Thursday, October 28, 2021

PFAS FOREVER CHEMICALS

Toxic chemicals linked to infertility found in Big Macs and Taco Bell burritos

burger king double cheeseburger and mcdonalds chicken nugget dipped in ranch
Researchers ordered burgers, chicken nuggets, and fries at two top fast food chains. Erin McDowell/Insider
  • Researchers tested burgers, burritos, and pizza from six of the top fast food chains in the US for various chemicals.

  • They found chemicals that have been linked to reproductive problems in more than 80% of the samples.

  • Most Americans are exposed to multiple sources of phthalates in their daily lives, and Black populations are especially at risk.

Most Americans know that fast food is not good for their health, especially since films like "Super Size Me" and "Food Inc" took a critical look at the industry in the early aughts.

But consumers may not realize that they could be getting a side of chemicals along with the sugar, salt, and trans fats in their fast food meals, Lariah Edwards, a postdoctoral scientist at George Washington University, told Insider.

In a recent study, Edwards and colleagues ordered from six of the most popular fast food chains in the US - McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Taco Bell, and Chipotle - and tested samples of the food for 11 plasticizing chemicals.

They ordered the most popular meal at each restaurant with the typical fixings: hamburgers, chicken nuggets, and fries at the burger joints; burritos loaded with chicken, rice, beans, salsa, and more at the Tex-Mex chains; and a couple plain cheese pies from the pizza places. Generally, foods containing meats had higher levels of chemicals.

More than 80% of samples contained known phthalates, a class of chemicals used to make plastic softer and more flexible. Phthalates and other plasticizers are commonly found in food packaging and gloves, despite their known effects on human health.

Past studies have found people who reported eating more fast foods had higher levels of phthalates in their urine, but this is the first effort to test the food itself with a new generation of plasticizers in mind.

Phthalates have been linked to reproductive problems and early death

Several phthalates have been found to interfere with hormone function, which can lead to a cascade of problems with fertility and child development.

People with high levels of phthalates in their urine were also found to be more likely to die early, especially due to heart disease, in a recent study.

While one Big Mac probably won't kill you, it's important to consider your phthalates exposure overall, Edwards said. Exposures in food can build on other sources of chemicals, like cosmetics and cleaning products.

"While they don't build up in your body the way that PFAS chemicals do, you still are being constantly exposed to these phthalates from multiple sources," Edwards told Insider.

Since the chemicals have been linked to adverse health effects, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the use of eight phthalates in children's toys and child-care articles in 2017. However, those banned substances are still used in other plastics, and at least four of them were detected in fast foods.

The researchers also tested for a new plasticizer called DEHT, which is used to replace banned phthalates, and found it in 86% of the food tested. Replacement plasticizers like DEHT are not yet well-studied for possible health effects, but the GW team found they "behaved similarly" to ortho-phthalates in terms of acting on hormone receptors.

Racial residential segregation means Black people may be especially at risk for phthalate exposures

The study authors noted that certain racial and ethnic groups are more likely to eat fast food than others because of many factors, including a history of racial residential segregation. Predominantly Black neighborhoods tend to have a higher density of fast food restaurants, and less access to affordable fresh food, Edwards said.

Because Black Americans consume more fast food than any other racial group, they may be exposed to higher levels of phthalates and other chemicals. Black women have also been found to have elevated levels of some phthalates and parabens in their urine because the chemicals are used in their hair products, although they're often left off the labels.

Given the lack of transparency around these chemicals, the impetus really falls on regulators to keep phthalates out of food and personal care products, the authors concluded.

"Maybe you want to eat less fast food, but that's not always an option for everybody," Edwards said. "Fast food is a convenient alternative to having to cook at home, so it should be not full of chemicals."

The restaurants included in the study did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

 

They're Back! River Otters Returning to Texas Waterways

They're cute, furry, playful, and now, after a prolonged hiatus, they're on the rebound in Texas!

That's right y'all, North American river otters are reportedly reclaiming their former territory in the Lone Star State.

