ROFLMAO

Jan. 6 Capitol rioter seeks asylum in Belarus

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Evan Neumann, wanted by the FBI for participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, appears to be seeking asylum in Belarus, according to a report on its state-run news media on Monday.

Neumann is wanted for violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds, as well as for assaulting, resisting and obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder, among other charges, according to the Justice Department.

In an excerpt of his interview, Neumann claimed that he "lost almost everything and is being persecuted by the U.S. government" because he "sought justice and asked uncomfortable questions" following the 2020 presidential election, according to the Washington Post.

Neumann said he was staying in Ukraine until security service agents started following him and he escaped to Belarus. Belarusian border guards detained him on Aug. 15.

Neumann sold him home in Mill Valley, Calif., in April for $1.3 million after charges were filed against him. His brother, Mark Neumann, a local construction worker in the area, said in July he knew nothing of his brother's whereabouts

Belarus is led by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

New gold rush fuels Amazon destruction

New gold rush fuels Amazon destructionAn aerial view of an illegal gold mine in Sao Felix do Xingu, in Brazil's Para state -- as investors have sought a haven from the Covid-19 chaos in gold, illegal miners have responded by hacking rust-colored scars into the plush green of the Amazon 

(AFP/MAURO PIMENTEL)More

Joshua Howat Berger, with Valeria Pacheco in Brasilia
Mon, November 8, 2021

Standing over the gaping pit in the middle of his small farm, Brazilian wildcat miner Antonio Silva struggles to explain why he joined the new gold rush sweeping the Amazon.

The 61-year-old grandfather of six had planned to retire from illegal mining, and the environmental destruction that comes along with it.

He bought this farm in rural Sao Felix do Xingu, in the southeastern Amazon, and was starting a cattle ranch on a long-deforested patch of jungle where he would not have to cut down more trees.

But then the pandemic hit, gold prices soared, and Silva -- a pseudonym, as the man is involved in illicit activity -- couldn't resist the temptation of easy money.

He put his retirement plans on hold and spent 50,000 reais ($9,000) of his meager savings to rent an excavator, hire four workers, and dig a hole the size of a large house that now dominates his emerald pastures.

Filled with murky gray-green water, the hole is outfitted with a pump sitting on a ramshackle raft that delivers muddy sediment to a sluice to be panned for gold. To his chagrin, he has found only trace amounts so far.

"I know it's wrong. I know the problems mining causes. But I don't have anything else," says Silva, who got his start mining in the gold rush of the 1970s and 80s at the infamous Serra Pelada mine, known for images of tens of thousands of mud-soaked men swarming its cavernous sides like ants, hauling sacks of dirt from its bowels.

Now, illegal mining is surging again in the mineral-rich Amazon basin, fueled by poverty, greed, impunity and record gold prices.

As investors have sought a haven from pandemic-induced economic chaos in gold, illegal miners have responded by hacking giant rust-colored scars into the plush green of the world's biggest rainforest.

Mining has already destroyed a record 114 square kilometers (44 square miles) of the Brazilian Amazon this year -- more than 10,000 football pitches.

Silva's operation is relatively tiny, and the land he's damaging is his own.

But much of the destruction is on protected indigenous reservations.

There, gangs with heavy equipment and brutal tactics are installing huge mines, attacking villages, spreading disease, poisoning the water -- and devastating the very communities experts say are key to saving the Amazon.

- 'You'll have to kill me' -

The Brazilian Amazon has 1.2 million square kilometers (450,000 square miles) of indigenous reservations. Most of it is pristine forest, thanks to native traditions of living in harmony with nature.

Mineral-rich and remote, many reservations are also easy prey for illegal mining gangs. Their camps often are a breeding ground for other crimes, prosecutors say, including the drugs trade, sex trafficking and slave labor.

The government estimates there are 4,000 illegal miners operating on indigenous territory in the Amazon, though activists say the figure is much higher.

Recent studies found they used 100 tonnes of mercury in 2019-2020 to separate gold dust from soil -- and that up to 80 percent of children in nearby villages show signs of neurological damage from exposure to it.

Mercury also poisons the fish that many indigenous communities rely on for food.

Native peoples facing this nightmare have begun organizing anti-mining patrols and protests -- sometimes paying a heavy price.

Maria Leusa Munduruku is a leader of the Munduruku people, whose territory has been among the hardest hit.

When illegal miners started buying off community members with cash, alcohol and drugs in a bid to move in on tribal land, Munduruku, 34, organized local women to resist.

Soon, she was getting death threats, she says.

