Online Learning Products Enabled Surveillance of Children

48 Governments Recommended Unsafe Products During Pandemic, Evidence Shows


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© Andrea Devia Nuño, Hero Studios

(New York) – The overwhelming majority of education technology (EdTech) products endorsed by 49 governments of the world’s most populous countries and analyzed by Human Rights Watch appear to have surveilled or had the capacity to surveil children in ways that risked or infringed on their rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch released technical evidence and easy-to-view privacy profiles for 163 EdTech products recommended for children’s learning during the pandemic.

Of the 163 products reviewed, 145 (89 percent) surveilled or had the capacity to surveil children, outside school hours, and deep into their private lives. Many products were found to harvest information about children such as who they are, where they are, what they do in the classroom, who their family and friends are, and what kind of device their families could afford for them to use for online learning. This evidence underpins the May 25, 2022 report, 

“‘How Dare They Peep into My Private Life?’: Children’s Rights Violations by Governments that Endorsed Online Learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic.”

Students Not Products

We think our kids are safe in school online. But many of them are being surveilled, and parents have often been kept in the dark. Kids are priceless, not products.ACT NOW

“Children, parents, and teachers were largely kept in the dark about the data surveillance practices we uncovered in children’s online classrooms,” said Hye Jung Han, children’s rights and technology researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch. “By understanding how these online learning tools handled their child’s privacy, people can more effectively demand protection for children online.”

Few governments checked whether the EdTech products they rapidly endorsed during the Covid-19 pandemic were safe for children to use. Many governments put at risk or violated children’s rights directly. Of the 42 governments that provided online education to children by building and offering their own EdTech products for use, 39 governments made products that handled children’s personal data in ways that risked or infringed on their rights.

Human Rights Watch found that the data surveillance took place in educational settings where children could not reasonably object to such surveillance. Most companies did not allow students to decline to be tracked, and most of this monitoring happened secretly, without the child or their family’s knowledge or consent. In most instances, it was impossible for children to opt out of such surveillance without giving up on their formal education during the pandemic.

May 25, 2022

“How Dare They Peep into My Private Life?”

Children’s Rights Violations by Governments that Endorsed Online Learning During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Download the full report in English

The evidence includes easy-to-view privacy profiles, which are designed for parents, teachers, and others to help them understand how government-recommended EdTech products may have handled children’s data and their privacy at the time of analysis. Human Rights Watch invites experts, journalists, policymakers, and readers to test and engage with the data and technical evidence.

Human Rights Watch has initiated a global campaign, #StudentsNotProducts, which brings together parents, teachers, children, and allies to demand protections for children online.

“Children are priceless, not products,” Han said. “Governments should adopt and enforce modern child data protection laws to stop the surveillance of children by actors who don’t have children’s best interests at heart.”

A Greater Yellowstone National Park Proposal

BY GEORGE WUERTHNERFacebook

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Pilot Peak, Beartooth Range, Greater Yellowstone. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Yellowstone National Park was established 150 years ago in 1872. The park’s creation marked a significant departure from public land policies of the time. Instead of promoting settlement, mining, logging, ranching, or other development, the park was designated to protect natural features like thermal features.

Yellowstone was also set aside to protect all citizens’ public access, an act of democracy. In the post-Civil War era, where the country fought a fierce battle about civil rights for all citizens, Yellowstone was open to entry by all Americans. It was a significant step toward recognizing that all people had certain “inalienable rights,” including access to natural landscapes. In retrospect, Yellowstone also became a place where the “inalienable rights” of non-humans are considered and given protection.

In recognition of its significance to planetary heritage, Yellowstone is a designated World Heritage Site and International Biological Reserve. But whether these attributes will continue to function is questionable unless we recognize that Yellowstone’s boundaries are insufficient to preserve its ecological integrity into the future.

One of the lessons we have learned from studies around the globe is that parks and wildland reserves if appropriately funded, and large enough are the best conservation strategy for protecting biodiversity. We know from Island Biogeography principles that species residing on larger “islands” of habitat are less likely to suffer inbreeding or go extinct.

It may be time to consider expanding Yellowstone to incorporate much of the surrounding public land under one agency– the National Park Service.

From its inception, park advocates recognized the legislatively created boundaries to Yellowstone Park were inadequate to protect all the wildlife and other natural values.

In the 1880s, General Philip Sheridan advocated the expansion of Yellowstone to the east and south to protect migrating wildlife like elk and bison that, in winter, sought out lower elevation lands. Today we recognize that animal migrate from Yellowstone to other public and private lands outside of the park.