Diana Foss, an urban biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), confirmed to Texas Monthly that otters have been returning to the state's waterways over the past decade. They've even been spotted frolicking in Houston's Buffalo Bayou.

"In the next ten or 20 years, I'm anticipating that more people will see river otters in the wild or in their backyards, depending on where they live," Foss told the publication.

Otters, which are currently most common throughout the Southeast, once occupied every part of Texas. Sadly, hunting and trapping nearly wiped Texas' population out during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Recent limits on otter hunting, however, have allowed them to rebuild their numbers. Today, TPWD believes otters and their pups inhabit "every river system in East Texas," according to Foss.

WATCH: Zoo Miami Welcomes 3 Adorable Otter Pups

Scientists believe that hunting restrictions only tell one part of the story. River otters also serve as a bellwether for the health of a river system. Basically, healthy rivers beget healthy river otters. Otters feed on things like fish and crawfish, which are very sensitive to pollutants.

Foss told Texas Monthly that the return of the river otters signals an improvement in water quality. And, as our hard work to improve their habitats continue, otters will continue to expand their territory.

Welcome back, cuties!

Enes Kanter wears shoes accusing Nike of slave labor during Celtics game


Virginia Aabram
Wed, October 27, 2021


Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter is following up on his Monday video accusing Nike of using Uyghur slave labor, but this time, he let the shoes do the talking.

The white shoes, which he wore during Monday night’s game against the Charlotte Hornets, feature written phrases such as “hypocrite Nike,” “modern day slavery,” “no more excuses,” and “made with slave labor" and are speckled in red paint resembling blood.

'SLAVE LABOR': NBA PLAYER ENES KANTER ACCUSES NIKE OF USING UYGHUR FORCED LABOR

He echoed his video by calling on Nike owner Phil Knight, as well as star basketball players Michael Jordan and LeBron James, to go with him to China to see the conditions under which the company's shoes are made.

The shoes are the latest in Kanter’s #FreedomShoes, which he’s worn on the court to emphasize his stance against China.

Last week, Kanter railed against the Chinese oppression of Tibet and posted images of custom shoes emblazoned with “Free Tibet” and images of a monk immolating himself.


He’s also posted another pair of shoes condemning the treatment of China's Uyghur Muslim minority, which has been subjected to forced labor and reeducation. A third pair of custom sneakers called for the Chinese public to break free from the Communist Party.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The National Basketball Association is apparently reticent to criticize China, most likely due to the large share of its market based in the country.

ACTIVISION/BLIZZARD
The $62 billion company behind 'Call of Duty' just canceled its huge annual fan event amid a major misconduct investigation

Ben Gilbert
Wed, October 27, 2021


Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. Blizzard is a subsidiary of Activision. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick


The game company behind "Call of Duty" and "Diablo" is being sued by the state of California.

A two-year investigation into the company found a pervasive "frat boy" culture.

Amid the investigation, a major annual fan event named "BlizzCon" has been cancelled.

"Call of Duty" publisher Activision is cancelling its annual BlizzCon fan event next February amid ongoing sexual harassment and misconduct investigations.


"We've decided to take a step back and pause on planning the previously announced BlizzConline event scheduled for early next year. This was a tough decision for all of us to make, but it's the right one," the company said in a blog post. "Whatever the event looks like in the future, we also need to ensure that it feels as safe, welcoming, and inclusive as possible."

Activision, which is the parent company of "World of Warcraft" and "Overwatch" maker Blizzard Entertainment, is being sued by the state of California for fostering a "pervasive frat boy" culture where women are paid less for the same jobs that men perform, regularly face sexual harassment, and are targeted for reporting issues, the suit said.

Many of the accusations in the suit focus on Blizzard Entertainment, and some of the misconduct described by current and former employees is said to have happened at prior years of BlizzCon.

The event, held annually in California, has drawn tens of thousands of Blizzard fans together for several days of game reveals, exclusive opportunities to play unreleased games, and panels with Blizzard's game makers.

