ANTI-ABORTION IS CLASS WAR

The pandemic baby bust never happened — millions of women couldn't get birth control or an abortion

Jason Lalljee
April 14, 2022

doble-d/Getty Images


A large decline in births is typical of recessions and public health crises, but there wasn't one during COVID-19.

That's because Trump-era policies and reduced healthcare access meant people couldn't get birth control or abortions.

Low-income and minority women are seeing their access reduced the most.

There was less of a baby bust than expected because of COVID-19 — but that doesn't reflect changing family planning dynamics in the United States.

Instead, it's indicative of shrinking access to abortions and birth control across the country, especially for low-income women.

That's according to a recent paper published by the National Bureau for Economic Research, which found that the 2020 COVID-19 recession was much different than earlier recessions, in that the number of babies born barely changed. The Brookings Institute predicted in 2020 that the pandemic would likely lead to a large, lasting baby bust, projecting 300,000 to 500,000 fewer births in 2021. In reality, there were only 60,000 fewer babies born because of the pandemic.

The NBER researchers found that because access to contraception and abortion fell in 2020 as reproductive health centers temporarily closed or reduced their capacity, low-income women are especially experiencing a "large increase in unplanned births."

That's as the pandemic has made having children less financially feasible for struggling households. During 2020, poverty increased across the US, and a third of American women said they wanted to delay pregnancy or have fewer children because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a 2020 Guttmacher Institute survey of 2,000 people. Minority, low-income, and queer women were especially likely to say their family planning goals had changed.

Revisions that former President Donald Trump made to Title X, the country's only national, federally funded family planning program, also limited the number of abortions low-income women had during the pandemic, the researchers said. And the surge of new abortion restrictions across mostly Republican-led states over the last few months may make reproductive healthcare access even more difficult over the next few years.

"In short, at the same time changes in the economy reduced the demand for children, the supply of contraceptives and access to abortion fell and likely moderated the baby bust," the researchers wrote.

Trump-era policies kept people from accessing abortions

Many episodes throughout US history show that pregnancies and birth rates fall in response to financial uncertainty and economic downturns, the researchers wrote. Citing the Guttmacher Institute survey, they say that it shouldn't have been any different during COVID, when people planned to put the brakes on having kids.

Birth rates also tend to drop during public health crises, like during the Spanish Flu. The pandemic's economic turmoil fused with a health one, which led experts to believe that the impact on births would be even greater.

That was evidenced as recently as the Great Recession less than two decades ago. In 2012, the number of babies born dropped 9% compared to 2007, accounting for about 400,000 fewer births that year.

But it was harder for women to access reproductive services during the pandemic, especially low-income and minority women. Part of the reason was logistical: health care centers canceled or limited appointments in accordance with social distancing guidelines, and patients chose to limit in-person interactions.

But part of the reason is that women receiving subsidized health care through the Title X Public Health Care Service Act saw restricted access to reproductive services. The Trump Administration changed national guidelines in 2019, pulling funding for providers who referred patients to abortion providers, and requiring that recipients of federal funds physically separate sites that provide non-abortion reproductive health services from those that provide abortions.

The Title X changes under Trump led more than 1,000 health care centers in 34 states to withdraw from Title X funding — sites that had served more than 1.5 million patients in the year before the rule took effect, according to the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.

And near-total abortion bans that have been introduced in 30 states this year are all but assured to take the choice to have children out of the hands of many more people.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Africa’s Most Controversial Oil Pipeline Is Hanging In The Balance


Editor OilPrice.com
Thu, April 14, 2022

After years in the works, the fight over the East Africa oil pipeline continues. Environmentalists and local communities have long been battling against the proposed construction of a major pipeline running from Uganda to Tanzania. But oil majors working in the region believe it could dramatically enhance the region’s export routes, making it possible for landlocked Uganda to transport its crude more easily. But the pipeline continues to face major hurdles, with doubts over whether it will ever be finished.

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is expected to be the world’s longest electrically heated oil pipeline, measuring 1440km and running from western Uganda to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania. TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd (CNOOC) originally expected to invest $3.5 billion in the EACOP, working with operators in the two countries - the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC). If completed, the pipeline could transport as much as 1 billion bpd of crude across the countries.

In late March, things were looking promising for Total as construction appeared imminent. The signing of a $10 billion final investment decision made its construction that much more likely. British energy firm Tullow Oil first discovered recoverable oil in Uganda in the Lake Albert basin in 2006 and TotalEnergies purchased Tullow’s stake in the region in 2020 but was unable to find suitable funding for the EACOP project until now.

