MAKE THE SAUDI'S PAY

UN launches crowdfunding campaign to prevent Yemen tanker oil spill

Environmentalists say the Safer oil tanker is guaranteed to spill without intervention and could cost $20bn to clear up

A close-up view of the FSO Safer oil tanker off the port of Ras Isa, Yemen, on 19 June 2020 (Maxar Technologies via AFP)

By MEE staff
Published date: 13 June 2022

The United Nations has launched a crowd-funding campaign for an operation intended to prevent an ageing Yemeni oil tanker from unleashing a potentially catastrophic spill in the Red Sea, a senior official said Monday.

The UN has secured some $60m out of $80m needed to initially offload the Safer tanker which holds 1.1 million barrels of oil - four times as much oil that was spilt during the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in the United States.

"We hope to raise $5m by the end of June," David Gressly, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the war-hit country, told an online press briefing, adding it was an "ambitious" target.

"Today I launched a @UN crowdfunding campaign because we urgently need funds to start the emergency operation before it is too late," he said in a subsequent Twitter post.


The decaying 45-year-old oil tanker, FSO Safer, long used as a floating storage platform and now abandoned off the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeidah, has not been serviced since Yemen was plunged into civil war more than seven years ago.

It is in "imminent" danger of breaking up, the UN warned last month.

An operation to transfer its 1.1 million barrels of oil to a different vessel could begin next month, according to a website for the crowd-funding campaign, which will begin accepting donations Tuesday.

Environmentalists warn the cost of the salvage operation is a pittance compared to the estimated $20bn it would cost to clean up a spill.

Yemen: Decaying oil tanker in Red Sea threatens millions

Read More »

The UN has said an oil spill could destroy ecosystems, shut down the fishing industry and close the lifeline, Hodeida port, for six months.

It has said the operation needs to be completed by the end of September to avoid "turbulent winds" that pick up later in the year.

On Sunday, neighbouring Saudi Arabia said it would contribute $10m.

The Safer has been stranded off Ras Issa oil terminal without maintenance since 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen against the Houthi movement that ousted the internationally recognised government from the capital, Sanaa.

A truce between the rebels and the Saudi-led coalition has been in place since 2 April, coinciding with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Five days after it took effect, Yemen's Riyadh-based president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, handed his powers to a Saudi-backed leadership council tasked with holding peace talks with the rebels.

US Government Watchdog Finds Flawed Weapons Monitoring in Yemen

Oversight Needed to Protect Yemeni Civilians, Hold Saudi Arabia and UAE Accountable

Akshaya Kumar
Director of Crisis Advocacy

@AkshayaSays

Click to expand Image
A delegation from Saudi Arabia examines models of military equipment at the Dubai Airshow 2021, in the UAE on November 14, 2021. © 2021 Andrea DiCenzo/Getty Images

A new internal report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) – the congressional watchdog – found serious gaps in US government oversight of how arms sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are being used. These findings show that Congress needs to get more involved in these weapons sales.

Human Rights Watch and others have warned for years that US-made weapons sold to Saudi Arabia and the UAE may be being used to commit war crimes in Yemen and that US officials could be implicated. We called for a suspension of these sales. Successive administrations argued they were tracking civilian casualties in Yemen and helping the coalition mitigate them through better targeting.

But the GAO report, obtained by Human Rights Watch, indicates that they’re likely not doing enough. Despite credible reports from the United Nations and civil society monitors detailing laws-of-war violations and likely war crimes, neither the State nor Defense Departments could, according to the report, “provide evidence” that they had “investigated any incidents of potential unauthorized use of equipment transferred to Saudi Arabia or UAE.”

That’s why congressional oversight remains essential. In fact, what we know from the GAO report comes largely because of Congress’ reporting requirements.

What more should Congress do?

First, press the GAO to publish the full report. US officials are reportedly trying to redact portions before it’s published, which could obscure important findings.

Second, urge the State Department to implement the report’s recommendations including the call for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs to develop “specific guidance for investigating any indications that U.S.-origin defense articles have been used in Yemen by Saudi Arabia or UAE” in ways that violate international law.

Third, pass the Protection of Civilians in Military Operations Act, introduced in May. Among other things, the legislation would establish a hub within the Pentagon for supporting the US government on the issue of civilian harm.

The revelations in the GAO report come as President Joe Biden plans to travel to Saudi Arabia. On the campaign trail, Biden promised not to check US “values at the door to sell arms or buy oil.” In office, he has lobbied Congress to approve further arms sales to the kingdom.

Without being able to effectively monitor how US-made weapons are being used by the Saudis and their allies, or if US training and support is mitigating civilian harm, the US risks more than its values. It also risks complicity in the crimes themselves.

Forever chemicals linked to hypertension in middle-aged women

Hypertension Journal Report

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

DALLAS, June 13, 2022 — Middle-aged women with higher blood concentrations of common synthetic chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also called “forever chemicals” and found in water, soil, air and food, were at greater risk of developing high blood pressure, compared to their peers who had lower levels of these substances, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

PFAS, are a class of synthetic chemicals and according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there are thousands of different PFAS that are used in everyday household items, such as certain shampoo, dental floss, cosmetics, non-stick cookware, food packaging, stain-resistant coatings for carpeting, upholstery and clothing. The “forever chemicals” also enter the food system through fish caught in PFAS-contaminated water and dairy products from cows exposed to PFAS through fertilizers on farms, for example.

