NO TRANSPARECY
Canadian Museum of History's CEO resigns amid probe into allegations of workplace harassment

Daniel Leblanc CBC 4/8/2021

© Canadian Museum of History Mark O'Neill, CEO of the Canadian Museum of History, resigned from his position on Wednesday, just two months before his mandate was set to end. He had been at the centre of a workplace harassment investigation.

The CEO of the Canadian Museum of History, who was at the centre of a workplace harassment investigation, has resigned just two months before his official retirement date.

Mark O'Neill was the subject of a complaint last summer that prompted the investigation. Sources have told Radio-Canada that the complaint was related to O'Neill's management style and his temperament.

The investigation was finished in late January and submitted to Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault.

The federal government has not provided an update to the public on the situation at the museum or its response to the investigation.

O'Neill's departure was confirmed by the museum in a statement on Wednesday.

"The board of trustees of the Canadian Museum of History has received the resignation of museum director Mark O'Neill, effective April 6. A permanent director of the Canadian Museum of History is expected to be appointed soon," said Bill Walker, a spokesperson for the museum.

O'Neill was named president and CEO of the Museum of History in 2011. His second five-year mandate was due to end in June this year.

Investigation results never made public

Neither the museum nor O'Neill provided additional information on the circumstances surrounding his departure.

In a statement, O'Neill said the Canadian Museum of History and the Canadian War Museum are among Canada's "great cultural institutions."

"It was an honour to lead them, in service to our country. Over 33 years in the public service, I was privileged to work with some extraordinary people. Canadians should be grateful for their talent, commitment and effort," O'Neill said.

O'Neill went on sick leave shortly after the complaint was filed last summer.

The allegations were investigated by lawyer Michelle Flaherty, who finished her report into the matter in January. The museum's board of trustees provided the report to the government along with a single recommendation.

The report and the board's recommendation were never made public.

A spokesperson for Guilbeault's office said last month that legal considerations prevented it from providing further explanations to the public.

"The applicable law in such matters dictates adherence to a defined process and protects all parties involved by requiring its confidentiality," said Guilbeault's press secretary, Camille Gagné-Raynauld. "Our government intends to comply with all of its obligations, both in terms of complaint handling and the confidentiality of the process."

The federal government has recently dealt with allegations of harassment and toxic workplaces at Rideau Hall, which led to the resignation of now former governor general Julie Payette, as well as in the Canadian Armed Forces.

#UBI CANADA
Parliamentary budget officer says basic income program could halve poverty rate

OTTAWA — The pressure on the federal Liberal government to introduce a universal basic income ratcheted up a notch Wednesday with a report from the parliamentary budget officer that suggests it could cut poverty rates in Canada by almost half in one year

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The report landed just one day before the opening of a three-day virtual Liberal convention, where Liberal MPs and grassroots party members from east to west are pushing the idea in top priority policy resolutions.

However, the hefty price tag — estimated by budget officer Yves Giroux at $85 billion in 2021-22, rising to $93 billion in 2025-26 — is likely to reinforce Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's view that now is not the time to embark on a costly new program.

Giroux concluded that the federal government could almost halve poverty rates if it launched a basic income program similar to one previously studied in Ontario.

Although nationally the drop in poverty rates under such a measure would be about 49 per cent, the reductions would vary across provinces.

Giroux estimated that poverty rates could fall as much as 61.9 per cent in Manitoba or as little as 13.5 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador.

At its core, a basic or guaranteed income would provide a no-strings-attached minimum income to citizens.

Under the Ontario model, people would receive a benefit to bring their income about three-quarters of the way up to the poverty line, with payments rolled back by 50 cents for every dollar earned above that level.

That would amount to a $17,000-benefit for a single person or $24,000 for a couple,

The Ontario experiment, which federal officials monitored closely, was ended early with a change of government in Ontario.

The budget officer's report updated his projections from last summer about the cost of a basic income program and details the financial ripple effect across households and workers.



Gallery: The biggest tax havens in the world (Espresso)


Driving his work were questions from parliamentarians about the effects of a basic income program, which has picked up political traction over the last year as the COVID-19 pandemic put the economy into a tailspin. At its worst, the pandemic cost the country about three million jobs and reduced hours and incomes for 2.5 million more.

