UAE to introduce corporate tax next year: finance ministry


As part of efforts to diversify its income the United Arab Emirates is set to introduce a corporate tax (AFP/Karim SAHIB) 

Mon, January 31, 2022

The United Arab Emirates will introduce a corporate tax from mid-2023, the finance ministry said Monday, in a major change of course as the country seeks to diversify its income.

The Gulf financial centre, long known as a tax haven and the regional headquarters for a swathe of multinationals, will tax business profits over 375,000 AED ($102,000) at 9.0 percent from June next year, a statement said.

The announcement is the latest significant move by the UAE, which switched from Friday-Saturday weekends to Saturdays and Sundays this year to align closer with global markets.

"The UAE corporate tax regime will be amongst the most competitive in the world," said a statement carried by the official WAM news agency. Nine percent is at the lower end of corporate taxes worldwide.

There are no plans to introduce personal income tax or capital gains tax from real estate or other investments, the ministry said.

The UAE, a major oil exporter but also a big player in business, trade, transport and tourism, is diversifying to reduce its reliance on crude.

It is also facing rising competition from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, which is pursuing its own drive to diversify its economy and attract foreign businesses.

"With the introduction of corporate tax, the UAE reaffirms its commitment to meeting international standards for tax transparency and preventing harmful tax practices," Younis Haji Al Khoori, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, said in the statement.

Tax incentives in the UAE's free-trade zones will remain in place, it added.

th/hkb

FAILED UNITED FRONT

French left 'people's primary' fails to end feuding


Former Justice Minister Christiane Taubira won the 'people's primary' to lead the left's efforts to unseat President Emmanuel Macron in the April election

 (AFP/JOEL SAGET) (JOEL SAGET)

Jurgen HECKER
Mon, January 31, 2022

A grassroots initiative aimed at finding a unity candidate among France's leftist presidential hopefuls has only served to accentuate divisions, increasing the risk left-wing forces will fail to have an impact on the April vote.

A so called "people's primary" on Sunday picked former justice minister Christiane Taubira as the favourite to lead the left's efforts to unseat President Emmanuel Macron in the election.

A total of 392,000 people took part in the four-day online poll, a non-binding and unofficial enterprise organised by political activists including environmentalists, feminists and anti-racism groups.

Taubira, a long-time champion of the activist left, entered the contest as the favourite and emerged with the highest score on a scale from "very good" to "inadequate".

The French Guiana-born left-winger, 69, was a progressive voice in former Socialist president Francois Hollande's government and the driver behind the 2013 legalisation of same-sex marriage. She resigned after disagreeing with Hollande over anti-terror legislation.

Next in the primary rankings came the Green party's Yannick Jadot, hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, and Euro MP Pierre Larrouturou.

In a new blow to her flagging campaign, Socialist Party candidate Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, trailed in fifth place.

"We want a united left, we want a strong left and we have a great road in front of us," Taubira told activists after the result Sunday.

But the primary was in trouble from the start after Melenchon, Hidalgo and Jadot refused to have anything to do with it, or abide by its result.

Communist candidate Fabien Roussel said Monday he had no intention of backing Taubira who "has no election programme".

- 'Extremely disrespectful' -

Some charged that the primary had always been designed to endorse Taubira, rather than serve as a vehicle for unity.

"This could have been a rallying moment for the entire left, but it turned out to be just another candidacy," said Hidalgo.

Melenchon said of Taubira that "she is stepping into the shoes that were made for her" by the primary, adding that "none of this is my concern".

Jadot simply stated that he had "nothing" to say to the primary winner.

Taubira said her rivals were "extremely disrespectful towards the people who organised this primary and those who chose to take part".

But, she added, "the fact is that nearly half a million people decided to play a role in the campaign", while deploring on Franceinfo radio the other candidates' "haughty way to distance themselves from a democratic process".

- 'Confusion a little worse' -

The primary turned out to be "civic success but a political failure", said Gilles Finchelstein, head of the Fondation Jean Jaures, a think tank.

"The ambition to have a single candidate for the entire left is an illusion" because of the different strands involved, he told AFP.

Remi Lefebvre, a political scientist at Lille University, said the different candidates were "jockeying for position" over sometimes "small" differences.

"This crisis is making the confusion on the left a little worse," he said.

Polls currently predict that all left-wing candidates will be eliminated in the first round of presidential voting in April.

Macron, who has yet to declare his candidacy for re-election, is favourite to win the first round, with the far-right's Marine Le Pen or right-wing contender Valerie Pecresse expected to make the run-off vote two weeks later.

French left is divided, weakened in presidential race

By SYLVIE CORBET

1 of 5

Former left-wing socialist minister Christiane Taubira visits an association which fight against domestic violence, in Nantes, western France, Monday, Jan. 10 2022. Christiane Taubira won Sunday Jan.30, 2022 the so-called Popular Primary, organized by left-wing supporters to unite their ranks before France's presidential election is held in two rounds on April 10 and 24. But the move already appears bound to fail: key contenders say they wouldn't respect the outcome because they don't respect the process.

