BASTURDS

Australia Says Will Not Challenge Julian Assange Extradition After UK Court Formally Issues Order


News18 - 1h ago

Australia will not challenge Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States and has confidence in the British judicial system, a senior government minister said Thursday.

A British court issued a formal order Wednesday for the Australian national to be extradited to the United States, where he would face trial for the publication of a trove of secret files relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If convicted, he could face up to 175 years in prison.

“We have confidence in the independence and integrity of the British justice system,” Australian Senator Simon Birmingham told the national broadcaster ABC Thursday.

Australia’s government was not arguing against the extradition, he said.

“This is a process that will be able to continue to work through that system,” said Birmingham, who is Australia’s finance minister.

Following the British court’s order, Assange’s lawyers have until May 18 to make submissions to Britain’s interior minister Priti Patel, with whom the final decision about his extradition rests.

Birmingham noted that Assange’s right of appeal remained — he can seek appeal to the High Court — and said Australia would continue to provide consular assistance to its jailed citizen.

A coalition of 25 human rights groups — including the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders — has challenged Assange’s extradition saying it poses a “grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad”.

The Australian has been fighting to avoid extradition for more than a decade, dramatically taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges.

He has been held in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison since 2019 for skipping bail on the Swedish charges, which were dropped in 2020.

WEEP  O' PALESTINE
Orphaned Palestinians mourn unarmed mother shot by Israeli soldier


Houria Sabatien, whose daughter Ghada was shot by an Israeli soldier on April 10, mourns with her grandchild


Jamila and her brother Omar were also orphaned 

Omar displays a picture of his mother on a phone 


Houria wants the orphans to grow up without hatred in their hearts, despite the killing of their mother 
Orphaned Palestinians mourn unarmed mother shot by Israeli soldier

Houria with her grandchildren (L to R) Moustafa, Jamila, Omar and Mohammed

 PHOTOS AFP/HAZEM BADER

Guillaume Lavallée
Wed, 20 April 2022,

When Ghada Sabatien set out to visit her uncle in a village near Bethlehem, she was not expecting to be caught up in the spike in violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

But the unarmed 45-year-old, who was partially sighted and understood little Hebrew, bled to death in the street after "mistakenly" being shot by an Israeli soldier.

She leaves behind six orphans.

The West Bank village of Husan is usually a quiet backwater, despite being close to a major crossing into Israel.

The shops have signs in both Arabic and Hebrew, and even Israeli settlers regularly stop there to buy groceries, with few tensions.

At the entrance to the village, Israeli soldiers sit guard on a concrete island that serves as a checkpoint.

On April 10, Ghada set out to visit her uncle, wearing a hijab and long gown.

On the way back, the walk took her past the makeshift checkpoint.

As she approached, a soldier fired warning shots and shouted.

Ghada has "eye problems", her family said, adding that she did not speak Hebrew as she had spent years abroad.

In footage caught by a Palestinian TV crew that happened to be filming nearby, she appeared to panic.

But she kept walking. The soldier opened fire at her legs, and she fell to the floor.

It took several minutes for an ambulance to arrive. By the time she reached a hospital in the nearby town of Beit Jala, she had lost catastrophic amounts of blood.

She died in the hospital.

-'She cannot be replaced'-

Ghada was not wearing an explosive vest or carrying any kind of weapon.

Her family have been in shock and anger ever since she was killed.

"My sister went there and asked a soldier in Hebrew: 'Did she do anything wrong?'," Ghada's mother Houria Sabatien, 69, told AFP.

"He answered: 'No'. 'So why did you shoot at her?' she asked. The soldier said: 'Sorry'."

Around her sat her grandchildren, four of Ghada's orphans: Omar, Jamila, Mohammed and Moustafa, their eyes glued to the floor.

"They've become orphans. And me, I'm old, I'm afraid for them when they go out, I'm afraid for them because of the army," Houria said.

"I would like to feed them and show them life. But I'm afraid for their future."

Moustafa, 15, is struggling to comprehend the tragedy.