When he was president of the Boone and Crockett Club, the future President Teddy Roosevelt also championed the expansion of Yellowstone. These efforts led to the creation in 1891 of the Yellowstone Forest Reserve, the first forest reserve (forerunners of today’s national forests). In addition, other national forests were created to surround Yellowstone and provide protection from excessive resource exploitation and prohibitions against settlement.

Yellowstone Park (dark green) is the center of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. 

By the 1970s, it was apparent that as well-intended as the creation of national forests and other public land designations (like wildlife refuges) were towards protecting the natural values of the Yellowstone region, they were inadequate to the challenge of growing development pressures. Biologists Frank and John Craighead, studying grizzly bears in the park, noted that many bears wander beyond the protective borders of Yellowstone. They began to refer to the larger landscape as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Conservationist Rick Reese further developed this broader concept when he published a book with that title.

An analysis by myself and several colleagues identified the most threatened biological hot spots of the ecosystem– all of them were outside Yellowstone Park.

However well-intended the idea of a Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem was in terms of getting people to think about more extensive conservation efforts, in reality, it has not changed the management of public lands outside of the park.

Wolves and other predators are regularly killed beyond Yellowstone’s borders. Bison are slaughtered by hunters when they wander from the park. Forests are roaded and logged for “forest health” or “fuel reduction. Increasing recreation, especially from mechanical vehicles from mountain bikes to more powerful snowmobiles, are shrinking the security areas for wildlife. Livestock on national forest and BLM lands outside the park are grazed in critical winter ranges, consume forage that would support native herbivores, and trample riparian areas. New mines are occasionally proposed that can threaten watersheds with pollution. Wildlife migration corridors are compromised by new subdivisions.

Conservationists are continuously fighting these resource extraction proposals and their impacts on the wildlife outside the park boundaries. Perhaps it’s time to consider expanding Yellowstone’s boundaries to terminate this endless rear guard action to preserve Greater Yellowstone’s ecological integrity.

With the Biden administration’s goal of protecting 30 percent of the American landscape by 2030, a positive vision and contribution to this goal would be to expand Yellowstone National Park to include much of what we call the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In effect, we should have a Greater Yellowstone National Park.

While some bemoan that Yellowstone is being “loved to death” most of this criticism is based on social, not ecological views. Most of all human use is concentrated on 1% of the park landscape accessible to vehicles and occupied by lodges.

Sometimes you can’t find a parking space at Old Faithful, or you might be stuck in a bison jam for a long time. However, most of the park (about 99%) is essentially managed as wilderness, with limited human intrusions. There are few places in the United States with such large areas under such strict management.

In truth, Yellowstone is some of the best protected landscape in the lower 48 states even with millions of visitors.

Most of the park (about 99%) is essentially managed as wilderness, with limited human intrusions. There are few places in the United States with such large areas under strict management.

Yellowstone still is home to every species of wildlife that existed at the time of its establishment and, in some cases, has been the focus of species recovery, such as the reintroduction of wolves, emphasis on native fish restoration, and greater protection for grizzly bears.

A significant amount of Yellowstone Park is seasonsally closed to human use as Bear Management Units to provide bears and other wildlfie relief from human intrusion. 

Part of the rationale for this concerns the agency’s mission. The Park Service is generally inclined towards the protection of natural values. An example of this policy is the Bear Management Units within the park that are closed to human entry to protect grizzly bears, the limit of backcountry camping to specific sites to reduce impacts, the strict enforcement of food storage in campgrounds, and the hardening (i.e., paved pathways) of heavily used areas like the Old Faithful geyser basin.

Of course, there is no livestock grazing, logging, hunting, trapping, and mechanical intrusions in the backcountry. As a result, compared to even large wilderness areas, Yellowstone is–ecologically speaking– one of the most protected ecosystems outside of Alaska in the United States. For instance, 21 wolves from Yellowstone National Park packs were killed this past year, mostly within designated wilderness adjacent to the park where hunting and trapping is permitted.

A Greater Yellowstone National Park could counter some of the numerous threats, gradually diminishing the ecological integrity of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The current park boundaries should be expanded to include most of the adjacent national forests, including the lands part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. For instance, the borders would be expanded to include the Upper Green River, Gros Vente Range, Mount Leidy Highlands, Absaroka Mountains, Beartooth Mountains, Gallatin Range, Madison Range, west slope of the Teton, Palisades, Centennial Valley, and so forth.

All roadless lands not currently within a designated wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act would be covered with a wilderness overlay, including the 99% of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks that currently lack wilderness designation.

