Unions call on gov't to free Canadians held in the Dominican

Liz Braun - Yesterday 
Toronto Sun

© Provided by Toronto Sun

Eight black gym bags, each containing 25 smaller packages of cocaine, totalling 200 packages, were located in the aircraft’s control compartments.

Three unions are calling on the Canadian government to intervene in the ongoing case of five Canadians being held in the Dominican Republic — for reporting a crime.

The Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and Unifor are launching a public campaign in hopes of getting the Canadians safely returned home.

The nightmare started in early April when the Canadian aircrew of a Pivot Airlines plane and seven passengers were preparing to fly from Punta Cana to Toronto.

As reported in the National Post, a mechanic reported to the flight captain that he had discovered a black suitcase in the avionics bay.

Authorities were notified at once. Anti-narcotics investigators searched the plane and found seven bags packed with cocaine — with an estimated street value of $25 million.

According to Pivot Airlines, the two pilots, two flight attendants, a mechanic and the seven passengers were imprisoned in the Dominican after the contraband was found.

Jail conditions for the men were reportedly particularly unsavoury.

Almost everyone in the group was released on bail around April 18, but they were advised not to leave the country.

Dominican prosecutors claim all involved are somehow part of a trafficking scheme; it’s an interesting stance, considering that one of the crew discovered the drugs and another reported the find to authorities.

Defence lawyers have cited a lack of evidence in the case. The local judge who granted bail agreed.

But the standoff continues.

The Canadians have fears for their safety, given that somebody somewhere in the drug trade is out some 200 kg of narcotics.

Now the unions are standing up for their members.

According to their news release, for more than 40 days, the Canadian aircrew — which includes two CUPE members, one ALPA member, and one Unifor member — “have been arbitrarily detained, threatened, and prosecuted,” after discovering and reporting the drugs.

Noting that it is entirely unacceptable that members were jailed for dutifully reporting a crime, Capt. Tim Perry, president of ALPA Canada, said, “We are urging the Canadian government to take serious action and help bring our crew home.”

The three unions represent more than 90 000 airline workers and now caution all travellers and employees about the risks of travel to the Dominican Republic.

The prosecutor in the Dominican hopes to have bail revoked and wants to hold the Canadians for up to 12 months in jail as the case is investigated.

“The Canadian government needs to do all in its power to bring the Pivot Airlines crew safely back home,” said Scott Doherty, the executive assistant to Unifor’s national oresident, expressing concern for the safety of those being held.

As part of this campaign, ALPA, Unifor and CUPE have online petitions available for all to sign; they urge their members to write the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Melanie Joly, and ask her to call for the immediate release of these Canadians.

With Roe in doubt, some fear tech surveillance of pregnancy
By MARYCLAIRE DALE

May 18, 2022

1 of 4

Chandler Jones, 26, from Baltimore County, who will graduate this spring from the University of Baltimore School of Law, stands in Baltimore before a pro-choice rally, Saturday, May 14, 2022. Jones consulted the internet on her cellphone for information and advice before having an abortion during her junior year in college. In a post-Roe world, if the Supreme Court soon reverses the 1973 decision that legalized abortion, as a draft opinion suggests it may, pregnancies could be surveilled and the data shared with police or sold to vigilantes. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — When Chandler Jones realized she was pregnant during her junior year of college, she turned to a trusted source for information and advice.

Her cellphone.

“I couldn’t imagine before the internet, trying to navigate this,” said Jones, 26, who graduated Tuesday from the University of Baltimore School of Law. “I didn’t know if hospitals did abortions. I knew Planned Parenthood did abortions, but there were none near me. So I kind of just Googled.”

But with each search, Jones was being surreptitiously followed — by the phone apps and browsers that track us as we click away, capturing even our most sensitive health data.

Online searches. Period apps. Fitness trackers. Advice helplines. GPS. The often obscure companies collecting our health history and geolocation data may know more about us than we know ourselves.

For now, the information is mostly used to sell us things, like baby products targeted to pregnant women. But in a post-Roe world — if the Supreme Court upends the 1973 decision that legalized abortion, as a draft opinion suggests it may in the coming weeks — the data would become more valuable, and women more vulnerable.

Privacy experts fear that pregnancies could be surveilled and the data shared with police or sold to vigilantes.

“The value of these tools for law enforcement is for how they really get to peek into the soul,” said Cynthia Conti-Cook, a lawyer and technology fellow at the Ford Foundation. “It gives (them) the mental chatter inside our heads.”

___

HIPAA, HOTLINES, HEALTH HISTORIES

The digital trail only becomes clearer when we leave home, as location apps, security cameras, license plate readers and facial recognition software track our movements. The development of these tech tools has raced far ahead of the laws and regulations that might govern them.

And it’s not just women who should be concerned. The same tactics used to surveil pregnancies can be used by life insurance companies to set premiums, banks to approve loans and employers to weigh hiring decisions, experts said.

Or it could — and sometimes does — send women who experience miscarriages cheery ads on their would-be child’s birthday.

It’s all possible because HIPAA, the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, protects medical files at your doctor’s office but not the information that third-party apps and tech companies collect about you. Nor does HIPAA cover the health histories collected by non-medical “crisis pregnancy centers, ” which are run by anti-abortion groups. That means the information can be shared with, or sold to, almost anyone.

