Aussie PM drops threat to skip UN climate summit

Issued on: 15/10/2021

Australia's prime minister Scott Morrison has withdrawn a threat

 to skip a landmark climate summit in Glasgow next month 

SAEED KHAN AFP/File

Sydney (AFP)

Australia's prime minister on Friday withdrew a threat to skip next month's landmark UN climate summit, describing the meeting as "an important event".

"I confirmed my attendance at the Glasgow Summit, which I'm looking forward to attending," Scott Morrison told journalists.

Under mounting pressure to adopt more ambitious climate targets, the conservative leader had suggested he would not join other heads of government in Scotland's largest city.

His comments angered climate activists and were seen as a direct diplomatic snub to the UK, a close ally and the summit host.

In a rare foray into politics, Britain's Prince Charles expressed surprise at Morrison's reluctance and said it would be a "disaster" if leaders did not take firm action to arrest climate change.

Widely seen as a climate laggard, Australia is one of the world's largest coal and gas exporters and has long resisted adopting a carbon-neutral target.

While Morrison has inched toward setting a target date of 2050 for that goal, he has refused to make the target binding and has yet to commit to more meaningful 2030 emissions reduction targets.

The 12-day meeting in Scotland will be the biggest climate conference since landmark talks in Paris in 2015, and is seen as a crucial step in setting worldwide emissions targets to slow global warming.

David Ritter, Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO, said Morrison's attendance was welcome but would prove meaningless unless accompanied with commitment to concrete action.

"Morrison doesn't deserve a golf clap for simply committing to turn up at the world's most important climate conference," he said.

"Simply showing up at COP26 with empty words and promises, while greenwashing Australia's pathetic climate track record, isn't good enough," he said.

Australia's position at Glasgow will depend on Morrison's ability to win the backing of climate-sceptics within his own ruling coalition.

More than a billion dollars in grants for hydrogen projects have been announced in recent days as a sweetener to members representing coal-producing constituencies.

With an election expected by May, Morrison also has to square his party's climate position with a growing majority of Australians demanding action.

© 2021 AFP

 

Australia Is Making The Most Out Of The Coal Boom

By Felicity Bradstock - Oct 14, 2021,

• While countries around the world have turned their backs on coal due to its high emissions, Australia is one country that is unlikely to follow suit
• So far this month Australia has approved three mine extensions as it continues to back what the government sees as a vital industry
• Coal prices have soared so high recently that China had to halt its brief boycott of Australian coal in order to make up the energy deficit in the country 

Australia continues to back its coal industry as many Western nations have turned their back on the dirtiest fossil fuel, approving its third coal mine extension in a month and bolstering partnerships for long-term coal exports. 

We already know the demand is there, with China requiring increasing coal to bridge its fuel demand gap, but Australia is one of the few remaining nations outside of Asia to continue to back coal as a major energy source. 

Earlier this month, Australia approved its third coal mine extension within a month. In September, Environment Minister Sussan Ley approved extensions for the Whitehaven Coal and Wollonggong Coal mines. The latest extension approval was for the Glencore Mangoola thermal coal mine in New South Wales, allowing it to continue production for eight more years, mining approximately 52 million tonnes of coal.

But it’s not just other countries that are putting pressure on Australia to join them in curbing its coal production. In May, a ruling from Australia’s high court encouraged the country’s environment minister to reconsider coal mine expansions due to the obligation the ministry has to the Australian childrens’ future, as well as the general impact of coal production and use on climate change. 

While environmental activists and international energy organizations are less than happy with Australia’s ongoing support for coal, many Australians back the decision to expand mines because of their contribution to the country’s employment. Around 400 workers are currently employed at Glencore, and the expansion will add 100 construction jobs.

Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal, with strong links to the Asian market. To date, Australia has made no pledge to reduce carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050, unlike many of its Western counterparts. Many countries across Europe and North America have vowed to rapidly reduce carbon emissions, an aim that is expected to be reinforced in the upcoming COP26 climate summit in Glasgow this month, which Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison will attend. 

However, shortly after the announcement of the third expansion project, Australia’s resources minister proposed the establishment of a state-run $180-billion lending option for the coal industry, with the stipulation that borrowers support a net-zero carbon emissions target. This strategy comes as banks and insurers become less willing to lend to the dying coal sector. 

Australia’s dependence on coal is not surprising considering its close proximity to the Asian market, where coal demand remains high. Several Asian countries, most notably China and India with their ever-expanding populations, continue to rely on coal, as well as oil and gas, to meet their national energy demand. 

Related: Is The U.S. Still A Swing Producer Of Oil?

“While China unambiguously needs as much coal as it can get its hands on to avert a [fourth-quarter] slowdown due to the tyranny of rolling power shortages, geopolitical tensions with Australia have waylaid the most convenient source of high-calorific coal from Down Under” Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy for Asia and Oceania treasury department at Mizuho stated of China’s reliance on coal imports.

However, in late 2020, China ended its coal imports from Australia following difficult trade relations, namely Australia’s support for an international inquiry into China’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic. Coal is Australia’s third-largest export to China, a country that accounts for 32.6 percent of all Australian exports, with Australia exporting more to China than it imports. 