Even at low levels in the blood, research has shown PFAS can have detrimental health effects. Some PFAS have been linked to cardiovascular risk, including endothelial dysfunction (impaired blood vessel function), oxidative stress and elevated cholesterol. However, no previous studies have evaluated whether PFAS levels affect blood pressure control among middle-aged women.

Previously published data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) demonstrates how common PFAS exposure is, as nearly all Americans have detectable concentrations of at least one PFAS in their blood.

“PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they never degrade in the environment and contaminate drinking water, soil, air, food and numerous products we consume or encounter routinely. One study estimated that two of the most common ’forever chemicals’ are found in most household drinking water and are consumed by more than two-thirds of Americans,” said study lead author Ning Ding, Ph.D., M.P.H., a post-doctoral fellow in the department of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“Women seem to be particularly vulnerable when exposed to these chemicals,” she said. “Our study is the first to examine the association between ‘forever chemicals’ and hypertension in middle-aged women. Exposure may be an underappreciated risk factor for women’s cardiovascular disease risk.”

Using data from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation-Multi-Pollutant Study (SWAN-MPS), a prospective study of women from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds at midlife, researchers examined blood concentrations of specific PFAS and the risk of high blood pressure. Data included more than 1,000 women, 45-56-years old who had normal blood pressure when they enrolled in the study. Blood concentrations of PFAS were measured at the start of the study. All participants were followed almost-annually from 1999-2017. Participants were recruited from five institutional sites (Boston; Pittsburgh; Southeast Michigan; Los Angeles; and Oakland, California) across the U.S., and they self-identified as Black (15.2%), Chinese (14.1%), Japanese (16.2%) or white women (54.5%). All sites enrolled non-Hispanic white women in addition to one additional racial/ethnic group.

The analysis found:

• During 11,722 person-years of follow-up for all study participants, 470 women developed high blood pressure.
• Women with higher concentrations of specific PFAS were more likely to develop high blood pressure: women in the highest one-third concentrations of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and 2-(N-ethyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamido) acetic acid (EtFOSAA, a PFOS precursor) had 42%, 47% and 42% higher risks, respectively, of developing high blood pressure, compared to women in the lowest one-third concentrations of these PFAS.
• Women in the highest one-third concentrations of all seven PFAS examined had a 71% increased risk of developing high blood pressure.

“It’s important to note that we examined individual PFAS as well as several PFAS together, and we found that the combined exposure to multiple PFAS had a stronger effect on blood pressure,” said study senior author Sung Kyun Park, Sc.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “Some states are beginning to ban the use of PFAS in food packaging and cosmetic and personal care products. Our findings make it clear that strategies to limit the widespread use of PFAS in products need to be developed. Switching to alternative options may help reduce the incidence of high blood pressure risk in midlife women.”

“We have known for some time that PFAS disrupt metabolism in the body, yet, we didn’t expect the strength of the association we found. We hope that these findings alert clinicians about the importance of PFAS and that they need to understand and recognize PFAS as an important potential risk factor for blood pressure control,” Park said.

The study was limited in that it only included middle-aged women, so the findings may not translate to men or to younger or older women. The authors note that more research is needed to confirm these associations and to address ways to reduce PFAS exposure.

Co-authors are Carrie A. Karvonen-Gutierrez, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Bhramar Mukherjee, Ph.D.; Antonia M. Calafat, Ph.D.; and Siobán D. Harlow, Ph.D. Authors’ disclosures are listed in the manuscript.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Studies published in the American Heart Association’s scientific journals are peer-reviewed. The statements and conclusions in each manuscript are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association’s policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers and the Association’s overall financial information are available here.

Additional Resources:

• Available multimedia is on right column of release link: https://newsroom.heart.org/news/forever-chemicals-linked-to-hypertension-in-middle-aged-women?preview=67957d358b3bd28ee19b08b6bc96fd03
• After June 13, view the manuscript online.
• AHA health information: Understanding blood pressure readings
• AHA health information: Why high blood pressure is a silent killer
• AHA Scientific Statement: Heart disease risk in women increases leading up to menopause; early intervention is key (November 2020)
• Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews
• Follow news from the AHA’s Hypertension journal @HyperAHA

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public’s health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

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JOURNAL

Hypertension

DOI

10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.121.18809.) 

Canada lags behind other countries in providing school food programs to children in need

UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

Canada is at the back of the pack when it comes to students accessing nutrition programs at school, shows a new study.

A University of Waterloo-led international study of more than 10,000 children in six different countries found that approximately half of all students received breakfast or lunch at school in countries such as the United States or Chile. However, only five per cent of students in Canada participated in a school meal program.

Canadian schools also fell short for the most vulnerable students, with only 27 per cent of students with the highest level of food insecurity participating in school meal programs in Canada. This is compared to more than two-thirds in the United States and Chile, both of which have national school nutrition policies. 

“Schools are important places to provide meals for children, especially among low-income students who may not have reliable access to healthy foods at home,” said David Hammond, principal investigator and a professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at Waterloo. 

Most countries around the world offer some form of school meal program aimed at providing nutritious food to students. “Across all countries surveyed, we found that participating in a free school meal program was associated with higher fruit and vegetable intake during school lunch. Children participating in school meal programs also reported eating less unhealthy food in the countries with the most comprehensive policies,” Hammond said. 