Jones contacted one such facility early in her Google search, before figuring out they did not offer abortions.

“The dangers of unfettered access to Americans’ personal data have never been more clear. Researching birth control online, updating a period-tracking app or bringing a phone to the doctor’s office could be used to track and prosecute women across the U.S.,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said last week.

For myriad reasons, both political and philosophical, data privacy laws in the U.S. have lagged far behind those adopted in Europe in 2018.

Until this month, anyone could buy a weekly trove of data on clients at more than 600 Planned Parenthood sites around the country for as little as $160, according to a recent Vice investigation that led one data broker to remove family planning centers from the customer “pattern” data it sells. The files included approximate patient addresses (down to the census block, derived from where their cellphones “sleep” at night), income brackets, time spent at the clinic, and the top places people stopped before and after their visits.

While the data did not identify patients by name, experts say that can often be pieced together, or de-anonymized, with a little sleuthing.

In Arkansas, a new law will require women seeking an abortion to first call a state hotline and hear about abortion alternatives. The hotline, set to debut next year, will cost the state nearly $5 million a year to operate. Critics fear it will be another way to track pregnant women, either by name or through an identifier number. Other states are considering similar legislation.

The widespread surveillance capabilities alarm privacy experts who fear what’s to come if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its opinion by early July.

“A lot of people, where abortion is criminalized — because they have nowhere to go — are going to go online, and every step that they take (could) ... be surveilled,” Conti-Cook said.

___

PUNISH WOMEN, DOCTORS OR FRIENDS?

Women of color like Jones, along with poor women and immigrants, could face the most dire consequences if Roe falls since they typically have less power and money to cover their tracks. They also tend to have more abortions, proportionally, perhaps because they have less access to health care, birth control and, in conservative states, schools with good sex education programs.

The leaked draft suggests the Supreme Court could be ready to let states ban or severely restrict abortion through civil or criminal penalties. More than half are poised to do so. Abortion foes have largely promised not to punish women themselves, but instead target their providers or people who help them access services.

“The penalties are for the doctor, not for the woman,” Republican state Rep. Jim Olsen of Oklahoma said last month of a new law that makes performing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

But abortion advocates say that remains to be seen.

“When abortion is criminalized, pregnancy outcomes are investigated,” said Tara Murtha, the communications director at the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia, who recently co-authored a report on digital surveillance in the abortion sphere.

She wonders where the scrutiny would end. Prosecutors have already taken aim at women who use drugs during pregnancy, an issue Justice Clarence Thomas raised during the Supreme Court arguments in the case in December.

“Any adverse pregnancy outcome can turn the person who was pregnant into a suspect,” Murtha said.

___

STATE LIMITS, TECH STEPS, PERSONAL TIPS

A few states are starting to push back, setting limits on tech tools as the fight over consumer privacy intensifies.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, through a legal settlement, stopped a Boston-based ad company from steering anti-abortion smartphone ads to women inside clinics there that offer abortion services, deeming it harassment. The firm had even proposed using the same “geofencing” tactics to send anti-abortion messages to high school students.

In Michigan, voters amended the state Constitution to prohibit police from searching someone’s data without a warrant. And in California, home to Silicon Valley, voters passed a sweeping digital privacy law that lets people see their data profiles and ask to have them deleted. The law took effect in 2020.

The concerns are mounting, and have forced Apple, Google and other tech giants to begin taking steps to rein in the sale of consumer data. That includes Apple’s launch last year of its App Tracking Transparency feature, which lets iPhone and iPad users block apps from tracking them.

Abortion rights activists, meanwhile, suggest women in conservative states leave their cellphones, smartwatches and other wearable devices at home when they seek reproductive health care, or at least turn off the location services. They should also closely examine the privacy policies of menstrual trackers and other health apps they use.

“There are things that people can do that can help mitigate their risk. Most people will not do them because they don’t know about it or it’s inconvenient,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, a deputy director with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “There are very, very few people who have the savvy to do everything.”

Digital privacy was the last thing on Jones’s mind when she found herself pregnant. She was in crisis. She and her partner had ambitious career goals. After several days of searching, she found an appointment for an abortion in nearby Delaware. Fortunately, he had a car.

“When I was going through this, it was just survival mode,” said Jones, who took part in a march Saturday in downtown Baltimore to support abortion rights.

Besides, she said, she’s grown up in the Internet age, a world in which “all of my information is being sold constantly.”

But news of the leaked Supreme Court draft sparked discussions at her law school this month about privacy, including digital privacy in the era of Big Data.

“Literally, because I have my cell phone in my pocket, if I go to a CVS, they know I went to a CVS,” the soon-to-be lawyer said. “I think the privacy right is such a deeper issue in America (and one) that is being violated all the time.”

Follow Maryclaire Dale on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Maryclairedale

THE PARTY OF NO! NOTHINGS

Senate vote blocks restaurant COVID-19 financial aid bill

The U.S. Senate voted Thursday against replenishing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, blocking a bill that would have provided $48 billion in financial relief to businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19. 

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

May 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate voted Thursday against replenishing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, blocking a bill that would have provided $48 billion in financial relief to businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19.