However, there is significant opposition from locals, with 260 community groups across Uganda, Tanzania, and neighboring countries drawing awareness to the situation globally with the campaign #StopEACOP. Public protests, legal action, and media attention have helped delay the works for the last two years.

People are mainly concerned about the environmental impact of building such large-scale oil infrastructure. In early April, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that we can’t afford to build more fossil fuel infrastructure, drawing attention to major project proposals such as the EACOP. Estimates suggest that the pipeline could produce as much as 36 million tonnes of CO2 every year, around seven times Uganda’s annual emissions.

The more imminent impact of the pipeline is the displacement of up to 1,400 households, with inadequate compensation being offered. In addition, the destruction of wildlife habitats across the two countries seems inevitable, with the pipeline running through several major areas of endangered wildlife.

As Total continues with plans to go ahead with the pipeline, it has a limited window of time in which the world will accept this kind of major fossil fuel project. With oil demand still high and sanctions on Russia highlighting our dependence on the black gold, even now, Total may be able to gain enough support to see the project through. But as several oil majors and governments introduce ambitious climate targets for the end of the decade, this window is growing ever smaller.

The cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline in 2020 demonstrates the sentiment felt by governments in approaching long-term oil and gas projects, with mounting public pressure to make the shift away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives within the decade.

And the EACOP is hitting more hurdles, as insurers refuse to cover the pipeline, giving the negative long-term impact on the environment as the main reason. Multinational insurance firm, Munich Re, refused to insure it due to its potential harm to the climate. And, this week, major oil and gas insurer Allianz said it would not insure the pipeline, stating “Allianz is not providing direct insurance to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project, as it neither meets our climate ambition nor falls within our ESG risk profile.”

Zurich, Axa, SCOR, Swiss Re, and Hannover Re have all also refused to insure the project, following pressure from the “StopEacop” alliance. The alliance also targeted several banks to encourage them to refuse to fund the project, including HSBC, Credit Suisse, Barclays, and BNP Paribas. Omar Elmawi, StopEacop campaign coordinator said “It is now official, 7 out of the 15 (re)insurers we have approached have concluded that Eacop is a huge risk for them to underwrite.”

But, despite hurdles, Uganda is largely in favor of the pipeline, as it could help further develop its oil industry and have a positive spillover effect on the national economy. Politicians have made grand promises about what the construction of the EACOP would mean for the country. With Uganda and Tanzania sharing a 30 percent stake in the pipeline, it would see some revenue coming back into the two countries. It could also lead to significant job creation.

Despite notable opposition, TotalEnergies continues to push for the construction of the EACOP, following two years of planning and fundraising. While several community groups and international organizations are opposed to the construction of new large-scale fossil fuel infrastructure, the government of Uganda sees great potential for the development of the industry to support the national economy. However, Total will have to gain approval and insurance fast if it hopes to see the EACOP development come to fruition.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

Brokers using this controversial practice are ‘skimming rent, getting rich’: Michael Lewis

Max Zahn with Andy Serwer
Thu, April 14, 2022, 10:53 AM

Shares of trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) have plummeted nearly 35% so far this year, taking a 5% tumble last Friday alone after Goldman Sachs issued a Sell rating and raised concerns about soft user growth.

The company's revenue prospects could dim further if the Securities and Exchange Commission banned the controversial practice of payment for order flow, David Trainer, the CEO of investment research firm New Constructs, told Forbes.

High-profile proponents of regulating the practice abound, including best-selling author Michael Lewis.

In a new interview, Lewis said the SEC should make a "big change" on payment for order flow. Lewis, whose landmark 2014 book "Flash Boys" drew attention to the lucrative use of high frequency trading on Wall Street, said that brokers who use payment for order flow are "skimming rent" and "getting rich."

When accepting payment for order flow, brokers accept smaller price improvement for trades in exchange for higher payments from the market makers that fulfill the trades — a practice that can amount to a small surcharge for traders, effectively nullifying the commission-free trading promised by some brokers.

"It's really true that it's cheaper to trade in the stock market now than it was a long time ago, when you paid a broker a ridiculous commission to execute your trade," Lewis says.

To be sure, Robinhood is hardly the only broker that accepts payment for order flow. E-Trade, TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab (SCHW) are among those that deploy the practice.

"But it's also really true that those pennies are unnecessary, and that when you add them up across the whole market, it is billions of dollars, and you have people getting rich in this way," he adds. "These are examples of success to the rest of society, when really what they're just doing is skimming rent."

Last May, SEC Chair Gary Gensler hinted at potential new rules that would apply to Robinhood, market maker Citadel Securities, and others. In turn, Gensler told Baron's three months later that a ban on payment for order flow was "on the table."