 (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez, File)


PARIS (AP) — The French left is running divided and weakened in this year’s presidential race as at least five mainstream presidential candidates have rejected any alliances with each other — and an online vote meant to pick a leader appears doomed to fail.

An icon of the French left, Christiane Taubira, a staunch feminist and a champion of minorities, won the so-called Popular Primary on Sunday designed to unite left-wing supporters before France’s presidential election is held in two rounds on April 10 and April 24. More than 392,000 people voted in the primary.

Yet many of the mainstream left-wing presidential contenders said they will not respect the outcome of the popular because they did not respect how it was set up.

Taubira, 69, joined the race earlier this month in hopes of convincing others to join forces behind her candidacy. So far, her strategy hasn’t worked. Critics and rivals both say her candidacy is further splintering the French left.

“We want a united left, a left that stands up, because we are attached to left-wing ideals,” she said after Sunday’s result was announced.

Taubira is revered for championing a same-sex marriage bill into French law in 2013. She last ran for president in 2002, the first Black woman to do so in France, winning 2.3% of the vote.

At least five main candidates ranging from left-wing to the far-left are running for president, in addition to lesser-known contenders. At the moment, none of them appears in a position to reach the two-person runoff in April’s election.

Centrist President Emmanuel Macron, who doesn’t hide his intention to run for reelection, is considered the front-runner. Conservative candidate Valérie Pécresse and two far-right figures, Marine le Pen and Eric Zemmour, are the main challengers according to polls, placing far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in fifth position.

Melenchon — a political firebrand with a notorious temper — refuses to form a united front with other left-wing candidates. The 70-year-old politician, who heads the “Rebel France” party, has promised to guarantee jobs for everyone, raise the minimum wage, lower the retirement age to 60 and hike taxes on multinationals and rich households.

The Greens’ contender, Yannick Jadot, 54, and the Socialist candidate, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, 62, have also rejected the idea of running together despite a traditional alliance between their parties. Another candidate, Fabien Roussel, 52, is running for the Communist Party.

Jadot, Hidalgo and Melenchon have all said they won’t comply with the result of the Popular Primary.

Hidalgo’s campaign has failed to prompt enthusiasm from leftist voters. Her once-powerful party remains weakened after Macron’s win in 2017, when Socialist President Francois Hollande decided not to run for reelection amid unprecedented low popularity ratings.

Jadot unveiled his electoral platform Saturday during a rally in Lyon, saying that climate change is the “biggest challenge” that voters and politicians face.

“Tomorrow’s France must get out of energies of the past,” he said. He promised not to build any new nuclear reactors in France and to progressively replace the old ones by renewable energy, which he said could take up to 25 years. France now relys on nuclear power for 70% of its energy.

Jadot also vowed to combat social injustice via ensuring a minimum revenue of 920 euros ($1,026) a month to all adults living in poverty.

___

Barbara Surk in Nice contributed to this report.

Climate change, population threaten 'staggering' US flood losses by 2050

AFP -

Climate change is on track to ramp up the annual cost of US flood damage more than 25 percent by 2050, according to new research Monday that warns disadvantaged communities will likely bear the brunt of the financial burden.

The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change used new flood models to map out the present and future impact of sea level rise, tropical cyclones and changing weather patterns.

Losses include destruction projected to hit homes and businesses. Researchers warned that even more people are expected to move into areas at growing risk of inundation.

"Climate change combined with shifting populations present a double whammy of flood risk danger and the financial implications are staggering," said lead author Oliver Wing, of the University of Bath's Cabot Institute for the Environment.

Wing said the findings should be a "call to action" for both a reduction in emissions and efforts to adapt to accelerating climate risks "to reduce the devastating financial impact flooding wreaks on people's lives."

Researchers used nationwide property asset data, information on communities and flood projections to estimate flood risk across the US.

The study showed that poorer communities with a proportionally larger white population currently face the steepest losses.

But future growth in flood risk is expected to have a greater impact on African American communities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

"The mapping clearly indicates Black communities will be disproportionately affected in a warming world, in addition to the poorer White communities which predominantly bear the historical risk," said Wing.

"Both of these findings are of significant concern."

- 'Unacceptable' risks -

Average annual flood losses were forecast to increase by 26.4 percent, from $32 billion currently, to $40.6 billion in 2050, based on 2021 dollar values.

The researchers said these figures are "essentially locked in climatically", meaning that even if emissions fall dramatically they would still be the same.

They also warned that expanding populations in the US would also significantly increase the flood risk, eclipsing even the impact of climate change.