The Small Business COVID Relief Act included $40 billion for the restaurant industry and $8 billion for other affected businesses.

"While we didn't get the 60 votes we needed today, I remain committed to being a voice for small businesses in the Senate and will continue pushing to provide them with the support they deserve from the federal government," Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., one of the bill's sponsors, said on Twitter.

The bipartisan bill was also sponsored by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., but failed to get the required 60 votes of support to overcome a filibuster by a 52-43 vote.

"Today, a Senate filibuster dashed the promise made to more than 177,000 small business owners in communities across the country" National Restaurant Association Vice President Sean Kennedy said in a statement.

"These restaurant owners believed the creation of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund was a down payment, and that the Senate would complete the mission with this vote. A bipartisan majority voted to begin debate on this critical legislation, but it wasn't the 60 votes needed. While there are valid questions about government spending and inflation, restaurants should not be caught in the crossfire."


In January, the National Restaurant Association said 177,000 eligible restaurants applied for RRF grants but did not receive them; half said their restaurant would not be able to stay open without a grant.

Had it passed, Thursday's bill would have funded those restaurants that did not previously receive money.

"When Congress offered these restaurants the RRF lifeline, restaurant owners and operators made business decisions based on those commitments," said the restaurant association's president and CEO, Michelle Korsmo.

"Restaurants that are still trying to make up for what was lost in the pandemic today are struggling with workforce shortages, record-high inflation, and supply chain constraints. Today's vote will further exacerbate those challenges and result in more economic hardships for the families and communities across the country that rely on the restaurant and foodservice industry."

Shortage of contrast dye for medical scans leads to rationing, delayed procedures

By HealthDay News

Some hospitals are rationing contrast dye and delaying some elective imaging procedures. Photo by Volt Collection/Shutterstock

U.S. hospitals are running low on contrast dye injected into patients undergoing enhanced X-rays, CT scans and MRIs.

The fluid, which makes the routine but potentially life-saving scans readable, helps doctors identify clots in the heart and brain. The shortage is expected to last until at least June 30, the American Hospital Association (AHA) says.

It's a result of COVID-19 pandemic-related factory closures in Shanghai, China, where most of the world's supply is made, according to CBS News.

GE Healthcare is the main U.S. supplier of contrast fluid, called Omnipaque.

The AHA has asked the company for more information on the shortage, saying hospitals rely on a consistent supply to diagnose and treat a wide range of patients, including those with life-threatening conditions.

"It is too easy for us to take for granted the readily available supply of something that is so important to our patients and our radiologic practices until it's gone," Dr. Thomas Grist said in a news release from the Radiological Society of North America. He's the author on a new report on the issue published online Thursday in Radiology.

"We need to commit to changing the supply chain so that a single event in a faraway country does not put us in this predicament again," said Grist, who is chair of the department of radiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. "We owe it to our patients who trust us with their lives and well-being every day of the year."

The dye is being "aggressively" rationed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System and some elective imaging procedures are being delayed.

"We need to make sure we have IV contrast available for the patients in critical need," health system CEO Dr. Selwyn Vickers told CBS News.

The health system's supply of dye will be reserved for "life-or-death matters," he said.

The University of Kansas Health System's use of the dye is being limited to critically ill patients, according to Dr. Phil Johnson, chief of radiology.

"We had to triage and limit the use of contrast dye to only critically ill patients that had to have contrast dye either to establish a diagnosis, or to guide a life-saving or a limb-sparing treatment," he told CBS News.

More information

The American Hospital Association has more about the shortage of contrast dye.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

U.S. pedestrian deaths rose 12% in 2021 to highest rate in 40 years

By HealthDay News

An estimated 7,485 pedestrians were killed in 2021, which was 12% more than in 2020, preliminary data show. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

U.S. pedestrian deaths in 2021 were the highest in four decades, with an average of 20 deaths every day, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

An estimated 7,485 pedestrians were killed in 2021, which was 12% more than in 2020, preliminary data show.

The findings are "heartbreaking and unacceptable," said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the highway safety association.

"The pandemic has caused so much death and damage, it's frustrating to see even more lives needlessly taken due to dangerous driving," he said in an association news release.

RELATED Deaths on U.S. roads in 2021 rose to highest mark in 16 years, report finds

The pedestrian fatality rate per 100,000 people rose to 2.26 in 2021 from 2.02 the previous year. There were 2.32 pedestrian deaths per billion vehicle miles traveled in 2021 -- similar to 2020 but well above the pre-pandemic average of 1.9.

The reasons are clear: There has been an increase in speeding, impaired, distracted driving and other dangerous driving behaviors in recent years, according to the association's report.

"We must address the root causes of the pedestrian safety crisis -- speeding and other dangerous driving behaviors, inadequate infrastructure, and roads designed for vehicle speed instead of safety -- to reverse this trend and ensure people can walk safely," Adkins said.

The report also included an analysis of 2010 to 2020 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That showed that the percentage of pedestrian fatalities involving speeding rose to 8.6% in 2020 from 7.2% in 2019.

The percentage of pedestrian deaths among children younger than 15 in which speeding was a factor more than doubled between 2018 and 2020, from 5.8% to almost 12%. Most of these fatalities occurred on weekdays and during daylight hours, which is when children would typically be going to and from school and related activities.

