Big changes in White House ideas to pay for $2 trillion plan 

WAIT, WHAT? 

I THOUGHT IT WAS $3.5 TRILLION

By LISA MASCARO, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and ALAN FRAM

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President Joe Biden greets people after speaking about his infrastructure plan and his domestic agenda during a visit to the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — In an abrupt change, the White House is floating new plans to pay for parts of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion social services and climate change package, shelving a proposed big increase in corporate tax rates though also adding a new billionaires’ tax on the investment gains of the very richest Americans.

The reversal Wednesday came as Biden returned to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to highlight the middle class values he says are at the heart of the package that Democrats are racing to finish. Biden faces resistance from key holdouts, including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who has not been on board with her party’s plan to undo Trump-era tax breaks to help pay for it.

“This has been declared dead on arrival from the moment I introduced it, but I think we’re going to surprise them, because I think people are beginning to figure out what’s at stake,” Biden said in a speech at Scranton’s Electric City Trolley Museum, his first visit home since becoming president.

Negotiations between the White House and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are underway on what’s now a scaled-back package but would still be an unprecedented federal effort to expand social services for millions and confront the rising threat of climate change. It’s coupled with a separate $1 trillion bill to update roads and bridges.



Biden and his Democratic Party have given themselves a deadline to seal agreement after laboring to bridge his once-sweeping $3.5 trillion vision preferred by progressives with a more limited focus that can win over party centrists. He has no Democratic votes to spare for passage in the closely divided Congress, and leaders want agreement by week’s end.

The newly proposed tax provisions, though, are likely to sour progressives and even some moderate Democrats who have long campaigned on undoing the 2017 GOP tax cuts that many believe unduly reward the wealthy, costing the federal government untold sums in lost revenue at a time of gaping income inequality.

Administration officials spoke with congressional leaders on the tax alternatives, according to a person familiar with the private talks and granted anonymity to discuss them. The changes may be needed to win over Sinema, who had objected to plans to raise the rates on corporations and wealthy individuals earning more than $400,000 a year, said the person and several others.

As it stands, the corporate tax rate is 21%, and Democrats want to lift it to 26.5% for companies earning more than $5 million a year. The top individual income tax rate would rise from 37% to 39.6% for those earning more than $400,000, or $450,000 for married couples.

Under the changes being floated that 21% corporate rate would stay the same.

However, the revisions wouldn’t be all positive for big companies and the wealthy. The White House is reviving the idea of a minimum corporate tax rate, similar to the 15% rate Biden had proposed earlier this year. That’s even for companies that say they had no taxable income — a frequent target of Biden who complains that they pay “zero” in taxes.

And there could be a new billionaires’ tax, modeled on legislation from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the chairman of the Finance Committee, who has proposed taxing stock gains of those with more than $1 billion in assets — fewer than 1,000 Americans.

Sinema has not publicly stated her position, and her office did not respond to a request for comment.

Another key Democrat, conservative Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has said he prefers a 25% corporate rate. He has been withholding his support for the bill with additional objections to its provisions on climate change and social services.

On the call with the administration and the White House, Wyden said he “stressed the importance of putting an end to America’s two tax codes, and finally showing working people in this country that the wealthiest Americans are going to pay taxes just like they do.”

The possible shift comes as Democrats appear to have made progress uniting themselves, ready to abandon what had been a loftier package in favor of a smaller, more workable proposal the party can unite around.

In the mix: At least $500 billion to battle climate change, $350 billion for child care subsidies and free pre-kindergarten, a new federal program for at least four weeks of paid family leave, a one-year extension of the $300 monthly child tax credit put in place during the COVID-19 crisis, and funding for health care provided through the Affordable Care Act and Medicare.

Likely to be eliminated or shaved back: plans for tuition-free community college, a path to permanent legal status for certain immigrants in the U.S. and a clean energy plan that was the centerpiece of Biden’s strategy for fighting climate change.

“Nothing is decided until everything is decided,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus after a morning meeting of House Democrats. “We’re just trying to get it done.”

Democrats are growing anxious they have little to show voters despite their campaign promises and have had trouble explaining what they’re trying to do with the massive package, made up of so many different proposals.

It’s a tall order that was leading to an all-out push Wednesday to answer the question — “What’s in the damn bill?” — as a press release from Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, put it.

The president especially wants to advance his signature domestic package to bolster federal social services and address climate change by the time he departs for a global climate summit next week.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive caucus member, said, “He really believes American leadership, American prestige is on the line.”

Manchin has made clear he opposes the president’s initial energy plan, which was to have the government impose penalties on electric utilities that fail to meet clean energy benchmarks and provide financial rewards to those that do.

Instead, Biden is focused on providing at least $500 billion in tax credits, grants and loans for energy producers that reach emission-reduction goals.

On other fronts, to preserve Biden’s initial sweep, Democrats are moving to retain many of the programs but trim their duration to shave costs.

Biden wants to extend the $300 monthly child tax credit that was put in place during the COVID-19 crisis for another year, rather than allow it to expire in December, but not as long as Democrats wanted.

What had been envisioned as a months-long federal paid family leave program could be shrunk to as few as four weeks — an effort to at least start the program rather than eliminate it.

Biden also wants to ensure funding for health care programs, including for home- and community-based health care services, supporting a move away from widespread nursing home care.

And a new program to provide dental, vision and hearing aid benefits to people on Medicare proposed by Sanders, is likely to remain in some fashion.

Biden has told lawmakers that after his top priorities there would be $300 billion remaining.

That could lower the overall price tag or be used for other programs.

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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Josh Boak contributed to this report.

Tool for police reform rarely used by local prosecutors

By MARTHA BELLISLE

LONG  READ


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In this photo provided by the Auburn Police Department via the Port of Seattle Police Department, Auburn police Officer Jeff Nelson is shown. Nelson has been charged in the killing of Jesse Sarey in 2019, and although Nelson has been investigated in more than 60 use-of-force cases since 2012, he wasn't placed on the King County prosecuting attorney's "potential impeachment disclosure" list, or Brady List, which flags officers whose credibility is in question due to misconduct, until after he was charged in the killing of Sarey. An Associated Press investigation based on hundreds of documents and interviews with prosecutors, defense attorneys and experts on police reform found that prosecutors do not always used the lists to ensure accountability.

 (Auburn Police Dept. via Port of Seattle Police Dept. via AP)


SEATTLE (AP) — Isaiah Obet was behaving erratically and in mental distress in 2017 when Officer Jeff Nelson ordered his police dog to attack and then shot Obet in the torso. Obet fell to the ground and Nelson fired again, fatally shooting Obet in the head. The officer said his life was in danger.