With inundations expected to intensify in areas where populations are also increasing, the researchers said average annual exposure of the US population to floods is expected to grow to more than seven million by 2050, a 97-percent increase from current levels.

It said increases in climate-enhanced exposure was particularly concentrated along the US East Coast, with existing Texas and Florida residents seeing a roughly 50-percent increase in flood exposure by 2050.

In terms of increased flood risk due to population growth, the researchers highlighted intensified development on existing floodplains, which they said was "relatively severe in the currently sparsely populated central Prairie States and the Deep South".

The study said even developments currently considered low risk may be in areas expected to see a heightened flood risk in the coming decades.

"Current flood risk in western society is already unacceptably high, yet climate and population change threaten to inflate these losses significantly," said co-author Paul Bates, a professor of hydrology at the Cabot Institute for the Environment.

"The relatively short timescales over which this increase will take place mean we cannot rely on decarbonisation to reduce the risk so we have to adapt better, both to the situation now and for the future."

klm/mh/spm

Climate Change Set To Send Costs of Flooding Soaring – Pioneering Research Forecasts Financial Toll

By UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL JANUARY 31, 2022

The nationwide simulation of the 100-year design flood from fluvial, pluvial, and coastal sources. Credit: Fathom (www.fathom.global)

Climate change could result in the financial toll of flooding rising by more than a quarter in the United States by 2050 – and disadvantaged communities will bear the biggest brunt, according to new research.

The University of Bristol-led study, published today (January 31, 2022) in Nature Climate Change, deployed advanced modeling techniques to make the colossal calculations, which forecasted average annual flood losses would increase by 26.4% from US$32 billion currently to US$40.6 billion in less than 30 years.

Maps showing the distribution of US flood risk (expressed as the annual average loss due to flooding) by county, and its projected change by 2050. Credit: Fathom (www.fathom.global)

By analyzing nationwide property asset data and detailed flood projections, the team of leading international flood risk scientists developed for the first time a comprehensive, high-resolution assessment of flood risk in the US. The estimates of financial loss, which include damage to homes, businesses and their contents, were based on 2021 dollar values so the actual numbers would likely be much bigger factoring in inflation.

The extents of simulated design floods with a return period of 10, 100, and 1000 years in Des Moines, IA. Credit: Fathom (www.fathom.global)

While the research reveals poorer communities with a proportionally larger white population face the most danger at present, future growth in flood risk will have a greater impact on African American communities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Predicted population change was also shown to have a huge effect on flood risk, resulting in four-fold increases compared to the impact of climate change alone and sending costs further spiraling.

A 100-year design surface water flood simulation in Oklahoma City, OK. Credit: Fathom (www.fathom.global)

Lead author Dr. Oliver Wing, Honorary Research Fellow at the university’s world-renowned Cabot Institute for the Environment, said: “Climate change combined with shifting populations present a double whammy of flood risk danger and the financial implications are staggering.

“Typical risk models rely on historical data which doesn’t capture projected climate change or offer sufficient detail. Our sophisticated techniques using state-of-the-science flood models give a much more accurate picture of future flooding and how populations will be affected.

A simulation of the 2019 Midwestern US floods in Omaha, NE. Credit: Fathom (www.fathom.global)

“The mapping clearly indicates Black communities will be disproportionately affected in a warming world, in addition to the poorer White communities which predominantly bear the historical risk. Both of these findings are of significant concern. The research is a call to action for adaptation and mitigation work to be stepped up to reduce the devastating financial impact flooding wreaks on people’s lives.”

A 100-year design river flood simulation in Kansas City, MO. Credit: Fathom (www.fathom.global)

The research was carried out in partnership with experts from universities in New York, California, and Philadelphia.

Co-author Professor Paul Bates CBE FRS, Professor of Hydrology at the university’s Cabot Institute for the Environment and School of Geographical Sciences, said: “Current flood risk in western society is already unacceptably high, yet climate and population change threaten to inflate these losses significantly. The relatively short timescales over which this increase will take place mean we cannot rely on decarbonization to reduce the risk so we have to adapt better, both to the situation now and for the future.”

A 500-year design storm surge simulation in Miami, FL. Credit: Fathom (www.fathom.global)

Reference: “Inequitable patterns of US flood risk in the Anthropocene” by Oliver E. J. Wing, William Lehman, Paul D. Bates, Christopher C. Sampson, Niall Quinn, Andrew M. Smith, Jeffrey C. Neal, Jeremy R. Porter and Carolyn Kousky,  31 January 2022, Nature Climate Change.
DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01265-6

Pegasus scandal: In Hungary, journalists sue state over spyware

The governments of Hungary and Poland are the only EU member states to have used the Pegasus software to spy on their critics. Now, Hungarian journalists who were targeted have filed the first lawsuits against the state.


