Wednesday, August 10, 2022

SO IT BEGINS; NEW GILEAD 

Nebraska woman charged with helping daughter have abortion


FILE - Protesters line the street around the front of the Nebraska State Capitol during an Abortion Rights Rally held on July 4, 2022, in Lincoln, Neb. A Nebraska woman has been charged in early June with helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy at about 24 weeks after investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two discussed using medication to induce an abortion and plans to burn the fetus afterward.
 (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More

JOSH FUNK
Tue, August 9, 2022 

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — A Nebraska woman has been charged with helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy at about 24 weeks after investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two discussed using medication to induce an abortion and plans to burn the fetus afterward.

The prosecutor handling the case said it's the first time he has charged anyone for illegally performing an abortion after 20 weeks, a restriction that was passed in 2010. Before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, states weren’t allowed to enforce abortion bans until the point at which a fetus is considered viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks.

In one of the Facebook messages, Jessica Burgess, 41, tells her then 17-year-old daughter that she has obtained abortion pills for her and gives her instructions on how to take them to end the pregnancy.

The daughter, meanwhile, “talks about how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body," a detective wrote in court documents. “I will finally be able to wear jeans,” she says in one of the messages. Law enforcement authorities obtained the messages with a search warrant, and detailed some of them in court documents.

In early June, the mother and daughter were only charged with a single felony for removing, concealing or abandoning a body, and two misdemeanors: concealing the death of another person and false reporting. It wasn't until about a month later, after investigators reviewed the private Facebook messages, that they added the felony abortion-related charges against the mother. The daughter, who is now 18, is being charged as an adult at prosecutors' request.

Burgess' attorney didn’t immediately respond to a message Tuesday, and the public defender representing the daughter declined to comment.

When first interviewed, the two told investigators that the teen had unexpectedly given birth to a stillborn baby in the shower in the early morning hours of April 22. They said they put the fetus in a bag, placed it in a box in the back of their van, and later drove several miles north of town, where they buried the body with the help of a 22-year-old man.

The man, whom The Associated Press is not identifying because he has only been charged with a misdemeanor, has pleaded no contest to helping bury the fetus on rural land his parents own north of Norfolk in northeast Nebraska. He's set to be sentenced later this month.

In court documents, the detective said the fetus showed signs of “thermal wounds” and that the man told investigators the mother and daughter did burn it. He also wrote that the daughter confirmed in the Facebook exchange with her mother that the two would “burn the evidence afterward." Based on medical records, the fetus was more than 23 weeks old, the detective wrote.

Burgess later admitted to investigators to buying the abortion pills “for the purpose of instigating a miscarriage.”

At first, both mother and daughter said they didn’t remember the date when the stillbirth happened, but according to the detective, the daughter later confirmed the date by consulting her Facebook messages. After that he sought the warrant, he said.

Madison County Attorney Joseph Smith told the Lincoln Journal Star that he’s never filed charges like this related to performing an abortion illegally in his 32 years as the county prosecutor. He didn't immediately respond to a message from the AP on Tuesday.

The group National Advocates for Pregnant Women, which supports abortion rights, found 1,331 arrests or detentions of women for crimes related to their pregnancy from 2006 to 2020.

In addition to its current 20-week abortion ban, Nebraska tried — but failed — earlier this year to pass a so-called trigger law that would have banned all abortions when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

A Facebook spokesman declined to talk about the details of this case, but the company has said that officials at the social media giant “always scrutinize every government request we receive to make sure it is legally valid.”

Facebook says it will fight back against requests that it thinks are invalid or too broad, but the company said it gave investigators information in about 88% of the 59,996 times when the government requested data in the second half of last year.

ROE WAS ABOUT PRIVACY
Facebook Turned Over Chat Messages Between Mother and Daughter Now Charged Over Abortion


Jim Wilson

Kevin Collier and Minyvonne Burke
Tue, August 9, 2022 

Facebook turned over the chats of a mother and her daughter to Nebraska police after they were served with a warrant as part of an investigation into an illegal abortion, court documents show.

The investigation, which was launched in April before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, is one of the few known instances of Facebook’s turning over information to help law enforcement officials pursue an abortion case — but it is also an example of a scenario that abortion rights experts have warned will be more common as all abortions becomes illegal in many states.

