Study finds THC in 60% of CBD products tested

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News

Most products contained just trace amounts of THC, but those are enough to accumulate in your body and cause you to fail a drug test. Photo by Julia Teichmann/Pixabay

You might be getting a little unwanted something extra when you buy a CBD product at your local grocers or supplements store, a new study warns.

About 60% of CBD products tested in the lab also contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the chemical in pot that causes intoxication, researchers report in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Most products contained just trace amounts of THC, but those are enough to accumulate in your body and cause you to fail a drug test, said senior researcher Shanna Babalonis, an assistant professor of behavioral science at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.

Military personnel, professional and amateur athletes, and people in legal disputes like child custody cases could wind up in trouble through no fault of their own, just by using an over-the-counter CBD product, she said.

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"THC is not allowed at the Olympics. It's not allowed in many sports organizations. But athletes use CBD because it helps them recover, and it helps them with different facets of their training," Babalonis said. "So I think that one of the key takeaways from this work is to say that the public needs to question whether there's THC in their CBD products."

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a chemical compound in marijuana that does not get you high, but has been touted as having a number of potential health benefits.

For this study, Babalonis and her colleagues bought 80 different CBD products from online shops or stores in Kentucky. They subjected each product to nine analyses to determine accurately whether they contained any THC.

RELATED Nearly two-thirds of Americans use sleep aids, survey finds

They also tested Epidiolex, the only CBD product on the market that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Epidiolex is prescribed to help control epileptic seizures, and its manufacture is rigorously regulated.

The researchers found that Epidiolex contained a barely detectible amount of THC, just 0.022 milligrams per milliliter.

"So we compared all the other CBD products in that context," Babalonis said. "This is what we found in the FDA-approved product that went through really stringent controls."

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They found that 52 of the 80 CBD products contained some amount of THC, and that all of those but five contained THC levels higher than that in Epidiolex.

"If a person does not have a tolerance for THC, these trace amounts -- which can accumulate in one's fat cells as the product is used over time -- can have an effect on a person," said Pat Aussem, associate vice president of consumer clinical content development at the Partnership to End Addiction in New York City. She was not part of the study.

Some of the CBD products contained enough THC to potentially cause intoxication in some people, particularly if they had no prior experience with pot, Babalonis said.

Eleven products had THC concentrations of greater than 1 milligram per milliliter, and one contained more than 2 milligrams per milliliter.

"That's worrisome because a lot of elderly people do take CBD and are taking a lot of other medications, and they could have high levels of THC in their product," Babalonis said.

She couldn't say why so many CBD products contain THC.

"It's definitely possible to remove all the THC," Babalonis said. "About 30% of the products we tested didn't have any THC in them."

Sloppy manufacturing and poor quality testing could be at fault, she said, but Babalonis suspects some cases might involve consumer manipulation.

"If we're being a little bit cynical, we could think that if people feel an effect from something -- if they feel a subjective effect -- they might think that the product is working," Babalonis said. "Whereas if you don't necessarily feel any effects from something, you may tend to think it doesn't work."

These results show that stiffer regulation is needed for CBD products, Babalonis and Aussem said

"Consumers deserve accurate marketing claims and if they choose to buy CBD, to know exactly what's in the product," Aussem said. "It's been like the Wild West for quite some time as CBD products proliferate, advertised for numerous maladies without research to substantiate it and without oversight on quality control."

Of the products tested, 21 were labeled "THC Free." Five of these contained detectable levels of THC, according to the study.

"If you're buying a drink at the grocery store, you would expect when it says there's no alcohol in it, that there's no alcohol in it," Babalonis said. "You wouldn't drink it expecting to feel some alcohol effects or maybe blow positive on a Breathalyzer. This is the same thing."

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more about cannabidiol.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

AMERIKAN THEOKRACY
Abortion Pills To Become Next Battleground In US Reproductive Fight

By Maria DANILOVA
06/26/22 

As conservative US states rush to enact abortion bans following the Supreme Court's bombshell decision, the fight over reproductive rights in America is poised to shift to a new battleground: abortion-inducing pills.

With little other means at its disposal, the Biden administration will focus on expanding access to abortion pills for women living in states where the procedure is banned or restricted -- while those states and powerful conservative groups are sure to mount legal challenges to prohibit their use.

Hours after the high court shredded 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion rights on Friday, President Joe Biden ordered health officials to make sure abortion pills were available to American women.

"I will do all in my power to protect a woman's right in states where they will face the consequences of today's decision," he said in televised address to the nation.

An abortion rights demonstrator holds a sign during a rally in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 25, 2022 Photo: AFP / ROBERTO SCHMIDT


The pills, which can be used without significant risk to terminate a pregnancy up to 10 weeks' gestation, already account for half of all abortions carried out in the United States.

Demand is set to soar further after 11 states mostly in the Republican-led conservative South moved to severely restrict or fully ban abortion, with others set to follow suit.

Already Saturday, some activists rallying outside the Supreme Court in the US capital Washington held up posters with instructions on where women can get abortion pills, while others chanted "My body, my choice."

Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician who runs Aid Access, an Austria-based organization that provides abortion pills over the internet, is confident that the situation now faced by American women is not as tragic as it was 50 years ago, before the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling of 1973 that enshrined abortion rights in America.

Mifepristone (Mifeprex), one of the two drugs used in a medication abortion, is displayed at a clinic in New Mexico 

Photo: AFP / Robyn Beck

"The abortion pills cannot be stopped," Gomperts told AFP in a phone interview. "So there is always access to a safe abortion if a woman has an unwanted pregnancy."

But after Friday's ruling, that may be easier said than done.

The Food and Drug Administration, America's health regulator, approved the use of abortion pills two decades ago and last year allowed for them to be prescribed via telemedicine and delivered by mail.

But their use in anti-abortion states remains a legal grey area and will likely become a front line in future court battles over reproductive rights.