The grassroots of both the Liberal and New Democratic parties have put forward resolutions at their respective policy conventions this weekend to make a basic income a core policy.

Toronto Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who has championed the basic income idea within the governing party's caucus, acknowledged the government will likely balk at the stiff price tag when it's facing an unprecedented, pandemic-induced deficit approaching $400 billion.

But he said the budget officer's cost estimate doesn't factor in things like the cost of poverty or the savings that could be incurred by rolling some existing federal income supports, like the GST tax credit or the Canada Workers Benefit, into a basic income program. Provinces could also save money by reducing their social assistance programs.

"I do think we have to take this idea of reinventing our social safety net seriously," Erskine-Smith said.

"I think we have to learn the lessons of the pandemic," he added, noting that "our social safety net wasn't fit for purpose at a time when many Canadians needed it." He said many would have been left behind if the government had not hastily created the Canada Emergency Response Benefit to keep them afloat.

While he wants a universal basic income to be the long-term goal, Erskine-Smith said in the meantime he hopes the government will build towards that by increasing the Canada Child Benefit, the workers benefit and the guaranteed income supplement for seniors.

For the most part, Giroux estimated a basic income would increase disposable income for those at the bottom of the income scale by 17.5 per cent, or just over $4,500, while those higher up the earnings scale would see their incomes drop slightly.

The reason for the drop would be another caveat in the modelling, that the federal government would remove refundable and non-refundable tax credits aimed at fighting poverty.

Overall, Giroux's report said more than 6.4 million people would see their disposable income rise as a result of a basic income program, on average by 49.6 per cent, while 16.8 million more would have their net income fall by 5.4 per cent.

Giroux's report also said that the interaction between tax rates, elimination of credits and earnings as part of basic income would make some workers rethink taking on additional employment hours if it meant losing income through a combination of paying more taxes and receiving fewer benefit dollars.

He estimated that overall, employees would reduce their hours worked by 1.3 per cent nationally, which would cost federal coffers between $3 billion and $3.3 billion annually over a five-year stretch due to lost revenues.

Erskine-Smith said that relatively small impact should "allay that myth really about basic income to suggest that it's a disincentive to work."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2021.

Jordan Press and Joan Bryden, The Canadian

Biden restores $200m in US aid to Palestinians slashed by Trump

Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem 

THE GUARDIAN, 4/8/2021

The US will restore more than $200m in aid to Palestinians, reversing massive funding cuts under the Trump administration that left humanitarian groups scrambling to keep people from plunging into poverty

.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

“[We] plan to restart US economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people,” the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said in a statement.

The aid includes $75m in economic and development funds for the occupied West Bank and Gaza, which will provide food and clean water to Palestinians and help small businesses. A further $150m will be provided to UNRWA, a UN body that supports more than 5 million Palestinian refugees across the region.

After Donald Trump’s row with the Palestinian leadership, President Joe Biden has sought to restart Washington’s flailing efforts to push for a two-state resolution for the Israel-Palestinian crisis, and restoring the aid is part of that. In his statement, Blinken said US foreign assistance “serves important US interests and values”.© Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters A Palestinian aid worker prepares food supplies at a UNRWA distribution centre in Gaza.

“The United States is committed to advancing prosperity, security, and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians in tangible ways in the immediate term, which is important in its own right, but also as a means to advance towards a negotiated two-state solution,” he said.

Palestinian leaders and the UN welcomed the resumption of aid. Israel, however, criticised the decision to restore funds to UNRWA, a body it has long claimed is a bloated, flawed group.

“We believe that this UN agency for so-called refugees should not exist in its current format,” said Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan. Pro-Israel US lawmakers joined the country in opposition to the aid and said they would scrutinise it in Congress.

From 2018, Trump gradually cut virtually all US money to Palestinian aid projects after the Palestinian leadership accused him of being biased towards Israel and refused to talk. The US president accused Palestinians of lacking “appreciation or respect”.

The former president cancelled more than $200m in economic aid, including $25m earmarked for underfunded East Jerusalem hospitals that have suffered during the Covid-19 crisis. Trump’s cuts to UNRWA, which also serves Palestinian refugees in war-stricken Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, was described by the agency’s then head as “the biggest and most severe” funding crisis since the body was created in 1949. The US was previously UNRWA’s biggest donor.