Madison County prosecutors say Jessica Burgess, 41, acquired and gave abortion pills to her daughter, Celeste, who was 17 at the time, and then helped her bury and then rebury the fetus. The Norfolk Daily News first reported the case. The two were charged last month and have pleaded not guilty. A lawyer for the two women didn’t respond to a request for comment.

According to a sworn affidavit from Detective Ben McBride of the Norfolk Police Investigations Unit, police started with a tip from a woman who described herself as a friend of Celeste’s who said she saw her take the first pill in April.


Under a Nebraska law enacted before Roe was overturned, abortion is illegal 20 weeks after an egg is fertilized. According to McBride’s affidavit, Burgess had a miscarriage when she was around 23 weeks pregnant, soon after having taken abortion pills.

McBride then applied for and got a warrant in June for access into the digital lives of the mother and her daughter, seizing six smartphones and seven laptops and compelling Facebook to turn over chats between them.

The alleged chats, published in court documents seen by NBC News, show a user named Jessica telling a user named Celeste about “What i ordered last month” and instructing her to take two pills 24 hours apart.

Norfolk police didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Facebook stores most user information in plaintext on its servers, meaning the company can access it if it is compelled to do so with a warrant. The company routinely complies with law enforcement requests.

Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article.

Facebook Messenger offers end-to-end encryption, meaning chats between two users will be visible only on users’ phones and aren’t readable by Facebook or any government entity that makes a legal request to the company. But the option is available only to people using the Messenger app on mobile devices, and messages are encrypted only after users select the option to mark chats as “secret.”

“I know from prior training and experience, and conversations with other seasoned criminal investigators, that people involved in criminal activity frequently have conversations regarding their criminal activities through various social networking sites, i.e. Facebook,” McBride said in his warrant application.

Prosecutors charged Jessica Burgess with three felonies and two misdemeanors and Celeste Burgess with a felony and two misdemeanors. All charges were related to performing an abortion, concealing a body and providing false information.

Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that advocates for reproductive rights policy, said the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June to overturn Roe v. Wade most likely didn’t change Nebraska law enforcement’s legal ability to bring the charges, as the state hasn’t changed its law since then and the case began in April.

But it’s the type of case abortion law experts expect to see more of in a post-Roe world, she said.

“The police could have decided not to charge them, but it looks like the police are throwing the book at the mother and daughter, charging them with everything from criminal abortion to false reporting,” Nash said. “This is the kind of response we are expecting to the Dobbs decision and states’ banning abortion.”

Jake Laperruque, the deputy director of surveillance at the Center of Democracy and Technology, a think tank that promotes digital rights, said tech companies that store plaintext information about users who intend to have abortions are likely to continue to be served warrants as more states prosecute abortion-related crimes.

“This is going to keep happening to tech companies that store significant amounts of communications and data,” Laperruque said.

“If companies don’t want to end up repeatedly handing over data for abortion investigations, they need to rethink their practices on data collection, storage and encryption,” he said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.

WW3.0

Turkey sends new drill ship to eastern Mediterranean

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara did not need to "seek permission from anyone" to drill in the region. Greece and Cyprus accuse Turkey of illegally exploring for gas deposits in their territory.

The Abdulhamid Han, named after an Ottoman sultan, is set to drill for gas in the eastern Mediterranean

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday inaugurated the country's newest drilling ship that he said would be sent to an area northwest of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean.

The vessel, known as the Abdulhamid Han, is Turkey's largest undersea hydrocarbon drill ship. 

What do we know about the mission?

Erdogan said the ship would begin drilling at the Yorukler-1 well, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) off the coast of Gazipasa, in Turkey's southwestern Antalya province.

The country's other drill ships — Fatih, Kanuni and Yavuz — are operating in the Black Sea where Turkey has discovered natural gas reserves. All four ships are named after Ottoman sultans.

Turkey is almost entirely reliant on imports to meet its energy needs. Rising global energy prices have hindered Erdogan's government from reaching its goal of achieving a budget surplus. Turkey imported around 45% of its natural gas last year from Russia.