The use of abortion pills to terminate a pregnancy is set to become the next battleground in America's firght over reproductive rights 

Photo: AFP / ROBERTO SCHMIDT

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion, 19 US states require that abortion pills be physically administered by a clinician, thus prohibiting their delivery by mail.

And in states that ban all methods of abortion, women may be prohibited from seeking tele-health appointments with out-of-state doctors or foreign clinicians, like Gomperts' group.

In this case, they may have to travel to a state where reproductive tele-health appointments are allowed and get the medication delivered to an out-of-state address.

But there is another complication.

A medication abortion requires two drugs: first, a dose of mifepristone is taken to block the hormones that support a pregnancy; then, 24 to 48 hours later, misoprostol is taken to induce contractions.

That raises a question: can a woman from an anti-abortion state be prosecuted if she receives the first dose elsewhere, but takes the second dose after returning home?

As liberal states take action to facilitate abortions for women from other parts of the country, there are fears that conservative states may seek to prosecute health workers and advocacy groups involved in those efforts -- and even the patients themselves.

Anticipating such plans, Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday warned that states cannot ban abortion pills, authorized by the federal regulator, "based on disagreement with the FDA's expert judgment about its safety and efficacy" since federal law preempts state law.

As these legal battles prepare to play out, anti-abortion advocate Savannah Craven said she and her colleagues will work on getting all methods of abortion, including with pills, banned across the United States.

"I believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life. Life begins in the womb, life begins at conception," she said.

But the argument fell flat with Elizabeth Kellogg and her husband Dan Reitz, who showed up to protest outside the Supreme Court with their eight-month-old daughter Lorelei.

"If it were about life, they'd be worried about the life of the birther, they'd be worried about life after birth," Kellogg told AFP.

"Very little is being done to actually hold up the sanctity of life in the way that it is proclaimed."

Ecuadorian government lifts state of emergency after talks with indigenous leaders

NEWS WIRES

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso on Saturday lifted a state of emergency he'd imposed in six provinces amid an Indigenous-led strike, a surprise move that came as lawmakers in the National Assembly heard an opposition petition to remove him from office.

© REUTERS - KAREN TORO

The decision to end the state of emergency followed an initial meeting between government officials and Ecuador's largest Indigenous organization, which began the strike two weeks ago to demand gasoline prices be cut, price controls be imposed on agricultural products and a larger budget be set for education. Lasso had accused the Indigenous leader heading the at-times violent strike of seeking to stage a coup.

After Saturday's meeting, National Assembly President Virgilio Saquicela said a commission would be formed to facilitate dialogue to end the strike. "The national government ratifies the willingness to guarantee the creation of spaces for peace, in which Ecuadorians can gradually resume their activities,” said a statement announcing the decree to end the state of emergency.

The meeting was held in the Basilica church in the colonial center of Quito and was attended by the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, Leonidas Iza, other social leaders, Government Minister Francisco Jiménez and Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín, among others. “There has been no commitment, but simply a decision by the (Indigenous confederation) ... to consult its bases on the designation of a commission to start this dialogue,” Saquicela said, adding that “the government has made the corresponding opening.”

Video: Ecuador indigenous protests carry on despite small concession (France 24)

Iza said the strike would not be ended until their demands had been met. "Instead of making us more afraid, they have raised our rebellion, dignity,” he said. Iza said strikers will rest for the weekend and asked that corridors be opened in the interprovincial border areas to allow food to pass through and supply Quito, which faces the shortage of farm products.

Meanwhile, in a virtual legislative session the opposition Union for Hope party, which is linked to former President Rafael Correa, requested the removal of Lasso. The request was based on the state of emergency declared over “grave internal commotions,” which now has been lifted. It would take the votes of at least 92 lawmakers to remove Lasso, while the Union for Hope has only 47 seats.

On Thursday, the Indigenous confederation said a demonstrator died of pellet wounds in the chest and abdomen while protesting near the National Assembly in Quito, where about 100 other people suffered a variety of injuries. Police tweeted that officers were also injured by pellets.

In Quito, protesters blocking roads have brought the city to a near halt and people are experiencing food and fuel shortages. Groups of protesters have roamed the city attacking vehicles and civilians and forcing the closure of businesses, some of which were looted.

(AP)

Ecuador president faces ouster vote as fuel price protests enter 13th day

Lina VANEGAS
Sat, June 25, 2022,


Ecuador's president faced a no-confidence hearing Saturday, nearly two weeks into sometimes violent countrywide protests led by Indigenous groups against rising fuel prices and living costs.

Opposition lawmakers called the parliamentary session over what they say is President Guillermo Lasso's role in "the serious political crisis and internal commotion" that has left six civilians dead and dozens injured on both sides in 13 days of revolt.

An estimated 14,000 protesters are taking part in a nationwide show of discontent against rising hardship in an economy dealt a serious blow by the coronavirus pandemic.

Most of the ire is concentrated in the capital Quito, where some 10,000 people, most from other parts of the country, have gathered for daily protests, marching with sticks and makeshift shields, and chanting "Out Lasso, out!"

On Friday, Lasso accused demonstrators of attempting "a coup" after two straight days of violent clashes with police and soldiers.

Protesters in Quito threw rocks and Molotov cocktails and shot off fireworks near the congress building. The security forces repelled them with tear gas.

- 'Until we have results' -

The protests were called by the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), credited with bringing down three presidents between 1997 and 2005.

Conaie leader Leonidas Iza told AFP this week demonstrations would continue "until we have results. We can no longer hold back the anger of the people."

The action has been costly, with losses of some $50 million per day to the economy as protesters have blocked key roads with burning tires and tree branches.

Production of fuel -- Ecuador's biggest export -- has been halved, according to the energy ministry.

"Basic necessities are very expensive and our products from the field... are worth nothing," potato farmer Miguel Taday, 39, told AFP of his reason for joining the demonstrations.