Looking further at the dangers of walking, researchers said pedestrians accounted for 17% of all traffic deaths in 2020, compared to 13% in 2010. While pedestrian deaths have risen by 54% over the past decade, all other traffic deaths have increased by 13%.

RELATED Pedestrian deaths in U.S. rose 17% in first 6 months of 2021

Most pedestrian fatalities occur at night. In 2020, more than three-quarters of deaths with a known lighting condition were at night.

There may have been a sliver of a silver lining, though: Pedestrian deaths fell by 8% in America's 10 largest cities in 2020 after years of increases, likely because there were fewer people walking and driving due to public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the highway safety association.

More information

There's more on pedestrian safety at the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Thailand: What happened to mass anti-government protests?

In 2020, Thai youth sparked the largest wave of anti-government protests since the 2014 military coup. But human rights activists say persecutions and systematic harassment have weakened the pro-democracy movement.


'It's like a gigantic sword of Damocles has been hung over the head of the entire democracy movement,' says Human Rights Watch

In the wake of the US-ASEAN Summit in Washington between Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and US President Joe Biden, crowds gathered in front of the US Embassy in Bangkok.

Waving large banners, members of the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD) demanded the release of their imprisoned friends and an end to military rule.

Since 2020, the area around the US Embassy has repeatedly been the scene of pro-democracy demonstrations in Thailand, which turned into the largest wave of protests the country has seen since the military coup in 2014.

For months, mainly young people took to the streets of Thailand to demonstrate against the military-led government. They demanded a new constitution, the dissolution of parliament and an end to state repression.

Despite calls for comprehensive democratic reforms, not much has changed in Thai society since the outbreak of the protests in 2020.
Fear of persecution dampens movement

Despite mobilization on social media, major street protests disappeared in 2022. The main reason for this is the climate of fear and persecution created by the Thai government, Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, told DW.

"It’s like a gigantic sword of Damocles has been hung over the head of the entire democracy movement," Robertson said.

Systematic harassment, imprisonment of activists, the announcement of a new law to restrict civil society activities and COVID-19 restrictions have caused the movement to lose strength over time.

Demands for more democracy have been met with a backlash from the state, which has denied young demonstrators a voice in shaping the politics of their country.

According to Robertson, Thais also questioned the government's restrictions on public gatherings during the pandemic.

"The government also used the emergency decree and claims to try to prevent COVID… to stop protests, to arrest people, to persecute people," Robertson said.

People began asking, "Is this just about stopping us from protesting, or is it really about public health?" he said, adding that more than 1,600 criminal cases have been filed against activists in Thailand since 2020.

Disintegration of the movement

Over time, the suppression of protests led to the splitting off and formation of various subgroups, explained Praphakorn Lippert from the University of Passau in Germany.

Those sometimes diverged from the movement's core demands and now represent other interests. This increasingly impedes mobilization for the common cause and has exacerbated the decline of the core movement from 2020, Lippert told DW.

The movement is increasingly fighting internal divisions, Lippert said. "There is no longer a large unified movement, but only actions by various small groups."
New generation against an old system

But the democracy movement is increasingly dominated by a generational conflict.

"The new fault line is really between the progressive youth who want change, who want reforms, who want the government to respect their rights; and the old conservative elites in politics, but also in business and in the military," Robertson said.

At their core, the protests are directed against an economic and political system that has been established for decades and has three privileged groups of participants.

The first is a razor-thin layer of 1% of the population, which owns two-thirds of all Thai assets, according to the Germany-based Heinrich Böll Foundation. Second is the military, which is also endowed with many financial privileges and is intertwined with state enterprises. And third is the world's richest monarchy, which continues to exert strong political influence.

The military coup in 2014 further solidified this system. The military sees itself as the guardian of the monarchy, is not subject to civilian control and has taken precautions through its own enforced constitution to weaken the influence of democratic institutions in the long term, Robertson said.

Challenging the monarchy

Many young, cosmopolitan Thais in particular, who are increasingly questioning the system, find no place in the country's power structure.

When the Future Forward Party, which with six million votes was very popular among young voters, was dissolved in February 2020 because of alleged financial irregularities by the parliament — where military-affiliated parties have a majority — many people felt betrayed by politics.

"I think that people feel that it's important they need to express their views and that they are not going to be silenced like they were in the past. Thailand needs to progress and walk into the future," Robertson said.

Thailand's young protest movement broke a taboo by calling for a reformed monarchy. The royal family in Thailand has long been protected by the lese-majeste law known as Article 112, which criminalizes public criticism of the monarchy with prison sentences of up to 15 years.

"It is the first time that the issue of the monarchy has been made a public agenda and critically discussed. We have never had anything like this before in the past," Pavin Chachavalpongpun, one of the most prominent faces of the democracy movement, told DW.

His Facebook group, "The Royalist Marketplace," founded in April 2020, now has 2.4 million members, making it the largest Facebook group in the country. According to Pavin, it still has a significant influence on political discourse in social media.
'Genie has been let out of the bottle'

Pavin does not see Thailand's democracy movement at a standstill.