Autocratic regimes around the world have used the Israeli Pegasus spyware to target critics


When Szabolcs Panyi learned, in the spring of 2021, that the Pegasus spy software had been installed on his smartphone, the Hungarian investigative journalist knew it wasn't just a case of eavesdropping. The software does more than simply intercept phone calls: It can access all of a smartphone's data, and can even switch on the microphone and camera without being noticed.

"I felt as if they had broken into my apartment and office, bugged everything, put hidden cameras everywhere, and were even following me into the shower," he said.

Panyi is an editor at the Budapest-based investigative online media outlet Direkt36. He is one of several dozen people who have been monitored — illegally — by the Hungarian state using the Pegasus spyware. Its intended targets are serious criminals or terrorists, and these people were neither. They were monitored because their research or political activities meant they were an inconvenience, or a threat, to the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The Pegasus scandal became more widely known in July 2021, when a journalism network published information about leaked lists of around 50,000 phone numbers that had been targeted and attacked using the Israeli spyware. Some 300 of the targets were based in Hungary, and they included the phones of journalists, lawyers, political activists, entrepreneurs — even a former minister.

Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi of the online portal Direkt36 was targeted using Pegasus

Better controls over intelligence services

Now, more than six months after the affair came to light, six of the people targeted in Hungary — including Panyi — are taking legal action. This is the first legal case brought by Pegasus victims against an EU state. They will instigate proceedings in Hungary before the courts and with NAIH, the country's data protection authority, as well as in Israel, with the attorney general.

The six are being represented by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU — TASZ in Hungarian), one of Hungary's main civil rights organizations, and by Israeli lawyer Eitay Mack. On January 28, the HCLU made an initial public announcement to this effect in Budapest, and activated a dedicated page on its website.


"On the one hand, we want those affected to be told what information and data the intelligence services have on them," HCLU lawyer Adam Remport, who is coordinating the initiative, told DW. "On the other hand, we want to take action against abusive surveillance in general, and obtain better and independent controls over intelligence services in Hungary."

This is also important to Panyi, in addition to the question of exactly what data was siphoned from his phone. "The current regulations are so elastic and so broadly defined that, in Hungary, anyone can be monitored," he told DW.
Sale of software went ahead despite concerns

In Israel, attorney Eitay Mack will file a lawsuit with the country's attorney general against both the manufacturer of the software, a private technology company called NSO Group, and the Israeli Defense Ministry, which has to approve sales of such software to other countries. Mack has already made several attempts to sue over Pegasus — because of the way the software was used in Mexico, among other things — so far, however, without success.

But Mack won't give up. "Pegasus was sold to the Hungarian state even though there were considerable concerns about the abuse of the rule of law in Hungary," Mack told DW. "That's why I want to try and sue the Israeli Defense Ministry for, among other things, failing to prevent a crime, as well as violation of the right to privacy."
Pegasus in Poland

When the Pegasus affair came to light, Hungary was thought to be the only EU member state where a government had used the spyware against critics. Then, in late 2021, it emerged that the government in Poland, led by the ruling Law and Justice party, had done the same. In both countries, the governments indirectly admitted that they had authorized the use of Pegasus spyware against individuals.

In Hungary, a member of parliament and high-ranking politician from Orban's right-wing populist Fidesz party inadvertently confirmed to journalists in November 2021 that the country's Interior Ministry had purchased Pegasus, a statement the Hungarian prosecutor's office said shortly afterwards was "not in line with the facts."

There is, however, little doubt that Orban and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have been personal friends for many years, probably agreed the Pegasus deal at a meeting in Budapest in July 2017.

Netanyahu, then Israeli prime minister, visited his Hungarian counterpart, Orban, in Budapest in July 2017

Common enemy: George Soros

Orban and Netanyahu have a common enemy: the American stock market billionaire George Soros, who is of Hungarian Jewish origin, and uses his fortune to promote civil society activities. The two politicians have also helped each other on numerous occasions: Hungary has repeatedly blocked EU resolutions that were critical of Israel, while Netanyahu attested that the Orban government was exemplary in combating antisemitism — despite several government campaigns against Soros in Hungary with strong antisemitic overtones.

"Israel has paid a high price for Hungary's support: It has covered for the Orban government's antisemitism," said Eitay Mack. The lawyer is convinced Pegasus spyware also formed part of the cooperation between Orban and Netanyahu. "This spy software is a tool of Israeli diplomacy."
A degree of paranoia

Both Mack and Hungarian lawyer Adam Remport are aware that proceedings in their respective countries may take years. Mack said that, nonetheless, he will not let up in his efforts to ensure that Israel is held accountable for exporting weapons, including cyber weapons such as Pegasus, to autocratic countries. And Remport stressed that, if necessary, the HCLU will take things all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. "A ruling from there would have pan-European significance," he said.

Meanwhile, Panyi and his colleagues from the investigative portal Direkt36 have gone on to uncover fresh cases of the abuse of Pegasus spyware in Hungary in recent months. And it's not only critics of Orban's regime who are being targeted.