On May 26, armed men swarmed her home.

"They poured gasoline on my house, then set it on fire," she says, red flowers crowning her black hair, her baby nursing at her breast.

"I said I wasn't leaving, that they would have to kill me. Somehow, my house survived. God only knows why it didn't catch fire. They burned everything inside it."

Munduruku, who has five children and a grandson, did not back down.

In September, she traveled to Brasilia, some 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from her village, to help lead a protest of indigenous women demanding the government protect their land.

That rally came in the wake of another major indigenous demonstration in the capital a month earlier, also over land rights issues.

"We have to make sure our children have a river to fish in, land to live on," she says.

"That's why I keep fighting."

- Backed by Bolsonaro -

Brazil mined 107 tonnes of gold last year, making it the world's seventh-biggest producer.

Illegal mines have exploded under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has pushed to open indigenous reservations to mining since taking office in 2019.

A recent study found just one-third of Brazil's gold production is certified as legally mined.

Current regulations allow sellers to vouch for the origin of their gold by simply signing a paper.

The Amazon region is notoriously hard to police.

"We realized using only on-the-ground police operations was an exercise in futility," says Helena Palmquist, spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors' office in the northern state of Para.

Miners would flee into the jungle when police arrived, she says. Authorities burned the machinery left behind. But in a sign of how well-financed the gangs are, they easily replaced the excavators, which cost 600,000 reais apiece.

So prosecutors got creative, going after the powerful financiers trafficking illegal gold.

In August, they moved to suspend the operations of three major gold dealerships, asking a court to fine them 10.6 billion reais. The ruling is pending.

But there are powerful interests in play.

"Gold-sector lobbyists regularly meet with the environment minister, with top administration officials. They have direct access to the government," Palmquist says.

"And there's a very deep-rooted idea here in Brazil that the Amazon is a good that exists to be exploited."

That may be changing.

In downtown Sao Felix, Dantas Ferreira is fishing at dusk on the Xingu River, a bright blue Amazon tributary, just upstream from where another river, the Fresco, dumps its turbid, brown-stained waters into the Xingu's crystalline ones.

Authorities say the Fresco is badly polluted with illegal mining waste.

Like most people in Sao Felix, Ferreira, a 53-year-old cattle rancher, is a proud Bolsonaro supporter.

But he says the environmental destruction in the region has gone too far.

The president "needs to stop this," he says.

"If they don't crack down on illegal mining, our water is never going to be normal again."

jhb-val/sst

'We can't live in a world without the Amazon': scientist


Erika Berenguer, an Amazon ecologist, measuring the circumference of a tree during research in the Tapajos National Forest, Brazil in 2019 Marizilda Cruppe Rede Amazonia Sustentavel/AFP

Issued on: 09/11/2021 

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Erika Berenguer, an Amazon ecologist at Oxford and Lancaster universities, is one of the most prominent scientists studying how the rainforest functions when humans throw it off balance.

AFP asked the 38-year-old Brazilian to break down the latest research on the Amazon and what it means for us all.
There are lots of headlines on the destruction of the Amazon. What does the science say?

"The results are truly horrifying. They are in line with discussions about the 'tipping point' (at which the rainforest would die off and turn from carbon absorber to carbon emitter).

"One study found that in the southeast of the Amazon in the dry season, the temperature has increased by 2.5 degrees Celsius (over the past 40 years). That is truly apocalyptic.

"I don't think even academics were prepared for that. The Paris deal is trying to limit the world to 1.5 degrees; 2.5 in the Amazon is huge.

"And in the northeast Amazon, we've seen a decrease of 34 percent in precipitation in peak dry season (from August to October).

"The implication of all this is that if you have a hotter and dryer climate, fires are just going to escape more into the forest. So it gets into this feedback loop, this vicious cycle of horror."
Can we still save the Amazon? What happens if we don't?

"That's the million-dollar question. We'll never know the tipping point until we're past it. That's the definition of a tipping point. But different parts of the Amazon are speeding up toward it at different paces.

"If we pass the tipping point, it's the end. And I don't say that lightly. We're talking about the most biodiverse place on the planet collapsing.

"Millions and millions of people becoming climate refugees. Rainfall patterns being disrupted across South America.

"Without rainfall, we don't have hydroelectricity, so it means the collapse of industry in Brazil, and therefore the collapse of one of the largest economies in the world, of one of the biggest food suppliers in the world.

"We cannot live in a world without the Amazon."
Your WhatsApp profile picture has the word 'hope' written in big letters. What keeps you hopeful for the Amazon?

"Chocolate (laughs).