Six of the country's 24 provinces are under a state of emergency and a night-time curfew is in place in Quito, where many business owners and workers in the capital are fed up with the disruption to their lives and livelihoods.

Protesters are demanding a cut in already subsidized fuel prices, which have risen sharply in recent months, as well as jobs, food price controls, and more public spending on healthcare and education.

Ecuador's National Assembly will meet from 6:00 pm (2300 GMT) on Saturday to vote on whether or not to oust Lasso, a conservative ex-banker who took power a year ago and who is self-isolating after a Covid-19 diagnosis.

The debate, during which Lasso will be given a chance to state his case, takes place at the request of the 47 lawmakers of the leftist opposition Union for Hope coalition.

Lasso's dismissal would require 92 votes out of 137 in the assembly, in which opposition parties are in the majority.

Once the debate is concluded, lawmakers will have 72 hours to decide on a course of action.

If they vote to unseat Lasso, Vice President Alfredo Borrero will assume interim power and call new presidential and legislative elections.

The government has rejected the protesters' demand for a fuel price cut, saying it would cost an unaffordable $1 billion per year.

The International Monetary Fund on Friday approved the release of $1 billion in funding for Ecuador following two reviews of a $6.5 billion loan deal, of which $4.8 has been disbursed so far.

The payment is meant to bolster Ecuador's economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, restore fiscal sustainability and reduce public debt.

Austerity measures adopted by then-president Lenin Moreno led to a wave of demonstrations in 2019 that left 11 dead and thousands injured, but compelled the government to cancel plans to cut fuel price subsidies.

No negotiations have been programmed to try and bring an end to the latest standoff, in which both sides accuse each other of intransigence.

"We will continue to fight... The rank and file have said that we will not return without results," said Wilmer Umajinga, 35, protesting in Quito since Monday.

lv/vd/dga/mlr/st

Polish, Ukrainian activists march for LGBTQ rights

Sat, June 25, 2022,


Ukrainians were among tens of thousands of LGBTQ activits who took part in the Polish capital's Pride parade Saturday, in a country hosting tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have fled the Russian invasion.

The march however started with a minute of silence for two people killed in a shooting near a gay bar in Norway's capital Oslo in the early hours of Saturday.

Norwegian police have arrested a man suspected of "Islamist terrorism" over the shooting, which also wounded 21 and caused Oslo's Pride to be called off.

But Norway's ambassador to Poland Anders Eide said love and justice would "prevail".

"Our fight for equal rights for all and our support for the LGBTQ+ community is unequivocal and it will remain so," he told AFP at the start of the procession.

Lenny Emson, director of the Kyiv Pride, thanked the Warsaw Pride and Polish community for including Ukraine's LGBTQ activists in their parade.

Emson said the Ukrainian LGBTQ community wanted its rights to survive but that, for that to happen, war in Ukraine needed to stop.

Poland has hosted by far the largest number of Ukrainian refugees within the European Union -- more than 1.1 million according to the latest UN figures.

The Warsaw Pride is being held with full backing from the city's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

But other parts of the country, which is ruled by a right-wing government, are less welcoming of gender or sexual minorities.

In 2020, international non-governmental organisation ILGA-Europe ranked Poland 44th out of 49 European countries in upholding LGBTQ rights.

Ukraine came 39th.

- Small Kyiv gathering -

In the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, dozens of remaining members of the LGBTQ community held a small gathering at a night club in the centre of town.

Inside, a couple embraced wrapped in a yellow and blue Ukrainian flag as dancers on stage performed to the sound of the Village People's "YMCA".

"What is most important is to accept people as they are," said 28-year-old Victoria Myhoula. People should first and foremost focus on "what we can do today to help our country".

Almost four months after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the European Union on Thursday granted the war-torn country candidate status.

"If we are inching towards the European Union, we need to show that society is open" in Ukraine, Myhoula added.

Nightclub sponsor Oleksiy Krasnenko, 26, said he was proud to be contributing some of its earnings to the Ukrainian army to help repel the Russian invasion.

"Ukraine is a free, open country," he said, though admitting there was some discrimination.

During the last Kyiv Pride before the coronavirus pandemic in 2019, police deployed en masse because far-right and Orthodox Cristian activists staged counter-protests.

While low-key, Saturday's event did however attract a small group of young men in military-type clothing, who sparked a brief fight outside the venue. Police swiftly broke it up.

With war, Kyiv pride parade becomes a peace march in Warsaw

By VANESSA GERA

1 of 17

Warsaw's mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, second right, and European Commissioner for Equality, Hanna Dalli, right, take part in the 'Warsaw and Kyiv Pride' marching for freedom in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, June 25, 2022. Due to Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine the 10th anniversary of the equality march in Kyiv can't take place in the usual format in the Ukrainian capital. The event joined Warsaw's yearly equality parade, the largest gay pride event in central Europe, using it as a platform to keep international attention focused on the Ukrainian struggle for freedom. 

(AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk)


WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukraine’s largest LGBTQ rights event, KyivPride, went ahead Saturday, although not on its native streets or as a celebration.

Due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the event normally held in Kyiv took place in conjunction with Warsaw’s yearly Equality Parade, the largest gay pride event in Central Europe, with Ukrainian organizers using it as a platform to keep international attention focused on their country’s struggle.

About 300 people traveled from Ukraine to the Polish capital, now home to a quarter million Ukrainians who fled the war. Blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags fluttered among a sea of rainbow flags, and some participants chanted “Slava Ukraini” — glory to Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, we cannot march in Kyiv,” Maksym Eristavi, a Ukrainian journalist and a KyivPride board member, said, citing the dangers of bombings in Ukraine.

“However, it’s important for us to still march,” said Eristavi, who was draped in both the Ukrainian and European Union flags. “It’s still about pride, but pride in being Ukrainian and surviving through genocide.”

KyivPride’s trucks were given the honor of leading Saturday’s parade, one of many ways that Poland’s people have stepped up to help their embattled Ukrainian neighbors.

