Aussie women cricketers get pay rise but 'big gap' remains

Australia cricket captain Meg Lanning painted a pay rise for women as vindication William WEST AFP

Issued on: 13/10/2021 - 

Sydney (AFP)

Australia's women cricketers will get a pay rise this year, administrators said, while admitting that wages will still fall well short of the men's game.

Retainers for Big Bash League players will increase about 14 percent, Cricket Australia said, and players in the domestic cricket league will see a 22 percent rise.

Australia captain Meg Lanning said it was vindication.

"When you properly invest in female sport the results follow and everyone benefits -– the game, the fans and the players," she said.

Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley said the increase was a step forward.

But he admitted that "there's still a gap, there's still a really big gap, as compared to their male counterparts".

In total, the new package is worth Aus$1.2 million (US$880,000).

The average retainer for men playing all formats is said to be about $200,000 per person not including salary.

"We want to keep striving to make it a really attractive and credible full-time professional career for our up-and-coming female cricketers," Hockley said.

The dispute about equal pay has come into focus in several sports.

But it has become a high-profile and bitter dispute in United States soccer, where the women's game is extremely popular.

The United States Soccer Federation last month said it had offered "identical" contracts to its men's and women's national teams as part of efforts to end the dispute.

Tennis Grand Slams are among the sports that now offer equal prize money for men and women.

© 2021 AFP

Under-pressure New Zealand sets out carbon-zero plan

New Zealand's new carbon-cutting climate plans have been slammed by environmental groups for not doing enough on emissions from agriculture 

William WEST AFP/File

Issued on: 13/10/2021 - 

Wellington (AFP)

New Zealand put forward a raft of carbon-cutting plans Wednesday, ranging from reduced car usage to making ebikes more accessible to meet its target of becoming carbon-zero by 2050.

But the proposals, which come ahead of the COP26 climate meeting of world leaders in Glasgow at the end of this month and are a forerunner to the government's emissions reduction plan next May, drew immediate criticism.

New Zealand is under pressure to do more to curb carbon emissions, which are increasing, but the discussion document made little mention of agriculture which contributes 48 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmental group Greenpeace said the document was "full of meaningless waffle" that did little to broach the conversation on reducing agricultural emissions.

Climate activists Generation Zero called it a "disgrace" that failed to meet "unambitious emissions budgets, completely ignores agriculture -- which makes up half of our emissions".

However, Climate Change Minister James Shaw said there was "an entire work program" dealing with the agricultural sector and "we didn't want to waste people's time by including things that have either already been consulted on or have other kind of engagement processes elsewhere."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the plans would reduce emissions and "can also create jobs and new opportunities for Kiwi businesses and our economy".

The document comes almost two years after New Zealand passed its Zero Carbon Act and a year after it declared a climate emergency.

Ardern has previously described action on climate change as a matter of "life or death" but has been called out by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who accused New Zealand of being "one of the world's worst performers" on emission increases.

"People believe Jacinda Ardern and people like that are climate leaders," Thunberg said last month.

"That just tells you how little people know about the climate crisis. Obviously, the emissions haven't fallen. It goes without saying that these people are not doing anything."

Many of the initiatives contained in the discussion document are from the Climate Change Commission report presented to the government earlier this year, including a 20 percent reduction in the use of cars by 2035.

In the same period, it wants to reduce emissions from transport fuels by 15 percent, make public transport cheaper and more accessible, and introduce incentives for those on low incomes to buy electric vehicles.

Other ideas include the development of low-emission fuels, such as bioenergy and hydrogen, eliminating the use of fossil gas, reducing food waste and encouraging composting.

© 2021 AFP

The AP Interview: James Shaw wants climate talks to deliver

By NICK PERRY

1 of 6

New Zealand's Climate Change Minister James Shaw speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The coronavirus pandemic has shown that humans are very good at responding to an immediate crisis, says Shaw. But when it comes to dealing with a slower-moving threat like climate change, he says, we're "terribly bad." (AP Photo/Sam James)


WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has shown that humans are very good at responding to an immediate crisis, says New Zealand’s Climate Change Minister James Shaw. But when it comes to dealing with a slower-moving threat like climate change, he says, we’re “terribly bad.”

Shaw spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday ahead of a key climate summit that starts in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct. 31. Many environmentalists say the U.N. summit, known as COP26, represents the world’s final chance to avert a climate catastrophe.

Shaw said that at Glasgow, he intends to announce a more ambitious target for New Zealand’s emissions reductions over the coming decade, and he hopes many other countries also aim higher.

He said a top priority will be to ensure that a promise made by wealthier nations to provide $100 billion a year to help poorer countries switch to cleaner energy is fulfilled.

“The developed world so far has not delivered on that promise,” Shaw said.

That has led to a breakdown in trust and a fraying of the consensus reached with the 2015 Paris Agreement, he said. It’s also giving an excuse to authoritarian regimes to disrupt international cooperation, he added.

Shaw said the pandemic had accelerated the transition to cleaner energy in some countries. But in many developing nations it had slowed improvements, he said, because they were struggling simply to cope with the massive financial and social impacts from the disease.

Shaw said he has doubts whether some of the positive environmental changes made by people during the pandemic — like working from home more and driving less — will endure.

