British Columbians overwhelmingly oppose new museum, poll finds

David Carrigg - Yesterday 

Close to 70 per cent of British Columbians are opposed to a costly rebuild of the Royal B.C. Museum and are more concerned with inflation, health care and housing affordability, according to polling data being released by the Angus Reid Institute on Thursday.


© Provided by Vancouver SunB.C. Premier John Horgan speaks during a media scrum at the Hotel Saskatchewan on Friday, May 27, 2022 in Regina.

The poll showed 42 per cent of the 615 adults questioned were “strongly” opposed to the $800-million project, while 27 per cent were simply opposed.

The survey found four per cent of people “strongly” support the project, while 18 per cent supported it — for a total of 22 per cent.

Eight per cent of respondents had no opinion.

“If there was ever a museum of political gaffes built in British Columbia, the rollout of the Royal B.C. Museum’s rebuild could occupy a gallery of its own,” Angus Reid president Shachi Kurl wrote.

The B.C. government announced in early May that it would rebuild the 54-year-old Royal B.C. Museum, without presenting a business plan.

While the government expected the news to be received well, the opposite occurred, and two weeks later Tourism Minister Melanie Mark presented a heavily redacted business plan.

The B.C. Liberals have already promised to cancel the project if they are elected in 2024, with leader Kevin Falcon dubbing it a “vanity project boondoggle.”

“The backlash comes as the NDP government under John Horgan faces other political headwinds from inflation and cost of living increases,” Kurl wrote.

The poll found 70 per cent of respondents thought the B.C. government was performing poorly in its handling of inflation, health care staffing and housing affordability.

Horgan’s approval has dropped seven percentage points over the past three months to 48 per cent, but the B.C. NDP still hold an 11-per-cent lead over their rival B.C. Liberals. The B.C. Green party has 15 per cent support.

Newly anointed Liberal leader Falcon is viewed favourably by 23 per cent of British Columbians and unfavourably by 44 per cent.

Rising costs of living was the most important concern to 61 per cent of respondents, while fewer than seven per cent were concerned with the government’s response to COVID-19.

dcarrigg@postmedia.com

Related

New Royal B.C. Museum: Here's why the government says it'll cost $789 million

$1B for Victoria museum could be better spent elsewhere, critics say

ABOLISH CBP

US Customs and Border Protection investigating an unofficial challenge coin depicting Haitian migrant incident

Priscilla Alvarez - Yesterday --CNN


An unofficial challenge coin depicting the infamous image of an agent on horseback confronting a Haitian migrant is being investigated by US Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility, according to agency spokesperson Luis Miranda.

The coin, which is on sale on eBay, is inscribed with phrases, like “You will be returned” and “Reining it in since May 28, 1924.” It’s unclear where the coin originated.

“The images depicted on this coin are offensive, insensitive, and run counter to the core values of CBP. This is not an official CBP coin,” Miranda said in a statement.

“The CBP Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is investigating whether or not it is being sold by anyone at CBP, and will take appropriate action if so. The CBP Office of Chief Counsel (OCC) will also send a cease-and-desist letter to any vendor who produces unauthorized challenge coins using one of CBP’s trademarked brands,” he added.

Last year, during a surge of mostly Haitian migrants at the US southern border, photos surfaced of agents on horseback swinging long reins near migrants who had crossed the border near Del Rio, Texas – where around 15,000 migrants had amassed under the Del Rio international bridge.

The incident drew swift condemnation from senior Biden administration officials.

CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility has been investigating the incident, though the results of the investigation have not yet been released.

CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said Thursday that the coins anger him “because the hateful images on them have no place in a professional law enforcement agency.”

“Those who make or share these deeply offensive coins detract and distract from the extraordinarily difficult and often life-saving work Border Patrol agents do every day across the country,” he continued.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Shawna Mizelle contributed to this report.

Biden seeks to counter ‘legislative attacks’ on LGBTQ rights

1 of 12

President Joe Biden celebrates after signing an executive order at an event to celebrate Pride Month in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Washington. 

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

By WILL WEISSERT

June 15, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden issued an executive order Wednesday to stymie what what his administration calls discriminatory legislative attacks on the LGBTQ community by Republican-controlled states, declaring before a signing ceremony packed with activists, “pride is back at the White House.”

The order seeks to discourage “conversion therapy” — a discredited practice that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity — while also promoting gender-affirming surgery and expanding foster care protections for gay and transgender parents and children.

