US fails to address reparations' calls at UN race record review

2022/8/12 
© Agence France-Presse

Washington is committed 'to eliminating systemic racism', 

Desiree Cormier Smith told a UN review of the United States' race record

Geneva (AFP) - Washington vowed to do better on battling racial discrimination at an emotion-laden UN review of its record Friday, but officials did not respond to calls for reparations after centuries of systemic racism.

"We need to continue to make strong, concerted efforts to eliminate the scourge of racial discrimination in our country," said Desiree Cormier Smith, who was recently appointed as the first US special representative for racial equity and justice.

Speaking before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), she stressed Washington's commitment "to eliminating systemic racism", but acknowledged there was "so much left to do".

Cormier Smith, herself of African American descent, co-chaired a large, diverse US delegation at the two days of hearings in Geneva.

She pointed out that the issue was "deeply personal for many of us".

The committee of 18 independent experts evaluates how countries adhere to an international convention on eliminating all forms of racial discrimination, which the United States ratified in 1994.

The US officials faced questions from the committee on issues including police violence and killings of black people, rising levels of hate speech, and the treatment of indigenous people and migrants.

Reparations commission?

During its first regular review of the US record since 2014, the CERD committee for the first time also addressed the thorny issue of reparations.

Faith Dikeledi Pansy Tlakula, a CERD committee member from South Africa and its lead expert on the US situation, asked the officials whether Congress or President Joe Biden himself planned to respond to demands for "a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans".

Rights advocates argue that the legacy of slavery and subsequent periods marked by exploitation, segregation and violence, continue to be seen in economic, health, education, law enforcement, housing and other policies and practices.

Statistics show that black families on average have far less wealth than white families, while black people are imprisoned at three times the rate of their white peers, and are far more likely to die at the hands of police.

 
'Disappointing'

Other committee members also raised the issue of reparations in their questions.

But the US officials, who spent hours responding to the committee's queries, failed to address the matter before the hearing time ran out.

They were given 48 hours to provide written responses. The committee is due to issue its findings on August 30.

Many of the rights advocates who had travelled to Geneva to brief the CERD ahead of the review and attend the hearings, hailed the committee for pressing the US on reparations, but decried the lack of response.

"The issue of reparations was elevated to an unprecedented level," said Wade Henderson, former head of umbrella rights organisation The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

He said it was "disappointing" that the officials had not responded, but voiced optimism it would "inspire a much more aggressive campaign" at home.

Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said he hoped that Washington would soon provide a serious response.

"It is the defining racial justice issue of the era," he said.

DON'T FORGET THE UN RIGHTS FOR INDGENOUS PEOPLES CALL FOR REPATRIATIONS AS WELL

US astronaut Jessica Watkins sets sights on Moon... and Mars

2022/8/13 
© Agence France-Presse

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins spoke to AFP from the International Space Station on August 1, 2022

Washington (AFP) - If you had the choice, would you rather go to the Moon or Mars?

The question is utterly theoretical for most of us, but for US astronaut Jessica Watkins, it hits a bit differently.

"Whichever comes first!" Watkins says with a laugh, in a lengthy interview with AFP from her post on the International Space Station (ISS).

At 34, Watkins has many years ahead of her at the US space agency NASA, and could very well be one of the first women to step foot on the Moon in the coming years, as a member of the Artemis team preparing for upcoming lunar missions.

Missions to Mars are off in the future, but given that astronauts often work into their 50s, Watkins could conceivably have a shot.

Either way is just fine, she says.

"I certainly would be just absolutely thrilled to be able to be a part of the effort to go to another planetary surface, whether it be the Moon or Mars."

In the meantime, Watkins' first space flight was a history maker: she became the first Black woman to undertake a long-term stay on the ISS, where she has already spent three months as a mission specialist, with three months to go.

The Apollo missions that sent humans to the Moon were solely staffed by white men, and NASA has sought over the years to widen its recruitment to a more diverse group of candidates.

The agency now wants to put both women and people of color on the Moon.

"I think it is an important milestone for the agency and the country, and the world as well," Watkins says. "Representation is important. It is true that it is difficult to be what you can't see."

The Maryland native added that she was "grateful for all of those who have come before me... the women and Black astronauts who have paved the way to enable me to be here today."