The next year, Joseph Allen was crossing in front of Nelson’s patrol car when the officer swerved and pinned him against a fence, breaking both his ankles. His justification: Allen was a dangerous criminal.

In 2019, Nelson scuffled with Jesse Sarey after attempting to arrest him for disorderly conduct. He punched Sarey seven times and then shot him in the torso. After Sarey fell to the ground, Nelson killed him with a second shot to the forehead. He claimed Sarey was on his hands and knees “ready to spring forward,” which later was disproved by both video and witnesses.

Nelson’s actions in all three cases were outlined in a criminal complaint, eyewitness accounts, and police dashcam video obtained by The Associated Press. In the past decade, Nelson has been investigated in more than 60 use-of-force cases that involved choking suspects until they passed out, severe dog bites, and physical force that required medical care. But he was not on the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s list that flags officers whose credibility is in question due to misconduct – a designation that must be shared with defense attorneys.

Nelson was only added to its “potential impeachment disclosure” list, or Brady List, after he was charged with killing Sarey. A trial is set for February 2022. Mohammad Hamoudi, a federal public defender, said given Officer Nelson’s history, all of his cases should be reviewed. And he hopes his story will encourage prosecutors to track excessive force cases involving other police officers.

“It has to do with respect for the rules, the laws, and others,” he said. “If an officer lacks impulse control or the ability to exercise informed judgment, you can call into question how he investigates cases.”

The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer has sparked a national conversation on police reform, ranging from defunding departments to enhancing training. But reform activists and civil rights advocates say prosecutors already have powerful tools at their disposal to curb bad behavior by police: They can use Brady Lists to shine a light on troubled officers, and they can then refuse to put forward cases from those officers with tarnished histories.

The AP found that prosecutors sometimes don’t even compile the lists and that wide disparities in what offenses land officers on them are prevalent across the country, with excessive force often failing to merit inclusion.

The AP also found that many prosecutors and police unions have gone to great lengths to keep Brady List information from becoming public.

Now, defense attorneys, public defenders, civil rights groups and even some prosecutors are calling for an increased use of Brady Lists and a broadening of the offenses that will land a police officer on them, while police unions are resisting those efforts.

Amy Parker of the King County Department of Public Defense called it imperative for officers’ violent histories to be exposed.

“As a career public defender, I have listened to prosecutors routinely make the argument that defendants with prior unlawful uses of force/crimes of violence are more prone to violence and lack credibility,” she said in an email. “If prosecutors are going to apply that standard to defendants, then the same standard should apply to police officers when judging their conduct.”

King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg argues excessive force doesn’t make an officer less credible. “An officer who was accused of using too much force in an unrelated arrest has nothing to do with the impeachment of their veracity,” he said.

Brady Lists stem from a ruling in the 1963 Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland mandating prosecutors turn over exculpatory evidence to defense attorneys, including information that could be used to question the officers’ credibility. But the ruling did not define the steps prosecutors and police departments must take to ensure defendants are informed or whether lists of troubled officers must be kept at all.

The result, critics say, is a mishmash of policies that vary state to state -- and even jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Prosecutors in Atlanta, Chicago, Tulsa, and Pittsburgh told the AP that they don’t track officers with disciplinary problems, and Milwaukee prosecutors only listed officers who have been convicted of crimes.

The Dallas County district attorney’s list contained 192 names, with infractions ranging from making false statements to convictions for theft, assault, and driving under the influence. The Suffolk County, Massachusetts, prosecutor’s list included Boston officers who lied on their timesheets or embezzled funds. Louisiana’s Orleans Parish district attorney tracked officers who committed crimes, lied, or drove dangerously, but not violent arrests.

Dishonesty lands an officer on the list in Detroit, Denver, and Seattle, but using excessive force does not.

The Phoenix district attorney, along with prosecutors in Orange County, Florida, and Los Angeles, were among the few the AP found who include excessive use of force cases on their lists.

“It’s like there’s a huge continuum and the result is you don’t have the same procedures being followed not only across the country but within individual states,” said Will Aitchison, an attorney with Portland, Oregon-based Labor Relations Information Systems, which represents officers after they’ve appealed discipline orders.

Some states have attempted to pass legislation that would address the lack of consistency, including the Washington State Legislature, which approved a bill this year requiring county prosecutors to develop written protocols for collecting potential impeachment information by July 2022.

The California Legislature approved a bill last year that required prosecutors to maintain a list of officers who have had “sustained findings for conduct of moral turpitude or group bias,” but Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure due to the cost of such “a significant state mandate.”

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When Larry Krasner was elected Philadelphia district attorney in 2017, his staff discovered a “do not call” list of police officers that had been compiled by a previous prosecutor.

The officers had a history of lying, bias, and excessive force and were barred from testifying “absent explicit permission from the highest levels of the district attorney’s office.”

Krasner shared the list with defense attorneys, who used the information to challenge the convictions of people imprisoned by testimony from those officers and has continued to provide timely Brady material to public defenders.

“When my client goes for a preliminary arraignment first appearance in court where they set bail, the prosecutor might disclose 20 to 30 or 40 pages of materials that they’ve generated on a particular police officer,” Philadelphia public defender Bradley Bridge said.

Using Brady List information, Bridge has filed motions to dismiss about 6,000 convictions based on officer misconduct, with more than 2,000 convictions thrown out so far.

Bridge acknowledges some of those released might be guilty.

“The problem is, there’s no way to know,” he said. “I have no idea how to evaluate whether they’re guilty or not guilty because the officer’s behavior in the cases is too tainted.”

Bridge has filed more than 500 petitions to reopen convictions tied to a sole officer who admitted falsifying records -- Christopher Hulmes of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Narcotics Strike Force, who was charged in 2015 with perjury and tampering with public records. So far, 357 of those convictions have been dismissed, many involving drugs and guns, Bridge said.

Krasner said he feels prosecutors have both a legal and moral obligation to use Brady Lists, but that local police have pushed back.

Last month, he asked for the Philadelphia Police Department to be held in contempt for not cooperating with his request for officer disciplinary material.

Kym Worthy, the prosecutor for Wayne County, Michigan, which includes Detroit, also is disclosing Brady List material to defense attorneys and the public “because in an era of criminal justice reform,” she said, “it just makes sense.”

Worthy has compiled a list of officers who have committed offenses involving theft, dishonesty, fraud, bias or bribery, saying officers who commit these crimes have lost their credibility and won’t be called to testify.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner also has said she won’t take criminal cases filed by untrustworthy officers and has an “exclusion list” with more than 50 names.