Erdogan called the Abdulhamid Han a "symbol of Turkey's new vision in the area of energy."

"The sooner we can increase our natural gas and oil resources, which have turned into weapons in the global economic crisis, the more advantage we will gain in this critical process," Turkey's president said.

"It will help us both reduce our energy dependency and close our current account deficit."

The Abdulhamid Han set off from Antalya and is heading towards an area northwest of Cyprus

'We don't need to seek permission from anyone'

While the area initially designated for the ship is not in disputed waters, Erdogan said the Abdulhamid Han will continue to search for gas until it finds it, potentially leading it to areas claimed by Cyprus.

Turkey and Cyprus have for years been embroiled in a dispute over maritime borders, and the EU has imposed sanctions on Ankara over drilling off the island country.

"Our exploration and drilling in the Mediterranean is within our own sovereign dominion," Erdogan said at the inauguration ceremony.

"Neither the puppets nor the ones who hold their strings will be able to prevent us from getting our rights in the Mediterranean," the Turkish president declared, in an apparent reference to Greece, Cyprus and Western allies.

"We don't need to seek permission or ratification from anyone," Erdogan added. "We will take what is ours."

NATO partner Greece also accuses Turkey of illegally exploring for gas deposits off of Greek islands. The Turkish government rejects the accusations, saying that Greek islands near the Turkish coast should not be used when defining maritime borders.

In 2020, Turkey sent a seismic survey ship escorted by warships to an area in the eastern Mediterranean to which Greece claims exclusive rights. Athens later sent its own warships, and the two countries conducted military exercises in a show of force.

sdi/nm (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters




Turkey's new drill ship to operate outside

disputed waters in Mediterranean





Turkish President Erdogan attends the launch of Turkey's new drill ship Abdul hamid Han

Tue, August 9, 2022 

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkey resumed its hydrocarbon drilling operations in the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday after a two year hiatus, though President Tayyip Erdogan said its new drill ship would operate outside waters also claimed by Cyprus.

The Abdulhamid Han, Turkey's fourth drill ship, will operate 55 kilometres off the Gazipasa region in the southern coastal province of Antalya, Erdogan said.

"The survey and drilling work we are conducting in the Mediterranean are within our sovereign territory. We do not need to receive permission or consent from anyone for this," he said, speaking at a ceremony to launch the ship in Turkey's coastal Mersin province.

The launch comes at a time when long-running tensions between Turkey and Greece have risen again, with Erdogan accusing Athens of arming islands in the Aegean Sea that have a demilitarised status. Athens rejects this.


Natural gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean in the past decade have made the region a viable alternative energy source for Europe, but also exposed disputes between neighbouring countries in the region over rights to the resources.

A Greek government spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday that Athens is monitoring the situation carefully.

"We need to be vigilant ... We've always been doing what we have to do to have stability in our region and to fully defend international law and our own sovereign rights," spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou said.

Ankara said the 238-metre (780.84 ft) Abdulhamid Han is the largest and the most technologically advanced deep sea drilling ship in its survey and exploration fleet. It can drill down more than 12,000 metres.

Turkey has not sent a drill ship to the eastern Mediterranean since the withdrawal of the Yavuz drill ship from contested waters in September 2020.

The Yavuz, Fatih and Kanuni drill ships have been operating in the Black Sea, where Turkey discovered a natural gas reserve with a volume of 540 billion cubic metres.

Turkey is almost completely reliant on imports to meet its energy needs and rising global energy prices have derailed the government's plan to flip its current account deficit to a surplus.

(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen, Ezgi Erkoyun and Can Sezer, additional reporting by Angeliki Koutantou in Athens; Editing by Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman)


Brazil: WHO condemns attacks on monkeys over pox fears

Brazilian local media have reported several instances of attacks on monkeys — including an incident where 10 monkeys were poisoned at a nature reserve in Sao Paulo state — as fears of spread of monkeypox grow.

Dozens of monkey species live in Brazil

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday decried increasing attacks on monkeys over fears of spread of monkeypox in Brazil.

"What people need to know is that the transmission we are seeing is happening between humans," Margaret Harris, the spokeswoman for the WHO, told reporters in Geneva.