After reportedly telling utilities and steel mills to stop all Australian coal imports, China began to import its coal from regional exporters Indonesia, Mongolia, and Russia. India has apparently been buying discounted coal that was left stranded in Chinese customs following the falling out between China and Australia. In recent months, Indian cement makers and sponge iron plants have sought to boost supplies with this low-cost option. 

The Chinese stockpile of Australian coal, and its willingness to sell the supply at a discount, suggests the dedication it had to cutting trade ties with Australia. However, the energy crisis experienced in recent months has finally proved too much for China to continue holding a grudge. Fuel shortages and high energy costs have led the Chinese government to resume Australian coal imports. This month, China released Australian coal from bonded warehouses in addition to receiving 450,000 tonnes of Australian coal cargoes at the beginning of the month.

During the time that China refused imports, Australia did not just simply wait for China to come running back, rather it fostered its relationship with India. Australia held its first joint working group meeting on coal and mines with India this September to encourage greater participation in Australia’s ongoing coal production. Australia identifies India as a key market for some of its lower-grade coal, with prices significantly undercutting those of the premium coal products imported by China

With little commitment to net-zero aims, ongoing support for coal plant expansion projects despite a high court interjection, and ongoing trade links with high-demand countries across Asia, it seems unlikely that Australia will curb its coal production or make it more carbon-friendly any time soon, despite international pressure to do so.  

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

China’s global climate change challenge to the West

The West should respond to Beijing’s pledge not to fund coal plants by pressuring its private sector to follow suit.


Kevin P Gallagher
Professor and director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University
13 Oct 2021

A man rides his scooter near the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Power Generator Company coal power plant [File: AFP/Johannes Eisele]


In front of the world’s leaders at the United Nations General Assembly last month, China’s President Xi Jinping pledged that his country “will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.” This decision is a major step towards aligning global finance with our collective climate and development goals and it could help build momentum for private sector defunding of coal energy production as well.

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, China’s two global policy banks, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, have brought a stepwise increase in public finance for energy and infrastructure that has been filling major financial gaps and fostering economic growth in emerging market and developing countries.

At Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, we compile databases that track China’s overseas development finance in general and energy in particular. According to our research, these two banks provided upwards of $460bn to foreign governments between 2008 and 2019, roughly equivalent to what the World Bank has distributed during the same period.

We also estimated that between 2007 and 2016, China’s policy banks provided some $197bn in finance to foreign governments for energy – nearly matching the total financing of all the major Western-backed MDBs combined. In work with Princeton University colleagues, we found that Chinese finance was the equivalent to 42 percent of the power generation capacity financed by the 10 largest MDBs.


While China must be credited with filling infrastructure finance gaps in a growth-enhancing manner, the composition of that finance, especially in the energy sector, is concentrated in heavily carbon-intensive sectors. Coal, oil, gas, and hydroelectric power in tropical forests dominate Chinese energy financing. Such financing poses risks to the global climate, public health, and biodiversity.

Around the time of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, most of the MDBs started phasing out overseas coal finance, and in May 2021 the G7 pledged “to take concrete steps towards an absolute end to new direct government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation by the end of 2021”.

Then China’s announcement came in September this year. Initially, there was some concern that the language of the pledge did not appear as clear as that of the G7. Some wondered if pledging not to “build” new coal plants truly meant financing coal.

However, shortly after’s Xi’s UN speech, the Bank of China announced that it would stop financing overseas coal mining and power plants this year. In one fell swoop, China matched the G7 pledge and upped the game to where the real action is – in the commercial and private sector.

More than 80 percent of all newly added coal generation capacity outside China between 2013 and 2019 was financed by non-Chinese entities. Among the largest lenders to the global coal industry are Japanese firms such as Mizuho Financial and SMBC Group and American financial giants such as Citigroup, Bank of America, and JP Morgan. The Bank of China was also among the top lenders to the coal industry until its recent pledge.

Now that the world’s major governments have led by example and banned overseas coal plants, and the Bank of China has joined them, it is time for the private sector to follow suit. Without private financial institutions buying into defunding coal energy production, we will not meet our global climate and development goals.

Moving forward, two things are imperative. First, the West must put pressure on the private sector to phase out coal as well. Second, rather than turning off the spigot, global financial actors need to shift the composition of energy finance towards cleaner energy such as wind and solar power.

China and the West should not cut off energy finance to countries in need. Rather, they should replace coal finance with support for wind and solar power, two industries where China is most dominant.

In a recent paper, we found that there are renewable energy opportunities worth $1 trillion in developing countries, based on these countries’ own plans through their Nationally Determined Contributions for the Paris Agreement. Given China’s dominance in these sectors and the prowess of its policy banks, if it channels its tremendous capital, technology and know-how towards these plans, it can dramatically expand green energy access throughout the developing world.

Such a move is not only good climate policy, but good banking. The West should follow suit.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.


Kevin P Gallagher
Professor and director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston Unversity
Kevin P Gallagher is a professor and director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston Unversity’s Pardee School of Global Studies. His newest book is The Case for a New Bretton Woods, co-authored with Richard Kozul-Wright.

China’s Chastening Over Coal Dependency Will Boost Clean Energy

Bloomberg News,



(Bloomberg) -- The energy crisis is chastening governments around the world, not least in China. Record coal prices have helped propel factory inflation there to a 26-year high and officials have had to promise that homes will be kept warm this winter come what may.