Researchers surveyed 10,565 youth aged 10-17 from Canada, Australia, Chile, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the U.S. through the 2019 International Food Policy Study. 

“In countries without national school nutrition guidelines, such as Canada and Australia, the responsibility for school meal programs falls to individual school boards, community organizations, or charities. Despite their best efforts, this approach is no match for comprehensive provincial or national programs when it comes to feeding children with the great need.”

Karen Hock, a Waterloo Public Health Sciences doctoral student and first author of the paper, said the COVID-19 pandemic has also demonstrated the importance of school meal programs, especially among disadvantaged students. 

“Countries such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand have recently expanded their school meal programs in response to the pandemic to ensure that students in need can continue to access adequate nutrition, which is fundamental for their long-term health and well-being,” Hock said.

Hock believes school meal programs are a valuable way to promote healthy dietary intake in children and support those in need. “It’s unfortunate that Canada is the only G7 country without a national school meal program.”

The study, Awareness of and participation in school food programs among youth from six countries, co-authored by Hammond and Hock, alongside other investigators from the International Food Policy Study, was published in the Journal of Nutrition. Funding for the study was provided through the Public Health Agency of Canada and Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

 

 

A glimpse into the dog's mind: A new study reveals how dogs think of their toys

by Eötvös Loránd University

A picture of Gaia, one of the Gifted dogs (from Brazil) searching for her toy in the light (on 

the left) and in the dark (on the right). Credit: Shany Dror

Many dog lovers want to know what goes on in their furry friends' minds. Now scientists are finally getting closer to the answer. In a new study just published in the journal Animal Cognition, researchers from the Family Dog Project (Eötvös Loránd University University, Budapest) found that dogs have a multi-modal mental image of their familiar objects. This means that when thinking about an object, dogs imagine the object's different sensory features, for instance, the way it looks or the way its smells.

The group of scientists assumed that the senses dogs use to identify objects, such as their toys, reflect the way the objects are represented in their minds. "If we can understand which senses dogs use while searching for a toy, this may reveal how they think about it," explains Shany Dror, one of the leading researchers of this study. "When dogs use olfaction or sight while searching for a toy, this indicates that they know how that toy smells or looks like."

In previous studies, the researchers discovered that only a few uniquely gifted dogs can learn the names of objects. "These gifted word learner dogs give us a glimpse into their minds, and we can discover what they think about when we ask them 'where is your teddy bear?'" explains Dr. Andrea Sommese, the second leading researcher.

In the first experiment, they trained three gifted word learner dogs and 10 typical family dogs (i.e., dogs that do not know the name of toys), to fetch a toy associated with a reward. During the training, dogs received treats and were praised for choosing this toy over a few distractor toys.

The researchers then observed how the dogs searched for the targeted toy, always placed among four others, both when the lights were on and off. All dogs successfully selected the trained toys, both in the light and in the dark. However, it took them longer to find the toys in the dark. Only the gifted word learner dogs participated in the second experiment. Here, the researchers aimed to find out what these dogs think about when they hear the name of their toys.

Credit: Eötvös Loránd University

"Revealing the senses used by the dogs to search for the named toys gave us the possibility to infer what these dogs imagine when they hear, for example, 'teddy bear,'" explains Dr.. Claudia Fugazza, co-author of the study.

The gifted dogs were successful in selecting the toys named by their owners in the light and the dark. This reveals that, when they hear the name of a toy, they recall this object's different sensory features and they can use this "multisensory mental image" to identify it, also in the dark.

"Dogs have a good sense of smell, but we found that dogs preferred to rely on vision and used their noses only a few times, and almost only when the lights were off," clarifies Prof. Adam Miklósi, head of the Department of Ethology at ELTE University and co-author of the study. "Dogs sniffed more often and for longer in the dark. They spent 90% more time sniffing when the lights were off, but this was still only 20% of the searching time."

To conclude, the dogs' success in finding the toys and the different senses used while searching in the light and the dark reveals that, when dogs play with a toy, even just briefly, they pay attention to its different features and register the information using multiple senses.Exceptional learning capacities revealed in some gifted dogs

More information: Shany Dror et al, Multisensory mental representation of objects in typical and Gifted Word Learner dogs, Animal Cognition (2022). DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01639-z

Claudia Fugazza et al, Word learning dogs (Canis familiaris) provide an animal model for studying exceptional performance, Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-93581-2

Journal information: Animal Cognition , Scientific Reports 

Provided by Eötvös Loránd University 

A glimpse into the dog’s mind: A new study reveals how dogs think of their toys

Dogs have a “multi-modal mental image” of their familiar objects

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY (ELTE), FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: DOGS IMAGINE THE OBJECT’S DIFFERENT SENSORY FEATURES view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: COOPER PHOTO

Many dog lovers want to know what goes on in their furry friends’ minds. Now scientists are finally getting closer to the answer. In a new study just published in the journal of Animal Cognition, researchers from the Family Dog Project (Eötvös Loránd University University, Budapest) found out that dogs have a “multi-modal mental image” of their familiar objects. This means that, when thinking about an object, dogs imagine the object’s different sensory features. For instance, the way it looks or the way its smells.