“I think those are possibilities, but I also think human beings tend to revert to type,” Shaw said. “I know when we’re in the middle of it, it feels like the world has changed fundamentally.”

New Zealand’s government has promised the country will become carbon-neutral by 2050. But it has also faced criticism for talking a lot about climate change and not taking action quickly enough. Greenhouse gas emissions in the nation of 5 million reached an all-time high just before the pandemic hit.

Shaw said lawmakers have passed many new bills in recent years that will have a positive impact over time, including a ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration, tougher emissions standards for cars, a subsidy scheme for electric vehicles, and the establishment of a climate change commission.

“Is it enough? No. And the thing is, it never will be enough,” Shaw said. “We know that every single year, we are going to have to continue to take new and further actions on climate change because this is a multi-generational battle over the course of the next 30 years and beyond. It’s going to involve every part of our economy, every part of our society.”

Climate scientist James Renwick said he thinks New Zealand and other nations need to bring more urgency to their actions.

New Zealand's climate scientist James Renwick speaks in his office in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday Oct. 13, 2021. The coronavirus pandemic has shown that humans are very good at responding to an immediate crisis, says New Zealand's Climate Change Minister James Shaw. But when it comes to dealing with a slower-moving threat like climate change, he says, we're "terribly bad." Renwick said he thinks New Zealand and other nations need to bring more urgency to their actions. (AP Photo/Sam James)

“The countries of the world have talked about this issue for many years, but we still haven’t really seen the action, and time has got extremely short now,” said Renwick, a professor at the Victoria University of Wellington. “We’ve got to see emissions reduction starting immediately, 2022, and we have to get emissions down really fast in the next decade.”

Almost half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture — think millions of cows burping methane gas — in an economy that relies on exporting food. Many environmentalists say farmers are essentially getting a free pass from lawmakers.

Shaw said farmers will be subject to new emissions rules that will come into effect by 2025, and that many are finding innovative ways to reduce their carbon footprints.

He said an important part of his trip to Glasgow will be to stand alongside colleagues from low-lying Pacific islands who are already feeling extensive effects from climate change through more severe cyclones and rising sea levels.

He said the Cook Islands, for instance, spends about a quarter of its national budget on mitigating the effects of climate change.

Shaw acknowledges the irony that thousands of people from around the world will be burning many tons of fossil fuels to fly to Glasgow for the talks.

“Unfortunately, it’s the only way that we can practically get there and proactively participate,” Shaw said.

Renwick said that aspect didn’t bother him too much.

“We all live in the world we live in, the one that’s been created over the last century or more,” Renwick said. “I think it’s just the way it is. You have to burn a bit of fossil fuel to work out how to stop doing that.”

COMMON LAW VS CHURCH LAW

Child abuse scandal: France’s top bishop acknowledges primacy of law over confession secrecy

Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Bishops' Conference of France (CEF), had been swiftly rebuked for saying confessional secrecy trumps the law in sex abuse cases. © Thomas Coex, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES
Issued on: 13/10/202

France's top bishop said on Tuesday that the secrecy of the confession should not take precedence over French laws on sex crimes against children, reversing his previous position after he was summoned by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

Following publication of a damning report about sexual abuse of children by the clergy, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, who is archbishop of Reims and head of the Bishops' Conference of France, said in a radio interview last week that the rule of secrecy would prevent a priest from reporting sex crimes against children that were revealed during Catholic confession.

Under French law, anyone who is aware of a sex crime against a minor is obliged to report it to the authorities and risks heavy fines and imprisonment for failing to do so.

After meeting Darmanin on Tuesday, de Moulins-Beaufort said in a statement that the confession rite must comply with the need to protect children.

He also asked for forgiveness from people offended by what he had said during his interview last week.

>> How and when will French Church compensate victims of ‘systemic’ child abuse?

In the Catholic religion, confession is a rite during which the faithful acknowledge their sins to a priest and seek forgiveness from God. It is usually performed anonymously in a confession booth, behind a screen, so that the priest can hear but not see the penitent.

Darmanin also told lawmakers on Tuesday that he had reaffirmed the primacy of French laws during his meeting with de Moulins-Beaufort.

He said the confessional secrecy in the Catholic church could not be used as a justification for not denouncing sexual crimes against children.

The French Catholic Church has had an estimated 3,000 paedophiles in its ranks over the past 70 years, the head of an independent commission investigating the sex abuse scandal said in an interview published on Oct. 3.

The scandal in the French Church was the latest to hit the Roman Catholic Church, which has been rocked by sexual abuse violations around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.

(REUTERS)

World's oldest white rhino (IN CAPTIVITY) dies in Italian zoo aged 54

Issued on: 13/10/2021 -

Toby was a southern white rhino -- only one of five rhino species that are not considered endangered - Parco Natura Viva/AFP

Rome (AFP)

Toby, the world's oldest white rhino, has died at the age of 54 in a zoo in northern Italy, a spokeswoman for the establishment said Tuesday.

"Nonno Toby" (Grandpa Toby) passed away on October 6, Elisa Livia Pennacchioni of the Parco Natura Viva, a zoo near the northern city of Verona, told AFP.

"He collapsed on the floor on the way back to his nighttime shelter, and after about half an hour, his heart stopped," she said.