“The union’s predictable over-the-top ‘sky is falling’ reaction to any attempt to distinguish the vast majority of honest and hardworking officers from the few bad actors is one big reason why community relations with the people they serve are so frayed,” Gardner said.

Last year, police misconduct records were at issue in the hotly contested Los Angeles district attorney race between Jackie Lacey and former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, who had been the San Francisco police chief when now Vice-President Kamala Harris was the city’s district attorney and became the DA when she ascended to the state attorney general job.

Gascon had partnered with Harris and the police union to establish a “do not call” list that became the model for the state. After he won the Los Angeles election, he sent letters to local law enforcement agencies seeking the names of officers involved in 11 categories of misconduct, including bribery, theft, evidence tampering, dishonesty, and unreasonable force.

“If the officer’s history is such that we just don’t believe the officer, period, we will not use him,” Gascon said.

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Settlement agreements -- and many police union contracts -- often prohibit the release of the names of officers named in disciplinary records, but Brady Lists can blow open those closed doors.

The contract between Seattle and its police department, for instance, prohibits releasing disciplined officers’ names. But the Brady Lists sent to the AP by the King County prosecuting attorney included 51 Seattle officers.

Seventeen of those officers had criminal charges filed against them, 26 had sustained findings of dishonesty, six had shown racial bias and one violated the department’s ethics policy.

An investigation by the Office of Police Accountability found that a Seattle officer violated policies against biased policing by posting offensive comments on social media in 2019. The office was prohibited from naming the officer and so referred to him in its report as Named Employee #1, but the Brady List identified him as Ron Smith.

One of Smith’s social media comments “stated that the Islamic religion was not one of peace, suggesting that the Islamic religion and all of its approximately 1.57 billion adherents were supportive of violence,” the OPA report said.

Another post targeted Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, saying: “you weak wristed lefties don’t want border security … you want votes to keep your anti-American party in power,” the report said.

Smith resigned, but the OPA investigation did find that he engaged in “bias-based policing.”

Another Seattle officer on the Brady List was Salvatore Ditusa, who was working a side job flagging traffic when he approached three workers and “engaged in a diatribe that included multiple racial slurs towards African Americans,” the OPA said. Ditusa also resigned. The OPA found that he had also engaged in biased policing.

In Los Angeles, the battle over disclosing officer misconduct information traveled all the way to the state’s highest court.

When Jim McDonnell took over the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, he wanted to share the list of officers accused of misconduct with the prosecutor’s office, but both sides were concerned that a state law -- the peace officer’s bill of rights -- would prohibit the move.

After the police union filed an injunction to block any sharing, the case went to the state Supreme Court, which ruled in 2019 that prosecutors could be given the list.

One of the people named was homicide detective Daniel Morris.

In 2003, a car theft suspect had said Morris and other officers kicked, punched, and stomped on him – an accusation Morris denied to three different supervisors. But he eventually admitted to the beating, receiving a 30-day suspension.

That information was not shared with the district attorney’s office until 2019.

Ten years before that, Morris had investigated the murder of a gang member in Paramount, California, obtaining a search warrant for the home of Filipe Angel Acosta.

Morris testified that Acosta, who had no criminal history, was associated with a gang and he was charged with drug possession, with a gang enhancement.

Acosta refused a deal that would have involved admitting to gang involvement, but changed his mind and entered a plea of no contest after getting sick in jail and being hospitalized.

At no point did the district attorney reveal that Morris had been disciplined for dishonesty.

When Morris’ misconduct finally was disclosed, Acosta filed a motion to overturn his conviction because of the prosecutor’s Brady violation. The charges were dismissed.

As a 2013 report on the sheriff’s department by a civilian oversight group called the Office of Independent Review put it: “Instances of deputies lying in reports or during investigations do not simply affect the immediate case at hand. Instead, they may influence the outcome of every other case in which the deputy’s testimony is considered.”

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Email AP’s Global Investigations Team at investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/. See other work at https://www.apnews.com/hub/ap-investigations.

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Follow AP investigative reporter Martha Bellisle at https://twitter.com/marthabellisle

Youth yearning for independence fuel Western Sahara clashes

By ARITZ PARRA

PHTO ESSAY 1 of 18

Polisario Front soldiers during a shooting exercise, near Mehaires, Western Sahara, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. For nearly 30 years, the vast territory of Western Sahara in the North African desert has existed in limbo, awaiting a referendum that was supposed to let the local Sahrawi people decide their future. On one side, the Polisario Front wants the territory to be independent, while Morocco claims the area for itself. 

(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

MAHBAS REGION, Western Sahara (AP) — As a glowing sun sank behind the sandy barrier that cuts across the disputed territory of Western Sahara, Sidati Ahmed’s battalion launched two missiles that sizzled through the air and then followed with an artillery attack.

Within minutes, a barrage of mortar shells flew in the opposite direction, from Moroccan positions, landing with a thick column of smoke in the barren desert of what is known as Africa’s last colony.

“Low-intensity hostilities,” as a recent United Nations report describes them, have raged for the past year along the 2,700-kilometer (1,700-mile) berm — a barrier second in length only to the Great Wall of China that separates the part of Western Sahara that Morocco rules from the sliver held by the Polisario Front, which wants the territory to be independent. Both sides claim the area in its entirety.

For nearly 30 years this swath of North African desert about the size of Colorado — that sits on vast phosphate deposits, faces rich fishing grounds and is believed to have off-shore oil reserves — has existed in limbo, awaiting a referendum that was supposed to let the local Sahrawi people decide their future. Instead, as negotiations over who would be allowed to vote dragged on, Morocco tightened its control of the territory, which was a Spanish colony until 1975.

Last year, the Polisario Front announced that it would no longer abide by the 1991 cease-fire that ended its 16-year guerilla war with Morocco.

The decision was fueled by frustration among younger Sahrawi — many of whom were born in refugee camps in Algeria, have never lived in their ancestral homeland, and are tired of waiting for the U.N.-promised referendum.

“Everybody is ready for war,” said Ahmed, who spent more than half of his 32 years in Cuba before returning to enlist for battle when the truce ended last year.

“We are fed up. The only thing that is going to bring our homeland back to us is this,” Ahmed said pointing at his AK-47 weapon, as he stood on the front line in Mahbas. The region, at the crossroads of Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria, is where most of the exchanges of fire take place.