The group of scientists assumed that the senses dogs use to identify objects, such as their toys, reflect the way the objects are represented in their minds. “If we can understand which senses dogs use while searching for a toy, this may reveal how they think about it” explains Shany Dror, one of the leading researchers of this study. “When dogs use olfaction or sight while searching for a toy, this indicates that they know how that toy smells or looks like”.

In previous studies, the researchers discovered that only a few uniquely gifted dogs can learn the names of objects. “These Gifted Word Learner dogs give us a glimpse into their minds, and we can discover what they think about when we ask them - Where is your Teddy Bear? –“ explains Dr. Andrea Sommese, the second leading researcher.

In the first experiment, they trained 3 Gifted Word Learner dogs and 10 typical family dogs (i.e., dogs that do not know the name of toys), to fetch a toy associated with a reward. During the training, dogs received treats and were praised for choosing this toy over a few distractor toys.

VIDEOABSTRACT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVC1IzdLJP8 

The researchers then observed how the dogs searched for the targeted toy, always placed among 4 others, both when the lights were on and off. All dogs successfully selected the trained toys, both in the light and in the dark. However, it took them longer to find the toys in the dark. Only the Gifted Word Learner dogs participated in the second experiment. Here, the researchers aimed to find out what these dogs think about when they hear the name of their toys.

“Revealing the senses used by the dogs to search for the named toys gave us the possibility to infer what these dogs imagine when they hear, for example, Teddy Bear explains Dr. Claudia Fugazza, co-author of the study.

The Gifted dogs were successful in selecting the toys named by their owners in the light and the dark. This reveals that, when they hear the name of a toy, they recall this object’s different sensory features and they can use this “multisensory mental image” to identify it, also in the dark.

“Dogs have a good sense of smell, but we found that

dogs preferred to rely on vision and used their noses only a few times, and almost only when the lights were off”

clarifies Prof. Adam Miklósi, head of the Department of Ethology at ELTE University and co-author of the study. “Dogs sniffed more often and for longer in the dark. They spent 90% more time sniffing when the lights were off, but this was still only 20% of the searching time”.

To conclude, the dogs’ success in finding the toys and the different senses used while searching in the light and the dark reveals that, when dogs play with a toy, even just briefly, they pay attention to its different features and register the information using multiple senses.

---

This research is part of the Genius Dog Challenge research project that aims to understand the unique talent that Gifted Word Learner dogs have. The researchers encourage dog owners who believe their dogs know multiple toy names, to contact them on the Genius Dog Challenge website.

 

---

JOURNAL

Animal Cognition

DOI

10.1007/s10071-022-01639-z 

ARTICLE TITLE

Multisensory mental representation of objects in typical and Gifted Word Learner dogs

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-Jun-2022

Could used beer yeast be the solution to heavy metal contamination in water?

by David L. Chandler, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A control group of yeast cells (top row) is compared to yeast cells after they have 

accumulated lead from contaminated water (bottom row). Scanning electron microscope 

(SEM) images show, at left, an overview, and at center, a closer look at the yeast cells, 

and at right tunneling electron microscope (TEM) images show an individual yeast cell. 

Credit: The researchers/edited by MIT News

A new analysis by researchers at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) has found that inactive yeast could be effective as an inexpensive, abundant, and simple material for removing lead contamination from drinking water supplies. The study shows that this approach can be efficient and economic, even down to part-per-billion levels of contamination. Serious damage to human health is known to occur even at these low levels.

The method is so efficient that the team has calculated that waste yeast discarded from a single brewery in Boston would enough to treat the city's entire water supply. Such a fully sustainable system would not only purify the water but also divert what would otherwise be a waste stream needing disposal.

The findings are detailed today in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment, in a paper by MIT Research Scientist Patritsia Statathou; Brown University postdoc and MIT Visiting Scholar Christos Athanasiou; MIT Professor Neil Gershenfeld, the director of CBA; and nine others at MIT, Brown, Wellesley College, Nanyang Technological University, and National Technical University of Athens.

Lead and other heavy metals in water are a significant global problem that continues to grow because of electronic waste and discharges from mining operations. In the U.S. alone, more than 12,000 miles of waterways are impacted by acidic mine-drainage-water rich in heavy metals, the country's leading source of water pollution. And unlike organic pollutants, most of which can be eventually broken down, heavy metals don't biodegrade, but persist indefinitely and bioaccumulate. They are either impossible or very expensive to completely remove by conventional methods such as chemical precipitation or membrane filtration.

Lead is highly toxic, even at tiny concentrations, especially affecting children as they grow. The European Union has reduced its standard for allowable lead in drinking water from 10 parts per billion to 5 parts per billion. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency has declared that no level at all in water supplies is safe. And average levels in bodies of surface water globally are 10 times higher than they were 50 years ago, ranging from 10 parts per billion in Europe to hundreds of parts per billion in South America.

"We don't just need to minimize the existence of lead; we need to eliminate it in drinking water," says Stathatou. "And the fact is that the conventional treatment processes are not doing this effectively when the initial concentrations they have to remove are low, in the parts-per-billion scale and below. They either fail to completely remove these trace amounts, or in order to do so they consume a lot of energy and they produce toxic byproducts."