It has been seen as a chance for uber-fans of Blizzard's wildly popular games to get together, cosplay as their favorite characters, and directly interact with the people who make the games they love. It was also, according to a Bloomberg report from August, an opportunity for Blizzard's "rock star" male developers to potentially turn their fans into sexual partners.

"They will wrangle up the cosplayers or the girls or whoever they see at BlizzCon," Christina Mikkonen, a six-year veteran of Blizzard who left in 2019, told Bloomberg.

In the weeks following the announcement of the lawsuit, Activision employees staged a walkout and demanded changes at the company. Dozens of employees have since been let go, Activision said.
THE FATHER OF SOCIO-BIOLOGY
Harvard's modern-day Darwin warns against humanity's downward slope







American biologist E.O. Wilson is interviewed by Reuters in Lexington

Tim McLaughlin and Kanupriya Kapoor
Wed, October 27, 2021, 

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Harvard University scientist who has called for setting aside half the planet as a nature preserve says the slope of human history will always be downward unless there is global cooperation to save existing species.

Edward O. Wilson, a 92-year old naturalist hailed as the Darwin of the 21st century, said humankind is not too polarized to save the planet, even as some of the world's biggest polluters drag their feet on cutting carbon emissions and arresting global warming.

He sees preventing catastrophic climate change -- the aim of U.N. climate talks starting in Scotland on Sunday -- and saving biodiversity, or the variety of plant and animal species in the world, as two initiatives that must happen together.

"This is the most communal endeavor with a clear definable goal that humanity has ever had and we need to get the kind of cooperation and ethical harmony and planning in order to make it work," Wilson told Reuters in an interview outside Boston on Oct. 21.

"Otherwise, the slope of human history will always be downward."


Today, species are going extinct at a rate not seen in 10 million years, with around 1 million currently on the brink. To limit the loss, the United Nations has urged countries to commit to conserving 30% of their land and water – almost double the area currently under some form of protection - by 2030.

The so-called "30 by 30" target is in part inspired by Wilson's Half-Earth Project. First outlined in 2016, it calls for protecting half the planet's land and sea so there are enough diverse and well-connected ecosystems to reverse the course of species extinction.

"The point is that human nature has not changed enough. Our strongest propensities of a social nature tend to disfavor the lives of most other species," Wilson said.

Humanity continues to solve problems by burning materials - coal and oil - left behind by ancient organisms, Wilson said, decrying the continued exploration and burning of fossil fuels, which amplifies the destruction of biodiversity.

The Group of 20 rich countries remain divided over phasing out coal and committing to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. G20 nations account for 80% of global emissions, but big polluters such as China and India have also so far dug in their heels.

THE ANT MAN STARTED YOUNG

Alongside British naturalist Sir David Attenborough, Wilson is considered the world's leading authority on natural history and conservation.

He is also the world's foremost authority on ants, of which he has discovered over 400 species. He has written two Pulitzer Prize-winning books and popularized the term "biodiversity", leading to a movement to preserve all species on the planet while safeguarding against humankind's domination of natural resources. He has worked at Harvard for 70 years and still puts in time as a curator in entomology.

His trajectory as an entomologist - someone who studies insects - was set at age 10, when he spent hours in the woods of Rock Creek Park in Washington D.C.

"I already had a serious library from my collection of bugs and butterflies," Wilson recounted during the interview.

A highlight of his career would come years later when he climbed more than 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) to the center of the Sarawaged Range in Papua New Guinea.

He said he owes part of his adventuresome spirit to his great-grandfather, William "Black Bill" Wilson, who piloted a steam ship during the U.S. Civil War. He was captured and imprisoned by Union troops for trying to move arms and other supplies to the Confederacy.

Wilson is a natural storyteller and his accessible writing style is on full display in "The Ants", a 1990 book he wrote with Bert Holldobler. The monograph is more than 700 pages and weighs more than 7 pounds (3.2 kg).

He said one of his greatest achievements was working out how ants communicate danger and food trails, for example, by emitting chemicals.