"The genie has been let out of the bottle. I don't think it would be able to go back into the bottle again," Pavin said, referring to his Facebook group, which is still growing daily. He said the last two years have not only broken taboos, but also increased the space for criticism of rulers and the elite in traditional and social media.

Robertson predicts a resurgence of activism with Thailand's upcoming 2023 general election. It remains to be seen, however, whether the movement has the potential to shift from virtual space back to the streets once again.

Edited by: Sou-Jie van Brunnersum

Tunisia protesters unite for democracy ⁠— but is it enough?

Growing discontent has led to a united national opposition against President Kais Saied. But could the pursuit of democracy backfire — and see the nation return to an iron fist rule?


While around 2,000 protesters is not yet anywhere near the Arab Spring demonstrations, it's a strong symbol

After 10 months of authoritarian rule by Tunisia's President Kais Saied following a power grab, many in the crisis-ridden country are united in pushing for a return to democracy.

Around 2,000 people of different political affiliations took to the streets on Sunday following a call by the newly-formed alliance National Salvation Front.

While the turnout was not comparable to the massive sit-ins in 2013 when thousands of people called for democratic elections, the meaning is nevertheless significant: A growing number of people, political parties and factions are joining forces to reject the political course on Saied's watch.

Who is the opposition?

One of the key players of this new alliance is the Islamist party Ennahda, one of Saied's fiercest opponents.

"Ennahda has become part of a civil political resistance that will use all civil and peaceful means to overthrow the coup and to push for the national dialogue that the country needs," Imed Khemiri, spokesman of the Ennahda party, told DW.

For him, this means, above all, dialogue between political parties. "The president does not want a dialogue except with himself," he said.

Another major player is a group of civil activists called Citizens Against the Coup.

"Since we began our struggle 10 months ago, we were able to convince many people that what happened was a coup, which symbolizes a great gain for collective awareness," Ezzeddine Hasgui, a political activist and founding member of the movement, told DW.
What prompted the protests?

In July last year, Kais Saied, a former law professor, had suspended the country's parliament, dismissed the prime minister, and issued an emergency decree, by which he has been ruling ever since.

Saied, however, insists that his political moves are democratic and have been necessary to guide the country to a new constitution, through a referendum in July 2022.

Yet, critics doubt the referendum will take place, as preparations are stalling.

The country has been sliding from one crisis into the next. Amid the political crisis, growing domestic debt, as well as rising inflation and increasing unemployment rates, the situation has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. The conflict in Eastern Europe saw a shortfall of up to 60% of wheat imports in Tunisia — severely impacting food security in Tunisia.

Moreover, the initial wave of public support Saied rode due to his promises to clamp down on corruption, has been fading.

Until this week, the Tunisians had not united in calling for a return to democracy.

Tunisia, which imports up to 60% of its wheat, will suffer from grain shortages due to the war in Ukraine

More voices speak up

While Sunday's turnout is seen by some as a disappointment, the organizers argue that the opposition is gaining momentum.

They're also gaining influential voices.

"Ahmed Neijb Chebbi, a leftist progressive and long-time opposition figure, has come forward with his Al-Amel Party (Hope) to call for the National Salvation Front," Alyssa Miller, a researcher who is based in Tunis for the German think tank GIGA Hamburg, told DW.

For her, Chebbi is worth watching, as "he could position himself as an important unifying force to broaden the opposition beyond Ennahda and pro-Ennahda forces."

The Ennahda party has been discredited by large portions of the population, as it has been blamed for corruption and political infighting in parliament prior to its dissolution on July 25 last year.

"In order to be successful, the anti-July 25 opposition must appeal to a broader base of political parties and civil society forces," Miller said

Therefore, she considers the latest statements by the country's influential union, the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), as significant.

"In the past, the UGTT has been largely neutral or cautiously supportive of Kais Saied, and it was recently tapped by the president, along with the Tunisian League for Human Rights, to oversee the composition of a constituent assembly and to write a new constitution which would be put to a national referendum on July 25th," Miller said.

However, the two organizations have signaled they would not support Saied's process "unless it were inclusive," she added.

The inclusion of opposition voices, though, has been opposed by Saied.

The slogan is a promise — and could be a warning for President Kais Saied

History repeating itself?

It's unclear whether oppositional unity will evolve into a widespread movement, but the situation has similarities to the calls for democracy in 2013.

Back then, however, the overall situation was much closer to violent clashes than it is today.

And yet, just like this time, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers were asked to be on board of a new constitutional committee — along with the UGTT.

In turn, those four groups became famous as 'The National Dialogue Quartet' . It is widely believed that they averted a civil war, and their efforts were awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

Despite this similarity, the country's security situation was much worse.

"Along with the assassinations of the two popular leftist politicians, Chokri Belaid and Mohammed Brahmi, the country experienced a general rise in violence committed by Islamist insurgent groups in 2013," Miller explains.

Therefore, she doubts that tensions will rise to this extent again. "If we compare the situation with Tunisia today, we can see that the security situation is very, very different," adding that many of the violent insurgent groups that operated in northwestern Tunisia in 2013 have been "slowly brought under control under subsequent governments."

But she does see — yet again — some administrative powers meant to assist in the fight against terrorism are being used to target political opponents.