“We want to stand together against war, to walk for Ukraine’s freedom, for liberation, for equality, tolerance and acceptance,” Julia Maciocha, chairperson of Warsaw’s Equality Parade, said.

KyivPride director Lenny Emson said this year’s event was aimed at calling for political support for Ukraine and basic human rights.

“It is not a celebration,” Emson said. “We will wait for victory to celebrate.”

The Ukrainian civilians and soldiers killed by Russian forces during the four-month-old war include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Ukraine has seen a push for the country to recognize same-sex partnerships, not least because couples want to know they would have the right to bury each other, if one of them is killed.

Emson said it would be a tragedy for Ukraine as a whole if the country is defeated by Russia, but LGBTQ people would be at risk of getting “erased completely” - meaning killed, forced to flee or to hide their identities.

His organization runs a shelter for LGBTQ people who have fled Ukrainian territory occupied by the Russian forces. One LGBTQ rights activist in occupied Kherson has disappeared.

In a manifesto, KyivPride calls on people to realize that the geographical border between democratic Ukraine on one side and autocratic Russia and Belarus on the other “is not just a separation line between the states, but also a boundary between the territory of freedom and a zone of oppression.”

Russia passed a law in 2013 that bans the depiction of homosexuality to minors, something human rights groups view as a way to demonize LGBTQ people and discriminate against them. Dubbed the “Gay Propaganda” law, it came amid a larger crackdown on civil liberties in Russia and inspired the passage of a similar law in Hungary last year.

Klementyna Suchanow, the author of a book about global efforts to roll back the rights of women and LGBTQ people, argues that if Ukrainians lose the war, it would mark a defeat for a range of progressive causes, including feminism, LGBTQ rights and the efforts to fight climate change.

“This is why the war in Ukraine is about everything,” said Suchanow, a prominent Polish feminist activist and the author of “This is War: Women, Fundamentalists and the new Middle Ages.”

Poland’s conservative government has been a strong ally of Ukraine, sending humanitarian aid and weapons and allowing its territory to be used to for other countries to transfer aid of their own.

But its stance on LGBTQ rights has also made Poland an unlikely host for a gay rights event.

In recent years the government has depicted the LGBTQ rights movement as an attack on the nation’s Catholic traditions and as a force that threatens to corrupt the youth, echoing the rhetoric behind the Russian and Hungarian laws.

But Polish society as a whole has grown more accepting of LGBTQ people.

Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from a liberal opposition party, joined Saturday’s parade march as he does each year, joined by the European Union’s commissioner for equality, Hanna Dalli.




Emson said the KyivPride organizers had considered holding their event in other European capitals but decided that Warsaw’s young and energetic rights movement was a better fit.

LGBTQ people in Ukraine still face considerable discrimination, but they have made strides in recent years as the country has sought to tie its fate to the West. The evolution of LGBT rights is underlined by KyivPride’s own evolution since it was founded 10 years ago.

In 2012, participants were so heavily outnumbered by angry counter-protesters that they didn’t dare march. Parade-goers have been beaten, and a large police presence is needed to protect them. Yet the event has continued to grow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose courageous wartime leadership has gained worldwide attention, won the respect of LGBTQ people in Ukraine when a man wearing a cross and spouting homophobic rhetoric heckled him at a news conference in 2019.

Zelenskyy shot back with anger: “Leave those people alone, for God’s sake.”

Since then, however, his party has also taken steps that LGBTQ rights activists view as a threat to their struggle.

—-

Follow AP’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Fresh transport strikes hit UK, mainland Europe

Sat, June 25, 2022


Britain's railway system once again came to a virtual standstill on Saturday and flights in Europe were disrupted as strikes in the travel sector hit the continent.

Tens of thousands of rail workers in the UK staged the latest day-long walkout over pay and job security, hampering weekend plans for those already hit by similar strikes on Tuesday and Thursday.

Only around a fifth of services are set to operate on heavily reduced hours, with those still running starting much later in the morning than usual and set to end as early as 6:30 pm (1730 GMT).

The RMT rail union insists this week's actions are necessary as wages have failed to keep pace with UK inflation, which has hit a 40-year high and is on course to keep rising.

It also wants a threat of compulsory redundancies withdrawn.

RMT secretary general Mick Lynch said its members were "standing up for all working people trying to get a pay rise and some job security".

"In a modern economy, workers need to be properly rewarded for their work, enjoy good conditions and have the peace of mind that their job will not be taken away from them," he added.

Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said: "Unfortunately, the RMT's decision to carry out another day of needless and premature strike action means our passengers will suffer again on Saturday.

"A fraction of trains will run compared to a usual Saturday service, with trains starting later in the morning and finishing much earlier in the evening."

- Airline strikes -

Britain, like much of Europe, is suffering from rocketing inflation and stagnant economic growth, raising the prospect of a summer of strikes across the continent.

Staff from budget Irish airline Ryanair staged strikes in Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Belgium on Saturday.

That forced the cancellation of two flights between Lisbon and Brussels, while in Spain, the USO transport union said 75 flights had been cancelled from six different locations.

The union also denounced the fact that striking staff had been replaced by workers brought in from Morocco, a tactic which it described as illegal because it violated the right to strike.

In Belgium, the walkout meant that only 41 percent of Ryanair flights left Charleroi airport near Brussels on Saturday. Since Friday, the budget carrier has been forced to cancel 127 flights, an airport spokeswoman told AFP.

The situation in Belgium was further complicated by a three-day strike by Brussels Airlines staff ending Saturday. That has forced the carrier, which is owned by German giant Lufthansa, to cancel 60 percent -- or some 300 -- of its flights since Thursday.

- More cancellations Sunday -

Ryanair flights were also cancelled in France, Saturday. Damien Mourgues of the SNPNC union, said 36 out of 80 flights had been cancelled because of a walk-out by air stewards.

