deaths linked with the virus, both in the United States and globally, may be undercounted.

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This is due to the number of infected people who may experience no symptoms, believed to be up to 80% of those with the virus, experts say.

For this study, Stout and his colleagues tested 61,190 life insurance applicants for antibodies to the coronavirus in September, using blood samples collected as part of the application process.

None of the applicants reported having symptoms of COVID-19. Just under 4,100, or 6.7%, tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, and about 56% of them were male, researchers said.

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Most of those who tested positive for antibodies were in their late 30s or early 40s, which researchers say is significant given that younger people are believed to be at lower risk for serious illness, or symptoms, from COVID-19.

These people may be unknowingly driving spread of the virus, the researchers said.

"Quite simply ... they think that everything is fine and continue to go about their normal activities," Stout said.

"Some practice recommended CDC guidelines in public places while some may not," he said