For Miller, this could indicate a return to an iron fist rule. "I think it is more likely that there is a return of authoritarian control of the type that was practiced and exercised in Tunisia under Ben Ali," she said.

Edited by: Stephanie Burnett

Eco-fascism: The greenwashing of the far right

White-supremacist killers are invoking environmental concerns to justify murder. But what is eco-fascism and why are people attracted to it?

At least three far-right massacres in recent years have been allegedly perpetrated by people who identify as eco-fascists.

The accused murderer of 10 Black people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, entwined antisemitic conspiracy theories with a form of natural conservation. In a 180-page racist diatribe the 18-year-old linked mass migration with the degradation of the natural environment as a justification for murder.

The alleged perpetrator appears to share many of the views held by the young men who in 2019 committed racist massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Christchurch, New Zealand. Indeed, the alleged Buffalo killer appears to have copied large sections of his screed from the Christchurch killer.

The Christchurch killer, who shot dead 51 people at two mosques, described himself as an "ethno-nationalist eco-fascist," and called for "ethnic autonomy" as well as "the preservation of nature, and the natural order." In his diatribe, the Australian man linked climate change to overpopulation by non-Europeans, which is one of the central ideas of eco-fascism.

The Buffalo shooter appears to have plagiarized passages from the Christchurch killer's screed

What is an eco-fascist?

"The most simple definition would be (someone with) a fascist politic or a fascist worldview that is invoking environmental concern or environmental rhetoric to justify the hateful and extreme elements of their ideology," Cassidy Thomas told DW.

Thomas is a PhD student at Syracuse University in upstate New York who studies the intersection of right-wing extremism with environmental politics.

Thomas says regular fascists are populist ultranationalists who invoke a narrative of civilizational crisis, decline and rebirth along cultural and nationalist lines. Eco-fascists see climate change or ecological disturbances as the civilizational threat within that equation.

Eco-fascists are tied up in racist theories and believe that the degradation of the natural environment leads to the degradation of their culture and their people, added Thomas.

They are often radicalized online, as the latest alleged shooter claims to have been, and many believe that white people, along with the environment, are threatened by non-white overpopulation. They often call for a halt to immigration, or the eradication of non-white populations.

"What they envision is the dissolution of mixed-race, liberal democratic states or these very liberal and pluralistic democratic states, and the replacement of that political formation with ethnically defined and ecological states that are smaller in nature," said Thomas.

Their over-simplistic theories fail to address the complex realities of climate change and ecological damage, and ignore the fact that the Global North is responsible for most of the emissions that have caused global heating, for instance.

The Buffalo shooter targeted Black people, linking mass migration with environmental degradation and other eco-fascist ideas

Why are people drawn to eco-fascism?

Far-right ideologies such as eco-fascism are attracting young people who have grown up with climate change but see that governments have failed to tackle the crisis properly.

"Unfortunately, as climate change has gotten worse over the past 30 years and more difficult to ignore or to question — even from the most far-right or conservative elements of the political scene — you're beginning to see individuals who have an incredibly nihilistic view and an incredibly bleak view of the future of the world," Thomas said.

Eco-fascist narratives provide believers with a "sense of purpose" and a "call to action," added Thomas.

"And that's why these eco-fascist narratives that are cultivated in these online subcultures are so dangerous."

Such theories are often propagated in fringe sites such as 4chan, 8chan, and the now-defunct Iron March forum, as well as more mainstream platforms such as Twitter.

After each of the previous killing sprees, researchers saw a spike in eco-fascist interest in fringe online communities as well as online search traffic.
Eco-fascism in politics?

Right-wing populists have traditionally embraced climate change denial, but are increasingly seeing potential in capitalizing on climate change concerns.

France's Marine Le Pen has invoked environmentalism in her nationalist campaigns

In one notorious example, the attorney general of the US state of Arizona, having previously misrepresented climate science, cited environmental protection when he sued the Biden administration for loosening immigration laws. He claimed that Latin American migrants would use up resources, cause emissions and pollute the environment if they weren't kept out by a wall with Mexico.

In Europe, Marine Le Pen has invoked climate change and environmental protection in her nationalist campaigns, while the youth wing of Germany's far-right climate-skeptic AfD party called on the party to embrace climate change as an effective recruitment tool.

As Canadian author and climate activist Naomi Klein told the HuffPost: "There is a rage out there that is going to go somewhere, and we have demagogues who are expert at directing that rage at the most vulnerable among us while protecting the most powerful and most culpable."

Nazi origins of eco-fascism

Although made up of various strands of far-right theories, much eco-fascist ideology has its roots in early Nazi movements and the fascist party in Italy.

"In Germany, they would use these environmental talking points to partially justify some of their key initiatives like Lebensraum," Thomas said. Lebensraum was the Nazi settler-colonialist concept of creating "living space" for Germans.

The 'heritage' appeal of organic produce has attracted nationalist communities

"They saw the presence of these non-German peoples as a threat simultaneously to the integrity of the German culture and the German environment."

That ideology led to the 1935 Reichsnaturschutzgesetz, Germany's first conservation laws, as well as a push for organic farming.

Elements of the far-right scene in Germany and across Europe still champion environmental causes, and things like organic farming. In Germany, environmental groups risk being infiltrated by far-right extremists.