Tapping money already allocated to federal agencies rather than requiring new funding, Biden said the order is meant to counter 300-plus anti-LGBTQ laws introduced by state lawmakers over the past year alone. The Department of Health and Human Services will draft new policies to expand care to LGBTQ families and the Education Department will devise rules to better protect LGBTQ students in public schools.

The president, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attended a crowded reception in the White House’s East Room, where the adjacent hallway was decorated in rainbow colors. Attending were LGBTQ activists, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress, and top administration officials, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who adopted twins with his husband, Chasten.

The gathering is part of the Biden administration’s recognition of Pride Month.

“All of you in this room know better than anyone that these attacks are real and consequential for real families,” the president said before sitting to sign the order. He pointed specifically to the arrest last weekend of 31 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front near an Idaho pride event.

Actions listed within the order attempt to bolster programs better addressing the issue of suicide among LGBTQ children and seek to make adoptions easier for LGBTQ parents and children.

“It shouldn’t take courage to be yourself,” said Jill Biden, who noted that it was a little too hot and humid in summer sun-drenched Washington to hold the event on the South Lawn. “We know that, in places across the country like Florida or Texas or Alabama, rights are under attack. And we know that in small towns and big cities, prejudice, and discrimination still lurk.”



Among the state laws the White House has opposed is the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” measure in Florida, which was signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in March. It bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Critics say it marginalizes LGBTQ people, and the law sparked a public battle between the state and the Walt Disney Co.

Biden’s action creates a federal working group to help combat LGBTQ homeless and one promoting educational policies for states and school districts that encourage inclusive learning environments for LGBTQ children. His order also establish new rules to discourage conversion therapy, though efforts to enforce bans against it in places where state law allows the practice will rely on legal challenges from outside the White House.

While some Republican-led legislatures have championed conversion therapy, other states and communities have banned it. The American Psychological Association says conversion therapy is not based on science and is harmful to a participant’s mental health.

The order further directs health officials to spell out that federally funded programs cannot be used to fund conversion therapy. And it seeks to ease barriers to health care and certain types of treatment for the LGBTQ community, including gender affirming surgery.

That follows Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s February order directing Texas’ child welfare agency to investigate reports of gender-confirming care for kids as abuse. A judge has since issued a restraining order that halted investigations into three families, and prevented others.

“We have a lot more work to do,” Biden said. “In Texas, knocking on front doors to harass and investigate parents who are raising transgender children. In Florida, going after Mickey Mouse for God’s sake.”

In earlier orders, Biden has sought to direct that gay and transgender people are protecting from discrimination in schools, health care, housing and at work. He ordered federal agencies to update and expand regulations prohibiting sexual discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity, and reversed a ban on transgender people serving in the military.

Biden on Wednesday also renewed his calls for Congress to pass the Equality Act, which would amend existing civil rights law to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identification as protected characteristics. The measure has been stalled on Capitol Hill but the president said it’s necessary to “enshrine the long overdue civil rights protections of all Americans, every American.”

___

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

Will Trans Mountain skimp on oil spill coverage for its new pipeline?

Yesterday 


When Trans Mountain's new pipeline and facilities are ready to operate, the company says "a slight increase" to its $1-billion liabilities plan for the existing pipeline will be sufficient to cover the risk of an oil spill on either the current line or its new counterpart.

But “a slight increase” is not in line with the additional $1.1 billion the energy regulator has said is required to open the new pipeline, says independent economist Robyn Allan, who wrote to the regulator with her concerns.

To protect the public interest, companies must show Canada’s Energy Regulator (CER) they've got the financial resources to deal with an oil spill before operating a new pipeline. If a company doesn't have the money to cover those costs and an oil spill occurs, taxpayers could be left to pay for the mess.

In the case of Trans Mountain, the regulator has specified the new pipeline’s “financial assurance plan” must include at least $100 million of cash that can be tapped instantly for cleanup in the event of a spill. The company is also required to carry lines of credit, third-party liability insurance and other financial instruments to cover the remaining $1 billion.

The Crown corporation would not specify what “a slight increase” to its financial assurances plan for the current pipeline entailed when asked by Canada’s National Observer. It said only that the company has “the required financial resource requirements in place for the current pipeline operations” and will share details with the CER “at an appropriate time.”

Allan says the company is trying to backtrack on obligations that were clear when the regulatory hearing approved the project, “and in doing so, is putting the public at serious risk for spill costs.

“We really need this, frankly, nonsense to stop,” she adds.

Part of the regulator’s duty is to prevent situations where the public is on the hook for cleanup, says Eugene Kung, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law. Across Canada, oil and gas companies have declared bankruptcy, abandoned wells and left cleanup costs to the public purse. That’s what we want to avoid here, Kung says.