STUFFED FOR POSTERITY

Toby will be embalmed and put on display at the MuSe science museum in Trento, where he will join Blanco, a white lion from the zoo who died five years ago, Pennacchioni said.

White rhinos normally live up to 40 years when held in captivity, and up to 30 years in the wild, she said.

Toby's death, which follows the passing of his female partner Sugar in 2012, leaves the Parco Natura Viva with one remaining white rhino: Benno, aged 39.

However, there are only two examples left of the northern white rhino subspecies who live in Kenya, which are watched round-the-clock by armed guards, the environmental group says.

© 2021 AFP

Colombia to leave 'Havana Syndrome' embassy probe to US

Colombian President Ivan Duque delivers a speech at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington on October 11, 2021, during a three-day official visit to the United States Handout COLOMBIA PRESIDENCY/AFP/File

Issued on: 13/10/2021 

New York (AFP)

Colombian President Ivan Duque said Tuesday that his government is aware of cases of so-called "Havana Syndrome" at the US Embassy in Bogota, but is leaving the investigation to Washington.

At least five US families associated with the embassy in Colombia have come down with symptoms associated with the mysterious affliction, which include headaches, nausea and possible brain damage, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"Of course we have knowledge of this situation but I want to leave it to the US authorities, who are doing their own investigation, because it is about their own personnel," Duque told reporters in New York during an official US visit in which he has also visited Washington.

The Colombia cases are only the latest of dozens of instances of "Havana Syndrome" experienced by US diplomats and intelligence officials since 2016 -- first in Cuba then in China, Germany, Australia, Taiwan and the US capital.

US President Joe Biden on Friday signed a law providing financial support for victims of the mysterious illness.

The Havana Act provides financial compensation for members of the State Department and CIA who suffer brain injury from what officials suspect may be directed microwave attacks.

The cause of the illnesses has not been fully diagnosed and the identity of the attacker, if there is one, has not been revealed.

The Cuban government investigated the matter and has repeatedly rejected US statements on the matter as disinformation.

The US Embassy in Bogota, one of the largest in the world, includes a strong contingent of agents working in both intelligence and counter-narcotics operations, in addition to career diplomats and personnel.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to visit the country on October 20.

© 2021 AFP

Biden Continues To Harass Cuba With The 'Havana Syndrome'


Citizens reject the U.S. blockade against Cuba, Washington, U.S., July 25

Photo: Twitter

Published 8 October 2021

The U.S. State Department still cannot clarify the reasons for this syndrome, which the international scientific community describes as unbelievable.

On Friday, President Joe Biden signed a law to support U.S. officials suffering from the so-called “Havana Syndrome,” which was allegedly provoked by "sonic attacks" perpetrated against the U.S. embassy in the Cuban capital from November 2016 to February 2017.

The law authorizes the U.S. State Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to give more financial support to the victims of these "attacks," which have allegedly caused migraines, nausea, memory lapses, and hearing loss.

The U.S. State Department still cannot clarify the reasons for the Havana syndrome, which the international scientific community describes as unbelievable. Germany’s Dortmund University physicist Jurgen Altmann told The New York Times that he did not know of any acoustic effects that could cause concussion symptoms.

"There is no way that an acoustic device causes hearing damage using inaudible sounds. You can’t stimulate the inner ear in a way that could cause damage," Andrew Oxenham, psychologist of the Minnesota University Hearing Cognition and Perception Laboratory, also told to Buzz Feed News.

After the U.S. embassy reported the "attacks" in 2017, the Cuban government appointed a committee of police and scientific experts to investigate the case. It also authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct its investigation in Cuba with complete freedom. Both investigations concluded that there was no evidence to demonstrate any attack and that such symptoms could not be attributed to a common cause.

Despite this, U.S. President Donald Trump (2017-2021) accused the Cuban government of being responsible for the alleged attacks, which he used as a pretext to shut down consular services in Havana, reduce the presence of Cuban diplomats in Washington, and issue travel alerts to this Caribbean country.

During his electoral campaign, Biden promised to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba and remove many of the Trump's sanctions. Far from fulfilling his promise, he sanctioned Cuba’s National Revolutionary Police (PNR) and two of its leaders for containing the U.S.-backed destabilization attempts on July 11.

IT'S CRICKETS!

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/10/havana-syndrome-or-case-for-eliminating.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/10/its-crickets-germany-investigates.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/10/a-declassified-2018-state-dept.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/09/first-declassified-911-document.html

RIGHT WING REACTIONARIES

Italian police arrest far-right party officials after anti-vax riot

EURACTIV.com with Reuters

Oct 10, 2021

Protesters attend during a protest against the Green Pass in Popolo square, Rome, Italy, 9 October 2021. [EPA-EFE/MASSIMO PERCOSSI]

Italian police said on Sunday (10 October) they had arrested 12 people, including top officials of the extreme right-wing party Forza Nuova, following clashes in Rome against a government drive to make the COVID-19 “Green Pass” mandatory for all workers.

Thousands of people took to the streets of the Italian capital on Saturday, with many chanting “freedom, freedom” as some attempted to break past police in riot gear deployed to guard access to Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office.

A separate group smashed into the headquarters of Italy’s main CGIL trade union.