At the end of December, for example, Direkt36 published information showing that Pegasus had been used to target phones belonging to bodyguards of the Hungarian president, Janos Ader — one of Orban's longstanding close allies. "When we see that even people in Orban's inner circle are being spied on now," said Panyi, "you can't help but note that there is a degree of paranoia at work, even at the heart of the regime."

This article has been translated from German

Expelled from Belarus: The Cuban citizen who paid a high price for joining protests

Cuban national Roberto Casanueva was expelled from Belarus and forced to live apart from his family. He tells DW why he joined the 2020 protests and the price he paid for doing so.

Cuban Roberto Casanueva now lives in Lithuania


"Of course I dream of seeing my children again, but for now that's not possible. We talk on the phone, write and support one other, even though we're hundreds of kilometers apart," says Roberto Casanueva.

The Cuban national is currently in Lithuania after living in Belarus for 30 years. "My oldest daughter was born in Cuba in 1989 and we only stayed there for a short time. Then my wife and child moved to Belarus and I joined them there a year later. I worked as a graphic designer and took care of my three children," he says.
"I was enraged by the election fraud"

Casanueva was appalled by the fraudulent presidential elections in August 2020, which saw President Alexander Lukashenko claim victory. Like many in Belarus, he took to the streets and joined opposition protests.

"I had been outraged by the widespread voter fraud during the 2000 elections. I got an election notice in the mail at the time and I laughed because how can they invite me to vote in the elections what I am not even a Belarusian citizen? I thought it must have been a mistake, but it kept happening," he said. And during the 2020 presidential election, friends said they saw his name on a list of eligible voters at one of the polling stations. Casanueva is convinced that his fictitious vote was for Lukashenko. This annoyed him and he refused to remain quiet any longer.

Roberto Casanueva was eager to take part in the protests against the Lukashenko regime

"My residence permit expired in 2020, and I applied for an extension. The Office of Citizenship and Migration put a piece of paper in front of me with several clauses," Roberto recounts, adding, "When I asked what they meant, because I didn't speak the language, they said I had no right to take part in demonstrations and that my residence permit would be revoked and I would be deported to Cuba if I continued to take part in them."

Casanueva refused to sign the document initially and said he would continue to protest. This resulted in his residence permit being revoked along with his papers. "I was back there a few days later and they presented me with the same piece of paper to sign again. I signed it, thinking it was just a formality and that I would be able to continue going to the demonstrations," he said.

"The conditions in jail really tested me"

But in November 2020, shortly before a protest, he was arrested and detained for 15 days. His residence permit was revoked and the authorities were set to deport him. "My arrest was illegal because the protests hadn't even started yet. No one was around and I was just stood there smoking. I had neither symbols nor flags with me. Nevertheless, a van stopped next to me and I was put in it by the riot police," Casanueva recalls.

He spent over a year in the notorious Okrestia Detention Center in the capital Minsk, waiting to be deported. Large numbers of opposition demonstrators were beaten and tortured in the facility. "That was a real test for me. I was in a cell with other foreigners, but they were not political prisoners. They were all very different. Some were good and some bad, but you had to get along with everyone."

Casanueva says conditions in the cells were terrible. "There was no electricity there. Coffee, tea, sugar, cigarettes — nothing was allowed. Once a week you were allowed to receive a package, but in the last month and a half they stopped giving me my family's packages." He didn't get any of the food, toothpaste, cigarettes and toilet paper they had sent him.
"I was sent to Moscow as an alleged tourist"

In December 2021, employees of the Citizenship and Migration Department put Roberto Casanueva on a plane bound for Moscow. He was banned from entering Belarus for a period of three years, even though he had three children there. "I was sent to Moscow as an alleged tourist because there were no direct flights from Minsk to Cuba," he says, "But after four or five days, the Russian Interior Ministry's database found evidence that I had been deported," he says. As a deportee, he wasn't able to get a work visa for Russia. "I had only 30 days to work things out," he said.

Before his deportation Roberto Casanueva says goodbye to his son in Minsk

Following his deportation, a farewell photo with his young son appeared on social media. "I wasn't really thinking about photos at the time. The picture was very emotional and wasn't staged. I hadn't seen my son for over a year," Casanueva recounts. He said he very worried at this point and had to reassure his son that everything would be okay.

"I wanted my voice to be heard"

A month later, Roberto Casanueva found himself in Vilnius thanks to the Belarusian Solidarity Foundation BYSOL. He under no circumstances wanted to go back to Cuba. "Cuba is exactly the same regime as Belarus, only worse," he points out. Thanks to the Freedom House, a US non-profit, he was able to obtain a visa on humanitarian grounds from Lithuania. Roberto says he is grateful for the help provided to persecuted Belarusians and others.