The expansion’s construction costs have nearly quadrupled compared to Kinder Morgan’s original cost estimate in 2013, which experts say has destroyed the business case for the pipeline. The federal government has said no more public dollars will go towards the project and that it intends to sell the pipeline.

To attract private investment, the federal government recently greenlit a $10-billion loan guarantee for Trans Mountain, quietly financed by Canada’s six biggest banks. Technically, no public money has been spent yet, but the guarantee means if Trans Mountain can’t pay back the loan, the public will foot the bill.

If the regulator allows Trans Mountain to avoid adding $1.1 billion in financial assurances for the new pipeline, it could make the project more appealing to prospective buyers, Allan says.

Dropping the requirement to have additional backup cash immediately available, plus lines of credit and insurance, makes it easier for potential buyers, says Kung. “It also leaves them potentially much more exposed to a scenario where ... there could be indefinite liability if they're found at fault for a spill.”

There’s an incentive for Trans Mountain to skimp on the financial assurances plan because money for rising insurance costs and spill preparedness can’t be recouped through the fees oil producers are charged to use the pipelines, he says.

Built in 1953, the existing Trans Mountain pipeline carries 300,000 barrels of oil per day from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C. The expansion will essentially twin the old 1,150-kilometre pipeline and raise its capacity to 890,000 barrels per day.

The regulator requires Trans Mountain to maintain $500 million in insurance and a $500 million line of credit through Crown corporation Canada Development Investment Corporation for cleanup, remediation, business interruptions and other spill-related costs for the existing pipeline.

Based on the regulator’s 2019 report, Trans Mountain was instructed to come up with an additional $1.1 billion for the expansion project for a total of $2.1 billion for both pipelines, explains Allan.

“It makes sense in a way, right?” says Kung. “If you're doubling the pipelines and, in fact, tripling the capacity then there's a corresponding increase in risk.”

Allan is also concerned Trans Mountain won’t be required to seek insurance for the expansion project until much of it is already in operation.

In January, Trans Mountain signalled its intention to apply to open segments of the expansion project gradually, such as terminals or pump stations. If the request is granted by the regulator, Trans Mountain would be able to skirt a condition requiring the company to file a financial assurances plan — including insurance — six months before applying to open the second pipeline, explains Allan, who was once the president and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.

But Allan’s letter points out it's unlikely the current insurance would extend to the new pipeline and facilities.

When asked specifically if private insurers are willing to back the new pipeline, Trans Mountain media relations wrote the company “has all the required and necessary insurance in place.”

However, the project has had some insurance problems. To date, 17 insurers have cut ties with Trans Mountain. The existing pipeline’s insurance situation has been a black box ever since the regulator granted its request to keep the names of its insurers secret in April 2021.

With the expansion’s consistent cost overruns and new understanding of flood and fire risks, Allan says it's critical to know if the company can obtain private insurance for the second pipeline before opening any part of it.

“If we find out at the 11th hour that the private sector won’t insure it, the responsibility will default to Canadians,” said Allan.

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

FIRST NATO NATION BUILDING WAR

Kosovars Tire Of Knocking At Europe's Closed Doors


By Ismet HAJDARI
06/16/22

Of all the passports in the world, Kosovo's opens fewer doors than most, even the doors to other parts of Europe.

"It's a contradiction to be called European when you are not allowed to see, touch or travel around Europe," 27-year-old journalist Aulona Kadriu told AFP.

"I don't see why an entire population should be locked out and isolated."

Of the 199 countries ranked by the number of destinations their passport holders can visit according to the Henley index, only 10 offer fewer opportunities than Kosovo. The former province of Serbia languishes in the company of places like Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and North Korea.

Kosovars still still need visas to enter the EU. Kosovo's journalist Aulona Kadriu shows her visa photos Photo: AFP / Armend NIMANI


Kadriu gave up trying to travel within Europe for work or for leisure, because she found the hoops Kosovars have to jump through too frustrating.

The landlocked country's 1.8 million citizens are the only people in the Balkans to need a visa to do so, and that magic pass is tricky to obtain.

"It's beyond humiliation," she grumbled.

Kosovars still need visas to enter other European countries and the queues at embassies to get them can be long 

Photo: AFP / Armend NIMANI

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but is not universally recognised.

Five European Union countries are among the opponents, alongside Serbia itself -- with whom relations remain unstable -- and its Russian and Chinese allies.

So the tiny country applauded when the European Commission -- the EU's executive body -- decided in 2018 that Kosovars should be eligible to travel freely to all 26 countries in Europe's borderless Schengen Area.