Extractive uses like livestock grazing, logging, oil and gas, mining, and other activities compromising the landscape’s ecological function would be prohibited. Grazing permit buyouts would be used to remove livestock grazing from the landscape. Recovery areas with an extensive logging road system like the Targhee National Forest adjacent to Yellowstone could be restored. Some of the lands could be designated as National Preserves as exists in Alaska and elsewhere to permit limited but strictly controlled hunting as currently in Grand Teton National Park.

Communities and private lands within the boundaries of the expanded national park would be encouraged to follow the land use model we find in places like New York’s Adirondack State Park and be provided with the financial funds to implement such planning and enforcement. In addition, funding to acquire private lands with critical habitat would be available.

The creation of a Greater Yellowstone National Park would preserve under National Park Service protection the region’s wild and scenic waters, help to maintain migration corridors such as the Path of the Pronghorn in Wyoming, expand the areas where native species have priority in the landscape, such as bison migration on to other public lands, and put protection of biological hot spot.

In addition, Park expansion by eliminating oil and gas development, logging and livestock grazing on adjacent public lands would increase carbon sequestration.

A Greater Yellowstone National Park would likely encompass 20 million acres or more (about the size of the state of Maine) depending on the exact boundaries and would easily be one of the largest temperate ecosystems preserves in the world. Such a large preserve would be our best protection against species extinction due to climate change. In addition, it would ensure that biodiversity and ecosystem function have their best chance of being maintained into the future.

If a Greater Yellowstone National Park were combined with the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) which would protect much of the rest of the northern Rockies region as designated wilderness, the United States could go a long ways towards ensuring the long term ecological health of the Northern Rockies.

A Greater Yellowstone National Park would continue the park’s reputation as a model for ecosystem integrity and protection and its role as part the planet’s global heritage.

George Wuerthner has published 36 books including Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy. 

Cryptoverse: Shrimps and whales keep bitcoin afloat

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh - Yesterday 

© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIERFILE PHOTO: A bitcoin representation is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris

(Reuters) - The shrimps of the crypto world have joined the whales in a glorious last stand to banish the bleak bitcoin winter.

These two contrasting groups are both HODLers - investors in bitcoin as a long-term proposition who refuse to sell their holdings - and they are determined to drive back the bears, despite their portfolios being deep in the red.

Shrimps, investors that hold less than 1 bitcoin, are collectively adding to their balance at a rate of 60,460 bitcoin per month, the most aggressive rate in history, according to an analysis by data firm Glassnode.

Whales, those with more than 1,000 bitcoin, were adding 140,000 coins per month, the highest rate since January 2021.

"The market is approaching a HODLer-led regime," Glassnode said in a note, referring to the cohort whose name emerged years ago from a trader misspelling "hold" on an online forum.

After bitcoin's worst month in 11 years in June, the decline appears to have abated as transaction demand seemed to be moving sideways, according to Glassnode, indicating a stagnation of new entrants and a probable retention of a base-load of users, ie HODLers.

Bitcoin has been hovering around $19,000 to $21,000 over the past four weeks, less than a third of its $69,000 peak in 2021.

"There is a saying in crypto markets - diamond hands. You've not really lost the money, if you've not pulled out. There may be a day it might come back up," said Neo, the online alias of a 26-year old graphic designer at a fintech company in Bangalore.

As the crypto bear market enters its eighth month, his crypto portfolio was down by 70% - though he said it was money he was "okay with losing". He does not intend to sell, holding out for a possible rebound in the coming years.

Like Neo, most HODLer portfolios are under water, yet many are refusing to bail.

Some 55% of U.S.-based crypto retail investors held their investments in response to the recent selloff, while around 16% of investors globally increased their crypto exposure in June, according a survey of retail investors by eToro.

"Crypto is an asset class disproportionately held by younger investors who are more risk tolerant since they have, say, 30 more years to earn it all back," said Ben Laidler, eToro's global markets strategist.

MINERS' PAINS

Another class of staunch crypto HODLers - bitcoin miners - is increasingly under pressure as they face the double whammy of cratering prices and high electricity costs. The cost of mining a bitcoin is higher than the digital assets' price for some miners, Citi analyst Joseph Ayoub said.

The unfavorable environment for many of these miners, who have loans against their mining systems, has forced them to pull from their stash.

Core Scientific sold 7,202 bitcoin last month to pay for its mining rigs and fund operations, bringing its total holdings down to 1,959 bitcoin.

While Marathon Digital Holdings said it had not sold any bitcoin since October 2020, the firm said it may sell a portion of its monthly production to cover costs.

The Valkyrie bitcoin miners ETF slumped 65% last quarter, outpacing bitcoin's 56% fall.

Lessons from the crypto winter in 2018 were that the miners who survived were the ones that kept producing even if they were under water. That approach is unlikely to work this time round though, said Chris Bae, CEO of Enhanced Digital Group, which designs hedging strategies for crypto miners.