"But really, there is definitely hope for change. Within my lifetime, I saw a decrease of more than 80 percent in deforestation, between 2004 and 2012. It wasn't easy.

"You require coordination between several (government) agencies. But they did it. So why can't we see it again?

"Globally, there are several levels of solutions for everyone in the world. Everybody has to reduce their carbon footprint. Nobody's going to go back to living in a cave, but we all need to have a deep reflection on what we can do.

"We also need to pressure for transparency on commodities that come from Amazonia. Know where your gold is coming from, know where your beef is coming from.

"But most importantly, we need to insist on structural changes. We need to pressure our governments and corporations to cut emissions."

© 2021 AFP

The Amazon: a paradise lost?

Issued on: 09/11/2021

A forest fire in Porto Jofre, in the Pantanal area of Brazil's Mato Grosso state -- studies indicate the rainforest is near a 'tipping point' at which it will dry up and turn to savannah, its 390 billion trees dying off en masse CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

Sao Felix do Xingu (Brazil) (AFP) – Seen from the sky, the Amazon is an endless expanse of deep green, a place where life explodes from every surface, broken only by the blue rivers snaking across it.

Endless, that is, until it isn't.

Fly toward the edges of the world's biggest rainforest, and you will come to the vast brown scar tissue, the places where the jungle is being razed and burned to make way for roads, gold mines, crops and especially cattle ranches.

This is the fast-advancing "arc of deforestation" that cuts across South America, and it is a cataclysm in the making for our planet.

Thanks to its lush vegetation and the miracle of photosynthesis, the Amazon basin has, until recently, absorbed large amounts of humankind's ballooning carbon emissions, helping stave off the nightmare of rampant climate change.

A forest fire in Porto Jofre, in the Pantanal area of Brazil's Mato Grosso state -- the Amazon jungle is being razed and burned to make way for roads, gold mines, crops and especially cattle ranches CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

But studies indicate the rainforest is near a "tipping point," at which it will dry up and turn to savannah, its 390 billion trees dying off en masse.

Already, the destruction is quickening, especially since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019 in Brazil -- home to 60 percent of the Amazon -- with a push to open protected lands to agribusiness and mining.

The devastation is growing for the Amazon's exquisitely intricate web of interdependent species -- more than three million of them -- including iconic wildlife such as the powerful harpy eagle and sleek, majestic jaguar.

A bull and felled trees in Alta Floresta, in Brazil's Mato Grosso state in August 2021 CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

Violent incursions by illegal gold miners into indigenous lands have also taken a terrible toll on native peoples, the best guardians of the forest because of their traditions of deep respect for nature.

"The sun is hotter, the rivers are drying up, the animals are disappearing. Things are falling apart," says Eldo Shanenawa, a leader of the Shanenawa people in northwestern Brazil, who at 42 years old says he has seen the Amazon change before his eyes.

Scientists say if the Amazon reaches the tipping point, instead of helping curb climate change, it will suddenly accelerate it, spewing up to a decade's worth of carbon emissions back into the atmosphere.

Devastation is growing for the Amazon's exquisitely intricate web of interdependent species -- more than three million of them -- including iconic wildlife such as the powerful harpy eagle CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

"As bad as the predictions are (on climate change), they're actually optimistic.... We're going to reach the horror-show scenario way sooner," says Brazilian atmospheric chemist Luciana Gatti.

"We're killing the Amazon."

This is, in some ways, a story of evil: of violent bad guys in black hats exploiting a lawless frontier, political corruption and massive inequality to increase their wealth on riches ripped from the land.

But it is also the story of all humanity: our relationship with nature, our endless appetites, our seeming inability to stop.

A jaguar in Porto Jofre, in the Pantanal area of Brazil's Mato Grosso state CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

After all, the gold, timber, soy and beef destroying the rainforest are a question of global supply and demand.

The products killing the Amazon can be found in homes around the world.

© 2021 AFP

Amazon deforestation threatens jaguars, giant eagles

Ousado, a wild jaguar, was badly burned in devastating wildfires in Brazil in 2020; the destruction of the Amazon is putting many species at risk (AFP/CARL DE SOUZA)


Conservationists use an aerial radio to track and locate the jaguar Ousado, after it suffered injuries in wildfires (AFP/CARL DE SOUZA)

Florian PLAUCHEUR, Carl DE SOUZA
Mon, November 8, 2021, 

Boating slowly upriver through the Pantanal, the world's biggest tropical wetlands, Brazilian biologist Fernando Tortato scans the bank for signs of Ousado, a jaguar badly burned in devastating wildfires last year.