The other pledge of note from a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday is that the government won’t duck its international carbon commitments. President Xi Jinping is keen to adopt the mantle of climate leadership, so that had to be said when the crucial COP26 negotiations open in Scotland in just two weeks. But it’s difficult to square with the scramble to mine, buy and burn ever more of the dirtiest fossil fuel to keep the lights on at home.

But it isn’t an empty promise either, as shown by the sweeping ambition of the renewables mega-hub planned for western China that was also announced this week, and which in its first phase alone will host more wind and solar power than all of India.

China will have to juggle the contradictory pressures of ensuring domestic energy security and meeting its international climate obligations for some time to come. The former is clearly winning out in the short term, and comments earlier in the week from Premier Li Keqiang suggest that anyone hoping for an advancement of China’s carbon targets in Glasgow is probably going to be disappointed.

But what’s increasingly obvious -- and foreshadowed by the desert mega-project -- is that China’s abundant reserves of coal have created a dependency that has made the country vulnerable and which it will try and end as soon as it can. One paradox to emerge is that energy security is hardly served by a system that is actually reliant on raising imports to deliver sufficient supply.

So, once the current crisis passes, and even if China has heaps of coal to spare, the calculation will probably become ever clearer. Coal’s stranglehold on the energy mix will need to be broken. Preventing future power shortages won’t mean tapping more of those reserves, but accelerating instead the development of substitutes that aren’t dependent on foreign suppliers and won’t spoil the atmosphere.

Today’s Chart

China is likely to slash fuel exports due to the power crisis, as more gas-to-oil switching prompts refiners to hoard supplies for use at home. Domestic diesel demand is on the rise and fewer shipments would come just as other Asian nations are set to consume more of the fuel as their economies rebound.

China’s power crisis will affect everybody around the world

The crisis could push Beijing to accelerate its shift to clean energy

Updated: 14 Oct 2021, 

David Fickling, Bloomberg

It’s likely to fuel inflation globally as Chinese imports get costlier

A villain is emerging in China’s efforts to rein in its energy prices: inefficient, power-hungry industry.

With flooding in the coal hub of Shanxi province driving prices up to $234 a metric tonne even as the government tries to kickstart extra production, further measures are clearly needed to prevent more generators cutting off their turbines and causing blackouts. That means a crackdown on the factories that still consume the lion’s share of electricity.

Industry makes up only 25% of grid demand in the US, but in China it’s fully 59% of the total—more than all the country’s homes, offices and retail stores put together. Cheap power has been an essential tool of development and the government has traditionally encouraged major users with electricity tariffs that get cheaper the more you consume. With about two-thirds of the grid powered by coal, the cost of digging up the black stuff has determined how much industrial users pay for their power.

The problem is that coal isn’t getting any cheaper. After a sustained period of deflation prior to 2016, when a glut of dangerous and unregulated mines was closed down, annualized costs jumped 40% in 2017. They didn’t fall again until covid struck, and they’ve since rebounded with a 57% increase from 12 months ago in August.

Such increases might be tolerable if end-users were turning this power into high-value goods. But all too often, that’s not the case. China now consumes more electricity per capita than the UK and Italy, but comes nowhere close in terms of economic output. Determined to hit President Xi Jinping’s targets on peaking emissions by 2030 and hitting net zero by 2060, Beijing’s policymakers have fixed on so-called “dual high" sectors—those whose energy consumption and carbon emissions are both elevated—as the culprits. These are many of the industries that have grown fastest in recent decades, such as cement, steel and glass. They collectively account for more than half of China’s emissions.

Under revised rules issued by economic planners at the National Development and Reform Commission this week, residential and agricultural consumers will still buy power at fixed tariffs and smaller users will see electricity costs fluctuate within a band. [But] “dual high" sectors will see no guardrails on the prices they pay. As a result, all the cost of balancing utilities’ books will fall on their shoulders. This will reduce demand and encourage inefficient users to upgrade to add more value, Wan Jinsong, NDRC’s director of prices said. This sounds like a neat solution, but we shouldn’t underestimate the way ripples will spread. In recent decades, the world has become hooked on cheap Chinese power for the manufacture of a host of goods. About half of all metal is produced in China and nearly a fifth of all oil is refined there. Energy-hungry products from aluminium to solar panels depend on the country’s low industrial power tariffs to keep their own prices down. With electricity costs for dual-high industries set to rise, we may not have seen the end of the inflationary pressures flowing through the global economy from those flooded Shanxi mines.

If Beijing wants to manage this transition without crippling the economy, it’s going to need to release pressure on the supply side of the energy system at the same time as taking [steps] to reduce demand growth.

That’s where renewables come in. At the same time that price curbs are being removed from dual-high industries, so capacity curbs are being lifted from zero-carbon power generation. Provinces previously faced absolute limits on the amount of electricity they were allowed to consume. In the future, those bars will be removed for renewable generation, giving governors a strong incentive to switch away from constrained, inflationary coal-fired energy to unlimited, fixed-cost wind and solar.