The airports at Bordeaux and Marseille said nine and 12 flights respectively would be cancelled on Sunday.

Adding to Europe's travel problems, Austria Airlines said Saturday it had had to cancel 52 out of 360 scheduled flights because or a rise in the number of Covid infections among its staff.

"Our crew members are sick, cases of infection are rising," a spokeswoman for the airline told AFP.

The aviation sector is struggling to recover from the pandemic, which led to mass layoffs as international travel was put on hold.

Faced with staff shortages, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport was forced to announce earlier this month that it would be limiting traveller numbers this summer and cancelling flights.

The shortages have already caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled, while huge queues have angered travellers.

jwp-bur/jj/har

Ryanair cabin staff strike as labour unrest spreads across Europe

Catarina Demony and Miguel Pereira
Fri, June 24, 2022

LISBON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Some cabin crew at Ryanair went on strike in Belgium, Spain and Portugal on Friday in a dispute over pay and working conditions, the latest in a wave of walkouts staged by workers across different sectors in Europe.

Surging inflation across the continent has led to millions of workers struggling with rising costs of living, prompting trade unions to demand higher wage increases, often backed by strike calls.

Airlines and airport operators have also struggled with staff shortages to handle the flow of passengers as demand for travel bounces back with the end of most COVID-19 restrictions. Workers at several other airlines, including British Airways, are also planning strikes this summer.

Ryanair cabin crew unions in Belgium, Spain and Portugal called a three-day strike starting on Friday. Staff in France and Italy were expected to walk out over the weekend. Crews in Spain are set to strike again on June 30 and July 1-2.

Workers say the Irish airline does not respect local labour laws covering issues such as the minimum wage and urge Ryanair's bosses to improve working conditions.

"Conditions are terrible," said Ricardo Penarroias, president of SNPVAC, the union behind Portugal's walkout. "A crew member is not even allowed to take a bottle of water on a flight."

Ryanair told Reuters last week it had negotiated labour agreements covering 90% of its staff across Europe and that it did not expect widespread disruption this summer.

WAGE-PRICE SPIRAL

Much of the labour unrest has focused on the transport sector as it deals with a return to travel after pandemic lockdowns.

French unions issued a joint call on Friday for a national railway worker strike on July 6 and a walkout has also crippled Britain's rail network this week.

There are signs of the unrest spreading to other sectors – French trade union CGT is organising a one-day strike on Friday to seek higher wages for oil refinery workers after talks with operator TotalEnergies broke down.

With inflation running at more than 8% in the euro area, a 40-year-high of 9.1% in Britain, and in double digits across some central and eastern European economies, authorities are worried of a wage-price spiral developing in which higher wage demands add to inflationary pressures.

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde has warned that the longer inflation remains high, the more likely it will influence wage negotiations.

Pilot and cabin crew unions of Brussels Airlines, the Belgian subsidiary of Lufthansa, also started a strike on Thursday. Over the three days, Brussels Airlines expects to cancel about 60% of its 533 flights.

Ryanair said in a statement fewer than 2% of its 3,000 flights on Friday had so far been affected by the strikes, mainly due to what it described as "minor disruptions" in Belgium.

"Ryanair expects over 98% of its 3,000 daily flights will operate normally on Saturday and Sunday," a figure that included disruptions from strikes by cabin crew and French air-traffic control operators, and from airport staff shortages, it said.

Local media in Belgium said 127 flights at Charleroi airport would be cancelled, affecting 21,000 passengers. Ten additional Ryanair flights per day were set to be cancelled at Brussels airport.

WORKERS' RIGHT

In Lisbon, two flights were cancelled on Friday so far, both to Brussels. A total of 18 Ryanair flights between Brussels and Spanish cities were cancelled on Friday and Saturday, Spain's cabin staff union, USO, said.

USO said five flights from the French city of Marseille and one from Bordeaux to tourists destinations in Spain such as Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca were cancelled this weekend.

In Spain, the government forced the company to operate 73%-82% of flights over the strike period to maintain minimum services, obliging most to go to work.

Ernesto Iglesias, from USO, said the government's decision limited workers' right to strike.

A small group of Ryanair workers used their time off to join demonstrations at the airports of Valencia and Barcelona. One protester held a sign saying: "The Spanish government is an accomplice of Ryanair."

Commenting on the situation in Spain, Ryanair's CEO Eddie Wilson said workers there demanded a 165% salary increase.

The SNPVAC union said not many flights would be cancelled from Portuguese airports because the airline placed strikers on stand-by and asked cabin crew in other countries to replace them. Ryanair has said SNPVAC only represented 3% of its staff in Portugal.

Outside Lisbon airport, American Michael Rossides, 59, said he booked an EasyJet flight because he thought Ryanair would cancel but that ended up not happening.

"We have wasted a fair amount of time, an extra couple of hours, and a few hundred dollars," he said.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony, Patricia Rua and Miguel Pereira in Lisbon, Inti Landaro, Corina Rodriguez and Christina Thykjaer in Madrid and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Rich heritage buried under impoverished Gaza Strip


Guillaume Lavallee
Sat, June 25, 2022


While workers laboured on a large construction site in the Gaza Strip, a security guard noticed a strange piece of stone sticking out of the earth.

"I thought it was a tunnel," said Ahmad, the young guard, referring to secret passages dug by the Islamist group Hamas to help it battle Israel.

In the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas and repeatedly ravaged by war, people are more familiar with burying the dead than digging up their heritage.

But what Ahmad found in January was part of a Roman necropolis dating from about 2,000 years ago -- representative of the impoverished Palestinian territory's rich, if under-developed, archaeological treasures.


After the last war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021 left a trail of damage in Gaza, Egypt began a reconstruction initiative worth $500 million.

As part of that project in Jabaliya, in the north of the coastal enclave, bulldozers were digging up the sandy soil in order to build new concrete buildings when Ahmad made his discovery.