But EU governments, who have the final say, have yet to follow suit and four years on, Kosovars still need visas and the queues to get them are as long as ever.

Pensioner Igballe Kryeziu hopes to visit her children in Germany, where around half the 800,000 Kosovars living abroad currently reside.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but is not universally recognised, with five EU countries among the opponents Photo: AFP / Armend NIMANI

It has taken her five months and 200 euros ($210) in paperwork just to get a place in the queue outside the consulate.

Work and study permits are just as hard to come by.

Berlin's embassy in Pristina said it had received more than 100,000 requests in December and January alone. It only has capacity to issue 5,500 in a full year.

Local charities believe the hold-up is due to reserves on the part of EU heavyweights like France about Kosovo's ability to tackle corruption and organised crime.

More than 80 local NGOs wrote recently to French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, urging him to end the "isolation of Kosovo citizens".

Talks between Pristina and Brussels about visa-free travel had dragged on for 10 years, they pointed out -- longer than it took neighbouring Croatia to go from applying to join the EU to actually becoming a full member.

Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi told AFP Kosovo had "done more than was asked of it" to meet the conditions imposed on it and the delay was essentially "due to the dynamics between different EU members".

Political analyst Donika Emini concurred.

"We've seen the stick but not the carrot," she said.

Architecture student Teuta Rexhaj, 22, had to say goodbye to her plans to study at Vienna University.

"It was a real blow," she told AFP. "I belong to a generation that has not been able to fulfil its European dream."

"When I see other young people from the Balkans travelling to Europe without any difficulty, I can't help thinking Kosovo is being discriminated against."

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

Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Thesis on The Kosovo Crisis and the Crisis of Global Capitalism
(originally written May 1999, Bill Clinton set the stage for George W. to invade Afghanistan and Iraq for humanitarian purposes.)
http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/01/war-whats-it-good-for-profit.html

Russian farmers seek to ride out Western sanctions

AFP - 
Yevgeny Shifanov, co-owner of an organic farm, says his business has felt the sting of Western sanctions and he is no longer able to sell his grain to Europe.

© Yuri KADOBNOV

Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine has devastated crops and farming in the pro-Western nation and disrupted crucial deliveries from Ukraine

But the 42-year-old puts on a brave face, saying he is pivoting to ex-Soviet countries such as Belarus as well as domestic clients.

"We are more interested in our internal market, our economy," the co-owner of Chyorny Khleb ("Black Bread") told AFP.

Shifanov's business -- located in the village of Khatmanovo, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Moscow on the banks of the Oka River -- is one of numerous small farms that have mushroomed in Russia over the past decade.


© Yuri KADOBNOV

Numerous small farms that have mushroomed in Russia over the past decade.

Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine has devastated crops and farming in the pro-Western nation and disrupted crucial deliveries from Ukraine fuelling concern about hunger and food prices worldwide.

The military campaign also put a major focus on Russia's own agriculture sector.

The country is the largest wheat exporter in the world and has been accused by the West of using grain as a geopolitical tool.

While Russia appears to be calling the shots in the current grain standoff with the West, experts say that its own agricultural sector is also bracing for tough times.

At Chyorny Khleb, which cultivates cereals on just over 1,000 hectares of land, green wheat stalks are knee-high. The farmers are enjoying a relative lull before harvesting starts in late July.

"In March or April, we begin to prepare the land, then we plant. Soon we will reap the results of our work," said Alexei Yershov, a 28-year-old tractor driver before climbing into his red-and-black tractor and setting off into a buckwheat field.

- New reality -

The outlook for the season is good, with the agriculture ministry forecasting a harvest of 130 million tonnes including a record 87 million tonnes of wheat.

But the farmers admit they have struggled since the onset of unprecedented Western sanctions.

"We have faced logistical problems," said Shifanov, adding that he has partners in Europe and Israel but the trucks carrying his farm's produce abroad were blocked at the border.

"We have buyers abroad, but we can't do anything, we can't deliver there, now we can only make do with our domestic market," he said.

He added that he was also searching for partners in Belarus, Armenia and Kazakhstan.

The farm is gradually adjusting to the new reality.

Like many other Russian businesses, the farm went on a "panic buying" spree in the first few weeks of the crisis, purchasing a year's worth of packaging supplies that are now gathering dust.

One of Shifanov's partners is now running out of glue needed to make labels.

"It was imported from Europe," said Shifanov, standing in a shed between mounds of wheat.

"They are trying to solve the problem via China but the logistics remain complicated," he added.

In a nearby building, Roman Tikhonov, 40, works on an Austrian-made wooden milling machine.