Gensler reiterated his openness to a ban on payment for order flow in remarks to Yahoo Finance's Brian Cheung in October.

The logo of Robinhood Markets, Inc. is seen at a pop-up event on Wall Street after the company's IPO in New York City, U.S., July 29, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

"Do they have the political will to shut it down?" Lewis asks. "The last two administrations — this one and the last one — have been poking around at this trying to figure out what you do about payment for order flow."

Payment for order flow revenue for the top four brokerage firms — TD Ameritrade, Robinhood, E-Trade and Charles Schwab — nearly tripled in 2020, jumping from $892 million to nearly $2.5 billion, according to Data from Alphacution previously cited by Yahoo Finance.

"I don't think anybody really has any illusions about exactly about what's going on," Lewis says.

Declassified government data reveals an interstellar object that exploded over Earth


By Joshua Hawkins

BGR
April 13th, 2022 


Back in 2014, a fireball exploded in the skies over Papua New Guinea. At the time, scientists believed that the object was a small meteorite measuring around 1.5 feet across. It slammed into the Earth’s atmosphere at more than 130,000 mph (roughly 210,000 km/h). Because the object’s speed exceeded the average velocity of meteors found within our solar system, a group of scientists conducted a study on the object in 2019. They found that it was most likely the first interstellar object we had identified.

However, the group never published their paper in a peer-reviewed journal. Instead, it has been available in the preprint database arXiv since its publishing. The reasoning behind this delay is because the data needed to verify the study’s position The team argued that the meteor’s speed, as well as the trajectory that it traveled, proved that it had originated somewhere beyond our solar system.

Unfortunately, the scientists never had the paper reviewed by peers. That’s because the U.S. government considered the data needed to verify the claims classified. At least, until now.

On April 6, 2022, Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw, the commander of the USSC, shared a memo on Twitter. The memo says that the analysis by the scientists in 2019 was “sufficiently accurate to confirm an interstellar trajectory.” That makes it the first interstellar object that we’ve identified to date.

It’s a huge step forward, and the confirmation retroactively makes the 2014 meteor even more important than it might have already been. In fact, it currently predates what we believed to be the first interstellar object, a comet named ‘Oumuamua. In fact, it predates it by almost three years.

Of course, there’s no telling what other kinds of interstellar objects are out there that we have yet to find. We still have a lot of space to explore, even inside our own solar system. As such, we could find other interstellar objects waiting to be discovered.

Of course, this isn’t the only interstellar object we have discovered so far. As noted above, scientists previously discovered ‘Oumuamua, a cigar-shaped object moving far too fast to have originated inside of our solar system. Unlike the meteor, though, ‘Oumuamua was spotted far from Earth. And, NASA says it is already speeding away from our solar system.

Scientists believe ‘Oumuamua is a comet because of how quickly it is moving, as well as how much it continued to accelerate on its own. However, because it is so far away from Earth, and moving outside of our solar system, it’s impossible to know for sure.

Still, knowing that there are interstellar objects entering our solar system from beyond the edges of space as we know it is both terrifying and exhilarating. As scientists continue to explore space and search for alien life, there’s no telling what we’ll find as our spacecraft branch out into the more unknown parts of our universe.

Fearing civil war amnesia, activists fight to preserve Beirut port silos

A family member of one of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion reacts during a protest in Beirut

Families of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion hold pictures during a protest near Beirut port




FILE PHOTO: Aftermath of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area



A family member of one of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion holds a picture during a protest in Beirut



FILE PHOTO: Site of Tuesday's blast, at Beirut's port area

By Timour Azhari
April 13, 2022

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Families of victims of the 2020 Beirut port blast are pressuring Lebanon's government to keep its silos as a memorial, arguing the move would be a powerful acknowledgement of suffering in a country still struggling to come to terms with years of war and strife.

Ghassan Hasrouty worked at the towering white grain silos for nearly four decades - even through Lebanon's 15-year civil war, when he would tell his wife he felt protected by the thick walls of the storage facility.

"He used to tell my mum, 'I'm scared for you (at home), not for me because there is nothing, no shrapnel, that can harm the silos... nothing can bring them down," Hasrouty's daughter Tatiana recalled.

On August 4, 2020, Ghassan was working late when a massive chemical blast at the port ended his life and those of at least 215 others, and cleaved off part of the cylindrical towers.

As Lebanon marks the 47th anniversary of the start of the war on Wednesday, Ghassan's daughter and other relatives of those killed in the blast are fighting government plans to demolish the disembowelled silos.

Lebanese officials say the ruined silos should make way for new ones, the proposed move gaining momentum amid projections of global grains shortages due to Russia's war in Ukraine.