Sahrawi refugees stranded by decades old conflict

Ahmed is typical of a generation of Sahrawi youth, most of whom traveled abroad to study — from Spain to Libya — but returned to the camps to form families. And they’ve told their elders that they don’t want to die in exile, with no future to offer to their own children.

“Life abroad can be tempting,” said Omar Deidih, a baby-faced soldier and cybersecurity student who on a recent visit to the front line organized by the Polisario spoke to foreign reporters in fluent English. “But the most important thing is that we have fresh blood in this new phase of the struggle.”

The possibility, however remote, that clashes could escalate into a full-out regional war may be the Polisario’s only hope of drawing attention to a conflict with few known casualties in a vast but forgotten corner of the desert. Many in the camps feel that efforts to finally settle the status of Western Sahara have languished since Morocco proposed greater autonomy for the territory in 2004.

The front’s hopes for independence suffered a major blow last year when the U.S. in the waning days of the Trump administration backed Morocco’s claim to the territory, as part of efforts to get Morocco to recognize Israel. Other countries, including the Polisario’s main ally Algeria, recognize Western Sahara as independent, while still more support U.N. efforts for a negotiated solution.

The rising tensions have gotten the attention of the U.N., whose Minurso force oversaw the cease-fire and whose secretary-general recently appointed Staffan de Mistura, a seasoned Italian diplomat and former U.N. envoy for Syria, to take charge of the negotiations.

The Polisario’s leader, Brahim Ghali, last week warned that de Mistura must be given a clear mandate from the Security Council to carry out a referendum. Western Sahara will be before the Council on Oct. 28, when members vote on whether to extend the Minurso mission.

Achieving progress is also a matter of legitimacy for the Polisario. After years of internal division, the new hostilities have rallied pro-independence supporters around its leadership, but many fear that the lack of results could lead to more radicalization.

In the camps, the live fire from the front line reverberates strongly among refugees, who were forced to confront the precariousness of their existence when the humanitarian aid they rely on slowed to a trickle during the pandemic.

Medical missions were halted, medicine was in short supply and prices of camel, goat and chicken meat all went up, said 29-year old Dahaba Chej Baha, a refugee in the Boujdour camp. On a recent morning, the mother of a 3-year-old was sheltering in the shade while in her third hour of waiting for an Algerian truck to deliver gas canisters.

“Everything is so difficult here,” Chej Baha said, adding that those who would typically find ways to work overseas and send money back have become trapped because of pandemic-related travel restrictions. “I don’t like war, but I feel that nothing is going to change without it.”

Meima Ali, another mother, with three kids, said she was against the war, but that her voice was not listened to in a community dominated by men.

“My husband has to decide between finding work or looking like a traitor for not going to the front,” she said. “How am I going to survive without him? Here, we live as if we were dead.”

Morocco denies that there is an armed conflict raging in what it calls its “southern provinces,” where about 90,000 Sahrawi people are estimated to live alongside 350,000 Moroccans. Morocco has told the U.N. mission that its troops only return fire “in cases of direct threat” and “always in proportion to actions” of the Polisario.

In a response to questions from The Associated Press, the Moroccan government said that there have been “unilateral attacks” by the Polisario but no casualties on the Moroccan side.

It called any effort to portray the conflict as something bigger “propaganda elements intended for the media” and “desperate gesticulations to attract attention.”

Intissar Fakir, an expert on the region for the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said that a full-fledged conflict — which could pit Morocco and Algeria against each other — wasn’t in anyone’s interest. But she said that negotiating a lasting solution wouldn’t be easy either.

“Maybe in terms of international law, the Polisario have their standing, but I think Morocco here is the strongest it has ever been with the U.S. recognition and de facto control over most of the territory,” she said. But the Polisario, she added, “is more entrenched in their own position because they really have kind of nothing to lose at this point.”

Although many interviewed by the AP at the camps or on the front line expressed frustration with the years of negotiations that the Polisario defended until last year, open criticism is hard to come by in such a tight community.

Baali Hamudi Nayim, a veteran of the 1970s and 1980s war against Mauritania and Morocco, said he had been against the 1991 cease-fire.

“If it was up to me, the time for a political solution without any guarantees, through the U.N. or others, is over,” said Hamudi, who is back in his guerrilla attire to oversee battalions in the restive Mahbas. “For me, the solution is a military one.”

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Associated Press journalists Bernat Armangué in Sahrawi refugee camps and Tarik El Barakah and Mosa’ab Elshamy in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.

Origins of domesticated horses traced to north Caucasus region, study finds


New research suggests modern domesticated horses hailed from the Caucasus region, emerging about 4,000 years ago.

 File Photo by Dmytro Pylypenko/Shutterstock

Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Horses were first domesticated in the northern Caucasus region, before conquering the rest of Europe and Asia within a few centuries, according to research published Wednesday by the journal Nature.

Although Eurasia was once populated by genetically distinct horse populations, a dramatic change occurred between 2000 and 2200 BC, when a horse population with single genetic profile, previously confined to the Pontic steppes in the North Caucasus, began to spread, the researchers said.

These horses, formerly confined to their native region in present-day Russia, soon replaced all the wild horse populations from the Atlantic Ocean to present-day Mongolia within a few centuries, according to the researchers.

"We knew that the time period between 4,000 to 6,000 years ago was critical but no smoking guns could ever be found," researcher and study co-author Ludovic Orlando, said in a press release.

RELATED DNA suggests horses didn't originate in Anatolia

"The genetic data also point to an explosive demography at the time ... this is when [humans] took control over the reproduction of the animal and produced them in astronomic numbers," said Orlando, a paleogeneticist the University of Toulouse III in France.

For decades, questions such as where were modern horses first domesticated and when did they conquer the rest of the world have dominated several fields of science, according to Orlando.

In addition, how the specific type of horses now seen globally came from the myriad other types of horses that once roamed the earth remained unknown, he said.

RELATED New rules for managing wild horses, burros on horizon

In 2017, Orlando's team focused on the region of Botai in Central Asia, which had provided the oldest archaeological evidence of domesticated horses, or those trained to perform farming tasks and serve as the primary mode of transport.

However, the DNA of these 5,500-year-old horses showed they were not the ancestors of modern domestic horses.

Meanwhile, other possible locations for initial domestication, such as Anatolia, Siberia and the Iberian Peninsula, had also proved "false," according to the researchers.

RELATED Origin of domesticated horses pinpointed

As a result, the team extended their study to the whole of Eurasia by analyzing the genomes of 273 horses that lived between 50,000 and 200 years BC.

That's when they discovered horses with the same genetic make-up as those seen in other parts of the world today, they said.