"I notified the Egyptian foremen, who immediately contacted local authorities and asked the workers to stop," said Ahmad, a Palestinian who preferred not to give his full name.

With rumours on social media of a big discovery, Gaza's antiquities service called in the French non-governmental group Premiere Urgence Internationale and the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem to evaluate the site's importance and mark off the area.


"The first excavations permitted the identification of about 40 tombs dating from the ancient Roman period between the first and second centuries AD," said French archaeologist Rene Elter, who led the team dispatched to Jabaliya.

"The necropolis is larger than these 40 tombs and should have between 80 and 100," he said.

One of the burial sites found so far is decorated with multi-coloured paintings representing crowns and garlands of bay leaves, as well as jars for funereal drinks, the archaeologist added.
- 'Treasures' of Gaza -

Archaeology is a highly political subject in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and discoveries are used to justify the territorial claims of each people.


While the Jewish state has a number of archaeologists reporting on an impressive number of ancient treasures, the sector is largely neglected in Gaza.

Authorities periodically announce discoveries in the territory, but tourism at archaeological sites is limited.

Israel and Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, tightly restrict the flow of people in and out of the enclave administered by Hamas since 2007.

"However, there is no difference between what you can find in Gaza and on the other side of the barrier" in Israel, Elter said. "It's the same great history."

"In Gaza, a lot of sites have disappeared because of conflict and construction, but the territory is an immense archaeological site which needs many teams of experts," he added.

Stakes and fences have been erected around the Roman necropolis, which is watched over constantly by guards as new buildings go up nearby.

"We are trying to fight antiquities trafficking," said Jamal Abu Rida, director of the local archaeological service tasked with protecting the necropolis and which hopes to find investors for further excavation.

Since Hamas took control 15 years ago, Gaza has endured four wars and numerous escalations of tension.

"The image of Gaza is often associated with violence, but its history is bursting with archaeological treasures that need to be protected for future generations," said Jihad Abu Hassan, director of the local Premiere Urgence mission.

Demographics add to the pressure.

Gaza is a tiny, overcrowded strip of land whose population in 15 years has ballooned from 1.4 million to 2.3 million. As a result, building construction has accelerated.

"Some people avoid telling authorities if there is an archaeological discovery on a construction site out of fear of not being compensated" for the resulting work stoppage, Abu Hassan said.

"We lose archaeological sites every day," which shows the need for a strategy to defend the enclave's heritage, including training local archaeologists, he said.

Over the last few years, his organisation has helped to educate 84 archaeological technicians. Doing so also offers employment prospects, in an impoverished territory where youth joblessness exceeds 60 percent.
- Still hunting stones -

One rare success is the preservation of the Byzantine monastery of Saint Hilarion.


It opened several years ago to the public and includes an atrium, baths and multiple churches, standing as testament to an era when Gaza was a crossroads for Mediterranean pilgrims.

"We receive around 14,000 visitors a year, including school students," said Fadel al-Otol, 41, a Palestinian archaeologist whose early passion for ancient ruins was formalised with training in France.

As a child during the first Palestinian intifida, or uprising, Otol said he hunted stones to hurl at Israeli soldiers.

"Today I look for stones to prove to the military that we have a great history," he said.

Wandering around the Saint Hilarion site, Otol pondered his dream: "That we excavate all the archaeological sites of Gaza and that they be accessible to the public to show our history and culture to the entire world."

If nothing is done, he said, "the sites would disappear forever."

gl/cgo/rm/it/lg

Summer means suffering: how workers survive intense Gulf heat

MANY DON'T

Mohamad Ali Harissi with Gulf correspondents
Sat, June 25, 2022


Like millions of other migrant labourers in the Gulf, one of the world's hottest and driest regions, construction worker B. Sajay does not welcome summer.

"We work in very high temperatures, this is the nature of our work. And yes, we suffer from severe heat," the Indian national told AFP in Muscat, the capital of Oman.

Although summer has only just begun, temperatures have already topped 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in parts of the desert region, which is bearing the brunt of climate change.

Summer means suffering for anyone working outside, along with risks of dehydration, heat stroke and heart failure, and Gulf countries have banned working outside in the hottest hours of the day.

"The only thing that relieves us is the period of rest... in the middle of the day," said Sajay, who has been working on building sites for six years.

Last year, a World Health Organization report found the risk of death doubling or tripling on extremely hot days in Kuwait, with a disproportionate effect on non-Kuwaiti men, who make up the bulk of outdoor workers.

Workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are ubiquitous in the oil-rich Gulf countries, providing cheap labour and filling the jobs shunned by citizens in favour of high-paying government positions.

The imported labourers typically work on construction sites or collect rubbish, sweep the roads or deliver food.

- Unbearable even in the shade -

Between June and August, the oil-producing Gulf countries -- Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman -- ban working outside for about four hours starting from noon.

Workers return to their dormitories or nestle in any shade they can find. But increasingly, it's unbearable even in the shade.

On the first day of summer on Tuesday, temperatures reached 50 degrees Celsius in many places, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait which recorded in May the hottest temperature of the month worldwide, 53.2 degrees Celsius (128.8 Fahrenheit).

"The last 10 years have been the hottest seen in Kuwait," said Kuwaiti meteorologist Issa Ramadan, adding: "Summer in Kuwait now extends to September, and sometimes to parts of October."

In Muscat, workers paving a road with asphalt covered their heads with colourful scarves and hats, while others found shade under date palms in the middle of a two-way street. Passersby held umbrellas to protect themselves from the scorching sun.

"In order to complete the eight-hour shift as early as possible, sometimes I start working from six in the morning, stop during the rest period, and then do two more hours," said Muhammad Mukarram, a Bangladeshi construction worker.

The region-wide problem has long drawn concern. Human rights groups have urged Qatar, host of this year's World Cup, to investigate workers' deaths connected to "heat distress".

There are no reliable figures on the deaths of migrant workers in Gulf countries, which do not release statistics and have regularly contested estimates released by NGOs and the media.