For the bosses of mining firms', Bae added, the focus is now on the "need to think through the next crypto winter and have that game plan before it happens rather than during it."

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Lisa Pauline Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Pravin Char)

Tunisian President Kais Saied vows 'zero tolerance' of referendum opposition

Those against a proposed new constitution renew their call for a boycott of a July 25 vote

Opponents say President Kais Saied is seeking to reinstall an autocracy in the birthplace of the 2011 Arab uprisings. 

Photo: AP

The National
Jul 11, 2022

Tunisian President Kais Saied has said there will be “zero tolerance” for anyone who tries to derail a referendum on a controversial new constitution later this month.

Mr Saied said on Monday all parties should adhere to "neutrality" and must pay attention to "multiple attempts to infiltrate registration processes".

"There is no room for tolerance with those who want to thwart the referendum," he said during a meeting with Farouk Bouaskar, head of the Independent High Authority for Elections, at the Carthage Palace.

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Tunisia's Kais Saied amends 'errors' in draft constitution

Mr Saied has warned of attempted electoral fraud in the upcoming vote, claiming authorities have detected manipulation as voters register at polling centres ahead of the referendum.

It comes after the Tunisian opposition renewed calls on Monday for a boycott of the July 25 referendum, despite the publication of an amended draft of the proposed constitution.

The draft constitution is the centrepiece of Mr Saied's programme to overhaul Tunisia's political system.

Rivals say the text confirms fears he is seeking to reinstall an autocracy in the birthplace of the 2011 Arab uprisings.

"We call on Tunisians to boycott this illegal, unconstitutional process that aims to legitimise a coup d'etat," veteran opposition figure Ahmed Nejib Chebbi told AFP.

Mr Chebbi said rights and freedoms would be threatened if the charter was approved.

"For me it's the quintessential bad constitution," he said.

Veteran opposition figure Ahmed Nejib Chebbi has called for a boycott of an 'illegal, unconstitutional process'. Photo: AFP

Mr Chebbi's National Salvation Front includes five political parties, among them Mr Saied's nemesis the Ennahdha party, along with five civil society groups involving independent political figures.

It was formed in April, months after Mr Saied, a former law professor elected in 2019 amid public anger against the political class, sacked the government and suspended parliament, later seizing far-reaching legislative and judicial powers.

Mr Saied's initial power grab was welcomed by many Tunisians sick of the often-deadlocked post-revolution political system.

But critics have said his moves risk a return to autocracy, a decade after the 2011 overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in a popular revolt.







Protesters try to break through security barriers to reach the entrance to the headquarters of the Independent High Authority for Elections in Tunis. EPA

The process of writing the constitution has also come under fire.

The legal expert who oversaw the constitution's drafting has disavowed it, saying it was "completely different" from what his committee had submitted and warning that some articles could "pave the way for a dictatorial regime".

Last week, Mr Saied published an amended draft, apparently attempting to ward off criticism after the original was criticised for the nearly unlimited power it gave his office.

On Monday, Jawhar Ben Mbarek, leader of Citizens Against the Coup, urged Tunisians to "massively reject this referendum".

"We reject the entire process," he told AFP. "We are committed to the 2014 constitution, which we consider to be the only legal constitution, representative of the will of the Tunisian people."

The EU called Monday for an "inclusive national dialogue", saying it would be "a cornerstone of any credible constitutional process and long-term stability".

"It is essential to bring together the widest possible spectrum of political and societal actors in addressing the political, economic and social challenges the country is facing," said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's office.
Updated: July 11, 2022, 11:07 PM

TAX CUTS = SERVICE CUTS & AUSTERITY
Tax cut pledges by Tory leadership hopefuls ‘risk stoking inflation and inequality’

Economists and Conservative opponents say proposals would blow hole in public finances

George Dibb of the IPPR thinktank says the tax plans do not match the needs of families struggling with the soaring cost of living. 

Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Richard Partington and Peter Walker
Tue 12 Jul 2022

The scale of tax cuts promised by Conservative leadership hopefuls would blow a hole in the public finances and could lead to rampant inflation, Tory opponents and economists have warned.

Nadhim Zahawi, who took over as chancellor last week, used a leadership speech on Monday to announce tax policies that would cost an estimated £50bn a year, almost as much as the combined budgets of the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office.


Sajid Javid, the former health secretary, who also served as chancellor, launched his leadership bid with tax cuts he said would cost about £40bn a year, including a reduction to income tax, scrapping the recent rise in national insurance, and a temporary 10p a litre extra cut in fuel tax.

Of the 11 candidates vying to become the new prime minister, almost all have made lavish pledges to reduce the tax rate and shrink the state, with costings generally left vague.