A thousand kilometers (600 miles) to the north, at the rapidly receding edge of the Amazon rainforest, conservationist Roberto Eduardo Stofel peers through his binoculars, monitoring a baby harpy eagle sitting alone in a giant nest, its parents apparently out searching for increasingly hard-to-find food.

The sleek, majestic jaguar and spectacularly powerful harpy eagle are two of the most iconic species threatened by the accelerating destruction of the Amazon, whose breathtaking biodiversity risks collapsing as the world's biggest rainforest approaches a "tipping point."


Scientists say that is the point at which a vicious circle of deforestation, wildfires and climate change could damage the rainforest so badly it dies off and turns to savannah -- with catastrophic consequences for its more than three million species of plants and animals.

 

Amazon deforestation threatens jaguars, giant eaglesOne wild Harpy eagle eats food set out for it by conservationists -- the birds are threatened by deforestation, and in the background, a logging truck hauls giant tree trunks from the forest (AFP/CARL DE SOUZA)

- 'Flying rivers' drying up -

The jaguar and harpy eagle are already feeling the impact.

Ousado, a four-year-old, 75-kilogram (165-pound) male, was wounded a year ago when wildfires tore through the Pantanal, fueled by the region's worst drought in 47 years.

The region, which sits just south of the Amazon, is known for its stunning wildlife, drawing tourists from around the world.

But nearly a third of it burned in last year's fires, killing or wounding countless animals -- including Ousado, who was found with third-degree burns on his paws, barely able to walk.

Veterinarians took the big black-and-yellow spotted cat to an animal hospital, treated him, and then reintroduced him to the wild with a tracking collar to monitor his recovery -- which is going well.

The destruction of the Pantanal, Tortato explains, is directly linked to that of the Amazon.

The rainforest's 390 billion trees generate water vapor that dumps rain across much of South America -- a phenomenon known as "flying rivers."

Sometimes appearing as wisps of mist streaking skyward, then gathering into giant clouds that look like streams of cotton, these "rivers" likely carry more water than the Amazon River itself, scientists say.

As humans raze the forest for farms and pastureland, "the rainfall that would normally arrive in the Pantanal via the 'flying rivers' has diminished," says Tortato, 37, of conservation group Panthera.

Classified as "near threatened," the jaguar, the biggest cat in the Americas, has its stronghold in the Amazon.

Its population declined an estimated 20 to 25 percent over the past two decades.

- Facing starvation -

Known for its massive size, fearsome claws and tufts of feathers protruding Beethoven-like from its head, the harpy eagle is, like the jaguar, an apex predator in the Amazon.

Weighing up to 10 kilograms, harpies scope their prey from the canopy, and then swoop in with deadly precision, snatching monkeys, sloths and even small deer.

But despite their hunting prowess, they are at risk of starvation.

It takes the gray and white eagles, which mate for life, about two years to raise their young. They fledge just one eaglet at a time, but need enormous territory to hunt enough food.

A recent study found harpy eagles are not adapted to hunt for prey outside the forest, and cannot survive in areas with more than 50 percent deforestation -- increasingly common at the Amazon's edges.

"They are at high risk of extinction in this region because of deforestation and logging," says Stofel, 43, who works on a harpy conservation program in Cotriguacu, in Mato Grosso state.

The area sits on the so-called "arc of deforestation."

In a poignant snapshot of the harpy's plight, AFP journalists saw one eagle eating food set out for it by conservationists, against the backdrop of a logging truck hauling giant tree trunks from the forest.

"We've monitored nests where the eaglets starved to death because the parents couldn't hunt enough food," Stofel says.

- Matter of survival (our own) -

For Cristiane Mazzetti of environmental group Greenpeace, it is crucial to protect the Amazon's threatened biodiversity -- and not just for the plants and animals' sake.

Nature's complex interlocking web plays an essential role in the planet's ability to provide food, oxygen, clean water, pollination and myriad other "ecosystem services" on which all life depends.

"Biodiversity isn't something that can be resuscitated," says Mazzetti.

"It's important to protect it for our own survival."

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Women plant mangroves to bolster India's cyclone defences


This file picture from 2008 shows mangrove seedlings planted at a nursery in the Sunderbands (AFP/Desha-Kalyan CHOWDHURY)


Mon, November 8, 2021

With India facing ever more powerful cyclones, women in the world's largest mangrove forest are planting thousands of saplings to help protect their coastal communities from climate change.

The Sundarbans straddle the coastline into neighbouring Bangladesh and are home to some of the world's rarest creatures, including the Bengal tiger and the Irrawaddy dolphin.