"When I lost my mother, it was as if life no longer had any meaning. She was the one who woke us up in the morning, she was the one who welcomed us back from school, she was the one who took care of us," he said.

"She was everything, she cannot be replaced."

He reminisced about Ghada's delicious maqloubeh, a Palestinian dish of rice and meat, and how she would help with his mathematics homework.

"She made me understand straight away," he said.

-'Mistake'-

Born into a family of scientists, Ghada Sabatien graduated with a degree in mathematics at Bethlehem University and spent 15 years in Jordan, where she was a teacher.

After her husband died four years ago, Ghada returned to Husan with the children.

She prepared meals, helped with homework, read the Koran, visited extended family members, and occasionally gave private lessons.

"She was an independent, peaceful, educated woman who was not interested in politics at all," says Rafat, her brother.

He said he had received an apology from the Israeli army for their "mistake".

AFP approached the army for comment on Ghada's killing.

It said she had run "suspiciously" towards the checkpoint and that soldiers had fired at her legs.

"The suspect received initial medical treatment by IDF soldiers at the scene," it said.

"The circumstances of the case are being reviewed."

The tragedy sparked anger, both among Palestinians and overseas.

In a rare move, Washington's envoy to the Palestinians, George Noll, called the family to express his condolences.

The Husan area saw a spike in night-time protests. One young man, Qusay Hamamra, was killed by Israeli forces after throwing a Molotov cocktail at them.

But Houria said she would teach Ghada's children a different path.

"If we want to fight against Israel, we must do it through education, culture (...) we cannot stay in hatred," she said.

"If I love Ghada, I must teach this to her children."

gl/par/jsa/dwo

CARBON CAPTURE IS GREENWASHING

Companies used carbon credits created in oil extraction projects

Process to tap inaccessible deposits employs captured carbon, enabled offsets.

CAMILLA HODGSON,

 FINANCIAL TIMES

- 4/18/2022

The sun sets beyond an oil pumping unit, also known as a pumping jack, at a drilling site operated by Tatneft OAO near Almetyevsk, Russia.
Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Daimler Trucks, eBay, and a US energy company were among the recent buyers of carbon offsets created by projects that involved injecting carbon dioxide underground in order to extract more oil.

Three US-based extraction projects were eligible to generate credits because their processes involved the capture of CO2. But this was used as a way to extract fresh oil that would otherwise have been inaccessible, a procedure known as “enhanced oil recovery” (EOR).

The offsetting rules that the credits were created under ignored the emissions associated with the extracted oil.

Nearly 3 million credits from the three projects, which cannot generate new offsets following a rule change, have been used by buyers to compensate for carbon emissions. Each offset is supposed to represent a ton of carbon that has been permanently avoided or removed from the atmosphere.

“Offsetting emissions with these credits is complete nonsense,” said Gilles Dufrasne, policy officer at Carbon Market Watch. “If the captured carbon enables an increase in oil extraction, then obviously this must be part of the calculation and would likely negate any supposed climate benefits.”

Stuart Haszeldine, professor of carbon capture and storage (CCS) at Edinburgh University, said that in the US it had “never been accepted that the extra oil produced [by the EOR process] has a carbon footprint.”

Offsets are very widely used by companies to mitigate their carbon emissions. They are generated by environmental projects such as tree-planting, with money from the sale of the credits used for funding.

Between 2000 and 2008, under now-defunct offsetting rules, the three US EOR projects generated a combined 12.4 million offsets. Although the schemes can no longer generate new credits, companies can still buy those created before the change.

One of the three schemes was developed by US oil and gas company Merit Energy and the offsets seller Blue Source. The project used carbon that had been captured from an ExxonMobil facility for oil extraction.

In March, DJR Operating, another US oil and gas group, used 150,000 offsets from the Merit project. Canadian power generator TransAlta also used 376,000 of these credits in 2015, while eBay bought 1,700 between 2020 and 2021, according to data from the American Carbon Registry.

Ebay said it “did not include [the offsets] in our carbon neutrality achievement for 2021.” TransAlta declined to comment, and DJR did not respond.