Geologist at heart

Born in Gaithersburg in the suburbs of Washington, Watkins grew up in Colorado before heading to California to study geology at Stanford University.

During her doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, her research focused in part on Mars and she worked on NASA's Curiosity rover, which just celebrated 10 years on the Red Planet.

Watkins still has a soft spot for Mars. In fact, she has published a scientific study on the planet during her stint on the ISS.

"I would certainly call myself a geologist, a scientist, an astronaut," she says.

Watkins remembers the moment that she realized space and planetary geology -- the composition of formation of celestial bodies such as planets, moons and asteroids -- would be her life's work.

It came during one of her first geology classes, in a lecture about planetary accretion, or when solids gradually collide with each other to form larger bodies, and ultimately planets.

"I remember learning about that process... and realizing then that that was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and what I wanted to study," she recalls.

"The notion of being able to be a part of an effort to actually do field work on the surface of another planetary body is super exciting, and I look forward to being a part of it."

The Artemis program, a successor to Apollo, is aimed at slowly establishing a lasting human presence on the Moon. The end goal is to set up a base that would be a forward operating station for any eventual trips to Mars.

The first uncrewed mission under the Artemis banner is set to take off for the Moon at the end of August.

Watkins is one of 18 astronauts assigned to the Artemis team, to either provide ground support or eventually take flight.

Officially, every active NASA astronaut (there are currently 42) has a chance to be selected to take part in a lunar landing.

'Push the limits'

While previous mission experience may weigh heavily in NASA's choices for personnel for the first crewed Artemis flight, Watkins's academic background certainly should boost her chances of being chosen.

Being good-natured and having a healthy team spirit are also key for space flight teams, who spend long periods of time confined in small spaces.

Watkins says her colleagues would call her "easygoing," and her time playing rugby taught her the value of working on a team.

So how does she define being an astronaut?

"Each of us all have that sense of exploration and a desire to continue to push the limits of what humans are capable of. And I think that is something that unites us," she says.

Watkins says she dreamed of going to space when she was young, and always kept it in the back of her mind -- without ever thinking it could be a reality.

"Don't be afraid to dream big," she says. "You'll never know when your dreams will come true."

'Shameful and disgusting' Republicans slammed for inciting violence against law enforcement officers

Tom Boggioni
August 12, 2022

Ronna Romney McDaniel (Photo via Olivier Douliey for AFP)

Late Thursday, the president of Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association lashed out at Republicans who have been attacking the FBI and Department of Justice employees for their part in serving a warrant for classified materials at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort earlier in the week.

Since FBI agents descended on the former president's Florida home at the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland, Republican Party lawmakers have been raising a fuss that has included calls to "defund the FBI" as well as calling for investigations and purging of DOJ officials if the GOP takes control of the House in November.

With that in mind, the Washington Post reports that Larry Cosme issued a statement stating the GOP lawmakers making threats about "coming for you" is far beyond the pale.

While noting a Cincinnati man attacked an FBI field office -- and subsequently died -- Thursday afternoon with the assault directly attributed to the violent rhetoric against the department due to the Mar-a-Lago investigation, Cosme stated, "The rank-and-file officers on the street and agents, they are career employees that … cherish the Constitution like the average American."

IN OTHER NEWS: Rep. Jamie Raskin dismisses right-wing calls for civil war as 'desperate' response to Trump's 'losing' case

He added, "So for them to be attacked by these individuals that believe something else — or they’re believing, you know, someone’s rhetoric that’s uncalled for — to me, it’s shameful and disgusting.”

The Post report adds that Republican National Committee head Ronna Romney McDaniel is also at fault, pointing out that she inflamed conservatives with an op-ed for Fox News insisting, "Trump targeted by Biden administration, and they can do it to you, too.”

The report adds, "The FBI is not the only target of such rhetoric: Republicans this week have also been warning Americans that an army of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents is 'coming' for them, as Democrats seek to boost the tax agency’s funding and ability to pursue tax dodgers. Many in the GOP have zeroed in on the fact that certain special agents carry guns, casting them as a threat or falsely suggesting the IRS is arming tens of thousands of new employees. Treasury Department officials have said the proposed funding is meant to target high-income tax evasion."