The forest has been designated a World Heritage site but has in the past suffered from illegal logging and is regularly battered by intense monsoon storms.


Walking ankle-deep along a muddy shore, and balancing young plants on their heads, a group of local women last week began the long process of reforesting a bare stretch of coastline.

"This is an area prone to storms and cyclones," said Shivani Adhikari, one of the women involved in the initiative. "So to protect the embankments, all of us women are planting."

Mangroves protect coastlines from erosion and extreme weather events, improve water quality by filtering pollutants, and serve as nurseries for many marine creatures, according to the UN Environment Programme.

They can help fight climate change by sequestering millions of tons of carbon each year in their leaves, trunks, roots and the soil.

And they also help buffer coastal communities from the cyclones that have coursed through the area.

"If these embankments are protected, our village will survive," said Goutam Nashkar, who lives near the project site.

"If our village survives, we will survive," he added. "This is our hope, our wish."

The project, backed by a local non-profit and the West Bengal government, aims to plant around 10,000 mangrove saplings.

India's eastern states and the coast of Bangladesh are regularly battered by cyclones that have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in recent decades.

While the frequency and intensity in storms have increased -- with climate change to blame -- deaths have fallen thanks to faster evacuations, better forecasting and more shelters.

str-gle/ser

Original Apple built by Jobs and Wozniak auctioned

There were only 200 Apple-1 computers made, a handful of which have come to the market over the last decade, including this one, which sold at auction in New York in 2014 

TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP/File

Issued on: 09/11/2021 - 

Los Angeles (AFP) – An original Apple computer, handbuilt by company founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak 45 years ago, goes under the hammer in the United States on Tuesday.

The functioning Apple-1, the great, great grandfather of today's sleek chrome-and-glass Macbooks, is expected to fetch up to $600,000 at an auction in California.

The so-called "Chaffey College" Apple-1, is one of only 200 made by Jobs and Wozniak at the very start of the company's oddessy from garage start-up to megalith worth $2 trillion.

What makes it even rarer is the fact it is encased in koa wood -- a richly pattinated wood native to Hawaii. Only a handful of the original 200 were made in this way.

Apple-1s were mostly sold as component parts by Jobs and Wozniak. One computer shop that took delivery of around 50 units decided to encase some of them in wood, the auction house said.

"This is kind of the holy grail for vintage electronics and computer tech collectors," Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen told the Los Angeles Times. "That really makes it exciting for a lot of people."

Auctioneers John Moran say the device, which comes with a 1986 Panasonic video monitor, has only ever had two owners.

"It was originally purchased by an electronics professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, California, who then sold it to his student in 1977," a listing on the auction house's website says.

The Los Angeles Times reported the student -- who has not been named -- paid just $650 for it at the time.

That student now stands to make a pretty penny: A working Apple-1 that came to the market in 2014 was sold by Bonhams for more than $900,000.

"A lot of people just want to know what kind of a person collects Apple-1 computers and it’s not just people in the tech industry," Cohen said.

© 2021 AFP

Cuban businesses plead for US sanctions lift



Issued on: 08/11/2021 

Eighty-five percent of the Cuban economy is in the hands of the one-party state 

YAMIL LAGE AFP/File

Havana (AFP) – Private business owners in Cuba urged US President Joe Biden to lift economic sanctions against the communist island in an open letter published on Monday.

While 85 percent of the Cuban economy is in the hands of the one-party state, there are more than 600,000 private sector workers, mainly in the tourism and services industries recently authorized to register small and medium enterprises.

But the coronavirus pandemic and sanctions tightened under former US president Donald Trump has hit Cuba with its worst economic crisis since 1993, with 250,000 small businesses folding in recent months.

"We call upon you to reflect on the impact of your administration's current policies towards Cuba, which are significantly harming our businesses and families," said the letter with 247 signatures.

"Through our businesses, we are working to build a strong economic future for our families so that enterprising Cubans do not feel the need to emigrate in order to have rewarding work and economic prosperity."

Cuba has been under US sanctions since 1962, but the private sector saw a brief boom during a period of political rapprochement under the US administration of Barack Obama.

Biden had promised during his election campaign to reverse certain sanctions toughened under Trump, but Cuba was expected to implement human rights reforms in return.

After a government clampdown on recent protests, the United States has announced further sanctions on individuals over alleged rights abuses.

Cuban authorities have been accused by rights watchdogs of regular human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention of dissidents, unfair trials and infringements of freedom of speech and assembly.