But activists and bereaved families say the columns, which stand like a great tombstone at Beirut's northern entrance, should stay as a monument - at least until an investigation into the blast can serve justice in a country accustomed to moving on from violence without accountability.

"In Lebanon we got used to the fact that something happens, and then they bring us something bigger and more intense than that, and we forget," Hasrouty said.

"They (politicians) work so that we wake up every day with new fears and new worries, and that's why I say they (the silos) should remain, because maybe people pass by them and recall: 'people really died here'".

'LIVING WITNESS TO THEIR CRIMES'

The probe into the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, has faced pushback from a political system installed at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, when an amnesty was issued for warlords who gained government seats.

The war left some 100,000 dead and 17,000 are still missing - but is left out of school curricula and Beirut's most damaged areas were rebuilt with no public monuments. Historians say that has led to a collective amnesia about the war - something the families of blast victims are desperate to avoid.

"We all grew up with the civil war and remember how the rockets would fly above our heads. The Lebanese people forgot it because it was erased, because, simply, they reconstructed everything," Rima Zahed, whose brother Amin died in the blast, told Reuters.

Zahed has since helped organise protests in support of the investigation and of the silos' preservation. "Now we need the silos as the living witness to their crimes," she told Reuters.

Lebanon's government says it has other priorities.

'COLD HEART, COLD MIND'

Culture Minister Mohamed Mortada told Reuters the Cabinet had decided to demolish the silos and rebuild new ones based on a "purely economic assessment" of Lebanon's food security needs.

Lebanon needs more wheat storage to cope with global grains shortages resulting from the Russian war in Ukraine, from where Lebanon imports most of its wheat, officials say.

Mortada said the building could not be renovated for technical and sanitary reasons, so it had to be destroyed.

While the minister has put the silos on a list of heritage buildings, he noted the protected status could be removed if an alternative is found.

"What satisfies the families of victims or does not satisfy the families of victims, despite its importance, is not what's asked of the culture minister. What's asked of the culture minister is to approach it with a cold heart and cold mind. Is it tied to history or not?" he said.

Urban activist Soha Mneimneh said the move to destroy the silos amounted to "the erasure of a crime scene."

An engineers syndicate of which she is a member has commissioned a report on the silos to study the feasibility of renovating them. Mneimneh said they should be reinforced "so they stay in peoples' collective memory, so it is not repeated."

For Tatiana Hasrouty, the silos evoke painful memories - but are also a symbol of strength.

"I think now after he died there, the silos, some standing and some destroyed, symbolize for our family that (despite) everything that happened to us and all the sadness we have experienced, our family is still standing, steadfast, as if nothing can shake it."

(Reporting by Timour Azhari; Editing by Maya Gebeily, William Maclean)

Want to know why India has been soft on Russia? Take a look at its military, diplomatic and energy ties

Sumit Ganguly, 

Distinguished Professor of Political Science 

and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, 

Indiana University

April 14, 2022,
THE CONVERSATION

A close relationship based on strategic needs.

Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

As global democracies lined up to condemn the actions of Russia in Ukraine, one country was less forthcoming in its criticism – and it was the largest democracy of them all: India.

Throughout the ongoing crisis, the government in India has carefully avoided taking an unequivocal position. It has abstained on every United Nations resolution dealing with the matter and refused to join the international community in economic measures against Moscow, prompting a warning from the U.S. over potentially circumventing sanctions. Even statements from India condemning the reported mass killing of Ukrainian civilians stopped short of apportioning blame on any party, instead calling for an impartial investigation.

As a scholar of Indian foreign and security policy, I know that understanding India’s stance on the war in Ukraine is complex. In considerable part, India’s decision to avoid taking a clear-cut position stems from a dependence on Russia on a host of issues – diplomatic, military and energy-related.

Moscow as strategic partner

This stance is not entirely new. On a range of fraught global issues, India has long avoided adopting a firm position based on its status as a nonaligned state – one of a number of countries that is not formally allied to any power bloc.

From a strategic standpoint today, decision-makers in New Delhi believe that they can ill afford to alienate Russia because they count on Moscow to veto any adverse United Nations Security Council resolution on the fraught question of the disputed region of Kashmir. Since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, and the region continues to be a source of tension.

Harking back to the days of the Soviet Union, India has relied on Russia’s veto at the U.N. to protect itself from any adverse statement on Kashmir. For example, during the East Pakistani crisis of 1971 – which led to the creation of Bangladesh – the Soviets protected India from censure at the U.N., vetoing a resolution demanding the withdrawal of troops from the disputed region.

In all, the Soviets and Russia have used their veto power six times to protect India. India has not had to rely on Russia for a veto since the end of the Cold War. But with tension over Kashmir still high amid sporadic fighting, New Delhi will want to ensure that Moscow is on its side should it come before the Security Council again.