With zero-carbon electricity already cheaper than most existing coal power plants, those changes may be just the spur to wean China from its addiction to solid fuel. The bulk of generation will be able to move to wind, solar, hydro and nuclear. Thermal power plants will increasingly find themselves ramping up and down to capture daily peaks in demand, with differential pricing through the day giving them an opportunity to make profits after the sun has set and when the wind drops.

All that’s needed to make this system work more efficiently is for Beijing to unleash the formidable investment appetites of its provincial governments on the banquet of cheap zero-carbon power now available. Until now, China has shied away from the sort of rapid transition that it needs (as does the world’s climate). The teetering state of its coal-fired power system may just play the catalyst.

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies

Asian deer's comeback marks rare China conservation success

Issued on: 15/10/2021

Pere David's deer were on the verge of disappearing towards

 the end of the 19th century

 Jade GAO AFP


Beijing (AFP)

An Asian deer's comeback from the brink of extinction marks a rare success for China's conservation efforts, which have long faced criticism for focusing on only a handful of flagship species.

Pere David's deer were on the verge of disappearing towards the end of the 19th century, threatened by hunting for their meat and a loss of wetland habitat.

But after an extraordinary tale of survival -- which involved being smuggled to Europe and hidden from wartime bombing raids, before finally returning to China -- its population has grown to several thousand.

The comeback is a "remarkable tale of sheer luck and dedication of a small group of conservationists in China and abroad," said Zhou Jinfeng, whose NGO helped bring the creatures back from Europe.

News of the success comes as Beijing seeks to play a more prominent role in international conservation, with China this week hosting a key UN conservation summit.

At the opening of the meeting, President Xi Jinping pledged $233 million to a new fund to "support the cause of biodiversity conservation in developing countries".

A herd of deer at a conservation park in Beijing 

Jade GAO AFP

But experts say tales like that of the Pere David's deer remain rare, with decades of breakneck growth exacting a heavy toll on China's biodiversity.

While the country has made significant strides in protecting its best-known species, such as giant pandas and elephants, critics say it has done far worse in safeguarding many other creatures.

From 1970 to 2010, almost half of China's land-based vertebrates vanished, according to the conservation charity WWF.

The country now has more than a thousand species that are fast disappearing due to developers encroaching on habitats, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

And despite designating nearly a fifth of the country as protected areas, activities such as illicit mining and logging have fragmented reserves and left endangered animals marooned in "forest islands" without much room to forage or find mates.

China's poor climate record -- it is the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, with the economy still largely powered by polluting coal -- has also put further pressure on animal populations.

- 'China is home' -

The deer are named after Pere Armand David, a French missionary and zoologist who spotted what was believed to be the only herd of the creatures at the imperial hunting ground in Beijing.

In 1895, a flood nearly wiped them out, and five years later the hunting ground was occupied by German troops who shot and ate the remaining deer -- resulting in their extinction in China.

China has made significant strides in protecting its best-known species, such as giant pandas, but critics say it has done worse in safeguarding many other creatures 

STR AFP/File

But some of the creatures had already been smuggled to Europe, and several were bought by British politician Herbrand Russell from the Berlin Zoo.

He bred them on his estate, although he was forced to move his herd several times during World War II to protect it from bombing raids. All Pere David's deer alive today are descendants of this herd, according to the WWF.

It was not until 1985 that the creatures made their way back to China, when 22 were returned as a goodwill gesture during negotiations as Britain prepared to hand back Hong Kong to Beijing.

Today, they are back in the imperial hunting ground south of the Chinese capital, where about 200 animals happily frolic in mud by the side of a lake in a semi-wild conservation site.

The captive population of Pere David's deer is now about 8,000, according to official figures 

Jade GAO AFP

Their captive population is now about 8,000, according to official figures, although experts warn of future risks.

The population lacks genetic diversity, meaning they are more vulnerable to disease, have a shorter life span and suffer more miscarriages, said Bai Jiade and a group of other conservationists in a letter published in the journal Science this year.

"Moreover, there is no master plan for Pere David's deer conservation at the national level," said Bai, director of the Beijing Pere David's deer Ecological Research Centre.

But Zhou is optimistic. Small groups of the deer are now being released back into the wild, and sightings are being reported around the country.

"The food, the climate and the environment all suit them," said Zhou.

"China is their home."

© 2021 AFP

'Art transcends race': Paris Opera Ballet's first Asian etoile ballerina

Issued on: 15/10/2021 -

Sae Eun Park is the first Asian ballerina to reach the top etoile rank in the Paris Opera Ballet's 352-year history 

Yelim LEE AFP

Seoul (AFP)

When Sae Eun Park auditioned for the world's oldest ballet institution, her Paris hotel room was so small she could not fully stretch her legs.

A decade later the South Korean has become the first Asian ballerina to reach the top "etoile" -- or "star" -- rank in the Paris Opera Ballet's 352-year history.

The 31-year-old's promotion came as the world of elite classical ballet faces growing calls for diversity and inclusion.

She is one of only two current foreign-born etoiles at the renowned company, defying years of different training, a language barrier, injury and the POB's notorious competitive exams, which determine all but the highest promotions through its rigid five-rank hierarchy.

"I believe that art -- not just dance -- transcends nationality and race," Park told AFP.