© 2021 AFP

France, US commemorate centenary of historic Marie Curie visit

Lucie AUBOURG
Mon, 8 November 2021,

Marc Joliot, great-grandson of Marie Curie, at a Washington DC event in honor of the French scientist (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

In 1921, the celebrated French scientist Marie Curie made a six-week trip to the United States, where she visited the White House and received from the hands of the president himself a very unusual gift: a gram of radium.

At the time, the radioactive element was extremely hard to extract from minerals and could cost more than ten times as much as a diamond of the same weight. Yet its study was key in the development of treatments for cancer.

Thanks to fundraising organized by US journalist Marie Meloney, who had interviewed Curie, the radium was offered for free and the researcher was invited across the Atlantic to receive it.

That anniversary was marked in an event Monday at the French embassy in Washington, DC, which was attended by relatives of both Curie and Meloney.

"I am very glad that this story can be passed on to future generations," said Marc Joliot, Curie's great-grandson and a researcher himself.

In May 1921, Curie, who had already been awarded the Nobel prize in both chemistry and physics, set off for the United States on the Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic, in the company of her two daughters, Irene and Eve.

During her journey, she visited major universities, gave lectures and visited a radium factory in Pittsburgh. THE WORKERS WERE WOMEN WHO PAINTED RADIUM ONTO WATCH FACES

She met President Warren Harding, who handed her the key to the safe that contained the gram of radium. It had cost $100,000, a sum collected almost entirely through donations from American women.

"Today's radiotherapy devices are the direct result of the work of Marie Curie, who discovered radioactivity," said Thierry Philip, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institut Curie, which is also celebrating its 100th anniversary.

la/seb/jh/sw

How the French ‘great replacement’ theory conquered the far right

Mon, 8 November 2021


Contentious Fox News host Tucker Carlson often refers to it live on air. It propelled a white nationalist to commit the 2019 terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people. Now, it’s resurfacing in its country of origin, where far-right pundit Eric Zemmour is propagating the theory on TV and social media. But what is the great replacement conspiracy theory and how did it originate?

“Account suspended.” Two bold words that decorate Renaud Camus’ Twitter profile, blocking his access to the platform he uses to engage in political debates and advance his beliefs. Though arguably not as internationally known as Albert Camus, the theories that author Renaud Camus has written about have travelled far.

It was in his 2011 book “Le Grand Remplacement” that he first coined the term “the great replacement”, which became a rallying cry for the far right worldwide.

Though he refuses to admit his words incite hatred or violence, this is precisely why Twitter suspended his account at the end of October. Less than a week later, on November 4, Camus was tried for a second time in the southwest of France for inciting racial hatred after posting offensive comments on Twitter in 2019.

He has appealed a January 2020 verdict against him, and the court's decision will be announced on January 20, 2022. For now, his two-month prison sentence has been suspended.

‘Camus didn’t invent anything’

Rooted in racist nationalist views, the great replacement theory purports that an elitist group is colluding against white French and European people to eventually replace them with non-Europeans from Africa and the Middle East, the majority of whom are Muslim. Renaud Camus often refers to this as “genocide by substitution”.

Notions of the theory date as far back as 1900, when the father of French nationalism Maurice Barrès spoke about a new population that would take over, triumph and “ruin our homeland”.

In an article for daily newspaper Le Journal, he wrote: “The name of France might well survive; the special character of our country would, however, be destroyed, and the people settled in our name and on our territory would be heading towards destinies contradictory to the destinies and needs of our land and our dead."

At the time Barrès was writing, “anti-Semitism was extremely mainstream”, says Dr. Aurelien Mondon, a senior lecturer of politics at Bath University in an interview with FRANCE 24. “Barrès spoke about the idea of racial purity,” he says, which is why the theory of population replacement became so popular among the Nazis, for example.

But after World War II, the French far right needed a new discourse to move back into the mainstream. Shifting away from biological racism towards cultural racism, the replacement theory gained ground in the 1970s and 1980s.

“The Nouvelle Droite (New Right) and some French intellectuals were trying to find ways to move away from the margins,” Mondon says. Over the years, these ideas spread among the far right, which was becoming more and more mainstream in France, eventually paving the way for Camus to publish his book on the topic without being disregarded as too radical.

“Camus didn’t invent anything,” Mondon explains. “He put concepts together and coined the phrase, but his theory is part of a much broader context that contributed to the reshaping of the far right [in France].”

Dodging the racism bullet

The replacement theory has made its way all around the world, becoming very popular among identitarian movements in Europe and the alt-right in the US. For Mondon, this was made possible by the way the far right adapted their stance on racism. Rather than speaking of racial or ethnic hierarchies, the discourse focussed more on cultures and cultural power.