In large part, India’s close relationship with Russia stems from Cold War allegiances. India drifted into the Soviet orbit mostly as a counter to America’s strategic alliance with Pakistan, India’s subcontinental adversary.

India is also hopeful of Russian support – or at least neutrality – in its long-standing border dispute with the People’s Republic of China. India and China share a border of more than 2,000 miles (near 3,500 km), the location of which has been contested for 80 years, including during a war in 1962 that failed to settle the matter.

Above all, India does not want Russia to side with China should there be further clashes in the Himalayas, especially since the border dispute has again come to the fore since 2020, with significant skirmishes between the Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Russia as supplier of weapons

India is also acutely dependent on Russia for a range of weaponry. In fact, 60% to 70% of India’s conventional arsenal is of either Soviet or Russian origin.

Over the past decade, New Delhi has sought to significantly diversify its weapons acquisitions. To that end, it has purchased more than US$20 billion worth of military equipment from the U.S. over the past decade or so. Nevertheless, it is still in no position to walk away from Russia as far as weapons sales are concerned.

To compound matters, Russia and India have developed close military manufacturing ties. For nearly two decades, the two countries have co-produced the highly versatile BrahMos missile, which can be fired from ships, aircraft or land.

India recently received its first export order for the missile, from the Philippines. This defense link with Russia could be severed only at considerable financial and strategic cost to India.

Also, Russia, unlike any Western country including the United States, has been willing to share certain forms of weapons technology with India. For example, Russia has leased an Akula-class nuclear submarine to India. No other country has been willing to offer India equivalent weaponry, in part over concerns that the technology will be shared with Russia.

In any case, Russia is able to provide India with high-technology weaponry at prices significantly lower than any Western supplier. Not surprisingly, despite significant American opposition, India chose to acquire the Russian S-400 missile defense battery.

Energy reliance

It isn’t just India’s defense industry that is reliant on Moscow. India’s energy sector is also inextricably tied to Russia.

Since the George W. Bush administration ended India’s status as a nuclear pariah – a designation it had held for testing nuclear weapons outside the ambit of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty – India has developed a civilian nuclear program.

Although the sector remains relatively small in terms of total energy production, it is growing – and Russia has emerged as a key partner. After the U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement of 2008 allowed India to participate in normal civilian nuclear commerce, Russia quickly signed an agreement to build six nuclear reactors in the country.

Neither the U.S. nor any other Western country has proved willing to invest in India’s civilian nuclear energy sector because of a rather restrictive nuclear liability law, which holds that the manufacturer of the plant or any of its components would be liable in the event of an accident.

But since the Russian government has said it will assume the necessary liability in the event of a nuclear accident, it has been able to enter the nuclear power sector in India. Western governments, however, are unwilling to provide such guarantees to their commercial companies.

Away from nuclear power, India also has invested in Russian oil and gas fields. India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Commission, for example, has long been involved in the extraction of fossil fuels off Sakhalin Island, a Russian island in the Pacific Ocean. And given that India imports close to 85% of its crude oil requirements from abroad – albeit only a small fraction from Russia – it is hardly in a position to shut off the Russian spigot.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently noted that India’s “relationship with Russia has developed over decades at a time when the United States was not able to be a partner to India” and suggested that Washington was prepared now to be that partner. But given the diplomatic, military and energy considerations, it is difficult to see India deviating from its balancing act over Russia any time soon.


This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Sumit Ganguly, Indiana University.

Read more:

Ukraine war: while most Americans express outrage, Putin’s spell continues to hang over Republicans

Sumit Ganguly has received funding from the US Department of State.

This tiny carnivore could be the key to tracking nearly a dozen declining Maine species


Pete Warner, Bangor Daily News, Maine

Apr. 12—If you want to learn about the health of wild animals in the forests of Maine, pay attention to what's going on with the American marten.

Research at the University of Maine led by Alessio Mortelliti, an associate professor in UMaine's department of wildlife, fisheries and conservation biology, found that studying marten can tell scientists a great deal about 11 other mammals living in the state.

It showed that the marten could serve as an effective "umbrella monitoring species" for other species living in the same or nearby habitat, including fishers, snowshoe hares, red squirrels and black bears, because tracking martens will automatically detect declines in these other species.

"This is great news for conservation and management agencies as they show that by focusing the efforts on one species, the marten, they will automatically be able to detect declines for many other species," Mortelliti said.

Funding for the American marten study, which is in its fifth year, was provided by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit.

However, the marten here in Maine may require more detailed study as disruptions to forests and climate change threaten their existence.