Harris's comments came after Brazilian news website, G1, reported Sunday that 10 monkeys had been poisoned in less than a week in Sao Jose do Rio Preto city in southeastern Sao Paulo state.

Harris said that while the disease can spread from animals to humans, the recent outbreak is between humans only.

"People certainly should not attack the animals," she said. 

Similar incidents were also reported in other cities, with people attacking monkeys by throwing stones or poisoning them, according to local media reports.

Monkeypox cases

Brazil has more than 1700 cases of monkeypox, according to figures from the WHO. One person died from the disease on July 29, according to Brazil's Health Ministry.

Monkeypox, caused by monkeypox virus, is transmitted from one person to another through droplets, contaminated objects and close contact with an infected person, according to the WHO.

So far, Europe has recorded around 13,912 confirmed cases, according to figures from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. 

Since May, nearly 90 countries have reported more than 29,000 monkeypox cases. The WHO classified the outbreak of the once-rare disease as a global health emergency in July.

rm/wd (AP, AFP)

Legal options running out for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

The tug of war over the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US is entering its final stages, with London's High Court set to make a final decision in September. His family is worried about his health.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been fighting extradition to the US for years

Julian Assange has been detained at London's high-security Belmarsh Prison, one of the UK's toughest detention centers, since 2019. The WikiLeaks founder has long since completed his original 50-week sentence for skipping bail in 2012. But he has remained in custody ever since, in extremely harsh conditions, in what is essentially detention pending deportation.

British Home Secretary Priti Patel signed the judicial extradition order in June. Assange has one last chance to be  allowed to appeal the judicial order, to the High Court in London. A ruling is expected next month. If his request is rejected Assange will be extradited to the United States within four weeks.

Concerns for Assange's health

If the judges deny her husband the chance to launch another round of appeals, Assange's wife and lawyer, Stella, fears the worst. "Julian's life depends on him winning this," she said, in an interview with DW. "Julian is clinically depressed. If he is extradited, and placed in the type of isolation that the US government says it reserves the right to place him in, then he will commit suicide."


Assange's Australian family are also very worried. Speaking to Sky Australia last week, his father, John Shipton, described Assange's health as "very worrying and becoming dire now."

"His health is in decline," Assange's brother Gabriel confirmed in the same interview. "He's in a very, very precarious situation… It really is heartbreaking to see Julian, this gentle genius, in a maximum-security prison alongside the most violent criminals in the United Kingdom."

The family has appealed to the new Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, asking him to intercede on behalf of his compatriot. During his election campaign, Albanese had declared, "Enough is enough," indicating that the persecution of the WikiLeaks founder must come to an end.

However, Assange's father and brother have said no progress has been made since the new prime minister took office, and that so far they have been unable to make an appointment with the prime minister to discuss the issue. In a recent public statement, Albanese pointed out that negotiations like these must be conducted quietly and diplomatically, behind the scenes.

Disputed extradition

According to Stella Assange, the High Court must allow further appeals against an earlier decision made by the same court. The principal bone of contention, however, is the formal interpretation of the extradition treaty between the UK and the US.

In the first instance, a district court judge also took the prisoner's state of health into account, and ruled against extradition. The more senior judges, however, did not accept this argument as decisive.

There are other aspects of Assange's case that have been ignored to date, despite the best efforts of his lawyers. For example: the question of whether Assange's right to freedom of expression and the protection of journalistic work ought not, in fact, to prevent extradition. Or whether the US made the request for political reasons.

"Ultimately, once the domestic remedies have been exhausted, he can then appeal to the European Court of Human Rights," said Stella Assange. However, it remains unclear whether the British judges would be prepared to wait for an ECHR ruling.

Assange's two sons, now 3 and 5 years old, have only ever known

 their father as a prisoner

That's because the British government is set on a collision course with the European Convention on Human Rights. A draft bill submitted to the British Parliament at the end of June proposes to reduce protection for refugees. Instead of going through the asylum process in Britain, migrants would be sent to Rwanda to apply for asylum there. If the Tory hard-liner Liz Truss moves into Downing Street in September, Assange has little hope of a successful political intervention.