"I became the first Asian ballerina to be an etoile and it's very much become a talking point, but I think of it as something that's very natural."

The world of elite classical ballet faces growing calls for diversity and inclusion

 Yelim LEE AFP

A Seoul native, Park trained in Russia's "Vaganova" ballet method -- which emphasises soulful expression, strength and flexibility -- in South Korea's top art institutions.

When she arrived in Paris aged 21, she spoke little French and had never attended classes at POB's affiliated ballet school -- which provides around 90 percent of its dancers and teaches a dance style that prioritises elegance and precision.

But in June, after Park performed the female lead in "Romeo and Juliet", her "etoile" nomination was announced to the Opera Bastille, prompting a standing ovation and her to break down into tears.

"A lot of emotions were overlapping - I was so happy, and so grateful, and thought there really is such a day," Park recalled.

"I had been waiting for so long... and there were times that were a bit tough, and I was reminded of all of these all at the same time."

- Seoul to Paris -

Park joins a group of millennial South Korean dancers in the top ranks of the world's most prominent companies, including Kimin Kim at the Mariinsky Ballet and Hee Seo at the American Ballet Theatre -- many of them inspired by trailblazer Kang Sue-jin, a former principal for Germany's Stuttgart Ballet.

Celebrated as a teen prodigy in the South, Park was dubbed the "queen of concours" after winning the Grand Prix de Lausanne and Gold Medal at Varna, two leading prizes for aspiring ballet dancers.

Sae Eun Park joins a group of millennial South Korean dancers in the top ranks of the world's most prominent companies, including Kimin Kim at the Mariinsky Ballet and Hee Seo at the American Ballet Theatre 

Yelim LEE AFP

At the time she was particularly praised for her technique, such as leaps and turns, but Park says she always wanted something more and found her inspiration in YouTube videos of POB dancers, including its current director Aurélie Dupont.

She quit her soloist position at the Korean National Ballet -- its second-highest rank -- for a one-year contract as a POB quadrille in 2011, the lowest position at the company.

Now she is also lauded for her emotional depth and lyricism, with Paris-based dance critic Laura Cappelle noting her "inner serenity, a gift for slowing down time on stage".

Park -- who comes across as perceptive, humble and genial in equal measure -- trains for up to nine hours a day.

Her ascent through the ranks was interrupted in 2015, when she needed cosmetic surgery after a colleague accidentally kicked her in the forehead while practising.

She failed that year's promotion exams and fell into depression, avoiding mirrors for a time for fear of seeing her scar.

The only coping strategy was to simply keep dancing.

"You only have two options anyway," she said. "You either give up or just keep trying."

- 'White world' -

Kim Yong-geol, a South Korean former POB dancer, described the company as a "cloistered society that prides itself in its tradition", with a "ruthless" promotion system.

"It can make you feel completely shattered," he said. "The very last survivors of that gruelling process become etoiles. I think she has accomplished something that's impossible."

Unlike the New York-based American Ballet Theatre or the Royal Ballet in London, the Paris Opera Ballet has very few foreign dancers.

After Black Lives Matter protests gained momentum in France, the Paris Opera in February launched a diversity drive, commissioning an independent audit that pointed out only 25 of the ballet's 154 performers were from overseas 

Yelim LEE AFP

After Black Lives Matter protests gained momentum in France, the Paris Opera in February launched a diversity drive, commissioning an independent audit that pointed out only 25 of the ballet's 154 performers were from overseas.

The organisation was "a white world a long way from what contemporary French society looks like", the authors wrote.

POB did not respond to multiple requests for comment from AFP.

Gavin Larsen, the author of "Being a Ballerina", described Park as an "important artist for our time".

"Her choice to explore beyond her native culture, both in terms of ballet and daily life, shows her willingness to be vulnerable — which is the only way a true artist can be," she told AFP.

Park admitted she wondered whether being Asian would deprive her of opportunities.

The competition was always fierce and effectively pits dancers against their own longstanding colleagues.

"We all practise together, so you can't avoid witnessing how others are dancing even if you don't want to, and this can make anyone very anxious," she said.

"It's really hard, but it's so much harder if you resent or become jealous of others.

To truly survive, she added, "you have to make your rivals your friends".

© 2021 AFP

US to restore full pension of FBI official fired under Trump

He is also entitled to other benefits afforded to retiring FBI senior executives, including special cufflinks and “official FBI credentials"

By ERIC TUCKER

FILE - In this June 7, 2017, file photo, former FBI acting director Andrew McCabe listens during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCabe, who was fired by President Donald Trump after allegations that he misled the Justice Department's inspector general, has won his pension back under a settlement with the federal government. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has won back his full pension as part of a settlement of his lawsuit arising from his firing during the Trump administration more than three years ago, his lawyers announced Thursday.

McCabe, a frequent target of then-President Donald Trump’s ire, was fired in March 2018 after the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded he had authorized the release of information to a newspaper reporter and then misled internal investigators about his role in the leak. The termination by Jeff Sessions, the attorney general at the time, came hours before McCabe was due to retire, denying the FBI official his pension.

The settlement agreement vacates that decision, expunges from his personnel folder references to having been fired and entitles McCabe, who joined the FBI in 1996, to his full pension.