The pound has fallen to the lowest level in two years in recent weeks amid growing concern over the strength of the British economy and political instability during an intense squeeze on households and businesses.

Economists said the proposals would risk stoking inflation and inequality, while adding to government borrowing or requiring sweeping spending cuts. Rishi Sunak’s camp believes some of the promises would lead to a fiscal black hole amounting to tens of billions of pounds.

Nick Macpherson, the former top Treasury mandarin, said the candidates were showing themselves to be “less the heirs to Margaret Thatcher; more the disciples of Recep Erdoğan”, referring to the Turkish president’s economic policies, which have been blamed for contributing to inflation hitting almost 80%.

Gavin Barwell, a Conservative peer who was Theresa May’s chief aide, said the leadership candidates risked telling the Conservative party “what it wants to hear”, and not the truth.

“You can’t have Thatcher levels of taxation and Johnson levels of public spending – particularly given the damage Brexit has done to economy and increased demand for public services post-Covid,” Barwell tweeted.

Labour said multibillion-pound pledges had been “casually tossed on to the pages of the newspapers” in a matter of days.

Pat McFadden, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “Tax cuts have to be sustainable. They can’t just be plucked out of the air. They claim to be able to fund these through efficiencies or cuts in civil servants. Next it will be the tooth fairy. If Labour were making promises like this, we’d be getting killed for it.”

A series of candidates have said they would scrap a planned increase in corporation tax due next April from 19% to 25%, with Javid promising to cut the headline rate to 15% over time.

According to HMRC’s ready reckoner tables, which provide rough estimates for the cost of tax changes, a 10-percentage-point reduction would cost £32bn a year by the end of the current parliament in 2024-25.

Another candidate, the attorney general, Suella Braverman, used her speech on Monday to say much public spending could be replaced by a greater role for families and communities.

Zahawi promised to cut income tax by 2p by 2024, scrap the corporation tax rise and scrap VAT and green levies on fuel for two years. The former education secretary said his plans could be paid for by cutting the number of civil servants by 20%, although this is estimated to save less than a tenth of the cost of his proposed tax cuts.

On Zahawi’s pledges, Torsten Bell, the head of the Resolution Foundation thinktank, calculated that the changes to income tax, energy bills and corporation tax would total £50bn a year by 2024. This is only £5bn less than the budget for the defence ministry and Foreign Office.

Jeremy Hunt, another former health secretary, has promised tax cuts worth more than £30bn, including a reduction in corporation tax to 15%. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has also pledged to “cut taxes from day one” by reversing the national insurance rise and promising to “keep corporation tax competitive”.

It comes Sunak, the former chancellor and early frontrunner, launched a coded attack on rivals offering unrealistic tax and spending plans, describing them as “comforting fairy tales” that would ultimately burden future generations.

George Dibb, head of the Centre for Economic Justice at the centre-left IPPR thinktank, said the plans did not match the needs of families struggling with the soaring cost of living.

“These tax cuts are no longer being promised as a way of addressing cost of living. It’s more of an arms race to win over Conservative party members and its totally divorced from reality.”

If the government wants to avoid higher borrowing levels, steep spending cuts would probably be made despite public support for ending austerity and fresh investment in public services, he said.

“My concern would be we’re seeing a significant shrinkage of the state already over the past 12 years of Conservative government through austerity. I don’t think there’s much efficiency to squeeze out of the system,” he said.

Rare-earths developer Arafura inks supply deal with GE unit

(Reuters) - Arafura Resources said on Tuesday it will supply neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) to France-based turbine manufacturing division of General Electric Co amid a global push to transition to clean energy.

Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU), GE Renewable Energy will purchase NdPr from the miner's flagship Nolans project in central Australia to manufacture offshore wind turbines.

The deal was unveiled during the Sydney Energy Forum earlier in the day, where Australia joined the Mineral Security Partnership, along with a host of nations including the United States in a bid to secure global supply chains for critical minerals such as NdPr, which are crucial for the transition to clean energy technology. (https://bit.ly/3PjoFwv)

Australia hosts vast reserves of critical minerals, such as lithium and cobalt, which are crucial for clean energy technologies such as batteries and electric vehicles, as well as mobile phones and computers.

Demand for NdPr soared in recent years as countries and companies pivot towards cleaner energy to tackle climate change.

The deal also outlines a potential strategic equity investment by GE in Arafura that will be considered and negotiated in due course.