The solution studied by the MIT team is not a new one—a process called biosorption, in which inactive biological material is used to remove heavy metals from water, has been known for a few decades. But the process has been studied and characterized only at much higher concentrations, at more than one part-per-million levels. "Our study demonstrates that the process can indeed work efficiently at the much lower concentrations of typical real-world water supplies, and investigates in detail the mechanisms involved in the process," Athanasiou says.

The team studied the use of a type of yeast widely used in brewing and in industrial processes, called S. cerevisiae, on pure water spiked with trace amounts of lead. They demonstrated that a single gram of the inactive, dried yeast cells can remove up to 12 milligrams of lead in aqueous solutions with initial lead concentrations below 1 part per million. They also showed that the process is very rapid, taking less than five minutes to complete.

Because the yeast cells used in the process are inactive and desiccated, they require no particular care, unlike other processes that rely on living biomass to perform such functions which require nutrients and sunlight to keep the materials active. What's more, yeast is abundantly available already, as a waste product from beer brewing and from various other fermentation-based industrial processes.

Stathatou has estimated that to clean a water supply for a city the size of Boston, which uses about 200 million gallons a day, would require about 20 tons of yeast per day, or about 7,000 tons per year. By comparison, one single brewery, the Boston Beer Company, generates 20,000 tons a year of surplus yeast that is no longer useful for fermentation.

The researchers also performed a series of tests to determine that the yeast cells are responsible for biosorption. Athanasiou says that "exploring biosorption mechanisms at such challenging concentrations is a tough problem. We were the first to use a mechanics perspective to unravel biosorption mechanisms, and we discovered that the mechanical properties of the yeast cells change significantly after lead uptake. This provides fundamentally new insights for the process."

Devising a practical system for processing the water and retrieving the yeast, which could then be separated from the lead for reuse, is the next stage of the team's research, they say.

"To scale up the process and actually put it in place, you need to embed these cells in a kind of filter, and this is the work that's currently ongoing," Stathatou says. They are also looking at ways of recovering both the cells and the lead. "We need to conduct further experiments, but there is the option to get both back," she says.

The same material can potentially be used to remove other heavy metals, such as cadmium and copper, but that will require further research to quantify the effective rates for those processes, the researchers say.

"This research revealed a very promising, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly solution for lead removal," says Sivan Zamir, vice president of Xylem Innovation Labs, a water technology research firm, who was not associated with this research. "It also deepened our understanding of the biosorption process, paving the way for the development of materials tailored to removal of other heavy metals."Removing heavy metals from water with MOFs

More information: Patritsia M. Stathatou et al, Lead removal at trace concentrations from water by inactive yeast cells, Communications Earth & Environment (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-022-00463-0

Journal information: Nature Communications Earth & Environment 

Provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.

Bombardier shares hit amid Montreal workers' strike, market selloff


Bombardier employees work on delivery preparations of Global aircraft in Montreal

Mon, June 13, 2022

MONTREAL (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc shares fell as much as 17.4% on Monday as workers on a key business jet program walked off the job for a day and amid a broader selloff in global markets.

The union representing 1,800 Bombardier workers said they would return to the job on Tuesday, when negotiations between the two sides resume.

The workers are mostly on the company's strong-selling Challenger business jet family, which accounted for just over a third of the company's plane deliveries in 2021.

Bombardier has said it would put a contingency plan in place to reduce the impact on operations from the strike.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) said 76% percent of workers rejected Bombardier's five-year contract offer.

The union is asking for higher wage increases in the last two years of the contract, arguing that Bombardier's offer of up to 2.5% falls below rising living costs.

Canada's inflation rate hit 6.8% in April, a 31-year high.

By late morning, Bombardier shares were down 8.1% at C$25.95, as the company's planned consolidation of Class A and B shares took effect on Monday. The benchmark Canada share index was down 3.1%.

Global markets, including Wall Street's main indexes opened sharply lower on Monday, on growing fears that aggressive interest rate hikes could tip the economy into recession.

(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal, editing by Deepa Babington)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M GREENWASHING
ESG Fund Bosses Hit by ‘Reckoning’ as Goldman, DWS in Crosshairs

Frances Schwartzkopff
Sun, June 12, 2022, 



(Bloomberg) -- One of the top legal firms advising asset managers on ESG says the industry needs to brace for a more rigorous enforcement of regulations, effective immediately.

There’s “a reckoning” under way, said Sonali Siriwardena, partner and global head of ESG at law firm Simmons & Simmons in London. Despite pushing through a “tsunami” of ESG rules, it’s now apparent that “regulators aren’t necessarily looking at a grace period” to allow the industry to adapt, she said.

The comments come as ESG fund managers digest the crackdown that just hit their industry. On May 31, as police searched the offices of Deutsche Bank AG and its fund unit DWS Group, the authorities who sent them were setting a precedent for environmental, social and governance investing. The allegations of greenwashing that triggered the raid have been rejected by DWS, but nonetheless prompted the departure of its chief executive.As if to underline the sense of a new regulatory era, word broke late Friday that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the ESG claims of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s asset-management unit. That’s despite the lack of a complete ESG rulebook in the US.“I believe these are the first ripples of a wave of regulatory interventions that we are likely to see in the coming months,” Siriwardena told Bloomberg. “The number of ESG-focused funds has soared, so it’s no surprise that the regulators want to set expectations to maintain market credibility.