A recent study by the Vital Signs Partnership, a group of human rights organisations mainly from Asian countries, said that "as many as 10,000 migrant workers from south and southeast Asia die in the Gulf every year".

The March 2022 report said that more than half of the cases were recorded as "natural causes" or "cardiac arrest".

- Deadly heat -

In 2020, a study published in the journal Science Advances found that the Gulf has the hottest and most humid weather anywhere on Earth.

Scientists have calculated that even with shade and unlimited drinking water, a healthy adult will die if "wet-bulb" temperatures -- which take into account factors such as humidity, wind speed and cloud cover -- exceed 35 Celsius for six hours.

The study showed that there have only ever been 14 occasions on land when the measure exceeded 35C, all in the past two decades and eight of them in the Gulf.

Another study in the journal Nature Climate Change found that "within this century, parts of the... Gulf region could be hit with unprecedented events of deadly heat as a result of climate change".

"If we do not change course, these temperatures will keep rising over the years, reaching a level where outdoor human activities in the Gulf, such as the hajj pilgrimage, would be nearly impossible in summer," Julien Jreissati, programme director at Greenpeace MENA, told AFP.

Saudi Arabia is preparing to welcome one million pilgrims next month to perform the annual Muslim rituals.

"The only solution is to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels which are the main driver of climate change and transition gradually but quickly towards renewable energy," said Jreissati.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have pledged to reach net zero domestic carbon emissions in the coming decades, while expanding oil production.

bur/th-dm/kir

Inflation a thorn in the side of Bulgaria rose oil makers

Diana SIMEONOVA
Sat, June 25, 2022,


Business is not a bed of roses for Bulgaria's rose oil makers these days.

Made from Damask roses grown in the aptly named Rose Valley, the oil is a vital ingredient in the perfumes made by the world's top luxury brands such as Christian Dior, Estee Lauder and Chanel.

But a heatwave has slashed this year's harvest of rose petals, labour is hard to find and the global surge in energy prices has increased costs for a product so precious that it is dubbed "liquid gold".

This year's oil will be "considerably more expensive," Plamen Stankovski, a partner at rose oil producer and exporter Bulattars, told AFP in his distillery near Pavel Banya, in Bulgaria's famed Rose Valley.

Production costs for one kilogram of rose oil stood at around 6,000 euros ($6,300) in 2021, but they have surged by as much as 40 percent this year.

The price of petals alone doubled since last year, according to producers.

This means that a 4.5-kilo glass jar filled with the thick, golden-yellow oil could sell for more than 45,000 euros this year.

Bulgaria is the world's top rose oil maker along with Turkey and the distilleries to make the precious substance run on natural gas, diesel and fuel oil -- commodities whose prices soared after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

"The price of fuel has gone up two or even three times," Stankovski said.

- 'Not all roses' -

Small amounts of rose oil are used in almost every high-quality perfume -- not for its aroma, but because its fixative qualities help blend other ingredients and prolong the scent on the skin.

ALCHEMY

To produce it, huge amounts of petals are boiled in massive metal vats. The vapours are then distilled to separate the oil in a process nearly unchanged since the days of the Ottoman empire in the 17th century.

On his family's rose fields near Pavel Banya, Dimitar Dimitrov laments that a chronic labour shortage has plagued the sector for years.

"Picking is the most expensive as it is done solely by hand. If you don't pick the open roses today, tomorrow they're gone," said the 40-year-old, who plucked petals with his father and brother-in-law.

Fertiliser, fuel, ploughing and pruning have all become more expensive, he said.

With petal prices almost doubling, he said he hoped "this will cover at least our production costs so we don't end up in the red".

To make things worse, a heatwave scorched rose buds before they could open, slashing yields and reducing the picking season by half.

The flowers that survived excrete less oil. To extract one kilo of rose oil, 4,000 kilograms of petals are now needed, 15 percent more than usual.

"We are worried by the increased cost of our production," said exporter Filip Lissicharov, CEO of the Enio Bonchev Production company in the nearby village of Tarnichane.

"The picture is not all roses," he added.

More fuel is now needed to sustain production, which is interrupted by irregular petal deliveries, but the industry association's calls for fuel subsidies have thus far gone unanswered by the government.

Rose oil production is expected to drop below its usual annual haul of 2.5 tonnes.
- Certified as 'pure' -

Nearly 100 percent of the oil produced in Bulgaria is exported to places such as France, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Lissicharov is anxious about how the market will react to higher prices.

"There's interest (from buyers)," he said. "But whether this interest will turn into deals depends on the price."

To prevent counterfeit products from entering the market, the oil is certified by a few designated labs, such as the state Bulgarska Rosa Laboratory in Sofia.

The product leaves the lab in hermetically-sealed aluminium flasks with a label that guarantees "100-percent pure and natural genuine Bulgarian rose oil".

Cutting corners, Stankovski said, is not an option: "Regardless of our troubles, we will preserve the high quality of the rose oil."

ds/deh/lth

In treat for stargazers, five planets moving into rare alignment

In a year of spectacular astronomical events, five planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — are aligning with a crescent moon. Here's the how and the why.



A rare treat for stargazers in June 2022: Five planets align with a waning crescent moon

Over the past few months, our solar system has offered us a number of visual treats. Earlier in June, we had a strawberry supermoon. And in April, four planets aligned — Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — almost perfectly and were visible to the naked eye.

Now, in this final stretch of June, five of our closest planetary neighbors are aligned in perfect order of the solar system.

And not only that, but it has been possible to see them in the morning sky without a telescope, and for a short while they were accompanied by a waning crescent moon.

You can still see them for a few days.

A rare five-planet alignment

The last time these planets aligned like this was almost 20 years ago, in 2004, and it won't happen again until 2040.

It's rare because the planets all have different orbits of the sun.