Roberto Casanueva is now working as a graphic designer in Lithuania. Despite everything he had to endure over the past year, he still says he does not regret supporting the Belarusian protest movement: "I wanted to express my opinions and to protest what was happening in Belarus. If we are talking about things I regret, the only thing I regret was that I did so little. I would have liked to have done more."

Russia moves naval exercises upon Ireland’s request

Russia has said it would relocate naval maneuvers scheduled for early February in international waters about 240 kilometers off Ireland's southwestern coast. The area is part of the country's exclusive economic zone.

In this 2021 picture, Russian warships take part in a massive naval parade in the Gulf of Finland

Russia has announced the relocation of its naval exercises scheduled to take place in international waters in the Irish Sea next week, Moscow's ambassador to Ireland said on Saturday.

The maneuvers were scheduled to be held between February 3 and February 8 about 240 kilometers (150 miles) off southwestern Ireland. While the exercises would be held in international waters, the area came under Ireland's exclusive economic zone.

The relocation comes after Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney objected to the war games.

"This isn't a time to increase military activity and tension in the context of what's happening with and in Ukraine," he said. "The fact that they are choosing to do it on the western borders, if you like, of the EU, off the Irish coast, is something that in our view is simply not welcome.''



Coveney referred to the build-up of some 100,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, which has led the United States and other Western nations to voice concerns over a possible Russian military incursion.

Russia has insisted it does not plan to invade Ukraine and has demanded security guarantees from NATO, including a promise that Ukraine will not join the military alliance.

Ireland is a part of the European Union, but it is not a member of NATO.

In a concession amid rising tensions, the Russian Embassy in Ireland posted a letter from Ambassador Yuriy Filatov on Facebook, which stated that the exercises would be relocated outside of the Irish economic zone ''with the aim not to hinder fishing activities.''

Earlier, some Irish fishermen said they had planned to protest against the Russian military exercises by fishing in the area where the maneuvers were set to take place.

see/sms (AP, Reuters)

Pregnant New Zealand journalist forced to move to Afghanistan

With New Zealand keeping its borders closed due to COVID restrictions, pregnant journalist Charlotte Bellis has been stuck outside her home country, forced to ask the Taliban for help.


Afghanistan hospitals struggle to provide maternal care to expectant mothers (file photo)

New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis has said she is stuck in Afghanistan after the New Zealand government rejected her emergency application for return over coronavirus restrictions. Left without an option, she was forced to seek refuge in Taliban-led Afghanistan as a "pregnant, unmarried woman," Bellis said in an open letter published by The New Zealand Herald on Friday.

Bellis formerly worked for Al-Jazeera, which is based in Qatar. She had been covering the fallout of last summer's Taliban takeover from Afghanistan before she returned to Qatar in September. She said this was the time when she learned she was pregnant. As extramarital sex is illegal in Qatar, Bellis attempted to get back to New Zealand using a lottery-style system for returning citizens.

Unable to secure her return in that manner, she left Qatar for Belgium, the home country of her partner, freelance photographer Jim Huylebroek. With her New Zealand passport, however, she was only allowed to spend a limited time in Belgium. The couple was eventually forced to relocate to Afghanistan as they both had valid visas to stay there.

Bellis said she set up a meeting with her senior Taliban contacts and asked if her pregnancy would be a problem. She was told it would not.

"Just tell people you're married and if it escalates, call us. Don't worry," the Taliban officials said, according to Bellis.
Questioning New Zealand's treatment of its citizens

Bellis, known for asking the Taliban about their treatment of women, said she has now been forced to ask the New Zealand government the same questions.

"I am writing this because I believe in transparency and I believe that we as a country are better than this. [Prime Minister] Jacinda Ardern is better than this,​​" Bellis wrote, explaining that she sent 59 documents to New Zealand authorities before her application for an emergency return was rejected.

Bellis said she responded by contacting her lawyer, a friend who deals in public relations and a New Zealand politician, with the information about her case eventually reaching New Zealand's COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins. Two days after her rejection, she received another email stating that her application status has been changed from "deactivated" to "reviewing application."

Bellis is due to give birth to a girl in May. She said that giving birth in Afghanistan could be a death sentence, as the country struggles with a poor state of maternity care and lack of surgical capabilities.

"I wasn't triggered by the disappointment and uncertainty, but by the breach of trust," Bellis wrote. "That in my time of need, the New Zealand Government said you're not welcome here."
Government clarifies its stance

The government of New Zealand has been increasingly questioned over its COVID policies that force even returning citizens to spend 10 days in quarantine hotels run by the military. The requirement has created a backlog of thousands of people who want to return home.

In response to Bellis' letter in the Herald, COVID response minister Hipkins said he had asked officials to check whether proper procedures were followed in her case.