Thomas said there are similarities in the drivers toward eco-fascism today. in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, people saw that capitalism and industrialism brought with it rapid urbanization and environmental degradation, as well as the displacement of rural populations.

And in the United States, far-right figures have increasingly invoked environmental concerns as justification for their beliefs, including white nationalist leader Richard Spencer. Ahead of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, he included a large section on protecting nature in his online screed.

Previously he said "population control and reduction" is the "obvious solution to the ravages of climate change."

Environmentalists reject far-right ideology

Overconsumption is a major driver of emissions

The mainstream environmentalist movement, which has largely embraced social justice, has repeatedly rejected eco-fascists, saying the ideology greenwashes hate and is more focused on white supremacy than environmental protection.

They also say that the major perpetrator of ecological destruction are wealthy, Western nations, and not the people the eco-fascists seek to destroy. United Nations analysis has shown that wealth increase, not population growth, is a far greater driver of resource-use.

According to the IPCC, the effect of population growth is dwarfed by the rise in emissions per person. People in the world's richest countries emit 50 times more than those in the poorest, despite having much slower population growth.

Environmentalists instead call for a decoupling of population growth and resource use and emissions by reorganizing economies and embracing sustainable practices.

Edited by: Jennifer Collins

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Is Bangladesh heading toward a Sri Lanka-like crisis?

Like Colombo, Dhaka has also taken on massive foreign loans to embark on what critics call "white elephant" projects. The economic turmoil in Sri Lanka should serve as a cautionary tale, say experts.


Soaring prices of essential items are bringing enormous pain to economically weaker sections of Bangladeshi society

Sri Lanka has been mired in economic turmoil over the past few months, with the country battling severe shortages of essential items and running out of petrol, medicines and foreign reserves amid an acute balance of payments crisis.

The resulting public fury targeting the government triggered mass street protests and political upheaval, forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Cabinet, and the appointment of a new prime minister.

Many in Bangladesh fear that their country could face a similar situation, given the rising trade deficit and foreign debt burden.

Bangladesh imported goods worth $61.52 billion (€58.48 billion) in the first nine months of the 2021-2022 fiscal year, a rise of 43.9% compared to the same period last year.

Exports, however, rose at a slower pace of 32.9% while remittances from Bangladeshis living abroad — a key source of foreign exchange — dropped about 20% in the first four months of 2022 from the year before, to $7 billion.
'Foreign reserves will go down to a dangerous level'

Muinul Islam, a Bangladeshi economist and former professor at Chittagong University, fears that the trade deficit could grow in the coming years as imports are increasing at a faster pace than exports.

"Our imports are set to reach $85 billion by this year, while exports won't be more than $50 billion. And, the trade deficit of $35 billion can't be bridged by remittances alone," Islam told DW, adding: "We will have to live with around a $10 billion shortfall this year."

Watch video 06:23 Taking stock of Bangladesh’s garment sector

The expert also pointed out that Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves have fallen from $48 billion to $42 billion over the past eight months. He is worried that they may drop further in the coming months, likely down another $4 billion.

"If the trend of more imports against exports continues and we fail to minimize the gap with the remittances, our foreign reserves will go down to a dangerous level in the next three to four years," he stressed, underlining that this would lead to a significant devaluation of the nation's currency against the US dollar.
Massive loans for 'white elephant' projects?

Bangladesh, like Sri Lanka, has also taken on foreign loans in recent years to fund what critics call "white elephant" projects, which are expensive but totally unprofitable.

These "unnecessary projects" could cause trouble when the time comes to repay the debts, Islam said.

"We have taken a loan of $12 billion from Russia for a nuclear power plant which has a production capacity of just 2,400 megawatts. We can repay the debt in 20 years but the installments will be $565 million per year from 2025," he pointed out. "It's the worst kind of a white elephant project."

In total, the country will likely have to repay $4 billion per year from 2024, as installments for foreign loans, Islam estimated.

"I fear Bangladesh won't be able to repay those loans at that time because of the shortage of income from the mega projects," he stressed.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has taken several steps to slash spending and save foreign currency reserves

Nazneen Ahmed, Bangladesh economist at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Dhaka, said that the government has to make sure the projects are completed without additional cost and delay.

"We have to finish the mega projects carefully. There is no room for negligence and corruption. Those projects should neither be delayed nor the existing budget be increased," she said, adding: "If we can finish them on time, only then will we be able to repay the loans we have taken for them."
Soaring prices hit poor people hard

Adding to the problems of debt and deficit is the surge in prices of essential items.

The Russia-Ukraine war, which began at the end of February, has compounded the inflationary pressure.

Bangladesh has been particularly vulnerable as the country imports significant amounts of goods like cooking oil, wheat and other food items, as well as fuel.

Ahmed said that poor people are suffering the most because of the skyrocketing prices of these items.

"The government has to offer commodity goods subsidized to the poor people. Additional financial support should also be provided to them under a social security system," she noted.

But the expert remains optimistic about the South Asian nation's prospects, saying that the current economic indicators could improve as the global economy recovers from the COVID pandemic-induced downturn.

"We have been observing inflation worldwide during the COVID recovery phase. The Ukraine war has added more uncertainty to it. And the economic crisis in Sri Lanka has also created fear among us," she told DW, adding: "Still, if nothing big happens within the next few years, the global economy will recover again."