Related: People in Gaza sifting through rubbish for food, UN head says

To outcry from aid workers, leaked emails suggested the move may have partly been a political tactic to weaken the Palestinian leadership. Those emails alleged that Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had argued that “ending the assistance outright could strengthen his negotiating hand” to push Palestinians to accept their blueprint for an Israeli-Palestinian deal.

The cuts were decried as catastrophic for Palestinians’ ability to provide basic healthcare, schooling and sanitation, including prominent Israeli establishment figures.

Last April, as the coronavirus pandemic hit, Trump’s government announced it would send money to Palestinians. The $5m one-off donation was roughly 1% of the amount Washington provided a year before Trump began slashing aid.

A bold fix for US international taxation of corporations
Philip G. Cohen, opinion contributor

THE HILL, 4/7/2021

Both the Biden administration, through its just announced "The Made in America Tax Plan," and several senators, including Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Mark Warner (D-VA), are trying to revamp the complicated, and to some extent, flawed changes made to the U.S. international tax system in 2017 by the so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

© Getty Images A bold fix for US international taxation of corporations

The target of this effort should be to encourage corporations to keep and create new good paying jobs in the United States, to avoid tax barriers to repatriation of offshore profits and to prevent U.S. taxation from making U.S. companies noncompetitive with their foreign rivals.

While the international tax changes made by the act may have addressed the latter two goals, it has failed at the first and presumably the most important objective, which Senator Wyden stated during a March Senate Finance Committee Hearing "is a need to make sure the best research and manufacturing is done in America."

To that end, I propose the U.S. should repeal the global intangible low taxed income provision altogether coupled with the removal of the participation exemption, both enacted as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Under the participation exemption, most dividends made from foreign subsidiaries to the U.S. parent company are entitled to a 100 percent dividends received deduction, thus permanently avoiding U.S. taxation.

These two features of the act should be replaced with a worldwide tax system, wherein profits of foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations are taxed to the corporate parent when they are earned, but coupled with both a U.S. corporate tax rate a few points lower than that for domestic profits as well as the reenactment of a credit for foreign income taxes paid by a foreign subsidiary. Thus, for example, if the normal U.S. corporate tax rate was increased from the current 21 percent rate to 28 percent (which the Biden administration is proposing) foreign earnings might be subject to a rate of about 22 percent.

The Biden administration has recommended modifying the global intangible low taxed income provision by increasing the tax rate U.S. corporations pay for certain amounts earned by their controlled foreign corporations. It also recommends modifying it to eliminate a taxpayer favorable reduction of what is deemed taxable to the U.S. multinational corporations under the provision.

Furthermore, the plan contains a country-by-country element to calculations to attempt to better capture profits in tax haven jurisdictions. There seems to be a fixation on rectifying the global intangible low taxed income provision rather than fundamentally revamping the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act methodology for addressing international taxation which includes doing away with the participation exemption.

When the global intangible low taxed income provision was originally enacted, it was supposed to prevent U.S. companies from migrating profits and jobs overseas. It has failed in this regard. During the March Senate Finance Committee Kimberly Clausing, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary, Tax Analysis, testified that the international tax system post-Tax Cuts and Jobs Act "definitely rewards offshoring" of jobs and profits. According to a recent report by the Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCX 16-21), the Tax Cut and Jobs Act reduced the average U.S. tax rate paid by the largest U.S. corporations by more than half.

While the Biden administration initiative would, if enacted, likely make the global intangible low taxed income provision somewhat more effective, renovating the provision is not the approach that should be undertaken. This is akin to trying to plug a leaking dyke when the architectural plans for the structure were improper.

The proposal I am making admittedly doesn't fully achieve all three targets in full. It would, however, prevent the lock-out effect existing before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that fostered a system wherein U.S. companies kept low taxed earnings of their foreign subsidiaries offshore. At the same time, this plan will keep U.S. companies somewhat competitive with their foreign rivals, with respect to tax, although not as good as what they enjoy today.

Foreign companies organized in countries with a territorial system exempting home countries from taxation of foreign subsidiary earnings will still be somewhat advantaged. Most importantly, adoption of this reform to our tax system will result in a sharply reduced incentive to shift operations outside the U.S.

Philip G. Cohen is a professor of Taxation, Pace University's Lubin School of Business & a retired vice president-Tax & General Tax Counsel at Unilever United States, Inc. The views expressed herein don't necessarily represent any organization to which he is or was associated with.