The researchers also found two striking differences between the genome of this horse and those of the populations it replaced: one is linked to more docile behavior and the second indicates a stronger backbone.

This suggests that these characteristics ensured the animals' success at a time when horse travel was becoming "global," according to Orlando.

The horses spread throughout Asia at the same time as spoke-wheeled chariots and Indo-Iranian languages, he and his colleagues said.

However, the migrations of Indo-European populations, from the steppes to Europe during the third millennium BC, could not have been based on the horse, as its domestication and population spread came later, they said.

Woman captures 'Brocken spectre' on video at ridge in Washington state
By Lauren Fox, Accuweather.com

A Brocken spectre, center-left, is seen among the clouds on Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park in Washington state on October 11. Photo by Nikki Klein/Facebook

Nikki Klein was having a less-than-pleasant day earlier this month when she decided to venture out to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, leading her directly into a "magical" encounter the likes of which she had never experienced before.

Klein resides in Santa Clarita, Calif., but lived on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state for the first 30 years of her life and grew up with Olympic National Park as her back yard.

She was visiting her father in Port Angeles, Wash., when she was having a "pretty crummy morning" on Oct. 11. To relax, she decided to go enjoy some time out exploring nature.

"I went up to the mountains to just kind of wash the crumminess of the morning off me," Klein told AccuWeather.

She sat for a while in a meadow watching the clouds roll by before deciding to walk up to a mountainous area known as Hurricane Ridge. The sun was beginning to go down, and when she arrived, she eventually met another hiker and spent some time chatting with him. It was then that the other hiker pointed out what looked like a rainbow.

"I turned around and said, 'What in the world is that?'" Klein recalled in an interview with AccuWeather. "I've never seen anything like it before."

The phenomenon is commonly referred to as a glory, or in the case of Klein's experience, a "Brocken spectre" -- meaning it is "broken" because the full circle of the rainbow cannot be seen.

When the phenomenon is visible in the air from a plane, it is sometimes referred to as a "pilot's glory."

A "pilots glory" is seen on a flight from Seattle to Philadelphia on October 8. 

The outline of the airplane can be seen in the middle of the glory.

 Photo by Nicole LoBiondo/AccuWeather

A glory is a sequence of colored rings that resemble a rainbow framing the shadow of the observer on a cloud made up of many small water droplets. On very rare occasions, a glory can occur on dew instead of a cloud.

For a glory to occur and be witnessed, AccuWeather meteorologist Nicole LoBiondo said, the sun must be behind the observer, and fog or water droplets must be located below the observer's horizon. The sunlight is then refracted by the water and fog droplets.

"You need fog or a thin cloud below your position in order to see a glory ... but clear and dry [weather conditions] where you stand," LoBiondo said.

While the breathtaking sight may be an unusual one, LoBiondo said, it can actually occur rather frequently and most often can be seen from airplanes.

LoBiondo said a higher elevation is key in witnessing a glory, which is why reports of the phenomenon happen most frequently on airplanes.

A Brocken spectre typically does not occur on ground level, so in order to see one, a person must be on a higher elevation, such as a mountain, like the one seen in Klein's video. At its highest point, Hurricane Ridge has an elevation of 5,242 feet.

"There was a moment that it was a little alarming, and then I moved and realized it was my shadow," Klein said of the experience.

She and the other hiker each had separate glories framing their shadows, so he was not showing up in hers and she was not showing up in his.

"We were just having fun and doing funny things in the shadows just awestruck by the beautiful moment," she said. "It was such an amazing, beautiful moment."

Klein shared the video and photos she took of the glory on YouTube.

One thing that could only be captured by a firsthand experience was the size of the glory, which Klein said did not show up clearly on camera. The size got bigger and smaller as the mist got denser and more sparse, but the projection was "massive" and Klein said her shadow on the other mountain probably stood around 100 feet tall.

"I spend so much time on the tops of mountains hiking and out in the wilderness, and to never have seen anything like that ever in my whole life ... it was just the right time and the right place and it was so magical," Klein said. "It felt like a gift."

Despite being an avid hiker and a snowboard instructor at Mammoth Mountain, Klein has never seen a glory prior to this experience and didn't even know what it was."Almost every time I go out I see something that I've never seen before," Klein, who recently hiked the entire John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada, said.

The trail is more than 200 miles long and she hiked it on her own.

"Almost every day you can witness something that almost nobody will ever see in their whole life," she added.

Klein was quick to document the sight as fast as possible because she thought it would only last for a second, but it ended up lasting for around 30 minutes. She said looking back, she isn't sure that people would have believed her experience had pictures of it not existed.

She also said that the ability to witness the glory in person felt like a "gift" made just for her.

"I know that it is an easily scientifically explained phenomenon, but it really felt like it was a gift just for me," she said. "I really like the quote that you can live your life as if everything is magic or nothing is magic, and this certainly felt like a magical  experience."   

How Spain seeks to prop up its young and desperate generation

A grave lack of state support programs has driven many young Spaniards to despair in recent years, which were marked by multiple economic crises. As students are suffering the most, efforts are underway to help them.


A series of crises has forced thousands of young Spaniards to leave their country in search of employment

Ivan Rosero is 22 years old, and he frankly admits that he's not getting along well with his parents these days. Yet, he continues to live with them in the family's house, and says that he has neither the will nor the money to move out.

Rosero belongs to the majority of young Spaniards who are unable to move out of their parents' house before turning 30 — four years later than the average for the whole of the European Union. Spain's political leaders have long used the country's traditionally close family relations as an excuse for inaction on the rising social problem. And while the government has saved itself the expense of a national program, a whole generation of young people has apparently put up with staying longer with their parents.

Undergoing vocational training as a video technician, Ivan Rosero currently earns nothing to support himself

But change is on its way, if plans by the government of leftist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez are approved by parliament. Under his 2022 budget proposal, Sanchez is planning to offer young people a state allowance of €250 ($289) a month to incentivize them to move out of their parents' houses and apartments.

The stipend would give young people "access to decent rental housing," Sanchez said when he announced the proposal on October 7. All adults between 18 and 35 who earn less than €23,725 per year would be eligible.

Culture shift

The proposal comes at a time when Spain is experiencing a high youth unemployment rate.

According to Eurostat research, a huge problem for young people in Spain has been a bumpy road to tertiary qualifications, which is hardly ever a guarantee for employment in the country. Degrees are the longest in the EU, typically taking 4 years to complete.

An added irritation is low wages, prompting many to just look for internships or continue to study in the hopes of improving future employment prospects. There's also been an overreliance on the public sector for stable employment.