“Politics should never play a role in the fair administration of justice and civil service personnel decisions,” McCabe said in a statement. He added that he hopes “this result encourages the men and women of the FBI to continue to protect the American people by standing up for the truth and doing their jobs without fear of political retaliation.”

McCabe has denied intentionally deceiving anyone, was never criminally charged and has blasted his firing as politically motivated and part of the Trump administration’s “ongoing war on the FBI.” Trump, who at the time was relentlessly railing against the FBI for its investigation into ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign, called the termination a “great day for Democracy” shortly after it was announced.

McCabe sued in 2019, saying his firing was part of an effort by Trump to purge the FBI of officials he perceived as disloyal. McCabe had become acting director of the FBI in May 2017 after Trump fired James Comey amid the bureau’s Russia investigation, a termination that was examined by special counsel Robert Mueller for potential obstruction of justice.

As part of the settlement, the federal government has agreed to rescind and vacate McCabe’s firing, deem him as having retired in good standing, restore his full retirement pension and record him as having been employed continuously between 1996 until his actual retirement day.

He is also entitled to other benefits afforded to retiring FBI senior executives, including special cufflinks and “official FBI credentials, badge, and time-in-service award keys mounted in the format typically provided to retiring FBI Deputy Directors” and other senior officials, according to the settlement.

“For 140 years, civil servants like Andrew McCabe have been the federal government’s backbone, pledging their loyalty to the Constitution rather than to any politician or political party,” Murad Hussain, a lawyer for McCabe, said in a statement.

“This settlement and the district court’s rulings make clear that attempts to corrupt the federal workforce through partisan intimidation and improper political influence will not go unanswered,” he added.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department, which did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, declined to comment.

Though the settlement restores McCabe’s pension, it does not undo the inspector general’s finding that McCabe displayed a lack of candor under questioning from investigators.

____

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

SHOOTING THE MESSANGER
Missouri gov slams paper for uncovering data security flaw

By SUMMER BALLENTINE and JIM SALTER

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 13, 2021, file photo, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson answers media's questions in Kansas City, Mo. Parson on Thursday, Oct, 14, 2021 condemned the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper for exposing a flaw in a state database that allowed public access to thousands of teachers' Social Security numbers, even though the paper held off from reporting about the flaw until after the state could fix it. 

(Shelly Yang/The Kansas City Star via AP, File)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republican Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday condemned one of Missouri’s largest newspapers for exposing a flaw in a state database that allowed public access to thousands of teachers’ Social Security numbers, even though the paper held off from reporting about the flaw until after the state could fix it.

Parson told reporters outside his Capitol office that the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s digital forensic unit will be conducting an investigation “of all of those involved” and that his administration had spoken to the prosecutor in Cole County, which includes the state capital, Jefferson City. He didn’t elaborate as to what he meant by “involved” or whether investigators would be looking into whether the St. Louis Post-Dispatch broke the law during the course of its reporting on the data vulnerability.

The Post-Dispatch broke the news about the security flaw on Wednesday. The newspaper said it discovered the vulnerability in a web application that allowed the public to search teacher certifications and credentials.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education removed the pages from its website on Tuesday after being told about the issue by the Post-Dispatch, which said it gave the state time to fix the problem before it published its story.

The Post-Dispatch estimated that more than 100,000 Social Security numbers were vulnerable, based on pay records and other data. It found that the school workers’ Social Security numbers were in the HTML source code of the pages involved.

“The state is unaware of any misuse of individual information or even whether information was accessed inappropriately outside of this isolated incident,” the DESE said in a news release.

Though the Post-Dispatch alerted the agency to the problem and held off on the story, the agency’s news release called the person who discovered the vulnerability a “hacker” — an apparent reference to the reporter — who “took the records of at least three educators.” The agency didn’t elaborate as to what it meant by “took the records” and it declined to discuss the issue further than what it said in its news release when reached by The Associated Press.

Source codes are accessible by right-clicking on public webpages.

The newspaper’s president and publisher, Ian Caso, said in a statement that the Post-Dispatch stands by the story and the reporter, who he said “did everything right.”

“It’s regrettable the governor has chosen to deflect blame onto the journalists who uncovered the website’s problem and brought it to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s attention,” Caso said.

Parson also suggested that the reporter somehow broke the law.

“This individual is not a victim,” Parson told reporters. “They were acting against a state agency to compromise teachers’ personal information in an attempt to embarrass the state and sell headlines for their news outlet. We will not let this crime against Missouri teachers go unpunished.”

Peter Swire, a cyber law expert and professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, said flagging security vulnerabilities on publicly accessible websites is a “public service” and is “clearly not criminal under federal law.”

“Right clicking does not count as criminal hacking,” Swire said.

Joseph Martineau, an attorney for the Post-Dispatch, said in a statement that the reporter “did the responsible thing by reporting his findings to DESE so that the state could act to prevent disclosure and misuse. A hacker is someone who subverts computer security with malicious or criminal intent. Here, there was no breach of any firewall or security and certainly no malicious intent.”

“For DESE to deflect its failures by referring to this as ‘hacking’ is unfounded,” Martineau said.

Jean Maneke, an attorney for the Missouri Press Association, said she doubted any judge “would allow this to proceed very far.”