Now living in a retirement community in a suburb of the northeastern U.S. city of Boston, Wilson continues to write and is working on a book about ecosystems.

Despite his love and fascination of ants, he waves off any suggestion that humans should model themselves after their traits or those of any other species as a way of improvement.

"I'm going to say something daring," Wilson said. "To follow the ethics and behavior of most other species would lead us to even more warfare over (resource) utilization ..."

Still, he is optimistic humankind will set aside more space than it has in the past to save the rest of Earth's biology.

"It will be one of humanity's proudest achievements," Wilson said. "If we fail to do it, and a large portion of the biological diversity of the world is allowed to be exterminated, for all of the generations to come that carelessness will be regarded as one of humanity's greatest failures."

(Reporting By Tim McLaughlin; Additional reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor in Singapore, Editing by William Maclean)
BEAR 1    HUNTER 0

Bear vanished from Wisconsin hunter’s sight — then he felt it breathing down his neck



Mitchell Willetts
Wed, October 27, 2021,

High up in his tree stand, a Wisconsin deer hunter thought he had gone unnoticed by a black bear wandering near him in the woods — right until it stopped at the base of his vantage point.

Dalton Roach, 25, spotted the bear while bow hunting earlier this month, he told the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. Having never seen a wild bear in the flesh before, he pulled out his phone and started recording the beast as it lumbered through.

Roach, who in addition to being an avid sportsman is a pitching prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals, felt he was safe and secure.


“He was just kind of moseying around,” Roach said of the bear. “He didn’t look like he was on any kind of a mission or anything.”

Then it suddenly made a beeline toward his vantage point.

Harnessed into the tree stand, Roach was more or less stuck, he told the Leader-Telegram. And as he thought about what to do next, he heard the sound of claws on bark, inching nearer.

“The next thing I know I can hear him right behind me and feel him breathing on my back,” he told the outlet.

“Then I feel a paw on my lap. He just kind of left the paw sitting there.”

Roach sat still, afraid to aggravate or surprise the bear, and hoped it would go away on its own, KOLR reported.

“I wasn’t in a great position to defend myself,” he told the TV station.

But all that calm and patience dissolved when Roach felt an intense pressure on his back, and realized the bear had sunk its teeth into him.

“I jump up from sitting and now I can turn to face him,” Roach said.

He estimates the bear weighed around 250 to 300 pounds. It didn’t seem particularly threatened by him.

Facing the bear, Roach stretched his arms out wide and started yelling and hollering, he told KOLR. And it worked.

The bear clambered back down the tree and walked off through the woods.

“I think we’re pretty lucky that the way everything went,” Roach said, KOLR reported. “I can’t imagine he was anything more than curious. My wife would love me to say, you know, he was curious not furious. He wasn’t in a position of like true aggression, fortunately, because otherwise, it just would have gone differently.”

Once he was sure the bear was gone, Roach climbed down and walked to his truck a quarter-mile away, KARE reported.

The bear could have killed him if it wanted, Roach realizes. It’s not a thought he allowed himself to entertain at the time.

“Obviously, in the moment, I tried to not think of anything like that. I was honestly kind of laughing about it because it’s one of those situations that obviously doesn’t happen every day,” he told the station.

After a visit to the emergency room, he’s healing up well. Doctors tell him it’s likely the bite won’t even leave a scar, Roach said.

“I think it makes it a little less believable because I think people are under the impression if a bear bites you, you’re missing something,” he told KARE. “So along with it being a cool story, it can be an educational tool too.”
In pictures: A rare look into Amazon tribe's funeral rites

When the chief dies, the endangered Indigenous people in Brazil's Xingu region gather for a unique ritual. A Reuters photographer was the only journalist invited to the funeral ceremony in September.