(Reporting by Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

Britons dispose of nearly 100bn pieces of plastic packaging a year, survey finds

UK households recycle just 12% of single-use plastic, says Greenpeace

Plastic packaging and waste 

Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images


Sandra Laville

Environment correspondent

THE GUARDIAN
Tue 12 Jul 2022 


UK households throw away nearly 100bn pieces of plastic packaging a year, according to a survey by Greenpeace.

The results of one of the largest voluntary research projects into the scale of plastic waste show that only 12% of the single-use packaging used by households is sent for recycling.


Greenpeace asked households to count their plastic waste during one week in May. Nearly 250,000 people from almost 100,000 households took part and sent their results to Greenpeace and fellow NGO Everyday Plastic.

By far the largest proportion of plastic waste was from food and drink packaging – 83% – with the most common item being fruit and vegetable packaging.
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While the UK government publishes data on the weight of plastic waste being collected from households, there are no official figures about the number of plastic items being thrown away. So the research, known as the Big Plastic Count, is being seen as providing a significant insight into the scale of single use plastic packaging waste.


California passes first sweeping US law to reduce single-use plastic

The Big Plastic Count found that 97,948 households across the UK counted 6,437,813 pieces of plastic packaging waste. On average, each household threw away 66 pieces of plastic packaging in one week, which amounts to an estimated 3,432 pieces when applied over a year.

Assuming the weekly average is typical of every household in the UK, the researchers said it could be reasonably estimated that households throw away 1.85bn pieces of plastic packaging a week, equating to 96.6bn pieces a year in the UK alone.

A landmark study in 2019 found that the proliferation of single-use plastic around the world is accelerating the climate emergency and needs to be urgently halted. Nearly all plastic is made from fossil fuels, the research by the Center for International Environmental Law found, and the plastic contributes to greenhouse gas emissions at every stage of its lifecycle, from its production to its refining and the way it is managed as a waste product.

“This is a jaw-dropping amount of plastic waste and should give ministers pause for thought,” said Chris Thorne, plastics campaigner at Greenpeace UK.

“Just 12% of all this plastic is likely to end up being recycled in the UK, despite the public’s alarm about the issue and efforts to recycle. The rest becomes pollution, whether through landfilling, incineration or export to countries all around the world, gradually contaminating everything – our water, our food, even the air we breathe.”
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Daniel Webb, founder of Everyday Plastic, said a quarter of a million people had been galvanised to take part in what was an incredible piece of citizen science. He said: “[It] has allowed us to build a unique picture of the plastic problem and gather never-before-seen data … These new figures lay bare the responsibility of the government, big brands and supermarkets to tackle this crisis, and they must rise to the challenge right now – there is no time to waste.”

The NGOs are calling on government to set legally binding targets to almost entirely eliminate single-use plastic, starting with a target of a 50% cut in single-use plastic by 2025. They want a ban on plastic waste exports by 2025, initially starting with an immediate ban on all exports to non-OECD member countries and mixed plastic waste to OECD member countries. They are also calling for the immediate creation of a deposit return scheme.

The government has promised such a scheme for years, with Michael Gove as environment secretary first putting it forward in 2018. But the scheme has been delayed by consultations and apparent inertia in government.

“Pretending we can sort this with recycling is just industry greenwash,” said Thorne. “We’re creating a hundred billion bits of waste plastic a year, and recycling is hardly making a dent. What else do the government need to know before they act?”

A spokesperson for the government said: “We want to introduce extended producer responsibility (EPR), a deposit return scheme (DRS) and consistent collections in England as soon as is practical and have sought feedback on proposed timelines through consultation. We have published the government response to the packaging EPR consultation in March, and will publish our response to the DRS and consistency consultations shortly.”

Cavers find pristine mineshaft frozen in time for 200 years

Experts describe cobalt mine at Alderley Edge as ‘time capsule’ thanks to lack of oxygen

Ed Coghlan and Jamie Lund, right, inspect one of the timber props installed by the miners. Photograph: Paul Harris/National Trust Images

Esther Addley
Tue 12 Jul 2022 

A pristine 200-year-old mineshaft that had been undisturbed since it was abandoned by miners during the Napoleonic wars has been discovered by cavers in Cheshire, revealing an almost unique “time capsule” of their underground life.

The cobalt mine, at Alderley Edge, was sealed by the miners when the shaft was abandoned, at a date that can be pinpointed fairly accurately thanks to one man who used candle soot to write his initials “WS” and the date 20 August 1810 on the rock wall.

The resulting lack of oxygen in the two centuries since means the mine is in an exceptional state of preservation, according to the National Trust, which owns the land. While the items left behind are humble – clay pipes, a leather shoe, a small bowl – the context in which they were found is “really very unusual”, said Jamie Lund, an archaeologist with the trust.