Draghi introduced the pass – a digital or paper certificate confirming its holder has received at least one vaccine dose, has tested negative or recently recovered from the virus – in the summer to try to prevent infections and encourage people to get vaccinated.

It was initially needed to enter many cultural and leisure venues and its scope has gradually been widened. Last month, the month the government made it compulsory for all workers.

Tourists caught short as Italy ushers in Covid 'green pass'

“Do you have your green pass?” Visitors across Italy were being asked the question on Friday as new coronavirus rules for museums and indoor dining came into force — with those answering ‘no’ left frustrated.

Under the green pass system for workers, accepted by unions and employers, any worker who fails to present a valid health certificate from 15 October will be suspended with no pay, but cannot be sacked.

More than 80% of all Italians over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated.

NEW ZEALAND | Crime

Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki makes first court appearance

11 Oct, 2021

Controversial Destiny Church founder Brian Tamaki made his first appearance at Auckland District Court for charges he violated Auckland's Covid-19 restrictions by attending and helping to organise a large-scale lockdown protest.

By: Craig Kapitan
Senior Multimedia Journalist, NZ Heraldcraig.kapitan@nzme.co.nz

One condition was that Tamaki and co-defendant Paul Craig Thompson not "organise or attend any protests in breach of any Covid-19 level requirement", while another was that they not "use the internet for the purpose of organising, attending or encouraging non-compliance with the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act 2020".

But within hours of the hearing, the Destiny Church founder issued a statement on social media that appeared to push the boundaries of what is allowed - promoting a follow-up protest at the same spot this coming weekend.

"Our Prime Minister has told us it's safe to picnic, therefore I will be attending a picnic with my family at the Auckland Domain on this same Saturday with my bubble, adhering to the current Covid-19 restrictions, wearing my mask, but also at the same time exercising my right to peacefully protest," he said. "I am not organising this Families Freedom picnic, I will leave that to The Freedoms & Rights Coalition team who are quite capable."

Participants at the anti-lockdown rally. Photo / Dean Purcell

During the Auckland District Court hearing - which Tamaki, 63, and fellow Destiny Church member Thompson, 57, attended via audio-video link due to the courthouse's pandemic precautions - both men pleaded not guilty to the charges.

If convicted, they could each face up to six months' prison and a fine of up to $4000.

In his statement after the hearing court, Tamaki said he believes Judge Brooke Gibson "agreed that we have a right to protest as long as we do not breach current Covid-19 alert level restrictions".

Most of the roughly 30-minute hearing cannot be reported due to suppression requirements of the Bail Act, but the judge did briefly mention the defence perspective in open court - without taking sides.

Brian Tamaki attends a lockdown protest at Auckland Domain. Photo / Dean Purcell

"The defence is that the gathering organised at the outdoor place was permitted within the current Covid-19 alert level requirements...and accordingly the matter will have to proceed to a judge-alone trial in that respect," Judge Gibson said.

It has been estimated between 1000 and 2000 people gathered at Auckland Domain on October 2 - despite pleas from Government and city officials to call it off and avoid what was feared could become a super-spreader event.

Under alert level 3 restrictions at the time of the previous event, most non-essential gatherings that involved the mixing of bubbles were banned. Weddings and funerals were notable exceptions to the rule, but for groups of no more than 10 people.

Level 3 lockdown rules have since eased in Auckland to allow for two families at a time to mix bubbles for outdoor meet-ups, but with continued social distancing and no more than 10 people per gathering.

Tamaki met with police before the previous protest. A police spokesperson said after the event took place that they were disappointed by the large numbers, and that "organisers did not follow through on undertakings they had given police about how the event would be managed".

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had characterised the event as a "slap in the face" for all Aucklanders who had been following lockdown rules, while Auckland Mayor Phil Goff characterised the gathering as a "kick in the guts".

Over 150,000 people signed an online petition calling for the church leader to be charged.

Tamaki was represented during his brief court appearance by Ron Mansfield, QC. Thompson - listed online as an official with the Freedoms and Rights Coalition, which has taken credit for the protests - was represented by lawyer Sue Grey, a former New Zealand Outdoors Party candidate and prominent anti-vaccination advocate.

There isn't expected to be another hearing for the charges until January, and both defendants have been excused from attending.

Mansfield told the Herald after the hearing that his client - who he described as pro-choice, not anti-vax - doesn't believe he ever violated the law. Tamaki also doesn't accept that the gathering itself was unlawful, he said.


"Mr Tamaki doesn't accept that he's encouraged non-compliance," he said, explaining that masks and hand sanitiser were handed out at Auckland Domain.

Bikers arriving for the anti-lockdown rally. Photo / Dean Purcell

Attendees were encouraged at least seven times during the protest to remain socially distanced and in their bubbles, Mansfield said, adding that his client wore a mask except when on the podium, addressing the crowd.

In his post-hearing statement, Tamaki predicted his "landmark case" would help challenge what he described as "excessive state control".

"This is the first step in the much bigger battle at hand here," he said.

"...This government has completely overreached with their excessive power, and it is time that they are made accountable for the social carnage they have inflicted on the New Zealand public. It is time this government removes all lockdowns, limits and restrictions."

Tamaki also predicted that his case will help strengthen the NZ Bill of Rights 1990 "so no further laws passed by this government can override our freedoms and rights".