Mercury, as the closest planet to the sun, orbits our star in the shortest time at just 88 days. Mercury is followed by Venus, which takes about 225 days. Next in line is Earth, which takes an average of 365 days and Mars takes 687 days. Then there's a big jump: Jupiter takes 12 years and Saturn takes 29 years to orbit the sun.

So, they are all orbiting at different speeds. And they rotate at different speeds and their orbits have slightly different shapes as well. All that makes it hard to get them lined up at the same time.

Even rarer are eight-planet alignments. Some research suggests eight-planet alignments happen roughly every 170 years, but that depends on your definition of a "perfect alignment" and some of it hasn't happened for 1,000 years.
How and when can I see the five planets align?

It's a very early morning call, pre-dawn in fact, but astronomers say you won't regret it.

Stargazers in the northern hemisphere should look to the horizon from east to southeast. You should be able to see the planets without a telescope or binoculars as they will be exceptionally bright to the eye.

If you do have a telescope or binoculars, you may even be able to see Uranus between Venus and our Moon.

In April, a four-planet parade was seen vertically in the southern hemisphere and in more of a diagonal or horizontal alignment in the northern hemisphere

Break up of a planetary constellation

This five-planet alignment is part of the same process we saw in April and is one of the moments when this special constellation starts to break up.

Over the coming months, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter and Venus will start to appear more and more spread out across the morning sky, says NASA on its What's Up blog. Come September, Venus and Saturn "will make their exits as morning objects," it says.
April also saw a planetary 'collision'

Some called it a collision, but what happened in April is known as a "conjunction."

A conjunction is when two planets or a planet and a star appear to be very close to one another when we look at them from the ground up.

And in April, it appeared as though Venus and Jupiter had got so close that they might even collide. But it was just an optical illusion.

In reality, when planets are in conjunction, they remain many millions of kilometers (miles) apart, but their orbits appear to bring them closer together. And, that's a magical thing to observe.

Edited by: Sonia Phalnikar

WHY WE FLY BY PLANETS, MOONS AND ASTEROIDS

Spacefaring double-act

Flybys? Nothing new. But two flybys of the same planet a day apart? That's special. In a first for space, two probes flew by Venus in August — BepiColombo, headed for Mercury, and Solar Orbiter on its way to the sun. They wouldn't make it to their goals without flybys and gravity assists. Sadly, these two didn't snap each other. They were 575,000 kilometers (357,000 miles) apart!

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MONOCULTURALISM (FRENCH OR ENGLISH)
Quebec's premier rejects multiculturalism as province celebrates Fête nationale
CBC/Radio-Canada - Yesterday 

© Rowan Kennedy/CBCMaram Makhlouf, a Grade 6 student in Montreal, disagrees with Premier François Legault’s assertion that multiculturalism is a threat to the French language.

Maram Makhlouf, a Grade 6 student, moved to Quebec from Tunisia about three years ago and on Thursday she was in a Montreal park with her family celebrating the province's national holiday, or Fête nationale.

She said the day is "really important to me even if I am not from here."

But she doesn't agree with Premier François Legault's assertion earlier in the day that multiculturalism is a threat to the French language and that "we need to fight against multiculturalism, but not because we are against others."

Makhlouf attended school in French while in Tunisia and, she explained, she has been mastering the language while here in Quebec. It's a language that is easy enough for new immigrants to learn, she said.

"I think it's really important to live with different languages. I speak English. I speak French, and I think that helps me a lot in my life," said.

Legault said Quebec is a small nation that speaks French and "we should be proud of that."

Rather than multiculturalism, he said he prefers "interculturalism" as new immigrants are expected to integrate and adapt to Quebec culture. He said the French language is the cornerstone of that integration.

"It's important that we don't put all cultures on the same level; that's why we oppose multiculturalism," Legault said.


Legault said Quebec's position is at odds with the federal government's approach, which pushes for multiculturalism.

The comments came a day after his French language minister, Simon Jolin-Barrette, addressed the prestigious l'Academie francaise in Paris.

He described Canadian multiculturalism as a barrier to Quebec's efforts to become a distinct nation.

Some Quebecers believe Legault is stirring up this debate in an election year as a way to attract the separatist vote.

"Trashing multiculturalism in francophone Quebec is a political winner, at least for Legault, especially when he focuses on francophone voters who live outside of Montreal," said Daniel Béland, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

"For the most part, it's not risky for him politically to do that."

Legault's comments come on the heels of his own rejection of systemic racism in Quebec, and controversial legislation his government has passed like Bill 21, which prohibits many public sector employees from wearing religious symbols such as a hijab at work.

His rejection of multiculturalism in this context may stir even more worry and confusion in some groups, but for many Quebec separatists, multiculturalism is "kind of a dirty word. They think it's not compatible with their vision of the Quebec nation," said Béland.

Béland said there's a long history of defiance toward multiculturalism, which became federal policy in the early 1970s under Pierre Trudeau. Many separatists thought it was part of a plot to marginalize francophones within Canada, he said.

Melissa Claisse, spokesperson for the Welcome Collective, a group that advocates for newcomers, said she was shocked to hear Legault's comments.

She said Legault's assertion that not all cultures are on the same level was "very offensive," especially to those who come from all over the world and identify as Quebecers.

"I haven't met any refugee claimants who don't want to learn French," she said. "I think the vast majority of them, of course, want to speak the language of the place in which they are going to settle."

IN ENGLISH CANADA THE FORCES OF MONOCULTURALISM ARE ANTI CATHOLIC, ANTI FRENCH, ANTI IMMIGRANT, WHITE REACTIONARIES USUALLY WITH ENGLISH AS THEIR ONLY LANGUAGE.

IN QUEBEC IT IS PRO CATHOLIC PRO FRENCH ISOLATIONISTS  AUTHORITARIANS WITH FRENCH AS THEIR MOTHER TONGUE

AS MUCH AS THEY HATE MULTICULTURALISM BOTH HATE BILIGUALISM AND BICULTURALISM EVEN MORE