Prison visits with children

Once a week, Stella Assange is allowed to visit her husband in Belmarsh with their children for an hour. The two boys, now 3 and 5 years old, have only ever known their father as a prisoner.

Every family visit resembles an obstacle course — even the children are thoroughly searched. "They check inside their mouth, behind their ears, in their hair, under their feet; they have to go through the dogs that sniff them from head to toe, and they understand this is a place where their father is not allowed to leave," said Stella Assange.

Ultimately, though, she said this fight is not just for her husband's life, but for press freedom in Europe. "Is it permissible for a foreign power to reach into the European space and limit what the press can publish?" she asked. "Think about if China were to do the same thing and prosecute a journalist in Germany on the same principle, because that journalist exposed Chinese crimes."

But an extradition treaty like the one between the UK and the US exists only between friendly nations, where there is in fact trust in each other's democratic justice system. And where, it appears, geopolitical factors weigh heavier than the fate of a single man.

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AUDIOS AND VIDEOS ON THE TOPIC

Space invaders: How video gamers are resisting a crypto onslaught

Joseph BOYLE
Tue, August 9, 2022 


When video game designer Mark Venturelli was asked to speak at Brazil's biggest gaming festival, he submitted a generic-sounding title for his presentation -- "The Future of Game Design" -- but that was not the talk he gave.

Instead, he launched into a 30-minute diatribe against the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies and the games it has spawned, mostly very basic smartphone apps that lure players with the promise of earning money.

"Everything that is done in this space right now is just bad -- actually it's terrible," he told AFP.

He is genuinely worried for the industry he loves, particularly because big gaming studios are also sniffing around the technology.

To crypto enthusiasts, blockchain will allow players to grab back some of the money they spend on games and make for higher-stakes enjoyment.

Critics say the opposite is true -- game makers will capture more profits while sidestepping laws on gambling and trading, and the profit motive will kill all enjoyment.

The battle lines are drawn for what could be a long confrontation over an industry worth some $300 billion a year, according to Accenture.

- 'Ecologically mortifying' -

Gamers like Venturelli might feel that they have triumphed in the early sorties.

Cryptocurrencies have crashed recently and dragged down the in-game tokens that had initially attracted players.


"Nobody is playing blockchain games right now," Mihai Vicol of Newzoo told AFP, saying between 90 and 95 percent of games had been affected by the crash.

Ubisoft, one of the world's biggest gaming firms, last year tried to introduce a marketplace to one of its hit games for trading NFTs, the digital tokens that act as receipts for anything from art to video game avatars.

But gamers' forums, many already scattered with anti-crypto sentiment, lit up in opposition.

Even French trade union IT Solidarity got involved, labelling blockchain "useless, costly, ecologically mortifying tech" -- a reference to the long-held criticism that blockchain networks are hugely power hungry.

Ubisoft quickly ditched the NFT marketplace in Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Breakpoint.

Last month, Minecraft, a world-building game hugely popular with children and teenagers, announced it would not allow blockchain technology.

The firm criticised the "speculative pricing and investment mentality" around NFTs and said introducing them would be "inconsistent with the long-term joy and success of our players".


The wider sector also has a serious image problem after a spectacular theft earlier this year of almost $600 million from Axie Infinity, a blockchain game popular in the Philippines.

Analyst firm NonFungible last week revealed that the NFT gaming sector crashed in the second quarter of this year with the number of sales plunging 22 percent.

All of this points to a bleak time for crypto enthusiasts, but blockchain entrepreneurs are not giving up.

- 'Revolutionise' gaming -

Sekip Can Gokalp, whose firms Infinite Arcade and Coda help developers introduce blockchain to their games, argues it is still "very early days".

He told AFP some of the attention-grabbing play-to-earn games had been "misguided" and he was convinced the technology still had the potential to "revolutionise" gaming.



Reports of a culture clash between gamers and crypto fans, he said, were overplayed and his research suggested there was substantial overlap between the two communities.

Gokalp can take heart from recent announcements by gaming giants such as Sega and Roblox, a popular platform mostly used by children, indicating they are still exploring blockchain.

And Ubisoft, despite abandoning its most high-profile blockchain effort, still has several crypto-related projects on the go.