“Clearly the Post-Dispatch warned the state of this issue,” Maneke said. “There’s no evidence of any criminal or malicious intent in the act. There’s no attempt to steal information. There’s no basis for him (Parson) to say there’s any kind of illegal act from the Post-Dispatch.”

Byron Clemens, a spokesman for AFT St. Louis, Local 420, said the teachers union isn’t aware of any educators’ information being misused.

“But we are concerned over the attempt to deflect responsibility and politicize what is very obviously a security breach by the state,” Clemens said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Parson said the state will address security issues raised by the newspaper’s reporting.

“We are working to strengthen our security to prevent this incident from happening again,” Parson said. “The state is owning its part, and we are addressing areas in which we need to do better than we have done before.”

___

Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri.

A more comfortable goodbye? Vets bring pet euthanasia home

I WAS ABLE TO USE A HOME VISIT BY A VET FOR MY CAT KHAN
By LEANNE ITALIE

Penny Wagner appears with her two dogs, Clarence, left, and Cooper in Albuquerque, N.M., on April 8, 2020. Clarence died peacefully March 9 after Wagner and her husband hired a private service that provides home euthanasia for pets. (Steve Wagner via AP)


NEW YORK (AP) — Clarence the giant schnauzer came into Penny Wagner’s life as a puppy nearly eight years ago, at a traumatic time for her family.

She and her husband, Steve, had recently lost their 21-year-old daughter in a car accident. Soon after, their other child went off to college and Steve returned to work, leaving Penny home alone with her grief. That’s when they brought Clarence into the family.

Earlier this year, the beloved pet became critically ill with advanced kidney disease. Their veterinarian wouldn’t allow them to stay with him until the end at the clinic due to COVID protocols, so they decided to have him put down at home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in a favorite laundry room spot.

A vet working with a company called Pet Loss at Home arrived and greeted Clarence and the Wagners. She gave the couple all the time they needed before administering two injections, one to relax the 90-pound dog and the other to let him go. The couple cuddled him as they cried, and their other dog, Cooper, was able to say goodbye as well.

“He’ll always have a special place in my heart,” said a tearful Wagner. “I think he was very comforted by the fact that he was home and that he was with loved ones up to the moment we said goodbye.”

Diane Brisson holds her 12-year-old Yorkie, Champagne, at home in Pinellas Park, Fla., on Dec. 17, 2020, the day Brisson had her beloved pet put down at home using a private service, Lap of Love. The service provides veterinarians for home pet euthanasia. (Marsha Thompson via AP)

Private services that offer home euthanasia for pets have been busier than ever since the pandemic led to restrictions on humans inside veterinary practices and animal hospitals. But home euthanasia isn’t for everybody. It tends to cost more, and some pet owners believe it is unduly upsetting to small children and other pets in their households.

The vast majority of pet euthanasia is still done in a clinical setting, though some vets have begun to offer end-of-life care at home as part of their practices.

For Wagner, the human touch was a gift. The same is true of Diane Brisson, 72, in Pinellas Park, Florida.

Brisson used Lap of Love when it came time to bid farewell to Champagne, her 12-year-old Yorkie, last December. Champagne was the only dog her mother, since passed, enjoyed. Champagne fell critically ill with pancreatitis and other organ failure, and Brisson couldn’t bring herself to leave him at the vet alone at the end.

“I couldn’t have asked for anything more peaceful,” she said.

Lap of Love allowed her to have a neighbor with her for support. The neighbor took photos as Champagne sat in Brisson’s lap in a favorite chair, the only piece of furniture she brought from her hometown in Massachusetts when she moved to Florida. The vet waited patiently until Brisson was ready to let go. The doctor placed Champagne in a small wicker basket with a white satin pillow and a lavender satin blanket after he passed to take him away for cremation.

“I stayed with him for about 20, 25 minutes and said, ‘OK, you’re going to be with nanny now. You’re going to watch over me with her and you’re going to take care of her up there, and she’s going to take care of you,’” Brisson tearfully recalled.

Lap of Love returned Champagne’s ashes to Brisson. She plans to have them scattered at sea back in Massachusetts, along with her own ashes when the time comes.

Dani McVety, a hospice veterinarian in Tampa, Florida, founded Lap of Love in 2009. She considered her ability to help people manage grief to be rare among vets.

“A lot of times doctors aren’t necessarily comfortable with that because they haven’t been trained to do it,” she said.

Timmy, a rescue poodle owned by Linda Sheffield, appears in her car in Marietta, Ga., on Oct. 12, 2020. Timmy died this year after Sheffield consulted an animal communicator, who told her the dog was gravely ill. (Linda Sheffield via AP)

She and her senior medical director, vet Mary Gardner, teach a course on end-of-life care at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.

“When I first started Lap of Love, I figured it would be a part-time job. I don’t think any of us knew that it could actually be a full-time thing where there would be enough people in any given area that would want this help,” said McVety.

Her company operates in 35 states with more than 230 vets.

In general veterinary practices, McVety said, euthanasia costs vary widely, depending on the services sought. It can be as inexpensive as under $100. At an emergency hospital, it may be more. Like Pet Loss at Home, Lap of Love’s fees vary based on location. In Tampa, for instance, Lap of Love charges about $300. Each client receives a clay paw print.