One of the primary benefits achieved by the study, which was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, is that the habitats of so many different mammals overlap and can be studied simultaneously. UMaine researchers gathered the data by using camera traps to capture more than 800,000 images of 27 different mammals over a span of four years.

The animals were photographed automatically when they triggered infrared sensors on the cameras.

"This could lead to huge savings, which is not a small thing in a world where conservation resources are so limited," Mortelliti said of the ability to monitor multiple species by using the camera traps.

Researchers have focused their monitoring protocols during the winter, when interactions with protected species such as the Canada lynx are more likely.

Mortelliti and his team are paying particular attention to how martens and fishers have adapted to increased harvesting of Maine forest habitats. Their efforts compared factors such as latitude, snow depth, level of forest disturbances and the numbers of marten and fisher reported by fur trappers.

According to results published in the journal Ecosphere, the researchers discovered that marten actually are not being disturbed by sharing the landscape with their larger cousin, the fisher.

"Instead, marten are choosing areas with the least forest disturbance, regardless of fisher presence," said Bryn Evans, recently graduated Ph.D. student and co-author of the study.

"Climate change is also likely to impact marten more intensely than fisher. It's critical to have a watchful eye over the coming years, so declines in the marten population can be identified quickly."

El Salvador president's mass arrests 'punitive populism'

MARCOS ALEMÁN and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
April 14, 2022,

An elderly woman watches as soldiers patrol in the San Jose del Pino Community in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022, during the government's unprecedented crackdown on gangs. El Salvador's congress, pushing further in the government's crackdown, has authorized prison sentences of 10 to 15 years for news media that reproduce or disseminate messages from the gangs, alarming press freedom groups. 

SANTA TECLA, El Salvador (AP) — A day after the bloodletting -- 62 gang killings that convulsed El Salvador -- the crackdown began.

Before dawn on Sunday, March 27, just hours after congress approved a state of emergency, heavily armed police and soldiers entered the packed, gang-controlled neighborhood of San Jose El Pino.

Freed from having to explain an arrest or grant access to a lawyer, they went door to door, dragging out young men. They established a perimeter with barbed wire barricades where they controlled who entered and who left, demanding identification and searching everyone.

President Nayib Bukele has responded to the surge in gang killings with mass arrests in poor neighborhoods like San Jose El Pino, each day posting the growing arrest total and photos of tattooed men. The highly publicized roundups are not the result of police investigations into the murders in late March, but propel a tough-on-crime narrative that critics are calling “punitive populism.”

In just over two weeks, more than 10,000 alleged gang members have been arrested — a huge number for a small country of 6.5 million people. They can be held for 15 days without charges, one of the measures decried by international human rights groups and the U.S. government.

“They came in with everything,” said 36-year-old Héctor Fernandez on his way to his factory job on a recent morning. “Whoever didn’t open the door, they knocked it down. They were looking for the guys. I think they took almost all of them, but others managed to get out.”

Critics say the mass arrests are more show than substance. They note that amid all of the chest-thumping rhetoric and slickly produced videos of roughly handled prisoners, authorities are not talking about the investigations or arrests of those suspected of actual involvement in the March 26 killings. But many Salvadorans are pleased to see action against gangs that have long-terrorized their communities.

“It’s for everyone’s safety,” Fernandez said, nervously looking around to see if anyone was watching. He said he minds his own business and hasn’t had trouble with the Mara Salvatrucha, the gang that controls his neighborhood. “I leave, (police and soldiers) search me. I go to work, come back in the evening, they search me. I pass and go home.”

Bukele, a highly popular master of social media, has filled his platforms with photos of handcuffed and bloodied gang members, orders to his security cabinet and attaboys from his supporters. At the same time, he has lashed out at human rights organizations and international agencies critical of some measures.

“If we don’t rid our country of this cancer now, then when will we ever do it?” Bukele said to a parade ground of soldiers -- and the world -- in a video he released last week. “We will go and find them wherever they are. Regardless of who protests. Regardless of how angry the international community gets.”

Gangs control swaths of territory through brutality and fear. They’ve driven thousands to emigrate to save their own lives or the lives of their children who are forcibly recruited. Their power is strongest in El Salvador’s poorest neighborhoods where the state has long been absent. They are a drain on the economy, extorting money from even the lowest earners and forcing businesses that can’t or won’t pay to close.

The wave of violence at the end of March -- it stretched across the country and its victims included a municipal maintenance worker, a taxi driver, a farmer-- demanded a government response. Bukele chose a state of emergency provided for in the constitution.