Victims of the pandemic


The spirits of the dead were honored with painted tree trunks placed at the center of the circular village. The deceased tribal leader was one of 12 members of the community who died from COVID-19. All adults in the community have since been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

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THE YOUNGER GENERATION ADOPT A POSTMODERN PROTEST BODY DESIGN
WITH THE EXAGERATED JOKER SMILE AND THE STATEMENT BOLSONARO OUT
WRITTEN ON HIS CHEST
Benin Bronzes: 'My great-grandfather sculpted the looted treasures'

Mayeni Jones - Nigeria correspondent, BBC News
Wed, October 27, 2021, 

Monday Aigbe standing alongside a statue of his great-grandfather, one of the sculptors of the famous Benin Bronzes

On the bustling streets of Nigeria's Benin City, residents cannot wait to get their Bronzes back - for them their return symbolises reparations for some of the wrongs committed by British troops during the colonial era.

A statue of a cockerel is one priceless artefact soon to be welcomed home, after Jesus College handed it over to a delegation from Nigeria at a ceremony at Cambridge University on Wednesday.

It is one of thousands of metal sculptures and ivory carvings made between the 15th and 19th Centuries and looted by British troops in 1897 from the West African kingdom of Benin, in modern day Nigeria's Edo state.


The Benin bronze cockerel was given to Jesus College in 1905


"I feel happy that the work of my great-grandfather will be coming back to Benin," says Monday Aigbe, who, like his ancestor, is a sculptor.

He runs a foundry in Benin City, the capital of Edo state, where his craftsmen work quietly on brass statues.

The skilled workers fashion a myriad of shapes out of metal, including busts of the Oba - the title of the traditional king of Benin - as well as statues of animals and carved doors.

They have been making bronzes here for six generations. In the middle of the foundry is a large statue of Mr Aigbe's great-grandfather.

He worked for Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi when the raid took place on the Royal Palace more than 120 years ago.

"It makes me upset because they came, they destroyed the palace, they made my great-grandfather run from the city to the village," says Mr Aigbe.

The loot was amongst the most valuable African artworks ever made - and was sold or gifted to private collectors and museums around the world.


Bronzes are still made in Benin City using the same techniques - this sculptor works at Monday Aigbe's foundry

With more and more of the stolen artefacts expected back in Nigeria - on Thursday the University of Aberdeen in Scotland will also be returning one of its Bronzes - Mr Aigbe plans to take his children to see them when they go on display.
Grand designs

This will be at the Edo Museum of West African Art - a grand initiative by the governor of Edo state to house all the returned Benin Bronzes.

The authorities say it will not be completed for at least five years - construction on the building, set to be designed by famous British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye, has yet to start.

But for Theophilus Umogbai, deputy director and curator of the National Museum Benin, this is no excuse to delay returning the Bronzes.

The artefacts are akin to a library as they tell the history of the kingdom of Benin, he says.

"You now have empty shelves. The return of those objects will be like filling those shelves. There's a lacuna in our history because those objects were taken away."


Map showing ancient Benin kingdom

The British government has argued that the Benin Bronzes "properly reside" in the British Museum, which has the largest collection of them in the world - with more than 900 pieces.

Hosting the ancient objects in London also ensures they are accessible to the world, the UK authorities say.

But it is an argument that Mr Umogbai takes exception to, saying that most Nigerians will never get to see them there given visa and travel costs.

"I went to the British Museum because my trip was sponsored. I wouldn't have been able to go otherwise, even as a public servant.

"It's easier for those abroad to visit us, because of the economic buoyancy of Europe, compared to Africa."

For him the Bronzes simply do not belong in Western museums.

"When I saw the Bronzes in the British Museum I was happy at first. Then that thought was replaced by the feeling that these objects were incongruously sitting where they shouldn't be. They should be back home."
The past 'feeds inspiration'

Twenty-eight-year-old artist Joe Obamina agrees - as he believes it is the past that inspires the future.

In his sunlit studio in Benin City he makes pixellated paintings - inspired by his childhood spent indoors, playing Tetris.