Among the many benefits trumpeted by crypto enthusiasts are that the blockchain allows players to take items from one game to another, gives them ownership of those items and stores their progress across platforms.

Vicol, though, reckons blockchain gaming needs to find other selling points to succeed.

"It could be the future," he said, "but it's going to be different to how people envisage it today".

Brazilian Venturelli, whose games include the award-winning Relic Hunters, used his talk at the BIG Festival in Sao Paulo to dismiss all the benefits trumpeted by crypto fans as either unworkable, undesirable or already available.

And he told AFP that play-to-earn games risked real-world damage in Latin America -- a particular target for the industry -- by enticing young people away from occupations that bring benefits to society.

He said many people he knows, including venture capitalists and the heads of billion-dollar corporations, shared his point of view.

"They came to congratulate me on my talk," he said.

But with new blockchain games emerging every day, he accepts that the battle is far from over.

jxb/lth
China's Landmark #MeToo Case Returns To Court After Setback


By Beiyi SEOW
08/10/22
Zhou Xiaoxuan, seen here in 2021, has accused a former state TV host of sexually harassing her AFP / GREG BAKER

A landmark sexual harassment case in China was set to return to court Wednesday after an earlier ruling dealt a blow to the country's fledgling #MeToo movement.

Zhou Xiaoxuan stepped forward in 2018 to accuse state TV host Zhu Jun of forcibly kissing and groping her during her 2014 internship at the broadcaster.

While the case of Zhou, now 29, inspired many others to share their experiences of sexual assault publicly and sparked a social media storm, a court ruled last year there was insufficient evidence to back her allegation.

Zhou appealed, and is scheduled to appear in court for another hearing at 2 pm (0600 GMT) Wednesday in Beijing.

"I still feel a little scared and dejected now," she told AFP ahead of the hearing.

"The process of the first trial was a deep secondary injury."

She told AFP her legal team will focus on getting access to more evidence such as the police transcripts of interviews with her parents after she reported the incident -- which were not included in the earlier trial.

They are also requesting access to surveillance video footage.

Zhou said that Zhu was absent from earlier proceedings, and that while he had sued her for defamation, she was not aware of further developments in that case.

Zhou, also known by the pseudonym Xianzi, originally sued for a public apology from Zhu and 50,000 yuan ($7,400) in damages.

Her first hearing in December 2020 drew a large crowd and a significant police presence in Beijing.

Reporters from foreign media outlets including AFP were dragged away by police while filming the scene.

"The process for my case has truly been too difficult," Zhou said.

"I worry that other victims fear standing up for their rights after seeing what I've experienced."

Her case against Zhu was originally filed under the "personality rights" law -- covering rights relating to an individual's health and body.

But her lawyers later asked for it to be considered under a new sexual harassment law that was passed in 2020.

Despite that law, many women in China are still reluctant to come forward with harassment charges, and it is rare for cases to make it to court in a legal system that places a heavy burden on the claimant.

The country's #MeToo movement has stumbled since 2018, when a wave of women published allegations of sexual harassment against university professors.

Threatened at the time by the prospect of an uncontrolled mass movement, internet censors quickly began blocking social media hashtags and keywords, with members of the public often turning to homonyms.
In Norway, old oil platforms get a second life

By AFP
Published August 10, 2022

Three gigantic disused platforms are being taken apart bit by bit 
- Copyright AFP/File Frederic J. BROWN

Pierre-Henry DESHAYES

At an industrial yard in southwestern Norway, decommissioned oil platforms are slowly being dismantled for a second life in the circular economy.

Three gigantic disused platforms stand on the docks on the island municipality of Stord where they are being taken apart bit by bit — as much as 98 percent of their total 40,000 tonnes is suitable for recycling.

“If you come here in a year-and-a-half, you will see nothing left”, says Sturla Magnus, a senior official at Aker Solutions, a group specialised in both building and dismantling oil platforms.

Behind him, workmen in hardhats and fluorescent jackets are busy on the three structures: the platform from the Gyda field that was closed in 2020, and two others that have paid their dues at the Valhall field still in operation.

Once the security inspections are complete and the electrical equipment and dangerous materials like asbestos have been removed, the remainder — the giant, empty shells — are left to powerful cutting machines.