“This mine hasn’t been disturbed by later mining, it’s not been broken into by kids in the 1960s, it’s not been filled with bottles or other rubbish. It literally is a time capsule in terms of giving a glimpse into the environment that these miners, who were extracting cobalt, encountered.”

Blobs of clay putty stuck to the walls to hold the men’s candles still show their fingerprints, while one wall bears an imprint of corduroy where a miner leaned against it. Wooden support struts and a windlass still wound with a hemp rope are remarkably well preserved.

Intriguingly, the small bowl had been deliberately placed on the floor with a rock wall built around it, leading to one interpretation that superstitious miners might have put it there to show gratitude for a rich seam of the material, which was prized for adding colour to blue and white pottery.

An inscription on the wall by ‘WS’ dates the mine to 20 August 1810. 

Photograph: Ed Coghlan/Derbyshire Caving Club

However, Lund said he was “paid always to be sceptical when anybody says that an object might have ritual or good luck connotations”.

He continued: “The explanation that appeals to me is slightly more jokey,” suggesting that it might have been walled up by the miners to tease one of their number who always brought his breakfast down the mine. No one will ever know, however. “At the end of the day, it’s a bowl. That much we are sure of,” Lund said.

Similarly, efforts to identify WS have so far been fruitless, after wage records were lost in a fire.

Alderley Edge, a dramatic escarpment that overlooks the Cheshire landscape, has been mined for copper, lead and cobalt since the bronze age. The mine in question, which extends 10 metres (33ft) underground, was discovered in autumn 2021 when a dip was spotted in the landscape, suggesting a collapsing shaft seal. Members of Derbyshire Caving Club, who manage the subterranean spaces in the landscape on behalf of the trust, were the first to explore and make it safe before archaeologists entered.

Unusually for such a rare find, it will not be studied for much longer, said Lund. “We quickly agreed that the real significance of this site is the fact that it has that pristine nature of an environment that the miners might have left yesterday,” he said. As a result, it will shortly be sealed again with the artefacts inside, the oxygen allowed to run out “and the policy will be to stay out”.

Happily, however, a detailed 3D scan has been made of the mine, which can be navigated interactively. “That’s the benefit of living and working in the 21st century,” said Lund. “It feels like we timed this discovery really well.”

UN envoy to seek longer, expanded truce in Yemen civil war



UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg speaks to reporters upon his arrival at the Sanaa International Airport, in Sanaa, Yemen June 8, 2022. (Reuters)

The Associated Press
Published: 12 July ,2022

The UN special envoy for Yemen said Monday he plans to explore the possibility of a longer and expanded truce with the country’s warring parties in the coming weeks.

Hans Grundberg said an extension could be a good step in moving toward a cease-fire in the country’s eight-year civil war. He didn’t provide details of the length or expansion he is seeking ahead of the August 2 expiration of the current two-month truce extension.

Grundberg told the UN Security Council that renewing the truce would provide time and the opportunity to start serious discussions on Yemen’s economy and security and to begin addressing priority issues such as revenues and payment of salaries.

“I ask the parties to engage with me on these issues with a sense of urgency and flexibility,” he said.

The cease-fire between Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Iran-backed Houthi militia initially took effect April 2 and was extended June 2. Though each side at times accused the other of violating the truce, it was the first nationwide halt in fighting in the past six years of the conflict in the Arab World’s most impoverished nation.

“To date, the truce has been holding for over three months,” Grundberg said.

Civilian casualties have been reduced by two-thirds, compared to the three months before the truce began, he said. And since the renewal of the truce June 2, seven fuel ships carrying nearly 200,000 metric tons of various fuel products have been cleared to enter Yemen’s main port of Hodeida.

Since the start of the truce, 15 commercial round-trip flights have transported almost 7,000 passengers between Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and the Jordanian capital, Amman, Grundberg added. He said discussions are under way with Egyptian authorities about regular flights to Cairo.

Under the truce, the parties committed to meet to agree on road openings, including lifting the Houthis’ ground blockade of Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city. Grundberg said the Houthis rejected the latest UN proposal on a phased opening but his efforts to reach a solution will continue.

“An agreement on road openings in Taiz and other governorates would be momentous, and its benefits would reverberate across Yemen,” he said.

The UN envoy expressed concern at “worrisome escalatory rhetoric by the parties questioning the benefits of the truce” in recent weeks.

He called this “a dangerous move,” urged the parties to halt such rhetoric, and warned that the alternative to the truce “is a return to hostilities and likely an intensified phase of conflict with all of its predictable consequences or Yemeni civilians and regional security.”

Grundberg said the UN continues to receive reports from both sides about alleged incidents including direct and indirect fire, drone attacks, reconnaissance overflights and new fortifications.