"These artefacts being returned is going to mean a lot, because it will help me connect with my ancestors"", Source: Joe Obamina, Source description: Artist in Benin City, Image: v

From a distance the paintings look like a collection of multicoloured boxes, small symbols peppering the odd square. But if you squint, or better yet, watch the paintings through your phone camera, the overall image becomes clear.

"Each pixel is a continuous story. Besides the overall image, I tell other stories inside each cube," says Mr Obamina.

Despite using modern imagery, some of his work does reflects the history and culture of Edo state.

One painting depicts the Idia mask, one of the most famous Benin Bronzes. It is said to be a carving of the face of the mother of an oba from the first half of the 16th Century.


The image on the right shows Joe Obamina's pixellated interpretation of the Queen Idia mask

"My painting of the Idia mask was inspired by the ongoing restitution of the Benin Bronzes," says Mr Obamina.

"We grew up without seeing the actual mask, just the replicas. Our heritage has been scattered, so I had to paint something to depict that: the scattered heritage that is abroad.

"But nevertheless we still have our own identity and cultural practices. That's why when you take a picture of it with your phone you can still see the mask in full."

Mr Obamina's paternal great-grandfather was a sculptor. Although he does not know whether he worked on any of the ancient bronzes, he believes that seeing them will help connect him to his past.

"I'm a Nigerian, I'm an Edo citizen - so I can't really detach myself from that, it's rooted in me.

"These artefacts being returned is going to mean a lot, because it will help me connect with my ancestors."


The art dealer, the £10m bronze and the Holocaust


A Benin Bronze plaque depicting warriors of the oba on display at the British Museum

Battle for the Benin Bronzes:

A collection of intricately made brass and bronze sculptures and plaques from the palace of Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi

Created by specialist guilds working for the royal court

The plaques provide a historical record of the Kingdom of Benin, including the first contact with Portuguese emissaries

Many of the pieces were made for ancestral altars of past kings and queen mothers

The term "Benin Bronzes" is also used to refer to artefacts made from ivory, leather, coral and wood

In February 1897, the British launched a punitive expedition against the kingdom after seven British officials and traders were killed

Benin City was overrun; British forces looted the Royal Palace, which was burnt down. The oba, or king, was sent into exile

Museums in Europe have agreed to lend on rotation some of their bronzes to a new museum to be built in Benin City more than six decades after Nigeria's independence
Demand spike is behind perception of shortages - WTO economist


FILE PHOTO: Containers are seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai

Philip Blenkinsop
Wed, October 27, 2021

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Global bottlenecks are a result of a huge demand spike rather than fundamental problems in the supply chain, the WTO's chief economist said on Wednesday, in an opinion supporting the view of central banks that this is a transitory phenomenon.

G20 leaders are expected to discuss supply chain bottlenecks and apparent shortages when they meet in Italy this week, but Robert Koopman said that policies to address supply chain difficulties were ignoring the main issue.


"I think the real issue here is demand, and demand is driving what is this perception of shortages even though it's not clear to me that supplies are below where they were in 2019, except in things like automobiles," Koopman told Reuters in an interview.

"It's part of the cost of the quick recovery."

Consumer spending in advanced economies had surged, helped by fiscal and monetary support, and shifted because of the pandemic more to at-home offices and other goods from services, such as restaurants or vacations.

Fear of future supply disruptions had also led retailers and wholesalers to build inventories.

"Demand has continued to grow beyond the level that the supply chain was established to be able to provide," Koopman said.

The automotive sector has struggled. Koopman said that, with hindsight, they had made a mistake by sharply reducing orders during the pandemic, with subsequent demand far exceeding expectations. Chipmakers had meanwhile shifted focus to supply laptop and mobile phone producers, for which demand was strong throughout the pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund trimmed its forecast for global growth this year, partly due to such disruptions, but it is still strong at 5.9%, and 5.2% for advanced economies.

Koopman said that global production as a whole was strong and air and sea freight volumes were at or near all-time highs. Bottlenecks, such as at U.S. ports, concerned more the ability of trucking and rail operators who were struggling to absorb the demand surge.