FBI agents condemn threats against agency after Trump raid

2022/8/11 
© Agence France-Presse

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation came under attack by conservatives after its agents raded Donald Trump's home

Washington (AFP) - The FBI Agents Association said Thursday that the surge of threats against them after the raid on the home of former president Donald Trump encouraged violence against law enforcement and was "unacceptable."

Conservative politicians and Trump himself bashed the Federal Bureau of Investigation as "corrupt" and "politicized" following the raid Monday, in which agents sought classified documents that Trump had retained in violation of rules on official records.

That was followed by a surge of violent threats against the FBI and Justice Department on social media and in conservative chat rooms.

"Special Agents and their families should never be threatened with violence, including for doing their jobs," the association said in a statement.

"The threats made recently contribute to an atmosphere where some have, or will, accept violence against law enforcement as appropriate. It is not," it said.

The statement was released shortly after Attorney General Merrick Garland said he himself had approved the unprecedented raid on a former president's home.

Garland called the attacks on the FBI "unfounded."

"I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked," he said.

After the raid Monday, Trump issued a statement saying his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida was "under siege, raided and occupied by a large group of FBI agents."

"Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third World Countries," Trump said.

Hour Republican leader Kevin McCarthy accused the FBI and the Justice Department of "weaponized politicization.”

Republican Senator Ted Cruz said the FBI had become "an attack dog to help the Democrats" and Republican Congressman Paul Gosar tweeted that "we must destroy the FBI."

Another fervent Trump supporter, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, attacked the agency and spoke of "civil war."

"The FBI has gone rogue and is doing the dirty work of a communist regime," she said on Twitter.

"This is not a partisan or political issue," the agents' association said in their statement.

"Calls for violence against law enforcement are unacceptable, and should be condemned by all leaders."

The statement also came after an armed man's attack on the FBI's office in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday which turned into a pursuit of the suspect into the countryside, in which the man exchanged gunfire with law enforcement.

Officials later said the situation was later contained, without providing details. The reason for the attack remained unclear.

Trump's history of playing loose with intelligence

AFP
August 13, 2022

A tweet from US President Donald Trump dated August 30, 2019, apparently shows a classified US intelligence community image of an Iranian rocket launch site.failed rocket lauch attempt at the Safir SLV Launch site in northern Iran. 


Washington (AFP) - Court documents unsealed Friday showed that FBI agents retrieved a number of highly classified documents in a raid on ex-President Donald Trump's Florida home.

The raid was just the most recent episode in which the former US leader was accused of playing loose with and abusing classified information.

Iranian missile site

As president, Trump had the power to unilaterally declassify information. But some of his actions stunned the US intelligence community nonetheless.

On August 30, 2019 he tweeted what was believed to be a classified high-resolution image of an Iranian rocket launch site.

"The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir [Space Launch Vehicle] Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran," Trump tweeted.

Israeli intelligence

On May 10, 2017 Trump met Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the White House Oval Office.

In the meeting, Trump told the two Russians about intelligence the United States had received from a Middle East ally about an Islamic State plot.

The highly classified intelligence, it turned out, came from Israel, which was upset by the disclosure, according to media reports.

- Location of nuclear subs -

In April 2017 Trump told Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte that two US nuclear submarines were off the coast of North Korea, boasting of "a lot of firepower," according to a Philippines transcript of their call.

The Pentagon only very rarely discloses the location of its submarines, which are crucial to the US strategic defense force.

Secret nuclear weapons

In a 2019 interview Trump told writer Bob Woodward about an unknown US nuclear capability that may have been a specious boast, or divulged highly secret information.

"I have built a nuclear, a weapons system that nobody’s ever had in this country before," Trump told Woodward.

"We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before," he added.

Details of Special Forces raid

After a US operation killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria in October 2019, Trump, boasting of the attack, revealed numerous details that the Pentagon would normally withhold, like how many helicopters were involved, how the commandos entered the residence, and that the US had intelligence from Islamic State use of phones and the internet.

The information "could contribute to a reverse engineering of our intelligence methods by the adversary," former special operations commander Michael Nagata told Politico.
Secrecy with Putin

Trump also withheld intelligence from his spy chiefs. In July 2018 Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, was visibly surprised at the Aspen Security Forum when the host told him the White House had tweeted that Russian President Vladimir Putin was invited to visit Washington.