In fact, “regulators are under some pressure to almost have examples” as a way to encourage other asset managers to “fall in line,” she said. And for firms with global portfolios trying to navigate rules in several jurisdictions, “it’s an absolute nightmare.” Siriwardena declined to comment specifically on the allegations against Goldman Sachs, noting that the New York-based firm is a client of Simmons & Simmons.

SEC officials are examining Goldman Sachs’s mutual-fund business, and are trying to ascertain whether some investments are in breach of ESG metrics promised in marketing materials, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry is tied to two funds in that business.And as scrutiny around ESG picks up, other major financial firms are adjusting their businesses to ensure that clients get more say over environmental, social and governance matters. BlackRock Inc. said on Monday it is expanding efforts to give clients invested in index funds the ability to vote their own shares on issues such as executive compensation and climate change.

The DWS case, meanwhile, is the first of its kind in Europe. Though the firm has been under investigation for alleged greenwashing since last year, a sense of complacency had set in. DWS had continued to expand its ESG business and clients seemed largely undeterred by doubts around the reliability of its ESG statements.

The decision by German authorities to suddenly shift gears coincides with a sense of unease among asset managers that the rules by which they need to abide are uncomfortably vague. What’s more, some regulators in Europe agree. According to the head of France’s financial supervisory authority, Robert Ophele, the lack of clear guidance around European ESG rules actually “fuels greenwashing.”

Europe’s landmark ESG rulebook for asset managers — the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation — was enforced in March 2021. By being first, Europe was hoping to set a global benchmark. But the speed with which SFDR was pieced together has left it “incomplete and imperfect,” the European Securities and Markets Authority recently acknowledged.

Siriwardena said she sees a “huge divergence” in how SFDR is being interpreted not just by asset managers but by their watchdogs. “The whole proposition for Europe is a uniform approach. What we’re seeing in practice is that’s hardly the case.”

One of the main requirements of SFDR is for fund managers to categorize their products so clients know how green they are. An article 6 designation shows ESG has been considered, but isn’t really relevant. Article 8 denotes products that promote ESG characteristics. Article 9 — the highest ESG category in the rulebook — reflects an asset manager’s view that products under that label prioritize sustainability.

According to Ophele at the French regulator, the rules for Article 8 are so imprecise that interpretations vary wildly. “It’s fair to say that every national competent authority is implementing its own approach, if any,” he said in a recent interview.

Luke Sussams, an ESG strategist at Jefferies, said “the bar for Article 8 is so low because any quantification or prescription from the EU and from the highest level just isn’t there.” And “what we’re learning is the market is more than happy to take advantage of that ambiguity.”

Jefferies’ research suggests that “the names that are most held across the Article 8 funds have no real discernible ESG impact in the real economy,” he said.

But since SFDR was enforced more than a year ago, asset managers “have felt the pressure to have as many funds as possible meeting at a minimum Article 8 requirements,” said Hortense Bioy, global head of sustainability research at Morningstar Inc.

“Many distributors and fund buyers across Europe have said they would only consider funds in Article 8 and 9 categories going forward,” she said. So having those products on the shelf “has become a commercial imperative for fund companies.”

Siriwardena said clients will need to be able to “answer for themselves” whether they can defend their SFDR allocations. And there are some early signs that investors are starting to treat Article 8 with more caution. Morningstar data show that Article 8 funds experienced their first net outflows on record last quarter.

According to Germany’s public prosecutor, the raid of DWS was based “on suspicion of capital investment fraud” and misleading ESG marketing practices. The authorities investigating the firm may now have more material to test those suspicions.

“What happened at DWS is going to push asset managers to be much more careful about the things they’re saying,” said Sasja Beslik, chief investment officer at NextGen ESG. “This marks the biggest hit we’ve seen to the hot air and the empty promises over the past years.”

Drilling vs returns. U.S. oil producers' tradeoff as windfall tax threatens


Liz Hampton
Sun, June 12, 2022, 

FILE PHOTO - Pump jacks operate at sunset in Midland

(Reuters) - U.S. oil producers profiting from sky-high prices are doling out billions to shareholders and building cash reserves, a strategy irking lawmakers and voters struggling with record fuel prices while winning over Wall Street.

Soaring fuel prices have boosted inflation to a 40-year record and are expected to drive up U.S. gasoline by more than a dollar to $6 a gallon by August. That prospect has some officials arguing the industry's focus on returns is benefiting a few at the expense of consumers.

The tradeoff between rising payouts for just a single quarter and more spending on production has deprived the market of nearly half a million barrels of new oil daily, based on Reuters' estimates of potential output if half of existing investor payouts flowed to new oil and gas drilling.

Earnings from major U.S. shale, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. oil output, could hit $90 billion this year, up from $37 billion in 2021, according to consultancy BTU Analytics, a FactSet Company. Its estimate covers only 32 publicly traded oil and gas producers.

Executives are facing calls in Washington for windfall levies, which could cut into energy profits. A group of more than 30 lawmakers recently urged a Congressional vote on a new oil tax.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday slammed oil companies, saying they are intentionally holding off drilling more to pump up oil and share prices. [nL1N2XX1VP]

"They're buying back their own stock, which should be taxed, quite frankly," Biden said.

Executives and investors have argued that fuel prices are set by the market and retailers, not producers. Materials and labor shortages have limited how fast they can ramp up output, and to spend a lot more on new drilling would erode capital efficiency and lead investors to exit.