Some 40% of all 29-year-olds have no regular paying job, and there's a shrinking rental market and rising rents.

In addition to rental support, Sanchez now wants to introduce a cultural bonus of €400 for all young people who turn 18, costing the government a "little more than €200 million," according to his figures. The aim of the initiative is to foster cultural activity in Spain after the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Julieta Martinez enjoys her stint studying in Germany and the multiple opportunities for students there

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Julieta Martinez, who is currently on a student exchange program in the northwestern German town of Münster, is surprised about the large number of job offerings for students in Germany.

"Here it's so uncomplicated to get a flexible student job, and on top of it there are cheap rentals and a state-run benefit program available for students," she said. Nothing similar could be found in Spain, she told DW, quite the contrary: "Employers in Spain always want job experience, but how can we obtain that if we are not even able to get hold of a student job?"

Here, too, the Sanchez government wants to introduce labor market reforms that aim to improve the image of job training. For that, he's planning to use part of the €140 billion in funding Spain will receive from Brussels under the European Union's "Next Generation EU" pandemic recovery program. The government, employers and trade unions have already agreed to raise the national minimum wage to €950 a month, cut the huge number of precarious work contracts and install a model of vocational training resembling that in Germany.

Academic taxi drivers

These Spanish labor market reforms are the brainchild of Yolanda Diaz, the country's minister for labor and social economy and second deputy prime minister in the government coalition.

"We need to start reforming our education system to make it compatible with the needs of the market and so reduce the high unemployment rate among our youth," she said, adding that too many young people obtained a university degree just to end up as taxi drivers.

The 50-year-old leader of the United Left (IU) is believed to be the new rising star in the Sanchez cabinet. Success in reforming the labor and education systems is deemed crucial for Sanchez and his campaign to win a third term in the 2023 elections. A key element in Diaz's reforms is reducing Spain's huge school dropout rate of 16% — the highest in all of Europe.

So far, however, it remains unclear if the youth-friendly reform proposals will find a majority during a vote on the 2022 budget in parliament in December.

Housing problem mounting

"My sister is 26, and she's also still living at home with our parents. We are both feeling that we're stuck somehow," said Ivan Rosero, adding that he supported the reform policies proposed by Diaz.

Diaz has repeatedly warned against "US-style social conditions" in Spain that would "nurture conflict and violence in our cities" if inequality would be allowed to increase. The labor minister has found a like-minded ally in Raquel Sanchez Jimenez, Spain's minister of transport, mobility and urban agendas.

A member of the Socialist Party, Jimenez has raised the property tax for unoccupied rental housing under efforts to curb speculation and lower rents and house prices. According to the country's INE statistics office, about 3.4 million apartments are empty, with landlords speculating on rising prices.

Moreover, she's proposed a new housing law aimed at accelerating the construction of social housing projects for young families and single women.

Jimenez and Diaz both agree that Spain has to explore entirely new ways to stop an emerging social crisis that has hit the young generation in particular. "Young people have been suffering the most from the economic crisis in the 1990s, from the debt crisis in 2010, and now again, from the coronavirus crisis. We can no longer solve our problems on the backs of young people," Diaz warned.

This article has been adapted from German.

TZAR PUTIN'S

Russia puts Navalny's ally Lyubov Sobol on wanted list

Lyubov Sobol is the latest opposition figure associated with Alexei Navalny to have been placed on the police's wanted list. She and several other allies of the Kremlin critic have fled Russia.

Lyubov Sobol was one of the most well-known faces of Alexei Navalny's entourage

Lyubov Sobol, a prominent ally of Kremlin critic and opposition politician Alexie Navalny, has been placed on a wanted list in Russia, according to multiple media reports on Wednesday.

The 34-year-old lawyer, who left the country earlier this year, appeared on the list on the website of Russia's Interior Ministry on Wednesday night.

She commented on the reports of her being placed on the list, saying authorities seemed to have used a photo of her from when she was on a hunger strike.

The entry in the ministry's database stated that she was "wanted under an article of the criminal code," but did not provide further details, according to news website Meduza.

Who is Lyubov Sobol?

Sobol, a key figure in Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, rose to prominence in 2019 when she went on a hunger strike to protest being barred from participating in local elections.

The opposition politician was one of the most well-known faces of Navalny's entourage.

She reportedly fled Russia in August, days after she was sentenced to parole-like restriction amid a crackdown on the opposition.

Sobol was sentenced to a year and half of restricted movement for flouting COVID-19 regulations on protest — a charge she had called political-motivated.
Who else is on the list?

Other people critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin also feature on the most wanted list.

This includes Ivan Zhdanov, the head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, and Leonid Volkov, the opposition politician's right-hand man, both of whom are on a wanted list.

Most of Navalny's allies have left the country amid what is seen as an unprecedented crackdown on dissent in post-Soviet Russia.

Navalny was arrested in January after he returned from receiving medical treatment in Germany following a poisoning attack that nearly killed him.

The 45-year-old politician is currently serving a two-and-half-year prison sentence on embezzlement charges in a penal colony outside Moscow.

adi/sms (AFP, Reuters)

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny wins 2021 Sakharov Prize

The jailed Russian opposition leader has been awarded the European Parliament's rights prize for his efforts to challenge President Vladimir Putin's grip on power.


Navalny has been detained since January

The European Parliament on Wednesday announced it awarded the European Union's top human rights prize to the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

"He has fought tirelessly against the corruption of Vladimir Putin's regime. This cost him his liberty and nearly his life. Today's prize recognises his immense bravery and we reiterate our call for his immediate release," European Parliament President David Sassoli said on Twitter.

Kremlin critic unlikely to take part in awards ceremony

Navalny is unlikely to be able to travel to receive the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on December 15 at the award ceremony in Strasbourg.

The prize, named after a Soviet dissident, is awarded by the European Parliament every year. Since 1988, the €50,000 ($58,156) prize has been awarded to individuals and rights organizations for their work toward promoting and defending human rights and freedoms.

Also among the nominees for this year's award were UK-based environmental and rights group Global Witness, jailed former Bolivian President Jeanine Anez, Sahrawi activist Sultana Khaya and 11 Afghan women.

'Mr. Putin, free Alexei Navalny'

The parliament's EPP Christian Democrat group announced Wednesday's decision in a tweet. "Mr. Putin, free Alexei Navalny. Europe calls for his — and all other political prisoners' — freedom,'' it said.