The miller said that the farm is learning to operate without foreign-made spare parts.

"Recently, something broke, we found the material and fixed it," he said.

"Before the spare parts arrived from Austria, we waited a long time, now we make them ourselves, it's faster."

The Ukrainian-made milling machine next-door has been receiving its spare parts via Belarus since the outbreak of hostilities between Ukrainian forces and Moscow-backed separatists in 2014.

Shifanov nevertheless says he is relieved that his tractors were mainly made in Russia or Belarus.

- Trading at a discount -

The grain market is also adjusting to the new conditions.

Before Russia's military campaign, the price of wheat was already high at around $300 per tonne but now it is more than $400.

Andrey Sizov, the head of Sovecon, a Russian agriculture consultancy, said that Russia is now selling its grain -- just like its oil -- at a discount.

"The war discount for Russian grain is $20 per tonne," he told AFP.

"Russian grain has become cheaper than, for example French grain, because you have to reflect and price in those additional costs like freight, insurance, problems with payments."

Sizov also pointed out that not only do farmers face higher production costs due to inflation, authorities in 2021 introduced strict export taxes that take about "30 percent of farmers revenue".

"The irony is current record high wheat prices were driven mainly by the Russian war but at the same time Russian farmers are not benefiting from them."

apo/bur/har

#LEGALIZEALLDRUGS
'The power of cannabis': Japan embraces CBD despite drug taboo


Tomohiro OSAKI, Katie Forster
Thu, June 16, 2022, 


With its zero-tolerance cannabis laws, deep social stigma against the drug and moves to tighten rules on consumption, Japan is no stoner's paradise.

But you wouldn't guess it watching Ai Takahashi and her friends twerking, body-rolling and lighting up to the weed anthem "Young, Wild & Free" at a tiny, packed club in Tokyo.

What they're smoking isn't illegal marijuana, but a joint containing cannabidiol (CBD) -- a non-intoxicating component of cannabis that has become trendy worldwide and is fast catching on in Japan.

"When I was a child, I was taught at school and everywhere else that marijuana is an absolute no-no, and that's what I believed too," Takahashi told AFP.


"But being a huge reggae fan, I had a chance to smoke it when I travelled to places where it's legal."

The 33-year-old dancer later became interested in CBD, which is legal in Japan if extracted from the plant's seeds or fully-grown stems, but not other parts like the leaves.

It is sold in vapes, drinks and sweets at specialist cafes, health stores, and even a shop in Tokyo's main airport.


When Takahashi encouraged her mother, who was struggling with depression, to try CBD, it made a big difference, she said.

"That's when I became convinced of the power of cannabis."

Japan's CBD industry had an estimated value of $59 million in 2019, up from $3 million in 2015, says Tokyo-based research firm Visiongraph.

And the government is discussing approving medicines derived from marijuana, already used in many countries to treat conditions like severe epilepsy.

But despite its budding interest in the plant's health benefits, the country is not getting softer on illegal use, with cannabis arrests hitting records each year.
- 'Don't smoke outside' -

It's a curious contrast that has led Norihiko Hayashi, who sells products containing cannabinoids like CBD and CBN in sleek black and silver packaging, to advise discretion.

"It's legal, but we ask customers to enjoy it at home. Don't smoke it outside on the street," the 37-year-old said.

Hayashi thinks Japan could eventually legalise marijuana for medical purposes.

But recreational? "Never. Not in more than 100 years. Maybe I'll already be dead."

A growing number of countries from Canada to South Africa and most recently Thailand are taking a more relaxed approach to weed.

But drug use remains taboo in Japan, where celebrities caught using narcotics of any description are shunned by their fans and employers.

Just 1.4 percent of people say they have tried marijuana, compared to more than 40 percent in France and around half in the United States.

Even so, cannabis-related arrests have been rising for nearly a decade to a record 5,482 last year, with most offenders in their teens or 20s.

"The internet is awash with false information saying cannabis isn't harmful or addictive," health ministry official Masashi Yamane told AFP.

The ministry warns that intoxicating substances like THC, found in cannabis, could compromise learning ability and muscle control as well as potentially increase the risk of mental illness.
- 'Draconian' -

To tackle the issue, authorities are looking into closing a loophole originally meant to stop farmers from being arrested for inhaling psychoactive smoke when growing hemp for items like rope.

It means consumption of marijuana is technically legal in Japan, although possession is punishable by up to five years in jail.

This rises to seven years and a possible fine of up to two million yen ($15,000) if it's to sell for profit, with stricter sentences for growing or smuggling.