Most clients pay for the vet to take their pets for cremation. Others drive there themselves or elect to bury their pets at home.

After Clarence was gone, the vet who assisted the Wagners sent a condolence card with marigold seeds inside, suggesting they plant them in the dog’s honor. They did, and sent her a photo when the flowers were in bloom.

Pet Loss at Home has served more than 35,000 families since 2003. It operates with about 75 doctors in 50 metropolitan areas, including Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Houston and Minneapolis. The pandemic has caused a dramatic increase in business, said Rob Twyning, who founded the company with his wife, Karen, a veterinarian.

“Right now the phone is ringing off the hook,” said Twyning, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. “We have so many calls that we just can’t help everybody.”

Pet Loss at Home charges anywhere from $300 to $600 or more, depending on the city and the drive time.

“It’s about comfort,” he said. “At home, your pet is familiar with the smells and sounds. A vet clinic is filled with other pets’ smells. It’s filled with other noises, like barking dogs. It’s typically a shiny table where the pet will be elevated. A lot of the time, it’s not a veterinarian. It’s a technician. At home, you can take your own time.”

Twyning’s vets serve mostly dogs and cats but have handled other species too, from snakes to parrots.

In Marietta, Georgia, 73-year-old Linda Sheffield went in a different direction last year when her rescue poodle, Timmy, fell ill with a collapsed larynx. She consulted animal communicator Nancy Mello, though she didn’t let on that Timmy had been diagnosed and was on strong medication. With Timmy showing no outward symptoms during four or five video sessions, Sheffield made the decision to put him down.

“She told me Timmy didn’t have long to live,” Sheffield said. “I’m very skeptical but she claimed that he told her, `I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,′ over and over again. I thought the medicine was really working.”

Sheffield, a veteran dog rescuer who takes in senior pets, offered Timmy one last car ride. She drove him to her vet, who met them outside and administered the euthanasia drugs in the car as she held him on her lap. She then placed him in his bed on the seat beside her and drove him to the crematorium herself.

“This is the vet that he knew, who cared for him,” Sheffield said. “He loved to go for car rides and he got to be with me.”

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Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie

SOURCE OF AMERICAN ILLNESSES

Consumption of ultra-processed foods rising in U.S., study finds


Over the last 20 years, ultra-processed foods have made up an increasing portion of people's diets in the United States, according to a new study. 

Photo by Billie Jean Shaw/UPI

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- People in the United States have consumed increasing levels of ultra-processed foods over the last 20 years, crowding out more nutritious options of a better diet, a study published Thursday by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found.

This rise in consumption of industrially manufactured foods made mostly from substances extracted from foods, such as fats, starches, added sugars and hydrogenated fats, is occurring across nearly all segments of the population, the data showed.

Packaged, processed and restaurant foods account for about 70% of all sodium consumed in the United States, according to the Food and Drug Administration, which on Wednesday issued voluntary guidance for food producers and restaurants to cut back on salt to reduce sodium intake across the country by 12%.

"The overall composition of the average U.S. diet has shifted toward a more processed diet," study co-author Filippa Juul said in a press release.

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"This is concerning, as eating more ultra-processed foods is associated with poor diet quality and higher risk of several chronic diseases," said Juul, an assistant professor and postdoctoral fellow at NYU School of Public Health in New York City.

Ultra-processed foods are industrially manufactured, ready-to-eat or heat products that include additives and are largely devoid of whole foods, according to Harvard University.

These foods, examples of which are frozen meals and soft drinks, also may contain additives, such as artificial colors and flavors or preservatives, the researchers at the school say.

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High consumption of these products has been linked with an increased risk for obesity and heart disease, according to the American Heart Association.

Despite the health risks, earlier studies suggest that these foods account for up to half of the average diet in the United States among adults, and even more for children and teens.

For this study, Juul and her colleagues analyzed dietary data from nearly 41,000 adults who took part in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an ongoing assessment of health, from 2001 through 2018.

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Study participants were asked what they ate in the past 24 hours, and researchers sorted the foods reported into four categories.

These included minimally processed foods, or whole foods, such as vegetables, fruits, grains, meat and dairy, as well as processed culinary ingredients such as olive oil, butter, sugar and salt.

The other categories were processed foods, such as cheese, canned fish and canned beans, and ultra-processed foods, such as frozen pizza, soda, fast food, sweets, salty snacks, canned soup and most breakfast cereals.

The researchers then calculated the percentage of calories consumed from each food group.

Ultra-processed food consumption grew to 57% of calories consumed in 2017-18 from 54% in 2001-2002, the data showed.

The intake of ready-to-eat or heat meals such as frozen dinners increased the most, while the intake of some sugary foods and drinks declined.

Conversely, consumption of whole foods decreased to 27% from 33% of calories over the same period, due primarily to people eating less meat and dairy.

People across nearly all demographic groups, regardless of income, increased their consumption of ultra-processed foods, with the exception of Hispanic adults, who ate significantly less compared with non-Hispanic White and Black adults, the data showed.

Adults age 60 and older saw the sharpest increase in consuming ultra-processed foods.

"In the current industrial food environment, most of the foods that are marketed to us are in fact industrial formulations that are far removed from whole foods," Juul said.