>> France bans far-right anti-migrant group Generation Identity

In a recent interview on French right-wing TV channel CNews, Camus claimed his theory wasn’t about race but about defending civilisation. “Racism is still a taboo in our societies,” Mondon explains, “Nobody wants to admit that they’re racist and nobody wants to be called a racist.”

“The people who watch that interview and who may fall for this moral panic, this idea that they’re going to be replaced ethnographically,” he says, “don’t want to be called racist and will say they’re defending civilisation.”

In the end, this works in their favour, because “it makes people feel good about themselves while allowing them to be prejudiced and racist, all while protecting their own privilege,” according to Mondon.

The end game

Camus has also sided with Eric Zemmour, a far-right pundit who is expected to announce his candidacy for the upcoming French presidential elections. In fact, Zemmour has long been inspired by Camus and has propagated the replacement theory in his own books, “Le Suicide Français” (The French Suicide) and “Destin Français”(French Destiny).

“67% of French people think the great replacement isn’t a fantasy, whether you like it or not. #Facealinfo #JeSoutiensZemmour”

But while Zemmour has made openly homophobic claims, Renaud Camus had a brief history as a gay icon in the 1970s and 1980s. He wrote for the French LGBT+ weekly magazine Gai Pied as a columnist and published an autobiographical novel in 1979 called “Tricks”, which gave detailed accounts of one-night stands with men in nightclub bathrooms and grimy apartments across the US and Europe.

This unholy alliance is also key to understanding how theories like the great replacement spread so easily. “People in the far right are happy with contradictions,” Mondon says. “People who are deeply anti-Semitic can ally with people who are Jewish because they share the same Islamophobia and that trumps it all.”

For the far right, being contrarian is a strength, not a weakness. “It shows that they are willing to go beyond these contradictions to win on the racialist agenda,” Mondon explains. “This is the end game for them.”

So despite the fact that the great replacement theory is conspiratorial, seeing as only 9.6 percent of the French population was made up of immigrants in 2018, it is a tool to get into a position of power. And for someone like Zemmour, that is the end game.

'Menstrual poverty': Brazil tampon row gets political



The founder of the NGO One By One Teresa Stengel (L) embraces Vanessa Moraes as she distributes sanitary pads, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (AFP/Mauro PIMENTEL)More

Aline AZEVEDO
Mon, November 8, 2021, 7:01 PM·3 min read

Vanessa Moraes lives in a Rio de Janeiro slum, works multiple jobs to support her two sons and barely scrapes by on welfare.

So buying tampons and pads each month is hardly a top priority.

Like millions of women across Brazil, Moraes improvises with whatever she can when she gets her period -- a long-taboo topic that took a political turn last month when President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed legislation to provide free menstrual supplies for the poor.

"Pads are expensive, so we use a piece of cloth, a pillowcase, a diaper, whatever we can," says Moraes, whose sons are aged 11 and 12.

Her eldest, Hugo, has cerebral palsy, and has to wear diapers.

"Whenever one of my son's diapers breaks, I think, 'Oh, I'll use that for a pad,'" Moraes tells AFP.

The tall 39-year-old demonstrates her technique, tearing the elastic strips off each side of a diaper, opening the absorbant middle and adding a piece of scrap cloth to make it more effective.

Moraes lives in Complexo do Alemao, a sprawling "favela" on Rio's north side.

Much of her income from her jobs as a waitress and school-bus driver goes to caring for Hugo.

Even with the 1,100 reais ($200) she receives in government assistance each month, the family barely gets by, she says.

A pack of tampons or pads ranges in price from three to 10 reais in Brazil -- a sum Moraes simply can't afford.

Brazil, a country of 213 million people, has an estimated 60 million women and girls who get their period each month.

An estimated 28 percent of poor women suffer what is known as "menstrual poverty", meaning they are unable to afford basic hygiene products.

Forced by necessity, they have found myriad solutions to deal with their periods: pieces of bread, cotton, paper or the "paninho" (little cloth), a piece of fabric that is washed and re-used.

But a lack of menstrual supplies keeps one in four girls home from school each month, according to a recent report by a United Nations Foundation program called Girl Up.

- 'Matter of public health' -

Moraes gets assistance from One by One, a local charity for impoverished disabled people and their families.

The organization provides equipment such as wheelchairs, as well as food and basic goods -- including menstrual supplies.

Fifteen-year-old Karla Cristina de Almeida, another beneficiary, shares her monthly package with her sister -- when they can.