Customers of third-party offsets seller Terrapass, including Daimler Trucks, have used 73,000 credits from the three legacy schemes since 2020.

Terrapass said its customers had “supported dozens of renewable energy and greenhouse gas destruction projects.” Daimler Trucks said the credits had conformed to the “strict protocols” governing offsets when generated.

In April, a landmark UN report on climate change said it would be essential to remove carbon from the atmosphere to limit warming to 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels. Experts stressed that CCS should be used by sectors such as cement and steelmaking, where absolute emissions are unlikely ever to reach zero.

Proponents of EOR say the process provides a market for captured carbon emissions and will help accelerate the development of carbon capture technology.

Merit Energy and Blue Source did not respond to requests for comment.

THE REALITY IS THAT CCS IS NOT GREEN NOR CLEAN IT IS GOING TO BE USED TO FRACK OLD DRY WELLS SUCH AS IN THE BAKAN SHIELD IN SASKATCHEWAN
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-myth-of-carbon-capture-and-storage.html

ALSO SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CCS

 

Third dust storm in two weeks sweeps through Iraq


© AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

AFP

Iraq was hit Wednesday by its third heavy dust storm in two weeks, temporarily grounding flights at Baghdad and Najaf airports, as the weather phenomenon grows increasingly frequent.

The air in Baghdad was thick with a heavy sheet of grey and orange dust, while the state news agency INA cited the meteorological office as saying the latest storm was expected to lift on Thursday.

Flights were suspended at Baghdad International Airport due to poor visibility.

The airport serving the Shiite holy city of Najaf to the south also released a statement announcing flights were grounded.

Two dust storms struck the country earlier in April, leaving dozens hospitalised with respiratory problems and temporarily grounding flights at a number of airports.

"The dust is affecting the whole country but particularly central and southern regions," Amer al-Jabri, an official at Iraq's meteorological office, told AFP.

"Iraq is facing climatic upheaval and is suffering from a lack of rain, desertification and the absence of green belts" around cities, he said.

Iraq is particularly vulnerable to climate change, having already witnessed record low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years.

Experts have said these factors threaten social and economic disaster in the war-scarred country.

In November, the World Bank warned that Iraq could suffer a 20-percent drop in water resources by 2050 due to climate change.

In early April, environment ministry official Issa al-Fayad had warned that Iraq could face "272 days of dust" a year in coming decades, according to the state news agency INA.

The ministry said the weather phenomenon could be confronted by "increasing vegetation cover and creating forests that act as windbreaks".

Related video: Dust storm hits the Iraqi capital of Baghdad (AFP)

Ramos-Horta wins East Timor presidential election: officials


Jose Ramos-Horta has won East Timor's presidential election in a landslide 

(AFP/VALENTINO DARIEL SOUSA)


Wed, April 20, 2022, 

Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta scored a landslide victory in East Timor's presidential election, according to preliminary results published Wednesday by the election secretariat.

The 72-year-old secured 397,145 votes, or 62.09 percent, against incumbent Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres' 242,440, or 37.91 percent, the secretariat's website showed after all ballots were counted.

"The count of the district, national and regional vote has been completed", said Acilino Manuel Branco, general director of the election secretariat.

The election results still need to be validated by the country's electoral commission.

The victory gives Ramos-Horta his second term in office. He served as president of Southeast Asia's youngest country from 2007 to 2012 and was also the country's first prime minister.

"The elections were competitive, and the campaign was largely peaceful," EU observer Domenec Ruiz Devesa said Wednesday, adding the counting process had been assessed "positively".

Ramos-Horta will be inaugurated on May 20 -- the 20th anniversary of East Timor's independence from Indonesia, which occupied the former Portuguese colony for 24 years.

He had pledged to use his five-year term to break a longstanding deadlock between the two main political parties.

The election could trigger a period of uncertainty, as Ramos-Horta has previously indicated he might dissolve the parliament if he won the election.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called Ramos-Horta on Wednesday to convey "the warmest congratulations on the election as President of the Republic of Timor-Leste", according to a press release from the presidency.