The joint head of New Zealand's Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) system, Chris Bunny, said Bellis' application did not meet the "travel within 14 days" requirement currently in play for emergency entry. He said the MIQ team had reached out to Bellis to make another application that fit the requirements.

But Bellis, on Twitter, said the "MIQ has and does allow travel outside 14 days" and that the couple had outlined their reason for doing so, primarily the lack of regular flights out of the Kabul airport, in the cover letter of their application.

While Bellis' case appears to be moving forward, she said she was compelled to write the column as her story was "unique in context, but not in desperation."

Monkey Island: Home of the Liberian lab chimps

A group of laboratory test chimpanzees in Liberia survived medical experiments and two civil wars. Infected with contagious diseases, they now live on six islands off the coast and depend on humans for their survival.

Medical tests on chimpanzees
In 1974, researchers from the US nonprofit blood bank, the New York Blood Center (NYBC), opened an experimental laboratory on the west coast of Liberia. Working with the Liberia Biomedical Research Institute, they trapped wild chimpanzees and used them to conduct research and drug trials.
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GERMANY
Cannabis legalization: Health risks and benefits

Better sex and protection from COVID-19 versus reduced cognitive ability and long-term damage — the science is split when it comes to the risks and uses of the cannabis plant for youth in particular.


Cannabis lowers inhibitions, but has long-term effects on cognitive abilities

Dope, weed, marijuana, hemp — cannabis goes by many different names. Humanity has known about the central Asian plant and its benefits for thousands of years. It's been used for the production of rope and textiles, but cannabis' fame comes from its use as an intoxicant and as medicine.

Globally, cannabis is the second most commonly used psychoactive substance after alcohol and before nicotine, according to the non-representative Global Drug Survey 2021. Adolescents and young adults consume cannabis most frequently.

Once called a dangerous gateway drug, cannabis has gained more public acceptance in recent years. In more and more countries, recreational consumption is now legal.
Better sex and protection from COVID?

So is cannabis a dangerous gateway drug or a panacea? Countless studies have been published in the past few months, some highlighting the great risks, others the great benefits of the hemp plant and its different substances.

A recently published Spanish study conducted by researchers at Almeria University found that sexual function is improved in cannabis consumers, and that they experience better orgasms.

"This improvement is usually associated with a reduction in anxiety and shame, which facilitates sexual relationships," the researchers said.

Cannabis consumption is especially prevalent among young people, despite laws against it

In other words: Those who lose their inhibitions by drinking alcohol or smoking weed may have better sex.

US researchers at Oregon State University recently proposed cannabinoids as a way to prevent and treat COVID-19, because they block the virus from entering cells, potentially offering protection against a coronavirus infection.

Their study showed that the acids CBGA (cannabigerolic acid) and CBDA (cannabidiolic acid) bind the spike protein and prevent Sars-CoV-2 from entering cells, the researchers wrote in the Journal of Natural Products. Unlike the well-known tetrahydrocanabinol (THC) in cannabis, CBGA and CBDA are not psychoactive.

So the psychoactive THC leads to better sex, and cannabis acids protect against COVID-19 — talk about convincing arguments in favor of the miracle plant!
Smoking weed leads to long-term concentration problems

It's not quite that simple, though, because cannabis use can also lead to long-term cognitive impairment, especially in young people whose brains are still developing.

This was recently shown again by a new analysis of 10 meta-studies published in the journal Addiction.


CALIFORNIA'S 'WEED NUNS' ON A MISSION TO HEAL WITH CANNABIS
Joint-smoking nuns
Based near the town of Merced in California's Central Valley, which produces over half of the fruit, vegetables and nuts grown in the United States, the Sisters of the Valley grow and harvest their own plants - cannabis plants.
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The analysis of data from 43,000 participants showed that cannabis intoxication (which occurs after consuming a large amount of THC) can lead to mild to moderate cognitive impairments. It affects decision-making skills, the ability to suppress inappropriate reactions or to learn something by reading and listening, as well as the time needed to complete a mental task. And these impairments may persist beyond the duration of the intoxication.

"Cannabis use in youth may consequently lead to reduced educational attainment, and, in adults, to poor work performance and dangerous driving. These consequences may be worse in regular and heavy users," said Alexandre Dumais, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Université de Montréal and one of the study's co-authors.

On average, adults who consumed a lot of cannabis as adolescents perform worse on intelligence tests and tend to be less successful at school or university. But a direct correlation has not yet been proven. It is also still controversial whether cannabis use in adults can have long-term consequences.

Young brains particularly at risk

It is undisputed, however, that cannabis use can damage young brains, since the frontal brain has not fully matured until a person is in their mid-20s.

The cerebral cortex of adolescent cannabis users is significantly thinner in certain areas than that of people in a comparison group, as shown by brain scans of 800 adolescents that were part of a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry last June.