Japan's Cannabis Control Act was introduced in 1948, during the post-war US occupation.

The United States "saw marijuana as a problem and a threat, even though consumption was really limited and very much stigmatised," said Miriam Kingsberg Kadia, a University of Colorado history professor who studies narcotics in Japan.

So "these draconian drug laws against a drug that wasn't really a problem remained on the books," she told AFP.

The rules have ensnared stars including Beatle Paul McCartney, who spent nine days in detention in Japan in 1980 after cannabis was found in his baggage.

But the country is not an outlier in Asia, where tough penalties for drug use are the norm, although Thailand now allows users to possess and grow cannabis under complicated new guidelines that still outlaw recreational use.

And while Japan could allow cannabis-derived medicines as soon as this year, there's little sign that politicians or the public back further relaxation of the rules.

"Marijuana is seen as something favoured by outlaws," said Ryudai Nemoto, a 21-year-old employee at a CBD shop in Ibaraki near Tokyo.

"I personally don't see it that way, knowing there are people who gravitate towards it for medical and health reasons, but that's not how general society views it."

kaf-tmo/ssy/oho

Australia's new climate promise meets mining reality


AFP - 

Flood, fire and drought-battered Australia is trying to clean up its act on climate change, but dependence on fossil fuel riches could stymie the national makeover.

Centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese swept to power in May promising weary Australians that he would tackle climate change.

He followed through on a key plank of that promise Thursday, nearly doubling the country's 2030 emissions reduction target to 43 percent.

Albanese faces a thorny dilemma: Australians want real steps to slow global heating, but they live in a country that depends on exporting the fossil fuels that cause it.

Australia's emissions -- while high per person -- account for just over one percent of global emissions.

Much more significant are the fossil fuels dug up in Australia and burned overseas.

Estimates differ, but these could account for anywhere between three and five percent of global emissions, making Australia one of the world's largest carbon polluters.

Another beneficiary of the May election wants to put an end to that.

"You don't end the climate wars by opening up new coal and gas mines," said Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt, whose party now holds the balance of power in the Senate and wants radical energy reform in return for working with the government.

The sticking point for the Greens, Bandt told AFP, was that the government had pledged support for 114 new coal and gas projects already in Australia's investment pipeline.

Modelling by the Greens found these projects would more than double Australia's emissions.

"None of these new projects the government wants to open are factored into their climate modelling," Bandt said.

- Wilder climate -

First discovered in 1791, Australia's vast coal deposits make it the world's second-largest exporter.

It is also one of the top exporters of gas -- mostly natural gas and gas exploited from coal seams.


Related video: How the planned 'hydrogen hub' in SA could help Australia's gas crisis (Dailymotion)

Fossil fuels account for about a quarter of Australian exports, with most destined for Japan, China and South Korea, according to Reserve Bank of Australia analysis.

Domestically, about 70 percent of electricity comes from coal and gas, according to official figures.

Given the economic sensitivities, the Albanese government has so far dodged calls to set a deadline for withdrawal from the sector, arguing international markets will decide when coal is no longer viable.

The approach may quell dissent from the coal and gas industry, used to getting its way after a decade of conservative governments.

But it could cause economic turmoil, with central bank analysts warning coal demand could fall by up to 80 percent by the middle of the century, leaving "stranded assets" that cannot be sold.

Already the strains are starting to show.

Mining giant BHP on Thursday announced it had been unable to sell its coal assets in the populous state of New South Wales.

The country's largest energy producer and carbon emitter AGL is also facing an uncertain future.

When AGL tried to split off the most polluting parts of its business, green-minded tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes sought to buy the company to stop the plan.

His bid was rejected, but Cannon-Brookes successfully lobbied fellow investors to block the demerger, arguing it would hurt shareholders and delay coal-fired power station closures.

Greenpeace Australia's chief executive David Ritter said AGL's experience was a lesson to listen to the call for climate action.

"Every corporation that makes the same mistakes can expect to also run into real turbulence very, very quickly," he told AFP.

This turbulence will come from activists, but also from the Australian public who have seen first-hand how a wilder climate can turn on them.

- After the 'Black Summer' -

Australia's 2019-20 "Black Summer" bushfires scorched 24 million hectares of land, cloaked cities in smoke, and killed more than 30 people along with an estimated tens of millions of wild animals.

In the two subsequent years, dramatic floods swamped Australia's east coast, this year killing more than 20 people as waters reached rooftops and torrents swept cars off roads.

Before the bushfires, veteran firefighter Greg Mullins tried to warn the government it was not prepared for the infernos to come.