Nearly 860,000 people in the tiny nation of 1.3 million were eligible to vote, and more than 75 percent of voters turned up to cast their ballots in the second round.

- Re-match -

This week's vote was a rematch of the 2007 presidential poll that also saw Ramos-Horta win handily, with 69 percent of the votes.

Ramos-Horta said he came out of retirement to run once more because he believed the outgoing president had violated the constitution.

Ramos-Horta was dominant in the election's March 19 first round, winning 46 percent of votes versus Guterres' 22 percent, but failed to secure the needed majority.

The Nobel laureate benefited from the backing of Xanana Gusmao, the country's first president and current leader of the National Congress of the Reconstruction of Timor-Leste (CNRT), often a kingmaker in East Timor.

Ramos-Horta was awarded a Nobel prize for peace in 1996 for his efforts in facilitating conflict resolution in the country. In 2008, he survived an assassination attempt.

The new president faces the daunting task of lifting the country out of poverty.

East Timor is still reeling from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the World Bank has said that 42 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

str-dsa/dva/rlp

Blind Rwandans take up massage to fight stigma


\
Immaculee Karuhura says she lost her sight at the age of three 

\
Although the coronavirus pandemic hit their business hard, with massage services banned during Rwanda's lockdown, these days Gatonye says she can't keep up with demand

Businesses like Seeing Hands hold out the promise of financial freedom to blind Rwandans 


Since 2017, Beth Gatonye (left) has trained dozens of visually impaired women 

Blind Rwandans make up just over one percent of the country's population 

PHOTOS AFP/Simon Wohlfahrt

Ivan Rush Mugisha
Wed, 20 April 2022,

On a chilly morning, Beth Gatonye loaded two vibrating chairs into her van and headed to the US embassy in Kigali with three blind colleagues, ready to offer massage therapy.

Since 2017, the 43-year-old has trained dozens of visually impaired women -- and some men -- in the art of massage, with a view to creating jobs for a community that faces deep discrimination in Rwanda.

Even today, demand for the massage services offered by her company Seeing Hands is limited to foreigners, she said.

"Rwandans say that they don't want their bodies to be touched by a blind person, that it can be a sign of bad luck," she told AFP.

"It is as if Rwandans think that being blind is contagious."

The stigma is widespread across the East African nation, with visually impaired citizens struggling to access educational or professional opportunities, according to the Rwanda Union of the Blind (RUB).

"They live in isolation and solitude. Some are... hidden from the public by their families because they represent shame," RUB spokeswoman Rachel Musabyimana told AFP.

Blind Rwandans were unable to attend secondary school until the 1990s, when the curriculum was converted to braille.

They faced an even longer wait to access university education, which only became available in 2008.

"Rwandans consider us to be useless people," said Immaculee Karuhura, a visually impaired massage therapist who works with Seeing Hands.

"They think we only survive through begging," Karuhura told AFP.

- Sense of purpose -

Although the coronavirus pandemic hit their business hard, with massage services banned during Rwanda's lockdown, these days Gatonye can't keep up with demand.

"I have 15 blind women so far working as massage therapists... Getting back everyone who worked here before the Covid pandemic is difficult but we are trying," she said.

Visually-impaired people comprise more than one percent of the country's 13 million population, according to Rwanda's 2021 National Blindness Survey.

The major causes of their condition are untreated cataract and glaucoma -- up to 80 percent of cases are deemed preventable or reversible.

Businesses like Seeing Hands hold out the promise of financial freedom to blind Rwandans.

On average, the masseurs earn the equivalent of about $100 (92 euros) a month -- more than double the salaries of workers such as waitresses or housemaids

"Now I can take care of my life. I can pay rent and also pay for my children's school fees," Karuhura said.

But the job means much more than that to her, she added.

"When I am serving a client, I feel happy," she said, pointing out how the work had given her a sense of purpose and belonging.