"Say that again?" Coats said.

Coats also said he was in the dark about what Trump discussed in a two-hour, one-on-one meeting with the wily Russian leader three days earlier.

"I don't know what happened in that meeting," Coats said.

'This is insane': Watchdog group stunned by details in Mar-a-Lago search warrant

Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams
August 12, 2022



Multiple news outlets that reviewed the warrant authorizing a federal search of Mar-a-Lago reported Friday that former President Donald Trump is being investigated for potential violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice, and unlawful removal of government records.

"This is insane. If you're not fed up, you're not paying enough attention," tweeted the advocacy group Public Citizen in response to the Espionage Act revelation.

Some reports about the warrant and an inventory of what agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation removed from the Florida residence—including from Breitbart, Fox News, and The Wall Street Journal—came before a federal judge's 3:00 pm ET deadline for Trump's legal team to respond to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) request to unseal the documents.

Trump made clear in social media posts and a legal filing that he did not oppose making the documents public, which led government attorneys to request that the court do so. As details of the leaked materials circulated Friday afternoon, U.S. Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the official release.

As Charlie Savage at The New York Times summarized:
The search warrant for Trump's residence cited three criminal laws, all from Title 18 of the United States Code. Section 793, better known as the Espionage Act, which covers the unlawful retention of defense-related information that could harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary; Section 1519, which covers destroying or concealing documents to obstruct government investigations or administrative proceedings; and Section 2071, which covers the unlawful removal of government records. Notably, none of those laws turn on whether information was deemed to be unclassified.

According to Politico, a receipt accompanying the warrant "shows that Trump possessed documents including a handwritten note; documents marked with 'TS/SCI,' which indicate one of the highest levels of government classification; and another item labeled 'Info re: President of France.'"

Details of the search warrant and inventory followed reporting by The Washington Post late Thursday that FBI agents were attempting to recover classified nuclear weapons documents from Trump's home on Monday.

FOSSIL FOOT FETISH

A key feature contributed to sauropods getting so enormous, new dino foot study reveals

The Conversation
August 11, 2022

Sauropod Dinosaurs (Herschel Hoffmeyer/Shutterstock)

For the first time, we have shown that a soft heel pad was crucial to how sauropod dinosaurs supported their immense weight, according to a new digital reconstruction of their feet.

Sauropods, which weighed up to 50 tonnes and dominated the world’s ecosystems for around 100 million years, appear to have developed soft heel pads early in their evolution, and it was likely a key step that allowed sauropods to become the largest animals to have ever walked the earth. Our work appears this week in the journal Science Advances.

‘Thunder lizards’

One of the most notable things about sauropods is the immense size of some species: the feet of sauropod dinosaurs would have shaken the earth as they walked. Indeed, the name of one of the first described sauropods to gain popular appeal, Brontosaurus, means “thunder lizard”.

Sauropods had long necks and tails, and walked on four long, pillar-like legs, but they didn’t start out gigantic. Around 230 million years ago, the ancestors of these dinosaurs were small, two-legged animals that would have looked very much like their saurischian cousins, the theropods; most probably wouldn’t have weighed more than an ostrich.

But starting around 210 million years ago, sauropod ancestors increased in size, with an estimated body mass approaching one tonne. The largest sauropods such as Argentinosaurus, Patagotitan and Australotitan probably reached adult sizes in excess of 50 tonnes more than ten times the size of the largest living terrestrial animal today, the African elephant.

It goes without saying that animals of that size had immense feet. Some sauropod footprints found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia are more than 1.7 meters long – big enough for most people to bathe in!

But what did sauropod feet really look like, and how did they support the titanic adult body weight of their owners?


An accumulation of sauropod tracks in the Lower Cretaceous Broome Sandstone, Walmadany area, Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia. 

Steven W. Salisbury, Author provided

On the trail of sauropods

Having spent many years tracking sauropods in the Kimberley, I [Steve Salisbury] have long pondered what their feet might have looked like in life. The front feet appear to have been like those of elephants, with the bones arranged in a near-vertical, semi-circular column, with greatly reduced finger bones except for the thumb. The “hand” prints of most sauropods are typically rounded or “bean-shaped”.