The most attractive waste are the tens of thousands of tonnes of high-quality steel, which can be reused on new oil platforms, other industrial structures or offshore wind turbines.

“This is steel that has to stand up to the harsh weather conditions in the North Sea. In other words, this is the best there is”, says Thomas Nygard, project director for decommissioning at Aker Solutions.

While the company is a player in the highly polluting oil industry and still makes more oil installations than it demolishes, it is in favour of recycling.

According to various estimates, one kilo (2.2 pounds) of recycled steel generates 58-70 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than a kilo of new steel.

– 10,000 installations to dismantle –


The North Sea is one of the oldest offshore oil and gas basins in the world and is gradually being depleted. Many of the oil platforms there are coming to the end of their life spans.

In a 2021 report, the industry association Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) — which has since changed name to Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) — forecast that more than one million tonnes of North Sea platforms would need to be dismantled by the end of the decade.

That is a large market, and one that is growing. Several years ago, OGUK’s forecast was for 200,000 tonnes.

“If you look globally, it’s probably close to 10,000 installations which are going to at some point in time come back to shore”, Magnus says.

Aker Solutions’ current workload is scheduled through 2028.

Meanwhile, some platforms are being maintained despite their advanced age.

One of Norway’s oldest platforms, Statfjord A, has been in use since 1979. It was due to be taken out of service in 2022, but oil giant Equinor decided in 2020 to extend its life span until 2027.

The same is true for two other platforms in the same field, Statfjord B and C, which are only a few years younger, but have been extended until 2035.

The reprieve is due to the remaining oil reserves which are believed to be “considerable”, a decision sure to have been sugar-coated by soaring oil prices.

– Environmental stakes –


Nevertheless, even some environmental activists are reluctant to see the platforms disappear entirely.

The earliest installations were made with legs of concrete — metal was preferred for later models — and according to the Norwegian branch of Friends of the Earth, the cement made for “fantastic” artificial corals because of its rough, pock-marked surface.

“All those who have worked on a platform will tell you: there are a lot of big fish that live nearby because there’s no industrial fishing and the fish can grow to be up to 10 years old”, says the group’s marine biologist, Per-Erik Schulze.

The organisation has therefore called for the cement pillars to be left at sea, difficult as they are to uproot. The rest can be dismantled and marine reserves created around the sites.

After siphoning the depths of the oceans for decades, Norway’s oil sector could thereby end up helping to protect them — even if just a little.

 

On the menu at a UK restaurant: carbon footprint

Switching to a plant-based diet is one of the most effective ways for an individual to reduce their carbon footprint, experts fr
Switching to a plant-based diet is one of the most effective ways for an individual to reduce
 their carbon footprint, experts from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 
say.

The menu at The Canteen in southwest England doesn't just let diners know how much a dish costs. They can also check its carbon footprint.

The carrot and beetroot pakora with yoghurt sauce is responsible for just 16 grams of CO2 emissions. The aubergines with a miso and harissa sauce with tabbouleh and Zaatar toast caused 675 grams of carbon dioxide.

As customers weigh their options, the menu at the vegetarian restaurant in Bristol includes a comparison with a dish that it does not serve: the emissions from a UK-produced hamburger.

"Three kilos for a burger, wow! I can't believe it," exclaimed Enyioma Anomelechi, a 37-year-old diner sipping a beer outside in the sunshine.

The menu notes that a real beef burger's emissions is "10 times the amount of its vegan alternative".

The carbon footprints of businesses and consumers have come under growing scrutiny as countries scramble to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius and to achieve net-zero emission by 2050.

The Canteen became in July the first restaurant to agree to put its  on the menu under a campaign spearheaded by UK vegan campaigning charity Viva!

The restaurant's manager, Liam Stock, called the move a way to "see what we are doing; to understand and improve ourselves".

The average British person has an annual carbon footprint of more than 10 tonnes, according to UK government figures.

Britain has set the ambitious goal of reducing harmful emissions by 78 percent by 2035, compared with 1990 figures, in order to meet its international  commitments.

'Climate emergency'

Switching to a plant-based diet is one of the most effective ways for an individual to reduce their carbon footprint, experts from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in April.