The prefrontal cortex was most severely affected. That's the brain region where impulses are controlled, problems are solved and actions are planned. According to the study, teens with abnormal brain scans were more impulsive and had a harder time concentrating than other teens. And the more cannabis the teens had consumed, the more pronounced the effects were.
Increased risk of psychoses

Heavy cannabis use can also trigger psychoses, especially in adolescents.

Those who smoke weed daily are three times more likely to have psychotic episodes compared to people who have no contact with cannabis, a Europe-wide study showed in 2019.

Researchers from the psychiatric hospital at Ulm University even observed an eightfold increase in psychoses in the time period from 2011 to 2019, which they attributed, among other things, to the significantly increased THC content in many joints.

In Europe, the amount of the psychoactive THC in cannabis doubled from 8% to 17% between 2006 and 2016, a British study showed.

The intoxicating effect of THC is reduced by cannabidiol (CBD). CBD is also used in pain management in patients with cancer, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory pain syndromes such as arthritis. But according to the British study, the CBD content in cannabis sold on the street has decreased significantly.

Regular and high THC use in adolescence can trigger not only psychoses, but also anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder or depression, experts say. However, it remains controversial whether it is really cannabis use triggering these disorders, or whether youth with such mental health problems are more susceptible to heavy cannabis consumption.

Growing public acceptance

Despite the risks and side effects as well as legal bans, cannabis is Europe's most popular illegal drug among young people. Other popular drugs such as alcohol and tobacco can be legally purchased and consumed in Germany and many other countries, although they, too, can cause serious damage to a person's health and relationships, as well as society as a whole.

The debate in many parts of the world about legalizing cannabis shows that the acceptance of the drug in the public eye is increasing.

The new German government also wants to legalize cannabis. The coalition agreement between the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) states: "We will introduce the controlled distribution of cannabis to adults for recreational purposes in licensed stores. This will enable quality control, prevent the distribution of contaminated substances and ensure the protection of minors. In four years, we will evaluate the law and the societal impact it's had."

Better quality through legalization?

German politicians say that legalization could above all improve the quality of the substances sold. In recent years, contaminated cannabis has become more and more common. According to the German Hemp Association, it is often mixed with sand, sugar, glass or spices.

In addition, more and more cannabis sold in the street is laced with active synthetic ingredients. These so-called synthetic cannabinoids are significantly more dangerous than THC, because they intensify the drug's effects. Consumers can experience delusions and circulatory collapse.

Cannabis is often described by society and politics as a dangerous gateway drug. But it's difficult to prove that cannabis users inevitably switch to harder drugs. However, most cannabis users have previously consumed alcohol and tobacco, so these two legal drugs can be considered much more likely to be gateway drugs.

Proponents of cannabis legalization say that decriminalization and legalization, along with a legal limit on THC content and mandatory labeling of additives, could significantly reduce the health risk if the drug is distributed through legal, state-controlled dispensaries.

If young cannabis users no longer have to hide, advocates say, it would also mean that therapy and prevention services could be provided more openly. Young people could learn about the risks of cannabis consumption and talk about their issues at home and in school without fear of legal retribution.

This article was originally written in German


CANNABIS: OPEN TO CULTURAL INTERPRETATION
Mythical plant
This is the hemp plant of legend. Intoxicating cannabis can be obtained from certain varieties, so its cultivation is strictly regulated in Germany. Unlike 200 years ago, hemp plants in the country are completely out of the public eye, paving the way for myths generated from the camps of supporters and opponents alike.
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Luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana will stop using fur

The Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana has said it would stop using fur in its collections as of this year. The fashion brand made the announcement in a joint statement with an animal rights group.   

Luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana said it is halting the use of fur from this year

The Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana announced on Monday in a statement with the animal rights group the Humane Society International that it will no longer use animal fur in its collections.

"The entire fashion system has a significant social responsibility role that must be promoted and encouraged," said Fedele Usai, the company's communication and marketing officer, in a statement.

"Dolce & Gabbana is working toward a more sustainable future that can't contemplate the use of animal fur."

Dolce & Gabbana said the company would use eco-fur garments and accessories going forward. The company said it would continue to work with master furriers to preserve jobs and knowledge.

No fur creates a 'higher standard'

To appeal to younger, more environmentally conscious consumers, brands have grown increasingly aware of the need to show they are ethically and ecologically attuned to customer concerns.

"Ending the use of fur creates a higher standard for what is acceptable in fashion," said PJ Smith, the director of fashion policy for the Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society International.

Brands including Armani, Kering, Moncler, Prada, Valentino and Versace as well as luxury e-commerce platforms Yoox and Net-a-Porter, have said they will adhere to guidelines set by the Fur Free Alliance, an umbrella association of animal rights groups worldwide, and not use animal fur in their products.

Fur farming is banned in Italy as of this year. More than a dozen countries have moved to either restrict or limit fur farming in the last 20 years.