But El Salvador’s security forces and justice system had the legal tools to investigate and prosecute those involved in the killings without the suspension of fundamental rights, critics say. What they did not have was the carte blanche that has yielded the media spectacle of the past two weeks, starring Bukele as savior-in-chief.

“There are a lot of doubts about whether the measures that Bukele’s government has taken to confront the wave of murders are really aimed at investigating the crimes and responding to the victims,” said Leonor Arteaga, a Salvadoran who is program director at the Due Process of Law Foundation in Washington.

Instead, she said, it seems Bukele is using the situation “to advance his authoritarian plans and in his intention to control all critical voices and squash any dissident.”

Bukele’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Abraham Ábrego, director of the strategic litigation program at Cristosal, a non-governmental organization in El Salvador, said his group was working to document arbitrary arrests and other abuses.

Bukele has shown himself to be masterful at building and controlling narratives, he said. “There is a term that we use called ‘punitive populism,’ which is using the state’s powers of criminal persecution to show strength, to show toughness,” Ábrego said.

On Tuesday, the head of a national police union said some high-ranking police officials had pressured officers to make false statements justifying some arrests to meet arrest quotas, including in a small remote town with no gang presence.

Omar Serrano, vice rector at Central American University José Simeón Cañas, said that like previous administrations, the president has opted for a more militarized approach to dealing with the gangs.

“This is not going to solve the country’s serious problems,” Serrano said. The government line is that the problem of the gangs is one of national security, “when deep down it is a social problem.”

After the congress approved the state of emergency, Bukele returned to lawmakers multiple times for changes to the country’s criminal code. Among other things, they lengthened sentences, reduced the age of criminal responsibility to 12 and established prison sentences of 10 to 15 years for journalists who disseminate gang messages that could cause anxiety or panic among the people.

He had already ordered his head of prisons to keep all gang members confined to their cells 24 hours a day and to reduce their meals to twice daily. “Message for the gangs: because of your actions, now your ‘homeboys’ will not be able to see a ray of sunlight,” Bukele wrote on Twitter.

Human Rights Watch, the international advocacy organization that Bukele has taken to mocking as “Homeboys Rights Watch,” said the government had overreached.

“The Salvadoran government should adopt rights-respecting measures to protect people from heinous gang violence, dismantle these groups, and bring those responsible for crimes to justice,” said Juan Pappier, senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Instead, Bukele’s government has enacted overbroad, harshly punitive laws that undermine the fundamental rights of all Salvadorans.”

But Salvadorans seem to be ambivalent about the crackdown. In a leafy park in front of Santa Tecla’s municipal market and short distance from San Jose El Pino, Adela Maravilla Ceballos walked with her groceries on a recent morning.

“It’s good what they’re doing, they took long enough,” the 52-year-old homemaker said. “These guys don’t understand anything else. Who is going to be against security? Only the criminals.”

Still, some of the images had bothered her. Her two sons went to the United States years ago looking for better opportunities.

“I am a mother and sometimes it hurts me when they grab them and hit them and I see how they cry,” she said.

___

Sherman reported from Mexico City. AP writer E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Men are detained by the police, suspects in a homicide near a market in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, March 27, 2022. 

A soldier guards the perimeter of a crime scene at a small market in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, March 27, 2022. 

Heavily armed police guard the streets in down town San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, March 27, 2022. 


Soldiers man a checkpoint at the entrance to the Las Palmas Community, a neighborhood that is supposed to be under the control of Barrio 18 Gang in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, March 27, 2022.


FILE - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele speaks to the press at Mexico's National Palace after meeting with the President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico City, March 12, 2019. El Salvador’s president has threatened Tuesday, April 6, 2022, that he will cut off food for imprisoned members of street gangs if they “unleash a wave of crimes.” 

(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)



Children walk behind concertina wire as soldiers guard the entrances of the San Jose del Pino Community in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022, during the government's unprecedented crackdown on gangs. El Salvador's congress, pushing further in the government's crackdown, has authorized prison sentences of 10 to 15 years for news media that reproduce or disseminate messages from the gangs, alarming press freedom groups. 


Soldiers search the backpacks of locals as they walk in the San Jose del Pino Community in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022, during the government's unprecedented crackdown on gangs. 


A woman talks to her son who has been arrested by the police, as he is taken to El Penalito temporary prison in Ciudad Delgado, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. 

A couple of youths are taken to El Penalito temporary prison in Ciudad Delgado, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele's has declared a state of emergency in a crackdown against gangs, suspending constitutional guarantees of freedom of assembly and loosening arrest rules for as much as thirty days, or more. 