Despite their commonly portrayed columnar look, however, sauropod feet were very different to those of elephants. Sauropods had long, flexible toes, as evidenced by the mobility between the bones. Fossilized tracks show they could spread their toes, adjusting the splay of the foot as they walked across different surfaces – this is not what we find in elephants today.



Computer modeling shows sauropod feet had a soft tissue pad. 

Andreas Jannel, Author provided

It has long been assumed that like other dinosaurs, sauropods walked on their toes, with the ankle joint elevated off the ground. Yet many sauropod tracks include the impression of a large “heel”.

This has led many paleontologists to speculate that sauropods had some kind of “heel pad”. But apart from tracks, definitive evidence of a heel pad in sauropods has remained just that – academic speculation. Our work aims to change that.
Walking in the feet of giants

Armed with knowledge of what the foot skeleton of various sauropods looked like, along with information about their tracks, Andréas Jannel went about trying to figure out how their feet may have worked, as part of his PhD at The University of Queensland. We also teamed up with Olga Panagiotopoulou, an expert in the foot mechanics of modern animals, and elephants in particular.

Andréas generated 3D digital models for the foot skeleton of various sauropods and sauropod precursors. He and Olga then went about testing the strength of these models using a technique known as finite element analysis. They compared how different postures influenced the mechanical behavior of the foot with and without the addition of a soft-tissue pad.


Forces exerted on sauropod foot bones with and without a soft tissue pad.

 Andreas Jannel, Author provided

Regardless of the posture of the foot – toes on the ground, toes partially on the ground, or only the tips of the toes on the ground — none of the models could sustain the magnitude of mechanical forces that sauropods would have encountered in life, unless they also had a soft tissue pad beneath the “heel”.

Our findings indicate that a soft tissue pad would have cushioned the entire foot skeleton, allowing it to absorb mechanical forces during weight bearing. Put simply, without that pad beneath the heel, bones in the feet of sauropods would have crumpled under their immense weight.


The sauropods had soft tissue pads to absorb their enormous weight and enable them to walk on land. Andreas Jannel, Author provided

Arrival of the giants

Sauropod precursors such as Plateosaurus have traditionally been reconstructed as having walked with their toes slightly raised off the ground and with no heel pad. Our models now indicate their foot skeleton could not have supported their body weight without some form of additional padding.




Goolarabooloo Law Boss Richard Hunter alongside a 1.75 metre sauropod track in the Lower Cretaceous Broome Sandstone, Western Australia. The sauropod that made these tracks would have been around 5.4 metres high at the hips. From Salisbury et al. (2017). Photo: Steven W. Salisbury; image Anthony Romilio, Author provided

Some fossil tracks thought to belong to animals such as Plateosaurus do show evidence of pads starting to coalesce behind the toes. This “incipient” heel pad – one just starting to develop – would be consistent with our models.

The presence of an incipient heel pad in sauropod precursors laid the foundations for the evolution of a more substantial structure. By 170 million years ago, the first “true” sauropods were exceeding 10 metric tonnes, and tracks attributed to them show a well-developed heel pad.

The stage had been set, and within 10 million to 15 million years, titans weighing more than 30 tonnes were walking the earth, and the diversification of giant sauropods had begun. They would dominate world ecosystems for the next 100 million years.

Steven W. Salisbury, PhD; Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland; Andréas Jannel, Postdoctoral researcher, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, and Olga Panagiotopoulou, Senior lecturer PhD, Monash University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Mexican officials say close to accessing trapped miners

Agence France-Presse
August 12, 2022

Friends and relatives hold a candlelit vigil for the trapped miners 

Pedro PARDO AFP

Mexican authorities said on Friday they are in a position to enter the flooded coal mine where 10 workers have been trapped for more than a week.

"We have all the conditions to go down there today... to search for and rescue" the miners, said Laura Velazquez, the civil defense national coordinator, during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's morning press conference.

Velazquez said the rescue operation will become possible once "97 percent of the water" has been extracted from the 50-meter deep mine in the town of Agujita in the northern Coahuila state.

"The necessary resources for the search and rescue have been prepared," she added.