 

Volvo's VNR electric semi is about more than just the truck

Duration: 02:31 

4/7/2021

This electric Class-8 truck is part of an ambitious public-private partnership that wants to create an entire EV ecosystem.

 Roadshow

Your next superfood might come from a volcanic hot spring
Daniel Martins 

WEATHER NETWORK

4/7/2021

They're not just pretty to look at - the stygian landscapes on the edge of volcanic springs may be the source of the next big superfood, if some scientists have anything to say about it.

Play Video
From volcanic springs to your plate, is this the next superfood?

New research at Wageningen University in the Netherlands has identified a kind of nutrient-packed algae that often makes its home around hot volcanic springs, known as Galdieria.

Though the mineral-rich waters near the centre of volcanic springs are boiling or near-boiling, areas nearer the edges of such pools are cool enough to support abundant algae – in fact, they're often the source of the vivid reds, yellows and greens that make many springs, like the Grand Prismatic Spring of Yellowstone National Park, so iconic.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Grand Prismatic Spring. Image credit: Jim Peaco/National Park Service.

Using particular kinds of bacteria to boost nutrient intakes isn't anything new: the researchers say a similar organism, Spirulina, has been a popular food supplement for decades. However, cultivating such algae while retaining their nutritional value can be costly and inefficient.

In the case of this new algae, lead researcher Fabian Abiusi says the trick is growing it in a special kind of apparatus known as mixotrophic photobioreactor, which provides the algae with light as well as an organic substrate, in this case.

"In a mixotrophic photobioreactor, you can couple the production of oxygen via photosynthesis to the consumption of oxygen in the cell’s metabolism," Abiusi said in a release from the university. "Similarly, almost all of the carbon dioxide produced by the microalgae is used again by the photosynthesis, making this process almost carbon neutral, and very efficient. You have double productivity, without the need for electric energy for aeration or carbon dioxide.”

As it happens, Galdieria is rich in amino acids, the building blocks of protein: Abiusi says amino acids make up two thirds of its dry weight, a higher portion than in meat, eggs and dairy products.

"These amino acids are limited in plants, which is one of the reasons that it is difficult for us to derive well-balanced nutrition from a plant-based diet," Abiusi says.

Beyond easing the transition to a plant-based diet, Abiusi says he's hopeful Galdieria can be used to improve general health and make better use of organic waste.

Recycling is an outdated solution — it's time for a circular economy
DeLaine Mayer, opinion contributor 

THE HILL 4/7/2021

Plastic in America will continue invading our landfills, floating in our oceans, and contaminating our bodies as long as we are stuck in the 20th-century linear economic mindset of "take-make-waste." What the 21st-century needs is an intersectional approach to the plastics crisis. In March, the Break Free from Plastic Act of 2021 (BFFPA) was reintroduced to Congress, targeting the chemicals and plastics industries for their role in pollution and landfilling. The bill argues for increasing recycling rates, shifting financial responsibility for recycling and waste management systems to upstream producers, and bans an expanded list of petroleum-based, single-use plastic products. This is a good starting point, but these are linear solutions that still result in wasted resources and only incremental improvements to the economic models that are fueling the climate crisis. If we are to successfully address climate change, the BFFPA must push for circular economy principles that design out the concepts of waste and pollution entirely and advance regenerative natural systems instead.

© istock Recycling is an outdated solution — it's time for a circular economy

The BFFPA proposes to improve recycling rates and impose waste management fees to reduce plastic pollution. These solutions have a number of inherent issues. Currently, a mere 9 percent of plastics are recycled each year. Improving this rate, even doubling or tripling it, won't tackle an issue of the size we're facing: over 35 million tons of plastic are produced each year in the U.S., and over 31 million tons are landfilled. The bill also suggests we bolster American recycling by shifting the cost of recycling and downstream waste management programs from taxpayers to polluters via packaging fees. (The American Chemistry Council (ACC) suggested pooling private and taxpayer funding instead.) However, if 91 percent of plastics are landfilled, changing the funding stream isn't automatically going to ensure plastics actually end up in the recycling system.