(AP Photos/Salvador Melendez)

BMW CEO warns against electric-only strategy

 German Economic and Climate Protection Minister Habeck at BMW in Munich

By Doyinsola Oladipo

April 14, 2022


NEW YORK (Reuters) -BMW Chief Executive Officer Oliver Zipse said companies must be careful not to become too dependent on a select few countries by focusing only on electric vehicles, adding that there was still a market for combustion engine cars.

"When you look at the technology coming out, the EV push, we must be careful because at the same time, you increase dependency on very few countries," Zipse said at a roundtable in New York, highlighting that the supply of raw materials for batteries was controlled mostly by China.

"If someone cannot buy an EV for some reason but needs a car, would you rather propose he continues to drive his old car forever? If you are not selling combustion engines anymore, someone else will," said Zipse.

He has long advocated against all-out bans on combustion engine car sales in the face of rising pressure from regulators on the auto industry to curb its carbon emissions and environmental impact.

Offering more fuel-efficient combustion engine cars was key both from a profit perspective and an environmental perspective, Zipse argued, pointing to gaps in charging infrastructure and the high price of electric vehicles.

Companies also needed to plan for energy prices and raw materials to remain high by being more efficient in their production and stepping up recycling efforts to keep costs down, he said.

"We have a peak now, they might not stay at the peak, but they will not go back to former prices," he said. "How much energy you need and use, and circularity, is important - for environmental reasons but even more for economic reasons."

(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo; Writing by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Mike Harrison)

Mercedes-Benz completes 1,000 km electric drive on energy-efficient design

April 13, 2022, 4:06 PM2 min read

Bangkok International Motor Show

BERLIN (Reuters) - Mercedes-Benz aims to produce electric cars consuming as little as 10 kilowatt hours of energy per 100 km (62 miles), its chief technology officer (CTO) said on Thursday, a third more efficient than the current average for electric cars.

Speaking as the carmaker celebrated the successful test drive of its EQXX prototype vehicle over more than 1,000 km from Sindelfingen in Germany to the Cote d'Azur on a single charge, CTO Markus Schaefer said efficient design was key to maximising an electric car's range.

"First we optimise efficiency, and then we can see how many battery modules we put in the car," Schaefer said at a media roundtable, adding that customers should be able to decide the size of the battery they want based on their needs.

Carmakers from Mercedes-Benz to Tesla to China's Nio are in a neck-to-neck race to produce higher range cars that dispel consumer anxiety over the lack of widespread charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Mercedes unveiled its Vision EQXX prototype, boasting a 1,000 km-range with a battery half the volume of its flagship EQS model, in January, promising that some of the car's components would make their way into series vehicles in 2-3 years time.

The car spent 8.7 kilowatt hours of energy per 100 km on its 11-and-a-half hour drive to France, Mercedes-Benz said, about twice as efficient as Mercedes models on the market and Tesla's longest-range car on offer, the Model S 60.

Mercedes' EQS has the highest range on the market as of yet, according to car comparison portal carwow, with 768 km, followed by Tesla's Model S Long Range with up to 652 km.

"There'll be a further increase for some time before a fall, which will happen once charging infrastructure is as available as petrol stations," Schaefer said, although he declined to state what range Mercedes was targeting in future models.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Ilona Wissenbach; editing by Richard Pullin)

Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov's $735 million superyacht, Dilbar — the largest in the world — has been impounded in Germany

Dominick Reuter
April 13, 2022, 

The Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov "indirectly transferred assets" including the Dilbar yacht to his sister, according to the EU.

Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images, Sabri Kesen/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images


German authorities have impounded a $750 million superyacht associated with Alisher Usmanov.


Police said an investigation into "offshore concealment" found the owner was Usmanov's sister.


Dilbar was speculated to have been seized last month, but officials denied it at the time.

Germany's Federal Police have seized the largest megayacht in the world after determining it to be owned by the sister of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.

The police said they were able to find the owner after an investigation into "offshore concealment" and that the boat would remain at a shipyard in Hamburg.



The European Union's sanctions lists include Alisher Usmanov's sister Gulbakhor Ismailova and say that he "indirectly transferred assets," including Dilbar, to her.

The 512-foot yacht was thought to be under German government control in March when it was spotted at the Blohm+Voss shipyard, where it had been undergoing a refitting since October. Officials denied those reports at the time.

Shortly afterward, the yacht's crew was fired after wages could not be paid because of sanctions, Forbes reported.

With two helipads and the largest indoor pool ever installed on a yacht, Dilbar is worth between $600 million and $735 million and costs $60 million a year to maintain, according to the US Treasury Department.

The UK government estimated Usmanov was worth $18.4 billion from interests in metals, mining, and telecoms, and the EU called him one of "Putin's favorite oligarchs."

Dilbar is named for Usmanov's mother.