“The parties are also allegedly sending reinforcements to main front lines including in Marib, Hodeida, and Taiz,” he said.

Fighting in Yemen erupted in 2014, when the Houthis descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital, forcing the government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. An Arab coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. IT WAS A SAUDI COALITION WHICH INVADED YEMEN

The conflict has killed over 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, pushing millions of Yemenis to the brink of famine.

Joyce Msuya , assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the council that the Yemeni rial is still falling and “many more families are going hungry again.”

But she said the UN World Food Program was forced to cut rations for millions of people several weeks ago because the UN appeal for $4.27 billion for humanitarian aid for Yemen this year has received just over $1.1 billion.

In addition, Msuya said, a UN verification and inspection system created in 2016 to facilitate vital commercial imports to Yemen is also running out of money and will shut down in September unless it gets $3.5 million to cover operations for the year’s final months.

Read more:

Shinzo Abe shooting: who are the ‘Moonies’ and why are they in the spotlight?

Suspect Tetsuya Yamagami blames the Unification church, also known as the Moonies, for bankrupting his family

The Unification church in Seoul, South Korea. The Moonies’ strong anti-communist stance helped build ties with politicians in Asia, including Shinzo Abe’s grandfather. Photograph: Lee Jae-Won/AFLO/REX/Shutterstock


Justin McCurry in Tokyo

Tue 12 Jul 2022 

The apparent motive given by the man accused of assassinating Shinzo Abe has cast a spotlight on the Unification church and its ties to politicians.

Tetsuya Yamagami has confessed to killing the former Japanese prime minister during a campaign speech on Friday. He blamed the global religious movement – whose members are often referred to as Moonies – for bankrupting his family, and believed that Abe had championed its activities in Japan.

The Japan branch of the church has confirmed that Yamagami’s mother is a member, but declined to comment on the suspect’s claims that she had made a “huge donation” more than 20 years ago that left the family struggling financially.

The branch’s president, Tomihiro Tanaka, told a press conference that Yamagami’s mother became a follower in the late 1990s, adding that the family had suffered financial ruin around 2002.

Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japanese branch of the Unification church, at a news conference in Tokyo on Monday. Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

The organisation’s official name is the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, although it is better known as the Unification church. It was founded in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon, whose strident anti-communism would lead him to build ties with conservative politicians around the world, including in Japan.
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Moon, who died in 2012, said he had had a vision aged 15 in which he was told by Jesus to complete his unfulfilled mission to restore humanity to a state of “sinless” purity.

The church’s early adherents were effective recruiters, and membership soared from an initial group of 100 missionaries to around 10,000 in a few years.


Experience: I escaped from the Moonies

Often described as a cult motivated by financial gain, the church became known for conducting mass weddings in huge sports stadiums – involving thousands of couples who were meeting for the first time – and at one time claimed to have about 3 million followers worldwide.

But global membership of the church, whose teachings comprise new interpretations of the Bible, has fallen sharply to several hundred thousand from its 1980s peak, according to some experts.

Its connection to Japan is inseparable from the instability of the postwar years, when conservative politicians sought to build alliances that they believed would prevent the country from embracing communism.

They included Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who reportedly set up an organisation with ties to the church. It was Kishi’s decision to court Moon and his followers in Japan that reportedly drove Yamagami to target his grandson.
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Yamagami reportedly told investigators that he had fired a shot from a homemade gun at a Unification church facility near his home the day before he targeted Abe. The Asahi Shimbun quoted residents as saying they had heard a loud bang in the early hours of 7 July.

The Japan chapter was founded in 1959 – the penultimate year of Kishi’s three-year term as prime minister – as the church sent missionaries to Japan and the US to forge links with influential politicians and business leaders.

Last September Abe delivered a congratulatory address via video link at an event organised by an affiliate, the Universal Peace Federation. Donald Trump is among other conservative politicians who have publicly associated themselves with the church.

Abe had been criticised for speaking at events organised by church affiliates. Last year lawyers representing people who say they lost money because of the church filed a letter of protest after he delivered the video message. They also protested when Abe sent a telegram to a mass wedding in 2006.

Moon, who moved to the US in the early 1970s, had longstanding ties to Japan, having studied engineering at a high school in Tokyo. He was indicted on tax evasion charges in the US in 1981 and served 11 months in prison.

In 2008, Moon passed control of the church to his youngest son, Hyung Jin Moon, who later formed a breakaway organisation, the Sanctuary church, after falling out with his mother, Hak Ja Han. She now controls the Unification church.

The police have not publicly identified the group Yamagami blamed for his family’s financial troubles, and most Japanese media organisations refrained from naming it until Monday’s press conference.

With Agence France-Presse