Let's be clear: plastic is toxic, and the chemicals that are used to produce petroleum-based plastics are toxic, too. Plastics break down into microplastics; washing fabrics or products with plastic sheds these microplastics into our landfills and oceans -- we can't recapture that in recycling systems. Recycling means recirculating inherently toxic materials, giving them another chance to infect our food webs and bodies with potentially poisonous results. Just as critics question carbon sequestration technology as a solution for emissions - when what we need to do is stop emitters from emitting - we must question the chemicals and plastics industries' focus on recycling. Enforcing the belief that recycling is the only solution will drive plastics production and waste generation (thus increasing greenhouse gas emissions.) Plastic production from petroleum-based virgin resin production is a major contributor of C02, and improving downstream recycling doesn't clean up carbon-intense upstream production. In addition to upstream emissions, recycling ignores local air and water pollution, directly impacting low-income communities of color, in whose backyards these toxic industries exist.

The BFFPA needs to go beyond recycling and build the legislative framework for a true circular economy, enabling development of emerging waste-to-biomaterials technology to tackle the conjoined climate crises of plastic and food waste generation. Beyond a packaging fee, these industries need a real incentive to move away from carbon-intensive chemicals and packaging production to safe materials production. Subsidies for these industries need to be cut, taxes on emissions and local pollution instituted, and incentive programs passed to modern, clean industries instead.

An opportunity to build a circular economy exists within the BFFPA. In 2018, the U.S. generated 35.7 million tons of plastic, 12.2 percent of total municipal solid waste generation. That same year, 35.3 million tons of American food waste was landfilled, contributing to methane and carbon emissions. Technology exists that creates compostable biomaterials from food waste; we should be incentivizing these solutions to displace oil-based plastics in our supply chain and reduce organic waste landfilling. The BFFPA's proposed ban on certain single-use plastic (SUP) products would be better framed as enforcement that SUP products be made of certified degradable biomaterials. In this arena, Polyhydroxalkanoate (PHA), is emerging as both an upstream and downstream solution.

PHA is a compostable, non-toxic biomaterial with higher degradation rates than traditional bioplastics and has broad product development potential, making it a unique and valuable material in the global materials palette. The global PHA market size is estimated to nearly double from 2020 to 2025 to $98.5 million with a CAGR of 11.5 percent, as consumers and corporations demand sustainable plastic alternatives.

A number of emerging biomaterials companies are working towards this shared goal of displacing plastics and reducing pollution. Danimer Scientific, prior to investigation for possible securities laws violations as of March 25, seemed poised to lead the PHA market to commercial scale, noting their PHA was sold out through 2022 and expected to sell out again through 2024 once its greenfield facility was fully operational. Of the North American PHA producers though, only Full Cycle Bioplastics has a patented technology that produces PHA from existing organic waste streams, as compared to Danimer's canola- and soy-derived PHA, or NewLight Technologies' and Mango Materials' methane-derived PHA. By sourcing waste that would otherwise be landfilled, Full Cycle's waste-to-PHA reduces methane and carbon emissions via landfill avoidance on the front-end, and displaces oil-based plastics on the back-end.

The BFFPA is an opportunity to re-localize production and waste management, circularize the economy, and reimagine technological progress and economic solutions. As the BFFPA enters national debate, legislators and advocates should be clear to adjust definitions of "single use" to avoid bans on compostable or marine safe PHA-based materials while incentivizing the development of PHA production facilities. As the U.S. develops a green recovery plan, these nuances will be critical for the emerging domestic biomaterials industry. Companies in the PHA materials space are developing circular economies of scale that address landfilling, waste generation, and greenhouse gas emissions. By eradicating petroleum-based plastic from our supply chains, our communities, and the environment, the BFFPA can set the U.S. on the right path to a healthier, more sustainable economic recovery.

Delaine Mayer is a member of the New York University SPS Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab Advisory Board.

#BREXIT
Northern Ireland riots: Bus torched in more Belfast violence as British and Irish leaders call for calm

By Emmet Lyons and Amy Cassidy, CNN 

4/7/2021

Parts of Northern Ireland saw their sixth consecutive night of violence Wednesday as unionists and nationalists clashed with police and each other.

© Charles McQuillan/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images Rioters clash at the Peace Gate at the Springfield Road/Lanark Way interface on April 7, 2021 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Unrest first broke out last week amid rising tensions relating to Brexit and unionist anger over a decision by police not to prosecute leaders of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein for allegedly breaking coronavirus restrictions during the funeral of a former leading IRA figure.