"Sometimes we have one pack, sometimes we have none. When we don't have any, I don't even leave the house. So I miss school," she says.

Women lined up at One by One's recent handout of menstrual supplies.

One, Miriam Firmino, 51, remembered coming of age using a "paninho" -- an experience she wants to spare her three daughters.

"To be able to afford tampons, we have to find them on sale. When we can't, we get by however we can," she says.

The problem has only grown worse with the coronavirus pandemic, whose economic fallout has hit hardest among the poor.

"With the pandemic and the economic crisis, a lot of the mothers we help tell us they've gone back to using 'paninhos,' paper, cotton or other materials when they menstruate," says One by One president Teresa Stengel.

"They often complain of injuries and infections. Menstrual poverty is a public health problem."

Vanessa Moraes, 39, shows how she uses a diaper and a towel as a substitution for a sanitary pad (AFP/Mauro PIMENTEL)

- Bolsonaro veto -

The issue became a topic of national conversation in October when Bolsonaro signed a bill into law promoting "menstrual health," but used his line-item veto to block its promise of free menstrual supplies for more than five million low-income women and girls, arguing there was no funding for it.

The move has fueled scathing criticism of the far-right president, who has often been accused of misogyny and anti-women policies.

In response, Rio city hall and several other state and local governments have started giving out free tampons in public schools.

"My school has done more for Brazil than Bolsonaro. They gave out three packs of tampons to every girl," quipped one Twitter user.

aa/jhb/bgs

Alberta NDP Opposition wants immediate funding for daycare operators during COVID-19

EDMONTON — Alberta’s Opposition says the province needs to dip into surplus budget funds to allow child-care program operators to keep their doors open during the pandemic.

NDP critic Rakhi Pancholi estimates the Children's Services Department has about $70 million in unspent funds because lower subsidies are going to care centres, a result of reduced capacity due to COVID-19.

Pancholi says that money needs to be spent now because many operators are facing serious financial hardship and may have to shut down as other COVID-19 support programs end.

“I've heard from countless child-care programs that are on the brink of closure,” Pancholi, accompanied by some child-care centre operators, told a news conference Monday.

She said operators are still feeling the pinch as parents remain hesitant to return children to care centres or are either working from home or unable to afford care.

“Child-care operators are still experiencing the impacts of the pandemic, but now without the supports that came from the pandemic,” said Pancholi.

Heather Ratsoy, an Edmonton daycare operator who was with the NDP at the news conference, said numbers at her downtown centre have dropped considerably because businesses have closed or employees are working from home.

“We are unable to meet our monthly expenses like rent, salaries and so on,” said Ratsoy.

“(We) are in dire need of financial assistance from the province.”

UCP MINISTERS BOYCOTT MSM
Children’s Services Minister Rebecca Schulz was not available for an interview but her office, in a statement, said "We are seeing enrolment numbers going up, which means that more parents will be accessing the subsidy programs and expenditure costs will rise.

"And with almost five months left in the fiscal year, it’s premature to comment on unused funds."

Schulz also announced that $15 million of bilateral child-care money from the federal government will be used to help support daycare workers through COVID-19.

“This funding will help strengthen child-care programs that support children and their families in this province every day,” Schulz said in a news release.

The government said the $15 million will be used “for COVID-19 relief to further support operators as quickly as possible.”

It also announced that $19 million in previously announced federal funding has now been delivered to assist in attracting and retaining daycare staff.

Pancholi labelled the announcement a last-minute, ineffective deflection given that the bilateral money comes with rules that can’t address the immediate crisis.

“The UCP hastily reannounced existing federal funding from the long-standing bilateral agreement, most of which cannot be used by providers to pay operational costs like rent or wages,” said Pancholi.

She renewed her call for Schulz to conclude a deal with the federal government on its multibillion-dollar $10-a-day child-care initiative.

Ottawa announced a $30-billion, five-year plan in the spring to craft partnerships with provinces, territories and Indigenous communities for universal child care — the cornerstone of a plan to help families and get the economy moving.

The plan aims for a 50-per-cent cut in fees, on average, by next year and $10-a-day care in five years.

Most provinces and Yukon have signed on, but Alberta and Ontario remain among the holdouts.

Schulz has said Alberta is seeking a deal that recognizes the large percentage of for-profit care centres in the province and one that respects the diversity of choice for child care.

ALBERTA HOLDING OUT FOR HOME RUN DAYCARES  AND BABA CARE  $$$$$

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: State Controlled Day Care 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 8, 2021.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press