"Navalny is the only person on this planet, who deserves the Sakharov prize. He has been fighting for the freedom of speech, liberty, democracy, transparency and against corruption for decades and he has paid a big price himself. He was put in jail, fined, his organization was demolished. He was poisoned," said Peter van Dalen, a European lawmaker and member of the EPP, in a DW interview.

"This is the strongest signal that we from Europe can give to support Navalny. We give hope to the Russian opposition. We say: 'We hear you. We do not forget you.' And this message of hope we send now to Navalny and to the Russian opposition," he added.

VIDEO Navalny wins Sakharov Prize - AI's Katharina Masoud speaks to DW

In January, Navalny was detained after flying back to Russia from Germany. The 45-year-old dissident was sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony for violating parole from a previous conviction he says is politically motivated.

Ahead of his return to Moscow, Navalny was in Germany for five months for medical treatment after being poisoned in Siberia in August 2020 with a military nerve agent. Russia has denied its involvement and has accused the West of a smear campaign against it.

A Moscow court in June labeled Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption and its network of regional offices extremist groups, a ruling that exposed Navalny's allies to prosecution.

Last month, Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes in Russia, launched another probe targeting Navalny. The committee said that by 2014 Navalny had "created an extremist network and directed it" with the aim of "changing the foundations of the constitutional system in the Russian Federation."

Still, Navalny's allies have continued to criticize the Kremlin. During last month's Russian election, they launched a tactical voting app in a bid to challenge the country's ruling party.

VIDEO  Russian opposition a year after Navalny poisoning

 

A flashpoint in EU-Russian tensions

Navalny's recognition with the human rights prize will likely heighten tensions between the 27-nation bloc and Russia.

The EU has been calling for Navalny's release since he was first arrested, and it views his imprisonment as politically motivated.

Last year, the bloc imposed sanctions on six Russian officials for their alleged involvement in the poison attack on Navalny.

The European Parliament had awarded the 2020 Sakharov Prize to the Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya — also amid tensions with Minsk and sanctions against top Belarusian officials.

Renata Alt, a member of the Bundestag with the Free Democrats (FDP) told DW that the announcement was an "important sign that he will not be forgotten behind bars." She then criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who she said had never taken enough action against Putin's government.

fb,es/wd (AP, Reuters)

1929 REDUX

China's Evergrande shares plunge after major trade deal collapses

A view of the Evergrande Center building in Shanghai on September 24, 2021. 

© Hector Retamal, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Issued on: 21/10/2021 

Chinese property giant Evergrande's shares plunged Thursday after resuming trading in Hong Kong, with the failure of a unit sale deal deepening fears the indebted firm will collapse and send shockwaves through the world's second-largest economy.

Evergrande had suspended trading on October 4 pending an announcement on a "major transaction" as it struggled with some $300 billion of debt - with investors worried about the potential fallout from its predicament.

On Thursday, shares dropped more than ten percent as it ended its two-week suspension.

A deal worth HK$20.04 billion (US$2.58 billion) to sell a 50.1 percent stake in its property services arm had fallen through, it said in a statement Wednesday, when it announced it would resume trading.

The buyer in talks with Evergrande was a unit under Hong Kong real estate firm Hopson Development Holdings, which said in a stock market filing it "regrets to announce that the vendor has failed to complete the sale".

Hopson shares rose five percent on Thursday as Evergrande Property Services tumbled.

Evergrande said it would continue to implement measures to ease its liquidity issues, cautioning that "there is no guarantee that the group will be able to meet its financial obligations".

In a stark assessment of its current state of trading, Evergrande said it had sold only 405,000 square metres of real estate throughout September and October so far - normally a peak period for sales.

Contracted property sales totalled just 3.65 billion yuan ($571 million) - a near collapse on the 142 billion yuan it recorded in a similar period last year.

There has been no further progress on asset sales, said the group, following the sale of a $1.5 billion stake in a regional Chinese bank in September.

The Shenzhen-based company has missed several payments on dollar-denominated bonds, and a 30-day grace period on an offshore note is up on Saturday.

'Contagion'

Fears that Evergrande could collapse and send shockwaves through the Chinese economy have rattled buyers and markets - though Beijing has insisted any fallout would be containable.

Data this week showed China's economic growth slowed more than expected in the third quarter as the crackdown on the property sector and an energy crisis began to bite.

In a sign of the ongoing weakness, home sales by value slumped 16.9 percent year-on-year in September, following a 19.7 percent fall in August, AFP calculations based on official data showed.

China's new-home prices also fell for the first time in six years last month.

Several domestic property rivals have in recent weeks already defaulted on debts and have seen their ratings downgraded.

Hong Kong-listed Sinic Holdings became the latest to miss a payment, while mid-sized competitor Fantasia also failed to meet obligations in recent weeks.

Evergrande first listed in Hong Kong in 2009, raising HK$70.5 billion in its initial public offering - making it China's largest private real estate company and founder Xu Jiayin the mainland's richest man at the time.

In an expansion spree, Xu - also known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese - bought the then-embattled Guangzhou football team in 2010, renaming it Guangzhou Evergrande and pouring money into world-class players and coaches.

The group diversified into various sectors, including bottled water and electric vehicles.

But Evergrande started to falter under the new "three red lines" imposed on developers in a state crackdown in August 2020 - forcing the group to offload properties at increasingly steep discounts.

"Contagion has surfaced across parts of China's homebuilding sector, triggered by the distress of Evergrande and aggravated by subsequent credit events involving other developers," warned analysts at Fitch Ratings in a note on Thursday.

"Market volatility has weakened near-term refinancing prospects and exacerbated liquidity strains for developers with weaker credit profiles."

They predicted that the "mounting pressure will lead the authorities to take further measures to accelerate credit growth before the year-end."

(AFP)

THEY NEED A CONFEDERATION OF REGIONS
Ethiopia launches new round of air strikes in Tigray

Issued on: 21/10/2021 

A damaged tank stands on a road north of Mekele, the capital of Tigray, February 26, 2021

 © Eduardo Soteras, AFP
Text by:NEWS WIRES

Ethiopia's military launched new air strikes on Tigray Wednesday, the second round of bombardments this week against rebel targets in the war-battered region.

The raids mark a sharp escalation in the brutal year-long conflict pitting government forces and their allies against the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the region's once dominant ruling party.

The international community has voiced alarm about the new attacks in the north, where fighting since November has killed thousands of people and left millions in need of emergency aid.

The government said it bombed TPLF weapons caches in the regional capital Mekele and the town of Agbe which lies about 80 kilometres (50 miles) to the west, after two raids on Mekele on Monday.