The water level in one of the three wells in which rescuers will try to enter has been brought down to just 70 centimeters (27 inches), from a high of 30 meters (98 feet) the day after the accident that flooded the mine, Defense Minister Luis Cresensio Sandoval said.

The other two wells still have 3.9 and 4.7 meters of water.

Authorities consider 1.5 meters to be an acceptable water level to gain access to the crudely constructed El Pinabete mine.

"In any case, we're going to continue pumping.... The process is slow but we don't want to take any risks," added Velazquez.

Since the August 3 accident, there have been no signs of life from the 10 miners trapped inside.

Five miners managed to escape following the initial accident, in which workers carrying out excavation activities hit an adjoining area full of water.


Several hundred rescuers, including soldiers and military scuba divers, are taking part in efforts to save the miners, whose relatives held a vigil Thursday night for those trapped underground.

© 2022 AFP

Poaching of 'status symbol' date mussels threatens Italy's coasts

Agence France-Presse
August 12, 2022

Calcareous rock is gutted by hundreds of holes chiseled by poachers to extract date mussels Andreas SOLARO AFP

Off the rocky coast of southeastern Italy, two scuba divers from the financial crimes police bob in and out of the blue waters, under the curious gaze of vacationers.

They're seeking neither buried treasure nor smuggled contraband, but evidence of the hunt for date mussels, a forbidden mollusc turned status symbol whose poaching is indelibly destroying Italy's coastlines.

The signs are unmistakeable.

Just below the surface, the calcareous rock that is home to countless organisms is gutted by hundreds of manmade holes -- proof that unscrupulous poachers have chiseled, crushed and blasted the reef to extract the bivalves burrowed inside.

"These men put on their oxygen tanks and masks, go down... with hammer and chisel and start to break the rock," said Arcangelo Raffaele Gennari, commander of the Guardia di Finanza in Puglia's port city of Monopoli.

"There have been cases in which we've seized mini jackhammers," he told AFP during a recent visit.

"Even explosives have been used."

Fueling the trade are the soaring black-market prices for the narrow brown "Lithophaga lithophaga", said to boast a delicate oyster-like flavor, which can cost nearly 200 euros ($205) per kilo.

Poachers supply fish markets or restaurant owners who sell under the table to high rollers -- including cash-rich mafiosi -- flaunting their wealth at Sunday lunches with a raw seafood platter or extravagant spaghetti.

"If you think that in an hour and a half, two hours, if you find the right spot you manage to take out eight or nine kilos... you've made an exorbitant amount of money in one day," said Gennari.

Denuded reefs

Thirty years ago, marine biologist Stefano Piraino and colleagues discovered that more than 40 percent of Puglia's Ionian coast was extensively damaged due to date mussel harvesting.

That research led to Italy's 1998 law prohibiting their collection, sale and consumption, followed by a 2006 EU-wide ban.

Returning this year to the same areas as part of a government-funded project, Piraino has so far found fewer sites showing recent damage but has little hope for reefs already destroyed.

Time alone does not heal the "all white, denuded" rock surface devoid of life, he said: "It's a devastating impact".

Date mussels' painfully slow growth cycle -- taking three decades to grow just five centimeters -- means that once taken, they're not soon replaced.

But more critical is the impact on the delicate marine ecosystem, where not only the reef but all the organisms dependent on it are destroyed.

A 2019 study by Naples' Parthenope University found an average of 1,500 manmade holes per square meter in the reefs of the south-western Sorrento Peninsula, damage that ultimately causes the rock to collapse entirely and harm the seabed below.

Researchers are examining ways to help reefs recover, including removing sea urchins, whose grazing prevents new vegetation from growing on rocks, or planting seedlings of tiny organisms in hopes they will propagate.

But the problem goes beyond Italy, warned Piraino, who called for more education and enforcement throughout the Mediterranean.

A search of TripAdvisor.com found date mussels mentioned by reviewers or shown in photographs as recently as last year in restaurants in Albania, Slovenia and Montenegro, where they are illegal but more easily found.

Environmental disaster

In March, environmental groups hailed a six-year prison sentence for the head of a criminal ring operating in protected areas near Naples and the island of Capri -- the first-ever conviction for the crime of "environmental disaster" related to date mussels.