Though analysts and oil executives do not expect a windfall tax to pass here, Britain recently imposed a 25% oil profit tax to offset consumer energy bills, giving hope to some U.S. lawmakers proposing the tax. And resistance to the tax may shrink as fuel prices soar and corporate earnings follow.

"If the conservative government in the U.K. can support a windfall tax, we should be able to pass" a U.S. equivalent, said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, and a co-sponsor of the tax proposal.

The goal is to raise $45 billion a year with proceeds funding payments to consumers.

But a windfall tax would kill the incentive to drill more, said oil executives, and take away some of the earnings that fund new technology advances that led to the U.S. shale revolution which turned the United States into the world's top producer. It would also lessen oil firms' ability to raise outside financing.

"This is a terrible idea," said Mike Oestmann, chief executive of shale producer Tall City Exploration. "If you want less of something, or some behavior, or some industry, tax it more heavily."

PUMPING UP OUTPUT, NOT PRICES

Motivating windfall tax advocates is the idea that U.S. energy companies are holding off production to maintain high prices and earnings. Companies returned some $9.51 billion to investors in the first quarter, according to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

If oil producers had spent half of the $9.51 billion on new drilling, it would fund some 660 new shale wells, according to Reuters analysis using energy tech firm Enverus' average costs of $7.14 million per shale well last year.

Output varies per basin but on average, a new well can deliver some 672 bpd of oil, according to BTU Analytics. Based on the additional wells and the average new shale-oil output, production could be boosted some 450,000 bpd.

Those extra barrels could lift U.S. production this year beyond the pre-pandemic record of 12.23 million bpd in 2019. The government projects output to rise 720,000 bpd to 11.92 million bpd in 2022.

MAKING ENERGY STOCKS ATTRACTIVE AGAIN

Between 2006 and 2019, the top 50 U.S. oil producers spent $170 billion more in capital expenditures (capex) than they collected from operations, using debt and equity to cover the deficit, estimates independent oil analyst Paul Sankey.

"Effectively, there were no returns" for shareholders, he said.

Investors last decade shunned energy companies for their lack of returns and knocked their weighting in the S&P 500, a measure of shareholder interest, to less than 3% in 2020, from more than 16% in 2008. S&P energy stocks today are 5.1% with burgeoning earnings on high oil and gas prices.

The change in sentiment came as producers shifted to a strategy of investing just a third of their cash flow into drilling and other capital expenses, compared with most of their cash flow two years ago, according to the latest data from Enverus.

Focusing on shareholder returns over new production is not going away with the rise in energy prices. U.S. crude prices are up about 60% so far this year.

"Not one large public (shale producer) increased capex in Q1 for increased activity," said Kaes Van't Hof, finance chief at shale firm Diamondback Energy Inc, in a recent twitter post.

That willingness to hold the line on production and reward investors via dividends and buybacks "is changing the investment aura,” making energy stocks attractive again, said Matthew Stephani, president of Cavanal Hill Investment Management, part of BOK Financial Corp.

The S&P 500 oil and gas sector is up more than 60% year-to-date, outperforming the broad-market index average, which is down for the year.

Will investors accept a return to higher spending and lower shareholder returns? They will not, say portfolio managers and investors.

"As an investor, I think this is a good balance. The companies have shown they can’t be trusted," said Chris Duncan, who tracks shale firms for asset manager Brandes Investment Partners.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Inside the secretive world of shipping Russia's tainted oil


Louis Ashworth

THE TELEGRAPH
Sun, June 12, 2022

Yang Li Hu, a 12-year-old Chinese oil tanker with a bright blue and red hull, was laden with oil as it set sail from the port of Kozmino on Russia’s far eastern tip.

The journey, which began on May 17, was headed towards Gwanyang, in South Korea.

Outside Kozmino, however, it was joined by a larger vessel, Yuan Qiu Hu. Floating alongside one another, the pair underwent a ship-to-ship transfer — an operation experts say can be used to obfuscate the seaborne movement of goods.

With the job done, Yuan Qiu Hu sailed off to Lanshan, China, while Yang Li Hu headed back to Kozmino.

It was hardly a subtle move: the transfer was easily picked up by marine analysts, for whom it was straight out of a familiar playbook.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, companies handling Moscow’s oil have done their best to stay under the radar, if they haven’t disassociated themselves. Many feared the threat of sanctions — or being seen as inadvertently aiding the Kremlin’s war.

There are a number of methods. One of the most popular is to ‘go dark’, switching off a vessel’s automatic identification system so its position is no longer broadcast. Such ‘dark activity’ has tripled across Russia-affiliated oil tankers since the start of the conflict, according to consultancy Windward.

Illicit ship-to-ship transfers are another common trick. While cargo transfers are logged at ports, there is no such jurisdiction at sea, meaning it’s easy to hide where a vessel acquired its goods.

Meanwhile, there has been a concerted effort by some Russian operators to get ships off their books – transferring them to alternative owners in a way that may help them avoid future sanctions. Since the invasion started, some 180 vessels have changed from a Russian to non-Russian owner – a far faster rate than in previous years.

It has been a boom time for many European shippers. As international firms such as Shell moved to wipe their hands of Russian oil, a slew of Mediterranean operators stepped in to fill the gap. While Russian export levels are little changed, the make-up of companies handling the oil has.