"It targeted at the facilities that TPLF have turned into arms construction and repair armaments sites," government spokesman Legesse Tulu said of the latest Mekele strike.

Dr Hayelom Kebede, research director at Mekele's Ayder Referral Hospital, said eight people had been wounded, including a pregnant woman.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that initial information indicated some civilians including women and children were injured.

"It was heavy and the jet was so close," one local resident told AFP, with witnesses reporting thick clouds of smoke rising up over the city.

The United States, which has threatened sanctions if the warring parties do not reach a negotiated settlement, issued a strong statement denouncing the violence.

"We have seen the credible reports of attacks in and around Mekele. The United States condemns the continuing escalation of violence, putting civilians in harm's way," State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted.

The conflict has created a deep humanitarian crisis with the United Nations saying around two million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands plunged into famine-like conditions.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government, barely two weeks into its new term, seems to be waging a new offensive against the TPLF, which dominated national politics for almost three decades before he took power in 2018.

William Davison, the International Crisis Group's senior analyst for Ethiopia, said the strikes "appear to be part of efforts to weaken Tigray's armed resistance," as the TPLF makes gains in the neighbouring Amhara region.

"Along with superior manpower, control of the skies is one of the few remaining areas of military advantage for the federal government."

'Surgical operations'  NO SUCH THING

TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda said Wednesday's raid on Mekele hit a residential area "causing injury to civilians and harm to property".

"Abiy's reaction to his losses in the ongoing fighting is to target civilians hundreds of kms away from the battlefield," he said on Twitter.

He later claimed TPLF fighters had taken control of at least two towns in Amhara, putting the cities of Kombolcha and nearby Dessie -- where tens of thousands have sought refuge from the rebel advance since July -- "within artillery range".

Much of northern Ethiopia is under a communications blackout and access for journalists is restricted, making battlefield claims difficult to independently verify.

Tigray remains under a de facto blockade, with the warring parties each accusing the other of hampering the delivery of desperately needed aid.

Legesse, the government spokesman, charged that the TPLF was using ordinary people as human shields.

"We confirm and assure these surgical operations have not any intended harm to civilians," he said.

On Monday, there were two aerial assaults in and around Mekele, the city held by the TPLF since it was recaptured from government forces in June.

The United Nations said those attacks had killed three children and wounded nine people.

'Strengthening Tigrayan resolve'

"The bombing of urban areas... reinforces the impression that Addis Ababa is willing to risk civilian lives in Tigray as part of its military efforts, something also demonstrated by the continued federal constraints on aid flows and refusal to provide electricity, banking, and telecommunications services to the region," the ICG's Davison said.

"As such, the air raids may have the effect of strengthening the Tigrayan resolve to resist, rather than weaken it."

Fighting first erupted in Africa's second most populous country last November when Abiy sent troops to Tigray to topple the TPLF after months of rising tensions.

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps and promised a swift victory.

But in a dramatic turnaround, the TPLF retook most of the region including Mekele by late June and has since pushed south into Amhara and Afar.

The UN says up to seven million people in the three regions are now in need of food assistance and other emergency support.

(AFP)

Amazon, Ikea, seven others commit to zero-emission shipping by 2040


Nine major companies on Tuesday announced an initiative called Cargo Owners for Zero Emissions Vessels, in which they pledged to employ only ocean shippers that use zero-carbon fuel by 2040.

 File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo



Oct. 19 (UPI) -- A group of nine major companies including Amazon, Ikea and Unilever on Tuesday pledged to only use ocean shippers that run on zero-carbon fuel by 2040.

The initiative known as Cargo Owners for Zero Emissions Vessels, or coZEV, was organized by the nonprofit Aspen Institute, which listed Amazon, Brooks Running, Frog Bikes, Ikea, Inditex, Michelin, Patagonia, Tchibo and Unilever as partners.

"By setting this target and signaling our dedication to decarbonize this part of our supply chains, we hope to inspire a surge in investment by ocean freight carriers and producers of zero-carbon shipping fuels," the companies said in a joint announcement.

The companies said they will work to track their maritime transportation emissions, seek opportunities to expand the group of cargo owners engaged in maritime decarbonization and unify their collective freight demand to help accelerate the transition.

They also called for lawmakers to act in their "domestic, regional and international capacities" to align the shipping industry with the goals of the Paris climate agreement by implementing regulations and market-based measures to promote rapid production of new fuels and technology, thus allowing zero-carbon shipping fuels to "become competitive with fossil fuels as soon as possible."

Environmental groups praised the companies for committing to zero-carbon shipping but said the 2040 goal date was not soon enough.

"We're asking Big Retail to be first movers in shipping's clean energy transition -- not just float along -- which means a 2040 target date is not sufficient," Madeline Rose, climate campaign director of Pacific Environment, said in a statement.

Rose also noted that several big-name retailers were absent from the agreement.

"We're shocked to see that Walmart, the single-largest maritime importer to the United States, did not join today's commitment," she said. "Where are Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes and many leading maritime importers as documented in our Shady Ships report?"

Tuesday's announcement comes amid an increased focus on the supply chain, which is beset by increased congestion and shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Joe Biden last week ordered major ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., to run for 24 hours a day and couriers such as FedEx and retailers such as Walmart, Target and Home Depot to expand their hours to relieve the slowdowns.

Zero-emission, crewless cargo ship to launch by year-end

The fully electric, autonomous cargo ship Yara Birkeland is on track for its first voyage between two Norwegian cities by the end of the year. 

Photo courtesy of Yara International

Aug. 25, 2021

 (UPI) -- The Yara Birkeland, the first zero-emissions, crewless cargo ship, built by Norwegian company Yara International, is set to make its first journey by the end of the year.

The ship will be monitored from three onshore data control centers when it makes its voyage between two Norwegian towns, CNN reported Wednesday.

The fully electric container ship is designed to reduce emissions in the shipping industry, which currently accounts for between 2.5% and 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The crewless cargo ship was conceptualized in 2017 and can carry 103 containers at speeds up to 13 knots.

The COVID-19 pandemic and logistical challenges delayed the launch of the Yara Birkeland, which originally was scheduled for 2020.

"[I]nnovation projects come with uncertainties and challenges," Yara International said in a news release in November. "In particular, the autonomous logistics on land that have proven to be a challenge for the project.

"The construction of the ship has been done according to plan with slight delays, including the fitting of the battery, control and navigation systems, For the autonomous logistics on land the project team continues to look for simplified solutions to this."

The crewless ship follows an autonomous ferry launched in Finland in 2018.