The physical capital and most of the labour was still in place, so supply chains should continue to function, even if they were struggling now.

"My guess is that we should after the New Year start to see things slow down. That might depend though on stimulus measures in different countries," Koopman said.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

 Guatemalan town locked in battle against nickel mine



Solway says its El Estor operations provide jobs for more than 1,900 people 'and hundreds of local contractors'
 (AFP/CARLOS ALONZO)



El Estor's subsistence fishermen, mainly of the Mayan Q'eqchi' indigenous group, claim the Fenix mine is polluting Lake Izabal, diminishing fish stocks (AFP/Carlos ALONZO)



















The mine is operated by the Guatemalan Nickel Company, a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Solway Investment Group (AFP/Carlos ALONZO)




Henry MORALES ARANA
Wed, 27 October 2021

The inhabitants of El Estor, a town of mostly indigenous Mayans in eastern Guatemala, are living under a "state of siege", watched over by armed soldiers after their years-long fight against a nickel mine took an ominous turn.

El Estor's subsistence fishermen, mainly of the Mayan Q'eqchi' indigenous group, say the Fenix mine is polluting Lake Izabal, diminishing stocks of fish that were abundant just a generation ago.

The mine's owners deny the allegation, saying adequate environmental protections are in place.

Frustrated, residents mounted a protest against the mine on Sunday that was put down by security forces using tear gas.

The confrontation left four police officers wounded, and resulted in the government declaring a state of siege, complete with a month-long protest ban and a night curfew enforced by 1,000 police officers and soldiers deployed among the community of 100,000 people.

For three weeks before Sunday's clashes, residents of El Estor had blocked truck access to the mine operated by the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN), a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Solway Investment Group.

"This company is bringing us death," said Cristobal Pop, 44, a fisherman and protest leader who told AFP he will not be deterred by what he sees as the government's "intimidation" measures.

"I have four children and they will bear the brunt" of the nickel mining operation, he said.

"My children's future depends on me."


Fisherman and protest leader Cristobal Pop said fish were plentiful in Lake Izabal when he was a child 
(AFP/Johan ORDONEZ)


- Fewer fish, more jobs -


Pop said that when he was a child, Lake Izabal -- Guatemala's largest -- was replete with fish.

He says numbers have dwindled since the Fenix mine resumed nickel extraction and processing in 2014.

In 2017, a red slick spread over the lake, which the community blamed on mining pollution.

In resulting protests, Pop was imprisoned and his comrade Carlos Maaz shot dead.

This month, the community resumed demonstrations, accusing CGN of continuing to mine at Fenix despite a 2019 Constitutional Court order for it to suspend operations.

The court ruled in favor of local communities, who said they had not been consulted about the opening of the mine or its effects on them.

The government was ordered to open fresh consultations, but the people of El Estor say they are being excluded.

For its part, Solway said in a statement Sunday it was adhering to the court order. Extraction at Fenix has stopped, it said, but its processing plant was not affected by the ruling and continues to operate.

The company insisted it was doing all it can to minimize the environmental impact of its activities, investing in social infrastructure, and that its El Estor operations provided jobs for more than 1,900 people "and hundreds of local contractors."

- A community divided -


Guatemala, Central America's largest economy, exported 56 million kilograms (123 million pounds) of ferroalloys and ferronickel, mainly to China, in 2019, according to World Bank data.

Guatemala's earnings from the metal grew from $10 million in 2018 to $54 million last year, and this year had already reached $62 million by August, according to Central Bank figures.

El Estor resident Abelino Chub told AFP the Fenix mine was dividing the community.

"Unfortunately, the pro-mining group only sees the money... but not the level of damage that this company is generating," he said.

At the CGN headquarters, company president Dmitry Kudryakov told AFP the contamination allegations amounted to mere "speculation."

He insisted the company adhered to international environmental standards, and said the 2017 red stain was a result of bacteria caused by sewage and fertilizer pollution of the Polochic River that flows into the lake.

hma/mav/dga/mlr/to/dva/jah