For 14 years, Mullins had led the fire service in Australia's largest state, New South Wales, and he was joined by other retired emergency services leaders in sounding the alarm that climate change had dramatically escalated the fire threat.

"It was all political. Because we mentioned climate change, they just locked us out," he told AFP.

He and fellow members of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action are calling for far more ambitious emissions cuts -- 75 percent by 2030.

"We've lost the last decade of climate action, they've got to do a lot of catching up," he said.

mmc-djw-arb/axn/oho

Birthplace of Saudi state becomes tool for 'new nationalism'

AFP - 
Saudi tour guide Nada Alfuraih ushers guests through an 18th-century palace built from mud and straw, the very site where the kingdom's royal family is said to have first plotted its conquest of the Arabian Peninsula.


© Fayez Nureldine Alfuraih displays a model of the site, the birthplace of the Saudi Arabian state

Pausing in an airy assembly hall, she raves about this aspect of her country's origin story. Her only regret is that today, nearly 300 years later, some young Saudis seem unaware of it.

"I meet visitors who have no clue. They must have skipped this part of their education or something," she told AFP.

Later this year, the restored palace, in the historic district of Diriyah on the outskirts of the Saudi capital Riyadh, will open to the public for the first time.

Analysts say it is part of a larger effort by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- who was made first in line to the throne five years ago next week -- to both stoke Saudi nationalism and reframe Saudi history.

Exhibits dotted throughout the palace spotlight the Al-Saud family's achievements going back well before the kingdom's official founding in the 1930s.

At the same time, they make no mention of its partnership with Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab, the fiery cleric who lived nearby and championed a purist form of Islam known as Wahhabism. That storied alliance has long fuelled the kingdom's hard-line image.


© Fayez NureldineVenues in Diriyah have already hosted concerts and the 2019 "Clash on the Dunes" heavyweight boxing match between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz

Instead, the new Diriyah features attractions more in line with Prince Mohammed's vision of a modern Saudi Arabia opening up to the world: fine dining, art galleries –- even a Formula-E race track.

"Diriyah perfectly encapsulates the new Saudi nationalism," said Kristin Diwan of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, who has studied its development.

"It puts the Al-Saud front and centre as the primary authors of Saudi history and architects of Saudi unity, while erasing Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab from the national narrative."

She added: "The change isn't subtle, it's really in your face."

- Defining a dynasty -

While the country that bears the Al-Saud name is just 90 years old, the family dynasty traces its origins to the 1700s.


© Fayez NureldineI nzerillo, hired to bring the new Diriyah to life, dismissed the idea that fundamentalist preacher Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab, co-founder of the Saudi state, is being written out of history

Diriyah was the family's original power base and the place where, in 1744, it sealed its pact with Abdul Wahhab, whose doctrine spread through the power of the sword.

Rapid expansion followed, but the family would be toppled twice before Abdul Aziz bin al-Saud established the current Saudi state, declaring himself king in 1932.

Oil was struck six years later, eventually transforming the kingdom into one of the world's richest nations.

Through it all, historical ties with Abdul Wahhab conferred legitimacy on the rulers of a country that boasts Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina.

When Prince Mohammed's father, King Salman, first showed interest in redeveloping Diriyah in the 1970s, he "preserved a place, albeit reduced, to commemorate" the cleric, Diwan said.

But Prince Mohammed, now Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, has overseen a sidelining of religious authorities, most prominently the stick-wielding religious police who used to chase men out of malls to pray.


© FAYEZ NURELDINE The Bujairi area where Abdul Wahhab once lived, pictured here in 2015, has been transformed into an upscale dining district

As for Diriyah, he "sees it as a global attraction", Diwan said. "And in his programme of arts biennales, world wrestling and raves, Wahhabism doesn't easily co-exist."

- A Saudi 'Acropolis'? -

The man hired to bring this new Diriyah to life is Jerry Inzerillo, an entertainment executive from Brooklyn who had a cameo in the 2006 James Bond film "Casino Royale".


© Fayez Nureldine

Exhibits spotlight the Al-Saud family's achievements

In an interview with AFP, Inzerillo talked up Diriyah's potential, saying it could be for Saudis what the Acropolis is for Greeks and the Colosseum is for Italians.

"There was a generation that said, 'Oh, it's just a bunch of mud houses and that's not our future,'" he said.

"But this king believes that the national identity and the ongoing source of pride has got to be in a rich Saudi past."

The same thinking, he said, was behind a new Founding Day holiday inaugurated in February that honours the Al-Saud family's Diriyah-era leaders.