In west Belfast on Wednesday, rioters clashed along the so-called "peace line" dividing predominantly unionist and nationalist communities, with police struggling to close a gate designed to separate the areas.

A bus was set on fire on Lanark Way near the junction with Shankill Road, police said. Photos and video from the scene showed youths on both sides of the gate throwing projectiles across, including petrol bombs.

In a statement, Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin condemned the violence and "attacks on police," adding the "only way forward is to address issues of concern through peaceful and democratic means."

"Now is the time for the two Governments and leaders on all sides to work together to defuse tensions and restore calm," Martin said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "deeply concerned by the scenes of violence" in Northern Ireland.

"The way to resolve differences is through dialogue, not violence or criminality," Johnson said on Twitter.

Tensions have been growing in Northern Ireland since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, creating the potential of a border between the British-ruled north and the Republican of Ireland in the south, which remains in the EU. The lack of a border had been seen as a key element of the post-1998 peace that followed three decades of sectarian violence.

Under the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, a de facto border was created in the Irish Sea, with goods entering Northern Ireland from mainland Britain subject to EU checks, a move which angered unionists, who have accused London of abandoning them.

Speaking to CNN, Democratic Unionist Party MP Sammy Wilson called for Johnson to "tear up the agreement which breaks up the United Kingdom, tear up the agreement which breaks up all the promises you made to the people of Northern Ireland."

Last month, the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), a grouping of unionist paramilitaries, said it was withdrawing its support for the Good Friday Agreement which ended the Troubles.

While the LCC said opposition would be peaceful, the letter said the groups would not rejoin "until our rights under the Agreement are restored and the (Brexit) protocol amended to ensure unfettered access for goods, services and citizens throughout the United Kingdom."

LCC chairman David Campbell recently said: "it's very easy for matters to spiral out of control, that's why it is essential for dialogue to take place."

Writing on Twitter late Wednesday, Mary Lou McDonald, an Irish lawmaker and leader of Sinn Fein, said: "a united voice for a halt to all violence and for the restoration of calm is the only acceptable stance from all political leaders. The attacks and intimidation must end."

Genome analysis reveals unknown ancient human migration in Europe
AFP 

Genetic sequencing of human remains dating back 45,000 years has revealed a previously unknown migration into Europe and showed intermixing with Neanderthals in that period was more common than previously thought.

© NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV

 Remains found in the Bacho Kiro cave in Bulgaria date back 45,000 years in some cases

The research is based on the analysis of several ancient human remains -- including a whole tooth and bone fragments -- found in a cave in Bulgaria last year.

Genetic sequencing found the remains came from individuals who were more closely linked to present-day populations in East Asia and the Americas than populations in Europe.

"This indicates that they belonged to a modern human migration into Europe that was not previously known from the genetic record," the research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, said.

It also "provides evidence that there was at least some continuity between the earliest modern humans in Europe and later people in Eurasia", the study added.

The findings "shifted our previous understanding of early human migrations into Europe", said Mateja Hajdinjak, an associate researcher at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who helped lead the research.

© Martin FROUZ

 Genetic analysis of a skull found in 1950 reveals it dates back at least 45,000 years

"It showed how even the earliest history of modern Europeans in Europe may have been tumultuous and involved population replacements," she told AFP.

One possibility raised by the findings is "a dispersal of human groups that then get replaced (by other groups) later on in West Eurasia, but continue living and contribute ancestry to the people in East Eurasia", she added.

The remains were discovered last year in the Bacho Kiro cave in Bulgaria and were hailed at the time as evidence that humans lived alongside Neanderthals in Europe significantly earlier than once thought.

© John SAEKI Graphic on locations where ancient human DNA and artifacts have been found

Genetic analysis also revealed that modern humans in Europe at that time mixed more with Neanderthals than was previously assumed.

All the "Bacho Kiro cave individuals have Neanderthal ancestors five-seven generations before they lived, suggesting that the admixture (mixing) between these first humans in Europe and Neanderthals was common," said Hajdinjak.

Previous evidence for early human-Neanderthal mixing in Europe came from a single individual called the Oase 1, dating back 40,000 years and found in Romania.

"Until now, we could not exclude it being a chance find," Hajdinjak said.

"Our study suggests... (it) must have been common."