Brian Tamaki says people should be thanking him and his supporters for the anti-lockdown protest. Photo / Dean Purcell

"This government has attempted to use a 'state of national emergency' to justify limiting our rights and freedoms under the NZ Bill of Rights 1990," he said in his statement. "Can the government please explain how this flu-like virus shows 'extreme impacts on public health' where there is a survival rate of over 99%?

"How does this proportionately justify limiting the entire nation's freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of movement, freedom of discrimination and the right to refuse to undergo medical treatment?"

Ardern on Monday extended Auckland's alert level 3 restrictions for another week, as cases continue to rise.

Health officials and academics have warned that a sudden abandonment of Covid-19 restrictions while the Delta variant is still circulating in New Zealand could cause the nation's already stressed ICU capacity to become overwhelmed, as has been the case in other countries over the course of the pandemic.

Director-general of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told the AM Show today that hospitals can cope with the current rise in case numbers. He estimated that about 10 per cent of cases will require hospital care and about 1 to 2 per cent ICU or HDU care.

But Covid-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank said that loosening current restrictions "could easily cause cases to spiral out of control".


The solution, both experts have said, will have to be increasing New Zealand's vaccination rate.

Keep Your Eyes on Afghanistan’s ISIS-K

The Taliban’s victory was local. ISIS still wants the world.

In this photo from July 2017, a boy walks through buildings damaged during fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - Khorasan, or ISIS-K, in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. GETTY IMAGES / ANDREW RENNEISEN


BY JASON M. BLAZAKIS
PROFESSOR, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
OCTOBER 12, 2021 

The terrorist group that calls itself the Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, provided one of the last searing images of the United States’ 20-year counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan when two of its suicide bombers killed thirteen U.S. troops at Kabul’s international airport, the deadliest day for U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan since 2011.

But with that attack, ISIS also meant to demonstrate that the Taliban were unfit to protect Afghanistan. Instead, ISIS’s attack hastened the final U.S. troop withdrawal from Kabul, allowing the Taliban to finalize its fait accompli takeover of Afghanistan. Now, jihadists of all stripes are rejuvenated by the Taliban’s victory, but with one notable exception: ISIS. The group that once was able to take half of Iraq and Syria still lurks with designs against the Taliban and the world. That’s why the United States should not discount ISIS-K’s threat in Afghanistan and beyond.

The Islamic State needed Afghanistan’s chaos. It has not regrouped since the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019 and the loss of its territorial caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Al-Qaeda also has been a shell of its former self, even long before U.S. troops killed Osama bin Laden. In fact, terrorist attacks worldwide in 2020 markedly decreased. And in Afghanistan, ISIS-K was competing directly with al-Qaeda for dwindling fighters and funding there, amid thousands of U.S. and NATO troops. The Taliban’s victory provides air to jihadists who have been suffocating, strangled by the world’s counterterrorism initiatives—but which organizations will most benefit?

Before Sept. 11, 2001, the Taliban provided al-Qaeda sanctuary and the groups remain bonded. Al-Qaeda hasn’t given up on striking what it has called the “far-enemy”, the United States and its allies. Taliban control over Afghanistan will provide al-Qaeda the ability to heal, lick its wounds, and plan. Afghanistan will become a safe haven that will allow al-Qaeda to amass new recruits, raise finance, and plan external operations. The al-Qaeda resurgence will likely take time, but researchers report that foreign fighters are relocating to Afghanistan, on top of the approximately 10,000 foreign terrorist fighters already there, according to a United Nations report in June. That number, in my estimation, will rise significantly and when it does Afghanistan will become a playground for those fighters, not unlike what the world witnessed when ISIS peaked in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS-K stands to benefit from the flow of foreign fighters, but not to the extent of al-Qaeda, which is now aligned with the ruling Taliban. Recall ISIS-K was formed in 2014 from disaffected members of the Afghan Taliban, Pakistan Taliban, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, amongst other groups. ISIS-K became a “province” of ISIS in 2015 when al-Baghdadi accepted an oath of allegiance from ISIS-K’s leadership. Not long after, my old office at the State Department led the effort to declare ISIS-K a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Related articles
Who Is ISIS-K?

Like its parent, ISIS-K quickly became known for its indiscriminate brutality, attacking religious minorities, government officials, and those who resisted the group’s austere form of Islam. Totalitarian in nature, ISIS-K members would kill anybody that would not accede to the group’s desire to control all aspects of an individual’s social, political, and religious life. As ISIS-K’s followers slaughtered innocents from 2016-2020, they would use complex attacks, often combining suicide bombings and small-arms, to wreak havoc. In 2020, ISIS-K attacked a maternity ward in a Shiite neighborhood of Kabul, killing more than 20 women and newborns.

ISIS-K also believes that al-Qaeda and the Taliban are too locally focused and disinterested in establishing a global caliphate. In 2015, Al-Qaeda’s former leader Ayman al-Zawahiri chastised ISIS’s al-Baghdadi for anointing himself caliph of the self-declared Islamic State. Al-Qaeda was always opposed to creating a global caliphate too quickly, citing the need to govern successfully by tending to the masses. ISIS instead bet on its ability to metastasize globally and for a time eclipsed the already-diminished al-Qaeda within jihadist circles. In Afghanistan, though, al-Qaeda’s leaders have pledged their allegiance to the Taliban.