"Attacking the ecosystem isn't like selling drugs," said Mariagiorgia De Gennaro, a lawyer for maritime non-profit Marevivo, a party to the case.

"It's a domino effect that has an irreversible impact."

Authorities are increasingly clamping down on every part of the chain, from fishermen to restauranteurs and even consumers.

Last year Puglia seized 97 tons of illegal seafood, including date mussels, the most in Italy, according to environmental group Legambiente.

Most illegal fishing offenses occur in Sicily, Puglia and Campania.

Last month, a video went viral of a man on a beach near Naples hammering a rock to extract the molluscs in full view of sunbathers.

More commonly, perpetrators -- usually a diver, helper and lookout -- operate at dusk or just before dawn.

"It's a niche market operating in the ultimate secrecy," said police commander Gennari.

But authorities cannot win the battle as long as there remains a willing market from consumers.

"When you eat a plate of linguini with date mussels, a whole square meter of ecosystem has been destroyed," Piraino said.

© 2022 AFP

GLOBALIZATION MEANS IT IS STILL CHEAPER TO FLY PEI MUSSELS FROM CANADA TO ITALY

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Former Florida GOP lawmaker caught up in FBI investigation into multi-million dollar 'bilking' of taxpayers: report

Tom Boggioni
August 12, 2022

Allen Bense (Photo via Florida State University)

According to a report from the Palm Beach Post, a former Florida Republican lawmaker who served as Speaker of the House is under investigation and accused of ripping off taxpayers to the tune of millions after a company he heads reportedly submitted invoices for hurricane clean-up that was never done.

Allan Bense, who served in the state legislature from 1998 to 2006 where he rose to speaker before being replaced by Marco Rubio, is one of the subjects mentioned in an investigation into GAC Contractors according to court documents.

According to the report, the investigation centers around "millions" billed to local governments in 2018 for Hurricane Michael clean-up.

"The company’s top executives, including Bense and its late CEO Derwin White, commanded its crews to visit work sites with equipment but not perform any work, and then billed Bay County, the school district and other government municipalities, federal investigators allege in an affidavit filed with a search warrant carried out last year at the company’s headquarters," the report states before adding, "Federal law enforcement authorities, in the affidavit, said that Bense and White ordered GAC's workers to clean up their own homes or properties and that of other top public officials, including state Sen. George Gainer, Lynn Haven City Attorney Adam Albritton's house and Bay County School Superintendent Bill Husfelt, among others."

The report adds, "The search warrant itself called for government review of any and all records, documents and supporting documentation relating to owner account expenditures and accounting entries for Derwin White and Allan Bense."

"Bense, who served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1998 to 2006 and as House Speaker between 2004-06, has been a managing partner of GAC Contractors, alongside Derwin White, since 1996. This year he is listed by the Florida Division of Corporations as the company's chairman," the Post is reporting.

ICYMI

Cognitive biases and brain biology help explain why facts don’t change minds
The Conversation
August 12, 2022

Human anatomy illustration, central nervous system with a visible brain (Shutterstock)

“Facts First” is the tagline of a CNN branding campaign which contends that “once facts are established, opinions can be formed.” The problem is that while it sounds logical, this appealing assertion is a fallacy not supported by research.

Cognitive psychology and neuroscience studies have found that the exact opposite is often true when it comes to politics: People form opinions based on emotions, such as fear, contempt and anger, rather than relying on facts. New facts often do not change people’s minds.

I study human development, public health and behavior change. In my work, I see firsthand how hard it is to change someone’s mind and behaviors when they encounter new information that runs counter to their beliefs.Your worldview, including beliefs and opinions, starts to form during childhood as you’re socialized within a particular cultural context. It gets reinforced over time by the social groups you keep, the media you consume, even how your brain functions. It influences how you think of yourself and how you interact with the world.

For many people, a challenge to their worldview feels like an attack on their personal identity and can cause them to harden their position. Here’s some of the research that explains why it’s natural to resist changing your mind – and how you can get better at making these shifts.

Rejecting what contradicts your beliefs

In an ideal world, rational people who encounter new evidence that contradicts their beliefs would evaluate the facts and change their views accordingly. But that’s generally not how things go in the real world.