The volume of fuel collected from Russian ports by vessels owned, managed or flagged in Greece, Cyprus or Malta has tripled since the start of the conflict according to Refinitiv data analysed by Global Witness, a human right NGO.

“If that's not profiteering, I'm not quite sure what is,” says Louis Wilson from Global Witness.

“Right now the fear is pretty low, and the greed is pretty high,” adds Ami Daniel, chief executive at Windward.

But time may be running out. Last week the European Union said it would ban seaborne Russian oil imports, which represent more than two-thirds of all deliveries of Putin’s crude to the bloc, by the end of the year. Greece, Malta and Cyprus pushed back against the move.

It is a difficult step for a Continent so dependent on Russian energy, but one that has seemed increasingly inevitable as the conflict dragged on.

“It's a moral issue,” says Bjarne Schieldrop, a commodities analyst at Swedish bank SEB. “For Europe, it's very hard to swallow that we are giving money to Russia every day, and they can continue to bombard and destroy.”

The decision will prompt a historic shift in the structure of global markets, breaking a relationship that has long underpinned the economies of both sides. Before the invasion of Ukraine, about 60pc of all Europe’s diesel was coming from Russia.

It may have been Britain that added the crucial ingredient to the latest round of sanctions, as it vowed to ban Russia-affiliated vessels from Lloyd’s of London, the insurance market.

Around 90pc of global shipping insurance is provided by the so-called International Group of P&I [protection and indemnity] Clubs, many of which are based in Europe. There’s also a complicated but crucial reinsurance market centred around Lloyd’s.

Analysts in the trading and shipping sector say the ban will drive up costs for companies moving Russian oil, who will be forced into the hands of smaller, less established players and banned from some ports as a result.

There is likely to be stratification as a result, with the emergence of a distinct fleet of vessels whose controllers are either Russian, or have made peace with running fuel for Putin.

“In effect, you’re getting a two tiered market created: those who will do business with Russia and those who won't,” says Daniel.

While shipping Russian oil isn’t currently illegal, that hasn’t stopped traders getting ready for a shift.

Michelle Wiese Bockmann, an analyst at maritime intelligence group Lloyd’s List, says the beginnings of a shadowy fleet that may end up moving Russia crude is becoming apparent.

She has identified a slew of Cameroon-flagged vessels previously tracked moving Iranian or Venezuelan crude, which have recently shifted to conduct operations at Russian ports on the Black Sea or Baltic.

These vessels are part of a black fleet – which also operates under the flags of countries with shipping jurisdiction such as Gabon or Belize – that serves about 2pc of the global seaborne market by moving sanctioned oil on behalf of Caracas, Tehran and Pyongyang. Little is known about how they are insured, and most cannot dock at regular ports.

It’s a tempting model for Russia as its seaborne oil trade prepares for pariah status.

“There's a template there for the Russians to use that has been developed in response to prior sanctions on oil shipping,” says Bockmann.

But it won’t be simple for Moscow. “[Russia is] quite an order of magnitude bigger than Venezuela and Iran,” says Erik Broekhuizen, a consultant at Poten & Partners.

He estimates Russia will need to build a new fleet of more than 70 vessels if it wants to maintain output, adding: “Finding these vessels and arranging insurance for them outside the EU and UK markets could be very challenging.”

Until then, Russia may have little choice but to curb production.

That doesn’t mean the ban will be a clean-cut win for Brussels, however. Planned regulations risk flopping if they overwhelm shipping companies increasingly tangled in a web of international sanctions.

A schism will also have big potential consequences for the global economy.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley say Europe’s move to wean itself off Russian diesel has the potential to leave global markets “tighter-for-longer”. The Wall Street bank says crude oil flows from Russia into north-west Europe are already down around a million barrels a day for pre-invasion levels.

Once contracts wind up and the EU’s embargo on Russian fuel kicks in, Europe will need to find new sources of oil, which won’t be easy given political pressures. Saudi Arabia, the US and Brazil are all likely sources, but Europe is unlikely to find any silver bullet.

“No one region is going to be able to step in and do this,” says Tim Smith, oil and tanker director at Maritime Strategies International.

Meanwhile, Moscow will need to find new buyers or face further pressure to cut capacity.

Widespread qualms over buying oil from the Kremlin have forced its top producers to reduce prices. Urals crude, a benchmark for the country’s oil, has been trading at a discount of around $30 dollars a barrel to Brent crude through most of the war.

This deep discounting hasn’t gone unnoticed by other buyers. India has taken advantage of bargain-price barrels, with its imports soaring to nearly a million barrels a day in recent weeks.

This has gone a long way to offsetting the drop in demand from Europe, meaning total Russia oil exports are fairly unchanged on pre-war levels.

Still, India’s refineries are already at full capacity, and it has long-term contracts with other suppliers including the Saudis, UAE and Iraqis that it may be loath to renege upon.

Chinese companies have also been exploring purchases, although the country’s oil importers haven’t visibly gone on a spending spree as of yet. Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, says that may change as China emerges from lockdowns.

Beyond those, Russia’s options may be more limited, but the world is too reliant on Moscow’s oil to leave the country completely in the cold – and as long as there’s a saving to be made, Putin is bound to find buyers.

“If the world stopped consuming [Russian oil], it would blow up,” says SEB’s Schieldrop. “Everyone knows that.”