- Human history 'lost in time' -

The findings were accompanied by separate research published Wednesday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution involving genome sequencing of samples from a skull found in the Czech Republic.

The skull was found in the Zlaty kun area in 1950, but its age has been the subject of debate and contradictory findings in the decades since.

Initial analysis suggested it was older than 30,000 years old, but radiocarbon dating gave an age closer to 15,000 years.

Genetic analysis now appears to have resolved the matter, suggesting an age of at least 45,000 years old, said Kay Prufer of the Max Planck Institute's department of archaeogenetics, who led the research.

"We make use of the fact that everyone who traces their ancestry back to the individuals that left Africa more than 50,000 years ago carries a bit of Neanderthal ancestry in their genomes," he told AFP.

These Neanderthal traces appear in short blocks in modern human genomes, and increasingly longer ones further back in human history.

"In older individuals, such as the 45,000-year-old Ust'-Ishim man from Siberia, these blocks are much longer," Prufer said.

"We find that the genome of the Zlaty kun woman has even longer blocks than those of the Ust'-Ishim man. This makes us confident that she lived at the same time, or even earlier."

Despite dating from around the same period as the Bacho Kiro remains, the Zlaty kun skull does not share genetic links to either modern Asian or European populations.

Prufer now hopes to study how the populations that produced the two sets of remains were related.

"We do not know who the first Europeans were that ventured into an unknown land," he said.

"By analysing their genomes, we are figuring out a part of our own history that has been lost in time."

sah/kaf/qan

Hundreds of dead dolphins and fish wash up on beaches in Ghana

Emmanuel Akinwotu West Africa correspondent 

THE GUARDIAN 

4/7/2021

Authorities in Ghana are investigating the deaths of hundreds of dolphins and fish that washed up on beaches in Ghana in recent days, as fears grow that contaminated fish have been sold to customers.

© Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

 The coastline in Accra, Ghana’a capital. The fisheries commission said it had taken laboratory samples of the animals and waters.

Dead sea species have littered beaches in Accra and near the capital’s shoreline since Friday. Officials said close to 100 dead dolphins had washed up on Axim beach, while videos posted on social media showed scores of varying species including eels and several fish species.

Ghana’s fisheries commission said it had taken laboratory samples of the animals and waters in recent days while the cause remained unknown.

An official at the commission, Dr Peter Zedah, told local media on Wednesday that investigations were ongoing but initial findings showed “environment” and “stress factors” had caused the deaths. Some of the fish studied “looked good, so it gives you the impression that maybe some environmental factors may have caused their death”, he said.  

Officials on Tuesday asked people who may have consumed the fish to come forward as part of their investigations, and Ghana’s minister of fisheries and aquaculture, Mavis Koomson, asked fishers in Accra “to cooperate with the Fisheries Commission and FDA as they investigate the incidents of dead fishes washing up on our shores”.



Fears have also emerged for the fate of some sea mammals, such as the Atlantic humpback dolphin, an endangered subspecies, along the coast of west Africa.

Workers from the OR Foundation, an NGO researching the impact of secondhand clothing waste on Ghana’s marine environment, had seen several fish on the beaches since Friday, with many still washing up dead on Tuesday evening.

“When we went yesterday there were still fish coming up on the shore,” said Liz Ricketts, the group’s co-founder. “Rays, lots of eels. In the morning we saw over 20 eels on one part of the beach. We walked the beach again in the evening and basically within a 100-metre spot, it was 82 fish and eels, mostly eel, and those were not there previously,” she said.

Poverty in fishing communities had led to many fishers making difficult decisions on whether to go out to sea in recent days, she said.

“These are artisanal fishing communities. They struggle again for many reasons, because of the [sea] waste and also because of the development happening in the area and how that impacts their livelihood,” Ricketts said. “And so you throw this on top of it and it’s not really an option for them not to go out at sea.

“We saw a couple of bags full of fish where people had clearly come to gather the fish and then changed their mind,” she added.

In the past year, similar mass dolphin deaths have occurred on other parts of Africa’s coastline.

In February, 111 dolphins were found dead in Mozambique, which officials said were probably killed by a low tide after a cyclone.

Last year, 52 dead dolphins were also found dead on the coast of Mauritius due to barotrauma, a condition caused by exposure to pressure changes resulting from sonar, explosions, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.