Partly to blame is a cognitive bias that can kick in when people encounter evidence that runs counter to their beliefs. Instead of reevaluating what they’ve believed up until now, people tend to reject the incompatible evidence. Psychologists call this phenomenon belief perseverance. Everyone can fall prey to this ingrained way of thinking.

Being presented with facts – whether via the news, social media or one-on-one conversations – that suggest their current beliefs are wrong causes people to feel threatened. This reaction is particularly strong when the beliefs in question are aligned with your political and personal identities. It can feel like an attack on you if one of your strongly held beliefs is challenged.

Confronting facts that don’t line up with your worldview may trigger a “backfire effect,” which can end up strengthening your original position and beliefs, particularly with politically charged issues. Researchers have identified this phenomenon in a number of studies, including ones about opinions toward climate change mitigation policies and attitudes toward childhood vaccinations.

Focusing on what confirms your beliefs

There’s another cognitive bias that can get in the way of changing your mind, called confirmation bias. It’s the natural tendency to seek out information or interpret things in a way that supports your existing beliefs. Interacting with like-minded people and media reinforces confirmation bias. The problem with confirmation bias is that it can lead to errors in judgment because it keeps you from looking at a situation objectively from multiple angles.

A 2016 Gallup poll provides a great example of this bias. In just one two-week period spanning the 2016 election, both Republicans and Democrats drastically changed their opinions about the state of the economy – in opposite directions.

But nothing was new with the economy. What had changed was that a new political leader from a different party had been elected. The election outcome changed survey respondents’ interpretation of how the economy was doing – a confirmation bias led Republicans to rate it much higher now that their guy would be in charge; Democrats the opposite.

Brain’s hard-wiring doesn’t help

Cognitive biases are predictable patterns in the way people think that can keep you from objectively weighing evidence and changing your mind. Some of the basic ways your brain works can also work against you on this front.


It can feel really satisfying to get the better of an opponent, even if you’re not actually right.

Rob Lewine/Tetra images via Getty Images

Your brain is hard-wired to protect you – which can lead to reinforcing your opinions and beliefs, even when they’re misguided. Winning a debate or an argument triggers a flood of hormones, including dopamine and adrenaline. In your brain, they contribute to the feeling of pleasure you get during sex, eating, roller-coaster rides – and yes, winning an argument. That rush makes you feel good, maybe even invulnerable. It’s a feeling many people want to have more often.

Moreover, in situations of high stress or distrust, your body releases another hormone, cortisol. It can hijack your advanced thought processes, reason and logic – what psychologists call the executive functions of your brain. Your brain’s amygdala becomes more active, which controls your innate fight-or-flight reaction when you feel under threat.

In the context of communication, people tend to raise their voice, push back and stop listening when these chemicals are coursing through their bodies. Once you’re in that mindset, it’s hard to hear another viewpoint. The desire to be right combined with the brain’s protective mechanisms make it that much harder to change opinions and beliefs, even in the presence of new information.

You can train yourself to keep an open mind

In spite of the cognitive biases and brain biology that make it hard to change minds, there are ways to short-circuit these natural habits.

Work to keep an open mind. Allow yourself to learn new things. Search out perspectives from multiple sides of an issue. Try to form, and modify, your opinions based on evidence that is accurate, objective and verified.

Don’t let yourself be swayed by outliers. For example, give more weight to the numerous doctors and public health officials who describe the preponderance of evidence that vaccines are safe and effective than what you give to one fringe doctor on a podcast who suggests the opposite.

Be wary of repetition, as repeated statements are often perceived as more truthful than new information, no matter how false the claim may be. Social media manipulators and politicians know this all too well.

Presenting things in a nonconfrontational way allows people to evaluate new information without feeling attacked. Insulting others and suggesting someone is ignorant or misinformed, no matter how misguided their beliefs may be, will cause the people you are trying to influence to reject your argument. Instead, try asking questions that lead the person to question what they believe. While opinions may not ultimately change, the chance of success is greater.

Recognize we all have these tendencies and respectfully listen to other opinions. Take a deep breath and pause when you feel your body ramping up for a fight. Remember, it’s OK to be wrong at times. Life can be a process of growth.

Keith M. Bellizzi, Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.