With the U.S. evacuation of all diplomatic and military personnel, and most U.S. civilians, from Afghanistan, Americans should resist the inclination to ignore the battle between the Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS-K triumvirate of terror. The threat posed to U.S. interests by ISIS-K outside of the Af/Pak region has been discounted long enough. Most recently, event Trump administration officials dismissed ISIS-K as a threat. While I agree that al-Qaeda represents a more significant threat to U.S. interests, I disagree with experts who disregard ISIS-K as a threat beyond the contours of Central and South Asia. Theirs is a failure of imagination.

I still recall vividly a failed terrorist attack in Times Square by Faisal Shahzad in 2010. Shahzad received training and financial sponsorship from the Pakistan Taliban, a group that many in government believed, including me, was inwardly focused. In 2014, ISIS-K would poach members from that same group. Later, in 2016 and in 2018, U.S. citizens attempted to provide material support to ISIS-K. They are examples of ISIS-K’s reach far beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Jason M. Blazakis is a professor of practice at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center. Between 2008-2018 he was the office director at the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, responsible for designating Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Doctor Who Revealed Flint Lead Crisis Calls Benton Harbor Emergency More 'Environmental Injustice'

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha says the Michigan city's water crisis is another example of "how a predominantly poor and minority population disproportionately suffers the burden of environmental contamination."


Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha says the water crises in both Flint and Benton Harbor, Michigan are examples of "environmental injustice."

 (Photo: Brittany Greeson/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

BRETT WILKINS

COMMON DREAMS

October 12, 2021


As the people of Benton Harbor, Michigan are being advised to drink only bottled water due to lead contamination in the city's pipes, the doctor whose research revealed Flint's lead crisis described similarities between the two emergencies, which she called examples of "environmental injustice" in an interview published Monday.

"There is lead in the water, and there's been lead in the water for too long... and it is absolutely not safe for anyone to be drinking at this time."

The 9,700 residents of Benton Harbor—85% of whom are Black and nearly half of whom are poor—were told last week to not use tap water for drinking, cooking, or bathing after lead concentrations up to 60 times the federal limit were first detected three years ago. That's a higher level of contamination than Flint suffered during its five-year crisis.

"The water is not safe to drink and especially not for children," Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha—the pediatrician whose 2015 study revealed that Flint's children had high levels of lead in their blood after an unelected city manager switched water sources to save money—told Great Lakes Now.

"There is lead in the water, and there's been lead in the water for too long," she added. "We know what lead does, and it is absolutely not safe for anyone to be drinking at this time."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "Exposure to lead can seriously harm a child's health, including damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems. No safe blood lead level in children has been identified."

For three years, community activists have been asking the state to replace Benton Harbor's century-old lead pipes. According to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other groups, state, county, and local officials have failed to take sufficient action.

"It's baffling how we could be in this situation in Michigan in a majority Black community this soon after the Flint incident started," NRDC senior policy advocate Cyndi Roper told Michigan Live last week.

Last month, Hanna-Attisha joined 19 Michigan and national organizations in filing an NRDC-led emergency petiton with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking an immediate source of safe drinking water for Benton Harbor's residents, who the document said "are not only subjected to a disproportionately high level of lead exposure from a variety of sources beyond their drinking water but also often lack access to high-quality healthcare and are exposed to a wide array of other threats that can exacerbate the negative health effects associated with lead exposure."

Asked if she saw similarities between the crises in Benton Harbor and Flint, Hanna-Attisha said that "the most striking similarity is the demographics of the population. Flint was this emblematic example of what environmental injustice is. Of how a predominantly poor and minority population disproportionately suffers the burden of environmental contamination."

"That's what we see in Benton Harbor as well," she continued. "It's a predominantly poor and minority city."

In neighboring St. Joseph, which is 85% white, the water is clean.

"As we take it a step further, it's also a city that was under emergency management," Hanna-Attisha said of Benton Harbor. "It's also a city that lost democracy and has been under-resourced. It has really been a victim of long-standing austerity and racism over time."

In what some critics called an "unconstitutional power grab," then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, signed a 2011 law authorizing the appointment of unelected emergency financial managers for some of the state's insolvent cities and towns. Flint's cost-cutting emergency manager was widely blamed for the city's lead crisis.

According to EPA figures cited by the Environmental Defense Fund, 9.3 million U.S. homes receive their drinking water via pipes containing lead, with low-income and communities of color disproportionately affected. Residents of these communities are often ignored when they speak out and seek help. Hanna-Attisha said this is "another example of environmental injustice with the demographics of the population contributing to the disaster."

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The US Has Become a Tax Haven for the 

Vile and the Vicious

The U.S. contribution to the global concentration of wealth, the Pandora Papers help us understand, has become frighteningly enormous.

A handful of low-population U.S. states—led by South Dakota—have essentially turned themselves into pimps for global plutocrats. 

(Photo: Creative Commons)

SAM PIZZIGATI

October 12, 2021 

by Inequality.org

We've become accustomed, over recent decades, to see Americans front and center whenever a blockbuster new report spotlights the world's super rich.