"It feels like I am communicating with my clients during a therapy session, and this is something that makes me very emotional."

str/amu/txw/ri

China ratifies international labour treaties as scrutiny of treatment of ethnic minorities mounts

China's lawmakers on Wednesday announced that it ratified two international conventions against forced labour, months after United Nations experts voiced concerns over the country's treatment of ethnic and religious minorities – particularly in the Xinjiang region.© AFP

Beijing's approvals come as the country faces accusations of widespread human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including forced labour.

Rights groups estimate at least one million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in "re-education camps" there – allegations that Beijing roundly rejects.

Officials maintain the camps are vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism.

London and Washington have been among vocal critics of China's treatment of minorities in Xinjiang, with the US State Department previously calling on China to "end its genocide and crimes against humanity" in the region.

On Wednesday, China's top legislature approved the ratification of the International Labour Organization's Forced Labour Convention, as well as the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, according to official announcements on the National People's Congress website.

Labour rights have been a fraught issue in China, with a committee of 20 experts appointed by the ILO – a UN agency – taking China to task in its annual report published in February.

The group expressed "deep concern" after assessing the treatment of minorities, and evaluated allegations in late 2020 that Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities were systematically being forced to work in agriculture.

The expert committee called on Beijing to reorient "the mandate of vocational training and education centres from political re-education based on administrative detention".

China has lashed out at accusations of forced labour as untrue and politically motivated.

Members who ratify the two conventions are obliged to suppress and not use any form of forced or compulsory labour, according information on the ILO's website.

They should also take measures to secure the "immediate and complete abolition" of such labour.

Beijing had previously been asked to provide detailed information about the steps it was taking to ensure activities at Xinjiang's vocational training centres were in line with China's international obligations.

The country is also expecting a visit by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet in May, in a long-delayed visit that includes a trip to Xinjiang.

There have long been calls for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Xinjiang and publish her office's findings.

Last year, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to refuse any consideration of a major investment pact between the European Union and China, as long as Chinese sanctions against MEPs and scholars remained in place.

The EU had sanctioned four Chinese officials over suspected human rights violations in Xinjiang and China responded by imposing its own sanctions against European politicians, scholars and research groups.

(AFP)

IMF says LME governance needs strengthening after nickel fiasco
Bloomberg News | April 19, 2022 

Image: LME

The International Monetary Fund said the London Metal Exchange’s governance systems need to be strengthened after a massive short squeeze that left the world’s main nickel market suspended for six days last month and billions of dollars of trades canceled.


The LME has been criticized by investors for its handling of the crisis, when prices surged by 250% in less than two days in a squeeze centered around Chinese nickel and stainless steel producer Tsingshan Holding Group Co. The IMF highlighted the nickel-market chaos as part of wider risks in commodity markets and lessons for policy makers in the wake of recent extreme volatility.

“Governance mechanisms for the LME need to be strengthened to address conflict of interest. Measures must be in place to ensure that the concentration of trading does not adversely impact free and fair markets,” IMF said in its Global Financial Stability Report on Tuesday.

The LME said at the time that it took action after the nickel price spike posed a systemic risk to its market. However, the decision to cancel several hours of trades at the highest prices also served as a bailout of Tsingshan and its banks to the tune of several billion dollars.

More widely, central banks and other regulators are starting to pay increasing attention to the threat that commodities-market volatility and liquidity concerns could spill over into other financial markets.

In its report, the IMF said the turmoil at the LME raises the risk that exchange-traded contracts migrate to the more opaque over-the-counter market. In nickel, a substantial portion of Tsingshan’s large short position was held off the exchange in bilateral deals with banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bloomberg has reported.

“Supervisors and regulators should consider enhancing transparency, in both exchange-traded and over-the-counter markets, to preempt the buildup of concentrated positions and thereby limit financial stability implications,” the IMF said.

It also echoed comments by the U.K.’s market regulator in noting that exchanges should ensure the resilience of their operational systems — the restart of the nickel market in mid-March was marked by a series of stop-start glitches.

“Exchanges and central counterparty clearing houses should also ensure the robustness and resilience of their information technology systems to withstand current trading conditions,” the IMF said.