The livestock industry replaces CO2-absorbing forests with land for grazing and soy crops for cattle feed. The animals also belch huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Whether diners will let carbon footprints influence their order choices remains to be seen, but Stock said the menu innovation has stoked interest and support.

"In England if you're a big chain restaurant, it's the law that you have to have calories on (the menu)," he said.

The Canteen became in July the first restaurant to agree to put its carbon footprint on the menu under a campaign spearheaded by
The Canteen became in July the first restaurant to agree to put its carbon footprint on the
 menu under a campaign spearheaded by UK vegan campaigning charity Viva!

"But a lot of people are saying... they're more interested in carbon."

While Anomelechi noted the "huge" difference in emissions between a hamburger and other dishes, he said he did not necessarily want to be burdened with knowing his order's calorie count or carbon footprint.

"When I go out to eat I just want to enjoy," he added, noting he would be more inclined to change his ways when grocery shopping.

Laura Hellwig, campaigns manager at Viva!, said the carbon footprint figure should become compulsory.

"We are in a  and consumers have to be able to make informed choices," said the activist.

In her view, "most people would actually choose for the planet" if confronted with a comparison between the carbon footprint of a meat-based meal and a vegan dish.

'Cradle to store'

Stock said he knew his restaurant's dishes would score low carbon footprints, as most of his ingredients are sourced regionally.

"We didn't have to change anything," he said, while admitting some surprises, such as learning that imported spices drive up emissions.

To calculate the dishes' footprints, The Canteen sent its recipes and the source of the ingredients to a specialised company called MyEmissions.

It is able to calculate the carbon impact from "cradle to store", taking into account farming, processing, transport and packaging.

"If I was choosing between two dishes, maybe depending on how hungry I was, I might choose the one with a lower footprint," said Nathan Johnson, a 43-year-old diner at the restaurant.

That day, he opted for the chef's salad, which racks up 162 grams of .

Another diner, 29-year-old Emma Harvey, also backed the idea of increased awareness of  "and the ethical effects of the food that we're eating".

"We have to incorporate things (like) that into everyday life," she said.Restaurant menu design could impact carbon footprint of dining

© 2022 AFP

Stranded beluga whale lifted from France's Seine river, en route to Normandy


Issued on: 10/08/2022 - 

00:40Rescuers pull up a net as they rescue a beluga whale stranded in the River Seine on August 9, 2022. © Jean-Francois Monier, AFP

Text by:FRANCE 24


The beluga whale stranded in the river Seine in northern France was removed from the water early Wednesday and is now being transported to a coastal town in Normandy in a bid to save its life, officials and activists involved in the rescue mission said.


After nearly six hours of work, the 800-kilogram (1,800 pounds) cetacean was lifted from the river by a net and crane at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) and placed on a barge under the immediate care of a dozen veterinarians.

The all-white beluga, a protected species usually found in cold Arctic waters, was then confined in a large lock system and is now being transported in a refrigerated lorry to the coastal town of Ouistreham, in Normandy, where it will be put in a salt water lock.

The four-metre (13-foot) whale was spotted more than a week ago heading towards Paris and was stranded some 130 kilometres (80 miles) inland from the Channel at Saint-Pierre-La-Garenne in Normandy.
Since Friday, the animal’s movement inland had been blocked by a lock at Saint-Pierre-La-Garenne, 70 kilometres northwest of Paris, and its health had deteriorated after it refused to eat.

A seawater basin at a lock in the Channel port of Ouistreham has been readied for the animal, which will spend three days there under observation in preparation for its release.

The “exceptional” operation to return it to the sea is not without risk for the whale, which is already weakened and stressed.

Despite the success of the first stage of the rescue operation, there are still doubts about the chances of survival for the whale, which should normally weigh 1,200 kg.

“The veterinarians are not necessarily optimistic concerning the beluga’s health,” Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, secretary general of the Eure prefecture, told BFM TV.

“It’s horribly thin for a beluga and that does not bode well for its life expectancy for the medium term,” she said.



The 24 divers involved in the operation and the rescuers handling the ropes had to try several times between 10:00pm and 4:00am to lure the animal into the nets to be lifted out of the water.

A handful of curious people remained on the bank all night to observe the operation.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)