Last month, for instance, Bloomberg reporters tracked down the world's 25 richest families. Ten of the 25 happened to come from the United States. No other nation had more than four.

Researchers from Wealth-X released new data last month as well. Their eighth annual Billionaire Census counted 3,204 personal fortunes of at least 10 digits worldwide. Leading the way: the United States of America, with 927 such fortunes, more than Germany, Russia, the UK, Hong Kong, Switzerland, India, Saudi Arabia, France, and Italy combined.

A bit earlier this year, the Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse published the 2021 edition of its annual Global Wealth Report, tallying up 215,030 adults on the international scene with fortunes worth over $50 million. Americans made up 110,850—55 percent—of that total.

This past week has seen the release of still another blockbuster look at the world's super rich. This one—now known the world over by the simple shorthand of the "Pandora Papers"—has come courtesy of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The group worked with news organizations from 117 nations to analyze over 11.9 million documents leaked out of 14 offshore financial firms. What those firms all have in common: They provide confidential "administrative services" for financial pros who specialize in concealing the wealth of the world's deepest pockets.

Out of the 2.94 terabytes of Pandora Papers data have already emerged the clearest profile yet of what's become known as the global "wealth defense industry," that vast network of lawyers, accountants, and various other financial pros who devote their considerable expertise to shielding grand private fortunes from their national tax collectors—and, in many cases, police and prosecutors as well.

The Pandora Papers investigators have named names in their stunning coverage. They've exposed the tax-dodging financial machinations of individual "rich and famous" from every corner of the known Earth. But in this blockbuster report, unlike all the other major recent deep dives into worldwide grand fortune, wealthy Americans do not at all dominate. The vast majority of the super rich the Pandora Papers have uncloaked come from outside the confines of the US of A.

America's most familiar super rich simply do not appear in the Pandora Papers coverage. No sign of Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or Bill Gates or any of the other U.S. mega billionaires who top the just-released annual Forbes 400 list of America's richest. The over 130 billionaires worldwide who do appear in the Pandora Papers treasure trove include just a few scattered fantastically rich Americans.

"Only a handful of U.S. billionaires," observe Peter Whoriskey and Agustin Armendariz in the Washington Post, "show up in the records."

How could that be—when Americans so dominate the ranks of the global super rich? Are America's super wealthiest simply behaving more nobly than their peers elsewhere and refusing to engage in shifty financial games to shield their fortunes?

Let's get real here. The relative absence of U.S. billionaires in the Pandora Papers has nothing whatsoever to do with nobility. We're talking accessibility here. The U.S. super rich have plenty of financial agents—the tax attorneys, accountants, and wealth managers, as my Institute for Policy Studies colleague Chuck Collins puts it, "paid millions to help billionaires sequester trillions"—close to home. They don't need to partake of the services provided by wealth advisory firms in places like Samoa, Cyprus, and Singapore, or any of the other 11 offshore locales from where the Pandora Papers leaked.


One other dynamic also helps explain why so few U.S. billionaires have been showing up in the Pandora Papers coverage. America's super rich, as one Pandora Papers report notes, "pay so little in taxes relative to their incomes that hiding money offshore" can turn out to be "mostly unnecessary." Our contemporary U.S. tax code essentially expects precious little from the super rich at tax time and furnishes convenient, perfectly legal workarounds to the taxes the law does stipulate.

How effective have these workarounds become? This past June, analysts at ProPublica gleaned from a massive leak of IRS data that America's 25 richest paid taxes on the $401 billion they gained from 2014 to 2018 at an incredibly tiny true tax rate of a mere 3.4 percent.

But don't take the small U.S. billionaire footprint in the Pandora Papers exposé as any indication of disinterest in tax havens on the part of Americans. Quite the contrary. The Pandora Papers make dramatically clear that the United States has now become a premiere "offshore" tax haven for super rich the world over.

To be more exact: A handful of low-population U.S. states—led by South Dakota—have essentially turned themselves into pimps for global plutocrats. They've enacted a series of state laws that let financial agents set up shop within their borders and then go on to service and shield grand foreign fortunes. The "dynasty trusts" these states harbor are helping the super rich worldwide cloak their grand private fortunes in a gloriously lucrative anonymity.

The Pandora Papers abound in the stories of these global rich. A shady former vice president of the Dominican Republic, for instance, had built up a huge fortune as the president of a giant Dominican sugar company notorious for violating the human rights of its workers. In 2019, this deepest of Dominican pockets shifted a major chunk of his ill-gotten wealth into a South Dakota dynasty trust.

South Dakota, note tax analysts Bob Lord and Kalena Thomhave, now safe harbors $500 billion in trust assets, up 36 percent since 2019. In the process, charges journalist Timothy Noah, the state has become a "moral sewer."

Our U.S. contribution to the global concentration of wealth, the Pandora Papers help us understand, has become frighteningly enormous. We're not just bending over backwards these days to grow the fortunes of our home-grown super rich. We're helping grow the fortunes of the super wealthy all over the world. We're no longer just dominating the world's billionaire ranks. We're helping those ranks worldwide become ever more dominant.

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Sam Pizzigati co-edits Inequality.org. His recent books include: "The Case for a Maximum Wage" (2018) and "The Rich Don't Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970" (2012).

STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE

FEMA Ignores Puerto Rico's Once-in-a-Lifetime Chance to Build a Clean Energy Grid

FEMA plans to spend $9.4 billion on fossil fuel infrastructure instead.

LAY POWERLINES UNDERGROUND


A person waves a flag reading "Fuera Luma" (Luma out) during a demonstration to mark May Day, or International Workers' Day, in San Juan, Puerto Rico on May 1, 2021. 

(Photo by Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images)

PATRICK PARENTEAU,

  RACHEL STEVENS

October 13, 2021

 by The Conversation

The Biden Administration has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help Puerto Rico transition to a greener and more resilient energy future, but it's on the verge of making a multibillion-dollar mistake.

Since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, many residents and environmental advocates have called for new clean energy sources for the island. Currently Puerto Rico gets more than 97% of its electricity from imported fossil fuel. Power is expensive and unreliable.

As environmental lawyers and professors of law, we are surprised to see FEMA move forward on a path that runs directly counter to the White House's energy and climate policy.

Puerto Rico adopted laws that called for generating 15% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040 and 100% by 2050. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which controls relief funding for the island, appears ready to underwrite a rebuild of the old fossil fuel system.

As environmental lawyers and professors of law, we are surprised to see FEMA move forward on a path that runs directly counter to the White House's energy and climate policy. President Joe Biden has called for a governmentwide approach that promotes clean energy, protects public health and the environment, and advances environmental justice.

In our view, FEMA's actions don't support those goals. They also ignore legal requirements for federal agencies to carefully weigh the environmental impacts of major actions.

Power lines toppled by Hurricane Maria in Alta Vega, Puerto Rico, Sept. 30, 2017.

 (Photo: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Rebuild or replace with a more resilient green system?

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico with sustained winds of 155 mph. It tore a diagonal 100-mile swath across the island, demolishing tens of thousands of homes and washing away roads and bridges.

The storm toppled transmission and cell towers, snapped concrete power poles, battered power plants and plunged the island into darkness. It killed an estimated 3,000 people and caused over US$90 billion in damages.

In response, Congress authorized some $23 billion in disaster aid, including at least $10 billion to restore or replace Puerto Rico's electricity grid. It also passed the Disaster Recovery Reform Act to promote a more flexible energy system that could withstand and recover quickly from climate disruptions.

FEMA, which administers the funds, has allocated $9.4 billion for rebuilding Puerto Rico's electricity system and will start approving projects after it receives more details explaining how the work will be performed. So far, none of this money has been earmarked for renewable power, except for a small sum to repair a hydroelectric dam that provides less than 1% of the island's power.

The organizations making decisions in Puerto Rico are the Commonwealth's Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, and Luma Energy, a private company that received a 15-year contract in 2021 to manage power transmission and distribution on the island. PREPA and Luma have proposed hundreds of projects for the coming decade, but none include federal funding for rooftop solar, community solar, battery storage or microgrids. Advocates say that this kind of small-scale local generation would make the island's electricity cheaper, cleaner and more reliable.

A 2015 study by the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that investing in solar and wind power and energy efficiency could transform Puerto Rico's electrical system into a resilient grid. And in 2020, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated that rooftop solar power in Puerto Rico could generate roughly four times as much electricity as residents currently use.
Federal law requires weighing the options

Spending almost $10 billion to rewire an island with 3 million residents is clearly a major federal action with significant environmental impacts. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, agencies undertaking such actions must prepare an environmental impact statement that takes a hard look at alternatives and invites meaningful public input.

PREPA and Luma's proposed plan includes reconstructing and hardening nearly all of Puerto Rico's transmission lines and building at least two new natural gas-fired power plants. Burning more natural gas will affect air and water quality and contribute to climate change. Natural gas is shipped to Puerto Rico in liquid form, so using more of it also means expanding import facilities and pipelines.

Instead of producing a full-scale environmental impact statement, FEMA produced a superficial programmatic environmental assessment—a narrower study that did not weigh other options. It concluded that there would be "no significant impact" from rebuilding Puerto Rico's fossil fuel-based energy system. The study did not mention climate change, which scientists widely agree is making hurricanes larger and more destructive.

Beyond a pro forma invitation for public comment, FEMA made no effort to engage with overburdened communities of color that have disproportionately suffered from pollution and climate change under Puerto Rico's energy system. This directly contradicts Biden's order to place environmental justice at the center of federal energy and climate policy.

The National Environmental Policy Act also requires agencies to "study, develop and describe appropriate alternatives to recommended courses of action." FEMA's environmental assessment only considers rebuilding and hardening the existing grid, and does not mention renewable energy. When some public commenters criticized this omission, FEMA responded that it was not responsible for considering alternative means of generating electricity.

Advancing the public interest

Both PREPA and Luma are proponents of an energy strategy that centers on importing natural gas. Federal law requires FEMA to take a broader approach and ensure that it spends federal money in ways that support U.S. environmental goals.

Courts have held that environmental justice is not simply a box to be checked. In our view, the law clearly requires FEMA to give Puerto Ricans—who have lived with a creaky power system for four years—a seat at the table before it starts writing checks for projects that affect their lives.

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Patrick Parenteau is a Professor of Law at Vermont Law School.


Rachel Stevens is Professor of Law & Staff Attorney at Vermont Law School.