Watch video 03:50 Bangladesh: Youth project aims to eradicate poverty

Hasina urges people to practice austerity

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has taken several steps to slash spending and save foreign currency reserves.

It has decided to suspend foreign trips of officials and postponed some less important projects that require imports from other countries.

Hasina has also urged citizens to do their bit, by practicing austerity and being careful about spending decisions.

"The prime minister earlier gave some directives to the government officials on practicing austerity. Today she called upon the private sector and the people to be economical," Bangladesh's Planning Minister MA Mannan said during a press conference in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Islam said that the government needs to be extremely careful with economic management, given the widespread suffering on account of soaring price rises, which could aggravate the already high political tensions in the Muslim-majority country.

"Bangladesh's last election was not good. It was a fraudulent one. Another national election is due in the next two years. So the political situation will remain tense anyway. The economic uncertainty could fuel it even more."

While the experts don't see any imminent economic crisis, they believe that good governance and financial management are needed to ensure Bangladesh doesn't end up facing a situation that Sri Lanka now finds itself in.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

Herbal medicines that really work

Medicines have been extracted from plants for thousands of years and new ones are still being discovered. Here are several plant extracts with robust medical benefits.

Drugs made from hawthorn tree berries could help treat cardiovascular disease

Humans have been extracting the healing properties of plants for thousands of years. Although herbal remedies are often discounted as unscientific, more than one-third of modern drugs are derived either directly or indirectly from natural products, such as plants, microorganisms and animals.

Now, researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in the US state of California have found that a chemical extracted from the bark of the Galbulimima belgraveana tree has psychotropic effects that could help treat depression and anxiety.

The tree is found only in remote rainforests of Papua New Guinea and northern Australia and has long been used by indigenous people as a healing remedy against pain and fever. 

"This goes to show that Western medicine hasn't cornered the market on new therapeutics; there are traditional medicines out there still waiting to be studied,” senior author Ryan Shenvi, PhD, a professor of chemistry at Scripps Research, told reporters last week.

Which other medical drugs are found in plants?

The most well-known example of a medical drug extracted from a plant species is opium, which has been used to treat pain for over 4,000 years. Opiates like morphine and codeine are extracted from the opium poppy and have a powerful effect on the central nervous system.

Afghan farmers collect raw opium in a poppy field

But which other ancient plant-based medicines have demonstrable medical benefits, and what is the science behind them? 

Velvet beans treat Parkinson's disease

The velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) has been used in ancient Indian Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine for over 3,000 years. Ancient texts tell us how healers used bean extracts to reduce tremors in patients to treat the condition we now consider Parkinson's disease. 

Studies now show that the velvet bean contains a compound called levodopa, a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease today. 

Levodopa helps to stop tremors by increasing dopamine signals in areas of the brain that control movement.

The modern history of levodopa began in the early 20th century when the compound was synthesized by the Polish biochemist Casimir Funk. Decades later, in the 1960s, scientists found that levodopa could be used as an effective treatment to stop tremors in patients with Parkinson's disease. The drug revolutionized the treatment of the disease and is still the gold standard for its  treatment today. 

Velvet beans contain chemical to help treat tremors caused by Parkinson's

Hawthorn could be a future treatment for cardiovascular disease

The medical properties of hawthorn (Crataegus spp) were first noted by Greek physician Dioscorides in the 1st century and by Tang-Ben-Cao in ancient Chinese medicine in the 7th century. 

Clinical trials using current research standards have found that hawthorn reduces blood pressure and may be useful to treat cardiovascular disease. Hawthorn berries contain compounds such as bioflavonoids and proanthocyanidins that appear to have significant antioxidant activity. 

Hawthorn extracts aren't yet suitable for medical use in the wider public — studies are ongoing, and more rigorous research is needed to assess the long-term safety of using the extracts to treat diseases.

Hawthorn berries taste a little like small apples and their extracts could help treat heart or blood diseases

Pacific yew tree bark can fight cancer 

Yew trees have a special place in medicine in European mythology. Most parts of the tree are very poisonous, causing associations with both death and immortality. The Third Witch in Macbeth mentions "slips of yew slivered in the moon's eclipse" (Macbeth Act 4, Scene 1). 

But it's a species of yew tree in North America, the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia), that possesses the most beneficial medical properties. 

Scientists in the 1960s found that the tree's bark contains compounds called taxels. One of these taxels, called Paclitaxel, has been developed into an effective cancer treatment drug. Paclitaxel can stop cancer cells from dividing, blocking further growth of the disease.

Pacific yew in the US state of Oregon

The wonder-drug sourced from Willow bark 

Willow bark is another traditional medicine with a long history. The bark was adopted 4,000 years ago in ancient Sumer and Egypt to treat pain and has been a staple of medicine ever since.

Willow bark contains a compound called salicin, which would later form the basis of the discovery of aspirin — the world's most widely taken drug.

Aspirin has several different medical benefits, including pain relief,  reduction of fever and prevention of stroke. Its first widespread use was during the 1918 flu pandemic to treat high temperatures. 

Willow bark is generally found in the Northern Hemisphere

Edited by: Clare Roth