The LME didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

(By Archie Hunter)

Glencore climate plan in spotlight on concern over methane emissions

Bloomberg News | April 20, 2022

Mount Owen thermal and coking coal mine in Australia. Image: Glencore

A Glencore Plc climate plan is facing greater scrutiny following a report that the company is understating methane emissions from some of its Australian coal mines.


The releases were so significant they caused the global commodities trader to underestimate its global operational emissions by 11% to 24% between 2018 and 2021, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility said in a report. The analysis used methane emissions estimates made by scientists at the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, who relied on satellite observations of the potent greenhouse gas.

Glencore said in a statement that “there are concerns and questions in relation to the use of satellite technology to measure methane emissions reliably and accurately from mining” and disputed sections of the original SRON report.

The latest criticism comes after Glass Lewis & Co. also urged Glencore shareholders to vote down the climate progress report. The influential proxy advisory firm said there was a lack of board oversight of the climate plan and insufficient clarity on how the company may interpret support for its strategy-setting process. The vote is set to take place at Glencore’s annual general meeting in Zug, Switzerland on Aug. 28.

Read More: Glencore investors urged by Glass Lewis to reject climate plan

The SRON scientists estimated Glencore’s Hail Creek coal mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin spewed between 123,000 and 263,000 metric tons of methane last year. That amount of the climate-wrecking gas has the same short-term warming impact as the annual emissions from anywhere between about 2.2 million and 4.8 million U.S. cars.

Methane emissions from Hail Creek were at least 13 times greater than what Glencore disclosed in its 2019 emissions inventory, while those from the Oaky North coal mine were at least double, the ACCR said in a statement accompanying the report.

Shareholders should vote against Glencore’s progress report on its climate plan because the under-counting is a “material risk for shareholders,” the research and shareholder advocacy organization said. It also recommended investors oppose the re-election of Peter Coates as chair of the Health, Safety, Environment and Communities Committee.

Methane emissions from the global energy sector are about 70% higher than what’s reported in official data, according to the International Energy Agency’s Methane Tracker report.

(By Aaron Clark)

Eight workers missing at Trevali’s Perkoa mine in Burkina Faso as flooding suspends operations
Naimul Karim | April 18, 2022 

Perkoa Zinc Mine – Image courtesy of Trevali Mining Corporation

Eight workers from Trevali Mining’s (TSX: TV; US-OTC: TREVF) Perkoa zinc mine in Burkina Faso are missing as flooding caused by heavy rainfall in Burkina Faso over the weekend disrupted operations, the company said.


The mine was evacuated, and rescue efforts are ongoing with support from the government, local communities and other mining companies in the area, the company told The Northern Miner by e-mail on Monday.

“We are deeply saddened by this unexpected event,” the company’s CEO Ricus Grimbeek said in a press release on April 18. “Our immediate focus is on search and rescue. We will provide further updates as the situation unfolds and we determine the cause of the flooding event. Our thoughts are with the family, friends, and colleagues that have been impacted.”

Located in the Sanguie province, about 120 km west of the capital city of Ouagadougou, the Perkoa mine produced 316.2 million payable pounds of zinc in 2021 and generates the bulk of the company’s revenue.

“While it is difficult to know the extent of the flooding, potential damage, necessary remediation, as well as a timeline for an appropriate investigation, at this time, we have assumed the Perkoa mine is closed for 30 days,” BMO analyst Rene Cartier wrote in a research note to clients. “Perkoa is estimated as over 50% of Trevali’s payable zinc production. Added costs and Perkoa not producing could potentially extend pressures.”

Scotiabank analyst Orest Wowkodaw echoed a similar sentiment. “We currently forecast Perkoa to yield 72,000 tonnes of contained zinc this year, representing 52% of the company’s total output and 0.5% of global mine supply.”

A Mckinsey report published in 2020 stated that flooding from extreme rains could cause mine closures, a rise in unsafe water levels in tailing dams and affect commodities like iron ore and zinc due to their location. These metals are the most exposed to extremely high flood occurrence at 50% and 40% of global volume, respectively.