Asked about Prince Mohammed's role, Inzerillo said he "approves every rendering" of Diriyah and had personally spent up to 30 hours painstakingly reviewing its street layout.

Inzerillo dismissed the idea that Abdul Wahhab was being written out of history, saying "there will be a celebration of him" along with other imams.

Yet opposite the old palace, the Bujairi area where Abdul Wahhab once lived has been transformed into an upscale dining district -- just one of many entertainment highlights.

A restored version of Abdul Wahhab's original mosque is still open on the site but a research centre, built about seven years ago and devoted to his branch of Islam, is not.

The palace itself features zones for historical re-enactment, sword-dancing, falconry and horse shows.

Elsewhere in Diriyah, venues have already hosted concerts by Pitbull and the Swedish House Mafia and the 2019 "Clash on the Dunes" heavyweight boxing match between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz.

Developers have been mindful not to turn Diriyah into "a theme park", Inzerillo said, though he added that, in his view, heritage and entertainment are "highly compatible".

"Diriyah 300 years ago had music. It had the best musicians in the area. It had art, it had painters... What happens is that if a society is going to be fulfilled and happy, it has to be entertained," he said.

"There's not a vulgarity to entertaining."

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The landmines sowing tragedy, chaos in war-torn Yemen

AFP - 

Mourad al-Marouai was just nine when a landmine killed him on a beach in war-torn Yemen, a tragedy that will haunt his family forever.

After a swim, the little boy "suddenly disappeared" when he and his two brothers were beach-combing for garbage to sell.

"All I saw were hands and legs," elder brother Yahya, 15, told AFP, clasping the rosary that Mourad had found in the sand and given to him.

The chilling incident in January, in the western province of Hodeida, is all too common in Yemen, where mines are a constant threat and hobble economic activity and aid.

Mourad's father, Ahmed, is left grappling with the wrenching memory of his son's remains scattered across the ground.

"I will never forget the sight of birds pecking at my son's flesh as we waited for help to arrive," the 50-year-old told AFP.

"I could not wash him or wrap him in a shroud (according to Muslim tradition). I just buried pieces of him in a plastic bag."

Landmines are part of the legacy of the war in Yemen, long the Arab world's poorest country, where Iran-backed Huthi rebels have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since 2015.

Hundreds of thousands have died, directly from fighting as well as indirectly, and millions have been displaced in what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

And despite a truce since April that has drastically reduced clashes, stark dangers remain.

This month, the UN said 19 civilians had been killed and 32 injured during the truce, mostly by landmines, home-made bombs and other ordnance.

According to the UN-linked Civilian Impact Monitoring Project, landmines, unexploded shells and other explosive detritus were responsible for 338 civilian casualties in 2021, including 129 fatalities.


© AHMAD AL-BASHA

Jamila Qassem Mahyoub, a Yemeni woman whose legs were amputated after stepping on a landmine while herding her sheep in 2017, leaves her house to go to her shop in the city of Taez on March 20, 2019

They are among victims caused every day around the world by landmines, the United Nations says.

- 'They were all dead' -

Almost a third of Yemen's landmine casualties were reported in Hodeida province, even though it has been spared much of the fighting after a 2018 ceasefire agreement aimed at protecting its Red Sea port, a lifeline for the country.


© KARIM SAHIBA 

Yemeni child whose legs were amputated after a landmine injury plays in the city of Aden on August 9, 2018 during a trip in Yemen organised by the UAE's National Media Council

Hodeida province is "a strategic centre" for the north, which is largely controlled by the Huthi rebels, said Ibrahim Jalal, a researcher at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

"The indiscriminate spread of landmines across multiple Yemeni governorates creates dozens of victims every day, including farmers, travellers and other civilians," he told AFP.

"People are living under numerous uncertainties," he said, explaining that mines complicate the transport of aid and take a heavy toll on the agriculture-dependent economy.

Experts estimate that at least one million mines have been planted during Yemen's years of turmoil, often with tragic results.

In March, Abdou Ali, 23, was in the car with his brother, son and nephews, heading to Hodeida city.

On their way, they passed by their hometown, which they had fled because of fighting, and decided to check to see if it was safe for them to move back.

Abdou refused. He got out of the car and left them to go without him.

"It hadn't been five minutes before I heard a loud explosion. I ran towards the sound, and I heard people talking about a car going over a landmine. I was terrified and prayed it wasn't them.

"But very soon, I discovered it was them and that they were all dead."


© SALEH AL-OBEIDI

A landmine explodes as Yemeni loyalist forces patrol an area near the Red Sea port town of Mocha on January 20, 2017

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